Black and White Table Runner

When we bought our house we knew that we would need some new furniture. One of the first sets that we bought was a new kitchen table and chairs. We found a set that we loved on sale and knew that it was meant to be. We got an espresso colored, counter top height table, and 8 chairs. We were so excited!

Once the set was delivered we quickly found that the surface of the table scratches quite easily. So, we decided we needed some way of protecting it, but we didn't want to use a tablecloth all of the time. We bought a table runner and 4 place mats that we found for super cheap. We weren't too specific when choosing them, other than the fact that they needed to be cheap. Now I have decided that they definitely aren't the colors that I'd like to use in the kitchen, so I have been looking for black and white fabric to make my own table runner.

On Saturday I went on another Joanne's adventure and found that the quarter yard fabric samples were on sale for $1.29 instead of the usual $1.99 price. I was sifting through these squares looking for fabric for other projects and came across these black and white samples.


I loved them, and they were exactly the right price... cheap! I ended up buying 2 of these, thinking that I could maybe sew them together to make a runner. Once I got home I went to town. You should know that I am still kind of new to sewing. I know just enough to get by with making pillows and sewing straight lines. Luckily for me, this project was as simple as it could have possibly been. I sewed them together and then sewed seams around the edges.

Overall, I think it turned out prefectly, especially with a price tag of less than $3.00. My next project for the kitchen is to make curtains. Yikes! Hopefully, I'll be finished and ready to post about them in the next few weeks.

Weekly Menu Planner

I think this is probably my favorite project I've done so far and I hope you like it too!


Each weekend Trav and I plan out our dinners for each night of the upcoming week. This way we can make one trip to the grocery store and it also helps to ensure that we are buying exactly what we need instead of a bunch of random junk.

For the past five years, I have purchased magnetic notepads that we keep on the fridge to help with this meal planning process.

We just wrote in the name of our dinners next to each day. This system has worked wonderfully for the past few years.

That is until I came across this project post on Under The Table and Dreaming. She made a reusable menu planner out of a regular old picture frame! Once you have it all together, you can use a dry erase marker to write down your menu for the week. You just write right on the glass. Then, it's easy to wipe off to erase and redo the next week. I think this is pure genius! Not only can you save on paper, which is obviously earth friendly, you can also customize it to go with the decor in your kitchen. Genius I tell you!

Here is what I used to make mine:

1) scrapbook paper for the background (I used black and white)

2) a sheet with the title and the days of the week printed out (I used white cardstock)

3) thin black ribbon

4) 8x10 frame


The first thing that I did was choose a fun font on our computer and typed out "This Week's Menu" along the top with the days of the week down the left side. Next, I cut the printout to the size that I wanted and mounted it onto the pretty scrapbook paper. Then, I cut down the scrapbook paper to 8x10 so that it would fit in my frame. I added a strip of thin ribbon to dress it up just a bit. Finally, I put it in the frame and got out my dry erase marker. It was such an easy project. In all, I think it probably took me about 20 minutes.

I love this project for many reasons but mostly because you can make it as detailed or as simple as you want. We have used this every week since I made it, and I love that we are saving paper!


P.S. Please disregard our out-of-control kitchen utensil canister. I know it's kind of ridiculous!