Why I Now Save My Cans

I made this beautiful garbage can for my daughter a while ago. She needed something for her room to collect the endless bits of garbage she seems to make in a day. I had made smaller ones a few years ago for a birthday party, but now I am grabbing the true potential of containers.

To make this garbage can was so easy:
Open your cans with one of those can openers that removes the whole lid without leaving sharp edges. Clean and dry your can thoroughly before decorating your container.
Choose your paper and measure it to the right height, and cut it. I found it best to measure the height to the inside of the metal rim. Because my container was so big (this is the 2.84L Costco diced tomato tin) I needed two pieces of paper. I chose to repeat the same pattern but you could use complementary papers. My papers came embossed with these sayings. You can cut out or stamp words to add if you want something on there that's personalized, like a name.
I hot glue gunned the papers on the can, then covered all my edges with ribbon. I then embellished with a few punched out hearts and a couple flowers and I was done. 15 minutes for a gorgeous garbage can!
I have more can ideas in my head so hopefully they will be published soon, as long as I can keep my recycling-happy family from removing all my cans! LOL

Valentine's Day

We had a Valentine's party at our house yesterday so wanted to make it look pretty both for yesterday and today.
Sunday night the boys and I cut out a bunch of hearts from construction paper. We used red, white, pink, and purple paper. We folded them in fourth and cut a half heart shape so that it opened out to make 2 hearts from one piece of paper. Then we used the corners to make more little hearts. From one piece of 9 X 12 paper we got two large hears and four little ones.
The large hearts were taped on the mantle and mirror with edges overlapping to make a nice fake garland.

Isn't that pretty?

We punched holes in the tops and bottoms of the little hearts and strung ribbon through them to make vertical garlands, which we hung over the tables and in front of the windows. With narrow ribbon you would need to loop a knot at the top of each heart to anchor it in place, but ours was big enough that the hearts just hung in place on their own.
How easy it is to make things pretty and festive!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

Creating... an Island of Opportunity (Literally!)

Anyone else have a wish list of what they would like in a house? And if you tell me no, I'll know you're lying! LOL We all have that list of things we wish our homes had, or that we would like to have "someday" in the next house, or when we renovate.
One of the items that has always been on my dream list is a kitchen island. Whenever we looked at those fancy contest houses, or flipped through magazines, islands were one of those things I was always pointing out to my hubby.
Our last home had a tiny galley kitchen. If we had put an island in there we would have had to remove the rest of the kitchen first. I don't think so!
Our new home, however, has a beautiful huge kitchen that came with a big open space. Michael immediately started planning all the ways we could put in an island. I wasn't so sure. I was afraid that an island would crowd our kitchen, making all our nice airy space disappear. He also noticed how our kitchen was huge, but because our pantry was so deep, as were all our big corner cupboards, I was actually wishing for more accessible space, especially drawers. Then my darling hubby came up with the perfect solution. He gave me an island for Christmas.

Isn't it cute? This little darling sits in the middle of our kitchen providing lots of extra drawer space and a great extra little counter to work on. I must admit, I wasn't sold on the idea, even on Christmas morning when I opened it. However, later in the day, I noticed that even though we had tons of counter space, we all gathered around our tiny island to prep dinner for the table. Since then, I have come to wonder how I ever lived without it! And that was just the surface and the top drawer! The other two drawers only got loaded yesterday!

Now to show you the planning and prep Michael (who is usually a December 24th shopper) put into this island, and how easily you could do one without breaking the bank!
First Michael visited a demolitions place and bought a used cabinet set (one with drawers obviously). Other places you could get them are Craigslist, Freecycle, talking to renovations contractors, or by asking around your friends and neighbours.
Next he got a melamine board and melamine strips from Home Depot and used them to enclose the back. He measured and cut the board to fit the back, then used the strips to cover the wood that still showed along the sides at the back.
For the top he attached a small kitchen countertop. We are lucky enough to have a friend who works at a cabinet shop and was able to match it pretty close to our kitchen counters, and to make it for Michael. Michael then just drilled it into the spots provided on the cabinet. Other options for a top would include using a large wood cutting board and attaching that, or cutting an old countertop to size and covering it with melamine like for the sides.
Now I have a lovely island in the middle of my floor, and it can even be shifted to clean under it! LOL

Michael says he has other home ideas up his sleeve. I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next!