Chalkboard Labels

Some time last year I found these two canister jars at a thrift store for $1 each.. and have kind of always wanted the set of 4.. I think my mom and sister found theirs at Bed Bath and Beyond for like $20 or more..

A couple weeks ago I was browsing through Etsy, looking for stuff to buy. I've kind of become addicted to buying things online now that I have a PayPal account with money coming in from my own Etsy shop. It's just way too much fun and I simply adore getting things in the mail.. even if I am buying it myself! 

Anyway, I found this cute shop selling vinyl chalkboard labels and I purchased a set of 4 labels for a total of $6. They were just SO cute! I'd remembered seeing my dollar store carry a few sizes of these specific jars, so I measured the ones I already had, and went over and bought two more in smaller sizes. They are a perfect fit and make a great set! 

Got my labels in the mail and put them on right away!

Aren't they adorable! They add a little prettiness to our kitchen. Love it! 

I don't write well with chalk, and it also smudges really easy... so I'm thinking about getting one of those chalk marker/pens. They look pretty awesome. 

{I'm also addicted to pistachios!}

Just thought I'd share my cute kitchen addiction :)

Dresser as kitchen island

Lately I've really been thinking about how I would LOVE to redo a dresser and put it in our kitchen for an island. I told my Hubby about this idea and he thought it was a neat one too! We have the space and it would be really nice to have an extra spot for cutting and food prepping. It would be perfect, since we live in an apartment, and it wouldn't be a permanent change to the place.

This is our kitchen

Here are some ideas I found and I like the idea more and more! 

apartment therapy

cafemom

upcycled by ash

tkthor

My favorite one is the top blue one. I just love how the sides can be used for hanging utensils, paper towel racks, and other things! If you click the link for the top blue dresser, you'll see that they used the space for putting a large chalk board up- ingenious! I would like to cover the top of the dresser with butcher block or something that can be used for cutting on.

 I am so inspired now! 

This is definitely on my "to do" list.

Making space equals Making pretty

Today I made some space in my cupboard!! Does anyone else get excited about making more space for other things in the cupboards?! :)

We have a set of 8 mugs that came with our dish set, and we don't really use them {because of my huge collection of other random mugs that I LOVE and use}, but I like them.. and so they just sit in the cupboard taking up space.. that I can definitely use for other stuff. 

So... 

I came up with this idea!

Cute,  huh? 

It makes me think of spring :)

Vintage Pyrex Mixing Bowls!!

After a year and four months of being married, I now, as of tonight, have my very own set of mixing bowls! Thursday I was browsing through the adds on Kijiji.ca and came across a set of 3 vintage Pyrex mixing bowls for $15. Oh boy was I excited! .. but then, I figured they had most likely been sold already.. because adorable vintage bowls just seem to be the rave these days. But I sent an email to the seller anyway. .. Well against my doubts, they had not been sold, and she was even willing to hold them for me {for TWO DAYS} until I could come get them! .. I almost died! How sweet of her! {usually people say "first come first serve"} Then she sent me another email including a photo of two larger bowls that matched right along with the other three, .. just in case I was interested in these too {for another $15}!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?! I love you!!!!! .. okay, that wasn't exactly my reply to her, but it was something close to it!! Anyway, I'll just shut up now and show you the bowls! Who really wants to sit here and listen {er.. read..} my blabbing anyway!?! 

EEEK!

I loveth them dearly!

{what's that big ole stack of books doing on my kitchen table?!... 

oh yah, my Hubs is preaching tomorrow night so he's been preppin' away for his sermon in Philippians!}

Sigh...

I need to take a break from all this giddiness! 

Hot Chocolate at my place!

Do you ever feel like you copy everyone else's great ideas? Cause I do! 

I saw this totally cute idea for a hot chocolate station set up in the house from The Painted Home and just knew I HAD to do it too!
(she was inspired too!)

Here's my version of a hot chocolate station

Love my cute little stockings and mittens banner! Just cut the shapes from cardstock and scrapbook paper and hot glued them to twine and secured the twine with little double sided foam stickers.

{the banner kept wanting to fall off on one side..
which stinks, because it's right over the sink!}

solution: lots of foam stickers!!

So cute and so fun!

"Grocery bags galore" salution!

Am I the only one with a knee-high deep pile of grocery and Walmart bags in the kitchen?! I doubt it! Back at home in our apartment we use our bags as trash bags for our kitchen garbage {we definitely need a larger kitchen garbage can though} and our bathroom garbage. 

... SO today I finally figured out what to turn this empty chip container into!

 {side note}- mine wasn't actually a Pringles container, but it was an off brand of chips JUST LIKE them from Walmart for $1.50! They totally taste the same and definitely beat Pringles price which is like a whole dollar more! (but I'm also in Canada). My favorite flavor is the cheese one! {end of side note} 

 Back to the grocery bag issue...

I decided to make a trash bag holder/dispenser with my empty chip container. 

With scrapbook paper, ribbon, glue stick, and glue gun I made this

I used a nail to poke through the can for the ribbon to go through.

With an exacto knife I cut a hole a little bigger than a quarter so I could pull the bags out.

I was able to tightly fit 18 grocery bags inside.

For now while we're here in Saskatchewan I'll keep it in the bathroom for the trash can in there, but when we go home I'll keep it on a hook inside the cupboard under the kitchen sink.

Knife Block Makeover

Okay, so once upon a time I got married and we had to use some of my husband's old kitchen things from when he had an apartment during college. Among his old kitchen stuff is this sad looking knife block that we've used ever since we moved into our apartment (about 6 months now).

Every time I looked at this hideous hunk of wood I wanted to throw it out our third story balcony window! But then just recently I was inspired to do a makeover on our frumpy little block of wood. I sanded and painted and made some homemade stencils to get this:

 

I used just cheap ole' acrylic paints from the dollar store to paint my now adorable knife block. For the circles I made my own stencils. That part was actually a little bit of a hassle. For the small circles I used the borders of some round stickers I had. Nice, because they stick right on the wood! (if you're confused what I mean about the borders of the stickers just ask me.. sorry I didn't take a photo). It took a few coats of paint for the white to be nice and bright over the black.

 And my favorite part of the whole project! I just printed out "knives" in this super cute font, cut closely around the word, and mod podged it right on the big white circle and mod podged some more. After all painted I put a coat of some clear wood finish on it. Isn't it adorable! This is pretty much my first ever makeover project, I am absolutely tickled pink about how it turned out!

No, of course I didn't come up with this idea on my own. I'm not that creative yet. Check out Kierste's knife block makeover at Brown Paper Packages HERE.