I’m pretty darn excited. Today I have a DIY in The Portland Mercury, found on the Crafty Wonderland insert. Since many of you aren’t lucky enough to get this awesome local newspaper…. I’m sharing the DIY here! Really excited about this. I’ll have to get a couple copies for myself and take a ton of photos. Ha! Well, here’s what’s going to be in the paper. I love these planters:

I live in a tiny home and I prefer not to cover my limited surfaces with plants. How do I deal with this? Hanging planters, of course! This is a VERY quick and simple project. Perfect for even the non-crafty people. I made these sweet little Doily Plant Holders to put in my little girl’s room. She wanted plants in her room, but I didn’t really want my 3-year-old to have easy access to dirt in her bedroom. Might as well just avoid that situation. Ha! SO, let’s make Lace Hanging Planter Holders.

Supplies:

- 3 lace doilies

- 3 small containers (I used two old jars and a small tea cup)

- Rope (the length depends on how low you’d like your plants to hang, I used about 3 to 4 yards for each hanger)

- 3 small succulents

- 3 scissor snaps

- Needle and thread

- Scissors

Directions:

1. Cut 4 even sections of rope. For my shorter hanging planters I used just under a yard for each section of rope. If you prefer, you can use 3 pieces of rope to hang your planter, but 4 strands is a bit sturdier.

2. Thread the end of one rope strand through a hole on the doily. Tie a secure knot. Repeat this with all of your rope strands, making sure you spread the rope out evenly.

3. Use a needle and thread to sew and secure the knots.

4. Optional: If your doily has a few scallops (like mine) you can stitch the sides of each scallop to it’s neighbor. This will make the doily deeper for your planter.

5. Place your container in the doily and hold it up with your hand, try to make it hang evenly, then tie the strands of rope into a knot.

6. Braid the remaining portion of your rope, leaving about 3 inches at the end.

7. Tie your rope onto one scissor snap (I like these because they twist). Use your needle and thread to secure the knot onto the scissor snap.

8. Plant one small succulent into one container.

9. Hang your doily plant holder somewhere special, and place your planted succulent in the doily.

10. Repeat steps 1 through 9. to make your remaining plant hangers.

11. Enjoy!

- Chelsey

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

If you have a Wednesday post, please feel free to link it up below. And, feel free to link up to these blogs too… Parenting by Dummies, Project Alicia, Jenni from the Blog, In The Moment With, and Live and Love Outloud.

I finally tried it, Homemade Laundry Detergent! ANnnnnnnd, it does work. I’m not going to do the math and get all crazy about my costs per load… but I am saving money by making my own! And, why not just make everything? Ha! Seems like that’s what I’m doing for EVERYthing anyway. I’ll share  a quick rundown of how I made this (This is the same recipe I’ve found on 40 billion different sites… so I’m not sure of the original source. I can tell you it DOES work):

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of Borax (a natural laundry booster)

1.5 cups Arm & Hammer’s Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)

1 bar of Castille soap (I used Dr. Bronner’s peppermint bar)

Directions:

- Use a cheese grater to grate up your Castille soap.

- In a food processor, blend your grated up soap and a 1/2 cup of Borax and a 1/2 cup of Washing Soda until blended (you want those shreds of soap to be small).

- Pour the blended soap into a bowl with the remaining Borax and Washing Soda. Stir until it’s all blended really well.

- Pour into a jar that has a seal (keep it fresh) and seal.

- When washing your clothes: Use one to two tablespoons of your homemade powder per load. We usually prefer to wash in cold water, and it’s been working!

Side note: the Dr. Bronner’s Castile Peppermint Soap smells like peppermint chocolate.. don’t eat it. Hee hee. Just kidding! I know you wont eat it. I hope.

- Enjoy all that money you’re saving.

- ALSO: The peppermint smell is wonderful, but sometimes we want must a teensy bit more good smells. SO, we add laundry scent. On occasion. It works.

ANDPLUSALSO:

If you make you’re own detergent, you’re going to need a cute jar to seal it in. It’s pretty easy to add the gold painted “wash” word to your jar… here’s how…

- Wash and dry the outside of your glass.

- Print and cut out a word from my “Wash and Laundry” Printout.

- Tape a small piece (red side down) of Saral Paper to your jar and tape your word over the Saral paper.

- Trace the outline of the words with a ballpoint pen.

- Remove your paper and you’ll notice a wonderful red line to follow while you paint!

- Using some Martha Stewart Multi Surface Paint, paint in your words. If needed add more layers of paint (letting the paint dry for about 1 hour between each layer). I ended up using 3 layers of paint.

- Let dry. NOTE: on the back of the paint bottle, it notes that you need to let the paint cure for 21 days before washing or handling too rough. AFTER that: you should be good! I’ve heard great things about this paint.

If you give this a try, let me know! I’d love to see how it works for you. Happy washing!

- Chelsey

I’m sort of on a rainbow kick (if you haven’t already noticed) and I felt like there was something missing in my life, I couldn’t quite place it. Then, it came to me: my kiddo needs a rainbow heart headband. I made one and now my life is complete! Hee. She was pretty stoked to see what I had made for her… but then she asked me to make another one with ONLY Purple Hearts. That kid is addicted to purple.

Anywho… if you’d like to make this for yourself OR kiddo… here’s how you can make my Rainbow Heart Headband:

Supplies:

- Colored hearts printout

- Mod Podge

- Glitter in rainbow colors (red, orange yellow/gold, green, blue, purple)

- Old brush

- A section of ribbon (measure on your head, or kid’s, and add about 12 inches to tie a bow)

- Optional: Acrylic sealer spray

Directions:

- Print and cut out your colored hearts printout. I chose to use the smaller hearts for my headband.

- Add a layer of Mod Podge to a heart and add a layer of glitter. Let dry completely and repeat a second layer of glue and glitter (if necessary). Do this to ALL of your hearts.

- Add about 2 coats of Mod Podge OVER the glitter on the hearts. This will seal them and keep the glitter in place.

- Let dry completely (maybe a couple of hours).

- Optional: Spray a couple of Acrylic Sealer Spray coats onto your hearts (Mod Podge is water-based, and needs a sealer if exposed to a lot of moisture). I chose to skip this step, since my kiddo pretty much hides from rain. Ha! So, no worry about it falling apart from the rain.

- Hot glue your hearts, in a line, onto you ribbon. Let cool.

- Tie around your head (or your kiddo’s), and dooone.

Enjoy.

- Chelsey

I’m a mama. A mama to a kiddo that repeats EVERything I say. When I say everything… that’s really what I mean. Usually the kiddo likes to copy each word I say. SO, that means I cannot cuss. I want to cuss. So bad, but I can’t. Unless I want my 3-year-old to do the same.

Sometimes I just want to hang banners up that say, “Lucky Bitch”. I do hang it up for about 2 minutes…. then my kiddo comes in the room and asks me what I’m doing. I take it down and I replace it with my “Lucky Lady” banner. For a tiny moment it was there. I imagined I could cuss freely… out loud. That’s not how it is, so I keep my cursing to myself.

I want to cuss, but I don’t need to… Ok, sometimes I need to: stubbing toes, getting cut off by a driver, breaking something, frustration, cussing for joy (weird one), and just plain cussing because I feel like it. I reserve my cussing for a kid-free night with my friends (kid-free moms cuss like a bunch of drunk sailors, not even joking).

Whether you want to cuss it up all over your walls…. or you’d like to keep it clean and just be a Lucky Lady, this banner is fun for you. Perfect for the month of March. Want to make this for yourself? Ok!

Supplies:

- My letter’s printouts: one and two

- Green glitter

- Mod Podge

- Old brush

- String

- Hot glue

Directions:

- Print and cut out your letters from the printouts I provided (one and two).

- Place a layer of Mod Podge onto your letters, followed by a sprinkling of glitter. Let dry completely and add another layer of glue and glitter (the first layer wont fully cover with glitter).

- Once your letters are completely dry, glue the letters onto a bit of string of twine.

- Hang and you’re done!

Enjoy!

- Chelsey