Home...be Inspired

I'm All about the Spooky

Hello Spooky Friends,

In the month of October my little cottage gets decked out in a spooky kind of way vs. autumnal decor..I save that for November.  As I browse all the Fall decorated Home tours on the internet I'm logging all the fresh ideas in my mind for next month and I noticed the focus this year seems to be on simple and using natural elements like fresh cut branches in seasonal colors of browns, rusts, oranges, reds, yellows and touch of metallic.  As I am pulling out all 108 boxes of my Halloween décor out from the garage rafters, {I really don't have 108 but it feels like it} my home is looking like a Witches convention with spooky spiders and black crows hanging out!! I pull out my white pumpkins with a few black ones thrown in for good measure, I picked up a plush black velvet one from my local grocer last weekend and it looks very cute on my dining room table, see my Instagram feed for a peek.  But as my little home is in the process of becoming more ominous I'll share one of my favorite decorated home via my All Hallows Eve Pinterest Board...it is the perfect amount of spooky for me and not over done.  Hope to see you soon with some more images of the Haunted Cottage on Cullen.  BWhahaha

Peinture....a Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Store

It was about a month ago I went to this incredible store, called Peinture.  I've dabbled in chalk paint using off brands like American Craft from Michaels or The  Home Depot but never Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I've wanted too but the price and locating a stockiest put me off but when I saw the color choices Annie Sloan has to offer, egads. 

Those beautiful colorful painted chairs in Annie Sloan chalk paint I was in awe, I didn't know she had so many. I began to change my mind and inquired about their painting classes at this store.  I mean look at this display!!  So many rich vibrant colors to choose!  I'm always partial to the whites and blues, ya know.

 
Not to mention so many vintage items where at this store too! Check out this display, a vintage chest of drawers where they keep their painting pamphlets.  Look at that adorable laundry cart one wheels!!

Vintage yumminess was found all over the store, the mail cubbies, the vintage style maps and quite a few industrial pieces for your farmhouse or industrial style home. 

I wanted to say, "I'll take that clam shell, that aqua ball jar, the old style phone and the little card catalog boxes please."  I didn't have as much time as I would like to shop....

but boy did I want too.  Look at this this metal chair in rusty green, isn't it awesome. as well as the metal letters scattered throughout the store,  and the globes. I've been wanting a vintage globe and a California vintage map lately, I guess it is the teacher in me.

These lanterns caught my eye too!  And they just so happen to be in my two primary colors of my home, wouldn't at least one of them look good up on my fireplace mantel or hanging from a hook.  A bit pricey for my me at $175.00 for the greenish blue one so I had to pass.

Well, if you are ever in Orange County visiting and you love farmhouse, industrial style or need to pick up some Annie Sloan Chalk paint this store is for you..as you can see it was quite RAD...

 And maybe I'll see you in in one of the Chalk Painting classes they offer in the near future. 

How to Create a Cozy Reading Nook for all ages

As you may recall from this post I'm in the process of sprucing up the "trench benches" next to the fireplace in our family room.  This is what it looks like at the present time but usually the fireplace screen is there but I took it out for a good dusting. A few posts back, here,  I showed you some inspiration photos I've what I'd like to do with this particular space and those photos had many different styles of sitting nooks but todays post is about creating my vision or mood for this space, specifically the nook under the window just right of the fireplace.

As usual, I browsed my local World Market to see what kind of items I could use to put in my cozy reading nook.  World Market has a variety of products that can cater to many different design styles, whether your a Boho Chic kind of girl, or a Modern Farmhouse woman or if your like me Beachy Cottage chica. You can find what you need it's a one stop shopping place.  So how am I going to go about designing my Cozy Book Nook?  Let's get started on the Vision.

The first step is constructing a cozy spot for you to sit your bum down and relax.  A nice big fat cushion needs to be brought in as the base. I plan on having a local upholster make me one since my "trench bench" has odd dimensions.  Then I'll bring in lots and lots of colorful and soft throw pillows for extra comfort.  Picture #4 is the  red Suzani embroidered lumbar pillow, I chose this particular pillow because it has a colorful embroidery pattern which gives the space some texture and dimension, as well as bringing in some fallish colors.  Picture #6 and #7 are velvet lumbar pillows in a teal and ocean blue color, a perfect fit my beachy cottage and the velvet gives the spot a bit of texture and warmth to the nook.

Once you got the cozy part down, you'll need some lighting depending on what you'll want do in the nook you can engulf yourself in a good book or watch the rain fall on a rainy day.  In Picture 8,  I fell in love with this aged Zinc Ethan Sconce perfect for when the sun goes down and you need some good reading lighting.  If the fireplace is not blazing {Mr. Incredible has this little rule that he only lights a fire when it is raining} so if a fire is not going I'll light some candles  and I've been eyeballing the Newport candlesticks for some time seen in picture #2. They are painted a beautiful distressed robins egg blue color, add in some white candles and your all set. I only use white candles in my home because I like the soft glow they emit. World Market has many types of wax candles or some "faux" ones if you'd prefer. 

Next, every space needs a bit of art work and I think the Bicycle Wooden Art {not shown, you can find it here} or the Bus Wooden Art {Picture #1} that says, "Not all who wonder are lost" would be a perfect addition to the empty space to the right of the window.

What's a book nook without books?  If you have small children World Market has plenty and their Golden Books that remind me of when I was in first grade and learning to read, I still have a few from that time.  I also like the classic children books,  Black Beauty, Pipi Longstocking and of course The Wizard of Oz {as seen in Picture #3}  Have you seen the chalkboard book covers..OMG...cute!  I have a ton of children's books I keep in crates in the garage, as a teacher I  love to read all kind of great books to my class.  If I'm not reading childrens'  books during school I try to pick up good book to read during the school breaks or I most likely will be browsing my many shelter mags such as Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens or my new favorite HGTV magazines and I  like all my "reading" material corralled in one spot.  The Grey Kubu wicker basket {Picture #9} is so PERF for my reading nook!! 

And the last item every cozy reading nook needs is a comfy cozy blanket .  I liked the red chunky chenille throw blanket {picture #5} at World Market as it ties into my red and blue color palette in the family room and will accent the red in the Suzani lumbar pillow, not to mention its made of chenille, bliss.   

That's it!  How I created a vision for my Cozy Reading Nook.  This nook is perfect for all ages, my teenage girls or their magazine reading Mama. 

************I am a World Market Ambassador but all of these opinions are my own.*************

 

How to Make a Succulent-Shell Encrusted Wreath

After seeing beautiful succulent wreaths at my garden stores for upwards of $80.00 dollars I thought I try my hand of creating one of my own.  It was not at all hard to make in the least.  All you really need are a some shells and seastars, sand dollars, moss, a foam ring, and a bit of glue.

We've been collecting sea shells for quite some time on our trips to the beach so we had plenty to use.  I also shopped the house for some other sea life to give it variety. The sand dollars came off and OLD wreath that seen better days and was all faded.  The armoured stars, the ones with the knobs on the back can be purchased at Michaels or you can use pencil stars too!  It doesn't matter.

You start with a foam ring and moss, you can get the foam ring at Michaels or Joanne's and the moss too!  The moss gives it an organic material so the succulents can grow roots into it. 

I used a glue gun to glue my moss down all over and the top side of the wreath.  Let it dry. 

I like succulents with lots of color and texture to give my wreath lots of character.  I especially love Hens and Chicks. 

My glue gun gets really, really hot so be careful you don't burn your fingers.  You cut the succulent down to the base of it and adhere glue and then stick it on your wreath wherever you think it looks good. You can see the glue strings just remove them when your done.  Press really hard so the succulents are secure to the moss.

After the succulents are glued in place start adhering your seashells and sea life to the empty spots.  Let it dry overnight.  Tweak your wreath until it looks good to you. 

It's been going strong for about a month now, I squirt it with a spray bottle every day.  It was easy and pretty inexpensive to make, I always use my Michaels and Joanne's coupons when I shop.  If you have any questions you can leave them in the comment section and I'll get back to you. 

Summertime in the Cottage

 

All year round my home always has a touch of Seaside décor but in the summer it's "game-on" with my beachy vibe.  My friends know me well and often bestow me with gifts that have something to do with a shell or anything that you might say, "this is nautical or from the beach".  For example this rattan covered bottle in a beautiful shade of blue that holds some brightly colored sunflowers. It adds a bit of color on the mantel. I'm loving my Homegoods' Lanterns and I think they look right at home on the Fireplace mantel with the driftwood color and galvanized tin.

The square jar with the jute wrapped around it has my Sea Glass collection from Kaua'i. 

The mantel is a lot more simple than it is in the winter, I use less sparkle and more wood and metal.  I got these galvanized letters from Michaels and plopped a small bouquet of drying hydrangeas from my garden and leaned a seastar candle against it. You can look at the H I as in the greeting or the abbreviation of the Aloha State. 

 

The mantel looks very pretty with the lanterns lit up in the evening but only when it's chilly because that's all I need is a HOT house in summer. We have had a few hot days but we have had our share of JUNE GLOOM, I expect it to get hotter in the coming months. The boat painting was done by our old elderly neighbor, she was a wonderful painter and holds a special spot in my heart.  The galvanized bucket was from a friend of mine, it belonged to her Mother.  It's a great spot to hold the birch logs next to the fireplace. 

On the otherside of the room not a whole lot has changed from spring to summer.  I still have my robin eggs in their nests with another seastar candle keeping it company.

The conch shell candles comes out of it's hiding place for the season along with my mini knobby seastar candles. 

I know I'm a little weird because sometimes I like an empty frame just resting against a wall, people will often ask why I don't have anything in it, I just sort of like it that way sometimes. I have plans for this space, up above the sideboard, {this was a hand me down from my Mom that was in my aunts' house in Newport Beach}, we repainted it and got new knobs for it.  One of my favorite pieces in my home. I would like to hand paint or put some kind of tree there and hang silhouetted pictures of our family. 

Leaving the family room and going into the dining/living room you see my built-in.  This built-in  like I've said before was one of many reasons I wanted to buy this particular home.  The brick patio, the brick fireplace, the brick porch in this home spoke to me.  In the built in there are many family pictures that take residence up on the shelves, mostly of my girls.

I added the little Sea, Sun, Sand saying to the picture frame and another conch shell candle for the summer season.  The verdigris frame I've had forever.  The Japanese float my husband found on the beach on Kaua'i along with a replica one in cobalt blue.  The shell is from my Father-in-Law, from Alabama.

The middle shelf holds my Aqua Ball jars from yard sales and antique stores and the little candy box in the shape of Kaua'i. The modal boat is from my friend, her father made it, it holds a special place in my heart.  Always fresh flowers in my home, I sacrifice not getting manicures or pedicures so I can have fresh bouquets of flowers in my home, they make me happy to look at them.  Everybody has their "thang" I guess.

The far right side we have some pencil stars all in a row, shells from Alabama along with a ball jar filled with white sand from the beaches of Alabama.  A few pieces of white pottery, the biggest is an Ironstone Pitcher I got from the Rose Bowl flea market for $5.00....I was happy about that getting it for that low price.  The brownish green frame is new from Michaels, always using those 40% coupons.  The shell mirror to the right is from Ensenada that I got when I was in my 20's, I used to have a few other pieces but they have not survived. The scentsy light illuminates the dark room in the night and I wish you could smell how great it is in there now.  The wax melts are called Beach, fitting huh?

Turning back around we have the dining room, we see my farmhouse table with a tureen of blue French Hydrangeas from Trader Joes.  I love my World Market Rattan chairs, they are so comfortable and go perfect with my beach vibe.  I added some pops of blue in the hutch with the plates along with my collection of ironstone mini pitchers and cake stands. This hutch I bought off a friend and is another one of my favorite pieces in the cottage. 

 
Turning to the right and looking from the pocket door in the kitchen we see the living room.  On the big open space to the left of the family room opening I'd like to put in a barn door, haven't quite convinced Mr. Incredible yet...but I'm wearing him down.

 

I've been playing musical pillows in the cottage to see what composition I'll settle on, since it's Independence Day this week, I've got the RED, WHITE and BLUE thing going on.  The vibrant BEACH and the blue-striped pillow are new from TJMaxx.  The red velvet one is from World Market and the linen pillows are from Ikea.  The faded BEACH pillow is from a Cottage Store in Laguna Beach.  One can never have too many pillows, right?

I put a few of the white and yellow mums in the enamel pitcher, added some lavender, red and white geraniums from my garden and stuck an American Flag in it and there ya go!

 

I've had this white side table forever, I think it was my Moms but I can't remember.  It has a place for magazines on each end.  Yes, I still love to read a good magazine, especially in the summer with so many beach days and down time. The crystal lamp was also my Mother's, I'm thinking about updating the shade, but I really love the little bit of sparkle it adds to this space.

Yes I love to browse Better, Homes and Garden's, HGTV and Country Living.  I really miss Country Home and Cottage Living ...I wish they would come back.  The tray is a thrift store find that I painted with Chalk Paint.  The glass cloche has a succulent planted in a conch shell surrounded by moss with an armored seastar too. The mercury glass candle holders are from Kohl's along time ago after Christmas sale marked 70% off and the blue rimmed candles were on clearance from PB.  I hardly ever pay full price for any of my Knick Knacks...has my darling Mr. Incredible calls them.  He is not a fan of clutter let's just say but he must love me very much because he puts up with it. 

I've also been working on this succulent-seashell wreath for a few days.  My girls have collected lots of shells from our excursions to the shore and I've been wanting to make one since last summer. Finally got around to doing it and I'm very happy how it turned out. 

 

It's hanging out on my Dutch door for now, we put in this Dutch door last year that I got off Craig's List for a great steal.  I love opening it up while I'm in the kitchen cooking or on the computer.  The breeze feels really nice on those hot, hot days.

I used a variety of succulents for texture and interest in putting together this wreath. I had a few seastars and sand dollars here and there so I put them in too!  Next week I'm going to do a tutorial on how you can make your own Succulent-Shell Wreath.  I have more images of my home all gussied up for the Fourth of July on the front and back porch areas, I'll share those in my next post, it's already picture overload with this post.  I also have a tasty and cool Independence day tart to share with you too, so check back on Thursday for that post. 

On another note...so very HAPPY that the United States Women's National Team in Soccer beat Germany today!!  It was a great game, did you watch it?  We are soccer people over here!!! #goteamUSA!! Excited to see the final match and who will be this year's FIFA World Cup Champions.  See you on Thursday!

How to plan a {Cinco de Mayo} Fiesta, Ole!

As you may or may not know I'm of Hispanic decent, my Mama was from Baja and I might add very proud of it with a capital P.  We didn't really celebrate Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) growing up but my Mother was very proud of her heritage.  Did I mention my Mother was a proud of her race? Oh yes I did! I can remember one time when I was living in Hawai'i and I was teaching First Grade and came to accept my heritage and all that comes with it.  It was different living in Hawai'i with so many different cultures in one location.  I had made a decision to celebrate and share my culture with the students of Hanalei school on Kaua'i.  You can read about that HERE. It was life changing moment for me. Today I share my heritage with my daughters and I always cook my Mom's and my family's favorite recipe...Machaca.  It is the most requested meal in our home and when everyone starts smelling the saute onions and peppers they start chomping at the bit and it is not made with eggs.  I know most Machaca Recipes have eggs in it and it is served for breakfast but my Mama never made it that way, it was always for dinner and it was the only time she drank a beer is when she ate this dish.  In addition, I'm sharing many other great recipes and Fiesta Décor with you for in this post to celebrate Cinco de Mayo or anytime you'd like to throw a Fiesta. In my picture collage above I've collected a variety of delishiouso {insert Dora voice here, ironically that is my Mom's Name} food and colorful and vibrant party décorations for your table along with a few simple crafts to do with your children or your students {after all I am a teacher} at school. Let's start with the top row going left to right.... Viva La Fiesta! 

1.}  Individual Tres Leches Trifle Cakes from Catch My Party

2.}  Elegant tablescape with cactus from Ruffled

3.}  Cactus Cupcakes in terracotta pots from Fabulous Fetes

4.}  Using terracotta pots and saucers as cupcake stands from Magnolia Mom {Fav HGTV show}

5.}  Mexican Flag veggie tray from Catch My Party

6.}  Machaca from yours truly, Machaca from Home...be Inspired

7.)   Churo Cupcakes from The Lady Behind the Curtain

8.}  Fresh Fruit in a Cone from Ko-Ko-Ko Kids

9.}  Painted Ball Jars in a Rainbow from Make Today a Party

10.} Pinata Party Table from Brit + Co

11.}  Flag Palletas {Popsicles} from The View from Great Island

12.} Moustache Straws from Etsy; Celebration Paper

14.} Taco Oreos from Sweet Tooth

15.} The BEST EVER Chicken Enchiladas from yours truly Home...be Inspired

16.} Colorful Sugar Cookies from Lily's Cookies

17.) Tissue Paper Flowers and Punched Book Page runner from AZ Foothills

 And no fiesta is complete without the perfect STRONG Margarita and in my favorite color to boot...

The Blue Agave Margarita from TammileeTips , doesn't it look refreshing?! Hope you find this links and ideas for next Fiesta helpful.  Happy Cinco de Mayo...I got to get cooking my Machaca before mi famila is home.   

 

 

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How to Make a Li'l Fairy Garden

It was a good friend of mines' birthday and she is a gardener, her home has a variety of plants and flowers so I thought it would be a perfect gift to create a li'l fairy garden for her. Would you like to know how to create a fairy garden they are really simple to make.

First you need to gather your supplies.  You'll need a vessel to hold the selected plants and other . "fairyish items" I was originally going to use this terracotta saucer but ended up using my black and white enamelnware basin that I picked up at yard-sale many moons ago but you can use about anything that can hold dirt as your container.  I'll post some creative containers at the end of this post to give you some ideas.

Layer the bottom of your chosen container with some rocks for drainage. I used some white rocks we got at the garden store for my daughter's succulent globe project, but you could use rocks from an aquarium supply store or marbles from the toy store.  I have quite a few containers in my home that don't have adequate drainage holes so I use the pebbles to keep the plants from getting root rot.

You can use the little miniature  terrarium-type plants for your garden or you could choose succulents too,  It is all personal preference. I was going for a white and green color theme here so they drove my color selection.  Everything looks adorbs in miniature, doesn't it?

I also picked up a metal mini garden set in white to compliment the variegated mini plant. You can also find some more miniature items at Michaels to add to your fairy garden such as terracotta pots, flat rocks, toadstools, anything that strikes your fancy.  I didn't actually add a fairy but you could. 

Then you add potting soil, arrange your plants and garden décor inside and top with moss. I added a cute and colorful banner made out of washi tape and tied it with jute to some tree twigs that I collected from my yard, you could also use patterned straws or barbeque skewers. I like the twigs for a rustic look.

I wrapped the fairy garden up in a basket bag and created a banner tag that I created with a few more washi tape flags.  I penned in a string on the tag and I was done ran a polka dotted ribbon through the tag and wrote a note on the back to my BFF.

 You can find many different colors and patterns of washi tape at Michaels, I've been using my coupons and getting them for 40% off and have amassed quite a collection, this is just a few selections.

I gathered all my supplies for the banner, you'll need a sharp pair of scissors to cut the flags.

I cut a rectangle shape and folded it over and then cut a triangle to make the little flags you can choose to use the flag shape or more of a pennant shape.

I used five of them for this one.  I pulled of the backing, folded it over the jute and stuck the twigs in the dirt.

Here is a smaller washi tape banner I made for my wicker, teacup succulent planter, I chose more subdued colors in browns and tans.

It sits on top of an old milk jug I've had for years, my Mama had one in our house forever.

Here is another version of a fairy garden using a broken terracotta pot and I love how this one is using mini evergreen trees.

Look at this ingenious one inside a twiggy orb.  As you can see any kind of container can work.

Awww I love the treehouse feature on this fairy garden with the colorful banners and the ladder up the tree with the tire swing.

The fairies must party at night in the garden because it has mini twinkle lights...how darling is that?!  Party on fairies!

 
The granddaddy fairy garden of them all, this garden in a wood wagon.  I love it! As you can see, you can be as elaborate or simple like I did or not.  I'd like to make another for my own home so I'm on the look out for the perfect container.  I've seen them in old red flyer wagons and I have a few empty terracotta pots I might use.  I'll share on the blog here when I get it all done. I like collecting things over time as I see them, that's the fun part about creating is checking yard-sales or thrift stores for your items they just need to be to scale.

 If you are looking for something fun to do with your kids this weekend this is a perfect project for you.  Hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Gardening. 

Adding California Decor to My Beachy Home and a New Jute Rug

I'm loving my new chunky-weave, jute rug with a linen-blue border from World Market!  As you can see I have a beachy vibe going on in my home and that goes for our family room too.  I guess, "you can take the girl out of the beach but not the beach out of the girl".  I've been a beach-lover my whole life, and in my past lives I've been lucky to live on the beach and my home décor as always represented that.  When I was going to SDSU back in the 80's I lived in Ocean Beach and spent many hours running on the beach and just hanging out by the water with college friends.  When I moved to Kaua'i  I was living almost Ocean front, I mean you could see the beach from my windows, it was an Island after all.  Well when we moved back to California we did not move super close to the beach but we can be sticking our toes in the sand in about 40 minutes. 

Like I was saying, my decorating style has maintained a coastal vibe throughout my adult life and when I saw this new to World Market Sisal Rug in my favorite blue I knew it would fit in perfect with my family room décor.  As you can see I have a little shell collection in an antique collection box over to the left of the fireplace and my boat painting that was given to me from our dear old neighbor as a house warming gift, {she painted it herself and had a stroke several years ago so sadly she has had to give up painting}, Mr. Incredible and I cherish it. My embroidered California pillow from Potterybarn takes up residence in the corner of the sectional.  I know this sectional is NOT perfect for this room it blocks our lovely fireplace but we bought it for our old house and do need to get another sofa that will be a better fit for this room.   Our Photo Bomber, Snickers Barbara!  What a spoiled little Jack Russell.

You can see a little project I've been working and tweeking in the back corner, It's a California Surf Spots that I've made out of repurposed Adirondack Chair wood.  When I'm done tweeking it, I'll be sure to share it here on my blog and give you a tutorial on how I made it. 

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I want the piece to be a little bit longer and make the silhouette of California longer also, so it goes all the way from the top edge to the bottom edge, then I can add more California Surf Spots and then I think I'll be happy with it.  Maybe.  What do you think? Do you like it just the way it is or should I make the above changes to it. Our family room is coming along I'm going to put in a galvanized fan and light in here as well as adding more cushions to the bench seating on both side of the fireplace.  I'm contemplating what I'm going to do with Mr. Incredible's Backgammon/coffee table to bring it up to date.  Right now it looks like it's from the 1970's but he loves it and it's the only thing that he has picked out for this room. I'm thinking of painting it and changing the glass out to clear glass or making a slipcovered ottoman for it and it will act like a coffee table and then when he wants to play backgammon he can whip the slipcover off and play. 

April Fools! A Sweet Joke for the Little Ones

Got this cute little idea for the little ones in your life, sorry it's too late to do this year but pin it and plan to use it next year. 

Yep...it's Donut Seeds!!  Fresh and sweet, grow your own donuts....wink, wink. I downloaded the "Best in town, delicious  and sweet donut image from HERE.  I edited it in photoshop and added the "donut seeds text" to the label and printed it out.  I also printed out an "April Fools! mini card to insert into the back of the organza drawstring bags. 

Here is what you will need to pull off this sweet joke....Some Cheerios or Toasted Oats, some small organza drawstring bags or cellophane bags, some fun colorful ribbon and the Donut Seed and oApril Fools! tags.  If I can figure out how to upload the tags to my post I'll share them as soon as I can. Put the mini April Fools! tag inside bag, add the "donut seeds {oats}" tag and tie it to your bag with the Donut Seeds tag. It's that simple and that cute.  The Chocolate Toasted Oats have a very strong sweet odor to them too!  Really like donuts.  Yum! 

Give out to the younger crowd; your students, your nieces or nephews, or your own if they are of the age of 7 or younger.  When they open up the bag with the April Fools! note they will realize they just got duped and can enjoy a tasty treat anyways.....Hope you had a great April Fools Day! 

 

 

The Drudgery of Laundry

 

I'm not one of the lucky ones that has a designated laundry room or space...mine is in the garage, glamorous I know, you be jealous.  But I can browse the internet and covet beautiful laundry spaces, IF I was so lucky to ever have one.  The only place I think we could ever manage to fit one inside our home, would be a hall coat closet...then we would have to relocate all those jackets...But my girlfriend {{she is the one with the to die for kitchen}, got a leak in her downstairs area where her laundry is and we have been having fun  thinking together what we could do to organize her space a bit better...I've pulled these images from Pinterest I have a Laundry Room Board there to help her see what we could do.

Her laundry room is the color of the first picture, sea glass blue with lots of white trim.  She put in a butcher block table with shelves that she got from Ikea, it will come in handy for folding laundry.  I think having those fold-away laundry racks would be handy to have up on one of the walls as they can be handy to hang clothes or for sweaters that need to be hand washed and drip dried.

I love those pendants that would be great for extra light and that little farmhouse sink is adorable.  She has those lights come to think of it over her kitchen island.  She definitely needs more shelving, not sure if she would like closed cabinets, I think open shelving would be really nice.

Something like this would work great or maybe something more rustic or industrial....

I love these DIY Wood Plank Shelves with industrial pipes...I think it would look great! 

Since it was my friends Birthday I wanted to give her a present that was practical and would help get her organized in her new Laundry room to help take the Drudgery OUT of doing laundry.

I first found these huge mason jar drink dispensers at Walmart....

They were about $15.00 a piece and I found them in the picnic section towards the front of the store. 

I debated weather to hang chalkboad tags from the dispenser or make my own labels I wanted to cover up the "cold drink" embossed label on the jar.  I ended up making my own labels on the computer but you could pick up these tags at World Market too if you wanted to go that route. Go HERE if you want a tutorial on how to make labels in Microsoft Word.  In the picture above I just traced my shape that I would use as a template for my labels to glue on my jar.  I used glue dots to adhere the labels to the jar. 

Sorry for the blurry picture...I printed out then used my template to cut out my shape.

Here they are all ready.....don't they look pretty? Better than those ugly plastic jugs they come in.

I got the cute wooden clothes pins in the white drawstring bag from World Market as well as the Lavender linen spray.  The canvas laundry bin came from Homegoods, I loved it's little saying on the front.

Speaking of lost socks...does that not DRIVE you crazy when you can't find the pair to the other sock....it drives me INSANE in the Membrane!!  Really it does....this is a cute idea.....to put in the laundry room...

or this one...

 Or I might adapt this sign to say, "Clean and Single and ready to Mingle"...hee hee. 

 I added an antique wooden washboard to the bin and made a Happy Birthday tag.  I hope she enjoyed her gift and as soon is she is done with her Laundry Room Makeover I'll be sure to get over there and take some pictures of it.  She has a beautiful home and I'm sure the laundry room will be a place that will take out the drudgery at least a little bit our of doing the mundane of Laundry.