acelife88

[acelife88]

Today I will lay on the floor with my arms out. Palms spread. Toes pointed. Somewhere along the way I forgot how to take up space, but I am slowly stretching out again.  I am allowed to exist at my fullest, and if I do not fit in you, I will find somewhere I do.

Stretching, V.P. (via bandaids-for-the-heart)

[acelife88]

All the funnies! Surgical floor #funnytimes #teamfitlaw #springforever #letsgetyourwalkon #postop #surgicalfloorproblems #studentnurse @landyw

[acelife88]

Mercury glass part 2

For part 1 with the mercury glass tutorial I changed my mind and ended up spray painting the lamp completely in chrome. I did this because the tutorial called for spraying the inside of the lamp. My lamp didn't come apart and it was blue glass. Neither of which would have worked. I was very happy with how the base of my lamp turned out and vowed to try the tutorial with a free vase I had.  I should just state now that it ended up being a complete disaster. No water bottle so I flicked water onto the inside of the vase. The idea is that once you spray the inside the paint wont stick to the water droplets, leading to the characteristic look of mercury glass. I did this and it looked awful. Like a 2 year old did the painting and smeared it all...I might as well let the pictures do the talking for me. 

Above - Equipment. 

Above - water flicked onto the sides

Above - Finished product - Not impressed

Again I used a chrome spray paint instead of the looking glass that the tutorial called for. Maybe this makes a difference maybe not. I'm glad I tested this on a free vase and didn't waste an amazing thrift find attempting it. DIY project - 1

Me - 0 

[acelife88]

Organize the New Year

I don't know about you, but organization can be my saving grace for staying sane. There is something comforting about having stuff in it's own place, having what you need, and a way to organize your life's chaos. I'm going to share with you some of my tips and techniques for warding off panic and continuing into the new year with an organized life and mind. 1) Planner/Agenda If you don't have one...GET ONE! I find this is the best way to de-clutter your mind and help ensure you don't forget all life's appointments. I prefer the medium sized coil ones so I can fit it into my purse.

I like to up the ante and use multi-coloured highlighters. Highlighters are designated for certain tasks. I even include a legend in the front cover. 

The best thing about a new planner is the mind dump. I take all the annual dates and add them into the the day by day section. I keep the month at a glance calendar for my work schedule. (Mostly because my writing is too large for those small boxes) 

2) Downsize The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to go through your belonging and weed out the things that aren't proving useful for you at this point in your life. This can be for any area of your home, but I am focusing on my closet. Mostly considering I am currently not living on my own. 

Get rid of anything that:

Doesn't fit

You haven't worn/used in 12 months

You wouldn't wear/use again

You wouldn't buy in a store now

Isn't in good condition

Following these leads you will probably come up with a lot that you can do without. 

Above is the result of my closet purge. Two computer paper boxes and two reusable grocery bags full of clothes. 

Now to get it out of the house:

There are used clothing places that will buy lightly used name brand clothes from you. I have used this type of service at Plato's Closet. --they are pretty selective, but what they don't take you can donate!

For donating, there are a number of places that would benefit from your unwanted items. The following are a couple examples of places I have donated items too. 

The Salvation Army

 -Is a very helpful organization that uses funds generated by their thrift stores to run programs to help fight poverty and meet human needs. 

Youth/Group Homes -I have contacted group homes via email/phone and asked which ones were accepting used clothes as donation. Tailor your search to age group the donation fits too. Many child and youth facilities are nonprofit organizations; that have staggering impacts on the lives of our younger generation. This can mean limited resources for the youth in their care. I have made clothing donations to Good Shepherd in the past and received a thank you letter from the administration greatly thanking me.  Churches - Many churches have caring cupboards and accept donations that they can administer to people in need within the community. 

3) Budgeting  While I have miles of work to do on following a budget, I am good at making them. I really like the Microsoft Office excel spreadsheet ones. You can search online for pre-made templates that you can tailor to your own needs. The extra awesome trait of these templates in excel is that they will tally the math for you. Here is a website that has printable budget worksheets. 

4) Resolutions/Goals It is a tradition for many to set some goals at the beginning of a new year with the aspiration to achieve them by the years end. The key here is to set your goal and then work out smaller sub-goals to help you achieve it. 

My goal for 2015 is to return to nursing school. Unfortunate events in 2014 lead to me being unable to finance returning for my third year of nursing school. Looking at this goal on the surface it's pretty clear...I need to get money...go to school. However to stay organized and on track I need more guidelines. 

I still owe money for last winters semester. I must first pay this off before February 4th, 2015. This date is the deadline for applying for the fall semester of the nursing program.

Apply for nursing on Feb. 4th, 2015. 

Complete a budget for saving enough money for all of the fall semester and part of the winter semester. (I will be able to come up with remainder of the winter semester tuition during school in the fall) 

[acelife88]

Mercury glass lamp DIY

Lamps seem to be one of those things that there is a surplus of at thrift stores. Yes...loads and loads of hideous lamps that no one wants or will fit into modern decor. They also seem to be one of the things that DIY masters have tackled with a vengeance.  I found a tutorial here, to make mercury glass lamps (as seen below)

Unfortunately the lamp I had to work with was blue inside the glass. For this tutorial you need a lamp that has clear glass that you can spray paint inside of. I didn't think spraying water on the outside of the lamp would work out like I wanted...so my major modification was to just spray paint the outside of the lamp. I used:

Krylon 1010A Premium Metallic Original chrome

2 Ziploc bags to cover the cord and bulb insert

Before:

After:

I am thrilled with how it turned out. Even though I had to deviate almost completely from my original plan. I am going to thrift for a barrel drum lamp shade and use burlap on it to finish the lamp off (Finished photo to be added later). Then to complete the look for a table, I am going to try the mercury glass design on some various sized vases.

Hiccups:

Apparently -2 is too cold to spray paint outside -the paint didn't dry correctly in a couple areas...I smudged it. This required me to sand those areas down. I used extra fine sandpaper. I didn't want to scratch the glass. Another coat of paint fixed that right up.

It started snowing so after the second coat I RAN it back into the house, where it is now drying downstairs.  

[acelife88]

Introductions

Hi tumblr universe. My name is Amanda. I am a 26 year old, nursing student (currently taking a year off of my studies); with a major crafty side. I have been completely swept up in the DIY craze. Mostly because it blends a lot of my hobbies. Thrifting, yard sales, painting and putting my own stamp on things.

My first DIY project... involved vintage ornate picture frames, which I turned into bulletin boards. These have since been lost in a series of moves...BUT it required me to test my limits. I used a jigsaw to retrofit a gigantic bulletin board into the smaller frames. It was messy. I made a few mistakes, but it was the best feeling ever to have created something beautiful. Even more so to have it displayed in my home. 

DIY is an amazing way to bring history into our homes. To show the world how we see things in a different way. This blog is going to be dedicated to my DIY projects and the process.