No Spend February Review and A Big Announcement

So as it turns out, months go by FAST. I barely got to scratch the surface of my to-do list before February was over. I guess that means that No Spend February was successful in that I didn't spend any money on craft projects, but it was a total bust in the getting-stuff-done department. It's easy not to spend money when you don't do anything, right? Let's review what I DID do this month.
 I revealed my pantry...

 and my curtains & rods

 ...but I completed those in January. The no spend projects weren't nearly as exciting, they were...
my blogiversary pillow giveaway,

change up my letter M,

and some scrap fabric roses.

That's it. I DID, however, complete two big no spend projects - but I'm not allowed to show them to y'all yet. I'm entering them in the Every Creative Endeavor Contest (go vote!) and projects are supposed to be anonymous. I can't wait to show them to you though! I'm not going to designate March as a spend free month - we have some bigger projects planned (like working on the kitchen, YAY!) that are going to cost some $$$.  I am going to continue to knock out projects that I have laying around though, that craft closet is still chock-a-block full of goodies!
So, the big announcement?
I'll be moving to WordPress next month!

I'm attempting the transfer myself, but to be honest it's not going very well and I'll probably end up hiring someone to save me. I'm a computer dunce and the whole thing is stressing me out. I know that I could figure it out eventually, but I'm not sure how many weeks (months?) I'm willing to sacrifice. Plus spending hours upon hours working behind the computer means less time for projects and kids, and that's definitely no bueno.
On that note, Google Friend Connect is leaving non blogger blogs TOMORROW. This means that if you follow by GFC (which most of you do) we will loose our connection as soon as I move. If you'd like to keep getting updates then please choose another way to follow! The options are on my sidebar ------------------->You can choose between Linky, E-mail, RSS, Bloglovin, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter....
That's it for now.... Happy Leap Day everyone!


 

Fabric Scrap and Ric Rac Roses

A couple weeks ago I made some gifts for a friends daughter. It was her second birthday and I decided to jazz up some accessories with  fabric roses. 

Try as I may, I just can't bring myself to do crafty things and not take pictures, so I'm here to share a tutorial with y'all.

 I had first attempted these when I made my guest bedroom frame wall...

I looked up  a few tutorials online, but none of them worked out quite the way I hoped they would. So I scraped the tutorials and just went with it. Here is the method I came up with. It's super simple...in fact, you can probably stop reading right now if you just remember these three words - Wrap, twist, glue... repeat. Okay, so four words. 

If your the type that likes specific directions though, then your gonna love this...

1. Cut out a scrap piece of fabric. Size doesn't really matter, but for reference this one is about two inches wide and two feet long.

 2. Fold in half, mainly just the first six inches or so.

 3. Trim it down to make the first few inches narrower, like so....

 4. Roll it up and glue into place. I used hot glue this time, last time I used needle and thread. Hot glue is WAY easier, as you might imagine. Also fabric glue takes way to long to dry, I tried that and it didn't work.

 5. When you get to the end  of your trimmed part, twist it once and keep wrapping. 

 6. Keep wrapping and twisting, gluing as you go. Please DO NOT over think this, whatever way you do it will turn out pretty darn good. It doesn't really matter how much you twist, or if it's folded in half, or not, or a little or both. Just go with it.

7. When you come to the end of your fabric, glue the end underneath the rose. Done. You should probably not be like me and pick off any hot glue that is showing. I was in a bit of a hurry because I procrastinated making these until about an hour before we had to leave for the party. Taking pictures along the way slowed me down a bit too, but I still had to do it!

The ric rac roses are seriously easy too, this is the first time I've made them. Here is what I did...
1. Take your ric rac and cut two pieces that are equal in length. Then wrap them around each other and sew them together. (I'm sure gluing would work as well).

Here is an example of what I mean - the one on the left I just placed together like a puzzle and sewed,  and the one on the right is wrapped - kinda or like braiding with two pieces. I made successful roses out of both, but I liked the wrapped on better.

2. Here where it gets complicated, so pay attention. 

Roll it up and glue as you go.

 That's it. 

 To prove to you just how easy this is...

See this rose below? My husband made that one. It's actually better than mine...beginners luck is the only sensible explanation.

 Now you add them to whatever you want! I put mine on a little toddler purse...

and a headband...

...and various other things that I didn't have time to take pictures of.

But seriously, you can put them on anything - pillows, lampshades, frames, jewelry - it's all fair game.Happy Crafting!
Linked to:Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home,  Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple,  Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee, The CSI Project, Crafty Texas Girls

Blogiversary Pillow Winners!

Thank you all for your entries, I wish I could give everyone a set of pillows! Well, I guess technically I could, but that would be a whole helluva lot of sewing!
So the winners are....
#50 - Devon from Green House Good Life - Indoor/Outdoor pillows #30 -morrest1101 from Morris Moments - Green cross hatch pillows#41 - Katrina from Pear Shaped Thoughts - Grey & yellow pillows#6 - Katie from CRAPTASTIC - Houndstooth pillows
Congrats to the winners! Please e-mail your full name and mailing address to domesticimperfection@gmail.com and I will have your pillows covers in the mail!

Brought To You By The Letter M

See this letter M?

It's been bugging me for awhile now, it just seems so dark and dreary. I originally made it out of a clearance letter M and some scraps from our first apartment's curtains, but it was time for a change up. (I of course took pictures for y'all along the way, because I seem to have this problem now where I can't do even the simplest DIY task without taking pictures of the process.).
 So here is what I did, it literally took me 10 minutes to do this and is the same process I used the first time.

Here is a close-up of the M before.

I ripped off the fabric and this is what we had. When I originally bought it was green and white zebra striped. I felt judged by the cashier for buying it and I didn't blame her...it was that kinda ugly. I painted it white before I Mod Podged it last time, but you can still kinda see the zebra stripes.

I wanted to brighten it up, so in true No Spend style I used what I had - which in this case was leftover curtain fabric (again). I wanted to use a fabric that was already in the room since we're getting a little  patterny in there. According to my husband at least, except that he called it "frou-frou". Don't feel bad for him, there IS a giant manly snakeskin on our wall that I'm sure you've noticed.

Anyway, I had juuuust enough left.

I traced the letter onto the fabric...

Then cut it out..

Mod Podged the letter...

Then I carefully placed the cutout on the glue and brushed more over top (to keep the frays in check).

Done. Easy Peasy.

Here it is before and after so you can see how the new fabric brightens up the shelf.

Funny how such a small change can balance out a whole display. I'm always moving things around on there so a few other things changed too...I feel like my before and after should be in a Highlights magazine. Does anyone else remember those, with the "spot five things that are different" photo games?

Linked to:Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home,  Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple,  Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee,

One Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

Today, ladies and gentlemen, is my one year blogiversary! I told my husband this and he totally didn't understand, he thinks I made it up. I had to set him straight and tell him that in blogland, a blogiversary is a real thing and needs to be recognized.February 12th of last year I started my Domestic Imperfection with this post. I really had no hopes or aspirations, I just started it on a whim halfway expecting it to die because I would lose interest and/or nobody would read it. I'm happy to say this has not been the case! I love doing projects and sharing them with you guys. I love my little 'ol blog, it's my escape from wiping noses and cleaning up cheerios. It's my me time. When I first started my blog, I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't know anyone that blogged so it seemed like a weird thing to do. I didn't even tell my husband until after my curb appeal post at the end of June. Domestic Imperfection was my little secret for the first four months. I actually feel like I'm cheating a little bit by saying that today is my blogiversary, since I was the only reader for the first third of it's life, but whatever. 
I'm so grateful and flattered that ya'll stick with me and read my ramblings. To show my appreciation I'm hosting my very first giveaway! Are you super curious to know what I'm giving away? Is it a Cameo? A Shabby Apple dress? Something from Cutting Edge Stencils? Nope, sorry to burst your bubble...this giveaway is sponsored by yours truly! And I made...pillows! Well, pillow covers. I'm not actually going to send you the pillow part. Aren't I generous? And since it's No Spend February, I used scrap fabric that I already had lying around. It just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?
So here is what I'm giving away...

Four sets of 16x16 pillow covers.So yes there will be FOUR winners. I have no idea how many people will enter, so chances are you'll have some pretty good odds!Here is a close up of each set...
Black and white hounds tooth I bought for who knows what and never used - 

 Grey and yellow swirlies (the yellow one is the pillow I made for my envelope pillow tutorial) - 

Green Cross Section "leftover" from a project I never even started - 

 Indoor/outdoor fabric leftover from my nursery chair - 

Here are the rules...
1. To enter, you must first be a follower (you can follow by GFC, Linky, E-mail or RSS)  since this is a       giveaway in appreciation of my readers and all. 
2.Leave me a comment telling me what your TWO favorite pillows are.  
3. For one extra entry, 'Like' Domestic Imperfection on Facebook. 
4. Please leave me a separate comment for each entry. I want to keep this simple, so it's a  max of two entries per person.
5. Giveaway remains open until 10pm (central time) on Saturday, February 18th. Winners will be announced Monday the 20th and be chosen via Random.org.
I think that's it! Good luck!

Linky Followers Blog Hop

I'm not usually one to jump on the bandwagon and forward things or write up a special post for someones link party or what have you...however, this one feels kinda important. As many of you have heard Google Friend Connect will be going away for non Blogger blogs at the end of this month, and in the future they may discontinue it for everyone. This is pretty crappy...I follow all the blogs I read through GFC so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. Plus I really like seeing all 445 of your smiling faces on my sidebar and worked pretty hard to get ya'll there. I don't plan on being a Blogger blog forever, so even if GFC sticks around I'll eventually lose you. So thank goodness an alternative has come....LINKY FOLLOWERS. This widget has only been around for something like six days but already has almost 2400 blogs registered. So go HERE and sign up (no, you don't have to have a blog to use this service).  Then click 'Follow Me' on the widget and your all set!

Do it now because I don't want to lose you...and let's face it, you need me too :)you can also keep up through RSS feed, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest....I don't make it hard! The buttons for all these things are on my sidebar.
(Oh, also if you wouldn't mind heading over HERE and voting for my pantry (#91) and/or table (#92) that would be awesome...I'm totally losing!)
So if you have a blog and want to participate in the hop, here are the rules...(and if you don't have a blog, then it's just a fun list of new blogs to read!)
RULES:

1. you MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.

{You can have both the LINKY FOLLOWERS & GFC on your site but you must have the LINKY FOLLOWERS to participate in this party hop.}

2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.

3.Just add your blog button to the LINKY PARTY below.

4.Then grab the BLOG HOP code

You will find the code right under the Linky Party where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER–

just under that it says: WHAT IS A BLOG HOP? GET THE CODE HERE 

Click on GET THE CODE HERE and enter it into a post on your site.

You can grab the party button code in the FOOTER at Its So Very Cheri

You can grab info from my post if it helps you with your post.

5. Then you follow other bloggers–(as many as you want)
–leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.

If you want to add the BLOG HOP to your own site you will get lots of new followers–(see rule #2)

The Less Mess Project: Pantry Reveal!

(If you missed the first part of this post you can read about it HERE and you can read about the Less Mess Project HERE).

My pantry is finished and I'm totally in love with it! 

As a reminder as to how totally disorganized I am, here is my pantry before...

Nice right? It stressed me out just to look in there. I'm already not a fan of cooking and this made it even worse. It's too bad that I'm not one of those people that thinks cooking is the bees knees, since I have to do it everyday. Wouldn't it be awesome if your hobby was also something that you had to do? I don't need to have a creatively decorated house, but I do need to cook healthy meals for my family. And to add insult to injury, after you cook then you have to clean it all up. Double suck.

 Anyway, rabbit trail. What I meant to say was that cooking it a little more fun now that my pantry is awesome.

So as a quick recap of the last post...

After emptying it out, painting it white, and stenciling, my pantry looked like this...

And here, ladies and gentleman,  is my organized masterpeice!

It makes me smile just to look in there.

I even managed to take the rack off the back of my door. That was probably the hardest part, finding a new place for all that rack stuff.  I plan on taking the door off completely and replacing it with old wooden screen door. I've gotta show off all that beautiful organization, you know? Plus it's a great way to add some personality to the kitchen. I plan on painting it the same color as the kitchen cabinets (which is the same color as the stencil...Sherwin Williams Harbor Grey). I just need to get my hands on a door first....and I don't care if its No Spend February or not, if I find the perfect door I WILL buy it.

Let's take a closer look shall we? On the top shelf we have baking supplies and a basket full of to go toddler snacks.

Below that we have more baking supplies in Tupperware canisters (that I've had forever). The labels are just  cheapo scrap booking stickers from Hobby Lobby - I don't think a dollar has ever made me feel so fancy before!
 Then we have crackers and pastas. The pasta is stacked two deep - we eat a lot of pasta.

 The clear canisters are OXO POP Canisters. I originally wanted pretty circular glass ones, but I could't find any that were airtight. Plus my pantry isn't very big and circular canisters aren't the best use of space. I love these OXO ones though, they have a button on top that you press to take the lid off, then you press it again to seal it closed. Plus they're stackable and the seal matches my stencil color (very important!) I bought mine HERE on Amazon...

They're not the cheapest, but they're the nicest canisters I found by far. (If you want big ones to hold flour you'll have to buy the big 5.5 quart ones separately.) I also found a few randomly at HomeGoods, they were way cheaper but only had a few at a time.
(Update - A reader recommended these Lock and Lock containers, said they're awesome and they're WAY cheaper. Wishing I'd have seen them first...) 

Next shelf down we have rice, beans, etc and cereals. The 'MIX' cereal is for me...I like my cereals mixed - the more the merrier! I used to just pull out every cereal in the morning and put a little of each in my bowl. Now the plan is to pour the cereal remnants from the other canisters onto mine so I only have to pour one cereal in the morning. I great idea if I may say so myself.

The lowest shelf is canned goods. I found some risers at Target and they work great - now I can see everything. Next to the risers is our supply of Costco tomato bisque soup. Have ya'll had this stuff? I don't recommend you try it unless you never want to be able to eat another brand of tomato soup ever again. It's that good. 

On the floor we have some bins (from The Container Store- the shelf baskets are from there too) that holds unopened condiments on the top and onions and potatoes on the bottom. Next to that is my old onion and potato holder which now holds tea bags for sweet tea. It wasn't quite big enough for potatoes... plus I'm pretty sure it didn't get enough airflow because my potatoes grew sprouts like it was their job in there.

I didn't wan't to waste any valuable space, so I the sides of the pantry I put little wire baskets to hold my spices and whatnot. They're actually pencil holder drawer thingys - most normal sized ones were too long for this space so they took forever to find. Guess where I found these? Yup, The Container Store.

Hubby just screwed them into the wall like so...

The other side is a little deeper so I found wider ones to hold other (ugly) stuff). These side baskets are the only reason I was able to take the rack off the back of the door, otherwise my screen door dreams might have been squandered.

Here is a picture so you can see how many there are...

(Gosh it's hard to take pictures of the inside of a tiny pantry!)

That's the grand tour! Do you love it as much as I do? I'm pretty confident that I can keep it this organized for the long haul, everything we use is in there and it all has a place. Here is a side by side before and after shot, looking at that after makes me feel so calm and happy! 

Next I'm moving on to organizing the craft closet, that ones going to be a doozy!

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Linked to:Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home,  Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple,  Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee, It's So Very Cheri, Two Yellow Birds, A Turtles Life for Me, Along for the Ride, Crafty Texas Girls, Beneath My Heart