Ditching (Carpet) Dimples

If you're like me, you move your furniture around...a lot. And if you're like me, you live in a house/apartment/condo/cave/shelter that has carpeting, even if you dream about hardwood floors. (Well, I shouldn't complain too much...our new apartment has hardwoods in the kitchen/living area, so it's a step up from our last place). While carpet can be nice underfoot, dampen sound, and provide a soft place for pets or babies to play, it can result in some leftover three-dimensional blemishes after simple rearranging. Case in point:

This little lovely was left behind after moving our couch. Since we had divided the large living space in half (using the couch as a divider), these lovely foot marks were literally right in the middle of the room. And there were four of them.

Yuck.

So after a little hunting around on the fabulousness that is the Interwebular, I came across a little quick tip to steam these babies out. I thought it sounded like a long shot, but if all it took was some water, a cloth, an iron, and about 30 seconds, I was down to give it a go.

Here is my victim waiting to be fluffed into submission.

I simply took a little spray bottle and sprayed it 4 or 5 times with water--enough to get it damp, but certainly not soaked.

Then I took a simple washcloth and laid it on top. I suppose if you had a large area to cover (maybe from a big bookshelf or something), you could try a larger towel. This worked just fine for my footprints.

I already had my iron heated up and ready to go, and thanks to an extension cord I had no issues reaching the middle of the room. I chose a low setting ("synthetic") to be on the safe side after plugging that puppy in. Lots of carpeting is made out of synthetic fibers, and they can melt at surprisingly low temperatures so use caution when implementing this step. You can always steam it a bit longer or try again at a higher temp if your first pass doesn't work--but you certainly can't un-melt your carpet. And a nasty patch of crusty meltie carpet would look WAY worse than a carpet dimple.

Simply press...

And lift! Voila! A nice, smooth, dimple-free carpet. The heat from the iron steams the water you spritzed earlier and fluffs the damp carpet fibers right up!

Feel free to rub it a bit with your hand or even take a hairbrush to it to help things along if necessary. I didn't have to do a thing with mine. Quick, simple, painless (assuming your ironing skills surpass those of a kindergartner), and free! Woohoo!

How about you guys? Come across any handy household tips and tricks? Tried this one out before? Live in a gorgeous abode with all hardwood floors and have other problems to worry about? Share away!

Office Bid'ness

I'm a school psychologist. That means I spend lots of time one-on-one with kiddies in my office doing looooots of intelligence testing, sprinkled with some counseling in between. Considering my internship status (read: temporary) and the fact that most of my testing is done off-site (i.e. not in my office), I hadn't taken much time to uh...put some homey touches onto my office. While testing a kid the other day, I noticed his eyes roaming around the room. I asked him what he was looking at. He kindly told me: "Nothing. You don't have anything in here to look at."

Well isn't that sweet?

And at the same time...accurate.

So I decided it was time to decorate. But it had to be kid-appropriate, cheap, portable/temporary, and fun. And if possible, educational. Cue my "Great Quotes" pinboard on the heavenly awesomeness that is Pinterest. After selecting a few favs that fit all the criteria above, I hit up Photoshop to create some 5x5 text art that I matted onto navy blue card stock cut to 6x6. Voila:

Cheap, pretty, educational, motivational art. Woot. But just some matted little text art pieces wouldn't be nearly enough to make any impact on such a vastly open and blank space that is my office wall. So to open things up and match the elementary vibe (I'm based at an elementary school), I hopped on over to Michael's to gather up some bright and fun 12x12 carstock that went nicely together and also fit into the color scheme I had used while creating my lovely text art. 

Excuse my awful iPhone night photos. These are all Bazzill Basics colors. I even took an artsy photo to show you the exact colors I used below:

Why did I cut these strips you ask? Won't my cardstock now be 12x12-minus-a-quarter-of-an-inch? Depending on what brand of cardstock you buy, a 12x12 sheet may or may not be a true 12 inch square. Bazzill factors in these little detail strips with the cardstock info which are an additional 1/4 inch. So double check (measure!) your cardstock before givin' it the slice. Once it's gone, it's gone! Measure twice, cut once. Mine were an extra 1/4 inch so they got chopped...just like the show. Only...not.

After a LOT of shuffling around to pair word art with cardstock and then be happy with the overall orientation and balance (I laid everything out on the floor), I decided a little something was missing. Since 8 12x12 frames were definitely not in my budget, I went with a way cheaper and more subtle effect. To get a bit more dimension on the cardstock, I decided to use foam adhesive to attach the matted word art to the colored paper. I was short on what I needed, hence the ever increasingly smaller pieces. Hey, ya work with what you've got, right? Here's the shuffle in progress:

And you can see how I spaced the adhesive here:

Because there won't be anything pressing against the front of the cardstock (such as glass) and since paper is light, this spacing worked out just fine. If you're worried about sagging or any other effects of such spaced foam adhesive, you can always add more. Assuming you have it.

Just peel...

And--poof! Instant dimension!

So here is my boring office wall before my art. I am aware it is very. very. boring. And I prefer to think of this as a more neutral sandy olive color than the lovely "booger" and "puke" likenesses my lovely examinees have compared it to. Oh, kids.

Before...

After!

It's a nice temporary touch that I feel can catch kids' attention and even instill some good advice or ideals. It also serves as a handy reference for kids' reading ability, or even as ice-breakers for particularly shy or reticent kids.

These would look a million times better in those sweet Ribba 12x12 frames from Ikea. Someday. Here they are looking a little sparse, but once I add some other fun stuff (I'm thinking twinkle lights, some faux flowers, some photos, and maybe some kiddie art), it will begin to look like home. Just in time for my internship to be over! At least I'll have a head start on next year :)

What about any of you guys? Make any word art? Think of a great quote I should add? Have any extra 12x12 frames you wanna give me fo' $free.99? Or...GASP!...are you a school psychologist? Do tell!

Catching Colors...fo' Realz

So a few weeks ago, I finally decided I really really needed to wash my duvet cover. Full disclosure...I had never washed it. Since I got it. Which was...oh...5 years ago.

I know, so gross right!? Yes, I wash my sheets and towels once every 2 weeks (ish), so I'm not a total scummer. But I was SUPER paranoid about washing my comforter cover because it was the dreaded red and white color combo (along with some blue, yellow, and green). I LOVE this comforter. Like, I love it more than  I probably should, which is why I avoided washing it. It was out of love. Honest. I was terrified that it would come out of the wash with a pink tint. Don't get me wrong--I love me some pink. But there's a time and a place for that, and it was NOT on my duvet. No way Jose. (You like that rhyme? You know you did).

Then magically, as if in answer to my endless worrying about the impending day of doom when I would have no option but to wash my duvet due to a horrific stain (ok...exaggeration. I really didn't worry about it that much...or really much at all. But it's more dramatic this way) I saw a commercial. It was like the clouds opened up, rays of awesomeness shone from the heavens, and the wonderful product known as Shout Color Catcher emerged from the fluffy beauty up above. Cue the heavenly angel music.

I will be the first to admit that I was super skeptical. In the commercial, this soccer mom lady throws her red dress (scandalous) along with her husband's white work short (oh snap) into the wash and--POOF!--they both emerge unscathed, the red dress a nice deep sanguine and the shirt a crispy starchy white fabric fit for the gods. And I saw that commercial and thought to myself: "What a load of crap." (That laundry pun was SO not intended, but now that I typed it I am definitely NOT deleting it).

But then, one day, on a waste of my time and money very important and needed shopping trip to Target, I happened upon the duvet cover I had been lusting over for months...on clearance. And not regular Target clearance where they knock off less than 10% and type it on a red tag and say "clearance." Real clearance--like more than 50% off. I have no idea why. I have no idea how. But I couldn't resist. I had been looking for a new duvet cover under $40 for about 3 months since we moved to our new apartment and my pretty, but loud, current duvet cover just did not fit in our new pad. After snatching that perfectly pretty white damask floral parcel, I promptly realized the day had come where I had no choice but to wash my other duvet cover if it was going to be put into storage for use another day. I hemmed and hawed and finally grabbed some Shout Color Catcher on my way to the register, got home, threw a catcher in the wash along with my precious duvet cover, and prayed.

And lo and behold--it worked!

Admittedly, I threw in 4 catchers to be safe, but those crisp little white sachets came out a nice soft to medium pink. I couldn't believe it. They actually worked. Take a look at those bright, clean, white flowers below. White never looked so good!

So if you're in the mindset that these color guards are a waste of precious moolah I say to you--NO SIR! I mean, I wouldn't throw them into every load so I didn't need to separate my laundry, but for special items like this they are a STEAL. They pay for themselves ten times over on a single important item this. I couldn't be happier with the result. It's like it was magically cleaned by the laundry fairy with no water at all.

In conclusion: Shout Color Catcher = Awesome.

Me Likey.

Note: I was not paid or perked by SC Johnson (a family company!) to promote this product. (Pfft--I wish they knew who I was--hah!) I just legit like this product and think it actually works the way it's advertised.

Double Note: Shout Color Catcher image from here.

Revamping...

Ok, long time no see. I've been trying to figure out some stuff like how to making blogging easier for myself as far as pictures/images go. I do tons of projects, take tons of pictures, and then don't get any further because I find editing, uploading, and physically writing around images SO tedious. So I'm researching new methods to see what I can do to get around this block! A quick search shows that there are third-party apps that may be able to help me with this...?

In the meantime, the blog is getting a makeover. I love my new logo and I'm a huge fan of the new colors and look in general. However...I somehow disabled my tab box and you can't toggle from one to another now, so...I've been trying to figure that out and it's FRUSTRATING. Computer, why don't you speak English? Oy!

To sum up, I'll hopefully be up and running soon. My certification exam is this weekend, so after that's done, I can breath a sigh of relief before freaking out in about a month while I look for jobs that aren't there yet :)

Happy creating :)

A Time for Thanks

Hi all. Sorry for the ridiculous absence. I don't have much of an excuse except that I have been busy busy busy! Between moving, starting my internship, studying for my certification exam, and beginning the job hunt process, I have been way pressed for blog time. But the good news is that I have been crafting--so fear not! I have some things to share.

Being Thanksgiving weekend and being amidst all the I'm-thankful-for-you business, I decided to give out some "thankful" cards at work to people with whom I work the closest at the three schools that I cover--and trust me, I am VERY thankful for ALL of them! I got the idea from the peeps at Young House Love, as seen here, but I wasn't feeling their style as far as the printout they offered. However, I loved their idea! So I put my own spin on the "thankful for you" card with some help from Photoshop, and created something a little more me.

(^ sorry this is all grainy and weird...if you click on it, it IS clear, and should print just fine. All the blog fixes I've tried won't make this smaller image crisp though--if you know how to fix it PLEASE share!)

I'm super happy with the way it turned out. I just printed them, chopped them down the middle, and then sliced 'em horizontally just above the text in the middle. After filling out the top card to the recipient, I then used some removable adhesive (Tombow) and stuck the smaller card to the larger card. I punched out a little butterfly from some cute fallish patterned paper, and placed him in the lower right hand corner with some dimensional adhesive for a final touch and a little punch of 3-dimensional goodness. I don't have any pictures of the final product, as I need to protect the privacy of those I work with--sorry! But I promise they were cute :)

Please feel free to download the above file and share, share, share!!!!

Note: after handing out a few cards, it became apparent that I hadn't made it obvious enough that there was a card underneath for the recipient to pass on, so I started folding the butterfly corner back a bit to make it extra clear. Half of the "thankful for you" idea is paying it forward, so I wanted people to have no excuse about not seeing the second card!


It was such a simple thing to do, but I really think people appreciated it mucho, especially because this time of year is very stressful in our school system (long story short, we expect a major influx of work and the related stress that comes with it right after report cards go home, which was about a week ago). Giving people the pick-me-up they deserve is especially nice when things get a little rough! This is a great idea for any time of the year, and these cards can certainly be altered to fit any occasion. After all, we're thankful at other times of year than Thanksgiving!

How about any of you out there? Did you do anything special to let others know how thankful you are? How about some traditions in your family/workplace/social circles? I know there must me some interesting ones out there!