15 Minutes of Cleaning a Day?

If you are a Pinterest stalker (and if you read this blog, well...ever, you know I am!) you may have seen this pin claiming you can clean your whole house in just 15 minutes a day.  I am skeptical, but I am also looking for a way to keep my weekend free for blogging, crafting, and working on large projects around the house (and maybe actually spending some quality time with my husband this school year!).  I don't normally post on Sundays, but I wanted to put this out there into the wild blogging yonder at the beginning of the week so I have something to hold me accountable.  At the end of the week, I will let you know how it goes!  Here is the plan:

Has anyone tried this plan?  Does it actually work?  Wish me luck!

DIY: Sparkly Keys

Hello fellow craftees and happy Friday!  Thought I would brighten up your Friday with a super easy and sparkly project.  This idea came about courtesy of Pinterest, and the fact that I had to get new copies of my house keys.  With my old set, the two keys looked different, but with the new one, they look exactly the same, so I needed a way to differentiate the two or I knew I would constantly be using the wrong key.  Time for some crafting.  Here's the finished product:

Cute right?  Here's how to make these bad boys:

1.  Gather supplies.  You need your keys, two colored nail polishes, one sparkly nail polish, and some painter's tape.

2.  Wrap the base of your key in the tape to prevent any spillage on the part of the key that actually functions.

3.  Coat the top part of your key in the colored nail polish until you are satisfied with the coverage (I used about two coats).  When it is dry, flip over and paint the other side.

4.  Make sure the colored part is completely dry and give the top part of the key a coat or two of glitter polish.  When the first side is dry, flip the key over and repeat.

5.  When the glitter is dry, remove the tape.  Now you have two easily distinguishable keys!

Note: As you can tell from the pics, I used a paper towel underneath this project, but foil or parchment paper would be better as the paper towel tended to stick to the wet nail polish.  But overall, a quick and easy project!  Wish I could do these to my work keys since I have about a million, but I doubt the school would appreciate that!

DIY Disney Shirts

So this post is coming to you thanks to the most adorable family we saw at Disneyland the other day.  Normally when we see large groups of people wearing matching shirts at the park, there is some eye-rolling and, from Mr. B, a look of don't-even-think-about-trying-to-get-me-to-wear-one-of-those-ever.  But when we saw this group in line for Toy Story, I almost squealed out loud (luckily I controlled myself) from the cuteness.  I was already in blogger mode taking pics for another Disney post I'm working on so I told myself to just bite the bullet and ask to take their pic.  Yeah, I totally chickened out, but Mr. B is never the shy one and he had no problem asking if I could take their picture for my blog.  And they were so cute and sweet and willing and didn't make me feel like a creepy stalker at all!  So here is the said adorable family and their super cute DIY shirts for their son's first birthday:

(Could their little one be any more precious?)

Really, did you not just go "Awwwwww"?  And BTW, taking a group to Disneyland for a 1st birthday is a brilliant idea since everyone can have fun, not just the baby!  Now I totally want to make my own Disney shirt, but obviously don't have a first birthday coming up, so I gathered some other DIY Disney images for inspiration.  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

Which one do you think I'm leaning toward?  I'm kind of bummed I didn't see the birthday shirts before my birthday a couple of weeks ago, although they definitely wouldn't be as cute with 30 on them!  Thanks to Owen's family for being willing to share with me and for providing me with craft inspiration!

Wedding Wednesday: Dresses with Sleeves

Hello lovelies and happy Wedding Wednesday!  One wedding trend I am loving these days is gorgeous dresses that actually have sleeves!  So many dresses are strapless and not everyone is comfortable with that look, so it is awesome to see some beautiful options with some arm coverage.  These are some of my faves!  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest).

What do we think of the sleeved look?  Anyone plan on wearing sleeves for their big day?  Let me know!

Check Out My New Ink!

Hey y'all, wanted to take a quick minute and share my new tattoos with you all!  Yesterday, I got not one, but two new tatts and I love them both! 

My first one is from my favorite book series of all time: Harry Potter.   These are the stars that are on the top of each page in all seven books.  Reading the series has had an impact on me since I was a kid, and has always inspired me.  I've wanted an HP tattoo for a long time, so it was super exciting to get this one done!

Number two is a quote from one of my favorite musicals of all time, Rent.  Again, this musical had a huge impact on me and has been one of my favorites for many years.  I love the words because they remind me of the musical, but also remind me to think of the most important thing in life: love.

Totally in love with both tattoos (sorry, Mom!) and super excited I got both of them.  These, and the majority of my other tattoos, were done by Big Jay at Aces High in Fullerton, California.  He's the best if you're in the area!

Bathroom Storage Organization

Alright, so I have been doing some serious cleaning out and organizing this week.  The house is still in the stage of worse before better and it's driving me nuts, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!  One of my major projects this week was tackling my bathroom drawer.  The vanity in our master has two huge, deep drawers, which is great for storage, but it does cause me to kind of throw things in at random.  So it was time to purge!  There are three different sections  in the main drawer, and each one presented its own challenges.  Beginning with what I will call the hair/face section...this is what I started with:

In this drawer, there were brushes, hair ties, hair clips, hair styling products, face washes, moisturizers, face wipes...too much stuff!  I started by throwing out the products I don't use, and those that were expired or pretty much empty.  Then I cleaned the drawer itself:

I added some clear plastic containers to help keep like items together.  And here is the hair/face section organized!

Some of my hair products are too tall to stand in the drawer, which is a bummer, but they work just fine on their sides in the front of the drawer.  So much better and no more hunting around for a bobby pin!  The next section is the make up section.  Here's the before:

The purging in this section was huge.  I am a make up hoarder and tons of it was old and much of it was empty.  Once I threw away the yucky stuff, I added in another plastic container, and here it is clean and organized!

The last section is the nail polish section.  The before:

Tons of nail polish, old and new, contact stuff (haven't worn contacts since my wedding!), and this awesome Caboodle I'm pretty sure I got in junior high.  After some purging and another plastic container:

Once all the nail polishes were wrangled, I had enough left over space to throw in my make up bags and jewelry cleaner that were displaced from other sections.  Here are all the before and afters side by side:

The keys to organizing this kind of space: purging and containing!  Getting rid of old and unused products cleared up tons of space and using the plastic containers to keep like items together makes everything so much prettier and easier to use.  Every time I open the drawer I have a happy face!

July Instagram Dump

Hello all and welcome to another installment of Instagram Dumping!  July was a busy month with birthdays and our anniversary, so we had some fun stuff going on!  Here are this month's highlights!

Added this cute whale onesie to my Bees Times Three Etsy shop...

Got to see the 2013 All American College Band at Disneyland (Mr. B is an alum!)

 My awesome father-in-law treated us to a beer/ice cream pairings tasting for 4th of July...

Helped my friend Sara make these awesome wedding welcome bags...

Worked on painting the tile in my kitchen (see tutorial and reveal here!)

Made this tasty spinach and strawberry salad (recipe here!)

Scored this awesome dresser for free from a neighbor...

Painted this custom canvas for a friend's wedding gift...

And here is said friend on her big day!  (A sneak peek of her wedding is on my wedding blog!)

Mr. B and I got some sweet Mad Men themed cards from my mama...

My fabulous husband knows me so well...this was waiting for me when I woke up on my birthday...

Went to Disneyland for my birthday, as usual...

And we got to eat at the swanky Carthay Circle Restaurant in California Adventure, and it was amazing!

When we got back to our hotel, there were balloons and champagne waiting for me.  Have I mentioned how well my husband knows me?

We got to crack open the two year wine bottle from our wedding guest book...

This is Mr. B signing autographs for some teenage girls at the latest Stonefeather show...

Accomplished my goal for the summer!

Got to see my Boys in Blue beat the Yankees!

As I was doing some "spring" cleaning, I came across my vows...and cried...

Went to the Grove to see the Backstreet Boys perform...this was our view of the stage...wonder how many of these people saw the first BSB tour 'cause I sure did!

Had to succumb to my husband's wishes and go see the Giants at AT&T Park, but at least I got to see the Dodgers flag at the top of the heap!  First place baby!

Overall it was a great month.  Next month's dump will include back to school pics :o(  Gotta enjoy my freedom while it lasts!