E is for...Earring Holder

So this earring holder is a cute and quick little DIY....

It came about because {as you all know} we are trying to not accumulate "stuff". When we moved to Europe almost a year ago we paired down our household belongings to 4 boxes I mailed to my mother, 6 large suitcases and three carry-ons. So far, we are doing pretty darn good!

Well, since moving here and biking everywhere my husband and I have a few pairs of jeans that have..uh...well, become crotchless. Obviously unable to wear these anymore I decided to recycle them. So, they sat in my craft area for weeks. and weeks. and a few more weeks. Finally I said let me do something with these or they are getting tossed.

After himming and hawing and searching Pinterest for ideas I noticed my kiddo's earrings are everywhere! Like seriously-everywhere!

So, I decided a quick and easy little earring holder was needed and this is what I came up with:

Supplies:

• Old jeans or whatever fabric you want to use
• Medium embroidery hoop {I used a wooden one}
• Pencil or pen for tracing the hoop
• Hook for hanging
• Optional: Washi tape 

1. Turning your jeans inside out and using a washable marker, a pencil, pen or chalk trace the embroidery hoop. You will use this only as a guide as you will want to make your fabric circle 2-3 centimeters larger. My hoops came with three varying sizes so I used the larger hoop to trace. 
   
   
   
2. Cut your circle out and place it between the hoops and tighten the hoop to desired taught-ness.
   
   3. As you can see there is quite a bit of material hanging over so I just trimmed that down a bit. 
   
   4. I then trimmed the side with some washi tape to give it a more finished look. 
   
   5. Add the earrings and hang it up!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   This is a super fast and fun craft that uses things you may already have around the house!
   
   
   
   
   

March 2015 Goals

I didn't really set any specific goals for February and I feel like the month was a crap-shoot. I fell off my workouts after being sick for two weeks. I kept eating decently most of the time so I suppose that is something. This month though I really want to be focused and get a lot done.

1. Focus on Dutch. I have been here nearly a year and still can't understand anything beyond basic greetings, "Do you want a receipt" (which I only know because of the word "bon"), and some gibberish I can't understand that is, "do you want a bag?" I want to know more than this so I am really going to get back on it.
2. Stop watching so much Netflix and get back to reading. I have so many wonderful books I wanted to complete this year so I will be focusing on reading.
3. It is March and getting warmer I will run at least 3 days a week incorporating Fit Tutor as well as Insanity Asylum Vol. 2. To hold myself accountable I will be posting on Instagram, so follow me there and let me know so I can follow you too! 
4. Clean eating.
5. Focus on creating inventory for my Etsy shop and post at least one new item every other day.
6. This is the big one so I saved it for last. We have really been trying hard to save money and focus on getting ahead. A while back I read about this 31 day no spend challenge so we are going to attempt to complete it. Things we will have to do differently are:
1. We will have a weekly grocery budget as we do not have a stock pile or stocked pantry/freezer so we will have to buy groceries weekly as usual
2. Meals will first and foremost be planned around anything in the freezer/pantry to ensure those items are used in a timely manner.
3. No prepackaged products will be purchased, most everything will be real whole foods made from scratch. 
4. We are going out of town as we have a weekend away pre-planned but we will have a budget and will not spend on souvenirs and we will bring our own snacks, breakfast items, and water bottles.
5. The kiddo and I will ride our bikes as much as possible instead of the train. there will be a once a week exception for cheer, but otherwise we need to get comfortable going longer distances on our bikes.
6.  Date nights out of the house will still happen but will need to be creative and find fun, free/cheap things to do, each date night will have a spending cap if we feel the need to spend.
7. Do a daily post of what we did that day, and how much we spent, if anything.

Spring is on its way and I really want to feel like I am accomplishing the things I aimed for this year, so this month I will be crushing goals! What goals are you focusing on completing?

DIY: Glitter Electric Tea Lights Tutorial

In recent years I have been seeing electric tea lights become a growing trend, especially in the crafting community. Many people love to use them this time of year to put in their plastic pumpkins or put on their Christmas trees. I'd yet to invest in any for two reasons: 

1. I never really had a use for them 

2. They were expensive 

It just so happens that two events came into play that finally had me investing in some of these electric tea lights:

1. I have a long tea light holder that holds 6 lights, the hubs and the teenager almost lit themselves on fire forgetting there was live fire in this candle holder and reached over it to put stuff in the sink. 

2. I was at Dollar Tree and found they were selling two electric tea lights to a pack for $1.25CAD!!! I thought that was pretty good considering at other craft stores they are sold in packs where each one is about $1.50 CAD.

When I got home I proudly put them in my candle holder:

Personally, I didn't think this looked all that fantastic. It was ok, but definitely not what I was looking for!!

After thinking on it for a minute I decided the #1 thing the candle holder needs is SPARKLE!!!!!

So, this is what I did to get them sparkly:

Supplies:

-How ever many tea lights you would like to make (6 in my case)

-Newspaper

-Tape

-Sponge paint brush

-Liquid school glue

-One large jar of glitter, or if you pick it up from the dollar tree grab 3-4 packs

-Hairspray

Lay news paper down to protect your work surface. Lay tea lights out on newspaper.

Carefully cover the "flame" of each tea light in tape.  Like above. This is honestly the easiest way to make sure your "flame" doesn't wind up covered in glitter too! 

Then, paint a layer of glue on each lights and liberally sprinkle with glitter. The glitter that falls on the newspaper, "roll" the side of the lights in it to get them covered. Repeat this which each light. Let dry for a few hours (at least 3). 

Then, take the hairspray & holding it about 8-10 inches from the light (seriously, don't hold it any closer or you will spray the glitter off lol), and over your newspaper spray the hairspray to coat the glitter so it doesn't flake off and get everywhere!

Then, remove the tape from the flame. The easiest way I found to do this was to use the scissors to cut a little slit in the top and carefully peel it off.

This will be the final product:

This is what the whole thing looks like:

Isn't it adorable?! The whole thing cost me less than $10 and I couldn't be happier!

All natural shoe cleaner

Happy Tuesday, Friends!

I hope your week is going well. Mine is so far. Ticking off the days until I don't have to wake up early anymore! ;)

Anyway, I'm bringing you a great tutorial on shining up white shoes that may have gotten a little too dirty. This came about as my Mr. was getting a bit self conscious about his white shoes after spending the winter walking through tons of water & mud (yes, he refused to find a good pair of rain boots, will be remedying that this winter) the shoes themselves were fine, just dirty. So, he asked if I had a "miracle" concoction to make his shoes clean and white again...Low and behold I did....

Here was my final product:

I do want to reiterate this is for white shoes...the products I used are natural bleaching agents. I haven't had to clean up colored shoes yet, so I don't know how they would hold up under this concoction. So, use it only on white shoes...otherwise it is done at your own risk :)

I unfortunately didn't take before pictures as I didn't really have the blog up & going yet and didn't think I'd have any reason to share it...well, live and learn I guess...Here is my process:

Items needed:

• 1-2 bottles hydrogen peroxide
• 1 box baking soda
• 5-6 cloths
• white shoes polish

Process

1. Completely unlace the shoes and put the laces in a bowl. Pour straight hydrogen peroxide over them and kind of swish them around until they are completely covered in peroxide. Set aside for 30-45 minutes.
2. With a cloth wipe off shoes to get off any excess dirt. Dip cloth in some peroxide and wipe the shoes down again.
3. Make a paste of baking soda & peroxide. I didn't measure. I just poured a bunch of baking soda in a bowl and added bits of peroxide to it until a paste was formed. 
4. With your fingers grab a bit of the baking soda and rub it generously all over each of the shoes. Let sit for about 30-45 minutes.
5. Pour straight peroxide into a bowl and dip cloth into peroxide & rub all over shoes scrubbing well to get off the paste and remove all dirt and scuff marks. If you want wipe down with a plain cloth wet with water. Let dry. Some of the scuff marks may require some serious elbow grease, I know the ones on hubby's shoes did. At this time if they need some deodorizing sprinkle some baking soda in them & let sit for 30-45 min. Then clap out or vacuum out using your vacuum's attachment. 
6. Take those shoe laces and rinse them out under warm water. Add some soap (I used Dr. Bronner's All Natural Soap) and scrub them really well. The stains should just go away. A few on hubby's didn't but they were pretty disgusting. After two treatments like that they are finally completely whitening up. Hang up to let dry.
7. If you have some areas where some touch up is needed because some of the original colour has come off then take the white shoe polish & cover up those scuffs. Let dry. 
8. Once laces are dry re-lace & send your loved one off to have a great day! 

Let me know if you try this tutorial & how you like it! I know I was glad to be able to salvage hundreds of dollars worth of shoes for the Mr. for just a few dollars!