DIY nail polish rack!

Those of you who know me, know that I like nail polish.  A lot.

I enjoy the bright colors, the pastels, the metallics, and sometimes even the glitter polishes.

About once a year I go through all my polish and toss the ones that have gone bad or the shades that I don't wear.  Even with the purging, my collection has grown to a point that I get annoyed sifting through them in the Rubbermaid that I used as storage.

I wanted a way to store the polishes so that I could actually SEE them.  

I thought that if I had them all set up it would make it easier to find the shades I want and to avoid buying doubles.

I found a plain wood shadow box type thing at Craft Warehouse for $7!  It's supposed to be a shadow box or organizer of sorts.  

(This is where I failed to take a before picture womp womp!)

After two coats of black paint and some gold antiquing in the individual boxes I had the nail polish rack I was looking for!

The only bummer was that each row of boxes is slightly different in size.  So the taller bottles had to be put in the bigger boxes, which meant I couldn't organize by color like I wanted to.

All in all I am super happy with my new polish rack.

Now it's all neatly displayed and I can see what I've got.

DIY projects don't have to be complicated!  Just have fun and make something!

What is your current DIY project?

First day of SUMMER!

This week I am joining the (pretty much world famous) Mama Kat's writer's workshop. 

Before I dive into this post, let me tell you a bit about this woman..  She's hilarious.  I started following her on YouTube and have laughed myself to tears more times than I can count.  

So, after finding that she also has a regular blog (where she does a writers workshop), I knew I was hooked.

The prompt I chose for this weeks post is How did you spend the first day of summer?

Usually the first day of summer includes a kiddie pool full of squealing children, soggy lawns, popsicles dripping all over the deck, scraped knees, and meltdowns.  Having three little girls, this is pretty much par for a summer day around here.  

Except, this year Eric and I decided we wanted a break.  With the help of friends and family, we were able to get away for a whole weekend!  We decided to check out eastern Oregon because we'd never been before.  Plus, the chances of it being sunny were about 200x more likely than they would be if we were to go to the coast (the beautifully damp Oregon coast..).

We hit the road mid afternoon, excited to break free for a few days.  

Let me tell ya.. we were in a daze at first.  There were no little girls in the backseat whining that they were "cold" because the windows were down (doesn't matter if it's 100 degrees outside, they'd still be cold), no one needed to pee, no one had lost their toy out the window, no one was asking to listen to Taylor Swift.  We weren't going to take this moment for granted!

We stayed at a sweet hotel that served booze in the evening...take note hotels everywhere...serving free booze helps!  Oh, and so does an in room Jacuzzi.

Pendleton Oregon, is a very very quiet town.  Actually, I'm pretty sure they're still talking about us.

The first day of summer was spent wandering little shops, checking out the hat maker shop, the woolen mill, the old buildings, and of course the brewery.

The weather could not have been better.  Warm, dry, breezy..oh hell yeah.

As for Pendleton Oregon, well it was what it was 

(quiet cowboy/old white folk town with overpriced antique shops). 

The best part was spending the first day of summer with my babe, relaxing and just being us.

Simple all natural face toner

All of my adult life I have been unsure of whether or not I should use a face toner.

I have tried multiple products promising more evenly toned, healthy, radiant skin.

All have failed.

They either left me super oily or super dry.

I'm not saying that my skin is in bad shape, it's not.  It's just that I'd like a little less redness and fewer problems with it.

So I took matters into my own hands.  I researched different DIY face toners and their benefits.

What I came up with is something that has changed my opinion about using a toner.

I NEED this toner.

Using it after washing my face leaves my skin feeling refreshed, REALLY clean, and healthy.

I have fewer problems with break outs and my skin tone has greatly improved.

Here's the deets:

1 c. Water

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

15 drops pure Tea Tree oil (less if you have super sensitive skin..at least until you try it out)

BOOM!

It doesn't look like much, but it's one of my favorite products.

Dip a clean cotton ball or cotton round in the solution and swipe over your face.

Let dry, apply coconut oil or moisturizer and you're set to go!

Did I mention that it smells amazingly fresh and clean?!

Let me know what you think!