Inside the Studio: Fabric Storage

I have had a few people ask me about how I store things in my studio room to make my life easier. So, I'm going to do a mini series on it, including what I paid and how I saved money.

Today, we are going to look at my fabric storage area:

Look at that beauty! I scored this bookshelf from Craigslist for only $20! You can hardly beat that deal. It keeps all of my fabric nice and pretty, easy to see, but also keeps the dust off. So many amazing things all in one. I have my cotton solids, cotton prints, and my fusible fabric on the top; flannels and fleece on the second shelf; knits, special occasion, and home decor on the third shelf; and PUL, felt, and miscellaneous fabric on the bottom shelf.

I must admit, having all of my fabric in view like that shows me how much I have really accumulated over the last year or so. Well, technically this isn't all of my fabric, but it is about 90% of it. I have some upstairs still - much to my husband's dismay.

There's a look at the top of my pretty bookshelf. I paid $1 for each of the clear containers, from Dollar Tree. Sometimes I have seen the clear shoe boxes at Mernards or Walmart for 11/$10. I spray painted the outside of mine to give them more color and wrote in dry erase marker on the outside of them. I love the ease of the boxes and being able to get them down. I really need to buy more to put the rest of my holiday prints in.

I try to keep it all really simple, so that it's easy for me. I'm afraid to get too fancy with it or else I'll get confused and have to go through a hundred things to get one thing. No way - I'm too lazy for that crap. And that is why I have my fabric set up the way it is. How do you organize your fabric? Does it work well for you or do you hate it? I had mine in drawers for a long time and hated it with a passion. It was so difficult to find anything. Glad to be done with that! NEVER. AGIAN.

Thief Thursday, Peppermint Sugar Scrub

Over the weekend, I decided to make some sugar scrub to go in some pedicure gift boxes I'm making for my Etsy shop. I bought all pink things for my first set, and thought "What better than some peppermint scented sugar scrub to complete the gift?!" So, Isearch recipe on Pinterest and came up on this (and, of course, modified it to fit my liking). 

Ingredients Needed:

 - 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

- 2 Tbsp Epsom Salt

- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil (Wish I had Coconut Oil instead right now)

- 3-5 drops Peppermint Oil

- Coloring (optional)

You also need:

- Bowl/Spoon for mixing

- Another small bowl and spoon if you color some

- Storage Container (Baby food jar in picture, but I decided on something different later)

Mix the sugar and salt together first in the bowl. Then, add the oils. If you don't want color is yours, you are now done. Pretty simple, right? Imagine what you would have paid for that in a store...

If you decide to color yours, just separate your sugar scrub in half, add a few drops of color to 1/2, and mix. Add more drops, if desired. I made mine more pinkish to match the gift box.

Then, just layer by the spoonful and pack in (so they don't mix later) a container that can the tightly sealed. Sitting out, the scrub is supposed to be good for at least 2 months. I recommend refrigerating yours if you know you aren't going to use it daily or several times a week

Thief Thursday, Bath Bombs

Well, with no job and no way to personally pay for Christmas presents like I'm used to doing, I decided to turn to Google and Pinterest for homemade ideas. I actually found some really amazing ideas, one of which was homemade soap. I've always wanted to try making my own, but never remember to buy glycerin when I'm at a specialty store. Maybe I'll remember one day. Maybe.

Anyway, it reminded me of what I buy my mother in law every year: a gift box from Lush. If you never heard of them before, click on the link. They're located all over the world and are absolutely amazing! Only problem? The price. Seriously? $4.95 PLUS tax (and shipping if you don't live close - like us) for a bath bomb?! I'm a mom! I do NOT have the money to pay $5 for a fun bath every time I want it or have a stressful day. Solution? Make my own! That way, I can even make smaller ones so I don't feel so wasteful and they last longer.

I found two favorable recipes:
1.) XO Vain
2.) Maria's Self

I wasn't sure which one I liked more, so I combined them both to make my own. I made a very small batch so that I could try it out without risking wasting too much of it if it fails (Chemistry is not my strong suit). Here goes:
Note: my supplies and cost is only for the amount I made, which was very tiny. The more you make the more ingredients you will need to purchase and more money will spend.

In a small bowl, mix together:

-1 Tbsp Epsom salt ( $0.88+ at Walmart)

- 1 Tbsp Citric Acid ($3.97+ at Walmart)

- 1/2 Tbsp Cornstarch ($0.96+ at Walmart)

- 2 Tbsp Baking Soda ($0.54+ at Walmart)

(I will post amounts needed for a larger batch at the end of the post)

In a small container, combine:

- 2 tsp Olive Oil ($3.98+ at Walmart)

- 2-3 Drops Essential Oil (Optional; I paid $5.95 here.)

Slowly drizzle liquid mixture on top dry ingredients. 

Mix together.

In a spray bottle, add some water and a few drops of coloring (optional - I bought mine here). You don't want to use food coloring, as it may stain your tub. I DEFINITELY recommend using small, travel-size spray bottles instead of big ones, but I can't find mine. We didn't use any color in this batch, except for a few drops added to hers later for green, and some in the middle of one of mine. 

Slowly spray/mix in water until you get a chunky consistency that is crumbly, but moldable and still looks dry. We didn't do more than 2 sprays at a time because our mixture began to fizz and we didn't want that to happen too much before we got them into the bath tub! 

Then, stuff mixture into molds (I cut a small ornament in half and we stuffed both sides and put it together, and I filled a heart cookie cutter) and set out on wax paper. Let set forever. Okay, so it's only 24-48 hours, but it feels like forever!

Touch gently to make sure they are dry and hard all the way through. Then, have fun in the tub! We stored ours inside of the plastic bag. They should stay good for a while, but make sure to store them in an airtight container of some sort. 

Here's the recipe for a larger batch:

- 2 cups Epsom Salt

- 2 cups Citric Acid

- 4 cups Baking Soda

- 3/4 cup Cornstarch

- 1/4 cup Olive Oil

- 10-15 drops Essential Oil

Here's a picture of mine in action. Ah... So relaxing!  I cannot wait to make more of these and give them out at Christmas time, along with several other homemade bath products I've made this week! 

P.S.- Here is where I bought my color.

I'm now on Bloglovin'! Make sure to follow me! 

Save Money: Foam Soap

Over the weekend we ran out of our beloved foam hand soap. Usually, I have a spare in the cabinet, but I decided to quit paying the almost $6.00 for one bottle to last a few weeks. Sorry, but I'm too broke for that. Not to mention my skin is too sensitive for other soaps; trust me, I've tried Softsoap, Dove, and so many others. 

Anyway, a super simple way I learned I can still have foaming Bath & Body Works soap without paying a bunch of money every time?  Pay it one time! Well, it's $11.50 a few times a year, but that's still a better price than $5.50 one to two times a month. AND if I were to hit one of the big sales or but out-of-season soaps? My head just exploded with the amount of money I would save! 

Here's the secret:

You need an empty foam soap dispenser and your favorite smelling body wash (or shower gel).

1.) Pour some body soap into the empty container, until it's about 1/5 full. 

2.) Add water to the foam container, until it's about 3/4 full (otherwise, you'll have some spill over the top when you put the lid on). 

3.) Shake up the soap/water mixture until the soap is well dispersed.  

4.)Throw away (or put away, if you didn't use all of it) your bottle of body wash. Aw, I HATE when I use all of my BBW up. 

5.) Display your soap for all to see/use/smell!

The best part is that you can change it up every time you get tired of using the same sent - without paying a fortune! I really want to try buying a milder scent next time and using essential oils for scents. Then, I could really switch it up season! Mmm... peppermint in a couple weeks for Christmas! Also, I'd like to get the trial sizes when they are on sale. Bet those puppies would work like magic!

Wanna know another secret? You can use this for any kind of soap. Not just hand soap. I also use this method in the kitchen for dish soap while washing dishes! Anybody have any tips or tricks they used to help save money when it comes to soap? I'd love to hear them!

DIY Cupcake Picks

Thesevcupcake picks were definitely the easiest decorations I made for the baby shower.

Materials Needed:
-Topping design/characters
-Copier/Cardstock or lots of the chosen design/characters
-Hot Glue/Gun
-Toothpicks
-Scissors

I bought a Safari themed baby shower hanging decoration set from Hobby Lobby for $1.99.

Hobby Lobby, also, had cupcake picks, but it was 24/$1.99 and I needed 30. I already had the larger hanging decorations to use for the walls, so I figured I may as well use them for the picks so it all correlates. I stuck the animals in my copy machine, set the sizing to "Custom" -> "35%" and printed (AND saved money). I was able to get (with quite a bit of work/placing) all on one page. You can see that there is a HUGE difference in sizing compared to the original!

I cut out all 35 of my animals (I did a few extra, just in case).

One-by-one, I just added a small glob of hot glue and then a toothpick. Make sure to let the glue dry all the way, or else you'll have a big mess.

All done! I did half on green toothpicks and half on blue. They turned out pretty well. Not the cutest part of the baby shower, but nobody really pays a whole lot of attention to what's on top of the dessert anyway - it's just a tiny obstacle that must be removed to get to the yummy part. At least they matched the other decorations, though!

I probably won't do another post until Monday. Have a great weekend!

Thief Thursday, Laundry Detergent Pods

Today, I'm going to show you how to make amazing laundry detergent pods! The Diva and I made a batch three weeks ago, and I love it! My laundry smells amazing, I don't have to measure my detergent, I know exactly what chemicals I'm wearing, and it's SO cheap to make!

You can find the original recipe here, but I tweaked it in a way that made a smaller batch than what she had posted.

Ingredients needed:

- 1 1/4 c. Borax

- 1 c. Super Washing Soda

- 3/4 c. Powdered OxyClean

- 1/4 Bar of Laundry Soap

- 1 c. Baking Soda

- 1 1/2 - 2 c. Purex Crystals Fabric Softener

We, also, used the following:

- Ice Tray

- Tablespoon

- Large Bowl

- Small Bowl

- Blender

- Microwave

- Plate

- Whisk

First thing we did was cut the bar of soap into fourths and microwave one of the pieces. Weput it in for 45 seconds, let it cool, tthen another 45 seconds. Above is what our soap looked like when it emerged from the microwave. It felt like Styrofoam. LET IT COOL AND HARDEN! If you don't, the next step won't be as easy or work to well: crumble the soap in a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. 

So, this is what it looks like if you don't wait. We didn't at first and so we got big chunks. But, after we let the soap harden, it crumbled nicely. But, since you want it to be as fine as possible, we cheated and put ours in our Ninja Blender. 

Much better, is it not? Perfect powder substance. This is where the original poster stopped, but I wanted the pods so I could just toss the detergent in without measuring, so I went even further. 

In a small bowl, we then added water a teaspoon at a time until we got this consistency. It's not quite wet, but is damp enough to mold it. 

And, we did mold them - into our pods. We put a tablespoon full of our mixture into each cube of the ice tray. Then, we popped them into the freezer for about an hour. You really don't need to put them in the freezer, but I wanted them to take shape quicker so I could take them out of the trays and test them out. 

Beautiful, aren't they? The Diva and I are so proud of ourselves. I use two pods for my large loads, and one for my small loads. When it comes to my medium loads, I determine the number on how dirty my laundry is. The above picture is only one container full of our pods. I have two and a half more already in the cabinet from this one batch.We love these and will continue to make them as long as possible. They work wonders on stains. 

Cheap DIY Closet Doubler AKA Clothes Rod

So, today's post is a very interesting looking contraption that is very handy and actually works quite well. While doing updates to the place we are currently staying at, I decided I wanted to add shelves to our tiny closet to make more room for our things and for the baby's stuff. Four issues:
1.) The amount of clothes we had hanging in our closet made it impossible to add shelves without the clothes being in the way.
2.) I didn't have any way to hang the clothes anywhere else.
3.) I didn't have the money to spend $20 for two closet doublers (one for my side, one for his).
4.) Most closet doublers are too long to effectively still allow enough room for my shelves.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a picture of a closet doubler:

Could come in pretty handy, right? Like I said, I didn't want to spend the money and came up with my own version for real cheap. It looks real funky, but nobody looks in your closet except for you. So, it doesn't really matter, right? That's how I look at it. I seriously thought about taking a before picture, but was  too embarrassed by how cluttered and disorganized my closet was.  

Materials needed:

-Hot glue gun/glue

-Ribbon or yarn or strong string (2 pieces per clothes rod)

-Dowels, rods, or even strong sticks

-Scissors

I already had all of these items, so I didn't have to spend any money.  First thing is to measure how far down you want your clothes rod to be. Then, double that and add 6 inches. Cut your pieces of ribbon to this length.

Put a glob of hot glue on your rod. Then, wrap the middle of your ribbon around the end of the rod three times. Then put a dab more glue on and wrap the ribbon around one more time to help keep it in place.  

Should look something like this when you're done. 

Then, you get to tie it up. I went around my original rod two times before doing a double tie on it. 

And, finally, you get to hang clothes on it! Super simple and super cheap, right? That's why I love it. I got about one week of usage out of it before we started packing. And I didn't even get all of my shelves up! So, no full "After" picture. Grrr.... This is as good as it gets:

Sorry, we were in the middle of packing when I realized I hadn't got a picture. You can see where the other shelves were and how much room my clothes rods gave me! 

I will most likely do a new post at the beginning of the week, depending on how unpacking and setting up goes. Can't wait to share pictures of the new place!