Silhouette Madness...More Labeling Because I Can...Plus a Frugal Tip

I have been having fun with my Silhouette Machine again.  This time, I headed back to the laundry room and the kitchen.  I know, I know...labeling your laundry room?  Really.  Oh, yeah.

Hey, I spend a lot of time in my laundry room.  Don't you?  I'd already gotten rid of the boxes in favor of these cool cannisters, but they needed a little more.

To cut the cost of this project, I used black contact paper instead of black vinyl for the badges.  (You can use black contact paper for "chalkboard" vinyl, too, it is just not quite matte.) Then I just topped them off with white vinyl lettering. 

Love how the white vinyl pops off the black!

I think they turned out really well.  I love how fun, yet simple they look.

Then, a few days ago, I found this awesome soap dispenser at World Market.  It is glass...and it is Mrs. Meyer's so it smells divinely...truly, isn't it fabulous? 

Mrs. Meyer's Wash Up - Love This Dispenser!

With the cool soap dispenser on the one side of the sink, I decided to add a little focus to my dish soap dispenser.  I love this dish soap dispenser.  I've had it for years and years. 

Just jazzed up with some basic black lettering.

(Can you tell I don't like the original packaging that most things come in?  Seriously...I switch out my laundry stuff, I switch out my liquid soaps...maybe I have an issue?  Nah...)

Finally, here is my frugal tip for you.  If you work with the vinyl cutters (Silhouette or Cricut), you know the challenge of weeding the excess vinyl (or the paper or fabric you've cut).   I've been using an exacto knife, but sometimes the fine work was challenging.  I was really tempted to buy one of those weeding tools that go for upwards of $14 on the websites when it occurred to me that I could get exactly what I needed at my local Walgreens for about $4.   

 

For a lot less money, you can use drugstore dental tools to weed your vinyl!

Did you figure it out?  They're drugstore dental tools!  You can easily use your handy-dandy dental tools to weed.  Pretty cool, right?  Yeah, I thought so!

Labeling Everything

tr.v. la·beled or la·belled, la·bel·ing or la·bel·ling, la·bels
1. To attach a label to.
2. To identify or designate with a label; describe or classify
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I'm thinking that maybe I'm having a little too much fun with my Silhouette machine.  The real question:  How much is too much?

I've used it in the kitchen.

I've used it in the little dining room.

I've used it in the family room for sewing stuff,

for office supplies,

and for old photographs.

Oh, and let's not forget my bathroom.

But now I have to ask:  Can you have too much labeling?  Is simplicity and clarity a bad thing?

A place for everything and everything in its place?

Seriously...how much is too much?

Chalkboard Markers and Black Contact Paper

Just in case you thought all my creativity was limited to use of the Silhouette machine, I have another little project I did this summer to share with you.

Let me back up.  We have a teeny-tiny "linen" closet at the top of our stairs.  The door to the closet was really just two cabinet doors stacked on top of each other, roughly 20" wide.  The opening was so small that the closet was always an ineffecient mess.

So, last spring, I took off the cabinet doors (discovering that they were just a face, no really cabinetry behind them!) and decided to see if I could live with a no-door linen closet...especially as all of our linens are in our respective bedrooms (they fit better there!).

This really appeals to me.

As does this.

So, even though I haven't quite figured out how to execute my own linen closet redo, I have started liking this open closet system.   And, it gave me an excuse to break out my chalk markers!   I simply wrapped some lightweight cardboard in black contact paper and used the white chalk marker to identify the contents of each bin.

The bright yellow I chose for the baskets and bins makes the entire closet feel cheerful.  Having no doors really keeps us from accumulating clutter. 

Also, I don't overbuy supplies because I don't have any place to put them!

 I still need to refine the shelving and figure out how I'm going to trim out the opening, but I think I'm leaving the doors off.

Oh, and I didn't stop in the closet.  I headed downstairs and made up a few more tags.

I know lots of people have In boxes

and Fabric stashes,

but how many people have bins of Dog Balls?

Organizing makes my heart happy...can you tell?

No Plastic Cups or How to Label Your Drinking Glasses

We have the same core group of friends for dinner with some regularity.   It is so fun to have people who feel like extended family in your life and I love hosting everyone at our house.  After a few years, we've all gotten it down to a science and, while each of us does it a little differently, it always ends up being fun.  One of my quirks?  I don't like using paper plates,  paper napkins, plastic utensils or plastic cups when I can avoid it.  Paper plates and plastic utensils were easy to eliminate...just making sure the dishwasher is empty and the cupboards full before our friends arrive took care of those.  Since we've been using cloth napkins for the past 8+ years, I have plenty of those, too.  

  
We have plenty of glasses, but since they're all the same, I end up with every cup from my cupboard on the kitchen counter and people still looking for a drinking glass.  I had to come up with a way to label my everyday drinking glasses.

A few scrapbooking tags, some string, a Sharpie, and some of Buttercup's ponytail holders and I think I came up with something clever.

They worked so well...the elastic band stayed put and the tags didn't get in the way.  At the end of the evening, we just slipped them off the glass and loaded the dishwasher.

The best part?  I can reuse them!