DIY Fall Floral Wreath

Are you ready for a super quick and easy DIY project?  A faux hydrangea floral wreath is in order!  I made it with just a couple of inexpensive items and it took about 15 minutes to put together. 

You can find the flowers at any craft store, Hobby Lobby sells them often for 50% off.  I used 9 flowers, 3 of each color, and a large straw wreath form.  A wire cutter was used to cut the stems and scissors to make a small hole in the wreath form for where the flowers would go.  The steps are illustrated below.

Wreaths are beautiful hanging on doors and mirrors.  I found the burlap and satin ribbon at Hobby Lobby.  

Or you can attach the wreath form directly to a rubber wreath hanger that affixes directly to the mirror.  I used one like this.  I'm always surprised at how well they hold the wreath. 

Are you up for making your own wreath this season?

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I'm sharing this post with Layla at The Lettered Cottage and Rhoda at Southern Hospitality.

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Organized Magazines

There's only a couple more things to do in my office before a tour of the whole room is in order.  Last week, I showed you how I recovered my aqua magazine holders with gift wrap and now I've updated them with bookplate labels. The aqua wasn't quite right for my new color scheme and I'm a huge fan of the Rifle paper I used. 

I'm big on magazines, especially in the summer because I'll take them to the pool, flip through during long cardio sessions at the gym, or for easy reading before bed. Most of my magazines are given to a friend after I read, but I save certain subscriptions, like Oprah, House Beautiful and Martha Stewart Living to keep for future reference.  Now, I've got them all organized and labeled in my office bookshelf.

I bought inexpensive, metal bookplates from Michael's and they are adhesive so they stick right onto the magazine files. I used washi tape (gold dots and stripes) over the labels that came with the bookplates and printed "HB" and "Living" with my labeler.  These bookplates could be spray-painted another color if you wanted something different.

I'm so happy with the result!

Do you keep any of your magazines?  If so, how do you store them?

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Head over to Honey We're Healthy if you need some tough love today.

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I'm sharing this post with Jen at I Heart Organizing.

Barclays Bank Error In Your Favour - Collect £100M

I see that Barclays is fond of playing Monopoly, and has managed to create a bank error (for once in its customers' favour) that will entail a refund to affected customers (estimated at being around 300,000) of around £100M.

Barclays customers are to receive compensation because it miscalculated the interest owed on personal loans, the errors date back to October 2008.

Other divisions (Barclaycard, Barclays Wealth and Barclays Corporate) are now undertaking a review to see if customers were short-changed by the errors ("technical documentary errors").

Barclays will write to customers in the coming weeks. Barclays is quoted by the Telegraph saying that said it had "identified certain issues with the information contained in historic statements and arrears notices relating to consumer loan accounts. It is therefore implementing a plan to return interest incorrectly charged to customers".

A spokesman for the bank said:

"Barclays has proactively reviewed information it has historically sent to its customers relating to interest charges, where we have found technical documentary errors. As a result Barclays has identified certain issues with the information contained in some statements and arrears notices relating to consumer loan accounts. 

Due to these notification errors, interest was not due on certain accounts during the period that Barclays made this mistake, and whilst no one has been mis-sold to, customers are entitled to have their interest payments returned. No customer will pay more than they were ever contractually expected to. 

Barclays has notified the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which is responsible for consumer credit issues, and is implementing a plan to return interest payments to customers as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Barclays is undertaking a review of all its businesses where similar issues could arise to assess any related issues. 

Any affected customer will be contacted by Barclays and customers do not need to take any action."

To add to Barclays shame, campaign group Move Your Money said that Barclays was the lowest scoring financial institution out of 70 assessed, scoring four out of 100 possible points for honesty and customer service.

Well done Barclays!

Leopard Fabric Pumpkin

We're starting to see pumpkins piling up outside the grocery store- guess Fall is upon us!  I always get a kick out of how many varieties there are and especially love the miniature ones. 

I had plans for this big guy though- I wanted to turn him into a leopard fabric pumpkin, kinda like those plushy velvet ones I've seen in years' past.  I had leopard fabric left over from my wooden stool project.

I had my doubts as to how this was going to turn out.  After I finished wrapping the pumpkin in fabric, the stem was too short to be seen,  and it didn't look very pumpkin-y, more like a bowling ball.  So, I created a stem, improvising with a cardboard toilet paper roll and some tree bark.

I used spray adhesive to adhere the bark to the cardboard roll, then added one real green leaf and a fake gold leaf.

I think adding those natural elements helped make it look more like a pumpkin.

I've got the leopard pumpkin sitting in our entryway for now, next to one of the velvety kind that I found at Hobby Lobby. 

I want to try some other fabrics, but this is a start!

Have a great week friends!

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The TSB Goes From Strength To Strength

Following last week's website crash on its relaunch, the TSB has yet again managed to drop the ball; this time by mis-spelling Ashtead on a billboard advert aimed at the residents of Ashtead.

As per getSURREY:

"‘Welcome back to local banking’ was the message displayed to commuters on a TSB advertising board erected at Ashtead railway station this week.

But something rather important to local people got lost in translation - the spelling of the village they live in.

Now TSB bosses will be hoping that villagers can forgive their 'Hello Ashstead' howler.

A spokesman said on Thursday: 
“We apologise to local residents for the incorrect spelling.

"We are looking to rectify the poster as soon as possible.”

The company later tweeted an apology for the mistake."

Top Washi Tape Projects

Y'all know that I've fallen for washi tape in a big way this year.  It's easy to use and remove, colorful, fun, and a quick way to add personality to almost anything.  I've built up a pretty big collection and have used it all over the house.  

Keyboard

Pencils (use two strips of tape lengthwise)

Kitchen Spatulas

Even the pipes under the sink!

Paper Straw Arrows

Courtney (A Thoughtful Place) made some adorable washi straw flags.

Susan (Simply Modern Home) added some fun washi to a floral vase.

Christine (Just Bella) made washi magnets that I just adore.

Darnetha (ChippaSunshine) organizes her files with washi- love the colors and patterns she used.

My favorite and most-often used way to washi is in my daily planner.  Kinda like Wendy (Pretty Well Organized)

and Take 2 They're Small did with theirs.

How are you using washi tape?

On Honey We're Healthy: You can do this!

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Have a great WEEKEND!

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The Interminable Rise of Greek Youth Unemployment

In May Greek youth unemployment was almsot 65%, in June it showed a slight "improevment" falling to 58.8%.

However, when compared to previous years the level of youth unemployment has worsened (as per Efthimia Efthimiou):

- June 2012 it was 54.8%
- June 2011 it was 44.4%
- June 2010 it was 31.3%
- June 2009 it was 23.2%
- June 2008 it was 20%

Levels of unemployment such as this are normally associated with third world countries in the midst of a civil war, or the equivalent. Yet Greece is, allegedly, a first world country and is meant to be an "equal" member of a powerful and prosperous economic block (ie the Eurozone).

The reality is that Greece is not treated as an equal, it should never have joined or been allowed to join the Eurozone and the prosperity within the Eurozone is not evenly spread but confined to the wealthy Northern economies.

As such it is clear that as an experiment the Eurozone is destined to fail, indeed the world will be a better place without it. However, with levels of unemployment such as this in Greece the real danger is that of a plague of dictatorships and civil unrest spreading country by country in the Southern members of the Eurozone.

In order to survive as a democracy and civilised society Greece needs to exit the Eurozone now, others such as Cyprus need also to consider their positions.