DIY: Chalkboard Cheeseboard

This project was inspird by this slate and bamboo cheese board. And although it's sort of reasonably priced, it's only available in the UK. In quantities greater than 25.

But I don't live in the UK. And I don't really need 25 cheese boards. I mean, cheese is delicious and all, but I have to draw a line somewhere.

So I made this:

More hot cheese board action after the jump!

Bonjour! Mug

I know I keep harping on Fall and how it's almost here and I'm so GLAD the heat is nearly over and how excited I am that we're looking at the backside of Summer, but this is my blog and I can repeat myself if I wanna!

One of the best things about cooler weather is that I get to drink hot chocolate like it's going out of style. I drink it almost every evening, from October to March and before you ask, the answer is no, I do not get sick of it.

Part of the fun of hot chocolate is drinking it from a fun mug. Like this, the Bonjour! Mug.

Burt Reynolds a souhaité sa moustache
était si masculin comme cela.

This is a fun, easy and CHEAP project that you can do in no time flat.

Follow me after the jump!

DIY Patio Lights

I've done a few posts already featuring different DIY lighting projects, but this one is a little different. It's EASY. Like, no tools required WHATSOEVER. I give you:

DIY Patio Lights!
 If you already have twinkle lights on hand (and who among us doesn't have a giant ball of tangled twinkle lights in the garage right now?) this project will cost you one dollar, plus tax.

Follow me after the jump!!

I Hope You Kept Your Fat Pants

We all have two sets of clothes: the clothes that fit now, and the clothes that are a size too small that we intend to fit into again someday. Well, I hope you've also got some of your old "fat pants" laying around somewhere, because you're about to need them.

I usually leave the cooking to the professionals over at Where the Hell is My Spatula? but this recipe is too good to keep to myself. And here's the best part: it's embarrassingly easy. Like, your guests will be super-impressed and they'll be begging you for this recipe, TRUST, but you won't want to give it to them because it's so simple it's almost profane.

Desserts this delicious and beautiful should be harder to make! This recipe is so easy and idiot-proof it almost feels like cheating.

Get in on the secret after the jump!

Craft Hack: DIY Rustic Chandelier

I know I'm prone to saying this, but I'm saying it again today: This is probably the coolest project I've ever done. It was really fun and surprisingly simple, and the end result is exactly as I'd hoped it would be.

I give you the Rustic Chandelier Knock-Off.

I saw a picture of something similar a few weeks ago and I thought that, while it was really cool and I totally wanted one, the price tag was just a teeeensy bit steep. I mean, it IS really interesting and unique, but dang. This chandelier from Rustic Designs costs $2,800. Yes, that's the correct number of zeros there. Two thousand, eight hundred dollars. That's almost three large for a chandelier made of branches.

Not bloody likely.

I knew I could make something similar, if not exactly the same, for a couple thousand dollars less.

See how I did it after the jump.

Craft Hack: Pottery Barn Inspired American Flag

Summer has started for the schoolkids and the 4th of July will be upon us before long. It'll be cookouts and swimming parties for the next few months, so I've begun thinking about some cool seasonal decor that won't break the bank. I love to change the look of my living room according to the season, but I'm much too cheap to spend any money on it. Thank goodness I can always count on Pottery Barn to think of things I can make myself.

Their's:

Mine:

This is a great project because of its versatility. Not everyone has $129 to spend on a wooden American Flag, and even if you did, the PB version might be the wrong size. BUT!! A 4x8 foot piece of harwood at your local hardware store is less than $10 and you'll be able to use it for several projects. And honestly, if you've got a garage, there's a good chance you've got some scrap wood laying around already.

Tutorial after the jump!
UPDATE!! This project was featured over on Bella Before & After! Check it out...

Craft Hack: Ballard-Inspired Newsprint Dress and Accessories

It's time again for a knock-off tutorial! This week, I'm hacking Ballard's Newspaper Dress ($299-ouch) and the Newspaper Shoe, Glove and Handbag Prints ($89 each). I've since seen a few tutorials for the dress (one used old dress patterns instead of newspaper and it's CUTE) but I've not seen an for the shoes, gloves and purse. WELL. I felt they were even more interesting than the dress, and I originally intended to omit the dress entirely.

Long story short, I hacked them all! And for the first time ever, I've made a printable PDF template. Wheee!

Tutorial after the jump.

crate night stand

So my husband needs a nightstand. Like REALLY REALLY bad. I have been looking at Craigslist and checking yardsales, but all to no avail. And before anyone thinks to herself, "Surely one could find a reasonably priced nightstand at a thrift store," let me assure you, the thriftstores here are not thrifty. It's depressing. I haven't given up, but in the interim I decided to make one.

Tutorial after the jump!

what to do with empty pickle jars?

I don't like to throw away jars. I can't do it. They're so useful and reusable and dishwasher safe! Jars. Love them.

So what do I do with my jars? Mostly I just use them for leftovers, and I've seen some really cute jars used for giving homemade hot chocolate, but I do have a few jar projects around the house. Some, like the one below, are hardly projects at all. "Spray paint lid and fill with assorted tchotchke" is hardly a tutorial:

 These wooden crates were a steal at Joann's Fabrics, by the way. I should have gotten more of them. If you need some, I'd get them now. And don't they stain beautifully??

These hanging jars were another Pottery Barn-inspired project. I don't remember how much PB's' were, but these were free to me, using what I had on hand. Floral wire, river rocks and some long burning emergency candles:

I don't know. Perhaps my jar love is excessive...

PB knock-off angel wings

What follows is my first ever tutorial. It is very image intensive and possibly difficult to decipher. I apologize in advance. Happy DIYing!!

Tutorial after the jump!

pottery barn knock-off spoon & fork wall art

Alright. So Pottery Barn has this cool fork and spoon wall art set. I love it. I do not love so much the price tag: $279 plus &30 for shipping. Ouch. So I set out to plagiarize it.

Tutorial after the jump!

pottery barn knock-off airplane

So as I've mentioned, my family recently moved into a new (to us) house. It's a lot bigger than our last house, which has meant that we only have about 40% of the stuff we need to fill it. This has been both awesome and not awesome.

It's awesome because I get to fill all the empty spaces with new things, and not awesome because the last thing I need to do at Christmas time in a new, more expensive house is spend money filling all those empty spaces.

I have had to be creative. I have had to be bold. Above all else, I have had to be cheap.

Destructions after the jump!

play food

My kids love playing grocery store. They hate going to the actual grocery store, but love to reenact it at home. So I was on the Amazon a few days ago looking for play food sets for them, and I found this:
Adorable, right? They're from Melissa & Doug and they're solid wood. I usually like Melissa & Doug products (their floor puzzles are awesome) but this product seemed a) a little pricey at about $20 for the set, and b) made in China, where their lead-based paint regulations are a little lax. Add to this the fact that the reviews criticized the set as easily chipped and dented, and I was not sold.

So I thought, why not just make some play food for the kids? I scavenged the cupboards for nearly empty containers and saved a few days' worth of boxes and cans and soon I had a set of my own. I hot-glued the flaps on the boxes down.

And glued around the inside of the lids on the plastic containers, after washing and drying them well. The cool thing is that as the boxes are crushed and the containers are chewed up by the dog, these can go right into the recycling and I can make replacements.

For free!