Merry Christmas Frankie. With Love, Auntie Jenna

It took a lot of self restraint not to post about the gift that I made my nephew, Frankie, for Christmas before today... But, let's face it, a gift for a one year old is really a gift for his/her parents... fortunately my sister and brother in-law support me enough to read my blog... unfortunately, they are the reason why you are just reading about this DIY project now. The idea to make Frankie's gift struck me while I was running a few errands around the city. I happened to pop into Home Depot (shocking, right?!) and made my way to the "Oops paint section." If you've read this blog from its inception, you know that I am a big fan of the Oops section. During this particular trip to the Depot, I found a pint of vibrant blue paint for $0.50. Yes, fifty measly cents.

Not sure what I was going to use this pint o' paint for, I wandered over to the scraps of the lumber section- it was here where I came across a piece of pine... a perfect piece of pine. She was a beauty: 5.5 inches wide, 48 inches tall and nick free. Cue the light-bulb over my head.

Here is what transpired following that trip to Home Depot:

Making Frankie's growth chart really was quite easy- I divided the project into stages and tackled one at a time. This forced me not to rush (which I am prone to do when working on these sorts of things). From start to finish, it took me 3 weeks to complete and cost me just over $30 (Stain, paint, wood, stencils, oil based paint marker). Read on for the steps I took to make the chart.

Step 1) Sand on. Sand Off. 

Using fine sandpaper, I gently sanded the wood- concentrating on any ragged edges. Once done, I wiped the whole thing down with a damp rag to remove any dust or dirt. When the wood was completely dry, I applied a thin coat of stain- once that was dry (approximately 5 hours later), I applied a second coat. 

I used a two in one primer/stain. This not only saved me some time, but money too.

I opted to stain the back of the wood even though it will eventually be against the wall.  This step is optional, but I think it makes the finished product more "finished". I wrote Frankie a little Merry Christmas note on the back of the chart too.

Step 2) Make the mark(s)

Similar to the inch markers on a ruler,  the foot markers on the growth chart should be the most prominent. I used horizontal pieces of painter's tape and a basic 12 inch ruler to mark off where each line should go. 

Before painting, I placed a piece of painter's tape, longways, down the wood so that each foot line was the same length. 

After aggressively smoothing down the edges of the tape, I painted the markers (using white paint and a tiny paint brush that I already owned). Once the foot markers were dry, I repeated these steps for the half-foot and quarter-foot markers- just being sure to make the lines thinner and shorter than the ones I made right before.

Step 3) I wish I skipped this Step

In an effort to save a few pennies, I opted to create my own letter stencils. If and when I make another one of these charts, I will not be so over zealous and will buy stencils.

*** If you decide to make a growth chart AND go all gangbusters (read: make your own stencils), make sure you paint over them with your stain  (and let dry) before painting the letters with a colored paint. This bonds the edges to the wood and prevents the colored paint from seeping under the tape.

4) Get Your Paint On

This is the pointillism technique by way of q-tip....super advanced stuff :)

Here is what the chart looked like when the letters were dry, messy edges were cleaned up, and I recovered from my self-induced anxiety attack (DIYing stencils is not for those that are Type A)

5) Paint dem digits.

I bought number stencils and a white, oil based, paint pen to paint the numbers on the chart... at the

very last minute used the paint pen to outline the F R A N K I and E to help the letters pop and also used it to paint the note on the back of the chart that is pictured above.

6) Last but not Least 

I attached two clawed pictured hangers that I already owned to the top/back of the wood  and then wrapped it up to go under the tree! I tied a new oil based paint marker in the bow of the present so that my sister and BIL had something to mark the chart with as Frankie gets taller.

And there you have it, a DIY growth chart - Made with Love, Paid with Pennies style.

Graph Paper: Kicked Up a Notch

Perhaps it's a sign of my inner-nerd (I'm sure some would argue  that it's not so "inner") but, when I created the trick that I am about to share with you, I had to restrain from fist pumping and breaking out into a very exaggerated victory dance. For some this trick may seem trivial, silly even... and maybe the mysterious nature of this intro is an unnecessary lead in to the rest of this post...but (cue exaggeration), I think I may have made the world a little bit better of a place with this one.

I was given the task of redesigning a bedroom with dimensions that are slightly larger than a queen sized bed (60x80).

The redesign had to include the following:

1) Space for hanging clothes
2) Space for folded clothes
3) Desk/Study space (with an area for books and office supplies)
4) A queen sized bed
5) Space to walk ( perhaps the hardest component of this project)

I am a DIYer, not a magician, but I was determined to make this room functional, organized, and feel as spacious as possible.

Figuring out how much space, beyond the queen sized bed, that I had to work on was obviously an essential first step, but simply drawing a floor plan wouldn't suffice. So I DIYed some graph paper in Excel...here is how:

Highlight all of the cells by clicking the small triangle in the upper left hand corner of your workbook (A)

Click the "Format" button located in the Home ribbon to adjust your cells height and width (B)- your row height should be 9 and your cell width should be 1.

And there you have it: Excel graph paper. Awesome, huh?
and your scale? 1 box=1 inch.

This room is tiny and has a awkward shape which makes for quite a bit of unusable space. I wanted to know the exact dimensions of the areas that I could utilize so, instead of simply using lines out outline the floor plan, I used the number 1...it looked like this:

Dragging my mouse along a wall of 1's (and looking at the sum in the bottom right hand corner) told me how much room I was working with- no adding and no guesstimating.

From there, I created shapes (using the "shapes" tool under the "insert" tab) to represent different pieces furniture. I rearranged the shapes until I settled on the final layout. These shapes turned into my shopping list.

Moving? Rearranging? Make some excel graph paper...you won't regret it 

PS: For those of you who cannot get enough of this post (Excel graph paper is a riveting topic afterall), below is an image of the storage system that I installed in the room described above:

Desk? Check

Hanging clothes? Check

Folded clothes? Check

Horrible image quality? Check

The best part is that every piece that you see in the system came from the clearance section of the Container Store. I ended up working with a fantastic sales associate at the NYC (6th ave) store. She and I were literally scouring the store for discounted pieces (basement included). To say she hopped on my "made with pennies" bandwagon would be an understatement. Pauline, this is a shout out to you! Thank you for helping me turn an $800 project into a $192 project! 

Closet Capacity Goes from None to Some

Living in New York has its pains…. paying (incredibly) high rent for an (incredibly) small space, (trying) to catch a cab when it’s raining, riding (read: melting on) the subway in the summer months…Just to list a few.

I have yet to find a solution for the high rent, drenched walks home, or muggy subway rides, but what I have been able to do is maximize space in my (under) 400sqft studio apartment.

Finding an apartment in New York is a feat of its own, I’d reckon that it is near impossible not to feel defeated in the process. I looked at over 15 studio apartments before I “pulled the trigger” on mine. What this really means is that I looked at 15 apartments that were either smaller than my wing span, cost more than a Birkin Bag, or ranked a 10 on the 1-10 Dirty Scale.

So, when I walked into my (now) apartment, I quickly realized that I had to snatch it up…renovated, 2^nd floor, in my price range, and four...yes, FOUR windows…I knew I had found a gem.

One thing that I didn’t think of: closet space.

You must think I am drinking again. (actually, I am…enjoying a nice glass of wine after a hellish Monday) but that is besides the point.

Here is my apartment before I moved in…

I get it, it is not much...but it was like striking gold during my apartment hunt. 

You've already seen the after .... but what I left out when I posted about my new studio in the city was the battle that my wardrobe fought with my closet (or lack-thereof)... if it wasn't for my drill, my level, a handful of screws, and Ikea, my clothes would still be on the floor.

With no real plan in place, I added the following items to my Ikea.com cart:

(4) MULIG Clothes bars 

(2) ALGOT Wall Uprights

(4) ALGOT Brackets and (2) ALGOT Shelves

(2) KVARTAL Triple Curtail Rail ,(4) KVARTAL Cieling Fixtures, and (2) packages of the KVARTAL Gliders and Hooks

As soon as they were all delivered I got to work.
3 Hours later, I had sore shoulders, tired hands, lots of pencil marks on my wall, and a "Custom" closet

  

Overall this project cost me under $100. I had the curtains already, the clothes bars were a mere $4.99 each, and the shelving units came in under $30.

Installation was a pain, but that was mostly because I was impatient and wouldn't wait for someone to help me. It took some acrobatics, and some spiderman-like moves, but in the end I am proud to say that I completed this solo.

New post, no joke.

I was recently asked to share a "fun fact" about myself and responded with: "I write a DIY decorating blog".

As soon as those words left my mouth, I called BS (internally, of course). The last post that I published was about my sister's baby shower...we celebrated my nephew's first birthday two weekends ago.

I, my friends, am a blogger that once was. 

With this said, I have every desire to return to the blogging world....to make things out of love but pay mere pennies to create them. I sincerely miss scouring the aisles of goodwill in search for a gem disguised as junk. The thing is that, despite yearning to make headboards out of shower curtains, my current living situation makes DIYing ridiculously difficult.

So, what's a girl to do? Complain or confront a challenge? My answer: a little of the former and a lot of the latter.

I mentioned in my second ever blog post that I am a big fan of Apartment Therapy... especially the apartment tours. When I started blogging, I decided to create my own tours..those tabs at the top of this page: Boston Studio, Uptown Loft, Tree House... yep, those are them.

Given that this is my second ever attempt to get back on the blogging saddle,  I suppose that it is only fitting that I give you a bit of a life update (what's a blog without some personal juicy stuff) and a new apartment tour.

I have found myself living in New York City... what?! Yes, I am a resident of the big apple, and have been since this past October. Oh, and I work in fashion.

How does one go from living in Boston working in finance, to living in Charlotte working in sports television to living in Manhattan working in fashion? Teach barre, that's how.

You guys must think I am drinking...

You know that I am passionate about decorating and DIYing, but what you may not know is that I am equally passionate about fitness- during the time that I was neglecting Made with Love, Paid with Pennies, I got certified to teach Barre.

One of my regulars took note of my energy level at 6am and took a liking to my rather "intense" personality. She asked me to interview for a position on her team... I told her I wasn't looking for  job. She then mentioned that she was a VP at a fashion company in NYC... you can guess the rest.

See, not drinking.

So, here I am bringing MWLPWP to the big city. Buckle up. The blogging may be sporadic and inconsistent, but I will do my best.

Take a look at my new apartment tour by clicking the  "NYC Studio" tab above.

Enjoy!

boy oh boy! Baby Shower Part 2

My calf muscles are killing me.

Not because I walked a mile in stilettos, and not because I worked extra hard in my flywheel spin class---I am in pain because my sister's baby shower turned into a jump rope-a-thon (I think it may have had something to do with the "non-prego" punch.

I'm not sure how the jumping ensued, but before you knew it, my cousin Marci and I were changing out of our dresses and into gym clothes...and hydrating with a little Sav Blanc in-between acts. Keeping. It. Classy.

Anyway, I mentioned in Baby Shower Part 1 that I took it easy on the DIY decorations this time around...I already posted about the free "it's a boy" sign I made, but wanted you guys to take a look at what else I put together on the cheap...hey, I need something to do while the icy hot soaks in :)

Even though I didn't have one, I had to come up with a plan b for my decorations.

I had pinned this on Pinterest -

-and was so excited to copy the idea using baby photos of my sister and her husband. My mom even bought me a helium tank so that the balloons floated to the ceiling. 30 helium filled balloons later, I attached the first picture to the bottom of a balloon's string- and it sunk to the floor. boo.

I had to improvise seeing as this was really all I had thought of for decorations... I came up with this chandelier mobile...

I used double sided tape to attach a picture of Dave to a picture of Alyssa- this way, no matter where you were looking from, you saw a photo and not an ugly white photo back.
You can kind of see the green balloons floating on the ceiling in the photo above ...I find it extremely annoying when projects don't go as planned...oh well.

No baby shower is complete without a few corny games for guests to play. I didn't stray too far from the norm here...there was some serious "Baby Shower Bingo" competition... and lets not talk about the "How Many Jelly Beans" game... super aggressive ladies.

Just kidding, the games went over well-and, get this, my Granny (paternal) guessed the number of Jelly beans SPOT ON. My Grandma (maternal) was one off...smart genes I have, huh? I made both the bingo board and the "how many jelly bean's do you think are in the bottle" cards in Microsoft Word. Super easy, no template, and once again- free!

The last bit of baby shower pizzazz that I added to the house is this clothes line. It doubled as my gift to my sister, and made for a conversation piece "oh my goodness, look how tiny that bathing suit is!"

Notice the T-Shirt on the far left? Lenny & Joes! Maybe one day my nephew will have enough L&J T-shirts for me to make him a quilt! (if you have no idea what I am talking about, check out this post)

My favorite thing on the clothesline is a DIY piece, but I didn't make it... I got this fantastic burp cloth from a shop on Etsy.com called "Bellabugs Baby Boutique" I apologize to all you Dukies out there (especially my cousin Cameron and Uncle Dave who gave Alyssa the bib she is holding)....

A few more baby boy touches around the house and we were set to go!

This amazing cake was made by my Auntie Di- aka the family cake boss.

And there you have it, Mission Baby Shower : Complete!