Deployment Countdown

Before we had even learned of the deployment my husband is currently on, I had seen and read about different ways spouses will countdown the days in deployments.  One of the ways I saw that I liked the best is this one I found on Pinterest.

Source: Uploaded by user via Andrea on Pinterest

It uses two glass containers, with stones inside to indicate the number of days that have passed and the number of days remaining.  I liked this idea because it is something that can be dressed up a little bit and serve as additional decor for the home.

Since I have TONS of extra vases around the house from flower deliveries I received while my husband was in basic, I decided to re-purpose two of them and turn them into my own "days down" and "days to go" jars.

I picked up some red & clear/white stones at Michaels and quickly counted out the number I needed.  I had also purchased some sticker letters to place on the front of the vases with the words "Days Down" and "Days To Go" to match my inspiration picture, however I decided to wait to do this until deployment #2, which will inevitably be longer whenever it rolls around and likely require larger containers.

We're quickly approaching the two-month mark into the deployment, and this past weekend I found out that my husband's time there has been extended for another month, so on Saturday I got to add in another 30 stones to my "days to go" vase.  I was not too terribly happy about that of course, though I had a strong feeling it would likely happen.  At least now with his official return/new PCS orders being cut, hopefully it'll be easier knowing the "official" ballpark return date.  I just hope they're able to actually get him out of there roughly around the target date and that it isn't delayed too much more.

Spice Cabinet Organizing: Execution

Earlier this week, I mentioned that one of the organizational issues I currently have with my apartment is the utter lack of organization when it comes to my spice cabinet.  I think my main issue with it is the simple fact that all of the spices are in different sized & shaped containers.

I ultimately decided to just go with these jars, which I found at Bed Bath & Beyond for 99¢ each.

I like that they're clear, which enables me to easily see the contents of each jar as well as how much there is remaining.  Plus they still have the simple shaker tops that come standard with the spice containers you buy at the store when replenishing your supply -- same functionality, but now I've just got uniform packaging for all of my spices!

To create labels for the jars, I simply typed up a Word document with the names of all of the spices, and then I printed out the pages on full-sized clear label sheets I already had on hand.  I then just used my trusty paper cutter to trim down each label to size.  Another easy option if you don't want to bother with cutting your labels would be to purchase the return address sized clear labels so you can just peel and stick after you're done printing.

Overall I am very happy with how these turned out, as well as the improvement they have made to my cabinet.  Now I have all of my spice containers down on the bottom shelf for easier access, rather than having half of them hidden behind the larger objects on the second shelf.

Before & After:

I put all of the jars in alphabetical order to make finding necessary spices easier, though I did put the ones I use the most up front for easiest access.  And all that remains on the middle shelf now are the larger items, which can all be seen.  The last thing I might do is to create a tiered platform to elevate the jars on the second and third rows in order to make them easier to view.

Now I just need to come up with a fix to take care of my baking supplies on the top shelf!

Extracts, and sprinkles, and cupcake liners, oh my!

Spice Cabinet Organizing: Planning

Last week, someone from the moving company that is supposed to be packing up all of our possessions in the matter of a few weeks from now came out to conduct our pre-move survey and make notes of what all we have that will need to be shipped halfway across the country to our new home in Texas.  This provided excellent motivation for me to work on getting as much unnecessary junk out of our place as humanly possible during the weekend and first part of the week that preceded his visit.

I finally loaded up the trunk of my car till it was packed full with items that I was donating to Goodwill.  I stuffed the backseat of my car with old cardboard boxes we had been saving from when we first moved into our apartment four years ago that we'll now no longer need to bring to the recycling dumpsters in town.  And I had filled my 96-gallon trash and recycling cans as full as humanly possible with other items that either needed to be tossed or could be recycled.  Believe or not, I actually still have some more items to go through and weed out, but thankfully about 80% of it is now done.

Once this guy started going through our pantry and cabinets however, I started to feel slightly embarrassed at how unorganized portions of my home still are.  Lately, kitchen organization has been sitting at the top of my to-do list for things to take care of around the house, probably tied with home office space organization.  After this visit, I quickly decided that a better solution to the mess that is the spice cabinet is first item I want to tackle and cross off of my list.

I had recently seen a lot of images on various blogs as well as Pinterest of people using those round metal containers to hang up their spices on cabinet doors with magnets, and first fell in love with the idea when I saw Alton Brown using them on his show Good Eats.  I love the finished look they give, however I knew that option would not really be the best for me given any organization/home improvement projects I do need to be mobile to assist with our nomadic lifestyle.

I finally decided on another type of container.  While it will not allow me the ease of being able to see all of my spices at a single glance, it will help by making my cabinet look more uniform and hopefully not so cluttered.  Stayed tuned for later this week when I will reveal my before and after pictures and some of the steps I took along the way!

Latest Project

One of my latest Pinterest finds has inspired me to create some wall art for our bedroom.  Our bedroom walls have been completely bare for the 3+ years we've been living here until the end of July when I finally hung up a nice frame the hubby's grandma bought me after our wedding earlier this year, so I decided to create this project using a color scheme that will coordinate with our room.  This project is very simple and is an easy way to add some personalized wall art to a room without the use of photographs.  The idea behind it is to list out important dates for you and your significant other or family.  The dates I used are my birthday, his birthday, the day we first met (roughly), the day of our first date, and the day we were married.

I used Photoshop to create an 8x10 document, with the background shaded to a shade of teal that will work with our green curtains and blue bedding.  After playing with various fonts, I settled with Goudy Stout for the dates and shaded them a light but muted blue-gray color.  Lastly, I found a design online that I used to add some depth to the background and inserted it in black behind the text.  I decided to just print it out on regular weight glossy paper on a color laser jet printer, rather than onto photo paper and really like the added "texture" that was added by printing it like this.  I love the way it looks hanging on the wall in our room in my favorite frame.

Is It Called Nesting When You're Not Pregnant?

Lately I've been in a re-organization/re-decorating mood and am attempting to slowly overhaul our apartment.  I'm sure much of this has been due to inspiration I've received on Pinterest.  I love crafty and DIY projects, and many of the links/resources found via this site are allowing me to spiff up our place without spending a lot of money.

This past week I finally accomplished one of my goals of cleaning off all of the junk that has accumulated on top of our table.  Rather than using it to sit down at to eat our meals, it has served more as storage space for the last couple years.  I have decided that I no longer want it to look so bad and have since cleared off all of the old mail, papers, and coupons that have been strewn across it for so long.

I thought creating a centerpiece for the table inspired by some of my Pinterest finds might be a good way for me to help keep the table cleared and decided to go for it this weekend using finds from the Dollar Tree.  There are a lot of "pins" posted regarding the use of candles, vases, jars, and hurricanes to create displays and centerpieces and I used them for my inspiration and came up with this...

If you couldn't tell based on the coasters I created previously, we've got a bit of a red & black color theme to our living room space.  Each glass holder, candle, and a bag of the red vase fillers were $1 a piece at my Dollar Tree, making for a very inexpensive addition to our table ($9.63 in total after tax).  The black base that I have two of the vases on is from a zen garden I received from someone I used to work with as a Christmas present last year that I then flipped over to elevate the center vases (this zen garden can also be found at Dollar Tree).  Since taking this picture I have decided that I prefer the vases with the red candles positioned at the sides with all of them lined up in a row rather than grouped up such as in the picture, but overall I like the appearance and the element they add to the table.  I only wish that I liked the table they rest on and that it were at least espresso or black in color (it's a 20+ year old table that was a hand-me-down from my parents when I moved into my first apartment).

One of the next projects I would like to take on is to "refinish" (aka paint) our coffee table to give it an updated and cleaner look.  Like with the vast majority of our furniture we own at the moment, it had a previous owner before making its way to our home and was a $13 Goodwill find several years ago.  I have found a couple online tutorials on how to paint over wooden furniture without leaving lines from a roller or brush and to give it a finished look.  Hopefully one of these methods will allow me to get the refreshed looked I desire.

The Wonder that is Pinterest

During my time reading various blogs and seeing posts made by friends of mine on Facebook, I started seeing a lot of mentions about this website called Pinterest.  I visited the site once or twice to see what the big fuss was about, and at first I wasn't too terribly impressed.

This week I decided to give it a real chance after I saw an image of a DIY home decorating project that I really liked.  I requested an invite to the site, registered, and am now hooked!  The idea behind the site is it is an online pin board where you can "pin" ideas/inspiration/projects that you like, giving you a single, centralized location to link to such items all over the web for future use, and gain inspiration from others as you see what they post.

One of the first projects I found was for creating your own coasters.  The hubby and I have said for some time that we need to invest in some coasters, but have never really put forth the effort to look for some.  Perhaps it was because before we had two solid incomes, that was an expense we couldn't really justify.  Nevertheless, I have decided this is the first project/idea that I would like to tackle, and have since bought the essentials to complete it.

All you need are 4x4-inch tiles (you can pick these up for super cheap at a hardware store -- I nabbed them at Lowes for 10 cents each), mod podge (I got mine at Hobby Lobby for $4.18 after using a 40% off coupon), clear gloss spray paint, small felt pads (for the feet of the coasters), and of course the paper/images you want displayed on your coasters.

I have decided to create two different sets of 4.  The hubby and I are Georgia Bulldog fans and love our alma mater, so I found an image of our school logo (the Georgia G) and printed it out using different red & black color schemes.  My second design is going to be made using a piece of scrapbook paper I found that has black & white flourishes on it, which I just love the look of.  Whatever image(s) you choose for your coasters, just be sure to cut the paper down to 4x4-inch squares to fit onto the tiles.

The assembly process really is quite simple -- you adhere your paper to the tiles using thin coats of mod podge.  Once the paper has dried, you spray the tiles with clear gloss spray paint in order to seal the tiles.  Then once the paint has dried you simply attach the felt pads to the bottom of the coasters, and you're done!

My latest "pins" as of today have been cute ideas I've seen for when the day eventually comes that I am pregnant and we have a baby.  Those won't be used for a while still, but one of them did give me some inspiration for another little present I now want to make to give my husband when I see him this coming week for his graduation.

World Travel Map

While browsing through blogs of other MilSpouses, I became inspired to create a world travel map to mark all of the places around the world the hubby and I have visited.  After reading about the idea on another blog, I thought this would be great for the hubby and I as we love to explore and want to travel together and see as much of the world as we can, especially given our new nomadic lifestyle.  The idea for the map is simple and I thought it would be a great addition to our spare bedroom/office space.

The supplies you need for this project are a map, foam core board to mount the map on, spray adhesive, map pins, and then a frame (with glass removed).  A ruler and knife or box cutter would also be handy tools for cutting down the foam core board.