Monday, March 26

Beautifully Designed iPhone Cases

A few weeks ago, I got inspired to design my own iPhone case. Here are some lovely cases designed by Alicia Bock; she has several more on her site. Wow, she is a talented artist!




Friday, March 23

Creative Cards: Get Well Soon!

My good friend's mother had surgery a couple weeks ago, and the good news is she's recovering very well. But I've been meaning to write her a "Get Well Soon" letter. So, yesterday, while getting out the paper to start writing, a better idea popped into my head: Why not use my birthday baby to create a fun "Get Well Soon" photo to add to my letter? I'm sure it'll make her smile and help her heal even faster :)

So we had our photoshoot yesterday, and tonight it became this:

Tuesday, March 20

Project for Spring: Paper Flowers

I love this spring flower project idea from decor8. They would make for beautiful spring decorations around the home :)



Wednesday, March 14

Pretty Organizer Drawers

It took a looong while, but I finally got a chance to go through my large mound of project supplies and organize it two weekends ago. I was so happy to see the mess slowly disappear within a couple of hours. It used to surround and take over our dining room table, which already had very limited space in our not-so-large apartment. Here's the bad before...


And here's the happy after (which does need more organizing inside each drawer, but is already a fantastic start):


BUT, I walked back and forth for a few days and wasn't feeling excited about it. It just wasn't pretty. You could see everything inside the drawers -- not very attractive against the unattractive white walls. So, after running into some blog inspiration, I decided to liven the drawers up with some decorative paper. I love this idea because it's simple, affordable and beautiful. Here's my lovely result:





Now, I'm happy to say that I'm loving this change :) If you have clear organizer drawers, you have to try this out. All I did was look through my stacks of 12x12" scrapbook paper, find colors and designs that coordinated, cut them down to size, and scotch-taped them to the interior drawer fronts and sides. I created homemade labels (brown cardstock and white ink) afterwards. Easy as that!

Feeling Inspired: Green

I don't know if it's because it's March, or if I just had a radar for green yesterday. After finishing a lime greek yogurt, I looked at the green on the container and all of a sudden I was noticing green in every room of my apartment. I just love green...lime green, pea green, pistachio green...mmm...love it all! It's bright, happy and clean. All of a sudden I have the urge to create something fabulous, and it's got to be GREEN!


Sunday, March 11

Winter Vacation

Spending the last weekend of February surrounded by a gorgeous wooded area of Wisconsin brought forth a very nice family vacation filled with relaxation, time with family, lots of laughs, and lots of pictures :) The area we stayed was definitely a nature photographer's spot, although I enjoy portraits. Here are some of my happy family members (husband's side of the family):

Wednesday, March 7

Simple Closet Organization: Size Dividers

A few months ago, a nice friend gave us lots of baby clothes -- all in great condition. I loved it all. After organizing them by putting them in categories from 3 to 24 months, my baby's closet bar had no room left for hanging clothes (and I ran out of 60+ hangers). For a little while, I loved the convenience of finding his current-size clothes quickly and easily. But soon enough, I knew something else needed to be done because I still had to check some tags to see what size they were.  So, being inspired by size dividers on clothing racks at stores, I decided to create my own size dividers.

I took one of the baby's stained onesies and cut the fabric into strips to tie around the closet bar. I created the round labels out of pieces of leftover cardstock and then wrote the sizes in white ink to match the rest of the labels throughout our home.



After tying the fabric around the bar in a simple knot, I hot-glued the labels to the fabric.


This simple addition really made a huge impact. It is so much easier to place his clothes back in the appropriate location. I'm thinking...how about doing this for my bedroom closet to separate my shirts, jeans, sweaters, etc. We'll see :)

Tuesday, March 6

Gravelle Knives: Truck Magnet Design

This week, I can say that I checked this project off my list of things to do. I really enjoyed designing my first truck magnet (11x17). Josiah Gravelle is a talented creator of heavy-duty knives. He loves spending time in his shop and hopes for his custom knife business to grow and become his full-time job. I love that idea because it's creative and it's something he's enthusiastic about. What an awesome job that would be!

His instructions were to come up with a design somewhat masculine and include his business name, contact information, and "custom knives." I drew one of his knives and replaced the 'V' of Gravelle with the point of the blade for visual interest. Keeping the design simple what I strived for. Simplicity is bold and clean, which allows for legibility on a moving vehicle. I added red accents for boldness and coordination with his large, red truck.


And here is the magnet on his truck. He has one on the other side and one on the back as well.

(Taken by Josiah Gravelle; Edited by Alexis Perron]

Food Creativity: Homemade Pizza

I actually did it. I surprised myself (completely) by making my first homemade pizzas this past Saturday. It was definitely worth it! I will never buy a frozen pizza ever again. Not only did they taste great, but it cost us about $12 for ingredients to make three of them (and that's without looking for best pricing/using coupons). I loved the art of making and customizing them to our liking. I got the pizza recipe from my grandma; she probably made about 12 million of these in her lifetime because her family (and neighbors) loved them. I couldn't help but think of my grandma while making it; the smell of the dough brought me flashbacks of being 5 years old again, helping her with the dough.

I had to borrow some of my husband's arm strength for stirring and kneading the dough (it is definitely an arm workout!) It was a fun evening project :)


Be creative. Take a chance and try cooking or baking something you never though you could make. You just might surprise yourself.