love my simple home

Valentine's Day Inspiration

February 10, 2015, in crafts, repurpose/upcycle

WITH LESS THEN A WEEK AWAY FROM VALENTINE'S DAY I THOUGHT I'D PUT TOGETHER A COLLAGE OF RECIPES AND CRAFTY IDEAS... SOME ARE FROM MY ARCHIVES AND SOME ARE NEW...SO GRAB A WARM BLANKET, SOMETHING WARM TO DRINK AND CLICK AWAY MY FRIENDS.

UPCYCLE INSPIRATION

GIFT BOX

RED & WHITE HEART BANNER

BLACK & WHITE HEART BANNER

GIFT WRAPPING

TISSUE BOX FRAMES

HEART WARMING RECIPES

BAKED APPLES

HEART HEALTHY COCOA POWDER

COFFEE & CREAM WITHOUT THE GUILT

OREO TRUFFLES

I hope you were inspired by some of my ideas!

{HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY SWEET FRIENDS}

Upcycled Shopping Bag Heart Banner

February 09, 2015, in crafts

{Hi Beautiful Friends Hope You Are Doing Well}

Valentine's Day is a few days away and there is nothing like a colorful red and white banner to brighten up the dark days of winter.

For Valentine's Day, I like to make something special for my one and only kiddo. Last year I made a black and white banner using vintage sheet music. This year I upcycled red and white shopping bags to make a heart banner.

I used two shopping bags from two different stores to make this simple and whimsical heart banner.

When I was finished I hung it in the window of my daughter's bedroom.

upcycled-shopping-bag-heart-banner-love-my-simple-home

Any paper shopping bag will work for this project...It is quick & easy to make.
Plus it's a fun way to upcycle your unwanted shopping bags.

The first thing you need to do is dig out your bags.
Then choose the bags you want to use.

Can you guess which bags I chose?
I left a hint on one of the bags.

Next, you are going to carefully pull apart the bag. Flatten it out and trace your hearts.
If you are really talented you can draw the hearts (freehand).

Me... I'm not that talented, so I needed help with the store-bought hearts below.

I randomly placed the hearts on the bag, traced and cut them out. It is sort of like making a collage. Remember making those when you were a kid? I think that's why I had so much fun making this banner. It definitely brought out the child in me.

After the hearts for the banner are cut use a hole puncher to cut two holes on top of each heart.
Then pull the ribbon through the holes.

I cut some letters off the bags to personalize the banner with my daughter's name.

Oops... I misplaced the A and the E of her name.

It's funny when I took the picture I didn't even notice what I had done.

I'm pretty sure I got it right on the banner.

Yes! I got it right. It's the heart on the far left.

The banner hanging on the bench is the one I made last year for Valentine's Day.

You can read how I made that here.

I made a small change and draped the vintage music banner under the red and white banner.

Are you still guessing??

Or do you know...

Hint...... part of the store names are on the hearts.

Ok, are you ready?

Did you guess which store bags I used?

Drum Roll Please.....

If you guessed Aerie and Victoria Secret...................

YOU ARE RIGHT!!

Have a fun week.....

Grocery List Chalkboard

February 05, 2015,

{Hi Sweet Friends}

I hope your week is going well. We've had some nasty weather here on the coast of Long Island. As a matter of fact, while I sit to write this blog post it is snowing just outside my window. Even though it looks pretty I prefer to be inside warm and toasty while watching the falling snow.

I hung a rustic paddle chalkboard on a door that leads to the basement. This door is in our kitchen. It is a convenient way for my family to write down what they need at the grocery store. The old way of writing things down on paper and leaving it on the kitchen counter didn't work. It didn't work because I would end up moving the paper somewhere else or it would get lost in the shuffle of other things that land up on the counter.

I purchased this chalkboard from Decor Steals. It came as a set of two. One large and one small. They look like cutting boards and I thought the large one would work well on the door. You can check out the website here.

My daughter loves hot chocolate and reminds me to buy some when I go to the store.

Some of these items are things I don't purchase on a weekly basis, but if I write it down when I remember (say for example during the week) on the day I am going to the grocery store I will add those items to my paper grocery list.

I used Command Strips to adhere the chalkboard to the door. This way if I want to use the board somewhere else I can remove it without damaging the paint on the door.

Right now I only have one item on the board. I am sure by the time I go to the store it will be full of things to buy.

The chalk is conveniently kept on the ledge of the plate rack.

Hot Chocolate is perfect for snowy days!

Carved Antique Table

January 25, 2015,

Hello There

Let me introduce you to a new addition to our furniture family.

I love this table, it is packed with so much character. The pretty carvings, the finial in the middle and those casters.

Notice the pretty flowers carved into the legs.

And this feather-like detail on the sides

I found this piece in the attic of my fathers-in-law home. We are not sure where it came from or what type of table it is. I researched this table on the Internet and couldn't find anything like it.

If you know what kind of table this is feel free to leave a comment......

Your comments are appreciated.

Tissue Box Frames

January 09, 2015,

{ Hi friends }

Have you ever thought of repurposing your tissue boxes?

As you know I am a huge fan of repurposing anything I can get my hands on.

The idea for this project came to me when I was sick with a wicked cold.
As you can see I went through quite a few tissue boxes.......

They became my new best friend!

I used Puffs.... because that is what I had on hand.
The bottom box is Up & Up {Target Brand}
Each box has a different design.....
way to pretty to throw away

So I
Saved
Disassembled
THEN
Recreated

four adorable frames