AMANDA'S BASKETS: A BIT OF DECORATING AND ORGANIZING

Thursday, April 2, 2015

A BIT OF DECORATING AND ORGANIZING

There were three projects that I wanted to do to finish up the apartment: Get a stand for the birds, foam pillows for the daybed and wall hanging organizers for craft resources.

The foam insert arrived yesterday and today I used some of my fleece to cover it...

I thought about getting two but decided to try one first. I like it. Now what I want to do is add about four or five large decorative pillows to the daybed and I'm done.

Next the bird stand. My bird cage is large and finding a stand to handle it took a long time. The stand came today and I put it together. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good design and it didn't even have all the right length screws (Thank goodness I keep a pretty well stocked hardware box!).

To top that off, the shelf was bent. I decided to keep it, though, as the only thing I will be putting on the shelf is the birdcage cover. But to keep the shelf from falling out as it only sat in four holes, I had to add plastic zip ties. I only had white ones on hand. Think when I am out and about I will get a small package of black ones.

Finally, I told you about my idea of having my craft supplies more easily available by using wall hanging organizers. Well, I put my first row up this evening...

A long curtain rod - not extended to give it more support - command hangers, s-hooks and some very inexpensive baskets. I plan on putting up another row or two of this size baskets and then a row of larger baskets. This is working out great!

Well, tomorrow's forecast is for rain once again! (At least it's not snow!!!) So, I may stay home and finish up my organizing.

Thanks for dropping by...
Talk to you tomorrow...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?