10 Under $20

These are my most recent 10 under $20 treasures...

Enjoy!

image credit

1. The Olympics: FREE (with your cable subscription, of course!)

2. Spotify: FREE to $9.99/month for Premium (no commercials/ads and works beautifully on your smartphone!)

3. LOST Season One: $19.99 from Amazon

4. Adventure Time! magnets: $6.99 from FYE

5. Arnold Palmer Half & Half Iced Tea/Lemonade: $2.99 from Publix (or your local grocery store)

6. Betsey Johnson bracelets and necklaces: select items are half off at Macy's (in store only, I believe)!  That means this $35 bracelet went down to $17.50...so, naturally, I bought TWO!

7. Floral drinking glasses: $6.99 for six from Ikea

8. Assorted lip glosses: $7.50 each (and buy 2 get 1 free) from Bath and Body Works

9. Teal moccasins: $17.99 from Target

10. Teal and yellow top: $10 from Target

Happy Treasure Hunting!

Missing! Have you seen him?!

I posted a sign at the mini amphitheater at my local park...I hope someone has seen him!  I miss him terribly, deeply.

Ricky, where are you???

DIY Wall Decor

Design a plethora of these lovely tokens and you have a colorful, unique art display that serves as wall decor!

Plan an arrangement and then simply staple, tape, pin, or nail your ribbons to the wall.

DIY found here.

Happy Decorating!

SHHHHHHHHHH!

feel free to copy and print out your own "gnome home" sign;

we gotta do our part to protect our magical forest friends,

am i right?

(this must be done secretly, however; don't get caught!)

Build a Monument

Nature waits for you to use its tools to create something new today...

feel free to copy and print out your own "build a monument" sign; inspire your community!

(you must do this secretly, though; don't get caught!)

What time is it?

Now you, too, can enjoy PB's delicious pink milkshake from the Adventure Time! episode Video Makers!

Happy Milkshaking!

(original milkshake recipes found here and here 

and of course, PB belongs to Adventure Time! and Cartoon Network)

TRUE or FALSE.

(i am planning on installing some guerrilla art in a hidden forest)

(i stole this bike...and the water bottle, too)

(this was left behind for me...by strangers...or gnomes)

(there is a secret forest sleeping in the center of a busy city by the sea)

(this hidden forest amphitheater aches for plays on its stage)

Mini Terrarium DIY

In case you haven't noticed, darlings, I've become quite obsessed with terrariums.  I've made larger terrariums, which can be super beautiful, but I thought that little baby mini terrariums would make quick, cute gifts!

Supplies: pebbles, activated carbon/charcoal, stones, potting soil (not shown here), a glass jar (a pickle or jam jar works), and a succulent or cactus.

First add a layer of pebbles and mix in a handful of the activated carbon/charcoal.  I made four mini terrariums and varied the height of the pebble layers, just to experiment with different looks; I recommend doing the same!

Add potting soil, which should reach the top.  Make a pocket in the soil so that your plant will easily fit in.  Once you've added your plant, make sure to add more soil and pack it in gently with your fingers.  Water your plant carefully until you see water drip into the stones below.

Finally, add any decorative touches that strike your little fancy; I like to add different colored stones, but shells and other natural finds could work well, too!

Remember to water your plant every week or so, when the soil seems dry.  Make sure your plant gets some sun--but not direct sun--every day to make it happy.

And...can you keep a secret?

I plan on giving away my mini terrarium lovelies as house-warming gifts for my sisters, who are moving away to college next month...hurrah!

Happy mini gardening!

Meanwhile...

Baby terrarium DIY coming soon!

In the meantime, enjoy some story time!

Some worlds are monumental:

Giza pyramids and super novas and golden gates and coral kingdoms.

Some worlds are monstrous:

riddling sphinxes and black holes and political un-heroes and 3000-toothed beasts.

Some worlds are masterpieces:

buried treasure tombs and comet dust rings and rainbow graffiti brick walls and iridescent sea dragons.

Some worlds are musical:

drums like heartbeats and silence like emptiness and rappers like metaphors and whales like lovers.

Some worlds are mine:

holding your hand through a sandstorm and exploding into crystal meteors and documenting exquisite moments and building tiny gardens for my loves to survive.

Turn a candy mess into kitchen art!

What do you do when you have a candy pile mess like you see below?  What do you do when your candy people grumble that their original wrappers are now open and they're starting to go stale?  What do you do when you can't find the candy you want because it's buried below other yummy treats?  Why, you transform your mess into an adorable piece of art!

What better way to satisfy their need for sturdier homes and my eye for the aesthetic by transforming canning jars(I just save and clean old jam jars, but pickle jars work okay, too; just make sure you really scrub out that pickle smell from the lids) into lovely glass abodes for my scrumptious treats?

Not only do I now have a cute little display of kitchen art, but all the candy people are happy as can be!

                                                                     

                            

 

 images of Candy People belong to Cartoon Network and were found at this mathematical website

Happy munching/chewing/savoring/nibbling/organizing!

Makeup Table Makeover!

             What's that, you say?  Such an adorable

             little beauty product display, you say?

             Well, it wasn't always that way; take a

             look for yourself:

              Eeek!  What a mess!  Sure, the beauty

              products are grouped by category--lotions,

              lip glosses, perfumes, body sprays--but

              it doesn't feeeeel organized, and quite

              frankly, that is not a feeling I enjoy

              in the least.  So, what to do?

           Gather up some cute plates, trays, glasses,

           buckets, and other curiosities--such as bird

           cages, tins, ceramic bowls, honey pots,

           pitchers (you get the idea)--to experiment

           with.  The more you have to begin with, the

           more you have to play around with and the more

           likely you'll be to find a layout/arrangement

           that you like.  You don't have to use everything

           (I didn't use the bird cage in the end), but

           it's nice to have options.

           My lip glosses fit nicely into short glasses,

           my lotions now sit atop a vintage rose tray,

           a small ceramic plate was perfect for my

           collection of body sprays, and larger lotions

           and body sprays are situated perfectly into

           cute tin buckets I bought at Ikea.

              Now I have a delightful little beauty

              product table with a delightful clean,

              organized feel to it.  So very simple,

              no?

Yes!

What time is it?

ADVENTURE TIME!

               First, a quick little Adventure Time

               DIY from the "Card Wars" episode:

               using a Sharpie, write "COOL GUY" on

               one white ceramic mug and "DWEEB" on

               the other.  Bake both mugs in the oven

               for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Then

               have some wars of your own to decide

               who gets "COOL GUY" and who gets "DWEEB"!

               (thanks to ElsieCake for the Sharpie/mug diy!)

Foes...or friends?

(I think we all know the answer to this one...)

               Jake the Dog has wandered from the

               Land of Ooo into the Terrarium Territory,

               and he's become mesmerized by the

               whispered secrets of some juicy little

               succulents.

               Will he ever escape?!  Will Finn the

               Human save him?!  We may never know.

              (but I think, deep down, we all know)

                Happy Adventuring, Candy People!