5 Tips to building an AWESOME Cat Shelf

Cat shelf!

Yes we built a shelf for the cat. 

Just think of all the possibilities! One a little above you by the bed to keep them off you! An unused nook in the room you notice them in the most! 

Cost: Free! 

We had all the supplies lying around. 

2 metal braces we had up in our garage not doing anything and were there when we moved in.

1 Some extra carpet that also came with the house 

1 Piece of wood, cat sized

1 Staple gun and lots of staples

1  Drill and a Few Screws

2 Dry Wall Anchors (got ones rated to 70lbs. We have a DENSE kittie)

I am AWESOME at stapling carpet to the wood apparently.

5 TIPS :

1.) Make sure staples are all the way in. I pushed the carpet away and got in real close. Then if I felt it at all I Hammered it in. 

2.) To get it tight around the corners I snipped away some of the carpet, stapled it and then did the actual wrap around and stapled some more and more and more and more. Remember the kitties have claws and like to use them.

3.) If you can use a stud, DO! Kitties jump and I like the idea of it NOT EVER ripping out of the wall.

4.) How to find a Stud the easy way. Take the strongest magnet you have. Run it up and down the wall till it sticks. That means its a nail and that means its a stud so you know its running up and down from there.

5.) Use a corner to stick the cat shelf in. That way there is a place for curling up in.  

See the dog trying to figure out how to get there!

Yes we have now made a Kittie Highway for the stairway. 

Puppy Proof ! 

4 Steps to DIY Photo or Word Magnets

Cost: Free!

“This is too nice to throw away.” That’s our phrase. And a lot of things really are, or take up microscopic space like this next project !

We live in new construction suburbia. Lots of old school “door to door” sales men. The one’s that I enjoy are the ones that just leave their flyers. Some have gotten smart and leave a magnet on your garage door. This company that was promoting their services gave me the inspiration to tear off the sticker. Use it as a Label and Magnify that with these flat glass marbles or gems.

Enjoy!

Supplies: 

Magnet 

Hot glue

Scissors

Flat Glass Marbles or Gems

(I encourage you to get a large bag of ones that speak to your color scheme for other projects. Clear ones work best for this one. I scored a half gallon size bag of these at goodwill for .99 for other things and it has paid off)

Imagination of what you want to "magnify"

(You can always glue card stock to it to write on them if the sticker doesn't peel off nice or you bought one)

These magnets are so easy to cut up into any shape and size !

1.) Write directly on the white!

2.) Trace a "gem".

3.) Cut the magnet.

4.) Hot Glue word side on bottom of the gem.

(Tip: If you are doing this with photos to magnify them you can use photo glue ) 

FREE!!!!

Used here to label the steel lids of my canisters on my island! 

6 Steps to your own Arrowroot (cornstarch) and baking soda ornaments

"Their" cost : $9.99

Our cost : Free ?! 

Ok so the supplies are usually already in your home. 

If not, the amount I used versus the amount this stuff costs equaled about .18 cents.

Ingredients:

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup arrowroot (or cornstarch, we have arrowroot)

3/4 cup water

Plastic wrap

Saucepan

Optional: Straw or something to poke out hole for string and cookie cutters to make a shape around the impression. 

Steps:

1: Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir consistently over low heat.  About five mins in mine started clumping so we mixed faster. At about ten mins in it started thickening up. Almost feeling like glue. Once it's so thick it's difficult to bring your spoon through take it off the heat and let cool for a few mins or until it's cool to the touch. It took us 15 mins of stirring over low heat to get to that point. Cook yours out longer ours was not even close and could have been less sticky.

2: Remove. Let cool

I tired rolling it before it was all cooled and it didn't want to do that. Just kept sticking. So be patient and wait until it is not sticky. 

Mine may have wanted to be over heat longer. It's still sticky to the touch.

Hours hours later it was dried enough to roll

3: Roll out.

4: Place paw (key to first home, child's foot etc) in it firmly

4.5: Embellish the print (if you couldn't get a deep enough impression. We were gentle because I wanted to be able to wipe it off the animals easy. Tip: Have a wet warm soapy rag on hand). We used a chopstick.

5: Let completely dry before painting

Then the weekend ended. Allowing the imprints to dry thoroughly for a whole week. (really only recommended 24 hours but things got busy).

Advice: Really really cook out all the moisture you possibly can. make it so very difficult for you to drag that spoon through. It's a weird liquid / solid gak type substance ( delicious in my beef and broccoli, I swear secret ingredient type stuff).  

6: Paint! Some cracks started showing so first coat of paint I recommend is a white latex paint. After that dried we then decorated. Painters Tip: Wait until the first two contrasting colors dry before painting any trim or embellishments for best results.

2 Steps to a Winter craft Snow Flake Wreath and Bonus Ideas

Cost: Free !

Ok well I had these snowflakes for a while and they just lacked umph. You can get them in a pack for $2 

Snowflake Wreath

I have been trying to reuse and reinvigorate old Xmas items. In today's post you see that I made a wreath ornament out of cheap plastic snowflake ornaments that I hot glued the ends together of and found a pretty bow from last years bag of gift bags! (They are too nice to throw away and look that bow is gorgeous!) Those plastic snowflakes last year were on each of my cabinet doors dangling down on a ribbon. Have to say I am in love with the wreath though!

Supplies: 

Plastic Snowflakes

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

Bow or ribbon to hang

Steps:

1.) Arrange snowflakes in a circle where a point can overlap and Hot Glue that

2.) Tie a ribbon around it

DONE

Day time view

Close up. You can see better they are just a cheap set of plastic snowflakes. Once Hot glued together ! Wreath!

Even at night it is still so beautiful. (Yes that is a troll picking his nose! Gift from mom!)

All in all a success. 

Bonus: I added some Christmas ornaments to my existing candle holders to spruce that up.

 Bonus: My favorite add on though may be the elf hat and ears I bought for my dog one year. It now dons our kitchenaid !

Operation get ready for Christmas is under way ! 

Can Overripe Cucumbers be salvaged and Zucchinis up to our ears.

So today we realized that I have not taken a look at the garden closely enough. A lot of my cucumbers have been growing too long and are now yellow almost orange.

 The Internet has a lot to say about these over ripe cucumbers. I tried a bite of one. The outer edge leaves a lot to be desired. So. Since I have an abundance... Going to peel them and try some recipes that may make use of them. If not... Then nothing wasted. Have to say they are going to make great test subjects.

First. These were floating around Pinterest. The link didn't go anywhere but the directions were in the subject field anyway. Worth a shot

                                            

Shots! Lets do a shot of rum. Or make a Mojito while I am trying these out. Sounds good to me. (Mojito : origin has been butchered. Mint from garden and clear rum are correct. Rest is just Sierra mist. Lazy Mojito)

Alright. Back to the cucumbers. 

Sassy water ? Why not.

Also have a huge zucchini from the neighbors that I have already

made one successful bread out of. Took enough to make another and then I am going to try and make some chips.

Well first batch of chips burnt. Next.

New method. 

350. Seeds out. Folded on half. 30 mins

In the meantime back to this. 

Ok so lets just say.... cucumbers were well past their mark and this barely helped. Trash.

Zucchini chips were way too thin and I didn't even take photos. Zucchini bread was amazing.

Sassy water.... well let's say I got sassy before making it.

Next project. 

Year Two garden boxes

Update: Year two on the Garden Boxes.

So those garden boxes came up so well this year. we were able to move on to focusing more on our garden and Less ended up being More.

Today I found a new favorite thing, cucumbers.  The garden boxes we made last year were somewhat a success.  This year we learned from some of our mistakes. The First year the vegetables were root bound and we did not take them out of the biodegradable containers, so we did not harvest a lot of vegetables.

This year we took them out of the containers and already I can tell a difference in our garden.  The cucumber plant is the most exciting for me and I've already reaped some benefits from it.  I have decided that my favorite snack now is slicing up a cucumber and dipping it in cream cheese.

I really think you're going to hear a lot about cucumber inspiration.  Not that anyone is really listening I still think it is fun.

How to make a Fitted T-Shirt

So my boyfriend had bought me a sewing machine as a birthday gift last September. It took me until May to work up the courage to learn how to use it. Now I have a little bit of anxiousness / nervousness whenever I try a new thing. He knew the basics of it, and while I have made one outfit while I was in Girl Scouts when I was younger it was with much supervision (thank you Fairy Godmother). So he taught me the basics of the sewing machine along with the help of me watching the tutorial video it actually came with I started to learn the simple thing of threading the machine (bobbin thread especially when it messed up). I have to say that I have googled videos and they have been helpful.

So enough about that. First project I did was simply hem the kitchen window curtain so that it was not puddling on the counter. It was nerve wrecking... I had the machine flying faster then I could control it and was trying to pull and push the fabric too much. Then I settled down. Took my time. Got a good rythm going and just breathed. Let the machine's feed dogs ( I just looked that up to see what to call those !) feed it and just move it with it. I know I know I am boring you to tears. But I have to say this was a very eye opening for me. It was emotional and at times frustrating. And I havent even tried to use it much!

All this nonsense brings me to my proudest moment today.

I love boys t-shirts because they are longer then the girls. I often shop in the boys (not mens!) section for t-shirts and in goodwill I found a shirt I loved. I never wore it though because it was just too baggy in the waist and too tight in the neck. By the way. I am terrible at posting before photos so this will have to do. I took this photo after I marked and sewed it but before I cut it.

Front view inside out you can see the spots I sewed, using my favorite t-shirt as the model I marked this one in pencil. Followed that line and voila.

 This next one is to show everyone that though it was a little boys shirt there was much fabric that I needed to trim off. Notice that I took the armpits in but still made it go to the original hem for the red parts cause I didnt feel like learning how to mess with that.

 And then I trimmed off all that fabric (I asked permission to use the kitchen scissors in the cutting block because apparently I only own children scissors. BF had no problem with that seeing as how we do not use them for food anyhow)

Voila! SUPER CUTE FITTED TEE !!! The arms kind of flare because of how I did it but that doesn't bother me. I like a little more room in the sleeves. The neck of the t-shirt used to choke me but now that the shirt is fitted and I took in the arm-pits the neck doesn't choke me at all.

P.S. I almost always look a bit between a smile and confusion when I take a photo of myself in the mirror.

 Using this as inspiration.

Andrea inspired me