3 Easy Valentines DIY Ideas

# 1 Handmade Cards

A Pair & A Spare's beautifully designed card download allows you to simply print and cut out a handmade valentine with the option of  customizing it to your heart's desire. I carefully cut out the word "love" with an xacto knife after printing on a heavy card-stock paper,  then added some metal repair tape (found at any hardware store to repair duct work) behind to make the letters silver. I also cut heart shapes out of the metal tape and added them to the cards interior which helped me disguise the tape behind the lettering as well.  I love this insanely affordable gift that is easy to personalize and impress your valentine with.

# 2 Chocolate Covered Strawberries

You know you love them, but they can also be pricey especially around Valentines! Make some easily and cheaply at home by buying a carton of strawberries and a bag of semisweet chocolate chips (around $6 total). It takes about 30 minutes to make a dozen or more but is well worth the savings and you get some for yourself and to share. Real Simple has a great step by step guide here. You can also customize by adding crushed candy, nuts, or graham cracker to the chocolate before it sets.

# 3 Heart String Art

Get your tools and scrap wood out and make something they can hang on their wall or put by their desk that reminds them of you. With a little paint, nails, and floral wire you can turn a boring piece of wood into a visual love fest. HGTV has a great string art tutorial here, you could also make one with both your initials or a word. If you both love the place you live try making one in the shape of your state with a heart in the location of your city like this one from Design Crush.

Renovations Week: Day 2, Bike Rack - My Apartment Therapy

Ok, so we don't live in an apartment, but we may as well, our townhouse has almost zero storage space, no garage and NO BICYCLE RACK! I'm not complaining, just stating some facts. 

When we moved to Austin, our bikes were stolen. When reporting the theft, I learned that bicycles are among the top reported stolen items in Austin. Moral of the story, when we finally bought ourselves some new bikes, we promised to ALWAYS lock them up. The problem, as I've explained, is that we have no bike racks or storage options. 

After months of keeping them in our living room, causing me loads of frustration, we hit up Home Depot for some pipes. 

Items Needed:
2 - 1/2" Floor Flange ($6/piece)
2 - 1/2" Galvanized Elbows ($2/piece)
1 - 1/2" x 12" Galvanized Nipple ($4)
PROJECT TOTAL: ~$18

If you have two bikes and have the space for two bike racks, I would suggest it. As you can see, we pretty much have to stack our bikes until we can get a long or second bike lock. 

There you have it, a space saving, landlord approving, bicycle rack for less than $20! 

Renovations Week: Day 1 - What to do with guitars

Like I said, I needed to take a hiatus from blogging because of all these major changes in my life: new job, home repairs and wedding planning! 

Now that I've had some time to recoup, I'd like to share with you some budget repairs we're doing around our townhouse to make it a little more organized and homey. I've already showed you my closet reorg and bar cart makeover, but this week, we'll be creating built-in shelves, DIY bike racks and more! 

My most recent issue was that no matter how clean I got our living room, Rusty's guitars were always on the floor, making it look more cluttered than it really was. Before we moved our couch, I hid his guitars between the couch and the wall, and one guitar sat on a stand near the TV. Now that the couch has a new location, the guitars were just lying out in the middle of our living room. Blerg. 

My solution? Turn the guitars into pieces of art. We bought guitar hangers, like you see at music stores, on Amazon for about $3 each (and free shipping, I LOVE AMAZON). 

Now they're off of the floors and our wall looks less bare! Rusty also loves it because it's easier access for him when he wants to play...and honestly, when you spend that much on something, wouldn't you love to have it displayed? 

Total cost: roughly $6

Check it!
 

$30 Closet Organization - How to turn a Messy Closet into a Walk-in Closet

This closet wasn't big enough for the both of us. We had three choices:
1. Rusty moves out.
2. We use our second room as an annex (but remember, we already turned that closet into an office!)
3. We turn our master closet into the walk-in we want - nay, deserve!

The more I stared into our messy closet, the more I realized that it was actually very deep, but that the builders did not utilize the space properly.

We rushed to Home Depot and spent about $30 on two white shelves, two brackets, four shelf prongs and one long pipe. Home Depot was kind enough to cut the pipe in half, which became our two new clothes racks.

How we did it: 

• First, we knocked out all existing clothes rails, which ran left to right. They were taking up most of our space in the closet. 
• Next we screwed in the brackets for the new clothes racks and inserted the poles, which we ran from front to back on both sides of the closet. Because the closet was much deeper than we realized, it opened up a lot of space, provided more hanging room and created a walk-in closet. 
• Once we had more space, we added the brackets for the shelves. 

TIPS:

• Empty entire closet. Yes, it will make a mess of your room. As you empty, put into piles of keep, store, donate. If possible, have tupperware or bins ready for your storage items (like winter clothes) and a box for donations ready to help keep your room tidy as you detox years of closet build-up. 
• Once the closet is empty, take this opportunity to vacuum and dust. 
• If possible, purchase all of the same hangers. My goal is to have a closet full of wooden hangers. 
• As you return items to your closet, ditch the color-coding. Instead, think about what you wear the most and put that closer to your line of vision. (That tip comes courtesy of Austin stylist, Allison Taylor Moseley). 

Two shelves w/ brackets cost $21

Purchase one aluminum pipe at $9 and ask
Home Depot to cut to the measurements you need

Drive two long nails into the wall for belt storage

Happy Organizing!

Kitchen Island to Bar Cart Upcycle

Rusty's dad made a beautiful kitchen island cart that we used a lot in our big Cleveland kitchen, but since moving to Austin, the City of Small Kitchens (I believe that's its second nickname), the cart has been used as a space holder next to our trash can. Unwilling to part ways with this handmade piece, we decided to breath new life into it by giving it a new purpose. Total cost of the project was less than $20, including two cans of spray paint (we already had the gloss and primer), four new wheels and four gold trunk corners.

Here's the quick & dirty How To:

Remove the top from the base, follow the steps below to stain the top and move onto the base.

To complete the base, follow the steps below. The spray paint may require a few coats, ours took 3 coats + gloss. The gloss is optional, but I find it helps to protect the color, disguise imperfections and makes it easier to wipe down in the future.

Our next step is to either add a hanging wine glass rack or a wine bottle rack on the bottom, but we can't decide what do you think?

xo,