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Aug 16 2012
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Upcycling

Summer Shopping!

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It has been FOREVER since I posted anything new here, hasn’t it!?

I want to apologize for that – the new baby is keeping me pretty darn busy. But all the e-apologies on the web won’t earn back my readers who have probably abandoned this blog after checking so many times and finding it unchaged.

Well, you’re here now and that’s what matters. Welcome back!
Now that my little man has arrived and spends his afternoons napping, perhaps I can get around to updating this more frequently? My writing has gotten a little rusty and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to set a goal of updating regularly to get it back into shape. :)

For today, I’m sharing a giveaway that I stumbled upon!

Go ahead, click that lovely photo. It won’t bite!

I’m entering because I can’t get enough of that gorgeous red canvas bag. My inner hippy would be VERY happy with that beautiful bag slung over my shoulder. And surely, the $9 sunglasses that I purchased a year ago at American Eagle don’t have any UV protection so those shades would probably be quite an upgrade for yours truly.

There are a few hoops to jump through if you’d like to enter to win – of course, I’m only dissuading you because I absolutely love winning. ESPECIALLY when the prizes are so darn cute. Go ahead and enter if you’ve got a few extra minutes and a blog. ;-)

 

So, what is up with the blog post title, “Summer Shopping”, you ask?

Well, I just placed an order with Old Navy for 8 items of summer clothing for less than $50 (including shipping!). When I started writing this post, I was going to brag about everything I got and share a couple of online clothing shopping secrets with you. Instead, I’m going to wait until I actually get those items in the mail and then perhaps I’ll have some photos to post as well.

Until then, what are you waiting for? Enter to win all that swag up there! ;-)

Apr 19 2012
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Crafts, DIY, Upcycling

Paper mobile project

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On a whim, I purchased a paper punch after seeing all of the beautiful mobiles that my sister was making and selling online at her Etsy shop.

What a relaxing project this turned out to be! My mini mobile has about 30 raindrop-shaped pieces of paper strung from some of Brad’s unused lightweight fishing line and suspended from a wooden ring. It’s so delicate and light that the slightest breeze seems to make it spin just a little. I’m VERY proud to have just listed it in my own Etsy shop and cannot wait for someone to give it a new home! My sister is currently making an orange and white one for baby Carter that will fit my orange and white teddy themed baby room a lot better.

All in all, I really can’t complain. Business is nice and steady and it’s warm enough  that all the windows are open (in the 70′s all day today!) and the mobile is spinning just a bit where I hung it in the corner – it’s so nice to let some fresh air in while I work at my computer.

In other news, I discovered a baby tomato growing on my biggest tomato plant (an Early Girl tomato plant) and my herbs are thriving in this nice weather! It must be time to lay that pallet out flat, fill it with potting soil, and get my carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce started!

PS! I’ve chosen a photographer for Carter’s first photo shoot. Imagine Photography out of Murphysboro had these shots in their portfolio that were TOO CUTE and exactly what I was envisioning for Carter’s newborn photos:

 

Apr 03 2012
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DIY, Macrophotography, Upcycling

Porch Garden, Pre Pallet Placement!

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Happy April, everyone!

I wanted to share my pallet garden progress and in the process, stumbled upon the blue-tailed skink who has been living under our porch. This time, I caught him camera-in-hand and managed to snap this shot of him! He’s been keeping my plants company while they await their new home – a pallet garden that my husband and I will be planting soon!

At Rural King this weekend, I purchased the following herbs and veggie plants:

  • lemon balm
  • flat italian parsley
  • rosemary
  • catnip
  • cilantro
  • cinnamon basil
  • sweet basil
  • Early Girl tomato plant
  • Lemon Boy tomato plant
  • Cherokee Purple tomato plant
  • Super Sweet tomato plant
  • Carrot seeds
  • Cucumber seeds
  • Lettuce seeds

A little overboard? Maybe. But hopefully, they all survive until I can get them pallet-planted and firmly rooted and my backyard will be full of fresh herbs and veggies this year!

For the last 2 weeks, we’ve been experienced unseasonably warm weather here in Southern Illinois. Our end of March averages were all in the 60′s and 70′s and the the few days have been solidly in the 80′s! Sounds like prime planting weather to me. Soon Brad will be bringing home a new pallet and some more potting soil and we’ll be crossing our fingers that a late frost won’t zap all my little plants.

Here are some shots of my herbs pre-pallet!

And of course, my tomato plants, too!

Check back soon for the final pallet garden photo, as well as an array of new photos showing how our front yard landscaping (ALMOST FINISHED!) turned out! :)

Mar 20 2012
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Crafts, DIY, Upcycling

Easy Pallet Garden and (Difficult) Pallet Garden Bench!

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Well, it’s officially spring!

Right in the middle of an unseasonably warm mid-March, the temperature here in sunny Southern Illinois is a comfortable 81 degrees. The birds are busy painting my black car white, the bugs are collecting on my windshield, and the red wasps are busy making nests around our back door. But honestly, even with those unpleasantries, I can’t wipe the smile off of my face. This is, without a doubt, my favorite season in this part of the country for a few reasons.

The humidity is still low! I can go outside and enjoy the sun without instantly being covered in sweat. I can enjoy the wind in my hair without crazy 80′s frizz. And without humidity, 80 degrees feels a lot more like 80 degrees and not 100. ;) I can throw the windows and sliding door open and let all that musty winter air out of the house and hear the birds singing while I graphic design at my desk. Which, while not as good as working outside, is about as close as you can get.

For those of you who have been keeping up on the blog or following me on facebook, you may already know that our little Christmas surprise has been keeping me from blogging regularly! But now that I am well into the second trimester and feeling much better, I plan to jump back into writing regularly, so check back or friend me on facebook for updates on new posts!

First an update on the last blog post: Baby Rogers is a boy! He is tentatively named (oh, who am I kidding? We’ve loved this name from the very beginning…) Carter Bradley. And while I may have grown up blissfully oblivious to what a “pallet” is and its many folksy and useful upcycling uses, Carter is probably going to be painfully aware. That’s right, I’ve stumbled upon a couple of new pallet projects and I couldn’t help but share. ;)

I can already see it… Our little family is cruising down the freeway in Daddy’s truck. From the shade of a quiet group of storage units, right next to a large dumpster, a stack of handsome pallets catches our eye. *Screeeech!* We’ll whip around and pull in the lot to inspect them. If Carter is, by this time, old enough to be embarrassed by us, this is the part where he’ll be rolling his eyes or hoping against hope that no one from his school recognizes his parent’s truck. ;) Yep, we’re already refining our “weird parents” quirks well before Carter makes his grand debut. But thankfully for all of you, I’m perfectly comfortable with embarrassing my child with my love for  ”upcycling” so he’d better just learn to love it. ;)

On to the project!

How easy and adorable is this planter? I’ve been eyeing the standing planters at Rural King for a year now, unable to pull the trigger and drop $80+ on a tall, wooden box for my plants. I’d never even considered that my beloved pallets could do the same job!

The supplies for this project are all things that we have here, thanks in part to Brad’s extensive garage tool arsenal.

  • 1 pallet
  • 2 large bags of potting soil
  • 16 six packs of flowers (one six pack per opening on the face of the pallet, and two six packs per opening on the top of the completed pallet garden)
  • landscape fabric
  • a staple gun w/ staples
  • sand paper

I fully plan on asking Brad to help me construct this environmentally-friendly-and-folksy project which I heard about from a friend and found instructions for online at Life on the Balcony. I imagine this project taking off in the next month or so, so stay tuned as I will most certainly be posting photos!

Now what pallet garden would be complete without an upcycled pallet bench upon which to sit and admire my plants?

This project looks a bit trickier. But thanks to Brad’s affinity for woodworking and our love of pallet makeovers, I think we’ve got what it takes to figure this one out. There are no directions at the Garden Daddy website, but with the photos he posted, I’m betting Brad can figure the design out.

That’s all I’ve got for now as we haven’t started these projects yet. Be ready for a new cork mat, a paper mobile, and (probably) more pallet creations in the coming weeks!

Happy spring, everyone. And here’s hoping that my Idaho friends get to enjoy this weather nice and early this year, too!

Jan 26 2012
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Books, Crafts, DIY, Fitness, Recipes, Upcycling

1.26.12 – Pinterest, it was only a matter of time…

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Who hasn’t found themselves getting a tad bored with the internet from time to time? It happens all the time – your Facebook feed has just run out of new stories for you, you’ve checked, deleted, and replied to all your e-mails, snooped on your ex’s Facebook page… what’s there left to do? Your logical brain will tell you that with as vast as the internet is, there is a world of funny, interesting things you could be checking out now that your essentials are out of the way. But who wants to do all that searching!? If only all the interesting stuff was collected in one place…

Well, it is!

Well, maybe not all of it, but I guarantee there’s a place so chock full of internet gems that you’ll have to pry yourself away due to lack of time before you run out of great stuff to find. Those who are already happily addicted like myself already know what I’m talking about.

Pinterest, you’re a cruel mistress, but you sure have a whole heckuva lot of interesting things to check out…

To everyone who checked out the clothing-finding/outfit-building website featured in my last post, be warned, Pinterest is an even larger time suck. But admittedly, the things that you will take away from your Pinterest ‘pinning’ may actually save you money and really shake up your day to day. (Which is more than I can say about Polyvore since it had me seriously considering expanding my clothing budget!)

In the thumbnail here, you can see my current front page at Pinterest. At any given time, it is populated by an endless supply of cool internet finds that your friends have “pinned” to their own Pinterest profiles – ideas, recipes, photos and such that they would like to save.

In short, Pinterest is a super easy way to save and share the interesting things that you find online with your friends.

In the image here, you can see that my friends have found an awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe, an upcycling idea for turning an old wine rack into an awesome bathroom towel rack, a romantic bedroom decorating idea, and even an idea for newborn baby photos. There are music suggestions, travel ideas, unique articles… the categories are endless! There’s even a nice search feature. If you’re wanting something new to do with the avocados you just bought, you simply type “avocado” into the search and prepare to be bombarded by avocado recipes, art, and craft projects involving yours truly’s favorite fruit.

Men, don’t feel left out! The reason my board looks so feminine is because my Pinterest friends are nearly all female and that just happens to be what we’re into. The entire web is open to pinning so with the right search options, you can fill your board with sports cars, motorcycles, video game reviews, bikini babes, or whatever it is that men find more interesting than recipes and home decor. ;)

If Pinterest is new to you, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that MANY of your Facebook friends are probably already there, pinning away. Even if you’re alone at Pinterest, the board can be easily populated by things you’ll love simply by entering a word of interest into the search bar in the upper left hand corner.

So what are you waiting for?

Head on over and check it out. When you figure out how to follow friends, you can add me while you’re at it! Over at Pinterest, I go by rikkirogersblog and I would love to see what kind of interesting things you’ve found there. Just make sure you have a big ‘ol block of time put aside – it’s easy to lose track of the clock while you’re busily pinning your life away!

Visit Pinterest!

Oct 21 2011
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Crafts, DIY, Upcycling

10.21.11 – Upcycled Wine Cork Bath Mat with Weave Pattern

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After stumbling onto a charming little supply shop on Etsy and obtaining another big box-load of corks, I was able to finish my second cork mat project!

On hubby’s suggestion, I tried a weave pattern this time. The results? This mat seems to have a little bit more character than my last one! And I’m happy to report that it feels even better underfoot than my first. It did take a couple more hours to arrange and glue than the first, but I believe the results were well worth it.

Even though we want to keep this mat, my intentions from the beginning were to create this one to sell. It’s now happily nestled into its new (temporary?) home on the front page of my Etsy shop.

Click here to head over to the shop and see how it looks!

I’m going to be sad to see it go when the day comes that it gets purchased, but luckily I’ve got half a box of corks left that are just dying to be made into another upcycling creation! :)

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Oct 20 2011
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DIY, Upcycling

10.20.11 – Upcycled pallet wood coffee table

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Just in time for our fifth year anniversary (of being together, not marriage!) hubby just finished his fourth pallet creation, a rustic coffee table for our living room.

We are certainly getting our money’s worth out of those free pallets! ;)

I feel so lucky that he’s such a handy guy and has the ability and drive to make all of these wonderful pieces out of otherwise scrap material.

The pallets he used were destined for the fire, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to use these things – truly, to be able to stock our living room with pieces of art – as opposed to simply disposing of them. This is just one of the many awesome pallet pieces that you can create. He told me that it’s just a matter of taking the wood apart and rearranging it – many pallets are made with lumber that looks brand new. We just happen to love the rustic look, so we have an especially easy time of finding materials to work with. ;)

He started by disassembling the pallet and then picking out the pieces that he would use for the top.

To give the top a little variety, he took the pallet apart and cut the wood into different lengths and rearranged them on the table surface.

Next, they were nailed to the pallet’s original frame.

The gorgeous honey color of the top pieces is also natural – we didn’t apply a single coat of stain. The rich browns in the pallet would have made awesome pallet shelves, too, but I think we’ve reached our quota for those!

Several coats of polyurethane were applied to the top pieces to give them shine, and the tapering on the table’s edge is natural – hubby didn’t cut or sand the wood down at the table’s edge. Looks like this pallet was just meant to be made into a coffee table. :)

The cracks and uneven boards add to the table’s rustic feeling and match our pallet shelves quite well.

So far, thanks to his furniture building, our living room is really coming together.

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