DIY Studded Candles

Hey ya folks!  How's it going?  I just wanted to stop in with this quick little project I just finished.  You see, I bought these birch log candlesticks the other day and then couldn't find candles that I liked to put on them.  So, there they sat for about a month with nothing on them.  I tried some teal candles, but since I have nothing else teal in my house, they drove me nuts and off to my mom's house they went.  :-)  Again, there sat the candlesticks all lonely and everything.

Then, two nights ago, I couldn't sleep so I searched on Pinterest for diy candle decorating.  Let me just tell you, there is not a lot out there.  Apparently, I'm the only weirdo who can't just find candles I like in the store.  So, I got to thinking, what did I want the candles to look like?  I decided I wanted a kind of tribal print and maybe some studs.  I remembered that I had seen something done with tacks, so off to good old Walmart I went in search of solid colored candles and some gold tacks.  Of course, my Walmart didn't have gold tacks, so instead, I bought some gold brad fasteners and hoped for the best.  

So, there isn't much explanation needed for this.  Figure out what pattern or design you want and just start pushing the brads/tacks in.  I do think tacks might work better for this because they probably wouldn't bend as much, but really, I didn't have any trouble.  The great thing is, if you mess up, you just pull the brad out and start again!  So, here they are!

 

I think I would have rather had black candles and used the gold brads to stud them (or possibly even some white brads), so I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for some, but I like these for now.  :-)  What do you think?  Are you up for making some studded candles of your own?  You could do so many different designs and even spell out a word with several candles!  Use your imagination!  What design would you do?  What else have you seen that used tacks or brads as studs?  Leave me some comment love!

 

Love ya like a lazy girl loves naps,

The Lazy Girl~ Jamie

 



One Word

So, a lot of the bloggers that I follow are talking about their one word for 2014.  One word that describes their goals, resolutions, what have you.  I don't usually make resolutions because, let's face it, I don't keep them.  Sure, I'd like to, but I'm usually realistic enough to know that I won't.  That being said... I'm actually going to try to make some improvements this year.  I'm going to be honest, a couple of these I'm really not sure I can do.  I'm scared.  Of failing myself, but especially of failing in front of all of you (although, I'm not sure anybody actually reads this blog, so maybe that's not such a big deal).  So. here goes nothing.  My one word for 2014.

Less~
Less clutter
Less weight
Less time (spent doing things that don't bring me joy)
Less sadness

Less Clutter~
Both visually and mentally.  In my home and in my head, my spirit, my heart.  I know I can have less clutter in my home.  I got this!  The clutter in me on the other hand, that's a bit more difficult to get rid of, but I'm going to try.  I want more room in my heart and spirit for the things that are truly important.  God, my husband, my children. 

Less Weight~
This one is pretty obvious.  I need to lose weight.  I am at my biggest and I am uncomfortable.  It affects my health.  It affects my life.  I have no willpower to diet and because of a health problem, no energy to exercise, but I am going to find a way.  I am going to push myself to exercise.  I am going to try my hardest to at least cut down on the sweets.  That will be my starting point.  Who knows where I'll go from there!

Less Time~
Less time doing things that don't bring me joy.  The first thing that comes to mind is less time mindlessly wandering the internet.  I spend most of my day doing it and it needs to stop.  There are so many things I could be doing instead!  Cleaning my house would be a good start.  It would bring me joy to have a home that myself and my family can feel comfortable in.  Crafting!  I love to craft and DIY and I rarely do it.  Bonus for you guys?  I'll have more to blog about.  :-)  And there's so much more I could do.  Also, less time spent doing things that I don't like to do for other people at the cost of spending time doing things I actually want to do.  Sometimes, I'm a people pleaser and I agree to do things for people or with people when I don't want to.  Of course, I still want to have a kind heart and be helpful to others, but there needs to be a balance.  Time for a change.  :-)

Less Sadness~
This is my toughest one.  How do you control your sadness?  Especially when you suffer daily from severe depression.  I don't know the answer to this.  I've searched for it for many years and have yet to find it.  I know I can't get rid of my sadness.  Certainly not all of it.  But I can choose joy.  I can choose to focus on the things in my life that are good, instead of always focusing on the bad.  This will be hard, but I am determined.  I deserve to be happy.  My husband deserves a happy wife.  My kids deserve a happy mom.  I WILL DO THIS.

So there you have it.  My one word for 2014.  What about you?  What is your one word for the year?  Leave a comment and let me know what goals you've set for yourself.  Let's help each other!

Love ya like a lazy girl loves naps,
The Lazy Girl~ Jamie

Organizing the Bathroom~ The Lazy Girl Way

So, I've been working on organizing my bathroom and like an idiot, I didn't take before pictures.  Just trust me when I say that, although it wasn't necessarily messy, I definitely wasn't utilizing the space as well as I should have been and that was driving me nuts!  I had stuff spread out in different rooms, closets, etc. of the house and I was always running from one place to another to get stuff.  Ummm, hello!  There is an easier way!

I started by pulling everything out of every nook and cranny.  The towels and toilet paper came out of the hall closet, the cleaning supplies came out from under the sink and the make up came out of my bedroom.  Everything imaginable went to the living room and was sorted into categories.  Needless to say, for the next few days, anybody who pulled up to my house was met in the front yard.

I'm sure the "normal" process for something like this would be to plan out exactly how you want things before filling your living room with all that junk, but who ever accused me of being "normal"?  Nobody, I promise.  So, instead I pulled it all out, covered my couch with it and let it sit for several days while I scoured Pinterest for "bathroom organizing ideas" and "bathroom cabinet storage" and any other version of that I could think of.  I found something I thought might work.  A small three drawer rolling cart like this one could house all of our everyday stuff, right?  Wrong.  What was I thinking?!  There was ten bucks down the drain (although I'm sure I'll find somewhere else to use the cart). 

Lesson number 1:  Have a plan in place before starting a project.

I noticed a theme was starting to develop as I poured through Pinterest.  Everybody seemed to be lining their drawers, shelves, etc. with shelf paper.  I loved the way it looked, but only saw about 5 options when I looked at Walmart and the dollar store.  None of the options were even slightly pretty.  I even looked for wrapping paper thinking I could turn it into shelf liner.  Nothing.  Finally, I made a desperate Google search for it.  Bingo!  I couldn't find very many to choose from, but I did find this collection on Amazon.  I have a confession to make.  I bought 4.  In all fairness, I got the 4th one free, so that counts for something, right?  While I was at it, I also bought a label maker that I had been coveting.  After all, everything in the bathroom is going to have to be labeled, right.  It's possible I have a new addiction to online shopping.

Lesson number 2:  The internet has whatever your little heart desires.

The last thing I did to prepare for The Great Bathroom Organization (did you say that with a booming voice, cause I did) was go to Walmart and buy some plastic shoeboxes like this.  Guess how much they were?!!!  97 cents!!!  I grabbed 7 of them and made a beeline for the door.  Why 7?  Because this time I actually thought ahead and measured how many would fit inside my bathroom cabinet.  Yay me!

Does anybody else find it incredibly difficult to wait for a package to arrive?  I do. But, I had no choice so I waited and waited and waited for my shelf liner and label maker to be delivered.  Finally they made it and I could complete my project!  Is it perfect?  Heck no!  Will I be making little tweaks here and there until I get it just right?  Probably so.  But is it 10 times better than it was?  Is the space being utilized the way it should have been all along?  Absolutely!  What do you think?

Before, the cabinet under the sink had things just thrown in there and there was a ton of empty space.  Now...

The bottom of the cabinet is lined, my cleaning supplies are easily accessible and everything is neat and organized.

As you can see, I ended up using these chalkboard labels that I found at Michael's in the dollar section.  I organized each box into categories, but wanted to have the option of changing them, so these labels felt like the best option.  It is so much easier to find things now!!!

This shelf was in another room and wasn't really being used, so I pulled it in to the bathroom to hold my towels, washcloths, toilet paper and the shoe boxes that hold our daily necessities.

I have a bit of an obsession with glitter right now, so I used Mod Podge and dipped this mason jar in gold glitter to hold our q-tips.  Who doesn't love a little sparkle, right? :-)

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I live in a rental.  While I am very thankful for my home, it really bothers me that I am not able to paint or change things that I don't care for.  This little wall is my attempt at decorating my plain walls.  Do I love it?  Not really.  But it does bring a little pattern and interest to the room.  I made the bottom sign using a piece of scrap wood that I had, some chevron wrapping paper that I had stashed in the closet and 6 frames from the dollar store.  Since I already had most of the stuff on hand, it only cost me six dollars and by using a dry erase marker, I can change up the quote on it any time I feel like it.

I also added these frames to the wall.  I backed them with some scrapbook paper I had on hand and used a white paint pen to write quotes on the glass.  I'm thinking that if I ever want to change the quotes or use the frames for something else, a little fingernail polish remover will take the paint off, but if not, I'm ok with that. 

So, there you have it.  A very lazy way of organizing and decorating my bathroom.  Truth be told, there are some things I want to change as far as the very minimal décor goes.  I'm not completely happy with it.  I never am.  This was something I just threw together using what I had on hand.  If I had an unlimited budget, there are definitely things I would do differently.  But I don't.  I'm not naïve.  I know that this is not a perfect space.  I didn't post it so you would oooh and aaah over it.  I posted this so that you could see that it doesn't take a huge budget (or really any money at all) to make a change to your space.  Look around your house.  Is there something that's just not working in one room, but might be perfect in another?  Don't have the money for a fresh bouquet of flowers? Take a look outside!  Bring some of the outdoors in.  Use what you have to create something new.  Don't like the way it turns out?  Don't give up!  I haven't.  And you shouldn't either.  I'm sure I'll be changing things up soon.  I'll let you know how it goes.  :-)

Love ya like a lazy girl loves naps,
Jamie

A Lazy Girl's Addiction... Wreaths

Yes, I know, I have a problem.  The only other craft post I've made on here was a wreath post too.  What can I say?  I love wreaths!  This will not be the last post you see on them.  In fact, maybe I should change the name of this blog to A Lazy Girl's Guide to Wreaths...  Hmmm, maybe.  At least then it would be easy to find things to blog about.  To be honest, I have plenty of projects to write about.  I just hate taking pictures (especially since I take such awful ones) so I end up not writing anything.  I'm going to have to work on that.  Maybe it's ok that my pictures are subpar for now?  Better to try than just give up, right?  Something to think about anyways.  But I digress. Back to the newest wreath.

I'm sure you've seen these all over Etsy and Pinterest, it's nothing new.  I had been seeing them forever and I absolutely loved them, but I'd never tried to make one.  The other night I decided to give it a whirl.  What the heck was I waiting for?!!!  So easy, so fun and I loved the finished product!  This is not going to be a step by step tutorial with awesome pictures to help.  Sorry.  I honestly thought about taking pictures and then I decided, nah, I'm too lazy.  :-)  So, here is the finished product and below are the quick and simple directions to making it.  I really don't feel like pictures are even necessary since it was so simple.

What I did-  The tutorials I've seen all say to use a wire hanger for the frame.  I didn't have a hanger, but I did have some wire laying around from another project.  I believe it was 14 gauge, but I'm honestly not sure.  When I make another one, I plan on trying a heavier gauge wire because even though this was a pretty thick wire, it drooped under the weight of the burlap.  I can't believe a coat hanger actually works for this without drooping, but I might try it too, just to see.  Anyways, I shaped the wire into a circle without closing up the ends.  Then, I simply took some burlap ribbon that I found in the floral section at Walmart and started to pleat it onto the wire (basically accordion folding it).  I scrunched it down as I went, twisted the 2 ends closed and that's it!  Told you it was simple.  I used 3 rolls of the burlap for this wreath, but you could definitely do it with less.  This one is pretty large.  I'm kind of a plain person so I chose to only add a bow at the top (I had no idea how easy it was to make bows like this!) and no other decorations, however, I plan on making quite a few of these to try and sell and I will be adding embellishments to them.  I will also be taking custom orders and trying to make some with a material other than burlap.  If you're the type who likes to buy instead of make, I'd love to have you order one (or two or ten) from me.  Email me at jamieaustin715@gmail.com and we can discuss a custom wreath.

So, I hope you like it.  And trust me, I'll be posting more terrible pictures of the others I make, so stay tuned!

Love ya like A Lazy Girl loves naps!  ;-)
Jamie

Polyvore Project Decorate

Hey guys!  Just wanted to stop in and show you a little something I worked up. Megan from the awesome blog  Honey We're Home is hosting a contest on Polyvore.  If you've never checked out Polyvore, it's a great website where you can put together moodboards for any outfit you could possibly think of.  Well, now they've added a section where you can put together home décor ideas as well! 

Megan has teamed up with Polyvore to host a Sexy Glam Style Contest... The prize for the winner?  A $500.00 gift card to Pottery Barn!  Awesome right?!!  Here is the room that I created for the contest.

I'd love it if you'd go over and vote for me!  The contest ends in a week and I'm pretty sure you can vote at least once a day.  Thanks so much for your support!  Have a great day!!!

The Lazy Girl~ Jamie

Fall Wreath~

Hey ya'll!  Just wanted to stop in and show you a quick little project I put together.  I have another post coming soon, but in the meantime, I thought I'd give you something else to look at.  :-)

 

I think I have a bit of an addiction to wreaths.  They bring so much character and color to your doors and they are so simple to make!  Now if only I had more doors to put them on... Would it be weird if I put one on every bedroom door and the bathroom door too?  Too much?  Ok. 

 

So, I saw the owl at the dollar store and picked it up for $3.50.  I knew right away that I wanted to make a wreath with it, but I wasn't exactly sure what it should look like.  It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do.  I picked up the twig wreath from Walmart and then just stared at the two things for a few days.  While browsing at Michael's, I came across the felt leaves.  They're actually coasters!  They had them in several different colors, but I went with the orange because I liked the pop of color I knew they would bring to the wreath.  An idea was starting to form, but I still wasn't sure what I was doing.

 

  I came home and dug through my craft supplies hoping to find some coordinating felt or material to make flowers, but I didn't have any.  Then I saw some brown paper lunch sacks that I had been holding onto for something (sometimes it pays to be a craft hoarder).  I used the lunch bags to make the flowers (I used this tutorial from my other blog) and added button centers. 

 

 I had the brown paper tags and glitter letters in my craft stash as well. 

 

 All together, I think I spent around 15 dollars, which is less than you can buy a wreath for.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  Now if only I could paint my front door. :-/ 

 

So, what do you think?  Are you as ready for Fall as I am?!!!

 

If you could see any Fall craft on here, what would it be?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  Got an idea for another wreath?  Tell me about it, it might just be my next project!  Don't forget to go like my page on Facebook to stay up to date with all the latest posts!

 

Thanks,

The Lazy Girl~Jamie

Linking up to-

 

The Lazy Girl's Welcome Post~

Hey ya'll!  Welcome to my new blog!  If you're coming to me from Keep Calm and Plan a Party then you already know a little (or a lot) about me, but for those of you who have never "met" me before, I'd love it if you'd check out my All About Me page.  And hey, even if you do know me, maybe you should check it out too.  You might learn something new. :-)  I want to make sure everyone knows that just because I have this new blog, it doesn't mean I'm giving up on the old one.  I have just decided that I will keep that one strictly for party stuff and explore other avenues with this blog.

So, what is this little blog all about?  To be honest with you, I'm not completely sure yet.  Of course I know that I'm going to be posting craft and organizing projects, but maybe I just need a place to write out my thoughts too.  I'm not sure.  We will have to see what it develops into.  All I know is that I have discovered that blogging is my passion, it's what makes me happy and a big part of that is getting feedback, comments and ideas from you guys.  So please comment often.  I hope that through this blog I can encourage, inspire and motivate you and who knows, maybe ya'll will do the same for me sometimes. :-)  Look for a post coming soon and in the meantime go take a look at my All About Me page and let me know that you did. 

The Lazy Girl,
Jamie
XO