Decorative Toilet Paper Storage

NYC living means small spaces. We do not have huge pantries, garages (most of us don't even have cars) and we always need to have extra toilet paper in the bathroom.

This really started out because my husband and I would have spats because I always forget to put an extra roll of toilet paper under the sink. I got tired of it so i thought of a solution that DOES NOT COST MONEY. Tada!

You too, can have the same storage! You will never have to worry about running out of toilet paper while doing your business in the bathroom and guests don't need to ask you for a new roll. The best part is, the cost is ZERO DOLLARS. These things are available around your home.

You will need:

Ribbon or String that is available on hand, or something that matches your decor
Skewer, half a chopstick or a pencil - any rigid object that can go through a toilet paper roll and can carry the weight.

Dinner Napkins or Tissue Paper (optional) - The ones that come out of gift wrapping is great! Upcycling is good! The dinner napkins and tissue paper here are excess from our wedding.

First, Secure your skewer/chopstick/pencil at the end of the ribbon with a knot. You may glue it if you wish, but you dont really need to.

The finished product should look like this, without the extra knots if you have one long continuous ribbon. In this case, I used 4 short ribbons so i can have the desired length to hold 6 rolls in one go. Your TP storage, no matter how long or short you want it is now done.

Usage:

Thread the ribbon through the cardboard roll.

Make sure your skewer/chopstick/pencil is in a horizontal position and will keep your TP on the holder. 

Find an empty hook and hang! Voila!

Optional: Wrapping your TP with decorative paper

Lay your toilet paper on the middle of the dinner napkin

Gather both edges to the center and tuck excess into the cardboard tube. Don't worry if it is not covering it all around. Just turn it towards the back. It also allows guests to see what is behind the colorful paper in the bathroom.

Make sure you dont cover the hole completely. You need the holder to go through in it.

If you have a whole piece of Tissue Paper, divide it lengthwise into three.

Hold it in a way that the two edges meet.

Fold it over and tuck into the cardboard tube.

When it is all done, thread your holder through. YAY!

And of course, hang!

 

You have two ways of taking the toilet paper out.

1. Push all of them upward and thread your skewer/chopstick/pencil to take one out.

2. Take the whole thing off the hook and take the topmost roll.

The best part about this is that you can change the decorative paper to match the party you are having, the current season or just your mood. 

Procter & Gamble Brands Retro Packaging Labels!

I spotted this at Target (Flushing, NY) today.

Holy retro packaging! So Cool!!! It would have been great if the prices went retro too.

Cincinnati.com reports that this is only available in Target Stores.

Old Navy Flushing, NY: Hooray For New Dressing Rooms!

I came across the new dressing rooms at Old Navy at the Sky View Center in Flushing, NY.

Lo and behold, they look like this! I am loving it. The labelled functional hooks are just so cool. I also like that they don't have a "Possibly" hook that Marshall's has inside the same mall. Such confidence!

The use of fabricated 3D arrows is quite the eye catcher. Hooray for good design!

Old Navy - Sky View Center
40-24 College Point Blvd
Flushing NY 11354

SOCSunday: Ikea Breakfast and The Highline

I am in the process of moving to a new apartment. My friend Rich needs to go to Lowe's (bec according to him, the faucets are fancier there than Home depot's) and @Roxwriting is thinking of a new A/c for her living room.

I dont like waking up early during the weekends so i suggested that we get a 99cent breakfast at Ikea for motivation. While we were getting our food, the almond cake proudly said that a purchase of a slice supports teh american cancer society. We are staunch supporters.

The view we had while eating breakfast at Ikea Brooklyn.
Yes, That is the Statue of Liberty!

Breakfast at Ikea. 39 cents for the roll. 99 cents for everything else.

Almond Cake. Every slice supports the American Cancer Society.
We are staunch supporters!

after ikea, we went to lowes. Dropped our stuff home and rich went to a party. @roxwriting and i went to lunch, then to a gallery opening at chelsea.

then we ended up at the new section of The Highline.

The Highline used to be an elevated NYC subway track that they repurposed and turned into a park. Walking this park is akin to watching New York City pass you by.

These are the weeds that grow in The Highline.

A building used to be in this lot.
Demolished and now rebuilding again.
This view looks out to The Hudson River. Possibly to NJ.

Meet Carol. We came from her Photography opening.
She matches the Emergency Call Box.

Berries! I was tempted to taste them.

It looks like a hopeless jail cell.

The Water Fountain (of Love)

Press here for love.

Close up of the graphic

At the end of the new addition, we saw the balloon installation by FriendsWithYou called Rainbow City. I instantly felt like I was inside Super Mario Brothers. (The one that they came out with the NES.)

FriendsWithYou Makes your dreams come true.

We came down to see the balloon installation and we saw this beautiful ice cream truck that combined architecture and food. Coolhaus!

@Roxwriting showing a lot of love and happiness!

In here, you pick your cookie and your ice cream.

Coolhaus Menu

Carol and Rachel picked Snickerdoodles with Blueberry Ginger Sorbet. (yes it is ginger-y and refreshing. it was good, but not my thing.)

Snickedoodles with Blueberry GInger Sorbet
Ice cream Sandwich from Coolhaus

I got double chocolate chip cookie and salted caramel ice cream.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookie with Salted Caramel
Ice Cream Sandwich from Coolhaus

We went back up The Highline because we needed to "walk off the ice cream sandwich"

That's Shanna, walking with Carol.

This one's for the birds! An architectural birdfeeder!

See that tarp? That's a marriage proposal!

The Highline has these observation decks. 

The Statue of Liberty, View from The Highline.

I didnt even know that I would see the statue of liberty from afar, twice in the same day, from two different boroughs.

Every time I do my SOCSunday this way, I can't help but say -

I love New York.
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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Go to Allthingsfadra.com and read what others have posted. And share your link there!

DPAC: Popping My Digital Conference Cherry

I have been hearing a lot about digital conferences as soon as I got into the outer fringes of twitter. I got more curious as my photography services was solicited for one of these events. As soon as I found the chance to be in one as an attendant (not as a photographer), I jumped into it. A little education, is always very good.

I liked that the conference was set up this way. Tables and chairs all facing the stage. I like that it allowed everyone to multitask as they listened to the panels.

The panels were of varied topics some of which are privacy, media strategy, brand dollars and how stay-at-home-moms IS the market. It was very informative and very much worth my time.

DPAC - Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference had sponsor booths outside the Conference Area. The giveaways are pretty cool, but since I came in here representing myself as a photographer - there were some tables who weren't too excited to tell me about what their company was about. 

Lijit was very nice to me and introduced me to their business. They are an advertising solution that runs ads and analytics. They support bloggers! Wahoo! (Thank you, Sonya!)

DPAC was an all day affair, and they fed me lunch. The choices were Chicken,  Roast Beef or Vegetarian. I picked roast beef because you cant go wrong with Roast Beef. When I saw the lunchboxes my heart sank.

Inside the box was a bottle of water, Roast Beef Sandwich, Potato Chips, Macaroni salad, Apple, Brownie and Plastic Cutlery. It was a proper picnic for one.

My initial disappointment turned to glee after the first bite off of my sandwich. It was tasty! The goat cheese wasnt overpowering and the Roasted tomatoes and shallot confit perfectly complimented it.

Roast Beef sandwich with Goat Cheese,
Roasted Tomatoes and Shallot Confit, on a Sourdough Kaiser Bun

Pesto Macaroni Salad with Peas, Carrots and Sweet Corn.

After tasting this salad, I really wished that they gave me a salad with a canape instead of a full on sandwich. This salad is so good, I want to make it at home!

Wonderfully fudgy, nutty and not too sweet. Aaah. A brownie like this is heaven-sent.

Delightfully nutty and fudgy brownie

Before you conclude that it seemed like I enjoyed the food more than the panels, to be honest the photographs would mostly be of panelists speaking - and it will be better for you to watch them here instead of looking at their mugshots.

I am quite thankful for this wonderful opportunity of attending this conference. There was a lot of marketing mumbo-jumbo during the panels - so if you are do not know what some of it is, getting the gist of it could be somewhat confusing. On the overall, it was very informative and educational. The variety of topics certainly helped in allowing me to understand what is currently going on and what will be the future of digital media.

DPAC- Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference is made possible by Digidaydaily.com , their sponsors and happened during Internet Week NY 2011.

****DISCLAIMER****
I got tickets to this event for free via a passcode. I was not given the passcode in exchange for anything. I just got lucky to get into the conference for free. A lot of NYC events tend to be free or will have a way to be free. All you need to do is pay attention, sign up for email updates and surf the web.

Everything written here is solely my opinion.