DIY: Ikea Rast Dresser Hack

I finally finished my Ikea Rast Hack last week, wahoo! Since our guest bed frame is on risers, our nightstand was too short for the bed, not to mention the paint was chipping off from our move!  I had seen online where people buy the IKEA Rast Dresser since it is solid wood for only $34, and then hack it into a beautiful nightstand.  So I got to work!

First, you build the frame of the dresser following the Ikea directions.  Stop at the part where it tells you to build the drawers.  Then prime & paint the frame & the fronts of the drawers.  I chose Benjamin Moore's Dove White.  Next, take your drawer fronts and paint on your design.  A lot of people online buy stencils to place on, but the whole point of this for us was to save money so I just painted them right on myself.  

I measured, and painted off the straight parts then free-handed the curved corners.  I just used left over blue paint from our walls for the drawer stencil, Sherwin Williams Misty.

Then assembled the drawers following the rest of the directions!  I ordered silver drawer ring pulls from ebay for $2 each and love the way they match the rest of the room.

The guest bedroom is coming together!

And lastly, the before and after shots together... crazy how different they are.  So total we spent $47 for a custom, solid wood nightstand.  Pretty good deal!

DIY Laundry Detergent

I finally got the chance last weekend to sit down and make my own laundry detergent, as it's been on the "to-do" list for forever (and we had no laundry soap in our house and I didn't want to go spend money on a brand name so that helped!).  This laundry soap recipe is called "SUPER FRUGAL Laundry Detergent" and it's called that for a reason.... it costs around 20 cents for a 75-load batch. Not 20 cents per load people, but 20 cents for 75 loads!

My cousin, Sarah, has used this recipe with her front load washer for a while and said it works great for her family so I wanted to give it a try as well!  I found all of these ingredients right next to each other in the detergent section of Walmart, but I'm sure they can be found in other stores too.  So without further ado, here is the recipe!

Super Frugal Laundry Detergent
Ingredients:

• 1/4 bar of Fels Naptha soap
• 2 Tablespoons Borax powder
• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)
• 2 empty laundry detergent bottles or 1 - 2.5 gallon water jug

Grate the 1/4 Fels Naptha Bar using a cheese grater. Put the Fels Naptha shreds and 1 cup of water into a pot and melt over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until all the soap has dissolved. Pour 2 1/2 quarts (10 cups) of water into a large container or bucket and add the cooked soap mixture. Add 2 tbsp. of Borax and 1/4 c. of the washing soda and stir. Add 2 1/2 quarts more water and stir. Cover the mixture and let it set overnight. The next morning, your soap will have thickened and gelled considerably. Stir it up. Add the mixture to your empty container(s) filling only half way full. Fill the rest of the container with water. Shake the bottles to mix before use. Use 1/4 cup per load.

So far it's been working great on our clothes, but I will say I've heard that if your clothes are really dirty it might not do the job as well.  We always put a little additional Oxy-clean in every load to help fight stains & keep colors brighter. Either way, it's worth a shot to try with how much money you can save!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy 7th Birthday Tyson!

Another weekend spent outside!

We still have a gazillion outside items on our list, but last weekend we knocked off a couple of our big ones!  Kyle flew back in from California Friday night, and we were all loving being reunited again.

Saturday morning, after driving by a couple yard sales and not seeing anything that we needed we headed over to a nearby high school that was hosting a plant sale.  We picked up a couple herbs, veggies & flowers then headed home!

After Emery's nap we started building our little garden!  This is our first year doing one so we both agreed we shouldn't make it big until we know what we are doing!  We picked up this cedar raised garden bed kit from Home Depot-- so nice to not have to make it ourselves for once.

And here's an after picture of our tomatoes, bell peppers, mint, basil, cilantro, onions, lettuce, and strawberries!  We planted actual plants on the right and then seeds on the left.  We'll see what happens!

 Our handy helper loving playing with some sand that we mixed in the soil:

On Sunday afternoon, Kyle started power washing the house.  Thankfully my Dad has graciously let us borrow so many of his tools, and this awesome power washer was one of them.  The left side of our house was covered in dirt & mildew, and the difference now is amazing.  

Try not to look real close at how Kyle is balancing on the ladder--- ahh!

A progress shot... left side hadn't been done yet.  Woah!

 We've also been going on bike rides a lot through our neighborhood.  Emery LOVES them and says "Weeeee" almost the entire time.

 Loving this weather, and any weekend spent outside is a great one in our opinion!

Shelby Train Playdate

Kyle was in California all last week for work, so Emery and I had a blast meeting friends for afternoon play dates & dinners!  Lauren had been telling us about the train in Shelby for a while, and I'm so glad we finally made it there to ride it.
It's electric, has a conductor who says "ALL ABOARD" and drives the train around the playground 3 times (including through a tunnel) for only 25 cents a person!  Goes pretty fast too, the girls loved it.

They also have a carousel right next to the playground in a covered pavilion, so we stopped over there for a couple rides.  Emery was getting scared of all the creaking sounds so we only did one ride and watched Merrin & Lauren go around on the other one!

Next was playtime on the playground!  So funny to watch their different personalities come out!

Our big girls:

After the park we headed to a nearby restaurant in Uptown Shelby for dinner.  The girls did so well entertaining each other at dinner and Lauren and I had a great time catching up.  SO thankful we live so close to them!!

When we were walking to the car, Emery reached out and held Merrin's hand.  They walked like this the entire way to the car... how adorable!  Hopefully our girls will grow up to be best buds just like their mommies!

Natalie & Nathan turn SIX!

Last weekend, Kyle and I drove into Raleigh just for the day to go to Natalie & Nathan's 6th Birthday party.  I can't believe Tara and Jamie's first set of twins are already 6!  

The food and decorations were so cute going with the FIESTA theme:

Birthday kids:

Time for the piñata!

Candy time!

We jumped with Emery in the trampoline for a little bit before making heading back to Charlotte.  Happy Birthday Natalie and Nathan, we love you so much!

The joy of clip ons!

Emery has officially moved from loving bracelets, then to necklaces, and now to CLIP ON EARRINGS!  What a girly girl!

Adorable!

No earrings on in this next picture but happy as a clam with her legs crossed watching Tinkerbell eating popcorn :) 

This is such a fun age!

Power Washing & Yard work

While I've been busy inside, most weekends Kyle's time is spent outside!  I tell you what having your own yard is A LOT of work compared to a townhouse, but he's enjoying it.  My dad let us borrow his power washer, so last weekend Kyle got busy on our sidewalk and driveway.  He bought a special driveway attachment and it worked awesome.

Look at the difference!!

Hubby hard at work:

While Kyle was outside, he also updated the back porch light with a new light we were given.  There isn't much brass left in our house these days... woo hoo!

The rest of the weekend was spent doing lawn work and fixing all of the sprinkler heads in our sprinkler system.  Most were damaged and were leaking more water than actually spraying.  It was a muddy job for Kyle, but hopefully when we have green grass one day it'll be worth it!

Habitat Restore Curtains & Ikea Duvet Cover turned Bed Skirt

Remember this curtain panel I found at the restore for $15 a couple weeks ago?  Well I'm happy to say my plan of splitting it into two, hemming, and using the extra fabric from the bottom to make 2 throw pillows ACTUALLY WORKED!  Woo hoo!

So here is how the panel looked when I bought it, super long with a huge piece of peach trim on one of the sides:

So first step was taking that off, and letting my handy helper play dress up with it the rest of the day:

Next was measuring the height I needed the curtains to be (plus about 2 inch hem), and cut off the extra fabric on the bottom.

I then cut the panel into two, hemmed all the sides, then dropped them off at the dry cleaners to have peace of mind that they are clean & pressed correctly.  These curtains are lined in white, and even have little weights in the bottom to help them hang perfectly.  VOILA!

Luckily the original panel had about a 6 inch hem at the bottom so I had plenty of fabric to work with for my envelope throw pillows.  (I washed the fabric before making these!) I just LOVE the chevron texture on this fabric!

The navy/white floral pillow above I also made!  A couple weeks ago I found a twin duvet cover from IKEA on sale for $5!  It came with a twin pillow case, so I took that fabric & made a throw pillow cover.  Next, I took the duvet cover, cut it into thirds and made a ruffled bed skirt.  So here is the before:

And here is the after:

A huge thanks to my mom & Nick for passing on the blue comforter & euro pillows to us!  We are loving this color scheme and even though I feel like it's taking forever,  I'm excited how this room is coming together!