First Craft Fair

This weekend was amazing!!  I went to my very first craft show as a vendor!  I had so much fun :)  And, thankfully, I had my amazing roommate/best friend Ellen there with me.  I couldn't have done it without her.

The show itself was pretty slow.  Not many people came to browse and buy and a lot of the vendors were pretty disappointed.  But not me!  I was thrilled to be there :D  And I sold a few things on both days which was wonderful.

We got there early to get everything set up and here was the original layout:

But that was before I realized how many items I actually brought!  Since this was my first craft fair I was so worried I wasn't going to have enough inventory and my tent would look bare.  That fear was for not.  I had plenty of things!  It didn't change drastically after that but I swapped the tables and even had to add a table.  So with some rearranging and inventory adding, here is what we ended up with:

The guy in charge of the event was nice enough to photograph everyone inside of their tents as well.  So here is my roommate and I on both days of the fair :)

And now I'm just going to share a bunch of pictures that I took of my tent and the different items I had for sale :)

It was really a fantastic weekend and I would definitely do it again!  In fact, I think I'm going to be doing the Christmas craft fair at this location as well :)

See something you like?  Right now not all of these items are available for sale on my Etsy shop and Facebook page.  So if you see something you like go ahead and shoot me an e-mail!  I also do custom orders :)

How was everyone else's weekend?

DVD Storage

Yesterday I revealed our finished entertainment unit with a post about our new drawer pulls!  If you haven't checked them out yet you really should, I love them.  And with that, you got to see six little bins on the shelves and I promised I would share what they were.  So here I am, fulfilling that promise!

When my roommate and I were getting ready to paint our wooden entertainment (read more here) we pulled all of our movies off the shelves.  We were left with a huge, daunting pile.

I wasn't a fan of how the movies were on the shelves prior to this makeover.  You had to maneuver them just right to take it off the shelf or put it back on again.  And we had the movies double stacked so you couldn't even see the movies in the back.  It just wasn't an ideal situation.  Jen from IHeartOrganizing has a system for storing DVDs that I LOVE!  But, it would never work for me.  She threw away all of her cases and saved just the DVDs (you can read about that here).  I have no desire to throw away the DVD cases so that just wasn't an option for us.  So I decided to create movie bins!

I picked up some bins from Dollar Tree that were the perfect size for DVDs to fit on their sides.

Two fit perfectly on each shelf!  The green isn't an exact color match to the drawers but they are different enough that it doesn't matter.  We have the bins organized by general genre but I opted not to label each bin.  This works so much better for us!  Now we can just pull out a bin when it's time to watch a movie!  Of course now we need to figure out how to store our VHS tapes (yes, we still have those!)

How do you all store your DVDs?

New Drawer Pulls!

I know, I know!  It's taken forever for me to post an update about things going on in our living room.  But today I have an update!  A small one, but an update none the less.  My roommate and I bought drawer pulls :D  Want to see how pretty?!  Take a look!!

They are perfect!  And the best part?  They were on clearance!  Lucky lucky lucky.  They help pull everything in the space together (no pun intended!)

They are a great size for the drawers and the fit snugly into the holes from the old drawer pulls.  Ready for some more pictures?  Here you go!

They're so pretty and my roommate and I are both so happy with them!  I bet you all notice the bins on the shelves of the unit!  Don't worry, I'll explain what those are soon :)  What do you think of the new drawer pulls?

Selling at Funky Trunk!

I am beyond excited to share this fantastic news with all of you!  As of yesterday afternoon I am officially a vendor at Funky Trunk Treasures!!  I can't even being to explain how excited I am :)

I had my meeting with Kim Cline (the wonderful owner) yesterday and got everything finalized.  And I started some displays for my work!  Have I mentioned how incredibly excited I am?

Here's my first display showing some of my items!  Some diaper babies, newborn caps, a newborn sweater, mini blanket, and some slippers.  Cute, right?!

Then of course I have my display of aprons!  Kim has so generously given me this display rack to use however I choose to!!  She's also given me free reign to paint it if I so choose :)  Though I love the pink so I'm thinking it will stay the way it is.  But the option is there!

And I have a small space for some Catnip Mice :)

I'm starting with a few items that I had on hand and plan to expand it in the future!  Probably next week :)  Because, other exciting news, I am selling at a craft fair this weekend!!  So much excitement going on at once.  And once the craft fair is over I can take my left over items and stock them at Funky Trunk.

Back to Funk Trunk!  Funky Trunk Treasures is really a great place to be!  The first time I walked in there I knew I wanted to be part of it.  So I walked around for a few minutes and then went to talk with Kim!  She told me everything I needed to know about how to get the ball rolling and start the process to becoming a GEM (a vendor at Funky Trunk).  And a few weeks later, it's official!  It feels fantastic to be part of such a great and crafty community :)

Emergency Preparedness - Week Three

We are moving right along with our Emergency Preparedness Stations!  Already on week three!  If you need to catch up you can read all about Week One and Week Two Part One and Part Two.  This week we are covering First Aid!

Even though rescue teams hit the scene as soon as they can, it may take hours or days for them to reach you and your loved ones.  So be prepared!

Week Three - First Aid

OBJECTIVES:
- Buy/organize an emergency first aid kit
- Create a mini first aid kit for each Emergency Preparedness Pack

The Red Cross has a great list of items you should have in your emergency first aid kit.  Their list is recommended for a family of four.  Basing our first aid kit off this list, and making a few adjustments of our own, here's what my roommate and I got so far:

There are so many different ways to set up your first aid kit.  Just make sure it's organized!  The last thing you want in an emergency is to have to dig through your supply to find what you need.  You could buy a pre-organized kit, a tackle box, a bin with compartments, or organize with plastic bags.  Whatever works for you!  For now my roommate and I have them organized in the larger first aid case, and put in the corner of our Emergency Preparedness Station!

So now your Emergency Preparedness Station has a first aid kit!  But we also need to prepare your Emergency Preparedness Pack incase of a grab-n-go situation.  We split up the materials from the different first aid kits to put in our Packs.  The little white cases make perfect little first aid kits for each of the Packs.

Remember: All of these items will add up quickly and make your Packs heavy!  Just because you can pick it up at home doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to travel a far distance.  So make sure you keep that in mind!  Maybe take a lap around the block to see how you feel (and if you plan on carrying a child and their pack you need to keep that in mind too).

Emergency Preparedness - Week Two (part two)

Yesterday's post was getting long and had so much information I knew splitting it up into two was the better option.  So for this post we will start to fill our backpacks!  And if you missed any of the last two posts you can back to Week One or Week Two (part one) and catch up :)

Week Two - Food and Water cont...

OBJECTIVES:
- Stock your backpack with...
     - Water
     - A few days worth of food
     - A small container of liquid bleach with a medicine dropper
     - A can opener

Having your Emergency Preparedness Station full of water and food is great!  You will definitely be set incase of an emergency when you can stay home!  But what if there is an emergency evacuation or some other reason you need to leave your house in a hurry?  You can't exactly grab your entire Station. But you can grab your personal backpack that is packed and ready to go!

My roommate and I decided to pack a few days worth of food in our backpacks.  Feel free to adjust your amount for whatever you decide.

I packed a large ziplock bag to stick inside each backpack.

Now we'll each have food to last us for a few days should we need to leave the apartment in an emergency.  Our bags also now holds two water bottles, a can opener, a small bottle of liquid bleach, and a medicine dropper.

These bags will be getting a lot more supplies later so you don't want to stuff it with food and water.  Just enough to last you a few days.  You want to be sure you'll be able to carry these backpacks so just keep that in mind!

How's everyone else doing?

Emergency Preparedness - Week Two (part I)

By now everyone should have picked and cleared out their Emergency Preparedness Station location and grabbed a backpack (with tag) for each person.  Or at least started to!  If you didn't get everything done from last weeks objectives list that is totally fine!  We're all taking baby steps and moving at our own pace.  And if you're just joining us you can catch up and read last weeks post HERE.

Week Two - Food and Water

OBJECTIVES:
- Store at least 3 gallons of water per person
- Purchase household liquid bleach and medicine dropper
- Collect food to last around 2 weeks
- Buy a can opener

FEMAs website sums it up, "You may need to survive on your own after an emergency.  This means having your own food, water and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least 72 hours.  Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster but they cannot reach everyone immediately.  You could get help in hours or it might take days."

My list of food and water supplies comes from FEMAs website as well as some other emergency preparedness research that I've done.

WATER
FEMAs site recommends storing 1 gallon of water per person per day to last at least 3 days.  So that is at least 3 gallons of water per person for drinking and sanitation.  For my roommate and I that means 6 gallons.

Having this water supply is super important!  You cannot survive without it.  You should also be prepared incase the city drinking water becomes contaminated or you don't have access to clean drinking water.  And while boiling water is a great way to disinfect it, this isn't always an option.  You may need to chemically treat it with household chlorine bleach and a medicine dropper.  "You can use household liquid bleach to kill microorganisms.  Use only regular household liquid bleach that contains 5.25 to 6.0 percent sodium hypochlorite.  Do not use scented bleaches, color safe bleaches or bleaches with added cleaners...Add 16 drops (1/8 teaspoon) of bleach per gallon of water, stir and let stand for 30 minutes.  The water should have a slight bleach odor.  If it doesn't, then repeat the dosage and let stand another 15 minutes.  If it still does not smell of chlorine, discard it and find another source of water."

So we took our 6 gallons of water and put them in place in our Emergency Preparedness Station!

FOOD
In an emergency you may not be able to run to the store and pick up your food supply.  FEMA suggests having enough to last two weeks just incase.  But keep in mind how much space you have.  You may not have the room for that much,  So just adjust your supplies to fit your needs and storage capabilities.  Dray/canned foods that don't require refrigeration, water, special prep, or cooking are best.  Also, keep family needs in mind.  Special diets, allergies, babies, and the elderly should be taken into account.  Be sure to keep a can opener too!  You want to be able to get into your food :)

FEMA has a fantastic PDF covering this information in detail.  If you'd like to have a copy you can download it HERE.  It has tips from storage to how to best use your supplies.

My roommate and I have started our food/water supply and plan to keep adding to it with each grocery trip rather than purchase it al at once.  Here's what we bought to start with:

We picked items with a long shelf life and basically no prep time.  But speaking of shelf life, make sure you are keeping track of expiration dates for all of your food.  Keep a running list of all the items in you have and when they expire.  I'll even provide you with a free PDF download!  

Download yours HERE!  My roommate and I are going to post it to the inside of one of the cabinet doors.

We put all the items in the cabinet...

And here it is so far...

Since this post was an information overload, I will be doing Part II tomorrow for packing some of these items into each backpack.  

How's your progress going?  Share, share, share!

Washi Tape Keys

I am officially, 100% on the Washi Tape bandwagon now.  Pinterest is just full of awesome ideas for using Washi Tape!  Not only am I starting to incorporate Washi Tape in my packaging for my Etsy account, I am finding ways to use it other places in my life.  Today I am sharing one of those ways :) On my keys!

Even though my keys are all different shapes and it wasn't too difficult to figure out which went to the apartment, the mailbox, etc, I love color!  So why not add it to my collection of keys?!

I just laid a strip of washi tape across the top of each key...

And trimmed them down to size...

And here they are!!!

They are super cute and I love them!!  Has anyone else done this to their keys?

So now I've done these keys as well as adding the Washi Tape to my planner :)

Home Tea Station

Last week I shared my Office Tea Station with you all :)  And then I started thinking that I haven't shared my Home Tea Station with you!  Well that is about to change.  I used to have all of my tea supplies in a cabinet in the kitchen.  But I have so many different types of tea and tea accessories that it could be a pain digging through the cabinet every time I wanted to make a cup of tea.  So I dedicated a corner of one of our countertops to be my Tea Station!  And here it is:

It's simple and holds everything I need to make myself a cup of tea.  I picked up the little bucket the same time that I picked up the wider one for my Office Tea Station.  I didn't need it to hold sugar packets and stirring sticks so this was the perfect option.  It holds plenty of tea packets without me having to keep a giant box on the counter.  And I seriously mean giant!  These tea packets came out of a box of 100.  So the box is stored in the cabinet while these are perfect for easy access.

Then I have my vanilla flavoring.  I don't always flavor my tea - sometimes tea just needs to speak for itself.  But I do love the vanilla flavoring and sometimes it's exactly what I want in my tea!  They sell these at the Dollar Tree and I just need to put a splash in my tea to taste the yummy flavor.

And of course my sugar!  The small, classic sugar bowl works great.  Also picked up from the Dollar Tree, now I don't need to dig out our large sugar container to sweeten my tea.

And we can't forget my Alice in Wonderland tea set!  My roommate got this for me for my birthday and it's beautiful!  Alice is one of my favorite Disney characters (along with Cinderella).  I didn't want to have to hide the set inside the cabinet all the time, so now it gets to be displayed on the counter!

My other types of tea along with the many different accessories I own are up in a cabinet since they aren't used on a daily basis.  I can grab a travel mug or regular mug from where they are housed in the kitchen if that's what I will be using.  And the milk is in the fridge for when I want to add a splash of milk as well :)

My little tea station is perfect for my daily tea needs!

Anyone else have a tea station or other way of organizing their tea supplies?  I'd love to hear all about it!

Tea for Me!

I couldn't resist the rhyme :)  It was just too perfect.

I am an avid tea drinker!  I drink a cup of tea pretty much everyday.  And it's a must have on my drive to my nanny job.  And of course I always carry a few tea bags and sugar packets in my purse just in case.  Now that I'm also working as the Resident Costume Designer here at the University I was using up the tea bags in my purse much quicker.  So it only made sense to create a small tea station at my desk to hold a small stash of tea essentials.  My solution?  This!

I picked this up at the Dollar Tree a while back because it's adorable and I instantly loved it and wanted to have it.  And I knew I could create a cute little tea station for my desk :)  Perfect!  I also picked up some craft sticks to use as stirring sticks.  

All of my tea essentials are now housed in their own container :)  Doesn't it look so pretty?!  The craft sticks provide a good barrier to keep the tea bags and sugar packets separate and organized (yes, that is important! haha) and they are handy to stir the sugar in to my tea!  

And I keep the cute container next to my equally as cute tea mug!  Now when I want a cup of tea I just head down to the second floor (I'm on the third floor) to Krista's office (she is the Resident Scenic and Lighting Designer here) and heat up some water in here handy-dandy water heater and viola!  A nice cup of tea to drink while I work :)  

Anyone else as big of a tea fanatic as I am?  Keep a tea station where you work?  Share, share, share!

Washi Tape for my Planner!

Remember when I shared my awesome Washi Tape find?  I've been looking at my beautiful stash of washi tape and thinking up all kinds of uses for the pretty tape :)  And today I am sharing my favorite (not that it has much competition since it's my first) use: in my planner!

Not too long ago I shared my Academic Planner with all of you in it's printed and ready-to-use glory.  And even though the pretty photos showcase a few rolls of my washi tape, I hadn't actually used them in the planner.  Until now!  I am using different rolls of the tape to coordinate different events in the monthly calendar view.  I love the color and character it adds!

A fun roll of tape for not such a fun task.  

I just love the way the tape dresses it up and keeps the colorful design I was going for with my planner.

Another thing I added to my planner: birthday stickers!  I've had a few sheets of these stickers since elementary school.  I will admit I have a crazy sticker collection - especially for someone who does not scrapbook!  But these cute stickers are perfect birthday reminders!

So what do you think of my washi tape embellished planner?  Do you color-coordinate like I do?  Anyone use washi tape?  Leave a comment and share with me :)

Emergency Preparedness - Week One

Guess who has a working computer charger?!  THIS GIRL!!  I'm so excited to have my laptop back!  Going over a week without it has been too long!  Now I can get back into the swing of things :D

With hurricane season upon us my roommate and I have decided to get seriously prepared incase of an emergency.  I know that thinking about it it's hard to imagine anything that awful could happen to you. But just think of those who suffered through hurricane's like Andrew and Katrina.  Not to mention other natural disasters.  No one ever expects them.  And it's important to stay prepared!  So for the next eight weeks I will be sharing my emergency preparedness progress with all of you and hope you will follow along and create your own stash!  Here's a breakdown of what we will be covering:

Week One - Storage

Week Two - Food and Water

Week Three - First Aid

Week Four - Supplies

Week Five - Hygiene

Week Six - Pets

Week Seven - Binder and Cash

Week Eight - Comfort

So now for week one!

Week One - Storage

First things first - we need a place to store all of our supplies!  Depending on how large you want your Emergency Preparedness Stash to be will determine how big your Emergency Preparedness Station should be.  You could use a hall closet, a shelving unit in the garage, a repurposed armoire, anything!  Whatever works best for your family.  My roommate and I have chosen to use a large bottom cabinet in our kitchen since it wasn't getting much use anyway.  We had a few empty boxes and a crock pot that got relocated elsewhere in the kitchen.  Once you have your area picked - CLEAR IT OUT!!!  Nothing but emergency supplies should live there.  So with that in mind, we will not be using any of this material for daily use.

We are all set with our clean, empty space to house our stash!

And what if you need to evacuate or leave your home for some other reason right away?  Unfortunately grabbing your whole stash is not really an option.  And sometimes packing isn't either.  So pick up a backpack for each member of your family to house essentials (we will be packing these along the way!)  Here is what my roommate and I will be using:

We had these bags on hand with no other use for them.  Another money saving option!  If you have bags on hand, no need to buy more.

While we are getting our storage supplies organized go ahead and add tags/labels to each backpack.  Include your name, home address, and emergency contacts.  You never know!  Especially with children!!!  But what good are paper tags if it rains?  Make sure to laminate them!  I just used packing tape for mine but you could get yours laminated "for real" if you choose.

Want these tags?  They are available as a free download HERE

And that is all for week one!  We are taking baby steps to stock up our Emergency Preparedness Stations.  I'd love to hear about your progress and input so please share comments and photos along the way!  And next week we will tackle food and water!