Happy nest

Spring is all around here... With too many things going  on in life at the moment, I have been late with this year's gardening. So my garden still is kind of monochromatic( though green is always welcome to me after a long tiring view of snow and colorlessness).. 

Last month from our visit to dollar tree ( got a new store in the neighborhood .. Yayyy !! ) , I got few gardening tools, solar lamps ,lots of gladiola bulbs and some other unknown flower seeds ..

I just got to plant them this week with the help of a friend.. So it is another 10-12 day's wait for the plants to shoot up..I will upload that in my next post..

Anyways that doesn't stop me from cleaning up my patio and making up for the dullness with some colorful DIYs.. :)

DIY 1: 

This grate was from an outdoor grill that we failed to set up . I am using the grill as a tray holder( you can see in my next photo)  as we found another one. I had a few already colored butterflies and flowers from another project that i just attached to the grate with laundry pins..

DIY2:

Glass jug with rose petals:

Those rose petals are special. DH got this when we got pregnant and I got to know the gender of the baby ( and there is a secret reason why they are pink).. I didnt want to loose them , so I saved the dried petals..i put it into this jar and filled it up with water. With that on the tray there is my gardening tool holder and a stainless steel jug which I use as water sprinkler..

DIY 3: 

Repurposing old candle stand with dollar tree shells and marbles. This is a self descriptive project . All you need is a glue gun

DIY 4:

Tin can vase

So i painted this tin can and the yellow flowers that you see are actually glued on to a tennis ball  ( hiding inside the tin can) to give it a spherical look.,

DIY 5 :

The name plate : now , this is special.. It has been three years since we bought the home but never gave a name to it. With our bundle of joy arriving in a few weeks, i found no other name more appropriate.. It says valo - basa which is a bengali word for 'love' . If you split the word, first one means 'good' and the other means 'nest' . So you can say it means love/ happy nest. This chalkboard plate is from walmart to which i attached two of my hand painted flowers ( and i am in love with chalkboard pens :)) ...

The mirrors in the below pic are from dollar tree :) and yes they are waterproof. 

The hanging bAsket is thrifted and it has a seeded pot waiting to bloom.

The candle holder is a gift from a friend..

This is how everything looks together

DIY spoon mirror

I was browsing through my Pinterest board and just realized that my first official DIY work is not in my blog. So , here it goes .

What you need :
1. Lots of spoons.
2. Red spray paint (I hate spray paints now but it was easier to paint the spoons with them)
3. Hot glue gun
4. Card board base
5. Mirror (from any craft store)

All Things beautiful ( makeup and jewelry organization)

Such happy colors !! I  have been wanting to do this for a while now. 

Those wine glasses and candle jars (I added polka dots on them with my gold sharpie to go with my golden color scheme)  make perfect holders for the nail paints/eye pencils,lip liner and other make up  stuff. 

I had this wire spice rack bought from container store which ended up being of no use since my spice jars don't fit on it. My earrings hang perfectly on it. you can slide them as you wish to make space for more.As you can see , the spice rack itself hangs from a dollar tree hook.

Last but not the least  is this bangle stand. I have been looking for it for quite a while now. 

Tried DIYing with a wire hanger but it my bangles are too heavy for it to hold. This thrift store find (cost me a dollar only) revamped with Martha Stewart acrylic gold paint is a perfect drab to fab. 

I also placed my DIY rope/starfish mirror on the back that goes nicely with my gold theme.

Sterilite drawer makeover

Cost : A dollar only

You need :

1. Colored paper with adhesive ( they are mostly found in the organization/kitchen) section of the dollar tree. I think it was originally meant to be used as shelf liner.

Gold Rush

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It's been a really long while after my last post .. So many times were My fingers tempted to tap on the button that says " new blog post" .. But the demons named " busy weekends" , " tired mind" , "work pressure" pulled them back everytime :) . Now on an unnaturally quiet Sunday ( seems like someone has pressed a mute button on our neighborhood) arrived my magic mail --- a gold sharpie from Amazon.. ( Getting shipments from amazon can surely get a place in my how-to-be-happy list but that is some other day's discussion).

As you know ,I am a creative hoarder( I HAD to put a nice adjective to support this apaarently annoying trait of mine). I love love love refurbishing stuff rather than throwing them away..

Recently I grew so fond of gold .. A month back, I went to this cellphone store  & surprisingly I had a hard time choosing between the gold and a grey version of the phone ( more suprisingly, the gold version won to my all time favorite grey).  An array of shops displaying gold jwelry stands  on the street we go for grocery. Usually they all went unnoticed in past  but not any more. I look at them like a kid at an icecream store.. :)

Now coming to what it ended up at :) 

Here is how I  refurbished my apparently dull ikea bud vase with gold polka dots 

You need 

a gold sharpie ( mine says elmers opaque gold paint marker),

Anything to paint on . 

I had an old table lamp base which I have been using as a vase , but it was too dull for the room . So I  tried my first warli painting on it to give it some life .. Isn't it cool? Warli painting is an Indian folk painting style that I recently grew very fond of . It is easy for a dabbler like me and has a charm of its own ..

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And if you are interested in before pictures , here are they 

Coke can bud vase

These were made long back . DH used to get crates full of coke & my house almost turned into a recycle bin with coke cans scattered here & there . 

I had a few pretty flowers from ikea & some rope . 

So there you go ..

Cost : less than 2 dollars

You will need 

• coke can 
• rope 
• hot glue gun
• optional : You might want to add some embellishment like faux pearls , jewels from your old earring , felt flower to make it prettier. I have seen people color it as well .

 Isn't it one ( & only) good reason to buy coke? 

Sunday mood boost !! Rope starfish mirror

When you find Sundays depressing , you know you are not in your amazing phase of childhood any more !! Back then , Sundays used to be fun !!! Enjoying finger -licking  dishes prepared by maa, having relatives over , being allowed to watch tv ( spacially those once a week movies on Doordarshan) & what not !!!  Sighhhhhhhh !!! And back to reality !! A few hours left before a busy 

Monday begins !!  Dear husband busy with office work !!  So I decided to dive into my favorite timepass  :)

Bed bath beyond inspired rope mirror !!

Original price : 150$

DIY cost : less than 5 dollars !!!!!!! ( and it is not a typo ;) )

You will need 

• Rectangular mirror from dollar tree ------1$
•  Rope. --- amazon/lowes/home depot. ---- 3 dollars       ( I used a half inch rope , the thicker rope you use , the better it looks & the easier it is to make)
•  Starfish ( 15 for 4 dollars) from amazon ( use dollar tree seashell /driftwood or whatever shabby & beachy ornaments you find handy .. 
•  Hot glue gun
•  A little piece of cardboard to hold the structure !!