Mini DIY: How to Easily Remove Price Stickers

Here is a mini how-to for removing price stickers quickly and easily, without gunking up your pretty fingernails. I learned this trick from the manager at Webster's Fine Stationers, where I worked once upon a time.

This works best on the little price label stickers that come on things from the thrift store or smaller mom an pop places that still use old-fashioned price guns. However, it also works well on those pesky department store labels that are designed fall apart into a hundred pieces when you try to remove them.

Step 1: Get some Scotch tape. Take a piece, and while still holding on to a corner of it, place it over the sticker you want to remove. (If you let go of the tape, then you'll have two sticky things to worry about removing.)

West Elm Inspired DIY Part 1: Black Vases

Ever since West Elm appeared on the scene, I've admired their crisp, modern designs, but haven't found much to get me going. Their latest catalog was an exception. While giving it the obligatory flip-through before the recycling bin last week, I found myself pausing more than usual...and maybe even drooling a little. Here and there, I found things that really appealed to me, and while I still can't conscionably purchase decor at their prices, I can sure as heck create my own knockoff.

Okay, knockoff may be kind of a strong word...how about "inspiration" instead?

The first thing that caught my eye was the Lombok Pottery Collection. I love the fact that they were simple in both shape and color, but still had enough shine to them to catch the light. And anything black is easy to fit into the decor in my house and easily appeals to my male roommates.

My first thought was the bric-a-brac shelves at the thrift store, so I took a quick trip to the Salvation Army during my lunch break. These three little vases are what I came home with.

Thrift Store Table Turned Custom Ottoman

At the end of a long day at work (or cruising the local thrift-store), I'm a fan of putting my feet up and relaxing with a good book. Problem is, the only place to put my feet up in our living room is the glass coffee table, and footprints on the glass is not something I want to worry about.

But that's nothing a little DIY project can't fix!

Just like my Dress Dyeing Adventure, the inspiration for this project came from something I saw on Young House Love. A guest post by Kara Paslay, who made an ottoman totally from scratch.

Well, I don't have my home workshop set up for woodworking yet (someday I will have a circular saw...), so I didn't go from scratch. Instead, I picked up a small side table from the thrift store for $10.

Dress Dyeing Adventure

I think dyeing your own clothes counts as an adventure because it takes a certain amount of bravery to undertake. My clothing dye experience up to this point was limited to tie-dyeing t-shirts at summer camp as a kid, but I was inspired by the daring project Sherry at Young House Love undertook to dye her wedding dress! Now that's bravery.

I had no plans to potentially ruin anything quite so precious as a wedding dress (also, I don't have one), but I did have two second-hand dresses in my closet that I probably would never wear if they remained white. The first dress was a strapless black and white cotton toile, and the second was black dots on white. Because I took a few pictures of both dresses in the dyeing process, so excuse me if there is a mix of both dyeing adventures here. This is how both dresses started: