Speaker Stands

Hello Blog World!

Whats going on tonight?

I hope everyone is enjoying their weeks. Soon the weekend! I know I am pretty excited.

Tonight's project was sort of a surprise project in my mind. I have lots of ideas I want to do so I usually just get some ideas then try to come across the supplies I need. Usually it works...most of the time it doesn't. But this project was inspired by the boyfriend. We recently purchased a sound bar thingy for our tv. Yes sound bar thingy is the technical term. I am not an electronic guru, I get by ok but all I wanted from the sound bar was to make the movies louder! Which it has accomplished that so its a win in my book. This particular sound bar came with surround sound. Oh ah...Its really exciting, so I am told. I just go along with what the boyfriend says when it comes to these kinds of things. Well we had a really crazy surround sound system before but it was ugly and wires were every where...DROVE ME NUTS! So when the boyfriend said surround sound...that's all I thought. Wires. Ew. So I wasn't looking forward to this purchase until he explained to me that it was really simple. The sound bar plugged into the tv and the sub woofer (Seriously why is it called a woofer...am I alone in thinking this is funny?) gets plugged into the wall where the little speakers are plugged into that. My response was whatever just make it neat looking. Which he did a very good job. 

Only problem was the speakers on the end tables I have are apparently not "ear level" which I guess is important. To fix this the boyfriend took two of my scented candles and put the speakers on that...

Not even kidding. At least they matched. I told him that was not going to work for me. Which he replied with "Well maybe you should make me something"

Why yes...Yes I will do that. 

So I did. 

First let me tell you that the little speaker stands are stupid expensive. $40.00 and up. Ok so its not that bad. But after spending the money on the sound bar, you really don't want to add another $40.00!

My solution only cost me...

You read for this?

$3.38

No I didn't put the decimal in the wrong spot. That is under four dollars. It would have been less if I didn't take the boyfriends advice. 

Ok let me show you what I did so you can stop shaking your heads. 

Ok let me try that again...

Tada!

Is it fancy? well a little. Is it practical Yes. Was there any assembly required? Not really.

So I found these things at a thrift store. For 1.00! It was great it was exactly what I was looking for. 

Please don't ask me what these things are called. I have been calling them candle thingys for the past few days. 

Now I call them fancy speaker stands. 

I spray painted them black to get rid of all the chipped paint that was on them. Already having the paint I didn't have to buy anymore. But I used the cheapest spray paint walmart had. 

The boyfriend was concerned that the speakers would fall off...or more likely get knocked off. So to prevent that from happening...or at least trying to I added coasters to them.

I know, what? 

Well the square shape of the speakers on the round shaped stand didn't make much sense. So the boyfriend said if I got a bigger square this would balance it out. 

I just set it on top in case I decide I don't like this idea I can just take it off. I bought the coasters at the Dollar tree. So if you guessed that I paid 1.00 for them you would be correct! I was thinking of spray painting these to but I actually liked the checkered design. We shall see what the boyfriend says Ha-ha.

I took a picture of what the boyfriend had set up before this...

No.

No.

No!

This was not going to work! But I am glad he suggested I make something because this actually turned out great. I got lucky and I was able to find exactly what I was looking for when I bought the stands at the thrift store. 

See it looks fancy :D

This project was most certainly 

Why? Because it was cheap and VERY easy to do. 

SO easy A Casey can do it!

Get creative! I can honestly say this wasn't something I found on pinterest. 

I know believe it or not!

Sometimes I have good ideas all by myself. 

I hope you enjoyed tonight's project. 

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See ya next Thursday!

Pet Bed

GOOOOD EVENING BLOG WORLD!

How is every one doing tonight? Me great! Other than feeling a little on the yucky side of things I am still here to give you your DIY project of the week.

Not sure what is wrong with me...I feel like I am loosing my voice...which will be bad since I have to give a maid of honor speech on Saturday! Yikes! hope that figures its self out...

Any who. Before I go into tonight's project I'd like to update something...A few weeks ago I did a post about making an oil dispenser into a hand soap dispenser. I originally gave it the Casey Approved stamp...I was wrong! It is a pain in the butt! You have to sit there for EVER waiting for the soap to come out. I have tried watering down the soap and using different soaps...its not practical. So after this post I will go back and change my mind on the other post. So if you  don't know what I am talking about just go back a few weeks or click HERE and you will find the post I am talking about.

Another thing. You might have seen on my Facebook page I have reached over 100 likes. YA! Thanks guys! Keep them coming! I was so excited to see it go over 100. I know some of you are probably like "whats the big deal?" Well if you were me you would understand! lol.

If you liked my Facebook page than you would know also that I didn't have a very good project day the other day. I attempted two projects and it just didn't work the way I wanted to. AT ALL. First I tried aging some more paper...They ended up getting extra crispy (See my successful aging project click HERE) I don't think they were as wet as my last batch of paper was. So just be careful if you do try to age paper. The other project well...I wanted to print some awesome pictures I took of our recent trip to the aquarium but...the picture came out all blurry and not at all cool so that was a fail. I finally decided to start a project that I have been putting off. I wanted to do a lot more with it than I did but I only have so much time in a day and also with lack of certain resources...makes it a tad difficult. But I think it turned out great. With the help of my papa bear (Dad) I was able to make a *New and improved* Pet bed!

This was an idea off Pinterest of course. Taking those old octagon end tables and turning them into well... typically dog beds but my dog is too big for this and she doesn't like to be in small spaces. 

However...My cats love small places!

This was the before. It really wasn't to bad of a table I guess but I wanted it to be pretty. 

Yes Bruce was still in there...Hehe.

So the first thing I did was take the doors off. 

Sounds easy?

HA!

Well I got all but one...ONE LOUSY screw wouldn't come out. It was at an angle or some nonsense. I was worried that I was going to have to kick the stupid door off and ruin the table!

I had to upgrade to a drill which we all know isn't a Casey Approved task...So I made the boyfriend do it. Managed to get the screw out FINALLY and was able to continue the project. 

I spray painted the whole thing. 

I originally had a burgundy color but it looked too red. So brown it was. 

I used my favorite kind of spray paint "Krylon" 

This time however I wasn't as successful with painting as I usually am. 

I have mentioned this before. 

Florida problems = Humidity. 

very difficult to spray paint and have it dry right when its humid out. 

If it wasn't humid during the day after our daily 4 o'clock showers it gets very humid after that. 

Yes everyday we can look forward to lovely thunder showers. 

But its ok because we "need the rain" 

So doing anything outside for me after work is a tad tricky. But I managed. 

Some areas you can see the spray strokes (I guess that's what you would call it?) but this was after a few coats of paint. It looks Ok but not my best paint job. 

Now on the cushion. 

I was going to cheat and just buy a small pet bed to put inside. I am glad my mom talked me out of it. See I do know how to sew but my sewing machine is currently causing me trouble so I try to find loop holes around not sewing. However...coming from a family of upholsters I know at least three people who have sewing machines. My mom volunteered my dad. So she told me to make a template of the octagon and bring it over to the house. 

First I had to get the material. Walmart. Ehhhh. 

I understand that the craft area isn't the busiest but would it kill any one to hang around it to see if customers need help? I had to wait for about 20 minutes..After I told an associate I needed help. Finally got some one to help me, she was very rude....I will get my fabric from Hobby Lobby now. Much better experience with the Fabrics. 

Walmart only has quilting fabrics which was perfect for this kind of project...not so perfect for my dad's super duper machine that normally deals with thick fabrics...it was only a slight challenge for him to make this cushion. Of course my dad got all fancy on me and made welt and everything for it. Which i'll be the first to admit I can't do. It also would have helped if I took my time making the template for him...but I didn't but still turned out amazing!

hehe 

Here is my papa bear marking the lovely fabric I picked. 

Yay now my dad is famous!

If you don't have an awesome upholstering dad like mine you can just use a regular pillow like I was going to. 

Bruce investigating. 

He hasn't laid in it yet, I think it smells to painty still. 

Gracie my other cat (Yes I have two) will probably sleep on top of it after its been in the house for at least 3 months and she learns that it in fact will not kill her. 

She is the very definition of a scardy cat. 

By the way I forgot to tell you where I got the octagon table thingy. 

My mom actually saw this project first (see its not just me!) And she wanted to make it for her dogs. So we went on a hunt looking for these things and the first thrift store we went had TWO! Having two dogs she thought this would be perfect. Except one dog couldn't figure out what the heck was going on and the other one...well he is partially blind and couldn't find it. She decided to see if I could do anything with it. This is what I came up with! 

It matches my decor...so that's a win. It was easy to do...just as long as you don't have to deal with too many climate issues. 

Well that's it for tonight. This project was 

Hope you enjoyed this pet friendly project. If you liked it share it with a friend!

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Thanks guys! See you next time!

Door Makeovers!

Hello Friends! I hope to see some new faces here tonight. Just to catch you up a little bit if you are new. I am Casey, I love DIY projects. But sometimes when you try them they don't turn out like the picture...If you know what I mean. Instead of just hiding my failures I post them on this blog. I determine if a project is "Casey Approved" Which means its pretty easy. Or if its a "Don't" If its a don't that just means I couldn't do but someone with more artistic abilities or patience might be able to! So don't get discouraged! Also I am what you call 'frugal' so a lot of the projects I do are because I don't want to pay retail price...if I can do it myself :).

With that being said let me tell you what tonight's project is. My parents moved back closer to my area. They found their perfect home, some what in the woods away from every one. It is mostly updated and just needed some fresh paint to spruce it up. Well almost perfect. It still has those old "trailer doors" for the pantry doors and closets. Ew. To replace them would be outrageous! My mom was doing some research and found door murals. She really liked them and wanted to do that instead of replace them...Want to know how much those door murals cost? 80.00 A PIECE! That's just crazy talk in our book. Especially when she is the wall paper queen of the family. What she did was go to her go to site :EBAY found some pretty wall paper and did it herself. 

I am not a fan of wall paper...but let me tell you what, the transformation of these doors was pretty cool! And a lot cheaper than 80.00 per door. 

Here let me show you...See this is the cool part of my blog where I show you pictures :)

Tadaaa! ok so let me show you some before pictures to really get the whole idea here. 

These were after the door knobs were taken out. If you have these trailer doors you know what kind of knobs they are. All you have to do to get them off is pop the front panel of the knob off then you can get the rest of it off after. 

eventually my mom will replace the knobs to but couldn't find ones that would work. 

After the knobs were off she started painting the inside. 

She had left over paint from when she redid her living room so she just used that up. Make sure you paint the edges to! We want this brown yuck gone!!! 

The next step she did was put the wall paper on the door. 

The other problem with using the door murals I was talking about early was..They don't exactly fit. These doors are more narrow than a regular door. 

Since it was narrow she didn't have to really measure for the wall paper, it was actually wider so she just had to trim it up. 

This is just a closer shot of the wall paper itself. The knob actually doesn't look that bad now with the lighter colors. 

I love this pattern by the way!

Can you believe she only spent about 20.00 on the paper?

Ebay...Seriously...go check it out. 

Amazon isn't bad either especially if you have prime!

She plans on covering the other doors she has with a different kind of wall paper. I will be sure to show you that when she gets it. 

This particular wall paper also doesn't require a paste. You just need to get the paper completely wet before trying to put it up. My mom doesn't like to do this however and used the paste. Which was only 4.00

I suppose if you really just want to get rid of the brown doors you could just paint them...but where is the fun in that! 

I really like how this project turned out, my mom did such a good job. 

Yes usually I do the projects but I was so impressed with how it turned out I had to share! 

Besides I am sure I will be helping with the next set of doors :D 

I can't say if this is Casey approved...But I can tell you this...

:D

Thanks again mom for sharing with all my DIYers! 

Don't worry I did a little tiny project myself. 

Those air wick air fresheners you get at the stores...

Why are they so expensive!?

I love how they work...Just plug them in and bam smells good!

But they don't last as long as I want. At about 6.00 for two I get maybe two weeks out of them. I know 6.00 isn't a lot of money but I would rather spend that 6.00 on a couple cups of coffee instead of an air freshener.

So I found a pin where they recycle the containers (Not sure what the technical term is...)

But these things. The actual difuser is usually only like 1.00. Sometimes you can get these things on sale to. Its the refills that cost so much. So the pin I found was reusing these with essential oils (Again not cheap) I went searching for other ideas. I found some where people use body sprays...I think that would be a little strong. 

The one I tried was the liquid potpourri. I got a big bottle at dollar tree.. 1.00 for a biiig bottle!

33 fl oz

Pretty good deal. 

Although....I don't think it smells as good but if you just have them to freshen up the place than these are perfect. I have no idea how long this bottle will last me but I can guarantee it will be longer than two weeks!

 The refills were easy to refill the top just pops right off and than you can fill it up! Don't fill it all the way up though. 

Cheaper alternative AND a you are not just throwing those things away! Win win in my book. 

Alright Blog world that's all I got for you tonight. Be sure to check out my previous blogs. You never know you might get inspired to do a cool project!

Thanks for all those who stopped by. Be sure to share with a friend! Help my little blog grow!

The easiest way to keep track of what I am up to is following me on my Facebook page

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Or even if you have ideas. Let me know!

I will see you next Thursday!

Keepsake Book

Hey Bloggers! How is it going? Its Thursday and you know what that means. Time for Casey to share her silly projects with you. 

Last week we had a lesson on organizing. I know at least one person took my advice...After making fun of me... :)

This week I am going to give you a way to organize all your little "memories" from trips you take. 

You know like Post cards/ amusement park tickets/ brochures/ Maps/ pictures etc. 

Those are the things you store in a box and tell yourself you will get around to putting it in a scrap book or something. Well look no further (In theory) i found a solution. It was one of those Pins that I found months and months ago that I said "someday" Well I noticed it was one of the ones that was getting a lot of repins I decided to make it my next project. I guess these things are called smash books...Not really sure. First I sorted out all of my tickets and what not's. I want you to know that I did this while eating diner and watching Time Travelers wife. *Sniff* It took very minimal effort. Just be sure you are ready to be using a single hole punch. My hand hurt so much after the little bit I did I couldn't really finish. Of course I don't know if they have "good" single hole punchers but mine was not good. 

The one I had the most brochures and such was from when my parents took me to Tennessee... Back in 2000...Yup that's how long these things have been sitting in a box. I have stuff from further back but this was my all time favorite trip we took one summer. Just to give you a little background I am a HUGGGGE Elvis fan. At 25 years old that's not really all that common. Now picture a ten year old excited to see Graceland (Elvis' house for all you non-fans) That is really not all that common. We went to Dolly Wood/ Loretta Lynn's "House" The Ryman Auditorum, Sun studios, Graceland *squee!*and a lot of other places. It was the most amazing trip ever! I met a lot of cool people on that trip and made a lot of great memories. Of course it made my Elvis obsession much much worse but that's not the point. 

The point is my mom saved everything from our tickets to our self guided tour books. I can't just throw that stuff away! So here is what I did. 

I know its not really exciting. Of course the Pin looked way cooler! I just have no talent when it comes to paper I guess.  But if you want to attempt this goal all you need is a single hole punch, some book binding rings and your memories. 

These are the book binding rings. I bought these on Amazon. I should have thought about the size more because these ended up being way bigger than I wanted. I looked in kmart tonight to see if I could get smaller ones. They do not have them. I imagine you can get them an stores like Office Max. This was not a good size to do this with. My mistake. Don't let it be yours. This project has a lot of potential just do it better than I did. :D

I organized all my tickets and other papers to figure out which categories I would do...well as we know now I only did one so most of that stuff got shoved back in the box. 

Ghia my dog wanted to help. 

After I got all my Tennessee "memories" I separated them to.  

How you organize it is completely up to you. 

 Now in the original pin it didn't have a cover page or anything just the cards. I kind of liked that idea for what they used it for (Mostly Birthday cards and such) but my problem is I didn't want it to look all random. Of course I can make everything all uniform so I thought if I covered it up with a piece of pretty paper it would help. Not so much. If you decide to do a cover page than just measure it to your biggest piece and cut it. 

After a long time of punching the holes I was able to put it all together. Now with the holes I took my smallest piece and decided where I wanted the holes to be on that and measured them against the bigger pieces.I didn't take pictures of it all but hopefully enough to get the idea. 

The post cards were a cool idea. 

The only issue I have with this is it doesn't look as uniform as I would like it (But that's just me.) I should have used smaller rings

And the holes. 

I had to get reinforcement labels to fix some of my mistakes. I am telling you using a single hole punch was not easy and I recommend trying to find something where you can use a three hole punch. It will make your life a lot easier!

My goal is when ever we travel now to collect things like this. Also get a post card and write what we did and what our favorite things were. It will be a nice Keepsake! That's the word I have been trying to think of this whole blog! Oh my god you have no idea how much that was bugging me! LOL Keepsakes! That's what this thing is a keepsake for all your keepsakes. Ok I could go back and change it but I am going to leave it like this. 

Anyways so I shared my cool idea. Overall I think this was 

My only complaints are my own fault. Learn from my mistakes!

Hope you enjoyed tonight's project! 

Just a few shout outs while we are all here:

first go check out a blog post I did for a local writing chapter I am in. 

http://sunshinestateromanceauthors.com/2015/07/08/butt-glue-friend-or-foe/

It is very amusing!

Next:

Go to my Facebook page and like the page! My goal is 70 and I am not there yet! I want my blog to grow grow grow! I need your help!

facebook.com/DIYORDONT

I will see you guys next Thursday! let me know what you would like me to try! I want to know what the people want!

Organizing the Casey way!

Hey Blog world whats up? 

The project I was working on...Well its not cooperating. Sometimes that happens. To me it happens more than I would like it to. I put all my focus and energy on one project and when it doesn't work or finish by the week I give myself....Than I have nothing to entertain you with. So with that being said I didn't come completely unprepared. Allow me to entertain you by sharing some of my DIY organizing. 

First let me tell you a little about how my brain works. I hate things that stack. If I have to move three things to get to the one thing I want...its not good. 

I also don;t like things mixing together. Like at work...My paper clips and rubber bands can not mingle. And don't get me started on the little paper clips mixed with the big ones... No I am not OCD. I am just weird. 

Something you already know about me is I don't like to spend money. So these are all cheap ideas that you can use. Or not. If you don't really care about this blog post you can skip it if you feel like. BUUTTTT you still have to go like my facebook page and share share share! You might not like what I do but some one out in the crazy world might!

So lets start with my office. Yes my desk gets papers all over it and it drives me insane. But if you ask me where something is I can generally find it...most of the time. 

 I like things to be divided and contained. the awesome green baskets I got from dollar tree. 3 for 1.00. I use these things in more places than one. The black divider thing was something I bought at walmart. nothing to fancy. But it works. 

See I use these for little things like tubes of glitter. You really should have someplace to put your tube of glitter. Its a must :P

I use the bigger baskets for my charging wires/usb cables. This sometimes drives me insane because no matter how nicely you wrap them up they always get tangled. But this actually wasn't to bad when I opened it to take a picture. Ha-ha

These baskets are pretty cool to. In my old car I had one of these as my "trash can" These just hold my markers and colored pencils. These remind me of something you would see in Pre K or something. But it works so I don't care. By the way are you sensing my favorite color might be green?

Boxes I love little boxes. This one is about the size of a shoe box and I bought two of these at Ikea for 5.00 (I think) And yes it came with instructions on how to assemble.

This is the same kind of box only I made dividers out of colored paper. Its hard to tell in the pictures but these are my scrap book stickers I have. All sorted and organized. Orange of course means Halloween stickers and yes they are first because Halloween is my favorite!

The pin on this particular how to kind of bugged me. They really took cutting the paper into "files" to seriously. And when I tried to do that it was a royal mess. Besides I like not being able to really see the stickers this way because well I like my mess to be hidden :D

This is what the inside of my awesome cabinet looks like. Is it the best organization in the world? No. but it works for me and that's all that matters. 

My printer table. 

Cool huh? Not really but...

Inside it has another printer all nice and snug but fully operational. The boyfriend drilled a hole in the back so if I have to use that printer than I just switch printers on my computer and badabing! I am using a secret printer! 

Also using those paper stacking things (yes this is my language you either get use to it or not. )

Which has different kinds of copy paper. 

Colored/Regular. Ya know the drill

Did I ever mention my favorite store besides Hobby Lobby is Office Max/Depot /Staples. :D 

Ok we covered the office area. I have a nook instead of a full room office and I am constantly trying to find ways to make the storage work. Like I said I don't like to display to much out in the open only because I don't like moving it when I clean. 

I will say it again. 

I am not OCD.

This is my cleaning closet and you will see how OCD I Am not. 

Ew I know it looks messy. 

But I know where everything is and Normally I don;t have to dig or move things to get to what I want. 

This pin was using a shoe organizer in your closet to organize your cleaning supplies. 

other ideas I have seen are:

Teddy Bears

Nail Polish

Computer Cords (for the nerds like my Boyfriend.)

etc

This also allows me to put my vacuum cleaning device inside as well. Although its not there....It does fit :)

Now when we moved into this house we sacrificed cabinet space for having a dish washer and two bathrooms. The trade off was worth it but it took some fanangling (Another Casey word)

Not having a big medicine cabinet...even in the old house I found this idea on Pinterest. 

These are two different drawer thingys because I bought one thinking it would be enough and ended up needing two. I bought them at different places...there you go. 

I do plan on making these prettier...But...Out of site out of mind. 

This picture also shows how badly I need a label machine. :D 

But it works. When the boyfriend asks "Where is the aspirin?" I say "Check the drawer thingy" and he knows what I am talking about.

So there you have it some Casey approved organizing tips. 

I shared my desk drawer with you people...I hope you enjoyed!

Any other organizing tips? Feel free to share! Any ideas you want me to try...Let me know! 

I hope I have something better for you next week. I hope no one is mad at me for being such a slacker! Its hard to work full time, clean cook,write, read and craft and BE AWESOME all in one day. 

Sometimes I wish I had more hours in the day. 

But knowing me...Id probably sleep during them. 

Ha-ha!

Thanks for stopping by tonight, I will see you next Thursday! 

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