10 Minute Tidy: Messy Kitchen

November 10, 2015September 16, 2016 spcountrygal 10 Minute Tidy, Organization, Quick Project 10 Minute Tidy, Organization, Quick Project

Do you ever look at a task and find it too daunting to do. You don’t even want to start because you figure it will take for-ev-er to finish? Or, you know that you are short on time, so you don’t even try? I’m convinced that at least half of getting something accomplished is just starting it. Case in point… my kitchen. I was gone way too late last night and we ate dinner way too late and it seemed way too late to clean up after dinner. Knowing that I had to get up way too early in the morning, I did some thing that I very rarely do: I went to bed with a messy kitchen. This is the kitchen that I woke up to:

Ugggh. This is really horrifying for me to show, but I know that we all get messy kitchens. We’re friends here, right?

See that window above my sink? That is the front porch. Translation: anyone who comes to my door can see if my kitchen is clean or dirty. This is a good incentive for me to keep a clean kitchen!

I decided that this would be a great 10 Minute Tidy activity…to clean up my messy kitchen.

First, and probably most importantly, I started my oven timer…10 minutes on the clock. I told myself that when the timer sounded, my work was done. To be truthful, the dishwasher was already empty, so that helped me out time-wise. Usually my family puts their own dirty dishes in the dishwasher, but the clean dishes didn’t get removed until, you guessed it…too late last night. Excuses, excuses! As I hurriedly cleaned, I kept glancing at the clock to make sure that I would be done in time, and just as I was rinsing out the just scrubbed sink, time ran out. Perfect.

I’ll be honest. When I’m trying to beat the clock like this, it doesn’t really seem like work. More like a game. Or a race…without a lot of sweat…or shin splints…or calories burned. Darn! But, my reward today was a clean kitchen:

Ten little minutes and I can forget all about it. Until the next mess comes along because, as we all well know: A clean house is a temporary thing.

What 10 minute tidy are you going to do today?

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Concrete Look Dollar Store Pumpkins

November 9, 2015October 5, 2016 spcountrygal Accessories, Autumn, Craft, Decorating, DIY, Dollar Store Craft, Gray and White, Home Accessories, Painting, Super Saturday Accessories, Craft, Decorating, DIY, Dollar Store Craft, Gray and White, Home Accessories, Painting, Super Saturday

If you have been in pretty much any dollar store in the last month or so you have likely seen lots of bright orange light-weight pumpkins. El cheapo looking pumpkins. But, for some reason, they inspired me in a big way. I bought a couple of them and before I had even gotten out of the store, I knew what I wanted to do with them. Happily enough, they turned out exactly how I envisioned them!

Concrete Pumpkin

I love them! The process, once I figured it out was quite easy. It took some trial and error, so to help you avoid all that, I will show you the easy way to make these concrete look pumpkins. First, though, my base ingredients:

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I had noticed this half used bag of thin-set mortar in our garage recently and wondered what a person actually does with it once the tile job is done. The trial and error portion of my project consisted of just mixing water with the thin-set mix and painting it on. Not wanting to use a nice bowl to mix the stuff in, I cut down a gallon sized milk container. The handle made it really easy to hold while I stirred. I used the top part for my scoop. See what it looked like after one coat:

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Too transparent for the look that I was going for so I made some changes to my thin-set mix. First I added some white paint and then decided to add some Plaster of Paris powder, as well. I didn’t have any specific recipe, just added until it was the consistency of pancake batter. A couple more coats (let it dry completely first) and this is what they looked like: WP_20151106_008

As you can see, I added some short twigs to make stems for my pumpkins. At first I added a silk leaf to the top, but removed it because I liked the starker look. Can I just say that I’m loving the white pumpkin look this year? Truth be told, however, these could be made in any color… of course your paint color will dictate that. It would be fun to make gray or peacock blue or black concrete pumpkins, don’t you think?

Since these pumpkins are made of Styrofoam, they can be easily pierced on the bottom and place on a candlestick that has a “nail” for holding candles in place:

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Isn’t it amazing how just a few items found in most garages can make el cheapo look high end? I’m loving my new pumpkins and plan to make several more in different sizes next year.

So, what do you think? Are you still there, or are you grabbing the car keys and heading to your local dollar store to buy some pumpkins?

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Great Ideas — 18 DIY Thanksgiving Ideas Part Two!

Super Saturday Craft Day

November 5, 2015November 7, 2016 spcountrygal Christmas, Craft, Decorating, DIY, Gift Idea, Home Accessories, Painting, Pillow, Quick Project, Snowman, Super Saturday Accessories, Christmas, Craft, Decorating, DIY, Gift Idea, Home Accessories, Painting, Quick and Easy, Sewing, Snowman, Super Saturday

SuperSaturday2015

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to help organize a “Super Saturday” at my church. Super Saturday is a day where the women from church and their friends, family, neighbors…can come together and craft. This event is always in November so we can make holiday decorations as well as inexpensive gifts for Christmas giving. I just thought that I would share what we are doing this year:

This Snowman/Scarecrow craft was requested by someone who had seen a similar craft online using planks. As you can see, this craft is reversible, making it possible to have it out from October through January. Love that! I will do a tutorial on this soon. Promise! ***UPDATE: Here is the tutorial***

This 2 minute craft is great for display as well as for holding a plate of holiday goodies. It is as simple as removing the backing from the vinyl sticker that I cut with my Roland Dr. Stika machine, placing the sticker and rubbing it to smooth it out, then removing the masking layer. Easy peasy! I love how simplistic it looks.

I found some little wood boxes that I thought would make perfect little chalkboards. Before Super Saturday, I will paint the boxes white. That day we will add a vinyl frame to use as a stencil. After painting with chalkboard paint and letting it dry (we always use hair dryers at Super Saturday to speed up the drying process!), we will remove the frame vinyl to expose the white below. I’m also going to do a quick demo about how to easily “write” on chalkboards. I love that this little guy can stay up year round. I love, love, love chalkboards and the fact that “art” can change in a matter of seconds.

We are also going to do a demo of how to make a 5 minute pillow cover. Soooo easy! Here is a great video tutorial to show you how it’s done and here is one of the many pillows that I have made this way:

Lastly, here is a craft that I patterned off of one that my friend found online and loved. I made sure to use an image that is copyright free of the LDS Salt Lake Temple spires. We will decoupage that as well as the saying, “Families are Forever”. This idea can be used in a thousand different ways, using different pics (pics of children and grandchildren, family home…) and sayings. I drilled tiny holes in each corner of the word wood so I could easily insert little brads for added detail. I also drilled a couple of larger holes on the top for the ribbon to go in and, BAM! it’s a fabulous item to hang in your own home or to give as a gift.

I’m so excited for this Super Saturday event…I can hardly wait! It is so much fun to turn on the Christmas tunes and work and laugh and craft with friends.

Do you participate in a similar crafting event? If you are not aware of a similar event around you, why don’t YOU get one started? Grab your friends and family and get crafting! You just might end up with some pretty cool stuff and warm memories as a result.

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10 Minute Tidy Bathroom Drawer

November 3, 2015February 26, 2016 spcountrygal 10 Minute Tidy, Organization, Quick Project 10 Minute Tidy, Organization, Quick and Easy

This is my first post of what I plan to make a regular feature at ARMCHAIRDECORATORBLOG: 10 Minute Tidy posts. Before I get started with my Tidy project, let me explain where this phrase came from. When my kids were younger, we had a couple of VCR cassettes of “The Big Comfy Couch”. At the end of each episode, Loonette the clown looks around her messy living room and says, “Who made this big mess?” and then speed cleans it with a “10 second tidy”. I incorporated this idea as a way of getting my 5 children to help tidy up the house quickly. The time limit depended on how messy the house was, usually 2, 3, or 5 minutes. A 2 minute tidy equated to 12 minutes of fast work if you added up all 6 of us busting a move to clean up. My kids really didn’t complain very much about these “tidies” because they knew that there was a limit.

These days, I still challenge myself to do speed tidies, especially when there is a task that I would rather not do. The chores seem so much easier, and I swear I work 5 times faster when I’m focusing on beating a clock. Think how fast you accomplish tasks when you know company is almost due to arrive at your front porch.

So, 10 Minute Tidy project #1 is my bathroom junk drawer:

Way to much stuff in this drawer. I have been putting off cleaning it out for a long time. Realistically, I knew that the job was really not a biggie…it was all mental. With a 10 minute time frame in mind, I quickly emptied everything out and sorted like items together.

Ridiculous! Who needs this many contact lens cases!

All of those little bar soaps that you get from hotels? We don’t even use bar soap around here. Note to self: from here on out… leave them at the hotel! Time to donate to a good cause.

I started throwing all of the half used hotel lotions in the trash until I came up with a great plan:

My body butter tub was nearly empty, but after squeezing the contents of all of our mini lotion containers, it was full. Free lotion! Those, I will keep bringing home from hotels.

Less than 10 minutes later…

…my bathroom junk drawer is noticeably less cluttered. I don’t hate opening it anymore!

What quickie project could you go do right now? How about a bathroom drawer? On your mark…get set…TIDY!

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Autumn Colors: Peacock and Pumpkin

October 29, 2015October 29, 2015 spcountrygal Autumn, Decorating, Flowers Autumn, Decorating, Flowers, Home Accessories

As of last month, I have a new favorite fall color combination:

I came across it by fluke, really. First I purchased this shower curtain

I bought it for $10 at Ross with the intention of turning it into decorative pillow covers, but I threw it over my dining room table to get out the wrinkles and it morphed into my new table cloth instead. I must say that L*O*V*E it. The above pic reflects its true color. I call it Peacock Blue. I wish that all of my pics reflected this color correctly, because, sadly they don’t. I’m not sure why. Hmm. Anyway…when I brought my Fall décor in and threw my regular Autumn flower pot in the center of the table…magic happened.

I admit that I had to manipulate the hue in order to get the true Peacock Blue for the above image. It looks a bit oranger than it should. But I still love the color combo. More pics