Since St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, Ashley and I decided to gather up some of our favorite Leprechaun-approved projects around the ‘net and share them with you. Some are classy, some are cute, some are sweet, and some are just plain ingenious (Like #7! Make sure you check out the “before” picture on the linked site. It’s awesome!)…

1. Irish Napkin Decor //2. Lucky Pots of Gold // 3. Red Velvet (Revisited) //4. End of the Rainbow Treats // 5. Shamrock Marshmallow Pops // 6. Lucky Subway Art // 7. Leprechaun Trap Cake

Have you blogged about any awesome St. Patrick’s Day crafts, recipes, or decor projects? If so, share your link in the comments section so everybody can check it out!

Okay, this might be something a lot of you are like, “Duh, I’ve been doing that for years!”, but I’m going to share it with you anyway.

I was in the kitchen cleaning out the fridge, listening to She & Him on my iPhone, and I said to Greg, “We should get some iPhone speakers for the kitchen.” Without saying a word, he brought me a glass, reached over, took my iPhone, cranked up the volume, and put in down in the glass. Woah! The kitchen was immediately filled with music.

Greg just walked out of the room, ignoring my total geek-out moment. He later explained that the concave shape of the glass amplifies the sound and that he saw it on LifeHacker a few years ago (check out that post here). And here I was thinking he was just super genius.

She & Him has a lot of reverb on the vocals, and the glass tends to add a bit more; so I got scientific and switched out the glass for a coffee mug. It’s a bit shorter, so, for some reason, it tunes down the echo effect. I’m sure there’s a long, explanation as to why, but I’m not that smart. I leave that up to Greg – who should probably be the one writing this post come to think of it.

I like how I don’t have to have a big bulky speaker on the counter or anything to plug in. It’s a simple and easy solution. It’s so simple it’s silly. Pretty cool, right?

Last time we talked about my office, we made plans for “the wall with the window” including functionality and storage furniture options…

At the time, the office looked like a hot mess…

These days, it’s looking like a semi-empty, a tad less of a hot mess…

Knowing we’d be in the market for a new desk eventually, we went ahead and donated it along with the two small hutches. We also moved the small thrift table to another room in the house (it’s currently floating between the guest room and Greg’s office), and we put the second orangish/redish chair in our “holding room” (aka Greg’s office). So now the room is feeling more and more like a clean slate. Yep, and I’m oh so pleased to say that we finally pulled the trigger and ordered the Craft Space Storage Cabinet and a Eight-Drawer Flat-File Cabinet by Martha Stewart Living in addition to a matching hutch to go on top of the Flat-File Cabinet:

Even though they took forever to put together, I’m really happy with them! Like, really, really happy. They are solid as a rock and there seems to be a place for everything – even a perfect-sized compartment for legal pads! And Sharpies!!! Oh, Martha, you do know the ways to my heart. And check out how DEEP these drawers are…

So you can get an idea of how big the drawers are, those are full-sized legal pads.

The major thing that sold us on these were the extra deep flat file drawers. They are the perfect width for storing the destination prints we sell over in our Etsy store and have proved to come in very handy when keeping everything organized. When we get a new order, we know right where everything is and how many we have of each print.

I haven’t even begun to fill up the furniture, which is awesome! When I do, I’ll be sure to give you guys a “behind closed drawers Cribs edition” post.

Now that the big storage pieces are in place, it’s a lot easier to see the vision for the rest of the room. The plan I sketched out before we bought the storage furniture (the first photo of this post) is still on the to-do list, just reversed (the tall piece will be on the right and the shorter piece will be on the left). As for my desk, I’ve had a doozy of a time trying to figure out where to put it. Do I put it on the same wall as the door to the kitchen, or on the outside wall so my back is to the dining room, our out in the middle of the room… or on the ceiling. I want to have a comfy working area, with lots of space to spread out whatever I’m working on while having optimal storage. After a lot of brainstorming, pinning, and bouncing ideas off my mom (yes, I’m a mamma’s girl), I think I’ve finally settled on a floorplan that will meet all my needs and wants…

Now that I look at it, I think, “Duh, that’s how this office was meant to be laid out.” I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to figure it out, haha! If that wasn’t enough revelation, I then came across this photo on Pinterest:

Done deal. Now if I can only make an awesome metal desk like that! Hmm… I should totally take up welding ; )

By the way, a big congratulations to the top 6 Homie nominees for Best Home Design Blog: Bower Power, Centsational Girl, Chezerbey, Manhattan Nest, Retro Renovation and The Lettered Cottage! Voting ends this Friday, so be sure to head on over to Apartment Therapy and cast your vote!