DIY Outdoor Pillows: The 15 Minute Tablecloth and Plastic Bag Method

A few weeks back I shared my ideas for a backyard patio mini makeover.  Well, I'm happy to say they're finally coming along.  I'll be sharing more on the full progress in another post, but today I want to talk about pillows and pops of color.

How to Hull Strawberries With a Straw

Over the Memorial Day Weekend we took the kids strawberry picking for the first time. They loved it and I'm pretty sure they picked their weight in strawberries.  

Since I've been busy passing out strawberry snacks for what is going on five days now...I thought I'd share a really easy and fast way I discovered to hull strawberries.

My New Secret Weapon in the Kitchen!

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #RMDishRack  http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

So something happened a few weeks ago that hasn't happened in nine years of wedded bliss....we used our china.  Ya know, the thousands of dollars worth of plates, glasses, gravy boats, serving spoons, and silverware that has sat for display only since before our wedding in 2005....yeah, I finally broke it out.  Unfortunately, I also broke a glass...hence the whole one of the reasons I don't like to use it! 

How to Make DIY 'Vinyl' Decals {Without Any Special Machines}

Just when you thought there was no way to make DIY vinyl-like decals without a Silhouette, Cricut or other die cut machine.  Well, I'm here to tell you there is and it's sooo stinkin' easy!  The secret is this printable, cuttable, removable, repositionable vinyl-like material (but not vinyl) by Square1 Masterpieces.  Be sure to read all the way to the end of the post because I have an exclusive Square1 discount code for Two It Yourself readers!

DIY Mason Jar and Wood Box Flower Center Piece

A few months back I made this wood box using some scrap wood I had lying around.  It was similar to pallet wood.  Just a few even cuts, wood glue, some screws and paint and I had myself a long narrow wood box.  (Read the full tutorial to make the wood box here).

10 (Must Read) Tips to Grow Your Blog

Last week as I was looking through all the fabulous projects, crafts, eats, and link ups at the Link It or Lump It party my eye kept being drawn to all the posts on blogging and social media tips. Perhaps it's because Two It Yourself is celebrating it's first birthday in the blogisphere and I'm finally feeling like I know what I'm doing - somewhat.

Blogging takes a lot of work.  Blogging takes a lot of patience. Blogging is a lot of trial and error.  It's dedication and determination for what is often a very small dime..especially at first.  More than anything making your blog a success means a lot of marketing, self promotion, and putting yourself out there.  I certainly don't know everything or even a fraction of everything - I learn a lot of new tips, tricks and techniques everyday to drive visitors and increase readership and brand recognition.

That's why today I thought it would helpful (no?) to pull all of those awesome blogging tips shared during last week's link party together into one awesome  post.  I'm also throwing in a few blogging tip posts that have appeared here on Two It Yourself during our first year.    

Be sure to click through to read all the awesome tutorials to grow your blog - this is definitely one to pin now and read through later!

How to Blog Series: Making a (Free) Blog Header

This week marks Two It Yourself's First Blog-iversary.  We're celebrating a year in the blogisphere with a "How to Blog Series."  Today's topic is on how to make a free blog header.

Every blogger knows looks matter...I may be in my pajamas and makeup-less at the keyboard, but my blog's gotta look good. :) Since the blog header is the first thing people see when they come to your blog, you want to make a good first impression and that means having an eye catching blog header. 

Two It Yourself has gone through a series of blog headers, but in recent months we've finally found one that works, for us, for several reasons.

1) It immediately gives off the look, feel, and vibe of our blog.  It sets the tone that we use throughout the blog.

2) The header takes up the full width of the screen without forcing a scroll bar along the bottom.

3) The header is short enough that the ad above the first blog post is 'above the fold'

4) The background is transparent. 

Let's make one thing clear: I am in no way a blog graphics design expert. For all I know my blog header could make blog and graphics designers cringe, shriek, and go blind all at the same time.   All I'm here to do is to share with you what I have found works on my blog.

Spring Coffee Table Vignette

If you follow me on Instagram you got a little sneak peek of this 'project' earlier this week.  It's not even really a project as much as it is an experiment.  I'm experimenting to see - for the first time in five years - if I can successfully keep coffee table decor in tact for more than five minutes.   My kiddos have kept hands-off so far and we're working on day four here!

Every time I flip through Pottery Barn or West Elm or Ballards I notice how nice their coffee tables look. I wanted something to add a little pop to my living room and this did the trick.  I gathered some items I already had pulling from various rooms, holiday decorations, storage boxes, and the bookshelf. 

How to Make New Wood Look Old

Earlier this week I shared a 15 minute DIY towel hook.   Now I can let you in on my little secret....about 14 minutes of that project was spent getting the new wood to actually look old and distressed. 

The scrap wood I used to hang the hooks on wasn't actually 'new' wood from the lumber yard.  It was wood I had in the garage, but it looked relatively new aside from a few splotches of paint.   The surface was smooth, there were no splinters or dings or nail holes.  I didn't want the wood to look this new though, I wanted it to look old, worn, distressed, loved...

DIY Dollar Store 'Industrial' Light Fixture

My laundry room makeover is in full swing.  Nothing is safe (just ask my drying rack).   Not even the ol' bulb and chain.  The laundry closet light is literally a light socket with a bulb in the ceiling.   There she glows...

I know it's just a laundry closet, but I did want to spice up the light a little and I didn't want to spend much money.   A $2 DIY light fixture did the trick.

DIY Laundry Drying Rack (Wall Mount from Floor Standing)

Many a days I'm asked "Oh that's cool...where did you get that idea? Pinterest?" Yeah yeah yeah, I got it inspired from Pinterest, okay...what's it to ya?  But I got news for you today...I didn't get this DIY drying rack idea one from Pinterest.  No ma'am!  I actually had a moment of pure genius last week and thought this one up all.by.myself. 

If you've been following recently, you know I'm in the midst of making over my laundry room.  I'm on a tight budget and working in an even tighter space.  One of the items on my 'must have' list was a wall mounted drying rack.  With a $100 budget I was definitely going to DIY it, I just had to figure out how.

In our old house we had an actual laundry 'room'.  It wasn't pretty, but at least there was room for a foldable floor standing drying rack.  Our current laundry closet is extremely limited on space and I'm forced to hang all of my unmetionables all over the door knobs on the second floor.   Anyway, we've been storing that foldable laundry rack for years and the other day it caught my eye...it almost had a little glow around it like "TAKE ME!!! I AM THE ANSWER TO YOUR DRYING PROBLEMS".  And so...I did.

Easy Way to Digitally Save Kids' Art / School Projects

With kids come mounds of toys and piles of paper.  The art projects can stack up fast.  I don't like throwing my kiddos' precious masterpieces away, but the bins of arts and crafts and scribbles are out of control already and my oldest is only in kindergarten!  Yikes!

Last week I shared a fun way to display some of those kids art projects and today I wanted to share a little mommy hack that saves me tons of space without the guilt of tossing all.those.papers.

A few months ago I heard about this free app called ArtKive (don't you love the play on words?).  I've been using it recently and let me tell you it's a life (and counter) saver.

No longer do I have a pile of papers from my daughter's school folder stacked neatly on the edge of my counter.   Instead, I go through her school folder and snap digital photos of pictures she's drawn or handwriting practice with my camera phone.  You can do this directly through the Artkive app or you can take the pictures with the camera phone and then send them to Artkive later to file and add captions.

Free Faux Chalkboard Signs Tutorial {Plus a Free Printable}

A few weeks ago I shared a fun little chalkboard sign I made by using an old picture frame and painting the back with chalkboard paint and then writing with chalkboard markers.  One of the hangs up I had with the sign is that my fancy handwriting and chalkboard lettering leave much to be desired.  The feedback I received from all of you fine people made me feel much better...I'm not in this bad lettering boat alone.  

So today, I thought I'd share a fun and free ways to make faux chalkboard signs.  You read that right...these are not the real deal, but they look like the real deal.  They do not require any chalk, chalkboard paint, or handwriting.  All you'll need is a computer, an internet connection, and a printer. Sound like it's your kinda project? Yeah, me too.

How to Clean Tile Floor Grout {Without Chemicals}

I'm just gonna start off by saying the tile floor grout in my master bathroom was pretty narsty.  What made it look worse was when we expanded the bathroom, we matched the existing tile floor instead of re-tiling the entire floor. While the tile matches pretty well - although not exact - what made the floor look un-seamless was the dirty grout next to the brand spankin' new clean grout.

So I set out to clean the old grout to make it look new again. Just look at this...ew! I'm slightly embarrassed to even be sharing this with you...but ya know. 





Cleaning tile floor grout is actually as easy as a trip to your pantry closet - and I don't mean reaching for the chemicals and bleach.  I am not necessarily anti-chemicals - I use them for plenty of jobs - but why spend an hour inhaling fumes when you don't have to?  Instead all you need is lemon juice, water, baking soda, and vinegar.

The ratio I used was:

3.5 Cups of Hot Water + 1/2 Cup of Baking Soda + (half of )1/3 Cup Vinegar + 1/3 Cup of Lemon Juice.

So you're probably wondering why I wrote half a 1/3 cup of vinegar...the answer is it's easier than saying .16666.  Just fill a 1/3 measuring up half way... You can obviously adjust the amounts to fit the job, but with these measurements I had plenty to clean my bathroom tile floor and plenty left over for the next time.

Okay, so once you have your tile floor grout cleaner concoction mixed, pour it into a spray bottle.  Spritz it on the grout and let it sit on there for a few minutes before you start scrubbing.

Now is where the elbow grease comes in - take a tooth brush and start scrubbing....or do what I did and take a chance on one of these handy dandy electronic grout brush cleaners and save your arm.  This Rubbermaid Reveal Power Scrubber Brush was on clearance on Target.  The price was originally $15.99, but I snagged it for less than $8.

Let me tell you - I would have paid $30 knowing know how easy it made the job.  I used the toothbrush method on the tile walls of my shower where the grout lines are really thin and that was a tough job.  Doing the same method on the much thicker grout lines on the floor would have required a lot of effort.   Anyway - get scrubbing.

This video gives you a really good look at how I cleaned the floor (with one hand and played videographer with the other) and just how quickly it went with the brush. You can see the difference between the cleaned area of the grout and the 'before' after just a few minutes seconds of scrubbing. 


After I scrubbed all the grout lines I let my floor steamer sit on small sections of the grout for a few minutes at a time, then scrubbed a little more just to make them shine. This part is definitely not necessary. And just as an FYI all the pictures in this post were taken before I used the steamer so you could see the result just using the solution and scrubbing. 

Here's a great side by side of a cleaned area and an area where I had not yet cleaned the grout. What a difference! 

Thanks for stopping by 2IY! If you like what you see, we'd love for you to pin it!

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{More} Tips to Empty a Yankee Candle Jar (Pt 2)

Wow! So um...apparently I'm not the only thrifty chick trying to reuse and empty Yankee Candle jars.  The response to my original post on how to empty the candle jars was (and continues to be) overwhelming.  Many of you left tips, tricks, suggestions and even warnings of your own. 

The one suggestion I heard over and over again was to stick the Yankee Candle Jar - with the last bit of wax - in the freezer for a few hours and the wax would easily pop out in one chunk.   Well, why didn't anyone tell me?  Here I am cutting the wax into pie pieces with a knife to remove it. 

So I tried the popular freezer method and here's my take - it definitely worked, but...yes, there's a but.  After about 3 hours in the freezer, the wax at the bottom of the jar was easily able to pop off the bottom of the candle jar in one piece with a little nudge of a butter knife. The problem is many Yankee Candle jars are larger at the bottom than they are at the top.  So while the wax pops off the bottom easily in one chunk it can't fit through the smaller opening at the top.  I ended up breaking the wax up anyway.   My feeling is it's six of one half dozen of the other - unless you have a jar that's the same diameter top to bottom then go with the freezer method.

Several readers suggested putting the nearly empty Yankee Candle jar in the microwave to melt the remaining wax so it can simply be poured out.  I do not suggest this.   The bottom of the wick is attached to a small metal piece that I don't believe would be safe in the microwave.

6 Ways to Re-Use Christmas Decorations in Valentine's Day Decor

If you're like me you want to decorate for Valentine's Day, but without spending a bunch of money on decor.   Even DIY holiday decorations can add up...so this year I challenged myself to decorate for the holiday of love by re-using my Christmas decorations.

Here are 6 easy ways you can upcycle from one red and white holiday to the next.

How to make pom poms from yarn

So you want to know how to make yarn pom poms...for perhaps garland or a wreath.   Today I'm going to show you how to make these easy pom poms and tomorrow I'm going to share a great way to use them.

You can make yarn pom poms in many different sizes by varying what you wrap the yarn around.  I wanted mine to be about the size of a baseball so I wrapped the yarn around a large serving fork.  I also made them by wrapping the yarn around four fingers (sans the thumb) and they came out about the same size as the fork method. The only drawback to that method is your hand is quite literally tied up so it's a little more difficult to work one-handed.

For the sake of this post, I'm going to assume you're using the fork method so I'll be referring to that throughout.  Start by looping the end of the yarn through the fork spokes keep the loose end to the side. 

5 Silhouette Projects for Beginners

So I got a Silhouette Portrait - the little sister to the Silhouette Cameo - for Christmas.  (If you're not familiar -it's a paper cutting machine or a die cut machine use to make cards, stencils, labels and for scrapbook.) It's really not fair - my kids open up their new toys and immediately they start playing with them non-stop.  I guess when you're a mom it doesn't work that way.  Wah wah wah.  I'm dying to play with my new toy, but I'm squeezing it in during naps.  When does school start back up? I kid. I kid.

How to Remove Nail Polish from Clothes (and Carpet)

I was at the point this morning when I was this close to throwing my hands up and giving one - or possibly, both - of my kids back.  I kid...I kid (well, kinda, sorta, maybe).  I should have known something was seriously wrong when my 5 year old was suspiciously quiet in her room for a good 10 minutes.  I didn't think much of it until she asked if I wanted my nails painted.  We were trying to get out the door so I said "no...but did you paint yours because it smells like nail polish." She innocently said "No, but I spilled a little and I cleaned it up."

I turned around to little drips of what was now smeared blue nail polish all over the hardwood floor in her room - oh and a half-used roll of toilet paper with the other half crumbled up in little wads with some blue here and there.

Same {DIY} Serving Tray, Different Looks for Every Season or Holiday

Months ago I bought this white serving tray at Joann Fabrics.  To be honest I can't even remember what I paid for it.    I know it was cheap (probably on clearance) for something like six or seven bucks.   The problem (or what I previously considered the 'problem') is it's white...plain boring white.  Actually the boringness (is that a word??) of this white tray is what I have decided makes it totally awesome because it can take on so many different looks. Like...one for every season, holiday or mood I'm in.

You won't believe how simple it is to update this tray and give it a whole new look for just a few cents.  This would work for any size tray, but definitely works best if the tray is square.  My tray is 13 x 13".

All you're going to do use a piece of festive 12x12" scrapbook paper and place it in the center of the tray.  All of the craft stores have TONS of scrapbook paper and they always have lots of holiday options around the holidays.  If you can get your hands on Martha Stewart's Variety Pack of Holiday that would be a great start!