My Original Idea...Maybe

 Picture yourself gearing up for one of those big grocery shopping trips. The ones where you have to get yourself mentally and physically prepared, like some olympic athlete. You probably spend countless hours meal planning, dividing up the shopping list into categories that coordinate with the layout of the store, and double check the ad sales, just so you can be in and out in record time without any hiccups all while still saving as many pennies as possible.

You may even spend a full week at the gym prior to your shopping trip in order to be in peak physical condition. You know you will have to endure pushing carts filled with granola bars, millions of gallons of milk, some "healthy" breakfast alternative like Nutella, and kids who are not quite old enough to be trusted to walk outside the cart without a degrading animal child leash.

Your olympic training also prepares you for that child you will have to wrangle away from the bakery kicking and screaming cause they didn't behave well enough to get the oh-so-coveted complimentary velvet and white chocolate chip cookie that turns their poo insane shades of red, or drag them from those colorfully designed sugar-filled boxes of cardboard cereal some lousy person so conveniently placed at kid level.

You've got the kind of shopping trip I'm talking about in mind, right?

Well...these olympian trips are the only way my poor fridge is ever lucky enough to be cleaned out and wiped down. If you are anything like me you usually have no idea what is lurking in the depths of the fridge collecting mold specimens that would put a 6th grade science experiment to shame. There's always so much stuff crammed in there, that it's impossible to know whatcha got goin' on in there.

As I give the fridge a beloved make-over, my calm and collected demeanor quickly changes to a sleep-deprived and cranky "I'm-stuffed-like-a-sausage-in-these-jeans-cause-my-leggins-aren't-clean" madwoman when I see this...

Leftovers gone wild

Not only is it super obnoxious having to deal with this before I can even put my olympic "winnings" away, but I just can't comprehend how I could let so much food go to waste.

Here's how it happens...

As you joyfully make lunch for the babes (while they tear the apartment to shreds when your back is turned) knowing their affinity for pineapple tidbits, you crack open a can to go with the ever-so-healthy mac n' cheese, or yellow death as my friend likes to call it. During clean-up, you put the remaining tidbits in a tupperware and throw it in the fridge.  That tupperware gets shoved farther and farther back into the abyss, until you are no longer aware of it's existence and mindlessly crack open another can several days later.

As I angrily cleaned each petri dish, still exhausted from the olympic event called grocery shopping, I pondered how I could put an end to this world problem.  In an instant my muddled mind came up with a genius idea:

I can use a dry erase marker on this nifty little do-dad which is attached to the side of the fridge every time I throw leftovers in. Then before I go to make lunch for the boys, or crack open yet another can of green beans, I can check here first to see what's already available.

Then to solve the little problem of "how long has that been there?" I came up with this solution:

Write the contents and date with a grease pencil, which washes off easily with soap and water

This may not be a 100% original idea, and even though Mr Medic doesn't see it as that big a deal, I did come up with it without turning to Pinterest to solve my problem.  Go me!

Now let's see if it actually helps...

TO BE CONTINUED.

Gathered Pillow Cover

I had a fun little reunion with some of my favorite girls last summer!  We had tons of fun and even got to do some shopping!

You know you wish you had roommates that you STILL got together with after at least 8 years!

We HAD to hit up the fabric store considering Idaho doesn't have the greatest selection, and the fact that the groups sewing specialist was on hand to give advice.  I found some fabric that I really liked on clearance that seemed to go well with some fabric that I had been hoarding for a while not knowing what to do with it.  I knew I wanted to recover these hideous pillows that came with the BRIGHT ORANGE couches we bought when we were first married.

I found this tutorial for gathered pillow covers by "Ready Set Create" via Pinterest.  Although I thought I would have a better way of doing this (I did mine in one long piece only gathering the middle and then folding the two edges overlapping each other to create a pocket)  I would do this three piece method, with a few alterations.

My process: (meaning the complete process I WOULD have done)

1.   Select fabric and prewash  (you can soak in hot water and allow to dry)

2.   Iron fabric

3.   Cut one piece of fabric that is twice the length of of your pillow (plus 1" for seam allowance) and the same width (plus 1" or seam allowance) Example: A pillow that is 16x16, cut your piece to 33x17


4.   Cut two additional pieces that are just over half the length of your pillow (plus 1" for seam allowance) and the same width (plus 1" for seam allowance) Example:  same 16x16 pillow, cut your pieces to about 11x17


5.   On each small piece of fabric, along ONE width (or shorter side), sew a finished edge (meaning you will iron over the raw edge once about 1/4" and then fold over again and iron, and sew)

6.  Take the long piece of fabric and sew a basting stitch about 1/4" in along each length (a basting stitch is done by setting your stitch length to the longest setting)

7.   Pulling only ONE of the basting stitch strings, gather the fabric on each side until it is about the same size as your pillow.

8.   Arrange and separate the gathering to you liking (to keep gathering in place sew a REGULAR stitch as close as you can to the basting stitch)

9.  Lay gathered piece right side up

10.   Set one small piece of fabric right side down, finished edge towards center and aligned with LEFT end of gathered fabric

11.  Set other small piece of fabric right side down, finished edge towards center on top of first small piece and aligned with RIGHT side of gathered fabric.

12.  At this point you will have three pieces of fabric sandwiched, with the two smaller pieces only slightly overlapping in the middle at finished edges.

13.   Pin all the layers together

14.   Sew around outside about 1/2" in all the way around.  (instead of doing complete right angle corners I found that if I rounded the edges a bit the overall  look was a lot more snug and not so pointy.

15.   Turn pillow cover right side out and there you go!



Finished Product:

You can see what I mentioned in #14 about rounding the edges a bit.
The turquoise is rounded where the green is not, and looks very pointy and not fitted.

Antiquing

Last summer I found these two amazing frames at a yard sale for $2 each.  They had a lot of potential!

These had two huge holes all the way through the frame at each decorative point

Close up detail.  The circular part is where the wholes were.

I already decided on a color palette for the much needed living room re-do, so I knew what color these would be.  Then I found this antiquing method by The Speckled Dog via Pinterest.  But like most college students, I didn't have all the products they listed. I used black acrylic paint I already had instead of the glaze they recommended for the antiquing part.

My process:

1.   Fill all holes or gouges and imperfections with spackle, and allow to dry
2.   Sand spackled areas & rest of piece if needed.  Make sure to wipe piece after sanding to remove dust
3.   Paint item and allow to dry completely
4.   With a sponge brush, apply slightly watered down black acrylic paint to piece
5.   Allow to dry about 2 minutes.  DON'T DRY TOO LONG!
6.   Using a barely damp rag or paper towel begin to wipe away black paint until you reach your desired look.  I liked the black remaining mostly in the crevasses.


Finished Product:

Close up detail