Product Update

Happy Monday everyone!  Well today is actually Sunday but seeing as I start my new job monday Im pretty sure Im not going to be able to write a post tomorrow so Im scheduling this one yay!

You may remember (ok probably not) one of my earlier posts about a floral arrangement (see that here).  In that I showed you what I THOUGHT was a great product...the water beads that expand to be like the glass beads for floral arrangements but were much cheaper.  So this is what it looked like to start with.  So pretty and big and shiny!

Well after 3 months they have wilted to pathetic-ness.

PATHETIC!  The package did say you COULD add water periodically but sheesh I didnt think it would wilt to this my goodness!  So I have decided to go back to the tride and true glass beads (with a 40% off coupon in hand of course) and make this floral arrangement beautiful once more!  So a cautionary tale to all of your, water beads for floral arrangements that you want to keep out all the time, no good.  They are probably a good idea for weddings though since they stay pretty and glossy for about 1 month.

Have you had any products that you thought were awesome to only turn out terrible?

Project Housewife Out!

Blooming Box

Today's project is a continuation of the pallet art I did last week.  I actually had 2 pallets and only used one for the project so I had a great idea to make a flower box.  I never really loved what I had for under the TV

And for a long time I have been thinking of doing flowers under the TV, I was just having a hard time finding the perfect container for the flowes.  I though of using a make travel trunk but they werent long enough, then I thought of using glass but that really wasnt the look I was going for and then the pallet art.  You can see the full article here.  Once the art was done I asked Joe my handy man husband to make me a flower box.  I wasnt thinking anything fancy, just four sides and a bottom but he decided to make it cute and give it an angle.  Now you have the back story, below is the finished project.  Ok to be honest, I have done MUCH more primping to this since I took this picture because lets be honest the green things are a little CRAZY but i was just so excited I had to share it with you!

Here is what you are going to need for this project:

• Wood (cut to your specifications, mine was 4" tall by 20" long)
• nails/hammer
• saw that can cut angles if you want the fancy box, otherwise just a regular saw
• paint, if you want
• flowers $30
• flower foam $5

Total cost for this project was $35 and that was just flowers and the flower foam, all the other items I had at the house!  How awesome, since this would cost over $100 at the store!!

First step is to cut the wood to your measurements.  Make sure you also cut a piece to fit into the bottom so you dont have the foam fall out if you pick up the box.  You can kinda see the angles here, but Joe actually had to redo this because the angles werent quite right, so not to preach to the choir or anything but measure twice, cut once.  Luckly we had plenty of wood to work with so no harm no foul.

Then nail all the pieces together.  I would nail the long pieces to the bottom piece first then close it off with the two smaller side pieces, but whatever you feel more comfortable with do that.  If you like the look of the wood and dont want to paint then skip this step, but if you want to whitewash your wood follow me to the next step :)

For this step you need your box, paint, water and a paint brush.  This is probably not the correct way to white wash but I like the way it turns out so this is the right way for us.  I had a gallon of white paint with about 1/4 left.  To get it the thin, whitw wash consistancy, we filled up the gallon with water about 3/4 full and then mixed the paint with the water. 

Now all you have to do is apply the paint to your project.  Easy peasy!  Let that sit overnight to make sure you dont get paint on anything then you can move on to the next step...adding the flowes!  Before you get started on the flowers, add the foam

Joe cut mine down a little so it fit perfectly in the box, if you did just a square box then you probably wont have to do this but with the angled box it does help to cut it do you have a perfect fit and it doesnt move around in the box. Once the foam is in start adding the flowers.  I bought bunches of blowers so I actually had to cut mine apart first into individual stems so if you bought bunches great, you probably saved money you just have to add one extra step.

 I added all my big flowers first then filled in the spaces with my smaller yellow fillers.

So what do you think, pretty easy right?!  Oh and I added a butterfly, because they are cute and I can so there!

I think it looks so much better than what I had before and it was pretty cheap too!  What do you think, is there somewhere you could put a cute little flower box?


**Update** I decided that I needed to show you the primped version of the box since the longer I look at the above picture the more I realize it doesnt do the box justice**

Much better right!
Project Housewife Out! 

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Fish eggs to Floral Beauty

As you know from yesterdays post I am working on a new dresser for the master bedroom...and what is a dresser without some great decorations to go on top of it.  My inspiration came of pinterest (of course) where they should you how to put flowers in a bowl...well I can put flowers in a bowl so that got my inspiration going.  While I was at WalMart (I know Target Im so sorry, get a floral department and I will never leave) I saw some, what looked like fish eggs, glass beads in al different colors.  I saw clear and purple and knew I would one day use them in my bedroom.  Well that one day came sooner than later.  Here is a picture of what the fish eggs look like before they got all crazy big.

What you do is add them to 2 quarts of water and let me sit for 6 hours (I left mine overnight).  After the 6 hours is over, drain the extra water and you are ready to go.  Below is the expanded version in my flower bowl.

I packet filled up 1/2 of this bowl, the purple ones are under the clear.  To make sure you keep the color seperated you need to put a wax sheet of paper betweern the layers.  I learned from my mistake, I thought it would be cool to have the colors mix together...well when you mix them you cant see the clear so the effect is totally lost!
    Now my bowls were ready for the flowers.  I mentioned earlier I got my inspiration from pinterest, well the below is what pinterest showed me.  You use making tape to section off whatever it is you are going to use for your flowers then put one flower in each section.  I was only using 6 flowers so I didnt make very big sections.

On a side note, the main draw back to the water beads is that they dont keep the flowers in place as well as the actual glass beads do.  On the flip side of that, they make it so much easier to put the flowers in the beads.  In my experience once the glass beads were in it was always a struggle to get the perfect arrangement of flowers.  Pros and cons to everything, I just happen to think with the water beads the pros outweight the cons. 
    Ok moving on, so I put my flowers in the bowls how i thought they looked best, added some of the leaves from the cut off stems and voila! beautiful floral arrangements.  Total, each piece cost $30 (the flowers were $4/each at 40% off so the flowers will probably always be the most expensive part of a floral arrangement).  Not too shabby when they probably would sell for $70!!

I think the final step for making an awesome topper for my dresser is to make a table runner...more to come on that later!!