Craftyminx

Nail Polish Organization - Part 1

Apparently the end of 2011 has turned me into a "project" freak. Here's another project I started last night -- operation organize the nail polish. I have a nail polish situation to say the least...

I know to those of you who aren't nail polish lovers this seems like a lot and it is but I've seen way bigger collections, but let's just say that it's big enough to need some organization. So I found every single bottle I own, put them all on a fold out table in my living room, and got started. 

The first thing I did was sort the polishes by color:

Purples, greens, yellows, blues, and teals

Oranges, reds, pinks, and multi (glitters with more than one color)

And finally neutrals, metallic and clear coats

The drawers I keep my polish in are called melmers, they are those white scrapbooking paper storage drawers that you can get at Michael's They look like this. I lined my drawers with non-slip shelf liner to keep the bottles from sliding around. Right now, the whole collection fits in the three drawers and I have a little space to grow. If it gets any bigger I'm going to move them all to the container store shoe boxes, one color per box.

I also have these nail color wheels that I use to swatch every color I buy. These help me see all my colors at a glance without having to dig through drawers when I want to do a manicure. My manicures rarely involve only one color so its nice to be able to see things paired together in actual swatches of color. 

Then what did my geeky librarian self do? I created a google docs form and spreadsheet for entering in all my polishes. 

You all know how much I love utilizing google docs from my wedding (we used them for everything!). And now that I have an iPad I love it even more. I can take that or my iPhone to the store with me and look to see if I already have a color and even enter stuff in as I buy it. Since there is a time-stamp that shows when the new entry was added,  it will time-stamp when polishes were purchased if I add them close to the date of purchase. I can even share my spreadsheet with a friend so they can see what colors I have.  

I'm trying to add this to the google template gallery so you all can use it too but I'm having issues with it right now. For some reason the form isn't wanting to work on the template version but works fine on my version. So if you have a massive nail polish collection and want my template let me know and I'll share a copy of it with you. I'll add a link to the template once I get it working.

I'll let you know how it all turns out. I have to work fast because it is taking up valuable living room space (aka Dash running around space). 

I'm also getting the bug to minimize my wardrobe. This blog post has been something I continually think about. I think of Diana as being a fashionable person and if she can get by with a minimal wardrobe, so can I! I don't HAVE to have a new outfit for every occasion. Anyway that's another post for another day... If I can talk myself into it. As you can see from my nail polish issue, minimalism is not my forte.

Are you a generally organzied person or someone who goes through waves of organization? I'm totally a waves person. I'm great at organizing, but keeping everything in its place is really hard!!! I really WANT to be the type of person that doesn't care about things and has so little that organization is easy, but that's just not me (hello boarderline hoarder personality).

*sorry about the iPhone photos. I wasn't really planning on doing a blog post about this but it ended up being a much bigger deal than I planned -- story of my life!

Uncovering gems

Remember back in July when I went to Las Vegas to see my new niece? Well you might not, because I totally dropped the ball on uploading photos from our trip. This is a common occurrence in my life, especially when they are family photos. I take too many, get overwhelmed by all the editing work, and uploading to flickr ahead of me and then forget about them. When I was gathering photos of our last year for my end of the year post I remembered that I never shared anything from our trip. These photos have been on my laptop quietly awaiting seeing the light of day. 

We went to the Grand Canyon on our way to Vegas. I was so very excited about all the photo opportunities I would have there. I even rented a wide angle lens just for the occasion. And then it  rained the entire time we were there. It was really cold and windy too. In July! All of these reasons made me a really awful person that day. I was grouchy and pouty because my plans didn't go as expected. I took a lot of photos of the canyon, but they were all flat looking on my camera. It was really cloudy and foggy and did I mention rainy?

* I just had to edit this to add this photo. It perfectly documents my feelings at the time. Cold and Unhappy.

My photos just didn't have the color in them that I wanted them to have. Sheldon was really patient with me as I was grousing about how sucky the day was. He and his brother were having the time of their lives and he didn't understand why I was so upset. "Those photos might look crappy right now, but once you get them on the computer and can edit them a little they'll look great. Besides, everyone can get good photos here when it's nice out, these photos will be different because it's so cloudy." 

So I uploaded them all to flickr last night. All 5000 of them from our entire trip. I'll weed through them on there, my computer tends to be slow when dealing with a lot of photos in findr. And I ran a few through picnik (these are a little more edited than I would normally do but I like them). The colors started coming out and the clouds really do look pretty good (before and after below). My husband was right. (He'll love that when he reads this haha... You were right Sheldon.) They still aren't what I envisioned but they capture the day and I guess that's all that matters.

I don't think of myself as a photographer at all. I'm just a blogger with a camera, but I'm glad that these photos are starting to look better and show me that my grumpy attitude was really unfounded. So one of my projects for the next few weeks is to go through all these photos edit them and make them pretty. They deserve that. I also have photos of us with Charlotte that need some work too. I'm not going to blog them (probably) but I'll make a flickr set and direct you all there when they're ready for some browsing. 

I hope to get an eye-fi card for my camera for my birthday. That way all photos go directly to flickr and I might be more likely to work with them right away. Do any of you have an eye-fi? What do you think of it?

Christmas at the Ranch

We had a really low key Christmas at my parent's house this year. It was nice not having to worry about a whole lot of family or holiday events. It was really nice getting to spend quality time with my mom and Sheldon really enjoyed getting to spend quality time with their cable watching bowl games. We did a lot of baking and cooking including making sinful cinnamon rolls and the family tradition of making homemade egg noodles (something my grandpa did for every family holiday meal). 

The boys got matching collars on Christmas Eve. We open pjs early every year so we thought these would be cute for the dogs :)

My mom surprised me with a quilt that she finally finished making for me after 11 years.

This tag is on the back of it. 

It is king sized and was hand quilted. It was pretty much the quilt that got her started with quilting and she's made many quilts since this one. I'm so happy that she finally finished my quilt. We're going to sleep with it tonight as my mom told me that I have to use it at least once for good luck. We'll use it a lot once we have a bigger bed. 

I also got a Red Velvet First Date dress from my parents! I've wanted one of the plus size dresses from this line since they were released, but funds were never available when I thought about getting one, so I was very happy that my mom listened to my hints :)

I think it's a little short for work so it will have to be a going out dress, but I'm totally in love with it!

Sheldon spoiled me with new earrings, two vintage aprons for my collection, the 24 color set of Martha Stewart glitter and more fun totally Dana things. He knows me well. 

I got Sheldon a humidor and some other very Sheldon things. 

The dogs really enjoyed the antlers Santa Paws left in their stockings.

Dash has since decided that both of them are his and often tries to chew on them both at the same time, greedy bastard. 

All I wanted was a picture of the two dogs sitting in front of the tree. Dewey would have absolutely nothing to do with this idea and Dash made it incredibly hard and decided to conveniently forget how to sit. 

Stinker - btw I usually post photos of him being cute or sleeping but his is what he looks like about 75% of the time. 

He finally sat for me although it's not the perfect photo I envisioned haha.

 And to top off a great weekend. We came home to a box with these inside from Sheldon's brother and Sister-in-law. 

We haven't taken them off since Sunday, sadly. 

Crazy Christmas Card Process (with outtakes)

As I said last week, our Christmas cards have turned into quite the ordeal over the years. The first year was really thrown together at the last minute. Sheldon had this idea to take a picture of us dressed up fancy in front of a fireplace with the dogs, I had an idea of us in ugly Christmas sweaters. We couldn't decide which to take so we took both and I photoshopped the Christmas sweater pic over the mantle like it was the previous year's photo. We don't have a fireplace so we went to a friends house who has one and he took our photo. It was pretty frantic and all done in like 10 minutes.

The next year, we had a plan in place early on, then Bella passed away and we decided we didn't want to do our photo without her. But at the last minute, I got the bug and made our costumes for a blog party I was a part of and then turned our dining room into a winter wonderland in one afternoon when Sheldon was away. Could you imagine coming home to this?

We added Bella's embroidered portrait to the tree so she could be in the photo with us. I'm still sad that we didn't get to have her in the photo with her little antlers on. It would have been sooo cute! The only thing photoshopped into this picture is the text "happy holidays". We opted to print these as photos really cheaply through bonusprint who at the time was the cheapest for getting 125 5x7s printed. I backed these cards with card stock and a message from us and Dewey's paw print.

I thought I'd share our process for any of you that might want to do the same thing next year.

Brainstorm 

We usually think of ideas for our card all year long. Sheldon is really great at coming up with the idea for the card and I'm really good at all the visual details and technical issues (basically putting his idea to life). This year we had a really awesome idea (The Grinch) and then we got Dash and couldn't really figure out how to fit him into our plan so Sheldon decided it would be fun for the photo to be of us opening presents on Christmas morning with him being disheveled and bummed to open the box with Dewey and me being excited to open the box with the new puppy. 

Visual Inspiration

Every year I try to find some kind of visual for me to get my creative juices flowing. This image conveyed what we wanted the first year. Last year was of course elf. This year I came across this photo on pinterest and knew it would be the visual inspiration for our photo this year. 

Define needs

The next thing I do is combine Sheldon's idea with the visual inspiration and start making a list of what we will need to pull off our photo. This year was actually really easy. We have a huge roll of kraft paper that we wrap all of our presents with and we had a bunch of chalk left over from our wedding (backdrop finished). I had two sets of sock monkey pajamas that we could wear to be cute and matchy and we had boxes from previous craft show props we could put the dogs in. We also set up a time-line.

Make-it happen

We usually set one day to do all the set-up and photography. This year since the backdrop was so big, getting everything done in one day was a must because it covered the whole wall (door included) in our living room.We ended up having to do it all in an evening after work because our weekends were all crazy.  In one night, we (me and my friend Meg) drew the backdrop. Then it took the three of us to hang it up. 

It was probably 11 by the time all of that was finished. Then I set up the camera (with our remote) and lighting. This is when the fun happens. We had a lot of issues with the dogs this year and had to call in reinforcements (you can see the outtakes below). Levi came over and was able to keep the dog's attention enough for us to  get enough photos. He would make a sound to get them to look at him then take the photo using the remote. He really was a lifesaver this year. 

Edit, Design, and Print

I edited this photo pretty minimally. I smoothed out the background and lightened it up a bit. We usually just pop the photo into a pre-made photo card design. Last year we didn't but it was a lot of work making the backs for all of the cards. Picking a design is always hard for us. Sheldon doesn't like anything too girly and of course I always go for pink ;)  The photo is always the most important part though is it's often difficult to find a pre-made layout that works with the photo. This year, I just happened to come across a perfect one!  The colors matched and everything!! Next year, we're picking out the design we want before we take the photo so I can make sure the photo will fit the card. 

Like I said, it is a process, but it's worth it in the end. We always have fun and end up with a great photo in the end. And I didn't say this before but Sheldon hates being photographed unless we're doing something silly so this is pretty much my only way to get photos of us together ;)

Ok, Ok, Here are the outtakes from the last two years. I lost the photos from the first year when our laptop got stolen :( 

Merry Christmas!!!

To my dearest blog friends have a Merry Christmas weekend!!!!

We're at my parents ranch this weekend where I will surely be doing lots of baking and catching up on my cable watching. I have a few favorite Christmas movies we haven't seen yet this year.  The dogs will be getting spoiled with lots of love from their gammy and pop pop and many many Christmas presents. 

Here's a better pic of our photo this year :)

Filled ornaments

When I was growing up my mom used to go to ornament parties where everyone would bring ornaments and a dish (with recipe card) and at the end of the day you had like 20 ornaments and recipes to take home. I participated in a couple of these and have a really big stash of homemade ornaments. This year I decided I wanted to start the tradition of making my nieces an ornament every year. When my friend Amy shared this blog post with me I knew my nieces needed candy filled ornaments :) I found these really cute heart shaped glass ornaments at Michael's that were perfectly sized to go on the top of their Christmas Presents. 

However, when I tried to make them using varnish like Little Gray Fox suggested, my ornament turned into this:

Not pretty! I think I didn't wait long enough for it to get tacky enough to add the sprinkles or I used the wrong kind of varnish. Oh well.

So I just filled the suckers up and added hot glue to the top so no little ones would try to pry out the sprinkles and put the caps back on. The ornaments were small enough that they weren't too heavy. I think I'll try the varnish thing again sometime, I have a dream of covering my white tree with candy type ornaments one day.

I have a huge collection of sprinkles to choose from so I ended up with this assortment of ornaments for the girls.

I had a couple of ornaments left and this huge container of yarn ends from my granny a day project (not sure why I'm keeping  them, but I am) so I made a couple of yarn ornaments too. 

Super easy, fairly inexpensive handmade ornaments! Now my wheels are turning for next year's ornaments. 

Do you have a lot of handmade ornaments or do you tend to gravitate towards other types of ornaments. For me, the last two years have been all about the colored balls on a white tree, but next year I think I'll pull out the handmade ones again. 

Christmas Wrapping

Last year, I bought a HUGE roll of brown kraft paper. It sits in our living room (mainly because it is too heavy to move anywhere else haha. I have used this paper to wrap every gift we give all year and it seems as though I haven't used any of it. I see using kraft paper as a challenge to be as creative as I can with my wrapping. I always like a candy colored Christmas house so that was kind of my inspiration this year. I bought some bright colored tinsel ribbon, stamped my own paper, and made ornaments for gift toppers. I even got out my letter stamps to stamp "to" and "from" on the tags. This has been my big project every night this week. 

I always wrap each present for our nieces individually. It's always really interesting when something comes in an odd shapped box. 

The gift sacks were inspired by this photo. 

Our tree is really quite sad this year. I decorated just enough of it to do my photoshoot for Deluxe and that's how it has been all season because I have been too busy to think about it. 

I tried a few different techniques for stamping the paper and I ended up using my foam stamps. I have a huge collection of these from the dollar bins at Michaels. For applying paint, I found that a really easy way is to make your own stamp pad out of a sponge. 

Just dampen the sponge, spread on some paint and get to stamping. I'm not really sure how I came up with this, but I think I thought about it at 3 am when Dash woke me up one night. I must have been dreaming of sponges.

Mix your own nail polish

I've been wanting to mix some of my own nail polish for awhile so I thought this might be a fun little DIY to do for any of you looking for some last minute stocking stuffers to make. I had so much fun with this that I'm going to order some bottles and start mixing some more of my own creations using actual pigments and different kinds of glitter.

I wanted to make a pink jelly based polish with pink glitter so I got a pink nail polish and my glitter, then I got an empty bottle to mix in and some clear nail polish that I don't use. You can mix everything in the clear nail polish bottle, but the one I had was frosted so I poured it into the clear bottle just so you all could see it better. I also made a little funnel out of the corner of an envelope for pouring in the glitter. 

Pour some clear polish into a clean bottle, or pour out a little of the clear polish if you're just adding to a new bottle of clear polish (you need to make room for additions). Add the colored polish by 5 drops at a time and shake to mix until it is the shade you want*. I just wanted mine a pink tinted jelly and it took about 20 drops of polish. Then use the funnel and pour in some glitter. I used a little less than a teaspoon. Then shake, shake, shake and shake some more. You can add those little mixing balls (or BBs) to it if you have any. They will help the glitter distribute throughout the polish better. 

Test it out! 

I think I have a new obsession :D. 

*A tiny disclaimer... Mix at your own risk. Different companies use different ingredients in their nail polish. If you want to play it safe, only mix polishes from the same brand this will ensure that you're not going to come across any chemical reactions (do as I say, not as I do haha). Also, there are cosmetic friendly glitters out there you can buy too  Lit Cosmetics and Eye Kandy are two brands I have used in the past.