Garage Laundry Inspiration

Have you ever seen Mt. Washmore?  Well now you have!  

Here is my pile of laundry I get to fold today...not to mention the loads that are in the washer and dryer right now, and the 3 more loads I need get to wash, dry, fold, iron, and put away later too!!!  AHHHH!!!!!

Yes, that's a Cal King bed COVERED in clean laundry

I HATE laundry because it's NEVER D-O-N-E!  I love doing projects that I can complete, finish, check off my list and never have to worry about again.  That's not really the case with laundry is it? *sigh* 

Well, I at least want to make my tedious task a little more enjoyable, maybe that's a bad word for it... how about more pleasing to the eye...yeah, that's more like it. ;o)

OK, I can't believe I'm about to show you this, but here goes nothin'!

The creepy violin theme from "Psycho" is playing in my head  right now!

This is what I had a couple weeks ago...I don't have a nice laundry room inside the house...I have a little space in the garage for my washer and dryer and a little cupboard above them.  It is not a beautiful space.  I don't enjoy going into the garage to do laundry... {going into the garage to get the drill, I LOVE!}  I hate seeing studs and tar paper and the disorganized chaos that is the workbench which is just to the right of the dryer...that's another issue altogether.  Time to clean up a little!

This is what I have today.  

Still nasty, but all the clutter is gone. Whew!  

Why is it so hard cleaning out the garage?!?  

Do you like my graffiti'd cupboard?  I saw a sign somewhere and wanted to duplicate it...fast...so I grabbed a sharpie and did exactly what I tell my little ones not to do.  Hypocrite! 

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Laundry Inspiration for you...and me, cause I'm going to make my little corner in the garage beautiful one day...just watch me!

Shelley from The House of Smiths made her laundry room look great!

I'd love to find a chandy to hang above my washer and dryer!

DIY laundry pedestals over at ana white

I SO TOTALLY want to build my own pedestal!!!

How cute is this retro-modern laundry room?!  I love the vinyl on the washer! 

Yeah, only in my DREAMS!!!

So I have a lot of dreaming to do still before any of this magic happens.  

But hey, a girl can dream, right?

What are your best laundry area storage tips and decorating ideas?  

Lots o' love,

Megan

My own creation!!!

Did you know that one Costco 2-gallon milk box holds 3 Capri Sun boxes PERFECTLY?

My family goes through a lot of milk.  We buy the 2-gallon boxes from Costco...the ones on the left of this picture.  My kids also love Capri Sun for their lunches that they take to school. I hated just tossing the boxes in the recycling and thought that there must be SOMETHING I could use all that cardboard for...  

Then I thought of it!!!

I'm not going to tell you or show you just yet...I'm putting the finishing touches on it, but since I originally made it for the office, see if you can spy it in the office/guest room BEFORE picture!

Lots 'o love!

Megan

Thrifted Finds - Little Mirrors

I scored these little beauties at a thrift store for only $1.95 each! The only problem was one of the mirrors didn't have the gold detailing that the other two had.   I wasn't too worried because I had a gold stamp pad at home from my days as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.

 I pressed and rubbed the ink pad all over the mirror to make it match the other two.

The pad was really spongy and the ink was really thick so the harder you pressed, the more that got on (like the flower close to my pinky ;o) The flower that is close to the bottom of the picture I just swept the pad across it which gave it a lighter look. 

 Betcha can't tell which one I did!  (cause I can't)

Here they are above the guest room window.

What's your latest thrifted find?

Megan

Simple Pasta Salad

This simple pasta salad is delicious and only has 7 ingredients!  One of my sisters made it years ago and it's been my go-to Summertime meal ever since.  I make a double batch sometimes and use it all week long for lunches and cool dinners when it's too hot to cook.

1 box whole wheat rotini or other fun pasta shape, cooked and cooled
1 bottle zesty Italian dressing
1 smoked turkey sausage, cut in half and cut again on the bias
1 small container grape tomatoes
2 crowns broccoli, cut into "trees" like my kids say ;o)
1 can medium size olives, drained
1 cup colby jack cheese, cubed

Toss everything together and enjoy!  It gets better the second and third day as the dressing absorbs into the pasta.  Also sometimes I've added marinated artichoke hearts, Parmesan, or kalamata olives for a more Mediterranean flavor.

I'm linking this recipe to the Home May'd Recipe Party!

Lots o' love!

Megan

My Favorite 4-Letter Word Starts With an "F" but it's not what you think

My husband is awesome.  He loves me so much...know how I know?  He came home one day and said, hey, there's a mirror on the curb about a block over that has a free sign.  WOO-HOO!!! I love you too baby!  I hopped in my car and snagged it as fast as I could.  Here's what I got for FREE!!! See isn't it the best word!

 It had cool detailing but wasn't painted brown very well so I wanted to change it to white.

I taped under the edges and corners really well.

My sweet 4 year old helped cover and tape the mirror.

 And here she is all white.  I'm debating whether or not to distress her and sand her high parts down.

Here she is all hung in the guest room.  And if you look closely in the reflection you can see a sneak peek of 3  little mirrors that I'll post on soon.

What do you think? 

Megan

ELVIS!!!

Since it's my Daddy-o's birthday I thought I'd do an ELVIS shoutout!  He loves Elvis, has won competitions for Elvis impersonating and is just pretty much the best Dad EVER! I love my Dad so much and I'm grateful he taught me how to work and do things myself.  Now look at all the cool Elvis stuff on craftster.org.  Here are my faves:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Love,

Megan

Boys Bedroom Inspiration

Okay, so I'm not even ready to begin tackling the huge project that will be my 3 boys' room but I've been looking around the Internet and there are some AMAZING ideas.  Their room is pretty small and it needs to fit 3 so here is an idea I can't wait to try!

Ana White design

I'd probably not make it so sophisticated, maybe more beachy/surfer with simple and clean lines in mind.

And for those of you who aren't acquainted with this talented woman...meet Ana White! She seriously rocks!

What have you done to your kid's rooms lately?

Lots o' love!

Megan

New Life for Old Dresser

Last Saturday the wards that meet at our church building had a combined "Swap Meet."  It was a true swap meet in the sense that NO money was exchanged.  You brought your junk for others to take and you got to take whatever you wanted!  I so totally wanted a wingback chair to reupholster, but I don't have anywhere to put it.  :o(   Instead, my Dear Brother-In-Law showed this to me.  A real wood little dresser that would be perfect for the kids art supplies and the rest of our office supplies and paper. (My Dear Brother-In-Law also told my DS3 that all the toys were free and to take whatever he wanted after I told him no! (needless to say, my Brother-In-Law will be getting the Christmas Tazmanian Devil that my son picked up for his Christmas this year!)

I digress...

When my potty-training daughter woke me up at 3 in the morning, I couldn't get back to sleep for a while because I was thinking of what I could do to make this dresser special.  This design came to mind.  I sketched it out to see if it would look right and I LOVED it.  Don't you love it when half asleep ideas turn out great!

 

I taped right up to the edges and measured in from the corner to make three, one-inch squares.

 Then I got my silver paint pen out and traced the design I made.

 And removed the tape.

 And fell in love.

 I added clear knobs *swoon* to the drawers, and I couldn't be happier!

That's my kind of makeover!

Megan

Walled-Off

To aid in the completion of the home office/guest room makeover, we decided (I begged, pleaded, then convinced my husband) to wall-off the double doors from the entry to that room.  I'M SO GLAD WE DID!!! It make the guest room actually feel like a real room instead of a thoroughfare.  Here are the progress pics...

 Old double doors removed. Taking out door jambs.

 DH letting DS2 take out nails.

 Framing it in.  LOOK AT THAT STUD!!! And the 2x4s are cool too.

Have you guys ever used this stuff?!?!  After we drywalled, and mudded, I went to my local home improvement store to see what I could do about matching the orange peel texture we had on our existing walls.  I found this product and it works like a charm!  You can't tell the difference between the old and new! LOVE IT!!! I highly recommend it for small jobs too...you know when you mess up a part of your wall and have to patch it so you (your husband) can't tell that anything ever happened there!

Here it is all done from the entry.  I'll show you the other side of the wall (inside the guest room) when I post about an AWESOME mirror that my Honey found on the side of the road for me!

STAY TUNED!

Lots o' love,

Megan

Play Kitchen

For Christmas last year I wanted to make my little girl a play kitchen.  I always wanted one when I was little.  I had seen SEVERAL big plastic kitchen for a GREAT deal before this, but could never convince my Dear Husband that my boys needed one! ;o)  Then I got a girl.  I decided she HAD to have play kitchen.  Since my honey didn't like the big plastic ones, I decided I'd make a little one all on my own!  (He couldn't make me get rid of it if I had made it, right?) 

I went to a thrift shop and happened to find all this the same day for only about $10 for all of it!  It was half-price day!  I couldn't have been more excited!

 I grabbed a scrap piece of wood we had lying around and mounted it to the back of the night stand and screwed the shelf to it.  I cut a hole for the $1 pie plate for a sink and glued on 2 old cd's for burners. 

 I screwed the spice rack on the side and painted everything white.  I painted the inside of the shelf green with a little extra paint leftover from the accent wall in her room.

I bought a letter "J" from JoAnn's for about $1 with my 40% off coupon.  I spray painted it silver and mounted it upside down for the faucet.  I bought a wooden drawer handle, sawed it in half, sprayed them silver and mounted them to make the hot and cold for the faucet.  

Also, the night stand had a drawer originally.  I took it apart, put the drawer bottom on top of the braces from the drawer to make a shelf.  Then I put the drawer front on hinges to make it an oven and added a magnetic closure and VOILA!!!

A CUTE UPCYCLED PLAY KITCHEN THAT WILL LAST MANY YEARS!!!  

My little girl LOVES it!  I'm so glad too!  I made tons of felt food for her and she plays with it every day!

Now that's my kind of makeover!

Megan