DIY Pen Holders

While I have been slowly cleaning, sorting, purging and trying to organize the office – let alone *find* my desk – I stumbled upon a project that I had planned but never had the time to execute. All the supplies were RIGHT THERE in one spot so I decided to take a break from cleaning to craft up a fun & budget friendly DIY pen holder.

I transformed an empty tea canister using some scrapbook paper. I cut it to fit and taped into place. (BTW: That flavour or Tetley is very tasty in case you were wondering 😉 )

Voila! The finished products.  Aren’t these lil holders cute?  The tea canister, I use to hold paperclips.   I have more of these canisters and I plan to cover them as well with a different sheet of scrapbook paper to house binder clips, push pins and other misc small office supply items.  And yes I will be labeling the tops so the hubster can see what’s inside without having to open each canister.  (Yes, I have OCD with the label maker)

I had another can laying around at the time of crafting (cocoa or baking powder container – I can’t remember now) so I covered it tool. I chose to use cardboard containers vs metal cans so I wouldn’t run the risk of getting cut by any sharp edges.

Though there’s only a small area on my desk that’s clear, these canisters look awesome standing there, proudly holding my pens & paperclips.  The cost of covering these two canisters cost me less then a buck!! That’s right. Less. Than. One. Dollar.  I’ve seen similar pen holders retailing for over $10!  This was totally within the budget AND I was able to recycle/upcycle.

Have you done any fun DIY/recycling crafty projects around the house lately?

DIY / Home Renovations

What is it about DIY / home renovations that sets everyone’s heart a flutter? I mean seriously, its a huge romantic idea that everyone loves thinking about, planning, picking out decor items etc.  But when the time comes down to roll up your sleeves and get cracking, people drag their behinds?  Myself included.

Example: Our living room reno.

We have an old wood burning stove. It came with the house and we’ve never used it once.  Hubby and I decided to remove it since it was awkwardly placed in our living room. You either had to make it the focus of your space OR hide it.  We’ve done both.  Now we’ve decided to remove it and not have to choose how we centre and focus our living space.  By removing it, we’ve also free’ed up a TON of space.

We’ve been day dreaming of what we could do with the space once the stove has been removed.  Now, back down into reality, we’re loving going through the demo process – who doesn’t like smashing walls, tearing down wall panels etc?  But now, we’re hating the lugging out the demo’ed materials, cleaning up and my personal fave, concrete dust.  Have I shared with you my love of concrete dust?  UGH!  I am tired of living in a permanent cloud of dust/concrete dust.

But this is this is part of  the price we pay for falling into that romantic notion of a DIY / home reno.  Damn you HGTV and all your shows!

Update on our progress: Over the past week or two we’ve managed to lug out the cast iron wooden stove – must’ve weighed about 800 lb’s (give or take 100lbs) and torn down the flagstone/brick wall, pedestal base it rested upon and floor around it.  Lugged it all outside into a ‘Bagster’ (Dumpster bag made out of heavy duty tarp sold by Waste Management – sold at Home Depot $40 – this is the next greatest thing to renting a huge metal bin! Fill it up and call them to haul it away when ready.  We do have to pay a disposal fee but its less then $200.  How much more easy can it get?!)

As a result of the stove being removed, we peeked behind some of the wood paneling and shuddered.  Now the walls, insulation and ceiling tiles have come down in half of our living room.  We’ve found hidden junction boxes – nice huh? And we’ve fixed some minor electrical issues.

Since the room is basically ‘open’ – we’ve planned on changing up the room in a few new ways…see what I mean about day dreaming, fantasizing about home reno’s – its all romantic til you have to do it LOL.

Imitation Or Flattery?

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery … or is it?

Its understandable that people with similar interests & hobbies do end up liking and doing the same things as well as those that are close to you aka friends & family.  I get the whole “Oh thats cool! I wanna do that too!”  OR “I wanna try that!” after finding something on the net (ie via an awesome organizational blog ;)) or seeing something on TV / in a magazine (a la Martha Stewart).  After all, this is the day and age of DIY.  Whats even better is when your friends or family have already taken the guess work out of trying to figure out how to do the said ‘cool thing’.   All you have to do is swoop in and try to cash in on their glory.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m all for sharing cool new finds and ideas, especially boasting about new ones that have turned out successful but when you feel you’re being watched intensely so they can swoop in, it kinda takes the wind outta your sail.

At this point, you could be thinking “Put on your Big Girl panties and deal with it! Thats how life is!”  OR you could be sitting there totally in agreement with me.

What I want to know is at what point do you stop sharing your triumphs or call out your copy cats?