Prep at the Beach

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Pinterest Obsessions: Arm Candy

I have been loving the bracelet stacking trend lately. It makes me want to buy a ton of bracelets because I have a limited amount to work with. I'm going to post some of my favorite stacks from my collection later, but for now here are some that I found on Pinterest.

I need to find some of these chain looking bracelets!

And I obviously need a gold watch!

Let me know if you know any good places to get some bracelets for stacking.

Monday, July 9, 2012

DIY Striped Picture Frame

I've been super into making things for my dorm room, so today I decided to make a picture frame in my room colors! This was a super simple project and I love painting even though I suck at it.

Materials:

1 Plain Wooden Picture Frame (I got mine at Michael's)

A White Paint for the Base Coat

2 Accent Color Paints

Painters Tape or Masking Tape

Paint Brush

Newspaper or Another Surface to Paint On

Step 1: Paint the frame with a thin coat of white paint. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it will help the colors from your next two layers be more vibrant. Let it dry completely.

Step 2: Paint the top of the frame with one of your colors. I would choose the lighter of the two, so that it can be covered by the darker in the next step. Make sure this layer covers the whole frame and there is no white showing. Wait for it to dry completely before continuing.

Step 3: Use the tape to create a design on the frame. I chose stripes.

Step 4: Paint the space not covered with tape with the other color. Make sure there is not gapping in the tape, so there is a straight edge. Let it dry before ripping the tape off.

Step 5: When you rip the tape off you may want to touch up some spots.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Easy Cinnamon Toast

This is one of my favorite breakfasts, and it is so yummy and easy!

Ingredients:

Bread

Butter

Cinnamon Sugar

Preheat your over to low broil. If your oven only has one broil mode that is fine, just keep a close eye on it and don't put it in as long.

Cover one side of your bread in butter.

Sprinkle a generous amount of the cinnamon sugar on your buttered bread.

Place it on a cookie sheet butter side up in the center of the oven rack.

Bake it for about 4 minutes.

Super quick and ready to eat.

Using the broil mode helps the bread stay soft on the top and crunch on the bottom.

Fun Fact: Cinnamon in the morning can help bad breath throughout the day.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Nail Polish Organization

I mentioned in my closet organization blog that my nail polish was out growing its former home. I recently bought another nail polish that sent the box from overflowing to not being able to close; it was time for a change.

This is my nail polish before. I probably have over 40 nail polishes, so they take up a lot of space. I had them in this plastic shoe box I got at Target. It wasn't the best system because they had to lay down and nail polish really needs to stand right side up to keep from drying out or hardening in the cap.

To organize them I installed two spice racks, from the Home Depot, in the corner of my closet above the built in shelf that used to house my nail polish box. These spice racks were super easy to install and are perfect for the purpose. However, I filled these two up immediately, so I may need to go buy another one if I buy any more nail polish.

The racks have two shelves, and they are wire which makes it easy to see the colors of the polish. I organized all of the polish by brand. In the left hand rack's top shelf, I have most of my Essie polishes in the front row. Behind those, I have my Sally Hanson French Manicure kit and Sally Hanson Extreme Wear Polishes. In the third row, I have my Sally Hanson Crackle Polishes and Nail Art Pens.

The top row on the right rack has my last few Essie polishes, my four China Glaze polishes, my Orly polishes, and nail tools such as files, buffers, and stickers.

The second row of the left rack has some of my OPI's in the first row with Sephora by OPI's behind them, as well as my Revlon Polishes (they are my favorite). I also have some toothpicks, cuticle oil, and notecards with the names of my mini OPI's on them.

On the last row of the right hand spice rack, I have the rest of my OPI's, my Ulta polishes, and then a bunch of random bands that I don't have multiples of.

I hope this gave some of y'all inspiration for how to organize large nail polish collections.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Pinterest Obsessions: Headboards

I think headboards are one of the coolest decorations you can put in a bedroom. They add a decorative factor that nothing else can match. I love them! Here are some of my favorites.

This throw pillow is so cute!

I love how the fabric on the headboard matches the smallest throw pillow!

Pops of Pink!

I want a polka dot wall!

This one is my absolute favorite!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

4 Ingredient Low Calorie Cookies

I was on Pinterest and came across these 36 calorie a piece cookies. They only had four ingredients and seemed too good to be true. I tried them, and let me tell you... THEY ARE SO GOOD. I would recommend everyone try these.

Here is the link:

http://healthy-is-perfection.tumblr.com/post/19557541384/rippedknees-healthy-peanut-butter-cookies

That link isn't working on my computer, so here is the recipe. I feel like I'm not giving adequate credit to the person who came up with this. I tried.

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda

Mix the peanut butter and sugar then mix in the egg and baking soda. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Easy DIY 4th of July T-Shirts

I'm a tad early with my crafting post this week. Oh well!

I am a huge fan of the 4th of July, so naturally I must dress up for it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a good tee to wear over my American flag bikini, so I decided it was necessary to make one. This is a super easy and cheap tutorial. It uses a technique of appliqué, but not really.

You will need:

A plain solid color t-shirt (Patriotic colors are a must! Red, White, or Blue)

Double Sided Fusible Interfacing

Scrap Patriotic Fabric

Either a drawing or a stencil of a desired shape for the fabric (I chose a star)

Thread that corresponds with the decorative fabric, but it doesn't need to match

Paper scissors

Sewing Shears

Iron & Ironing Board

Sewing machine or hand sewing needle if you do not have a machine

Step 1: Cut out the stencil of the shape you have chosen

Step 2: Cut out a square of interfacing that is big enough to fit your shape

Step 3: Place the square of interfacing in the corner of the wrong side of the fabric

Step 4: Using the iron adhere the interfacing to the fabric by pressing the interfacing onto the fabric. Make sure the you have the paper side of the interfacing up and not the sticky side.

Step 5: Trace the stencil to the interfacing.

Step 6: Cut out the shape from the fabric

Step 7: Peel off the paper of the interfacing

Step 8: Place the shape onto the shirt wherever you would like it. I chose to put right where my left hip would be.

Step 9: Iron the shape onto the shirt the same way you did in step 4.

You can be done here if you don't want to add the last step. The shape is secured onto the shirt; the next step is more of a decoration.

Step 10: Straight stitch all around the edge of the shape. Go slowly and do your best to keep it straight. Also, make sure you aren't sewing the front of your shirt to the back or your shirt because I totally did that when I first started.