My Productive Weekend.

This weekend, Carson went to Michigan for a conference. After I dropped him off at the airport on Thursday morning (his flight was at 6, so we left at 4:30am - yes, I was a bit grouchy), I realized that I had an entire weekend ahead of me and only one day of work. So all weekend I worked on things I'd been meaning to do. I took pictures of some of it (you probably didn't need a picture of mopping or laundry, so I didn't take one) just to remember what was probably the most creative and productive weekend ever. I re-arranged, organized, brainstormed, decorated, baked and shopped (mainly for groceries) until I left for the airport again on Sunday morning. I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments, so take a gander: 

1. I painted my nails. Bright pink, since it was a rather rainy and gloomy afternoon.

2. I wanted something to hold my stud earrings, so here's what I did: I snapped the top off one of these pencil boxes. I think I could still use it again if I wanted to, but it was empty and had been sitting around with my craft stuff since approximately 1998. I then folded burlap accordian style and put it in the box. My burlap didn't go all the way to both ends of the pencil case, plus it was a little ugly, so I cut two pieces of paper to fit over that. It looks better than I'd anticipated, and now my vast collection of pearl studs is sorted out and not one big mess to sort through.

3. I found this little key rack at the craft store, so I just painted it and put it on the wall by the door we use most frequently. Now I won't run all around looking for my keys, only to discover that they were in the tiny pocket in my purse the entire time.

4. Our kitchen was needing some curtains. I didn't really care if they were pretty (that's why they aren't), but since that window looks right into our next-door neighbor's window, and since that window provides a great view of the stairs, which we descend in our early morning hair-everywhere-sloppy sweatpants, I thought that a curtain might not be a bad idea. We only want those neighbors seeing our best side. I made these to hang over the cabinets with no doors in our Spokane apartment (click here for a glimpse...it's photo 12) since it was the largest amount of fabric I had, and they were the right length for this window. I used a dowel rod to hang these up, and they're way too full, but it's unlikely that it will bother me enough to make new ones.

5. I used glitter nail polish on my keys. Why? Because it's a beast to get off, and now I know which key goes to which lock.

6. I painted these to go over our bed. I finally solved that dilemma. It's not what I wanted, but it was my cheapest option (four frames from the $ Store and paper and paints I already had).

7. I've had this empty frame sitting around with intentions of making an earring holder for over a year. I finally did it this weekend! I just stapled burlap to the frame with a regular old stapler, painted my first initial in the middle, and hung it up. Easy - I should have done it a year ago!

8. I made these when Carson came home. It's a Crockpot Chicken Caesar sandwich recipe I found here. I added bacon, since we had it and since most Caesar sandwiches have bacon - excellent addition. We'll make this again for sure. Very easy, not very healthy, and makes great leftovers.

9. I found this old shelf at Goodwill and painted it red. It will go above the stove in the kitchen (as opposed to the one in the bedroom?). It's not the prettiest, but that space needed something and I think a shelf will do the trick.

10. I don't think any non existent guests will have trouble finding it, but just in case, I hung these up on the door. I felt like making a sign of some sort and this was the only option that came to mind. I received the tags as a gift and LOVE them. If I had more, I'd label everything. I really enjoy labeling.

11. Our fall table. It's evolved a little bit, but these branches of fake leaves were $0.50 so I stuffed three of them in my pretty blue mason jar.

12. Hung this up in the bathroom. I'll show a picture of the whole room soon so you can see where it is, but I  wrote this C.S. Lewis quote on a piece of paper and cut burlap as a mat. Very simple. And by the way, yes, I did have a ton of burlap on hand.

13. I made breakfast sandwiches to freeze. The eggs were baked in muffin tins, which I'm for sure trying again (I had visions of exploding egg on the side of my oven, but had no problems) I haven't tried one, but I doubt you can go wrong with English muffins, cheese and egg. I may fry a little of that bacon to put on top. These will be great to grab and go.

14. This isn't going to stay on the wall, but we have a long, empty wall in the living room that just looks so WHITE and sad. So I grabbed a bunch of pictures and made a collage. It's too cluttery to keep forever, but the pictures are fun to look at, and it was free. Eventually, I'd like a big painting here.

15. I cleaned my makeup brushes using vinegar and Dawn dish soap - it worked better than brush cleaner and they're so soft now!

16. I made pumpkin bread. I'm actually not sure if this is cake or bread, but here's what I did: a spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin, one egg and a dash of milk. I threw it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes and it was perfect! I hadn't baked in a long time and this was so easy that I'll probably do it again!