Mail and Key Holder

Do you have a pile of papers on your kitchen counter that never seem to go away?  I do and I needed a way to keep my counter clutter free.

I have been looking everywhere for a cute mail holder that also had hooks for keys and I couldn't find anything that I liked.  Everything was either too big or didn't have hooks for keys, so of course I decided to make one.

And I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  I think the hardest part was picking out the scrapbook paper because there were so many to choose from. 

  Here are the materials you will need to make your own mail and key holder:

• I started with 2 pieces of wood from Home Depot.  One piece of wood was 2 feet by 3.5 inches and a half inch thick.  The other piece was 2 feet by 1.5 inches and a half inch thick.  (Both pieces of wood cost around $7)
• scrapbook paper:  (.50)
• Nails and wood glue (I already had)
• hooks ($1.50)

I started by cutting each piece 10 inches long.

I attached the 3.5 inch piece of wood to the side of the 1.5 inch piece of wood using small nails.

Then I attached the second 4 inch piece of wood to the top of 2 inch piece of wood.  I did this so that I could attach the shelf to the wall.  

I drilled two holes in the back piece of wood about an inch from the top.

I added the hooks by evenly spacing them out on the bottom of the shelf.  I did this before painting so I could make marks with my pen without having to worry about writing on my paint.  I had to make sure they were the same exact width apart because I'm a perfectionist:)

I painted the entire shelf white and decoupaged the front with scrapbook paper.  You could probably just keep it white or use fabric instead of scrapbook paper.  There are many different options.  I even thought about adding clear contact paper so it could be used as a dry erase board.

When everything was dry, I hung it up and moved all my mail from the counter to my new mail and key holder.

I love the fact that it matches with my kitchen decor!

Total cost:

• I got the wood for around $7
• Scrapbook paper was .50
• I already had the nails and wood glue
• The hooks were $1.50

All together, I spent around $10 to make a custom mail and key holder.  It could be made longer and with more hooks for even more storage.

So how do you keep your mail from piling up around your house?

If you've made something similar to this, please leave a comment with a link below.   If you make your own using these directions, please share your final product.   I'd love to see it.

Mingle With Us Blog Hop

Welcome to Mingle With Us Thursday Blog Hop

Hosted by All About Being Inspired, Happy Go Lucky, and Moms of All Trades.

Join in on the fun by following the hostesses in the first three spots and link up your blog's main page. Then, have some fun reading new blogs and and making new blog friends.  Remember to show some love and follow new blogs.  We always follow back!!
 

Each Friday (for the upcoming three Fridays--Feb. 11, Feb. 18 and Feb. 25), we will choose a random blogger who participated in our blog hop and that lucky winner will receive a GIVEAWAY provided by us.

This week will be our last giveaway.  The winner of the giveaway will be able to choose from one of the following pendants.

Grab our button if you want to share our blog hop with others.  There will be a new list every Thursday, so be sure to come back every week.

<center><a href="http://happy-go-lucky-harvey.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Happy Go Lucky" src="http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/harveyusn/minglewithusbloghopbutton2.gif" /></a></center>We hope you have fun and thanks for joining us!

Alyssa Jewerly Designs Winner

Check out my current giveaway from Carissa Black!

The winner of the beautiful, pink beaded bracelet by Alyssa Jewelry Designs is Shannon.  Congratulations Shannon and thanks to everyone for entering.

All pieces by Alyssa Jewelry Designs are currently 50% off and she is offering an extra 15% off if you spend over $50.  Best of all, every order ships for free.  If you haven't been to her website yet, you have to check it out!

Giveaway - Carissa Black

I'm thrilled to introduce you to Carissa Black!  She specializes in beautiful bags and accessories.  I'm in love with her Etsy shop and I have a feeling you will be too.

Let's take a look at some of her amazing handmade items.

This makeup bag is fabulous!  I love the pink and it is made of wipeable linen!

This wristlet would be perfect for the spring.  I love the bright print.

And this wristlet comes with five pockets so you can use it as a wallet.

This bag could be used for so many purposes.  I love the pink and brown together.

She also makes laptop / ipad sleeves:

All of her totes, bags, wristlets, and Ipad cases come in beautiful fabrics and are fully lined.  

They are gorgeous and would make perfect gifts for your mom, sister, friend, etc.  

The Giveaway:
Carissa Black has offered one Happy Go Lucky follower this beautiful makeup bag:

There are four ways to enter to win this giveaway:

(Each entry requires a separate comment)

1.  Visit Carissa Black and comment back with your favorite item.

2.  Become a follower of Happy Go Lucky or comment that you are already a follower.
3.  Follow Happy Go Lucky on Facebook
4.  Follow Carissa Black on Facebook HERE

You have until Tuesday, March 8th at 11:59 p.m. EST to enter.  

Please include your email address with each comment so I can let you know if you are the winner. 

But wait!  There's more:
Carissa Black is offering 10% off if you mention this giveaway when you place an order.  So start shopping now!!

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Reuse Those Coffee Cans

This weekend I've been looking for ways to reuse my coffee cans and canisters. I've been keeping these for a few months because I was thinking I could use them for storage in some way.  Most of these ideas can also be made with baby formula cans.
These are some of the idea's I found that I love:

This idea from How Can I Recycle This? would be perfect in any craft room, playroom, laundry room, etc.  I definitely want to do this in my craft closet to keep my scrapbooking stuff organized.  I can also use them in Connor's playroom to keep his small toys and art supplies in one place.

I love this flower pot created by AnnDee on Family Crafts.  I'm definitety going to plant some flowers this spring in coffee cans.  I love the blue.

Real Simple shows how a wine rack can be made using coffee cans.

I was so happy when I came across these luminaries on Maggie Makes.  You can use any size can to create them.  Now I'm going to be saving all my cans.

Also, Folgers Coffee offers a way for you to create labels for your old coffee canisters so you can reuse them as gifts.

It would be fun to print pictures of what's inside the cans and use that as your labels.  Heart of Wisdom offers a few printables that you can use for free.

So start saving your coffee cans and canisters!

What have you made with your coffee cans?  Leave a comment and share your idea.

Come Mingle With Us!

Welcome to Mingle With Us Thursday Blog Hop

Hosted by All About Being Inspired, Happy Go Lucky, and Moms of All Trades.

Join in on the fun by following the hostesses in the first three spots and link up your blog's main page. Then, have some fun reading new blogs and and making new blog friends.  Remember to show some love and follow new blogs.  We always follow back!!
 

Each Friday (for the upcoming three Fridays--Feb. 11, Feb. 18 and Feb. 25), we will choose a random blogger who participated in our blog hop and that lucky winner will receive a GIVEAWAY provided by us.

This weeks giveaway is a four pack of stamps:

Grab our button if you want to share our blog hop with others.  There will be a new list every Thursday, so be sure to come back every week.

<center><a href="http://happy-go-lucky-harvey.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Happy Go Lucky" src="http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/harveyusn/minglewithusbloghopbutton2.gif" /></a></center>We hope you have fun and thanks for joining us!

Giveaway Winners

I have two winners to announce today.  I know I've been slacking.  I should have done this over the weekend but the weather was so nice, I had to get out and enjoy it.

The winner of the beautiful Heart and Key Locket necklace by Madison Honey Vintage is ms_sunshyne.

Congratulations ms_sunshyne!  I will be contacting you for your address.
If you get a chance, you have to check out Madison Honey Vintage.  She has some very gorgeous and unique pieces .

Thank you everyone who participated in this giveaway.  I currently have another giveaway going on right now.  Please enter HERE to win a pink beaded bracelet by Alyssa Jewelry Designs.

The other winner is for our first blog hop.

Lori at Choux-Choux Paper Art is the winner of the blue and pink scarf! 

Thanks to everyone for particiating in our first blog hop.  We will be doing it every week so be sure to come back Thursday for our Mingle With Us Blog Hop.

Thank you all for following and reading Happy Go Lucky! I truly appreciate all the great comments and reading the fabulous ideas shared by everyone.

Valentine's Day Poppers

This is our last minute Valentine's Day gift for Connor to take to daycare tomorrow. Luckily we only had to make a few.

I actually got one of these as a Christmas gift from one of my students and decided to make them as Valentine's Day gifts.

The best part was Connor enjoyed helping me make them and couldn't wait to pop his own!

Materials Needed:

• Paper towel rolls and/or toilet paper rolls
• Tissue Paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Candy or small objects to put inside (I used a combination of stickers, candy and small toys from the dollar store).
• Ribbon

Directions:

• I started by cutting a slit in the middle of each roll so it would be easier to twist open.
• Then I cut the tissue paper so it was about 3 inches longer on each side of the roll.
• Tape the tissue paper to the roll and roll so that the tissue paper covers the entire roll.  I actually rolled it twice but I don't think it is necessary.
• I covered each roll with a layer of red tissue paper and then a layer of hearts tissue paper.
• Tie one end of the roll using the ribbon.  
• Place candy/prizes inside the tube.
• Then, tie other end with ribbon and use scissors to curl ribbon.

They are a lot of fun to make especially with young children.  I think they would make fun party favors also.

Have you made these before?  I would love to hear what holiday you made them for.

Our First Blog Hop

Welcome to Mingle With Us Thursday Blog Hop

Hosted by All About Being Inspired, Happy Go Lucky, and Moms of All Trades

Join in on the fun by following the hostesses in the first three spots and link up your blog's main page. Then, have some fun reading new blogs and and making new blog friends.  Remember to show some love and follow new blogs.  We always follow back!!
 

Each Friday (for the upcoming three Fridays--Feb. 11, Feb. 18 and Feb. 25), we will choose a random blogger who participated in our blog hop and that lucky winner will receive a GIVEAWAY provided by us. To claim your giveaway, please check out our blogs on Friday to see if your name was chosen, follow up with an e-mail with your address and we will send out your free gift. 

This weeks giveaway is this blue and pink scarf:

 

Grab our button if you want to share our blog hop with others.  There will be a new list every Thursday, so be sure to come back every week.

<center><a href="http://happy-go-lucky-harvey.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Happy Go Lucky" src="http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/harveyusn/minglewithusbloghopbutton2.gif" /></a></center>

We hope you have fun and thanks for joining us!

Giveaway - Alyssa Jewelry Designs

I'm so excited to introduce Alyssa Jewelry Designs.  

Alyssa Jewelry Designs focuses on custom handmade jewelry for special occasions.  They specialize in bridal and bridesmaid jewelry, but personally I think the pieces will compliment any outfit.

Look at some of the great pieces by Alyssa Jewelry Designs:  

I love both of these necklaces.  Both colors are gorgeous!

And I love the color of this bracelet.  Isn't that such a pretty blue?  

These earrings are so dainty!   I'm in love with the dark pink freshwater pearls.  

Since we love Valentine's Day, we want you to have a special Valentine's Day treat, too!  

Thanks to Alyssa Jewelry Designs, I'm offering one of my lucky readers this beautiful handmade bracelet just in time for Valentine's Day.

There are two ways to enter to win this beautiful bracelet:

(Each entry requires a separate comment)

1.  Visit Alyssa Jewelry Designs and comment back with your favorite item.

2.  Become a follower of Happy Go Lucky or comment that you are already a follower.

You have until Monday, February 19th at 11:59 p.m. EST to enter.  The winner will be announced Tuesday, February 20th.

Please include your email address with each comment so I can let you know if you are the winner.  

Good Luck and Happy Valentine's Day!

February Fun!

I found this great idea last month from Serving Pink Lemonade and I've decided to do it each month.

I've written different activities that I know Connor will enjoy doing on small pieces of cardstock.  I've placed them in a small container that I keep on the side of my refrigerator (I used magnets to adhere it).

Throughout the week, Connor picks a card and we complete that activity.  Weeknight activities are on white cards and weekend activities are on red cards.  Sometimes I put the weeknight cards back so we can do them again.

The best part is wondering what we are going to do next.  Last night we played flashlight hide-n-seek and had a blast.

These are our February Activities:

Make Ice Cream Sundaes

Read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn (my favorite book)

Play flashlight hide-n-seek

Valentine's memory game (click HERE for your free copy)

Make a fort with blankets and pillows

Make marshmallow snowmen and hot chocolate

Heart sort

Put a puzzle together

Have an alphabet scavenger hunt

Bowling

Family movie and popcorn night

Bake Valentine's Day cupcakes

Take a trip to the library and get a book or movie

Ride the carousel at the mall

Make candy jewelry

I'm hoping our next activity is to make ice cream sundaes:)

What activities and crafts do you have planned for the month of February?

Grocery Store Games

I was so excited to be a guest blogger on Ucreate a few weeks ago.  I shared a grocery shopping activity that can easily be created by you.  As my son has gotten older, taking him grocery shopping has become more and more difficult.  He either wants to get out of the cart and run around or help me shop by throwing everything in the cart.  To keep him occupied, I decided to create a way that he can shop with me and learn at the same time.  I came up with a grocery store activity called Look and See Shop with Me.

There are a couple of different ways to create this activity.  You can copy and paste clipart of different items you generally buy at the grocery store.  I created the two shown above by inserting a table into Microsoft Word and then placing the pictures into each box.  Then I typed the words, saved it as a pdf and had them laminated.  

I also used the same pictures to create a collage of pictures, letters, and numbers.  Your child can play I Spy as you grocery shop by looking for the items, letters, and numbers.  

A third way to create this activity is to use different store fliers to cut and paste items onto a piece of cardstock.  If you have an older child, they could help you locate and cut items that you usually buy when shopping.  I then typed the words of the item to help with reading skills.

The final step is to have everything laminated so they can be used over and over again. Crayons and dry-erase markers can be used and then easily wiped off.  I punched a whole in the upper left corner of everything and attached ever with a binder ring.  Then I attached a crayon to the ring with string.

I hope you have fun creating your own grocery store activity!  If you would like to start using this activity right away with your child and don't have time to create your own, you are more than welcome to download the three that I created HERE.  Just take them to your local office supply store and have them laminated.

Now, you can enjoy shopping again while your child learns!