Quick and Simple Closet Hack

Hello, my name is Lisette and I am addicted to shoes. I feed my addiction probably more than I should and what started out as a small collection has multiplied in my closet like a pair of rabbits on Viagra! My biggest issue has been finding a way to store them neatly without them hiding in boxes where I never see them and therefore don't use them (out of sight out of mind) or without them covering every inch of precious floor space in my various sized closets throughout the years. Well now that we have settled into what I pray will be our forever home and I have decent sized walk-in closet, I noticed my problem had still followed me here. I had hoped it would magically solve itself but alas, wishful thinking only.
So I'm sitting in my closet fumbling around with things and trying to figure out how to better organize my shoes and as I'm thinking about it, I'm staring at that bar, you know, that bar on the bottom half of the closet that is supposed to be for hanging pants (I suppose) but I don't know anyone who owns enough pairs (or hangs them up for that matter) to take up more than a quarter of that space? Ya, that bar.

 

 

So I grabbed a pair of fabulous dusty heels (they haven't got much love since I almost broke my ankle wearing them chasing my toddler) and put them on the bar. OH EM GEE.





 

It's like the Hallelujah chorus echoed from the heavens with a beam of sunshine onto my shoes! I found a way to save some floor space, have them displayed better AND fill up all that lonely space on the bar!

 

 

I had to show some love to them after seeing how pretty and lonely they were getting, I dusted them off (literally) and rearranged them some and of course, tried them on again as I squealed with delight at my new found love for them again.

 

 

So there you have it! My very quick closet hack for shoes! Now go and show yours some love and let me know of any other creative ideas you may have on better controlling the chaos of the closet!

Until I blog again my dears... <3 





A Quick Personal Touch

Hello once again my lovelies! I hope you all had a fabulous new year and pray that this year will bring you all great blessings and new beginnings. We spent it quietly at home with the kiddos having a "Star Wars night in," as we affectionately called it. But you know what? It was actually quite enjoyable. We have not been able to spend a New Year's Eve out since the BC (Before Children) days. But anywho, any of you who have ventured into the stores have witnessed the tornadoes of holiday clearances. On my weekly trip to the great Tarjay (Target in my fake french accent), I came across this cute table runner that was meant to be for Christmas, but I thought I could add just a little something to have it grace my table year-round without looking like its meant only for the holidays.

As many of you know, I LOVE the color mint/seafoam and it is all over my house. Gold and white pair quite beautifully with this color so all I needed to do was add some of that in this bad boy. First, I grabbed left over painters tape from my move and taped off a triangle shape at the bottom of each end.

I didn't have the color I wanted on hand, but I was able to mix the colors I did have into a shade I was happy with. I used craft paint (which I'm sure would work even more beautifully with fabric paint) but craft paint was all I had and I was too lazy to want to drive 8 miles out of my way to grab any.

So I just started painting and saturating it until the whole triangle was completely filled leaving no bald spots. Waited impatiently for it to dry (I grabbed the blowdryer), and pulled off the tape to reveal the simple awesomeness it created!

Perfect touch huh? I have had people ask me about it and they were quite surprised when I told them how I painted onto it saying that it looked as though that's how I bought it.

Oh yea, my coffee looks great there ;)

So then since I custom made the paint color, I had some left over and didn't want to leave it to waste, so I mixed in some more white to lighten it up and looked around the house for things to paint. Camw up with these two...

I had the gold craft paint already and just added it on after I painted the base. Then the mason jar looked so empty so I threw in some feathers and I love how it looks all together.

I try to transform or upcycle things I find around the house that are usually collecting dust in my cupboards somewhere. Gives me a great excuse to paint (which I find incredibly soothing and therapeutic), and it's also a free way to add personal and unique decor to the house.

Well I hope you all enjoyed this post and are inspired to look at things a little differently, if it's not what you want at first, then craft it til it is ;)

The Big Move

Brace yourselves and bear with me, I have a lot of catching up to do! Much has happened since my last post, the biggest one being that we are once again proud homeowners! We were once homeowners to a small brand new starter type home 3 years ago right before the infamous housing market crash. We were totally upside down on that home and after much prayer we decided to short-sale the house which in hindsight was one of our best decisions because we would have still been drowning there. The rules are that you much wait at least 3 years before qualifying to purchase another home and while we were forced to jump between two rentals until our time arrived, it was worth the wait and pain of moving! We got our keys on Halloween night and were ecstatic!

We weren't expecting to get our keys until about the following week so we were on cloud nine. The house was pretty much move-in ready with the exception of needing paint in every single room.

This was the very next day going by to officially test out the keys lol. The yard was left to die in both the front and back by the renters who previously occupied it unfortunately, so out of everything, this is what is going to take longest and the most money (fixing all the landscaping).
The inside has laminate wood floors and tile and carpet only in the bedrooms (which still need to be replaced eventually) but all the walls needed paint because they were scratched and touched up with the wrong color. It wasn't a terrible color (the infamous swiss coffee I believe) but of course, I had other plans hehe.

I spend the next week every day going to the house and painting my butt off. I had help two days out of the week which I was grateful for from my mom and her boyfriend. The entire house with the exception of the master bath and kids rooms (because I was honestly burnt out on painting) was painted two shades of grey.

Most of the house was painted in "Cathedral grey" by Behr and our master was painted a darker shade in "creek bend" also by Behr.

My room is my favorite, but then again I'm biased. We already had the furniture and bedding the only thing I added was the fabric garland above the bed that I had made for another occasion and it just happened to look amazing with the direction I was going.

These are quite easy to make and a good use of fabric scraps too (tons of tutorials on Pinterest to check out).

We also have a foyer for the first time ever!! I realized after this move how much STUFF we have (I am still mysteriously missing a moving box!) but up until now, we had nowhere to put it all, I mean we were stuffing things under beds, in closets and in every little corner we could find.. we were bursting at the seams practically and now we have the opposite problem here, go figure.

A trip to the farmers market brings a lovely fresh touch for my shabby mason jars! The rainbow succulent unfortunately is fake...but too pretty to care!!

So there you have it! A quick peek into our new place I hope you enjoyed or at least for those of you who were wondering were able to satisfy your curiosity lol. What do you all think? I would love to hear your opinions in the comments :)

Make-It-Monday and a Galaxy Paint Tutorial

Instagram seems to be the hot spot for all the new catch-phrase "holidays" made by its many followers; the latest I came across was "make it Monday." I thought, ooohh ya that's a great way to make Mondays a little more fun! I had already made over a few flower pots that I received for free via my aunt that I will share photos with here as well. When I get stressed or need to keep myself busy, painting objects has such a soothing effect on me, so I look around the house for things I can make over with paint..anything. I think I have gone a little crazy though, its like crack to me and I start craving it. I may have opened Pandora's box. One day my kids may even wake up painted...

So here is the flower pot BEFORE...as you can see its pretty outdated, I mean the thing screams 90's right?

I had a sample size of enamel paint laying around and all I did was paint two coats (letting dry in between) until it was completely covered.

I had three of them and after they were all painted over I had some gold paint and just experimented with it a bit on each pot. So that's that for these babies onto my next venture...

A while back I needed a way to keep my 2 year old (at the time) son occupied with a simple toy that he can put objects in and out of. All I did was grab an empty baby wipes case, and small objects like bottle caps, fake coins, etc that would fit into the slot on the top. It was quite a hit with him, he uses it to this day and loves sticking things into it and dumping it all out when its full. So I got bored and wanted to give it a little makeover so that it will be "new" to him all over again. This is a very forgiving paint process and "mistakes" can very easily be fixed/covered.

To do this you will need:
**If you want the "toy" for a toddler, an empty baby wipes case (mine was from huggies) and have it spray painted black all over. Otherwise, you can do this with just about any other object that will take to paint.
-paint brushes
-craft paints in black, gold, turquoise, lavender
-makeup sponges
-an old toothbrush (not pictured)
OPTIONAL: mod podge (to seal when done)

To start, you will be placing random little splotches of the turquoise and lavender around on one side to begin.

With one of the sponges, begin blotting and spreading around the color. WARNING: at this point it will start looking chaotic and weird and you will mildly panic and wonder what you got yourself into (if you are at all like me anyway). Just keep at it I PROMISE it will get better looking by the end!

I looked up images of galaxies from the Hubble Telescope as reference. Try to blot up as much as the paint as you can to give it that "cloudy" effect.

Next step is the gold paint. Squeeze a small amount onto the same sponge you used for the first step.

Start to dab along the edges of the places you already did with the same technique, trying to make it as "cloudy" as possible.

Next, get the black paint and squeeze a small amount onto a paper plate or something you can wash. Dip the sponge into the black and blot it out a bit before using it. Now is the time to go over any areas you may not be happy with and control the shapes a little better and soften any hard edges.

Here's the fun part; squeeze out a little bit of white paint onto an old toothbrush and using your fingers, rub it over the bristles causing it to flick specks of white "stars" all over it. (Make sure to do this step in a covered area so as not to get splatters everywhere)

You can get the paintbrush and with the tip dabbed in the white paint, dab more "stars" or "comets" as you please.

When its dry, you can coat the whole thing in mod podge to seal and protect the masterpiece you just made. ;)

And then find little things to fit in and watch your toddler keep busy while you get a chance to breathe and maybe possibly to to the bathroom without an audience.

He is 3 years old and STILL loves this thing. I tell ya, they had it right back in the day where the simplest things were the best toys. No need to spend money on expensive toys that pretty much do the same thing and leave little to the imagination.

I hope I was a help and that your galaxy painting is a success! If you use this tutorial, be sure to send me a pic so I can see how yours turned out! Make Monday fun and get creating!! :)

Easter Egg Experiments and Red Cabbage Dye

It's almost here!!! Easter is my second favorite holiday next to Christmas. Easter is a celebration of our risen Lord who conquered death for our sins by rising out of death on the third day. The egg has been comparable to the Trinity of God, there are 3 parts to the egg; the yolk, the whites, and the shell. All 3 are different parts of the egg but all 3 are one together to make up the egg. The same is with our God; God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In many cultures (not just Christianity), the egg symbolizes rebirth and new life and painting and decorating them have gone back centuries. Historically, in Christianity they would paint the egg a deep blood red to represent the blood shed by Jesus on the cross. The tradition was carried throughout the years and variations were made of the way we decorate and paint them. So now that you have been given a brief history of the "Easter Egg," lets move on to the egg dye experiments!!
I looked up a few "dye recipes" using what I happened to have on hand (and tend to prefer) which was food coloring. I also mixed up a few of my own and experimented with color intensity. All the dyes require some white vinegar which helps "bind" the color so that it will stick better to the egg.
I had seen posts all over Pinterest about "natural dyes" using different foods and spices and one in particular had me all over wanting to try it and that was this gorgeous shade of blue that came from red cabbage. So I began to look more into it and to my disappointment, there wasn't much detailed instruction or tips on it. So I am going to do my best to maybe help anyone else who wanted a little more instruction on creating the beautiful blues you will soon see.

Things you will need:
spoons
plastic cups
hard boiled eggs
*For the food coloring dyes*
Food coloring (I used Target's brand)
Gel food coloring (optional for purple and hot pink or teal shades)
white vinegar
*For the Cabbage dye*
Salt (I used sea salt, but I'm not sure if that makes any difference good or bad)
1 Head of red cabbage
white vinegar
a pot for boiling the cabbage
mesh strainer
baking soda (optional)

Ok so to begin, I found its best to use disposable plastic cups to hold the egg baths, clear is best so you can see the dye. Here I mixed the dyes using food coloring and I made sure to write down the colors on each cup because its easy to mix them up otherwise. I measured 3/4 water in each cup and 1 Tbs of white vinegar and mixed in the drops of food coloring. To get a bright saturation of color, use more drops (I recommend at least 16-18).

This one was a "Jade" recipe using 17 drops of green and 3 drops of blue. This one was in there for a total of 6 minutes.

This was a "Spearmint" recipe using 12 drops of green, 7 drops of yellow, 3 drops of blue. As you can see, its almost identical to the last one with maybe only a tiny bit more green shade. Also 6 minutes.

This was an aqua/turquoise recipe that I used some teal GEL food coloring I had on hand and did a good squeeze and added like 5 more drops of blue. This was soaking for 6 minutes.

This was a recipe I was experimenting with. I was trying to go for a more robin's egg blue and used 15 drops of blue and 3 drops of yellow and this was soaking for 6 minutes. The longer they soak, the darker/more saturated the color will be on the egg. (Can you tell I like blues?)

I realized I had an ombre going, which i LOVED! these are the same green recipes but each egg soaked for a different amount of time. the lighter shades were in for about 4 minutes down to 3 or 2 minutes.

As you can see I had 2 purples in there. Purple dye is SUPER tricky to work with. It tends to look almost blue, and will even develop blue water spots. I just used solid purple dye on these (like a good hard squeeze of it) which was a gel food coloring. the darker purple was in there for a good 10 minutes and needed constant mixing and turning. The lighter shade was about 5 minutes.

My full batch of food coloring eggs! (Btw, I let my daughter do a HOT PINK egg but its not pictured. That is also tricky to work with and tends to settle if not constantly stirred. the more saturated and bright you want it, use LOTS of PINK GEL food coloring, and mix the egg and let sit a good 6 minutes or more. keep checking it until its the shade you desire.)

Aren't they pretty? :)

OK-so now the cabbage dye experiment!! Let me first warn you, boiling the cabbage is RANK!! I mean like grandpa farts mixed with baby diapers rank! So make sure you have the windows open to ventilate as much as possible, unless you enjoy that kind of smell lol. First up, when I looked up how to make the dye, when it came to the cabbage they said boil the whole head. They did not specify whether to chop it up or just throw in the whole head. I figured the dye would extract better if it was chopped up. So make sure you chop up the whole head into small chunks before throwing it in 2 quarts of water in the pot.

Bring to a boil and you can boil it from 30 minutes to an hour. I did 40 minutes. you will start to see the dye as you mix it occasionally and the water WILL reduce some but don't panic. After it has boiled, pour out the cabbage through a mesh strainer into a bowl. You will notice it has a purpleish violet almost fuchsia color. Add 4 TBS vinegar and 4 TBS salt and mix well.

This worried me at first, because I wanted BLUE eggs, not purple. So I researched a bit about turning the dye blue. They said according to the acidity of the food, you will have purple or blue dye and to turn it from purple to blue, all you need is a bit of baking soda. They said do add TINY amounts until you see it turn blue. I never took Chemistry in school because I never got a high enough grade from biology required to take it but I always was intrigued by it. Safe to say, I was VERY excited about all this lol. In fact, I was so excited I took a blurry picture when trying to catch the reaction of turning blue.

Can you see the blue in the foam? This was after adding just a pinch. I added pinch by pinch until the mixture turned completely blue. *TIP--before I changed the chemistry, I put aside a cup of the dye to experiment with. If you want the cornflower blue and best saturation, I suggest using the original dye without the added baking soda. You will see why in a minute.

This was after it turned pretty blue I was so excited!

Here you can see the difference from the original to the altered. Another interesting result, adding the baking soda created gas and caused the liquid to become more buoyant, causing the egg to float instead of sink like all the others did.

This was the result of the egg soaking in the BLUE mixture for ONE HOUR. as you can see, it hardly took to the dye. I read that to get best results its best to let soak overnight. So I did, and let me tell you, I was so disappointed!! It didn't change much from the picture above, and only changed a shade or two darker and after drying was very streaky.

This was the original cabbage dye and this was after only an Hour. It was saturating more and more evenly. I let this one soak for about 6 hours more and the result was beautiful!!

Isn't it gorgeous?? Something interesting I have learned is that as it completely dries, it seems to become more blue even though it looks more purple when you first take it out.
I tried soaking a few more, one overnight, one for about 4 hours, and another for about 9 hours.

The teal one was over night, the next deepest was 9 hours, the next lightest was the 6 hours and the lightest was 4.

The original cabbage dye (with no added baking soda) produced the BEST results. The longer the egg soaked, the more deeper the blue and saturation. And like I mentioned earlier, as the egg dries it turns more blue. So don't panic if they look purple after immediately removing them from the bath.
Since I fell so in love with these results, I wanted to have eggs I could keep forever so something you can do is soak a RAW egg and after it completely dries, blow out the egg ( I used this method ) and you can keep them forever! :)
I had SO MUCH fun doing these and I hope you do as well! Have you ever used any of these methods? I would love to hear your results in the comments below or any tips or tricks you may have. If you try this method please let me know how it turned out for you!
I hope you have a BLESSED Easter and remember what it's really about! Praise The Lord for His victory and His incredible sacrifice! God Bless! <3

**Extra tips**
-The dyes do tend to stain fingers and clothes so you may want to wear an apron to protect your clothing (I did) and/or gloves to protect your hands.
-If you want the blue hues from the cabbage dye, DO NOT ADD the baking soda, but if you would like to just see the experiment of it pour aside an extra cup and you can see it transform first hand. It would also be a fun experiment for kids to see as well.
-I would occasionally stir the eggs in the baths just to coat more evenly and make sure the egg is completely in the bath with no parts exposed, you can use a metal spoon to help it stay in if that's the case.
-You may want to protect table surfaces as well by putting an old towel or tablecloth down.