DIY: Natural Multipurpose Cleaner

Since becoming pregnant, I’ve taken a closer look at some of the chemicals that are part of my daily life and have done some reassessing – I’m talking to you, nail polish!… which is apparently really really bad for you :( I switched over to a homemade cleaner a few years ago and haven’t looked back. Sure, I have to put in a tiny bit more elbow grease, but I’m fine with that. I need the exercise anyway. The one thing I miss from my all purpose cleaner is a “fresh” smell. Most store bought cleaners have a synthesized fresh smell of pine or citrus.. but I was wondering if there was a natural and affordable way I could add the smell of lemons to my vinegar solution so that my house  didn’t smell like salt and vinegar chips. Granted, the vinegar-y smell dries off fairly quickly, but wouldn’t lemon-infused vinegar be so much better?? After a bit of internet sleuthing, I found what I was looking for!

To make this:

1. Cut up a whole lemon and remove the flesh from the rind*
2. Add the rind to a lidded jar and pour vinegar over the rind until your jar is full
3. Put the lid on the jar and store in a cupboard for about 2 days for the lemon to infuse the vinegar
4. Once infused, strain the infused vinegar into a spray bottle
5. Optional: Compost the lemon rind :)

*Add the lemon flesh to a pitcher of water to make yourself a refreshing summery drink!

To do a test-run I used the lemon infused vinegar, along with about 2 tbsp of baking soda, to clean the bathtub… it worked like a charm and the smell was great too :)

For cleaning my house, I use a variety of ingredients, all of which can be found in the grocery store, and most of which you can ingest no problem!

Typical ingredients:

• White vinegar
• Baking soda
• Hydrogen Peroxide

Occasional ingredients:

• Lemons/Lemon juice (if I have them and they’re cheap/in season)
• Alcohol
• Olive oil (a drop or two will help shine up wood surfaces!)

Do you have any go-to natural solutions for cleaning? I like to hear what other people use!

DIY: Recovering Bar Stool Seats

My parents’ house has a breakfast bar off of the main counter in the kitchen. My mom bought some clearance bar stools for the area, but didn’t like the fabric on them, so she recovered them. The stools are 12 years old now, and the fabric has worn away in some areas, so my mom wanted to recover the seats with new fabric.
Here is the before picture. I know the fabric is pretty dingy-looking now, but I actually really like the colours in it.

Here’s the “wear” I was talking about… and this is one of the not-so-bad areas. One of the bar stools get sat on a lot more than the others and had a big ol’ flap of fabric hanging open on it.
Note: the cats in my parents house love these stools… Riley in particular. So when my dad removed the seat tops, we got to witness Riley jump up on the bare metal square. She looked horrified. I don’t know what she was trying to do, but it was hilarious. I mean, c’mon, Riley! Just look at it… that can’t be very comfortable.
After yanking out dozens of staples to remove the old fabric, we were left with this. We kept the old fabric in place. In the photo on the right, the seat isn’t actually attached, I just placed the seat on the square in the picture above. There was thin black poster-board type paper that originally covered the bottom of the seats and my mom managed to retain it in good shape when she recovered the chairs in 2000. This time the poster-board circles didn’t quite hold up. I advised her to get some new poster-board from Dollarama, then use an old poster-board circle as template to draw a new circle. Worked like a charm














The new fabric my mom chose isn’t really my cup o’ tea. The colour is very similar to the original fabric, but it’s got a swirly design on it.  I probably would’ve chosen  a grey (or other neutral) graphic print.
Here’s the finished product! She’s very happy with it. Another side note: My mom bought 2 of these stools in black, but the third one was originally gold. She spray painted it black and I had NO IDEA it was ever another colour. Oh the magic of spray paint...
Have you ever recovered a seat? It’s not as hard as it looks!

Tutorial: Fluttering Hearts Frame

I love doing crafts and projects and must talk about it incessantly (hehe whoops) because a few months ago I got asked to put my mad skillz (sarcasm) to use and make a wedding guest book. The bride sent me some inspirational pictures and told me she wanted white hearts on a white background with 2 pink hearts - one with her and the hubbie's initials, and one with their wedding date. I spent an afternoon doing the project, but the wedding ended up being called off (eeek!) before I ever had the chance to show it to the bride. 

Valentine's Day is around the corner and I thought this would make the perfect DIY gift tutorial. You could definitely also make this as a wedding guest book and have everyone sign in the hearts, or you could use coloured/patterned paper or pages from your favourite book for the hearts. It's completely customizable, super cute, and only costs about $20 if you're buying all of the supplies from scratch!

Supplies:

• Shadow Box Frame (mine was originally $13 from Michael's but I waited until they were 50% off)
• Mat Board (already had)
• Paper or Cardstock (already had)
• Glue Stick (already had)
• 1 inch Heart Punch (mine was originally $8 from Michael's but I used a 50% off coupon)
• Ruler (already had)
• Pencil (already had)
• Something with a not-too-sharp edge like a paperback novel

Total cost for me: $11.50 + existing supplies

Instructions:

Step 1: Remove the paper template in your shadow box and use its dimensions to cut your mat to size


Step 2: Once cut, figure out how much border you want around your hearts. The frame I bought was perfect for 49 stars (47 were sign-able for the guestbook). Knowing I would be making 7 rows of 7, I found and marked off the centre of the frame. I started by making the centre horizontal line, then the centre vertical line. This helped me keep the lines straight. Note: I only marked the first heart's location (the one in the centre). For the subsequent hearts, I just used my ruler as the guide and made sure the bottom points of the hearts were 1.5 inches apart horizontally and vertically. 


Step 3: Punch out those hearts! I used just over 1 sheet of white craft paper and cut out about 50 hearts - I cut a few extra just in case. 


Step 4: Using the spine of a book (or something else with a hard 90 degree edge), put a crease (not a complete fold) vertically down all of your hearts, except for any hearts you want to stand out from the rest. When I originally made this as a guest book, the hearts were pink, but now they're glitter and they're kind of awesome :)

Step 5: Glue your hearts to your mat! Start with the centre heart. Alternately glue the left side then the right side of the hearts so that you get this pattern... look, they're all a-flutter!

Step 6: Enjoy!

This project took me an afternoon to do and I'm very very pleased with the results! If you give it a go, I'd love to know how it went for you. 


Do you have any DIYs up your sleeve for Valentine's Day? 

Tutorial: DIY iPhone Charging Station

Kevin loves his iPhone. It's probably his most prized procession. For his birthday I wanted to make part of his present, in addition to the store-bought present he got. I was inspired by something similar I found on Pinterest, but in Canada our plugs are flush (not indented) to the wall and I was worried about the material touching the charger prongs and causing a fire.

Enter this idea!

I had an empty shampoo bottle sitting on the edge of the bathtub when inspiration hit. "Would an iPhone fit in there?" I thought. Yes! It would. And so began my project :-)

iPhone Charging Station Tutorial

TOOLS:

• Shampoo bottle
• Scissors or utility knife
• Sand paper
• Fabric
• Marker
• Modge Podge
• Card stock (optional)
• Glue gun (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Step 1: Peel off the label and clean the bottle inside and out. 
Step 2: Cut off the top of the bottle
Step 3: Draw the outline using a thin marker. Don't worry if you scribble all over it because this will be covered up.

Step 4: Using scissors or a utility knife, carefully cut out your outline. Tip: To ensure you cut the right sized hole for where the charger plug goes into the wall, trace the outline directly onto the bottle. 

Step 5: The edges will be rough, so go ahead and sand those down until they're smooth. Tip: If your bottle is light coloured and your fabric is dark, run a dark permanent marker over the cut edges of the bottle. This will help give a more finished look.

Step 6: Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the diameter of your bottle. To do this, I just laid my bottle on my fabric and rolled it over, then cut about 2 inches of excess fabric around all sides to give myself some wiggle room.

Step 7: Ensuring the seam is in the back (this part goes against the wall so no one will see it), start gluing your fabric to the bottle using Modge Podge. This is the method I used to wrap the bottom of the bottle. When you're done wrapping and gluing, rest the bottle upside down to dry until the fabric is dry and stiff. I rested my bottle upside down on a paper towel holder.

Step 8: Now that the fabric is dry and stiff, use sharp scissors or a utility knife to cut away the excess fabric. Cut as close to the fabric as possible. 

That's it! You're done.

Bonus Points: I went one step further and added a little Apple logo for some pizzazz. I free-hand drew the apple and stem onto a piece of thin paper using a thin marker. I placed that paper backward onto the back of my glitter card stock and then traced around the apple using a heavy hand so that the apple became embossed onto the card stock. I cut out the apple and used a glue gun to adhere it to the front of my bottle.

This project was fun, easy, and very inexpensive. I spent just over $2 on this pretty fishtail fabric and only used about 25 cents worth of it! This project can also be slightly altered for any brand of phone - you could even do it for a slim point-and-shoot camera! It's a great way to keep cords and counter clutter to a minimum.

Kitchen Cabinet Cork Board Tutorial

I love pinning crafty projects on Pinterest. I've pinned quite a few crafty projects so I decided I should try re-creating  a few of the pins I have. That's what this post is all about. 


This project all started with this pin, which is a great idea for storing notes, recipes, shopping lists, etc. I wanted to do something similar, but jazz up the board with paint or fabric... A little while later I saw Lindsay's tutorial for adding some pizazz to tacks by attaching pretty buttons to them and saw Jenn's post about painting her board. I mashed together all three ideas for this DIY.


I went to Walmart and got a cork board, then I headed to Michael's where I bought Gorilla glue and some prism-y jewels (I think it's for jewellery), and got the tacks from Dollarama. 

The Gorilla glue takes about 48 hours to fully cure, so I went ahead and jazzed up the tacks first. 

As per the instructions, I wet one surface, then put a small amount of glue on the other surface, and then pressed them together. I put the tacks aside and resumed the project 2 days later. 

Once the tacks were done curing, I taped off my board. I wanted diagonal stripes and I wanted a border so that the paint wouldn't go all the way to the edge. I did this because I thought it would look tidier and have less potential for leakage under the painters tape. 

I wanted to get an ombre effect (dark to light) with the paint and I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I used varying combinations of black, white and silver crafter's paint I already had on hand. I made sure to really press down on the tape in the corners to reduce any incidence of leakage. 

I peeled off the tape while it was still wet and I held my breath hoping there wasn't any leakage....

And I was SO happy with the results! Phew! I couldn't stop staring at it for a few minutes :) But once I could, I moved on to the next step: attaching the board to the cabinet. I didn't want to make any holes in the cabinet and the board was really light, so I just used double sided table along the back border.

Although, I must note that I would've better reinforced the board to the cabinet if there weren't already a lip around the edge on to which the board fit perfectly. Seriously, this board was made for this cabinet!

After attaching some notes and a (fake) grocery list, here's what the cabinet looks like now

I'm very happy with the results. My parents both like it - my dad especially likes that I didn't drill any holes into the cabinet lol. And my mom says she likes the sparkles from the silver paint.

Here is a side by side before and after. 

Total things needed for this project and their costs:

Cork board $9.44

Tacks $1.00

Jewels $2.99

Gorilla glue $3.50 (was originally $6.99 but I had a 50% coupon)

Paint (already had)

Painters tape (already had)

Painting utensil (already had)

Double sided tape (already had)

Total cost for this project: $16.93!

Difficulty* of the project : 2

(*1=breathing, 10= tightrope walking across high-rises on a windy day) 

Tutorial: DIY French Door Curtain Alternative

At the beginning of the month I blogged about the lack of cover on my bedroom's French door. Unfortunately I have to pass by the door to do pretty much anything in my room so the lack of privacy was an issue. 

My interim solution was to drape a curtain over the top of the door... As you can see, it was more of an eyesore than a solution. 

I pinned around for ideas but kept in the back of my mind what Daniel from Manhattan Nest did to his French doors in his old apartment. I knew that solution would let the light come through, be easily removable, and most importantly, look great (hopefully!).

So I looked into his original source (Jessica, from How About Orange) for the project and it turns out it really is an easy process. I made a few modifications to their process because both Daniel and Jessica said they made way too much of the paste that sticks the fabric to the doors.

Here is my revised paste:

1. Boil 2 cups of water
2. While the water is boiling, stir 1/8 cup corn starch into 1/4 cup cold water
3. Add the boiled water and mix it up
4. Wait for it to cool down

While I waited for the paste to cool, I took the measurements from one glass panel on the door and used those measurements to make a template on a thin piece of cardboard (think cereal box thickness). The fabric I used was a basic white 100% cotton twin bed sheet and I ironed it thoroughly. Using my template and a pencil, I outlined my template onto the fabric, but drew it about 0.5 cm bigger on each side of the template so that I wouldn't have any gaps once the fabric was pasted onto the glass. It's definitely a good idea to test paste one or two pieces before you draw out and/or cut the rest of the fabric. That's how I figured out to cut the fabric slightly bigger than the glass panel. 

Once the paste was cool, I slathered it onto the fabric with a pastry brush until the fabric was fully saturated. I worked on big plastic bag so I didn't make a mess. I placed the fabric on the door and used an old metropass (any plastic card will do) to gently smooth out the bubbles. Have paper towel or a cloth on hand because most of the paste will leak out! 

I let it dry over night and am SO pleased with the results!!

Here is a close up of the fabric

And here's what the door looks like from the other side of my door with the hallway light off and on

Total things needed for this project and their costs:

Cornstarch (already had)

Water 

Fabric (bought a 100% cotton white sheet for $8)

Bowl (already had)

Pastry brush or paint brush (already had)

Sharp scissors (already had)

Paper towel or cloth (already had)

Total cost for this project: $8!

Difficulty* of the project : 3

(*1=breathing, 10= tightrope walking across high-rises on a windy day)

Notes: Even halving the recipe, I still had a lot of paste left over, but I wouldn't have reduced it any further. 

Here is the before and after side by side so you don't have to scroll up and down :o)

An Ikea Frame of Mind

Last year I bought a bunch of frames at Ikea to display some photos I have. I didn't realize until I got home that...

1. Ikea mats are off white
2. Ikea frames have European sizing

I never even considered getting new mats for them until I read this on Little House Blog. Lindsay is a smart woman - she even had a link on her twitter page to a 25% coupon at Deserres, so I promptly printed off that bad boy and headed over to the store to pick up my own mat cutter and a couple of mats.

I spent most of Friday night reading the instructions and setting about cutting my first (and second and third) mats. The first one pretty much took me forever, and then I cut the second and third one with no issues. I got Kevin to take photos as I went along because it was easy enough for him to take shots sporadically as he was watching TV :-) Here's my process, folks!

Measure the Ikea mat as a basis to draw the outside border for the new mat

Use the ruler and utility knife to cut the outside border to size

Admire your first cut. What?.. It's an important step!

Make sure the new mat fits into the frame

Do some quick (or not so quick... math's not for everyone) calculations to figure out where the horizontal and vertical middle are of the mat and photo

Draw a cross section on the back of the mat and back of the photo. Line the photo up on the back of the mat, mark the corners of the photo, and then cut the mat 0.5cm shorter than the photo edge on each inner border so that the mat overlaps the photo a little bit on each side. 

Cutting my first inside edge with the bevel edge tool

Almost done...

DISAPPOINTMENT! And here's why...

Crap! This edge (the side closest to the lamp in the photo above) wouldn't cut all the way through, so I went over it a couple of time and it came out choppy. Kevin suggested I just cut that edge a couple millimetres wider - smart man! One edge is slightly narrower than the other now, but the cut is smooth so I'm a happy girl

So, remember waaaay back at the beginning of this post when I said there are two issues with Ikea frames? It's ok if you can't. Here's a refresher and some photos to go along with it!

1. Ikea mats are off white. Boy oh boy are they ever! Check out this side by side comparison:

2. Ikea frames have European sizing. Here is the Ikea mat sitting on top of the mat I cut. The mat is supposed to overlap the photo on all sides, but Ikea's wasn't even touching the edge of my photo. 

Here is my finished product! I am SO happy with the results. Some quick facts: The photo is 8"x10", the mat outside edge is 11 3/4" x 15 3/4" 

What do you think?