So I had this great idea...since I have buttons coming out of my ears, I decided to display them in my empty Frappuccino bottles. Really, they could be used for anything; beads, jewelry findings, sewing notions, even loose change! The possibilities are endless. I wanted a LOT of Frappuccino bottles, so I enlisted s few friends with a similar addiction to help me collect them. Soon enough I had Frappuccino bottles coming out my ears! Hubby says he's gonna blog me if I get anymore, lol! He's so funny :)

 First I washed them in hot, soapy water with a little bleach cleaner poured in. This step is important because you want to kill any bacteria that can make your buttons smell like rotten milk. I know because I have some. They stink! At first I didn't use bleach; in my haste to make this great button display I cleaned with soapy water, dried and added buttons. Later when I opened one to use the buttons, a horrible plastic/rotten milk stench came out! Whew! Needless to say, those first ones have to be re-cleaned and hopefully airing out the buttons will take away the smell. One of my friends rinsed the bottles they collected, keeping the lids off, and the other friend didn't. By the time I got around to cleaning my huge stash of bottles out, I was very happy with my friend that rinsed them for me!

Pinterest!!!

I found an awesome site named Pinterest; a photo sharing social media site like FaceBook, but without the whining! LOL. Users can compile their favorite things from any site on Pinboards on their profile, creating beautiful collages of collected items. Each pin keeps it's source code, so users can pin a recipe, for example, and when they're ready to make it, they click on the picture of that recipe, and they are instantly taken to the original blog or website where the recipe was found. Ingenious! Gone are the days of storing files of pictures & text docs on your hard drive, taking up space and taking 100X longer to set up! Pinning takes a moment; one can easily amass thousands of pins in a matter of days (trust me, I did!) I'm hopelessly addicted to Pinterest, and I know you'll love it too! It's the ultimate organizational tool :)

Here are just a few of my boards: Party Ideas, Beautiful Places, Vintage Goodness Organize it! & Jewelry.

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Christmas Projects

I know Christmas is over, but I'm finally getting time to blog about some fun projects I worked on. This fruit tree was fun but time-consuming. First I cut out shapes with tiny cookie cutters from Michael's in star, flower & bell shapes. Then, using a 9" foam cone and a box of toothpicks, I began attaching the fruit to the cone in a varying pattern. I tried not to put any two colors together, which gives the tree more interest. I started at the bottom & worked my way up, filling in small spaces with cranberries & blueberries. It was helpful to cut the toothpicks in half with my wire cutters using short ones for most of the fruit. For the strawberries, I used 3 uncut toothpicks to stabilize them, since they were so heavy & large. Oh, make sure you start out with a nice plate too; you don't want to move the tree onto one afterwards! Credit: Thethriftymama

 

The gingerbread house was a kit that I bought at Michael's as well. It came with everything you need, including instructions. This took several hours, depending on how detailed your decorations become. I displayed these at our church's New Year's Eve Game Night, and they were a hit! Something naughty & nice ;)