365 Days of Pinterest Projects

Can I be honest with you guys?  I've had a rough week.  I feel like a black cloud has moved in and hangs right above my head.  I am in such a deep, depressed state as of late.  I am so numb.  I feel hollow.  Oh how I wish I could convey what I am feeling.  I look at the clock and can't believe I've wasted away the day.  Honestly if I had to recall what I did today, I don't think I'd even be able to.  Let's see.  I woke up at 9:00, not bad, but I went to sleep at 10:30 last night.  And I hated having to actually get out of bed.  I made my husband get up and feed the kids, and so he did that while I laid in bed delaying getting up.  Then I padded my way into the kitchen stepping over all the clutter strewn across the house.  Fixed myself a bowl of cereal.  Then I sat on the couch and got on the laptop.  Then my son begged me to help him build something with Legos, so I helped him for about 20 minutes....

I really love today's project!  At our house, we are always in need of some sort of containers or baskets to contain all of our clutter.  I will be making a variety of these because they are quick and easy and cheap to make! Introducing Pinterest Project #10... Fabric Covered Boxes!     Don't you just love this fabric?  I found this great fabric at Walmart, bought half a yard, and it cost me $1.50.  I also picked up some yarn that matches the colors of this fabric, for yarn-wrapped letters which is another project I have pinned for my 365 Days of Pinterest Projects (on a Budget!) challenge. Before I tell you about the fabric covered boxes, I'd like to just say how irritating it is when you pin something on Pinterest and you click the link hoping to see more info or a tutorial or something, and the link takes you to some spam website.  It's irritating, but it also forces me to rely on my own creativity....

Pinterest Project #9 of my 365 Days of Pinterest Projects (on a Budget!) Challenge...   Stained-Glass Candle Holder!       The picture above does NOT do this candle holder justice, it is SO pretty with a candle glowing inside!  I saw this idea on Pinterest, but I think they used little flowers on theirs.  I really like the hearts I chose for this one, but you can make any shape.  Polka dots would be really cute.  Any colors you like!   I got the glass at a thrift store for 27 cents.  Because I'm a saver (or as my husband would say, a hoarder), I keep all the gift bags and tissue paper from my kids birthday presents.  So for this project you need a glass or vase, tissue paper, and Mod Podge.  I'm using the homemade Mod Podge from yesterday's project.     I am all about fast results, so I figured out a quick and easy way to cut out the hearts.  First, cut a long strip of tissue paper....

Pinterest Project #8 of my 365 Days of Pinterest Projects (on a Budget!) Challenge... Homemade Mod Podge!   Guess what, I found a recipe on Pinterest for homemade Mod Podge.  I think I've only bought Mod Podge one time in my life, but since I started pinning projects & gathering ideas for my challenge over this next year, I realized I need to get ahold of some Mod Podge.  I'm a frugal gal, so the thought of making my own appealed to me! Speaking of being frugal, if you are inclined to buy real Mod Podge, it is fairly cheap at Walmart.  But might I suggest if you have a Hobby Lobby nearby, use a 40% off coupon that Hobby Lobby offers every week (print the coupon online) and it ends up being cheaper than Walmart!  Incidentally, Hobby Lobby's Krylon spray paint will also end up being cheaper than Walmart if you use a 40% off coupon. Alright, on to the recipe for homemade Mod Podge.  A lot of homemade Mod Podg...

Yesterday there was no Pinterest Project.  I did attempt some fabric flowers idea that worked out so much better in my head, but my trial-and-error was cut short because I had to help my husband put together bunk beds for my youngest daughters. We found the bunk beds for free by the curb while we were walking in our neighborhood a couple of weeks ago.  My husband tweaked them a little and they became twin beds in our youngest daughters' room.  Partly because I wanted my daughters to get used to sleeping in their new beds, and also because we didn't have the money to finish buying the dowels and remaining screws to completely put them together as bunk beds. My husband decided yesterday was the day.  I really thought it would be as simple as lifting one bed on top of the other, making sure the dowels were in the holes to help secure it, and voila - bunk beds!  Not so fast. First my husband had to add the rails to the top bed.  Easy enough....

Well, I finally finished Pinterest Project #7, my painted nightstands.  Actually, only one of them is done.  The other one is still unfinished in my garage.   Fair warning: the picture quality in this post is a bit poor. When we first moved into our house about one year ago, we didn't have a lot of furniture.  We used large cardboard boxes turned on their sides as nightstands.  It held an alarm clock and a can of Coke that my husband liked to take a few drinks of before bed.  When the alarm went off the next morning, my husband reached over to slam his hand down on the snooze button, and the box collapsed onto itself!  Coke splashed everywhere and the alarm clock dangled by its cord.  Needless to say there was no snoozing that morning! So when I found these end tables/shelves on Craigslist for only 5 bucks each, I knew right away that they would be transformed into our long-awaited nightstands! Here they are in my kitchen, ...

I have been working on my latest Pinterest Project for about three days now.  It is spray-painted shelving unit-type thingies.  I bought these two on craigslist for $5 each.  They were dirty and very wobbly, just needed a good washing and tightening of the screws!  I want to turn them into nightstands for our master bedroom, so I am painting them white and adding a stencil saying on top. Here are my top five tips on spray-painting furniture. #1 Invest in a spray paint grip with trigger.  They are only $2.50 at my local Walmart, and I am so grateful to whoever invented this!  If you've ever spray-painted before, you know how the tip of your finger hurts after continually pressing down on the nozzle!  With the trigger, it's much easier! #2 If you must use your finger to spray-paint the regular way, wear some type of gloves!  This will prevent any spray-paint from ending up on the pad of your finger!  Use an old so...

I didn't do a project today.  I logged onto Pinterest, looked at all the projects I have pinned for my 365 days of Pinterest projects challenge, and realized with a sigh that I have done all the 'easy' projects that I've pinned.  Can I be honest with you?  I depend on my husband too much.  The remaining projects I had pinned were all with the thought in mind that HE would be doing the majority of the work.  Going to Lowe's for me and buying some wood.  Sawing it to size for me.  Staining it for me.  Nailing the pieces together for me, hanging it on the wall for me, and so on. So I have these two end tables in the garage.  They need to be wiped off really good, painted white, and then stenciled on top with one of those sayings to live by.   I want them to be nightstands in our bedroom.  But they are still in the garage, and I keep putting the project off, because I keep th...

Pinterest Project #6 is Red w/ White Polka Dots Jar Lids... I think these are super cute and fun to make!  I love to reuse jars, and these are Spaghetti Sauce jars.  I have never thought of painting the lids, though.  I saw similar painted lids on Pinterest and thought that this would be a nice touch!  We eat a lot of pasta around here, and I store all of our noodles in glass jars already (I prefer glass containers as opposed to plastic).  I also make my own spaghetti sauce sometimes, and keep it in these types of jars.  In my pantry, I have pasta jars for elbows, shells, penne, and spaghetti.  I used to get so irritated because the spaghetti noodles were always too long and so threw a kink in my pantry organization... then I realized, I break the noodles in half when I boil them anyways, I can break them beforehand and they now fit perfectly in the pasta jars! So to make these, I first spray-painted the lids red.  I used Krylon's Banner Re...

Pinterest Project #5 is Despicable Me Twinkie Cupcakes!  They are sooo cute and delicious, too! I saw this on Pinterest and knew immediately that this would be the project for me.  I really enjoy baking.  Personally, I was never a Twinkie fan, but to celebrate the return of the Twinkie and make super adorable cupcakes resembling Minions from Despicable Me would thrill my kids.  And what mom doesn't live for the surprise and delight of their children?! I started off with a box mix to make the cupcakes.  I really enjoy baking from scratch, but today was not the day to do that.  I also should interject here and note that I had to wait for all the kids to go to sleep before starting this Pinterest project.  So whip up some cupcakes, then cut the Twinkies in half (it helps if you freeze them first to get a clean cut). I used blue glitter icing by Cake Mate, black decorator icing by Betty Crocker, and little candy eyeballs by Wilton....

So Pinterest Project #4 is a quick and easy, no-sew pillow cover!  I got this great fabric from a thrift store today, it only cost 99cents and I knew that it would be perfect for the pillow cover project!  I should have mentioned in the beginning that not only am I doing a 365 Days of Pinterest Projects challenge, but nearly ever project has to be cheap or free to make.  It should be more aptly called 365 Days of Pinterest Projects on a Budget challenge.  As mentioned in the beginning, my husband is the only one working right now and about 2 months ago his pay dropped by 50%... supposedly temporary.  So we have cut everything back, dropped services like Dish, Netflix, and the cell phone, and cranked the thermostat up and put the kids in tank tops and flip flops for the summer.  Needless to say, asking my husband for $20 bucks for a project here and a project there, especially 365 of them over the next year, would be way out of line. The first proje...

Pinterest Project #3 was a yarn bottle.  I love yarn bottles.  I think they are so pretty.  I don't, however, enjoy wrapping the yarn around the bottle. I got about 5 glass bottles from my mom who was saving them for recycling before she realized that the recycling pickup does not take any glass items.  So I got the cast-off bottles.  My daughters were into finger-weaving a couple of years ago and had some yarn leftover, jumbled into a ball and stuffed in a box in the closet.  So I sat down with the five bottles and yarn and started wrapping the yarn around the first bottle.  Wrapping yarn around a bottle is tedious and boring.  But, I will begrudgingly admit that it was pretty to look at.  After I did the neck of the bottle, I thought about quitting until I found some shorter bottles.  Then I decided to at least finish ONE bottle.  Surely I could manage to finish one bottle.  I got about 3/4 way done ...

Today's Pinterest Project is a Lego Instruction Booklet Binder.  While it's not a real challenging DIY project, it's a perfect fit for today.  You see, my son is seven years old, and we just had custody restored about six weeks ago.  He was previously being raised by my in-laws and we went through a nasty three-year custody battle.  I had to pick him up today because even though we had custody restored, he still needs to have visitation with them and he has just spent a week at their house.  So I wanted a Pinterest Project that could be done in a small amount of time between church and the long drive to pick him up.  Enter the Lego Instruction Booklet Binder. My son and I bond over Legos.  I have all of my old sets (I was an avid Lego fan growing up) and we play with them, plus all the new Lego sets he has accumulated over the past couple of years.  A LOT of Legos, and a LOT of instructions!  The instruction booklets from my sets are consid...

So some astute readers have noticed that it's been 6 days since I announced my 365 days of Pinterest projects, and I've only completed one project. I could give you a list of excuses, but nobody wants to hear that.  Put simply, life happened.  And I learned that it's hard to add a component to life without making room for it.  Like how easy it is to say "I'm going to start exercising and lose weight," or "Someday I'm going to start volunteering."  But if you don't make room in your life for that activity or new behavior, it will quickly fall to the wayside.  So in retrospect, I've realized that I should probably assign myself a time of day to do the projects.  Otherwise, I may not get around to it.  Especially on my down days, which I've been fighting most of this week, and part of the reason for the challenge being daily is to help me through my ups and downs.  Believe me, this would be so easy if I just did zero projects on my do...

My first project took a couple of days to complete.   Sometimes it takes me a while to get going. Pinterest Project #1 is a spray painted cookie sheet.  I considered buying a $1 cookie sheet from Dollar Tree to paint, but then I realized... gosh if I'm going to buy a new cookie sheet, I should keep the newer one to bake with and just paint one of our old ones!  So I took an old cookie sheet that we already had and spray painted it white.  I waited a whole day for it to dry, but easily could have started this in the morning and allowed it a few hours to dry before moving on to step two.  I next applied masking tape in stripes and then spray painted the cookie sheet yellow.  After that dried completely, I peeled off the tape (s-l-o-w-l-y) to reveal a pretty neat-looking tray.  I can use it as a serving tray for a refreshing pitcher of lemonade and a set of glasses, or maybe use the tray as a vignette on the coffee table with a vase of flowers and a boo...

Welcome to my blog of 365 Days of Pinterest Projects! I'm brand new to Pinterest - just signed up yesterday. I'm still trying to figure it all out. I'm also new to this blog thing. So I'm a bit like a fish out of water at this point. I've created this self-challenge because my therapist suggested I start a hobby to remain consistent through my ups and downs. As if that will get me out of bed on my darkest days and keep me from going too manic on my, well, manic days. My name is Heather. I'm 35. I'm bipolar and rapid-cycle between highs and lows. I am married, and I have 5 kids, and they are ages 3 thru 14. I'm a stay-at-home mom by default. I could lie and say it's by choice, but I just can't handle a job. My super-supportive husband works evenings so luckily he's home all day. I live in a small town, just outside of a bigger town, smack dab in the middle of the U.S. of A. Join me in my journey...