After reading an article from Women’s Health Magazines about how to bliss out your bedroom, I decided my newest household endeavor would be to turn my bedroom and master bathroom into a spa-like retreat. It’ll take some work, which requires time, but I’m starting with taking baby steps.

First thing’s first, I decided to make some DIY storage boxes from old shoe boxes to remove the clutter from our dressers. I have a really bad habit of throwing everything onto the dresser: clothes, papers, pens, jewelry, books, you name it. I’ve tried so many times to make a habit of tidying up on a regular basis but I decided it’s much easier to hide the mess. Hey, like I said, baby steps! These boxes are really easy to make and only require some fabric and spray glue.

Step 1: Iron the Fabric. This may seem tedious (it did to me because I’m impatient and wanted to jump right in) but you don’t want your finished product to be all wrinkled. It won’t look as nice. If your fabric is already nice and smooth, you can probably skip this step.

Step 2: Trace the Box on the Fabric.

Sit the box on the fabric and trace around the bottom. THEN, without moving the bottom/base from its position, FLIP it onto its side and trace that side onto the fabric. Place the box back on its bottom in the original rectangle/square you traced and flip it on the other side and trace. Do this for all four sides.

I didn’t get a good photo using the pretty patterned fabric so here it is in the orange!

Now comes the tricky part.  I used a rectangular-shaped box so I extended the long sides by an inch on each side, meaning, once I traced out all the sides, I used the ruler and added an inch to tops and sides of the two longer sides. To the two shorter sides (on a shoebox, this is where the list the name and size of the shoe, if that helps), I added an extra inch only to the end, and not on the sides. If you’re using a square-shaped box, just do this to two of the opposite sides (as if they were the “longer” sides)

The reason is because of this: when you’re gluing your fabric to the box, you want each side of fabric to be long enough to cover the side of the box AND fold over to the inside of the box so that the entire box is covered and none is exposed. By adding an inch to the top and sides of each longer side of the fabric, you have enough fabric to wrap over the edge of the box, as well as about an inch to wrap along the sides, which will smooth out the seams when you fold up short sides in the end. You’ll see what I mean in Step 4.

So, after adding your extra inches described above, this is what your fabric should look like:

Maybe this will help:

Step 3: Prep and Glue the Fabric. Lay down your newspaper/old magazine pages so that you cover all surfaces you don’t want to get sprayed with adhesive. Place the fabric on the newspaper and give it a generous spray with the glue. Make sure to cover every inch of fabric with a good amount of glue.

Step 4. Press the Glued Fabric onto Each Side. Now, work quickly but carefully. Start with the long sides and press the fabric smoothly onto the side like so:

Then fold the sides over like so (this is why you want the extra inch of fabric on each side, without it, you wouldn’t be able to fold the sides over and then it will be harder to smooth out the edges and some of the box might even be left exposed):

Then fold the tops over the edge of the box, like so:

Repeat on the opposite side. Then, fold the shorter sides up and smooth out the seams, like so:

Make sure as you go, you smooth out each side as best as you can.

Step 5: Repeat all of the procedures for the lid:

Step 6: Let Dry. Let the box for an hour or so and it’ll be ready to use!

Outfit #4 for the 30 for 30 Challenge. These are coming along quite nicely now that I’ve given the rules a little breathing room.

I wore this to a meeting at school about our internship requirements. The bad news is I was in a car for three hours because I had to drive to campus and back but the good news is they gave us free lunch.  I had planned to wear a black pencil skirt but decided to go with the crop pants because it was a little chilly out this morning. The plaid blazer was a good choice because it added some interest, but I could have incorporated some more color. Although, you clearly can’t go wrong with neutrals!

I really like wearing crop pants, which can be a bit tricky when you’re as short as I am (5’1”) because you run the risk of them being too long and then they’re not cropped, they’re just cut off below the ankle. I stick to petite sizes because they’re prefect for us shorties, and that’s what I recommend. Otherwise you can get them hemmed.

Since Nick has become my photographer, my photo shoots have gotten much more fun! He makes me laugh a lot. It’s a quality I love about him, a good quality to have.

BONUS: The photographer becomes the photographed! Here are a few shots I snapped of Nick this afternoon. Look at that handsomeness!

UPDATE: I’ve linked up with Bri of Work Clothes, I Suppose and Bethany of Perfectly Coutured so be sure to head over there to check out all of the other amazing fashion bloggers who are linking up!

Oh, what a happy Sunday it is!

Shakira released a new single this week featuring Rihanna called Can’t Remember to Forget You. I’ve been listening to it on repeat for days on end. If there’s one thing you should know about  me, it’s that I LOVE Shakira. Love might not be a strong enough word. I adore/cherish/worship/idolize/etc. etc. her. She’s the best person in the world, in my opinion. If you don’t agree, it’s all good, just don’t tell me!

This Week’s Top 5

1. Shakira. Are you at surprised to find that Shakira is number 1 on my list of favorite things this week? Really should could be on every list but we have to be realistic, right? I’ll be honest, this new single isn’t my absolute favorite that she’s done, but it’s definitely not bad. I don’t love Rihanna, which might have some small influence on my feelings toward the song, but I’ll listen to and adore anything Shakira does!

2. Hobbies. If you search this blog back far enough, you’ll find that one of my favorite activities is belly dancing. I’ve taken a break for about a year because of work and school, etc. but classes started back Wednesday night and we jumped right into learning a new choreography! It felt good to break out the hip scarves!

3. Library. I’m a graduate student taking two online classes this semester. I’ve realized that trying to study at home is extremely distracting. The dogs always want to cuddle and/or play (and it’s really hard to ignore their cuteness), the computer has social media, the television has shows, etc. Luckily, there’s a public library near my house where I can go to study and work on assigments without [much] distraction. So, I’ll be spending a lot of time there. 

4. Nick’s Cooking. On the nights I have class in person, I have to commute over an hour and a half each way. On those nights, Nick cooks dinner and he is a very good cook. When we first met, I would make him cook me ramen because, for some reason, his always tasted better than mine. That seems to be true of most everything (except eggs… I’m really good at those). He’s a great cook and I love it when he cooks for me.

5. Sunny Afternoon Walks. With Nick and the dogs. Exercise, sun, fresh air, and quality time with the family. There really isn’t anything better than that!

Photo of the Week:

Speaking of sunny afternoon walks, we try to take  them most weekends, weather permitting. This past weekend, we brought the swanky new camera along and got some pretty pictures. This is one of my favorites!

Outfit #3

I kind of felt like Elle Woods in this outfit, with all the pink. But pairing the pink with navy shoes and blazer toned it down a bit and made it feel professional. It works because the two pinks are different enough that it’s monochrome without being too matchy-matchy. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m taking some creative liberties with my challenge. The top, skirt, and shoes are in the original 30 pieces list but I added the navy blazer and scarf.

Nick admitted that he didn’t love the scarf with the outfit so I took it off and you could better see the cute sequin detail on the pocket of the sweater. I would have added a nice necklace if I knew I wouldn’t be wearing the scarf. I’ll admit that isn’t one of my favorite outfits that I’ve ever worn, so this might be the first and last time it sees the light of day. You win some, you lose some.

Official outfit #2.

I started the 30 for 30 Challenge because I was feeling a serious lack of creativity and wanted a reason to love the pieces in my closet again – without feeling the constant need to go shopping. The original rule of the challenge is to create 30 outfits using the 30 pieces, but I found that some of the items I chose are rather plain and that some of the outfits needed a little extra umph to make me truly enjoy wearing them. Based on this observation, I’ve decided to use the 30 pieces as “foundation pieces” and go from there. The result: this outfit! The top, pants, and shoes are on the list. When trying to figure out the best way to complete it, however, I felt all the cardigans and blazers in my list were too boring. When I paired with this blazer (which is new and therefore not in the list) I loved the outcome. It’s definitely a winner.

The stripes on the blazer and shoes are the same color (navy).

And just for fun!