Friday, January 15, 2010

A Little Bit Goes a Long Way...

Well, this past week, we have been working on small projects around the house. It is amazing how such little improvements make such a major change in a room!  Take, for example, the outlets and light switches.  Every switch and outlet in the house was this ugly brownish-black, and the outlets were only two-pronged, so we needed to install new outlets that were grounded (making them safe and up to code!) but also consistent in color throughout the house.  We opted for white. 

We opted for white. Such a difference!

Another small project I accomplished was adding a little pizazz to this white nightstand, which used to be the TV stand in my first apartment.  

For this project, I started by finding some fabric (home decor fabric, to be more specific - so it's a little heavier than, say, quilting fabric) that would work as a nice accent color in this room (our guest bedroom - still in the making).  I bought a piece of posterboard at the fabric store, and cut it to the size of the glass.  Then, I ironed my fabric, and used some Fabri-Tac fabric glue - which is fabritastic! - to carefully and tightly wrap it around the back (pretty much like a package) and glue it in place.  This glue is mess-free and creates a quick bond.  I would recommend it in place of a hot glue gun anytime you need a thin but strong bond, don't want to sew, and are working with fabrics. I started in the middle of each side, working my way to the corners and finishing the corners last with a nice, tight fold & glue. Once it was dry, I simply placed it between the nightstand and the glass.  Easy as pie!

A close-up of the patterned "designer" fabric I purchased for only $9.99 per yard at my local JoAnn's.

And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to share the story of the date fund jar - an easy DIY project using a jar from IKEA, some magazine clippings, and the wonderfulness of mod podge - pictured below.  I made this as a Christmas present for Rob back in December 2004, and we've been using it as a cash/coin collection jar ever since.  Do we always use the money for a date? No... but at least we can see our pocket change add up in the end.  Over Christmas break, we took the jar to our local TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank), which has the Penny Arcade - a fee-free coin counting machine.  We saved up $166.58! And we're going to make it a yearly competition now that we're married to empty it just after Christmas each year to see how much we've saved, and if we've outdone the year before.  You can see our jar already has some $$$ for 2010! 
Does anyone else out there save up their change?  What do you use it on?

4 comments:

  1. Love that night stand - the fabric is so fun. I almost got a very similar from JoAnn's to cover a few pillows, but I'm waiting until my 50% coupon kicks in :)

    Dan and I save our change and are currently attempting to save up for a Disney cruise (...it's going to take a while haha). Your jar is much cuter than ours, though!

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  2. Hey Brittany! Thanks for the compliments. Do you know JoAnn's honors competitor's coupons (AC Moore, Michaels)? Mine does, at least, so you should ask! I know, I am all about the coupons and savings...

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  3. ooo that's awesome! i did not know that... thanks for the tip. I love coupons!

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  4. omg....awesome idea for the nightstand...such a cool idea!

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