Get Scatty

The Season for Scarves!

2012-01-15T20:19:00.004-07:00

It's like I'm cheating with this project.... and it's really not a project so much as a solution.
When I was looking at giving my closet that make-over last year with shelves and multiple hanging rails, I had seen this closet system in the Ikea catalog:

One of the parts in the catalog I cannot find on their website, but it was the most exciting piece of the system to me...

It was right before I did my closet make-over that I stopped by Ikea, and had a wander through their AS IS section... And guess what I found... Yep, the piece that excited me the most. But when my planning the closet happened, there really wasn't room for it, so I didn't use it. Simply hung onto it, and for the price; it really didn't matter that it went unused.

I know... right??? Can you even believe how cheap? I left Ikea like a Cheshire cat!
So here it sat unwanted for about a year, when one day I had the most basic and easy of ideas.... Attach it to the wall and hang scarves on it!
Since I only gave MY SIDE of the closet a make over last year, there still remained a corner unused and left empty. (DH doesn't have as many clothes, so his side was left alone.)

With my plan in place, I bought these:

These are simply a plumbing pipe support. It pulls apart in the center, wraps the pipe, and gives you holes to screw through. Cost was more than the Ikea closet piece. These were $4.11 for a bag of 6.
I then found the studs in the wall, and screwed it up! (letting the distance between the studs pretty much determine the angle.)

I can hardly contain my happiness over pulling my scarves from various places and putting them all in one location. I could also hang belts, trousers, DH's ties, and I even have a tall pair of boots that I want to get a clip for and hang from this.

Like I said, CRaZy EaSy. =)

On the subject of scarves, here's a great link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LYAEz777AU

I think I have a sickness…

2011-12-31T11:43:00.001-07:00

It’s “make presents” sickness.

Every year I try to tell myself not to make some gifts, and then I find a gift to make and do it. Thinking it will be EASIER for me to do this than find things to purchase and give; so I relent as always.

I did a few things this year, making earrings was one since I have so many supplies and didn’t need to buy anything. But not everyone could I give earrings to, and some people had recently received earrings….

So I went in search of another idea.

Finding a cute one I thought was very fun, would be easy to execute, and very inexpensive.

Why would I keep looking right?

Here’s the original idea: (Click on the image to go to the blog post. I totally admit to not reading it... so maybe you'll want to. I just saw the photo on pinterest, pinned it, and ran with it.)

Here’s what I did:
I went and bought a bunch of hand soaps, peeled off the labels, and cleaned up the sticky residue using adhesive remover. I will say the goo-gone was better than the un-du for this.

Then with clean bottles I started on my sticker.

I needed a border. This border was not a digital border, it’s the border of a stamp I have, so I scanned it into photoshop.

Then I found some fonts I liked and a saying.

Measuring the face of the bottle, I determined the size it needed to be.

When I finished the image, I put multiples on one sheet in illustrator and created a pdf. Then I went over to Kinko’s with it and had them print me two sheets of my image onto clear sticker paper. I would not want to print this myself as I only have an ink jet printer, and obviously, a soap bottle sticker is going to get wet!

I came home, got out my concentric circles Coluzzle template and cut around the image.

Attached the stickers, and tied a bow!

A fun suggestion, if you want to have an image showing through from the back… create an image, invert it before you make a pdf and print it. Then attach the sticker to the back of the bottle, and it will read correctly from the front.

Time again for a Christmas tree…

2011-12-04T22:28:00.001-07:00

Decorating a Christmas tree isn’t the most exciting project in my house, not by a long shot. But it has to be done.

I put the tree up and fluff it ready for lights, husband does lights, and then I decorate it. On Natty’s step1 of getting it up she failed to get it to stand straight and had to go asking for help. Asking for assistance is not my strong suit, especially when it’s something easy I should be able to do myself, but I got myself all angry and ready to put the tree back in the bloody box, so help it was.

Within just a couple minutes tree was straight and I was underway.

Since I was so happy with my tree last year, I didn’t really fancy coming up with something totally new this year. I wanted to do it mostly similar, but incorporate some blue. Last year it was all green and white.

First thing I did was buy some of those berry clumps. I tell myself that berries look like polka-dots, so my tree needs them.

Then I made some “icicles” out of beads; mixing blue with a hint of green. They were a cinch.

I got out 3” headpins. (I was fully prepared to use wire and just make eyepins, but since I had the long headpins I didn’t bother)

Pulled out various beads, strung them from small to large.

Then bent the end of the headpin to the side. This is a crucial step:

Using round nose pliers bent the end into a simple loop.

Hung with a curly wire.

Here are the other decorations I added. (again, most from last year)

I added a few mismatched odd balls too. (I've managed to delete the pic of my glittery snowballs, so there's a bunch of them also)

The blue isn’t obvious from a distance I realize, but that’s ok. I’m happy.

A friend in Norfolk said she put a kitten on the top of her tree... I've been on the lookout, so if I find an angelic white kitten, he's mine!

Doing away with another closet.

2011-11-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

You must think I’m crazy to get rid of closets, and really I am, since I don’t have an actual ‘storage room’ in my house.

BUT… I think I will be happier in this instance with what I create vs. loose.

Let me quickly apologize for having been so absent. My goal for quite some time was to post at least one project a month… feeling like I do at least that many projects, and I could get one thing posted.

That clearly halted this last summer, and I am going to happily blame my job. Work has been consuming, and when you come home mentally exhausted enough, the recliner looks much better than projects.

I have done some tiny projects, but I feel too ashamed of myself to post them; at least right now.

So, this closet… I have shared this photo, or a version of it before, This is the room that WAS a bedroom, my post is buried HERE. I converted this middle bedroom into a TV room because I don’t need 5 bedrooms.

I stuck my big ol’ tv in the closet, and it has always looked make-shift. This is where my recliner is.

My plan… to convert it into a bit of a storage unit cupboard with doors below and a place for the TV to sit. Who knows maybe one day I will get a big flat screen that will live happily in here… you know, when I have all that extra money I don’t know what to do with… giggle.

I started by going to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Took my measurements with me, and knew the size it would require for 3 or 4 doors. I ended up nearly leaving empty handed because I couldn’t find any matching doors. In the end, I realized that three I had discounted for far too large, in fact weren’t! So I got em’ for $2 each! (yes, typical me). The edges would just need to be slightly cut down.

Then I headed to Lowes for wood since it was near the Re-Store. (I’m usually a Home Depot Gal, but I must say that the wood in Lowes was AWESOME. Cheap, good quality, and straight!) I left with all I needed including 3 sets of hinges for $26! (note to self: Lowes wood choices and prices were much better then Home Depot when I went there needing to buy one more piece.)

Once home I noticed the doors had this plastic lamination over the fronts of them and it had started breaking free in a few places, so I scraped that right off! They are MDF underneath. These will get a paint job. I measured and determined I will have to take off the ½” molded edge on the table saw so they fit.

I cut into the carpet, removed the closet shelf, sprayed texture over the area it was missing, and then painted it white. Then I built my frame.

The frame looks flimsy, but it is reinforced, and it’s not just one little layer of frame. All glued and pinned together. (I also added a tac strip under this newly cut carpet edge) The wood looks white cause I used a spray primer on it before I built it.

Then I got some cardboard and made a template for the top… A large bit would have been nice, but I used what I had, and just taped it together with packing tape. I used small thinner pieces for the angles so I didn’t have too many thick layers of cardboard to deal with and possibly messing with my exactness. (that would have been hard.)

Then I went in search of something I could use for the top. Off to Home Depot. You may remember when I made my DESK, I used 4 hollow-core doors for the desk top. I kept this in mind as a possibility, but first went to counter tops. Nothing... I wanted white, and I wanted it affordable, and they had neither. I was fully prepared to go to IKEA and see what they had, but I ended up looking at doors. The width I needed was 27.5”, and when I found a 28” door for $21 which was only 2.5” too short on the length, I said “It’s mine.” Since the closet is a funny shape that tapers at one end, the 2.5” will be totally hidden, and provide a place where wires could come from below to the top if needed. (I say IF because I plan on drilling a hole at the back in the middle for cables.)

My template needed the back and sides exact, so I didn’t worry about the cardboard lining up with the front edge of the door. Marked my lines, then cut the puppy. The kitty watching is Glory. She’s a fan of projects… she’ll hang out and watch anything, even when my compressor comes on; she’s not phased.

Since the cut edges will be totally hidden, I don’t need to worry about the hollow holes showing.

(In the past when I’ve had to worry, I used the scrap I cut off to fill the hole. It’s a slight pain-in-the-butt since you have to remove the vertical cardboard inside the door a little way, then from the off-cut remove the solid piece of MDF that was the doors edge. (realizing this might not make sense) Then this piece needs to be cut to size and glued into the open faced hole creating a new solid edge.)

Moving on…

With a little adjustment, cutting a little extra after the first fitting, the door slotted right in. It’s so tight I’m not even going to nail it. Paintable caulk along all the edges…. And then a paint job. I realize that this old TV might scratch a painted surface, so I think I will need to just sew a thin white cloth for the TV to sit on.

Since I had the TV cables entering the closet from the front before, I decided to solve my little issue by drilling holes through the drywall in the closet wall.

Right of this closet is a closet in the room behind it.

I drilled holes near the floor so I could feed the cable and electric through both closets and have it end inside the cupboard.

The distance is near enough the same as it was when the cables were tucked in from the front. (You can see my cable issue in the first picture) Since these holes are totally out of sight in both closets I’m not going to worry about the raw drywall edges. I did make sure I was far enough away from the studs, so as not to make my life hard.

As I mentioned earlier, I drilled a hole in the middle at the back for TV cables to pass through.

I’ve painted the top with 4 coats, and attached the doors. I used knobs I already had, and might keep them. They seem a bit small, but I like how they don’t call attention to themselves.

I stuck my big old TV back in, and it looked rather floating, so I went in search of something tall. Not set on this décor plan, but it doesn’t matter since I got what I was after. A new and improved cupboard. (And the room looks bigger, which was an unexpected bonus.) (Natty in recliner, ready for some John Gidding.)

A mini-make over for a guest room.

2011-07-25T16:32:00.001-06:00

So, I decided that I needed a pink wall in the green guest room. I have a friend with a pink wall in her bedroom, and it’s so adorable. I’ve been thinking for about a year now I might need a pink wall too. (Shhhh… I am thinking of painting the laundry room pink too. After all, I did buy a gallon.)

So my green guest room was where I decided to take my friends inspiration and make it reality.

This picture is an inspiration I’ve hung onto. I like how clean it feels, so yellow would be part of this room too. I realize there is no pink in the picture, but we don’t always need to have images that inspire us looking like the finished idea in our heads.

This is one corner of the room, the white wall is the one I want pink. You might be able to see that I left a white border around the green walls. (I have two green walls opposite each other) I am going to do the same border for the pink wall, so I taped it up.

Lickety-split, up went the paint.

Now onto the next project before I show you the finished wall…

I decided this guest room needs a desk. I’m a big fan of modern mixed with old, so I came up with a plan.

Remember the two old legs I didn’t know what to do with? Well I decided they are going to be the front legs of a desk.

Here in this picture I have parts for my desk. (I only photographed one of each thing)

A desk top from IKEA $4. (normal price) Two random “as is” book case top and bottoms $2each. Two free legs found in an alley (literally.) Two of 4 feet from a junked dresser that I will add to the legs for height. Not in this picture: the things I decided I needed along the way.

So the legs weren’t dark enough, I sanded them and stained them walnut. I didn’t do a hard-core sanding job, I like the uneven-ness that not sanding an old finish completely off will give. (I also screwed pine discs onto the tops of the legs so that I could screw the discs onto the table top.)

Then I chopped those two book case parts to the height I needed. I determined the height by adding the feet to the legs after those discs. This is what the hollow book case pieces look like cut. I put wood glue all along the edges and along the cardboard, putting them in place on the underside of the desk top.

Then using L brackets I screwed them to the desk top. I have two types of L brackets because I used what I already had… (‘bout time I used some of the crap I collect.)

Then I decided to make sure I have stability, I should add braces between the white sides at the back… found two scraps of mdf for this purpose… Plus they are already primed!

Using a small piece of scrap wood for a spacer, I nailed the brace into place. (Nail Gun is my favorite tool)

Then I used the same spacer again for the second piece of wood. YES… I managed to put the first piece of wood on backwards. There I was all excited it was already primed, and I put it on backwards. Nevermind.

Now… what about the holes in the bookcase parts??? Well, white filler is my friend for this. Both sides of the bookcase parts had holes so I filled them all, let them dry, then used a wet cloth to wipe them clean and flush.

I painted the back braces white, and turned it over!

Not the most amazing piece of furniture in the world, but it’s exactly what I wanted.

Enter cute yellow chair…

I put a white curtain on the window, and a white duvet on the bed. Using blankets and pillows to bring the bed color.

If you are familiar with my blog... you recognise a couple projects in this photo:

OH, and... This bed I bought at a yard sale about 4 years ago... It was black and I paid $5!!! Not kidding!

Colorful photos into the frames, and I call that a great little mini make-over.

Unattractive jewelry?

2011-07-25T16:20:00.001-06:00

So often pieces of jewelry have elements we like, and elements we don't. This no doubt stops many of you from purchasing, even when it's a good deal, cause heck, if you won't wear it... you won't wear it.

My friend was in town for a reunion, and we went shopping. We found a wonderful boutique called Cherry Lane Keepsakes on University Ave in Provo. CUTE place… so much to see! They were having clearance booths outside, and that’s where we started. My friend noticed something she thought she liked, then upon closer look she said, “ah, well, maybe not…” So I looked at it and told her… “$5!! We need these!! I can turn this into something you will wear and love!” So we each bought one.

This is what I made of hers… she now has a fun bracelet and earrings to go along with the cool necklace… The only addition was a pendant she also found at the same clearance booth.

Then I made this for me:

Pieces of chain we removed from hers, I added to mine, along with one more length of chain... crazy fast actually.

Never pass up a bargain just cause it isn’t exactly what you want. Make it yours.

DIY Confidence

2011-05-22T00:21:00.004-06:00

If you know me, you know I love a good Do It Yourself project… I want to alter/change and Get Scatty on everything that comes my way…. Even when I don’t know how, or have the necessary tools. I’m classic at figuring out how to get what I want with what I have, so this post will not surprise you, what you will find different is that I do not have how-to photos along the way… and that instead of talking about a lamp, I’m talking about me. (I don’t get personal often as you have seen.)

So… Do It Yourself Confidence. You are no doubt thinking… “Ya, if I could just do it myself then I would have done it a long time ago! Confidence isn’t just as easy as a decision! Cause I’ve decided I want to be happy with myself, but I don’t know how to make it happen.”

Well the reason I’m writing this is because… for me, it started with a decision. No, wait, back up, it started with a question… which led to a decision… I’ll elaborate.

Growing up I struggled with my self-esteem. I always said “I don’t like me”. I was not happy with my appearance, and I let it mean everything. I let it be who I was.

As a senior in high school, a friend asked me to name 1 thing I liked about myself, and I said “My earrings”. This friend was beautiful, and I was plain. This friend had perfect hair, while mine was stubborn. I couldn’t think of anything I liked about me that even came close to what I wanted to look like… which I could easily say was to look like her.

One day in my mid twenties I sat down alone in my room, and took a long hard look at how I saw ME. I remember the blue wall I stared at, where I sat, and the memory of it is as vivid as one when you hear historical news… like the death of Princess Diana or Michael Jackson… I remember where I was for both of those realizations. For me, this monumental moment in my room is even more vivid because something more than a memory was created in that room that day.

I sat on the edge of the bed and asked “What is the difference between me and someone with confidence? Is it all beautiful looks? Is it all down to the face you’ve got? Do you have to be born beautiful to like yourself? Do you have to be perfect?”

My thought went to an attractive man with slightly long but tidy hair in a crisp white shirt and black slacks. His hair and skin both kissed by the sun and I said…. He has no idea what it’s like to live without confidence, he has to like himself… It’s inevitable. I am not like that man, he has the fortune of perfection without the worries that come along with being a GIRL… (I won’t elaborate, but the thought centered on make-up, nail polish, hairspray, and beauty accessories we girls insist we need. -I would not be seen in public without make-up even if it killed me.) But I kept that image of that man in my mind and I insisted there had to be more…. If it wasn’t only his looks, what would it be? What makes him like himself?

And I heard from some smart-aleck inside my head; “He likes WHO he is”. And then I suddenly wondered, “Can anyone like WHO they are”? This was possibly the first time I asked questions and listened for answers, rather than giving myself the answers, and I heard “YES!”

“How”?! I demanded?

“What do you like in general…” it said.

“What, you mean like foods and colors and hobbies?”

“Yes… like those”.

“Well I like blue, I like mushrooms, I like to paint, I like taking pictures, I like cheesecake”, and I made myself a mental list like this. Then I heard:

“Would you change those about yourself”?

“No, they are my likes, and I like my likes.”

“Alright, so while we are not talking about appearance, tell me what you don’t like about yourself”.

I did not have to think on this one since there were some large things in my life that I was not happy with, and then I heard;

“So change ‘em.”

When you have no self esteem, deciding to make a big change is a million times easier said than done. But the voice insisted… “That is CHANGEABLE”. And for the first time possibly ever, I realized I actually wanted to change these things, and that it boiled down to a decision. To choose to make a change would mean that I would have LESS on my Don’t Like list, and would put MORE on my Do Like list. That thought was one of my biggest light bulb moments in my life. I could change something, and it would no longer be a reason to not like myself, but could become a reason I did like myself. The brightness of that bulb cannot be described. I suddenly had the right to do and say. I was worthy of an opinion and an action. I was good enough to do what I wanted and one day… I could have confidence too!!!

The difference between me and that sun kissed guy is that he has a healthy self esteem…Irrespective of looks. If I only had qualities, talents, interests, etc that I LIKED… I too could like WHO I was. And Who we are, is Who we are… a pretty big deal actually. I am not my skin, I am not my hair, I am not the clothes I wear, nor the body I’m in. Do I still want to be pretty? Of coarse I do, I would not be human if I wanted to be ugly. But that is not what life is about. I have to live with me, with my decisions, my favorite colors, my talents and hobbies, my taste in music, my loves and my lessons.

For three years I put my theory into practice, all the while growing better and better at showing my confidence to others and myself. I made changes, some of the big ones were only changing slowly, but I was doing it. Then I met the man of my dreams who has taught me even more. He is a great example of what I’ve been trying to teach myself.

This man has never wanted to look or be like anyone else. He is happy with who he is, and wouldn’t change anything about his appearance if he could. He is confidence without arrogance. Meeting him was enlightening for me. Although I had already given myself permission to like me, I now had a living example of somebody that did wholly like himself, and always had. The way he sees the world is very different from the way most people do, because he doesn’t know what it is like not to have a self esteem. His point of view has rubbed of onto me, and I can now see how pointless it is to have self hate. There are no reasons good enough to continue on the path of not liking yourself.

What do you gain from worrying about how others see you and what they think? Does it make you rich? Does it make you happy? Does it do anything positive for you? No, it doesn’t. Therefore you have no reason to worry about how others see you. It matters not.

Here’s a thought:

Who do you need to like you? Who do you want to think you’re wonderful? Do you need to impress Steven, J-Lo, & Randy? Have you got to be a good enough cook for Gordon Ramsey to eat at your table?

No, that’s ridiculous. And yet we often act like, the thing stopping us from having confidence is what others think of us, and ‘others’ aren’t even important people. The so called important people aren’t even important people.

On the scale of important people, 1 being the most important, 10 being the least, this is how you need to see it. You 1, Other half 2, Children , Family 4, Friends 5 or 6, Gordon Ramsey 10, Strangers 10.

The important people are: you, your loved one and your children. This is who you need to like you. But most importantly you.

I have a friend; we will call her Bo. Bo is the same age as me, so she will be my example. Bo has no self esteem. She thinks she’s fat. She hates her naturally curly hair that I would die for. She thinks she has too many moles. She hates and worries about these nearly invisible wrinkles around her eyes. She hates the blue veins that she has found on her temples... she could go on all day, so I will stop with these.

I have tried to tell Bo about the things I have said here, so she can like herself, but Bo has 101 physical reasons why she can’t like herself. (I will interrupt here to tell you that Bo’s mother has never made her feel like she is good enough. Her mother is always finding fault. “You’re too thin, you’re too fat, you’re too this, you’re too that…” 30+ years of your mother finding fault will make it hard to find a self esteem. But not impossible. It’s about a decision.) These physical reasons are huge to Bo. She sees seemingly thousands of wrinkles and moles. I see little to none. She sees a fat girl. I see a lovely person. She sees ugly little bits of curl ruining her hairstyle. I don’t see anything but nice hair I would like to have. Bo gives strangers the ‘important scale’ of 1. She gives me; her friend, the ‘important scale’ of 9, and gives herself the ‘important scale’ of 10. Her mean mother gets the ‘important scale’ of 1 also.

Bo spends her time giving strangers’ opinions such importance, she is overwhelmed by it. There are strangers everywhere you go. She is constantly worrying about her appearance to them. And do you think they give a flying fig what she looks like? She worries they do. We all tend to worry what others think of our appearance, and yet nobody is worrying about what others look like; just themselves. This is reality. You may be the center of your universe, but you aren’t the center of everyone else’s.

It is because of Bo that I have stopped caring so much if my hair or make up isn’t just so. Nobody knows but me. If the person I want most in the world to find me attractive thinks my hair or make-up needs fixing, then I listen. If he doesn’t, then I don’t really need to care about that rogue hair. I’m impressing the person I intend to impress. Bugger the strangers.

Something else you will find has changed in your attitude once you begin to grow confident: Fears stop being fears; they become dislikes. What is there to be afraid of?

Needles, Spiders, Dentists… all things I used to hate and didn’t want near me.

By deciding that I liked myself and giving myself a chance at confidence, suddenly nothing was a big deal, what are they going to do to me really? Going to the dentist is just something that needs to be done and is uncomfortable; it’s nothing that’s going to ruin me. All these fears became dislikes, and when you dislike something, you can tolerate it if you have to. When you are afraid of something, you avoid it like the plague. Eventually nothing is like the plague. You end up asking yourself why should I feel nervous, upset, uncomfortable or afraid? And you will answer yourself with: I shouldn’t. I don’t need to.

Look at who you are; how do you see yourself? Are there things you don’t like? Change them. Bar plastic surgery, change it. If you don’t like that you smoke; quit. Don’t like that you keep an untidy house; clean it up. Don’t like that you shout at your children; stop it!

Then ask yourself, Do I like me? Not your neighbor, not your spouse, not your children, just you. Do YOU like you?

Once you answer yes to the question ‘Do I like myself’, that’s it. What confidence all comes down to is a decision. The decision you like who you are. You are the most important person that needs to like you. That is self-esteem. If you can decide I like Me, you have given yourself permission to become confident. You can’t say automatically, that’s it-I’m confident now, but you then allow yourself to do things that confident people do. You prove to yourself you are confident; because you have a self esteem, you can now do anything. From this point you can suddenly do all kinds of stuff. Wear the clothes you like, have the hair you like, live the life you like, go and do it all with confidence.

Candle Sticks are on my radar.

2011-05-15T22:42:00.001-06:00

Ever since my friend Kara gave me a set of 3 candle sticks for my birthday, I notice them everywhere. I'm so pleased with how great they look, and I've been wondering if I need them in more places around my house.
A week ago husband and I went Yard Sale-ing for the first time this year. It was a busy day, with lots of addy's to visit, and I made off with lots of cute things including clothes... Once the clothes were washed and tried on, I found most of them are too small, so I need to be giving Kara a call.

At one of these yard sales, (one of the ones you consider not getting out of the car for), I spotted these two beauties, so I leapt out of the car, headed over and saw a $1 sticker on each of them. MINE. The Pier 1 Imports sticker on the bottoms say $18!!!

I am not a fan of light wood white washed, so although they look good enough to leave alone.... you know me better than that.

Since I have the 3 candle sticks from Kara in my living room, I decided these probably want to go in my bedroom, that being the decision, I went ahead and painted them blue. I just used wall paint. This is the color I put on the walls in this photo here above...

Then I got out my favorite walnut wood stain, brushed it on, and wiped it off with a rag.

I let them dry of a couple days, then went and found a spot in my bedroom for them... Up on the cabinet by the TV... You might notice they look shiny... That's simply from the Walnut stain. It's oil based, and dries on top of water based paint that way.

I need to get some candles now.

They match the piece I have on the other wall.... You no doubt remember the one if you are a follower of my blog: If you are not a follower, and want to see the post click HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

A note for Ali....
I have so many projects I want to get to... I promise they will end up here eventually. The big cool ones are the ones I'm struggling to finish.... Here's a taste of one:

(little and large.)

What’s my deal with lamps?

2011-03-27T18:50:00.001-06:00

Seriously, why the heck should I get all hot and bothered over lamps? I have more lamps than I have tables to set them on, and I’m even trying to think of ways to trade out old lamps for new….

A couple lamps I’ve posted on my blog I’m gunna try and sell so that I have LESS lamps, mainly because in the last month I’ve given a home to 3 more lamps.

This is one of them:

This lamp has been in my mom’s home so long I don’t know where it came from or how old it is. It needs to be rewired, washed, given a make over… and I after convincing mom she really needed to loose it, I got inspiration and wanted to keep it! It was when I pictured it w/o the shade that I thought… It’s endearing.

“Of course you did Scatty” (I heard you say that.)

Look how worn the shade is… this netting stuff actually rubs off the shade. So I tore off the frills, and I rubbed down the entire shade. Used my fingernails mostly... I didn't want to poke any holes in it.

Then I bought this cute fabric… I wanted polka-dots, but couldn’t find just the right polka-dot fabric, and then I saw this… It matches a room, so that room and this fabric are new mates.

I cut the fabric the right shape to wrap around the shade.

I set the fabric on a piece of cardboard and used a spray adhesive that creates webs as it sprays… This was no good. Every tiny place where the adhesive was ball-like, it saturated the fabric, making it look splotchy with something wet… Hopefully you can see in this image how it's not a fine spray.

This is where I tell you all spray adhesives are not created equal. There are some that are heavy duty, and great to use, but when you have something not heavy duty, like my thin of fabric here… It’s no good.

So I got out all 3 spray adhesives and found that the one best for the job: 3M Super 77.

It sprays a fine mist that sits more on the fibers of the fabric –like it’s floating. PLUS it doesn’t dry so fast that you don’t have working time.

I asked husband to hold the shade, turning it slowly, while I rubbed the fabric onto it. One arm inside the shade for a surface to push on… the other hand wiping along the fabric side to side till the two ends overlapped. Then the edge of fabric at the top and bottom I just pushed right around onto the inside of the shade… This was so crazy easy I wasn’t sure I was done.

I’ve been thinking of incorporating some dark gray into the room, and I reckon this lamp is the beginning of something cool.

I have a project I want to do, just need some electrical help from dad… Looking forward to sharing that one… And this Lamp might live in a new location when that project is finished… Watch this space. (I love a good plan)

Thanks for looking! Thanks even more for commenting.

A Fancy Chaise

2011-03-06T20:07:00.001-07:00

My friend Becca called me and asked if I would consider covering another piece of furniture for her. (She's the friend whose settee I recovered in blue and used for my blog banner before I returned it to her.) She sent me a bunch of tiny photos on my cell and was considering buying the chaise based on whether or not I thought I could recover it. She said it was only $75, so I told her that if she loved it that much she should get it cause the photos were too small to see much.

And she did.

It's long enough that I found it hard to photograph all at once...

This is the foot:

This is the head:

You can see it's rather flat, and falling apart.

This is to show the color it once was...I think I like it better faded.

Another angle of the foot.

Another of the head. Seems to have had a hard life huh?

I tore it apart, removing all the fabric, horse hair, dust, straw, hessian, bugs, & spiders. That tail looking thing on the ground, is clumps of horse hair... Ewwww is right. Look at all the dirt falling out of it. Yes I thought I might get sick... but didn't.

Look how basic... I was rather shocked how the fancy looking thing was really just a few bits of wood with some fancy pieces nailed to the sides. These springs were so broken and uneven I decided they would have to totally go.

Sometimes when I get 'stuck in' I forget to take photos.. I did this between these steps. So I'll just add, I sanded down the fancy scrolls of wood and I stained them. Repaired one of the feet that had a piece missing, and bought high density foam to stick inside the chaise skeleton. I cut it quite a bit to achieve my desired shape. (electric carving knife purchased from a yard sale)

I then covered it in a thick batt.

I notched out the foam so that it would live inside the wood frame, AND on top of the sides... That's what I'm trying to show in this photo. The rough wood hung onto some of the batting as I was playing around with how I would cover it... hence the white spider web looking stuff.

Then... I skipped photos again, sorry. This was not an easy project, and I was really concentrating. I took the black velvet fabric she wanted, I cut one main length for the top, then I stitched twisted piping to the edge, and then stitched more velvet to the other side of the piping. This was the second to hardest thing... making me decide I don't like doing re-upholstery. LOL Silly I know, cause I recover everything... But I decided that although I think this was a success, I don't want to do it again.

Before attaching the sides to the frame, I stuffed batting up into the sides for a puffy soft look, and then I trimmed the velvet at the edge of the decorative woodwork once it was attached with staples. Then I attached a black decorative braid over the edge of the fabric and against the decorative scrolls.

If you are in anyway shape or form inspired by this project, I just want to give you a bit of warning... Expect to spend huge amounts of time on it. Yes you can do it, yes it is hard, yes it is beautiful when you finish, but YES it takes lots of time.

Sorry my photos are a bit dark, as I mentioned it's big enough that photographing it all at once is tricky.

I'm pleased I got the head of it higher than the foot, I didn't care for it looking so flat.
Thanks for visiting... Sorry I'm not such a frequent poster lately. I'm ready for summer and yard sales! Not so many unfinished projects floating around this time of year :) I'm thinking of painting some walls... again.

Becca was pleased... In fact, she uses it for her Boudoir Photography:

Click the photo to visit her new blog.

Free chairs (It's been a while, sorry)

2011-01-23T12:36:00.001-07:00

So I'm posting two projects, both small, but both cute.
This first post is a project I did in the summer. I was out yard sale-ing and passed a "Free Yard Sale". Everything was Free... seriously. I stopped, expecting EVERYTHING to be junk, but I actually picked up lots of stuff that I would have happily paid money for. Three of these chairs included.
Now, I know I don't need more chairs, I have chairs coming out the wa-zoooo. But I like them, so I took them.
I figured I could recover them in a couple hours... Nope, took a day and a half. Not cause of anything, I just always underestimate how long an easy project takes.
As I once said, "Quick and Easy are not the same thing".

So here's the before:

Kinda scary eh? I unscrewed the bottom from the frame, only held on by 4 screws, then I unscrewed the back, also held by 4 screws. I popped the two back pieces apart and covered them in fabric separately.

Then I used a pin gun to put them back together. I spray painted the frame aluminum color after giving it a bit of a sand. Then I put them back together!

I'm happy with the finished product! It ended up costing me $26 for the fabric.

You probably think I have a house full of hodge-podge mis-matched chairs... Ya, I do.

Funky Lamp Shade

2011-01-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

My aunt gave me an old rusty shade skeleton... (She knows me too well) I sanded off the chunky, dusty rust, and out came the aluminum colored paint.

I had a remnant from JoAnn's that I loved and didn't know what to do with. Once she gave me the shade frame, I decided this was where the fabric would be put to cute use. (this photo is the most accurate for the color of the fabric. It seems to change from photo to photo depending on the lighting)

I made a paper pattern by taping two sheets of paper together, and laying it on the frame, drawing lines where the metal was and then cutting it out with a seam allowance.

Then I stitched all 8 together. In this image, I have one last side to sew.

All 8 sewed together, now I need to stitch the top and bottom around the frame by hand... (yes, by hand. I'm not so much a fan of a hand sewing.)

Here's the finished lamp, living on a table of nearly the same color. I'm thinking of stitching some small beads along the top edge at the bottom of the shade... I say thinking cause that would be more hand sewing.

New subject.... What on earth should I do with these two cool table legs?

I've had them for a few months now, and I can't think of anything I'd want only two legs for. Any suggestions?

Thanks for visiting!

Dollar Store Décor…

2010-12-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

I decided this year I didn’t want to put up the same tree decorations.

I have a different color on the walls from last year. I also have two kittens that will go wild climbing the tree and enjoy breaking my glass decorations. I think a new plan is more than necessary.

So since I don’t have money, time, effort, and all I’d need for a fancy new tree… I headed to the dollar store.

They had a bunch of snowflakes, many ugly, some cute, so I figured that’s it, I’m gunna do snowflakes! I already had some green glitter leaves and I figured white and green would be cool!

I bought these foamy flakes:

These plastic flakes… in packs of 6!

These “flowers” reminiscent of snow:

Some white ribbon:

A garland to fill in some hole-y middle:

A pack of 15 bobbles which I strung up with thread in the garage and spray painted with white gloss.

These are the glittery leaves I already had:

Next was the tree… I decided that I had to have a small tree up on a table so the kittens don’t drive me crazy climbing it constantly. Husband suggested we put the top and middle sections into the base, skipping the bottom section… and guess what? It worked! So this tree is 2/3 of my normal tree.

I guess I have to mention the empty frames… I have every intention of putting pictures into these frames, 8 empty frames are calling out for beauty, I will get there… I will. And I will share what I end up deciding on… (My photography of course, but how I narrow it down to 8… that’s what’s stopping me.)

And then I went through my old decorations and pulled out random snowflakes I had... and white bobbles... I didn’t have very many, but I got them out.

I used Command hooks (for Christmas lights) all over the wall behind the tree to hang the foam snow flakes from…

And I got this:

It took so little time… and so little money. I don’t think Christmas has ever been this easy. LOL

White sheet I dug out of a fabric bin to cover the stand… I’m spoiled this year!

I almost forgot.... Thanks husband for doing the lights..... again.....

Kittens can only stare up at the beauty.

Recycle cans a different way. -short & quick

2010-12-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

The garage is not my husbands, it’s mine. His interests aren't in the vein of creating, so the typical creating spaces in the home, are all mine. Tools? All mine. Mess? All mine.

This is a short project that doesn’t even need a how to… so I will just share what I saw and what I did.

I enjoy the Better Homes & Gardens magazines “Do It Yourself” and “100 decorating ideas under $100”

I got this one out of the latter. (Spring 2010)….

I don’t have a place where I need cute painted cans, but I do have a place where I can use this idea… so off to my garage I went… since my garage is not lovely, I skipped the step of making the cans pretty, and I screwed them to the wall as is.

There weren’t studs in the wall where I wanted them, but I have no intention of putting heavy things in these cans; they will just help me keep my work surface cleaner in the garage, so I didn’t worry about wall anchors. Just screws. If you are going to put anything of weight into yours I would definitely recommend you use anchors into drywall.

First I drilled two holes into each can.

Then I just screwed them up!
Something worth mentioning… You can’t use cans smaller than your hands or deeper than your screwdriver… Putting screws in is hard if you can’t get into the can to turn the screw.

You COULD use some liquid nails on the back of the can if you wanted them to hold heavier stuff and knew you wouldn’t be taking them down any time soon.

So now I have a way to keep my work surface free from all the messy things I don’t want to throw away, like my sandpaper scraps, plastic bags, pens, rags, gloves, and junk that takes up space.

I just put them up randomly like the picture infers. Plus you can add to it anytime as you get cans and need more space :)

Thanks BH&G, Next time I’ll give YOU an idea.

A fitting project to share

2010-11-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Let me take a quick minute to say thank you for being so great!

Most of you that read my blog know me, and your kind words over loosing my little buddy Jelly have been so sweet and heartfelt. I appreciate you.

If you read my post about loosing Jelly you will remember that Jennelle’s cat had a litter of kittens the Monday before Jelly died. Well, I got two of those kittens. (yep I said two.)

That sounds so silly, like two kittens will fill the hole left by her… no they won’t, but I decided something as I was trying to choose which kitty to have. My old cat Phish is nearly 11. Jelly ran him ragged, and it occurred to me that if I got two kittens they could run each other ragged instead of Phish, and Maybe just Maybe he will enjoy their company half as much as he enjoyed Jelly’s. If it weren’t for his sad expressions since we lost Jelly I might not even have decided another kitten is a good idea yet. I feel so deflated from the whole ordeal, & two new kittens crapping where they want and hanging out under foot is not a fun thought yet.

Nonetheless… I have them & they are Super Cute.

So, here is a project I made for Jelly in the spring. She used it, and now these two little monkey’s…. er, I mean kittens are climbing all over it also.

It’s a crazy simple project, so my how-to is not very detailed.

Basically I screwed a bunch of 2x4’s together. Sandwiching some as "arms" outward between boards, and making something that could live in the corner of the room nice and out of the way.

Then I did some measuring and I cut a piece of scrap carpet into a type of a sleeve for the stem/middle. I attached it with a staple gun.

Then I covered each arm with another piece of carpet.

I cut a wedge shaped piece of wood for the top so it could be more of a look-out perch. The whole thing only stands about 3 feet tall.

Here it sits finished in the corner.

Here is a short video if it being appreciated by little monkeys… disguised as kittens. LOL

I will just throw this in...
I have so many fun projects I want to execute, I can't believe how much inspiration is in the air!!!
Oh Time.... Where are you Time.... I know you're hiding..... Tiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmme?

Short but Sweet ;)

2010-10-20T00:10:00.002-06:00

I am kicking myself about this project now that I have it finished.
I didn't know how it would turn out, so I did no process photos..... seriously... I know that sounds impossible, but it's completely true.

I did it a couple months ago, and looking through my photos, there's nothing... not one, and I don't remember taking any... so the AFTER is all I have to share. BUT I will tell you about it.

I bought a funky wicker looking pedestal from a yard sale, I paid $1 for it. It was the dingy-est cream color you ever saw. I tried cleaning it before I painted it, and nothing... it made no difference, so I just went ahead and painted it with a cheerful blue spray paint. The gal I bought it from thought it was a laundry basket... :D

So, then I made a circular form/mold using a table "skirt" I had for a small table. (Purchased from a furniture factory in a bundle of stuff I bought a while back for $30.)
I mixed up some cement from one of those cheap bags you buy at Home Depot for like $3.50, and before I poured it anywhere I lay a garbage bag down on the ground, spray painted the bag, set my mold onto it, then poured in the cement. I tried to do this quickly so that my spray paint wouldn't have a chance to dry.
(Side note here: Spray paint doesn't really spray well onto a garbage bag. I had to keep spraying it thickly because it seemed to just disappear... Then I worried I was taking too long, so I went ahead and decided an uneven color would be better than no color at all. So I went ahead and poured the cement onto uneven paint.)
I pushed the cement down with something flat... (A round piece of wood that I hammered on. This part was not thought out previous to this step. You can see why I wasn't thinking I would end up sharing this one.)

I left it two days to dry before I removed the mold. I had screwed the two sides of the mold together so that I would be able to easily remove it when it was complete.

The paint turned out good I think. I do wish that I had mixed up even more cement... A thicker piece wold look even better. Again... didn't think that through.
It's a bit heavy, so it just sits atop the pedestal base, not attached, and since this isn't in a location to get bumped, I'm cool with that.

The little decoration on top was a wire basket I got from a yard sale. I stuck a piece of fabric I had into it, and then stuffed it with flowers from the dollar store and ones I already had. Fake but cute.
Worth sharing? Not sure, but I like it.

This time it’s personal.

2010-10-12T14:34:00.000-06:00

For those of you who come to my blog and enjoy my projects, you know that I do not blog about myself. Ya, the projects are mine, but I don’t spend time talking about me and mine.

Today I have a personal post, not because I want to, but because I think it will help me.

Last Friday I took my 7 mo old kitten to the vets for a spay. I was so worried now that she is able to jump fences that she will wander, maybe go into heat, wander further, and end up trying to cross the road in front of my house. I let my fears of loosing her decide that it was time to get her fixed. On Saturday morning I wasn’t picking up a spayed cat from the vet. I picked up a dead cat.

The vet said that this just happens about 1 in every 10,000. I just left there. I went back today to get a copy of the paper I signed when I took her in. I wanted to know if I could get my money back, or if in fact I had to live with the fact I paid money to kill my cat. I did not read the paper when I signed it. But I read it today. It also said “I authorize the Animal Hospital to administer any additional vaccinations, medications, anesthetics, surgical procedures, and or treatments that the doctor deems necessary for the health and safety of the above animal while it’s under their care and supervision.” I needed to know this. I needed to know that if they thought something was wrong, they would have gone ahead and given her something more, despite my not having already given them money to do so.

I’m so devastated that I don’t really know how to get over it. Yes the wound is still fresh, so I shouldn’t be over it, but at the same time, writing can sometimes heal, so that is what I’m doing. I’m writing.

If you only come to my blog for projects, please feel free to ignore this post. I totally understand. This is like the crazy cat lady post nobody wants to read. No, I’m not quite the crazy cat lady, I do not refer to myself as Mama to my cats, but yes, they are family.

I had three cats, I shared pictures of them once or twice. Jelly, Phish, & Chip.

Chip is a 4 year old giant cat with nothing much to say or do. He eats, sleeps, and cries to go outside. My friends and family almost never see him because he hides when anyone comes over.

Phish is my buddy. He’s traveled thousands of miles with me. He’s 11 years old this next spring, and adores the socks off me. He will lay in my arm with his paw on my chest, staring up at me like he’s in love. He’s such a shedder I don’t hold him as much as he’d like me to.

Jelly Baby was just that, the little one in the family. You wouldn’t think a cat so young could already have hold of my heart so tightly, but if you knew her, you would understand. I chose Jelly from a litter of 5. She stood out like a sore thumb. The first time I saw her she didn’t even have her eyes open yet. The second time I saw her I knew I wanted her. My husband’s co-worker Jennelle was so happy we would be taking one of her kittens.

Because Chip is so scared of people, I knew I was not going to let Jelly be the same. When Chip was a kitten he was so in love with Phish I let Phish be the one he got his affection from. Phish wasn’t very happy about this decision, but I let Chip follow Phish around and I left him alone. With Jelly, I decided I was going to do things differently. I tried to put lots of time and effort into talking to her, teaching her the sounds that mean stop it, come here… etc. I held her more than I ever held the other two cats, and did so because I was determined to make sure she loved people, and wasn’t a frightened cat like Chip.

It worked. At 7 months, she knew what to do when I asked, she was interested in strangers who came over, she hung out with me while I watched TV or sat at the computer, and ran around the house like it was hers.

She had a relationship with each of us. With Chip she was playful but respectful. With Phish she would tease, follow and cuddle. Much to my surprise he was perfectly happy with all of her attention. With my Husband she wanted to be held every chance he sat down, and with me, she acted like I was the float in her boat.

I am currently having a hard time wanting to sit in my recliner and watch TV. Most of the time when I was sitting there, I would have Jelly in my lap or on my chest. That little girl would lay on my chest with her paws tucked up under herself staring at my face, from a distance so close I wondered if she just wanted to feel my breath on her face. I marveled how long she would sit and stare at me this close, and I had come to the conclusion she was trying to convince me she loved me… She succeeded.

We had all kinds of names for Jelly because she was so funny. She loved to chase her tail, which I thought she would grow out of, but never did. This made me call her Jelly Dancer. She was hyper crazy about string, toys, some furry mice I made, and in her kitten ways I called her Jelly Baby. I have 3 openings on my stairs (post here) that she would run up to, throw her paws around, and slide down… so we would also called her Fireman Jelly. Needless to say more, she was so full of character and loved life.

I feel like this giant crime has been committed. Like taking away the life of an innocent happy cat is so wrong that I don’t know how to put this right in my head. I like things to make sense. This doesn’t for me in any way and I just wish I had been more in love of the idea of her ending up with kittens than the fear I had of her wandering and getting hit.

I know I shouldn’t blame myself, I know blame isn’t even the way, but truth is I am the only one that decided this for her. It’s all me. My Husband wasn’t on board, but I was so scared about “possibilities” I did not consider the possibility that became reality. Surgery is dangerous for everyone and anything. They think that she developed a blood clot and it went to her brain.

Saturday morning when we went to pick her up, (having been told the day before when surgery was complete that she could be collected between 9 & 10) we knew nothing of the state she was in. I was crazy horrified to see her laying there like she was still under anesthetic. I stroked her, talked to her, and it seemed my presence made her want to move even more. Her eyes were fixed open and drying. She twitched like she couldn’t see when I stroked her nose, and her front paws kept scratching like she needed to pull herself up, but couldn’t get the rest of her to follow. I cried in confusion asking if they could put an IV into her or something, blood thinners, anything… They said they were waiting to hear from the vet. My mind was screaming that she wasn’t hooked up to machines like a human on HOUSE, but just laying like they were expecting her to die any minute.

I asked to be left alone with her, and shortly there after my husband came in with me and saw her for the first time. I told him she needed fluid, that I had put saliva on her nose, but that her eyes were dry.

Within a few minutes a man came in and said “We are going to try and put an IV in.” I replied: “Does that mean I’m leaving?” He smiled and escorted us out. I parted saying “She’s an awesome cat, she’s worth saving!”

We got in the car and cried all the way home. When I got home I got undressed and was about to climb in the shower as I said to myself: “They are going to call me and say ‘The IV is in and she is doing better’.” Within seconds of saying that out loud the phone rang. It was the Animal Hospital. “Natalie, this is Dr. P. How are you doing?” “Not Good. I’m having a hard time with this.” I said. “I’m calling to tell you that Jelly passed away while we were trying to put the IV in.”

I think I burst out with “ok” amongst a flood of tears and then I tried to say “Can I come and get her Right NOW?” But he was silent, and I realized he probably couldn’t understand what I was saying, so I handed the phone to my husband and I began blubbering all over the place as I tried to get dressed & go right back and get my Jelly.

I thought… If I get her quickly, maybe Phish will be able to bring her back to life. Silly I know, but I wasn’t going to accept this one easily.

I will skip the sob story of collecting and burying her, I don’t think I can type it, but I did bring her right in and set her on the couch, getting Phish to come up and sniff or nudge… hoping something would happen. (I know how stupid this sounds –I do.) Phish had a few sniffs, acted like he had no idea what this was on the couch, and he got down. Sitting with his back to it. So there went my miracle.

I also got Chip, feeling that as long as they both sniffed her, that was some sort of good bye for them. He too acted like he had no idea this was Jelly, and walked way. Which proved to me, the little body minus the bright pink nose I was so fond of was no longer my little girl. Just the shell I recognized as her. And only the fur I recognized, because the face was no longer hers in any way. “How am I going to find this kitty reincarnated as another kitty?” I asked myself before I put her in the ground.

About 20-30 minutes after she was buried, I sat at the table crying my eyes out, when my husband mentioned the new kittens at Jennelle’s, and said that maybe in 6 weeks we will be ready for another kitten. “WHAT? What are you talking about? Since when does Jennelle have kittens??????” Nobody thought to mention kittens to this cat lover? And… at the home in which Jelly came from? Strange.

Not that I want another cat so soon, but don’t you think it’s just kinda creepy that there should be more kitten’s from the same place just as I loose mine? And I only learn about them after mine is gone? And here’s another strange factor… The kittens aren’t from the same cat, but Jennelle did keep Jelly’s brother, and he is the #1 candidate for being father of these 3 new kittens.

I find myself crying more when I’m left alone and don’t need to play “brave”. But I’m hoping that writing this down, allowing myself to cry and write, that I will heal a little. I know all this is over a cat… I keep telling myself that, but it doesn’t change the overwhelming void I feel as I walk through my home. Phish & Chip seem to be zombie like too… I don’t recognize the face Phish keeps making. We miss her.

Please God, explain to Jelly what happened.

A Couple of Paintings: No cost.

2010-09-26T18:59:00.004-06:00

With a fairly new color on the walls you’d think I’d be quicker at hanging some decoration up. Well I’ve been super slow, but here are two things: coordinating canvases, and a mirror.

I bought two already painted canvases from a yard sale for next to nothing, I painted over the paintings already on them; one black and one white. Then found a pattern I would like to replicate.This is a poor example of the circle pattern, but this is what I had.

I put my paint colors onto paper plates, and got out plastic cups.

I used dry cups without paint first so that I could see where my circles would start and end on the edges of the canvas, and then I set to coming up with a pattern of color.

I used the bottom of a 1 cup measure for my imperfect white circles. These were applied after the first layer of circles, but before the second layer of circles. Only onto the black canvas.

Here is the white one. This has a slightly different order of color. In this one no color intersects itself. You can see my paint on cup edges are imperfect, but this is the look I was after since I started with imperfect colors on the canvas to begin with. If you look closely at the black canvas, I made sure small areas of white still peeked through.

I also painted a red frame white that my friend (thestampinmom) gave me.

Then I used pink watered down paint as a wash. Wiping off the paint on the raised edges before it dried. Same as I would for antiquing something with walnut stain.

I like how they turned out!

I've been posting too many paint projects... I need to try and post more of my projects that don't involve paint.
Projects w/o paint aren't hard, getting me to sit down and post... that's hard. :D

Taffeta Shelf Brackets

2010-09-07T18:23:00.003-06:00

I would love to say this idea was entirely mine, but I'm afraid it's not. Here it sits on my inspiration board, cut out from a (shhhhh) Martha Stewart Living magazine. Don't know why nicking an idea from an MS mag should embarrass me, but it kinda does. I just thought it was super clever, and I'm all about clever projects.

Here is a shot slightly closer up...

The text says they used 1" grosgrain ribbon, and the shelves are only 6" deep. Good thing I never noticed that until just now. They also say to staple the ribbon to the shelf on the bottom. (I didn't do that either.)

Taffeta is an awesome fabric for ripping, which is IN PART why I chose it. The other parts being it's BROWN (eyelids batting), and I ALREADY had it in my fabric bin. I LOVE not having to go to the store to do a project. On this particular day I was cleaning, working through a nice size 'to do' list when I suddenly had a big ol' brain wave of how I could recreate this MS idea, and I had to do it.

Back to my Taffeta and ripping... I wanted four strips the same width. I used the length from selvage to selvage. I did not measure them, but they are approx 4.5" wide.

Then I ironed them flat, and then into fourths.. It was easiest to first iron them in half, and then fold in each side and iron it. On the left is the finished folded strip with raw edges in the middle of the folded taffeta.

All 4...

Then I stitched on both sides of each strip. I didn't realize I had green thread in my bobbin, I thought it was white... never-mind, white and green are great!

Then I decided the length I would want for my strips of taffeta, cut them, and I brought both ends together punching holes with a Crop-A-Dile. No you don't have to have this tool, but it makes punching fabric easy.

Here you see two holes through both ends.

Then I placed an eyelet into the lower hole.

Folded the fabric over, pushing the other hole onto the eyelet. (This is in fact a scrapbooking eyelet. It is barely long enough for all these layers of taffeta. <--- worth knowing.)

Also, important point: I had to mark the holes with this folded edge in mind. The piece of fabric on the outside needs a greater distance between the holes than the one being covered. If this sounds confusing, just be sure to do a practice run before you punch all your holes.

Set the eyelet. (This tool does that too)

Then I found all of my studs and marked them with painters tape.

My stud finder beeps a bit early, no stud is 3" wide in my house, so I mark where the stud finder beeps, tape it, find the other edge, and then use the center between the two pieces of tape.

I then screwed my taffeta strip into the stud through the eyelet. I used screws 1.5-2" long so that it was a good distance into the stud.

Then I hung more. (since I already had a paint line in this room that was level, I took advantage of it and hung them all along it.)

Not having any long boards handy... I used a couple shutters I had in the garage, left over from a project last year. I thought the re purposed cuteness of the shutter meant that I didn't have to worry about the holes from the hinges that were once attached to it.

I just slid them into the straps and set them level.

Is it just me, or is this adorable?

My shutters do have one side with a bar, for the shutters to be functional, I figured that I would look at the shutter in my strap both ways to see which looked better... and since I wasn't going to place books or anything that needed to sit straight, I went with the bar on top of the shelf.

Then I put my bear and bunny collection up onto them! It's not a big collection, but old enough I have to have a home for them somewhere! I think they look great on this wall in the spare room.

Oh, just in case you would like to know, the shutters are 14.5" wide, and the length of my straps are 51" (before the eyelet).

Hope you enjoyed this half as much as me. Quick & Cute projects always make me happy.

Love Me a MakeOver.

2010-08-19T16:10:00.002-06:00

I have a bunch of small projects that don't need a post of their own. These are all paint or stain make overs.

Sanded this little night stand, then used a yellow wall color I already had.

This is a $5 lamp shade that didn't allow lots of light through the sides, so I figured I could get away with spray painting it. I taped up the insides and the metal, and went to town.

Used this color.

Look at them both now... I figure when you have a tiny night stand, you should pair it with a floor lamp.

(If you are wondering what that thing is on the night stand... it's a vase of bunnies.)

My friend tried to sell this for $10 at her yardsale, but because flat screen TV's are so common, nobody even looked twice at it. When we finished, she said, "Don't you want this?" And I was like... "OK, I have an old TV that could live on it." So this is sanded down and ready for primer.

This is primed.

This is painted white in a semi gloss. I have just started to stain it with my favorite... ya, walnut stain.

This is the finished puppy. I keep the old TV in a closet so I can hide it when I need to.

Same friend with the yard sale was also selling this. It's a cut out matte with construction paper behind it. Look how the green construction paper changed over time.

I ditched the paper, painted both the matte and the frame an oiled bronze color of spray paint, and now I'm gunna put family members photos in the openings :)

This beauty my cousin gave me. She no longer wanted it, and I said yes please.

It had a few scratches... so I had to give it a good sanding.

This is the whole thing sanded after removing the metal drawer pulls. Now ready for Walnut stain.

Since I wanted the drawer pulls silver, I decided to paint the screw heads too... This is my solution for not getting paint onto the threads.

Used Aluminum color spray paint.

And this is my finished dresser. I like it so much I'm not putting it in a bedroom, it's in my main living space.

(The strange lump between the two lamps is my kitty Jelly. Just like Phish, she's gotta get into anything box like.)

I don't know if I've mentioned the lamps before... $7 each new. They came with these shades, but the bases were cream... So I gave them a coat of white spray paint, and now they are complete. They also used to live in a bedroom, but since I'm pulling this bright green into my living room, I brought them in.

Hope I make ya feel like buying a can of spray paint!

Thanks for stopping by ;)

If you’re gunna recover a sofa….

2010-07-17T22:01:00.007-06:00

…make sure it’s an easy one.

Reupholstering for a novice can be impossible, OR NOT if the project is right. I have a friend Becca, she called me saying she’d found an awesome settee, and wanted to know if I could reupholster it for her. My immediate answer was MAYBE.

She’s a portrait photographer, working often with a fairytale slant… cool stuff. http://beccanae.com/

She found this settee with great fragile & feminine bones, so I went to look at it. I could tell immediately I could totally recover it… no fancy nailing, tacks, piping… I could see it was going to disassemble easily, so I called her back and told her to get it!

I know what is beyond my skills, and most upholstery is. I don’t have any fancy tools to do it; I have a staple gun. Lucky for me (or Becca) this settee was hardly screwed together, and easily came apart. The main back cushion only had 5 screws holding it on… each side piece had 1 screw. So along with recovering it, I reattached the pieces with more screws in more places, giving it some strength. I also reinforced the frame… you can see how little structure was under the seat…

I won’t go into a detailed how to, it took far too many hours to attempt a how to… but I wanted to share how great it turned out.

So great in fact that I did a little photo-shopping and made myself a new banner for my blog with it! (You probably already noticed.)

One thing I will share… for the back… I bought a thin sheet of mdf, traced the back of the settee onto it, and cut it out with a jig saw before covering it with fabric… This made the back of the sofa as pretty as the front, with smooth lines much better than the stiff green stuff that came off of it.

Didn’t she choose awesome fabric!?!

PS…. A project like this will teach you: Easy and Quick are not the same thing.

TFL!

Now the Pedestal is finished!

2010-07-09T23:18:00.000-06:00

Remember this....

Well it didn't take much convincing that I DID need to antique the base, and give it some depth.

I know I'm repeating myself, but this is such a handy tip...
Since I used white spray paint on the pedestal, I COULDN'T use the Walnut Stain that I put on everything as my antiquing medium. The oil based stain would wipe off the oil based spray paint. So I had to water down some brown water based paint, and treat that like a stain.
IF I had used white water based paint, I COULD use the walnut stain... I have a current project where I'm using Walnut stain over white water based paint, and the result is quite different than this... So watch this space if you are interested in seeing the difference. (I will try to post that one next.)
Onto the AFTER:

So, what you see is just watered down paint, brushed on and then wiped off.
I used three rags:
1st one was wet to wipe off the majority,
2nd one was wet to wipe off less -keeping the white paint clean looking,
3rd one was dry to tidy up from the other two.
It was important to me that you could tell it started out white. I didn't want a dingy looking pedestal. Although I'm not as pleased with these photos as I am with the real thing. Everything looks better in person eh?

I decided to pair my three $1 chairs with the table that I bought at a yard sale ages ago... you may remember the lovely orange fabric on the B4 pics. Just wish I could find ONE MORE.
If you haven't seen that post, I antiqued them also... so they match great!
Thanks For Lookin'.

For the girl who has everything and needs a Bucket to put it in.

2010-07-09T22:44:00.002-06:00

I do a lot of projects where it’s easiest to just share an idea, and not so much showing how. Sometimes it feels impossible to share every step, so I take photos and hope to just share the general idea and inspire. I figure I’m inspired by many things, so maybe I can inspire you simply by sharing.

This is one of those projects.

I had a tool belt, but seldom wore it because it was so big and full. I felt like I was two people wide trying to do a project & have my tools handy. I ended up carrying it around, along with a bucket of other misc stuff.

Then I had an idea! What if my bucket WERE ALSO the tool belt?! And so it began (with pink thread).

I ‘d been making some things from old jeans, and had scraps of denim on my floor, -so this is what I used.

I didn’t measure with a tape measure, I just held the fabric up to my bucket, I held my tools up to the fabric, and proceeded from there, pinning and sewing a bit at a time.

I learned that cutting slits into denim stops it from fraying as much, so I did this and washed it before I put it on the bucket and filled it with tools. Now it’s more than a bucket! “I love having a place for everything!” (shouting toward heaven with my arms raised)

What a Motley Crew of tools.

A Cardboard Box for a Present

2010-06-18T11:31:00.001-06:00

Kids and Cats love boxes. With that in mind, and a niece turning 3, I decided to make a “Wendy House” for my adorable Éowyn out of a cardboard box.

I painted three sides of the box with left over wall paint. I only painted three sides, leaving the side with labels and stickers as the back of the house.

I cut the cardboard flaps so that one side would be the entire roof, and the two sides angled to support it. I would be taping these pieces together.

Then I cut two squares of thin mdf, and cut squares out of the center. Then painted them blue.

I cut three strips of wood, and painted them blue, and then drilled holes in all of them as you see.

Then I got out large brads as my “staples”. Since this is cardboard, I really couldn’t think of anything else.
Placing glue on the back of the wood, putting the wood onto the box, and then pushing my brad through the cardboard, I attached the ‘window frame’ to the box. I DID however tape across the back of the brads inside the box because I didn’t want them to pull out easy if the glue proved to be weak. Then I used a box cutter and removed the cardboard from the center of the window.

Then I got out large brads as my “staples”. Since this is cardboard, I really couldn’t think of anything else.

Placing glue on the back of the wood, putting the wood onto the box, and then pushing my brad through the cardboard, I attached the ‘window frame’ to the box. I DID however tape across the back of the brads inside the box because I didn’t want them to pull out easy if the glue proved to be weak. Then I used a box cutter and removed the cardboard from the center of the window.

Oh ya, and I painted some brick lines around the house and taped up the roof.

I essentially did the same thing for the door as I did the window; cutting myself a hole so that I could open the brads easily near the bottom of the box. I also decided at this point that I could use pieces of packing tape to create further random ‘bricks’ around the house.

I cut four strips from 1/8” thin sheets of that mdf, particle stuff that is textured on one side… and used my jigsaw to cut slats in them… I wasn’t careful or measured; hoping my ‘shingles’ wouldn’t line up and look even. I attached these strips with Liquid Nails (project strength) and painted the roof black. I also cut triangles for the sides of the roof from the same thin wood. I laid the wood against the roof sides before I attached the shingles, and traced the line I would need to cut using a pencil. I attached these the same way as the windows; using brads.

This is where I didn’t take so many pictures. (sometimes I get involved and forget)

I got out chipboard letters for the address and glued them on under the front roof edge which I taped off and painted black to look like a type of fascia.

Then I painted bushes and flowers around the entire bottom.

I also got a floor mat (rubber backed) and cut slits in it so that I could lay half of it inside the house, and the other half outside of the house. This way the cardboard floor won’t be the first to go.

She seemed pretty happy with all of her presents this day, and not really more so with my house than the others, but she loved it enough to ask: “Mom, can I sleep downstairs?” With Mom replying: “Yes, you can sleep in your house.”

Who knew a cardboard box could look so cute.

TFL.

$10 Oak Pedestal Table

2010-05-14T17:03:00.002-06:00

So I've been saying for over a year that I'd like to get a round pedestal table. I was fully prepared to paint the whole thing if I had to, but I've wanted a table that could be a project for me.

I finally found it.

Every Saturday Dear Husband and I go yard sale-ing, and on this day, we started at a fundraiser for a school choir in a parking lot. Third booth along... and there it sat... As I started to ask how much, I saw he had just attached a piece of tape to a sheet of paper that said "Oak Table $10"

"Sold" I said. And I haded the man ten bucks!

It was in two pieces; top and pedestal, because the wood board for connecting the two was broken & needed replacing. (big deal)

This is the condition it was in. There was something spilled on the top at some point, and then it must have had a blanket on it or something because there was fluff all over it that would not come off. I had to just sand it along with the rest of it.

This pedestal is very NOT ME. Mainly because it is rather generic, and not something I could make unique enough. So I took the legs off and gave them a treatment on the table saw.

I cut the legs in three places to make them less curvy. Chopping off the tops of the curves, and the end.

Here is the pedestal without the legs, and a pedestal I bought a few months earlier expecting I would have to make my dream pedestal table. (I hate to admit it, but this rough pedestal and the parts I bought with it cost $30. I consider that expensive for a project especially since I didn't really know how I was going to execute it.)

I drilled holes in the blank for the legs to be attached to it, bolted them on, and then I started building it out wards with various boards glued and nailed on... My goal was to just create some dimension.

Then I used paintable caulk to fill in the seams, and covered my nail holes with filler.

I used up a spray can of primer, and really should have bought more to do the job right, but I was so anxious, I went ahead and started painting it.

I chose a green color that I have in the room.

I wasn't sold. I put the top on it, and didn't like it. So I didn't stick with the green. It was far more flourescent than it looks here.

Anyway moving onto the top...

After sanding the table, I applied walnut stain (but of course).

This is after one coat. I waited a few days applied a second coat, waited a few more and applied a third coat. My goal was to loose the slightly orange color that oak goes when stained. And it worked.

I spray painted over the green with white, and it doesn't look so strange now.

I also waxed the table top instead of varnishing it.

I am considering giving the white base an antiqued old look... haven't decided for sure yet, but I think the base and top would coordinate more if I did. Unfortunately I can't use the same walnut stain because I spraypainted the base. Both the spray paint and the stain are oil based, they clean up with white spirit, and if you put an oil based stain onto a spraypaint, the stain acts a bit like a cleaner and the paint wipes off along with the stain. So I need a water based stain/glaze to try this with. (Capiche? A little wordy.. sorry)

I also have two leaves that came with it! Forgot to mention that part... I still need to sand them down.

Thanks for stopping by!

Time for a change of color in the main living space!

2010-04-26T11:16:00.000-06:00

I managed to get myself into a rut of monochromatic madness. Since I do so many things as inexpensive as possible, I ended up with walls, couches, & curtains all pretty much the same color, and it wasn't looking good. This was a case of no longer being able to see what I was looking at on a daily basis... so used to it. Four years is long enough to have one color scheme.

I asked Husband.... "What color should I put on the walls, cause heck I'm really rather finicky with wall color." I have always said to him... "There will never be blue walls in this house". Despite being really impressed when David Bromstad puts blue on the walls, I had already decided that blue is depressing, and so it wouldn't be in my cheerful house. HA! Guess what Husband said... "Why not take down your painting, paint a big block of blue on the wall, and if you don't like it, hang your painting back up until you have another color to try."

I did have a quart of a robins egg blue from my desky thing that I got for $10 and then stained for my bedroom... That would be the color to test! So I put it on a couple walls.

In this photo I have not only already decided I liked the blue, I've started painting the ceiling white, and the walls white for the first 12" next to the ceiling. I mixed up a light green paint from one called Basil, and the yellow on the wall to get that little green bookcase -it used to be red. So I had an accent color, ceiling color, and wall color decided. At the top of the photo you can see what color the ceiling use to be, rather creamy.

Here's my before and after. I still as of yet don't have anything for the walls, so it's still kinda blank.
Rather than turn this into a how to, I thought I'd make it a slightly shorter post by sharing before/after photos :)

I'm not a mahogany fan, and considered these too boring for their adorable shape. I painted the two end tables my accent green I mixed up, and painted the coffee table white. I finally had somewhere to put my neat stick planter thing I found at a yard sale. Looks cute on the white huh?

This before and after is an after and after. I don't think I ever took a before photo... I bought two lamps at a yard sale with shades for $25 (back when I wasn't so stingy at yard sales) They were a charcoal color with the texture being a bit lava rock like.
The photo on the left is what I did to the charcoal color, I spray painted it tan, then used brown chalk along the ridges to make it look warn, then I used a clear top-coat so the chalk wouldn't rub off.
When I changed the room, this boring tan wasn't good enough anymore, so I just got out my favorite walnut stain (the one I use on everything) and I stained it! What a difference eh? ANDDDDD there is like a sheen to them from the stain... some things will do that with stain, it will look just a little varnished since the stain can't really soak in.

This is the same wall from different angles. I used to have a sunny yellow and Suffolk tan on the walls. Having different walls different colors was narrowing the space even more, now that is not the case, the room actually looks wider.
You can also see I carried the height of my strip onto the soffit (sp?) above my cupboards, creating a stripe at the kitchen end... I no longer hate these soffits... they look cute!

I'm thinking of incorporating some pink in the area... started with a square plate on the shelf... wonder how this will work out.

Don't be surprised if the next few posts are all ideas for my new blue area!
Found me a pedestal table at a yard sale for $10! I need to give it a makeover for this space!

More Jewelry storage

2010-03-07T09:22:00.004-07:00

Maybe you've seen THIS POST where I made an earring holder. I also wrote a 'Jewel School' article in the Sept09 issue of Bead Trends entitled Earring Frame, re-creating it in a smaller version. I have made many since the first post on my blog, and I no longer use the large frame; but two smaller ones. You can see those two a little bit at the end of my post 'An Unwanted Closet Becomes A Vanity'.

K, that's by the by... what I'm getting to is I have recenly made some more earring holders, with a great idea for necklaces & bracelets.

It started with an idea for a couple christmas presents for friends that don't wear earrings.

I cut a couple boards, painted them white, and drilled holes in them about 2" apart. Here's one before I drilled the holes, and one with holed drilled.

You can also see I drilled two holes with a recess (3rd from either end) for the screws that would attach it to the wall, I bought white head screws to give with the gift, so they look lovely and clean when hung.

I ALSO recessed the holes on the back:

This is because I want them to hang nice and flush on the wall, and I will be adding knobs with rounded screw heads. Just drilling holes w/o the recess would not allow the hangers to be screwed to the wall flat & would likely mark the wall at each screw head. (Why do I feel I'm making this sound harder than it is?)

Here's what I mean:

K, that out of the way, these are the knobs I used... and let me say they are only $1.99 a pack at IKEA!

The trick is finding them though! And then getting out of the store. I'm pretty familiar with IKEA, and I finally know some short-cuts through departments, but it still takes 20 minutes to get in, get the kitchen section, find them, get to the checkout, and then to the car. If you have a local IKEA you know exactly what I mean... that place is massive.

Now here is where I appologize. I apparently did not take a finished photo! I just gave them away.

BUT.... I have more...

I have a friend with HUGE amounts of jewelry. She wanted a place for all her necklaces, bracelets, Bumble(tm) watch bands, and earrings. She had them all crammed into two very large jewelry boxes, but found it extremely frustrating when she wanted to find a pair of earrings, or matching pieces.

So I had an idea! A couple years ago I bought a large frame at a yard sale with three openings. I've been saying I would find a clever use for it one day, and I did.

My friend loved the look of the piece in this post, so I painted it just the same, and would apply the same effect with the stain once I finished drilling all of the holes.

Holes drilled, stained, hardware cloth stapled to the back, and knobs attached, here's the finished piece hanging behind her bathroom door so that her jewelry isn't on display 24/7 taking away from her beautiful bedroom.

My favorite part is they look like polka dots!

Since this isn't enough knobs, we got her a pack of S hooks that she can hook into the screen and hang more things from. That was $8 from Home Depot for a pack of 100.

Here's an image of her filling it up.

Now... just one more...

This is the same idea as the original earring frame with one twist.

After cutting and determining the size of the wire to fit in the large frame, I laid it face down on top of a smaller frame, and found the lines by which I could cut out the middle of the hardware cloth. I did this and then attached the hardware cloth to the large frame.

I have painters tape at the bottom of the frame to mark my holes for drilling.

Then with this hardware cloth in place, I used the cut out to put inside the smaller frame. Then I stapled the hardware cloth on the larger frame to the back of the smaller frame to acheive this:

I haven't given it to her yet... which is why it's sitting on the floor in this photo.

Hope I've given you some great ideas to store your jewelry beautifully.

(Please ignore all of the strange spacing... google is not publishing what it looks like when I create my post.)

A New Look for a Little Lamp

2010-02-19T13:12:00.001-07:00

This is the lamp I started with.

This is the lamp I wanted to recreate from the Do It Yourself mag (BH&G) Summer 09 issue. They did not provide instructions, so I figured it out myself, and share them here.

I went looking for a shade that was not tapered. I know it's super hard to tape on a cone shaped surface, but this was the best I could find..... slightly tapered.

I cut painters tape... (would have prefered masking tape, but I seem to have lost my roll) into thirds and used the two straight edges, discarded the middle piece. Then I used glue to paint over the two tape edges where I would be painting my stripe. This prevents the paint from leaking underneath the edge of the tape. ;)

When dry, I painted over the glue with paint.

Then I made this page of birds in photoshop from some photos I took last summer by the lake in my valley. I tried to create a file that could be right clicked and saved if you wanted to do this project... It may not have good enough resolution (I didn't save it for web), but you're welcome to try!

Here are two of the originals I use to make it, maybe these could be of use if the other one isn't.

I printed it on DCWV sticker paper. Then I cut out the birds I wanted with a craft knife.

Then I cut out each bird, stuck it on the shade, and painted/stenciled it.

I put them all around the shade. When they were dry, I used a mechanical pencil to define some of the lines around the birds. So subtle you can't really see it.

This is the finished shade :)

I like it much better now.

A Funny Valentine

2010-02-13T00:05:00.004-07:00

Have you ever had an AOL cd come though the mail in a box? I've been hanging onto this box for at least 2 years, and today I decided to turn it into a card for my Valentine. I knew one day I would have an idea for it.

Not going to post a real specific how to, since I pretty much just glued paper onto it.

Saying that... I started by taking the box section off of the outer fold and I spray painted them both black. Then I glued it back together.

(Sorry the text isn't all justified left & between the photos. It is when I compose my post, but when I publish, it's sometimes on the right of the photos. ??? grrrrr)

Heidi Grace Rubons.

You will have to forgive my poor coloring, I've taken photos of it next to a lamp since it's dark outside.

This box has a magnetic closure, but once I attached paper, it no longer wanted to close on its own.

I finally used some Heidi Swap flowers I bought about 3-4 years ago! :D The little frame is EK Success, and just as old. My metal embellishments... weren't those American Crafts? I don't remember.

My paper is the adorable Urban Prairie by Basic Grey (6x6 paper pad)

Lips are mine, photoshoped to be bright pink. LOL! Like I said... A Funny Valentine.

I closed it and wrapped it with a ribbon. (Not showing is the back with solid pink paper, and the year in Heidi Grace rubons like I used on the spine.)

Valentines can be so much fun! (Everything ends up looking super girly, and it's OK!)

Wainscoting

2010-01-28T11:52:00.007-07:00

Inspired by these 2 photos I found online, I decided I wanted to make wainscoting for my bedroom. I like the idea of a shelf on top of it, and have shutters that covered my window half way.

I got a couple quotes for shutters... the cheapest I could find was $300 on SALE. Well, you know me, there is no way in hell I'm gunna spend $300 on one window. (I will show you how I made the shutters in another post)

This is what I started with... white walls and one brown wall. If you've been reading my blog for a long time you will remember when I put the linden berries up on the brown wall. I decided I'm over it, and so I got to work!

I ripped out the skirting boards, the door frames, and I replaced all of it with 3.5" mdf. I used 10' lengths to get two uprights out of each length.

In this photo you can see the shelf I attached to the top of the wainscoting... this is just another piece of 3.5" mdf. I used liquid nails, and nailed it into place also.

It's impossible for every section on each wall to be exactly the same, so measuring each wall and spacing the boards as close as possible to the same distance allows the eye to believe all are spaced the same.

Framing around the window first gave me the distance I needed to work with for the rest of the uprights and under the window.

Here are the shutters I added at the same height as the top of the wainscoting. This way they would swing open under the shelf.

3.5" mdf

Then I painted a warm color above the shelf around the room. This color is on the entire one wall that doesn't have wainscoting.

And all of the wainscoting is painted white. Important step... before painting wainscoting, you need to seal around the boards with a caulking to make them look perfect. Then paint when it's dry.

Here is the finished room. I'm having fun with the shelf!

This white dresser I bought at a yard sale for $2.50, it was a beach color with a broken foot. I made a new matching foot and painted it white using an oil based white gloss, and now I love it.

I plan on painting the shutters white, just haven't got around to it yet. You can see the wall w/o wainscoting. I like it!

Wish I'd had my nail gun from the beginning of this project. Once I got it I went 4 times as fast!

Thanks for Looking!

Easy Artwork

2010-01-07T11:40:00.004-07:00

This is a fabric room divider from Ikea. I like the transparent quality of it, so I had an idea. (Preface: It came with a couple creases, so I ironed it on a low setting)

Double it up...

And stick it in a picture frame behind glass!

Then I set it on a shelf :) Not only was it easy... I love it.

A Few Handy Tips!

2010-01-04T12:37:00.004-07:00

I’m one of those people that loves handy tips. I have a few to share that maybe you could use. I’ve decided I need to put more on my blog that isn’t just a big project. Here’s an attempt at it :)

#1 For Ceramic Cook tops…
When we bought ceramic stove we got a small bottle of this special cleaner to clean the top of it, and when it ran out, I tried something else.

And It works lovely… In fact, all the cooked on marks come off FAR easier with this combination than using that special cleaner.

#2 For Cat Hair…
I’ve tried so many things to remove cat hair. But truthfully haven't purchased new products on the market since I realized what you can do with a plain rubber glove.

The hair just eventually balls together for easy vacuuming up!

#3 For Headaches
This is a pain relieving product in the form of a sticky patch. I use them all the time on my shoulders and lower back. I recently have been getting rid of headaches with them too. I cut a patch into a thin strip that will fit on my temple, and with clean skin, stick it on before bed. I put a whole patch on the back of my neck as well as the little patches on my temples, and this worked. They smell very strong, and may make your eyes water, which is why it’s a good idea to do it before bed because your eyes are shut.

#4 For Better Smelling Laundry…
I am not happy how short my longest wash is on my washing machine. When I lived in England, my washer took over an hour for a load, and my clothes were always white, and always clean smelling. This new machine, although I haven’t timed it, only needs like 25 minutes. My white socks eventually stop being white, and my laundry doesn’t smell like the lovely laundry soap I use!

So I came up with an idea! And although I don’t know if my clothes are getting cleaner, I am smelling the effects my nice laundry soap!

So my theory is… Turn on the machine, and while the water is running, slowly add the soap. This gives the clothes a chance to get wet. Then it gives the soap a chance to spread out over the laundry inside. Since they are already wet and spinning when soap is introduced.

#5 For Cleaner Skin…

This last one is an Apple Cider Vinegar Tip. I know there are loads of them out there, but there is one I’m fond of.
I add apple cider vinegar to my shower gel. Enough to affect the smell of the shower gel & make it thinner, but not enough to turn it into a watery consistency & make me smell like vinegar when I’m finished. I discovered this because I heard that soaking in a bath with ½ cup of apple cider vinegar can pull toxins out through the skin, and relieve pain. Never taking time for a bath, I settled for adding it to my soap, and I find it gets deodorant off easily too. I also (possibly crazily) think the combination of the warm shower and vinegar make it MUCH easier to move in the morning.

Please feel free to comment with a handy tip you have to share.
Thanks!

(Is this larger font better?)

A Cat Tree, & A Christmas Tree.

2009-12-06T14:09:00.003-07:00

I have a good project for you, but it’s one I did a while back and didn’t take photos during the process, so I will do some explaining, and hopefully it will be easy to understand.
While I’m here, I will say “Merry Christmas to you!” and include a picture of my Tree.

Once the lights were on, (ugh) I actually had fun decorating it.

I should really show you the adorable ones that use the Cat Tree I'm going to explain to you.
This is Phish (He's in love with me)

And this is Chip (He's in love with Phish)

I joke that we should get a solid white cat and name her Vinny. If I do get a third cat… ask me “What were you thinking?”

And this is the Cat Tree I made for them.

I used 2x4’s, ¼” MDF, and ½” MDF.
I built two tray shapes from MDF. On the side that would be against the wall, I didn’t bother to add the edge. On the bottom one I cut out a half circle by which the cat’s would climb in. Then I used 2x2 in the corners to connect the top and bottom trays. I painted everything the same color as the wall so it would blend in, as opposed to calling extra attention.

The main body of the tree (the trunk) is built with 2x4’s. The shelves/steps are sandwiched between the 2x4’s. I screwed each shelf into the 2x4 it rested on before putting another 2x4 above it, and screwing that 2x4 to the 2x4 on the other half of the “trunk”. Ignore carpet right now.

This might make more sense… I started by using two boards different heights at the bottom, screwing them to each other. Then I screwed the first shelf/step into the top of the shorter board, and then put a 2x4 on top of it, screwing it to the other half of the trunk.

There are three 2x4’s the same length working their way up to the top, and then there is a short one to finish off the one side. (I realize this is hard to see in my photos, but it’s actually a very simple concept.)

Then I built a collar around the top of the trunk to give a larger base for the top of the tree to be screwed into it.
Another thing to mention… I made this fit the exact height from floor to ceiling so that it could not tip or tilt… so measurements are vital, accounting for every thickness of wood used.
I also attached the trunk to a flat board at the bottom for sturdiness.

Then I painted the whole thing, and covered the bottom section in carpet scraps so they could use it as a scratching post. (they don’t, but it was a great idea.)

Lastly, I cut a remnant of carpet into pieces that I could cover the steps with. I cut out the notches for the trunk, and wrapped the carpet around them, stapling it onto the bottom with a staple gun.

This is a rough example of how I cut the carpet. I did staple it in a few places on top, while I cut the edges how I wanted them on the bottom; fitting together neatly. (A mean pair of scissors is needed to cut carpet if you aren’t using a box cutter. Like those kind you cut through aluminum can’s with… Kitchen scissors that will go through chicken bones….. you know what I mean.)

I also cut some carpet to fit inside the top, so they have something nice to lay on. Before stapling this down, I screwed the top onto the trunk.

And that’s it. They love getting up above everyone, especially if kids come over.

Hope I remembered everything. It’s a super easy idea, you just have to be exact with your measurements.
TFL

I got me an Etsy store.

2009-11-18T13:55:00.007-07:00

Seriously!
I know everyone has them now a days, but I decided I need one.
http://www.getscatty.etsy.com/
I'm selling things that I don't tend to mention much here on my blog, like my jewelry and photography. Eventually a book I've written.

I don't have much on there yet, but it's something to look at.
Here are a few of my "Photo Paintings" I have listed on Etsy.
(these are photos that look like a photo from a distance, but like a painting up close)
If you are a regular to my blog you might remember one I put in my laundry room behind an antique window frame ;)

TFL

If you're a local and want to buy one, email me and we can work out you collecting it instead of having to pay shipping. ;)

A Chair to Match!

2009-11-13T16:11:00.004-07:00

I know its crazy late in the year for yard sales, but there are still some lingering, and I just bought these three chairs for $1 each. Not kidding.
"Bargain of the day!" I will often say to my husband with a find like this. "You don't need those chairs no more than...." husband wanders off complaining... (ya, he knows better ;)

I like their shape, and I’m sure if you are familiar with my blog you are seeing their potential too!!
I decided I would do something different to each of them, and give them homes in bedrooms. I currently have a wooden bench I made in my room for sitting when putting on shoes, but I don’t feel it matches or fits where it is… So The first chair (today’s post) will match the piece of furniture I did in my post Love It, Love It, Love It on August 28th, and it will live in my room.

Because I’m making the chair match that funny piece of furniture (it really needs a name), I don’t need to get all specific in the how to, since I did the same for this chair.

I removed the cushion by unscrewing the four screws that held it in place. I took the chair outside and sanded it down.

I also sanded the metal pieces on the front legs since they looked old and haggard too.
Then I washed the whole thing off with a damp rag.

I taped up the metal pieces on the feet and painted it.

Then I recovered the cushion, adding a piece of 1.5” foam to the top of it. I used the scrap of fabric left over from my headboard project posted on June 5th.

When the paint was dry I used walnut stain over the top of the paint, and wiped off all the excess. To a fairly smooth finish. (working in small areas, not allowing the stain to dry)

Once it was all dry, I screwed the cushion back on.
I’m quite pleased with this easy little beauty.

And no, I won’t leave it sitting here in the middle of nowhere. :)

TFL

May as well be new clothes!

2009-10-19T17:24:00.005-06:00

I've been neglecting my closet for ages because I've wanted to create an organized system of something more than one shelf and one long hanger. Once I decide I'm not happy with something, I kinda treat it badly by ignoring it, and not keeping it in a organized or clean fashion.... sound familiar? Well typical for me! (My kitchen floor is also in this category --Moving along.)
Also... Aren't closet "systems" totally expensive??? Ya... Start looking at all the shelving and you soon feel like you can't afford to have your clothes all organized.
I was talking to the sweet Jennifer Gallacher about closets and "systems" a while back, and she told me that she has the racking type of organizers that yes looks all perfect and customizable, but she doesn't like how nothing is sitting on a flat surface, and clothes have "grill marks". (That's not how she put it :)
Those systems are in every DIY store... so I had thought that would be the route I'd take, until she told me she didn't like them!!

This first photo is taken as I partially emptied it for my big ol' Make-Over. I think it's easier to see the closet w/o all the mess. So here's the mess.

And don't think this isn't tidy mess... I'm not gunna share a true pic of how bad it was!

This is what had to go... partially painted white walls, a shelf that wrapped around the closet in a U shape, and one long sagging rail. I fully expected the rail to give way before I ever got to this point, so I consider myself pretty lucky.

I decided that I wanted to build a system of movable shelves, a long time ago, so I've been collecting supplies as I found them. It was at the beginning of the summer I found a box of 24 shelf supports at a yard sale. They were old, I could see by the stickers on them, but they seemed unused. When the lady told me the box was 50 cents... I said something along the lines of "sold". Not questioning her craziness.

Then at another yard sale... A REALLY good one with all hardware supplies like a hardware store in a driveway... I found 6 foot uprights for my shelf supports... and the guy wanted like a dollar and a quarter each!!! Also new!!! I bought six, not knowing anything more than I had 6 studs in that wall, and I would be on my way to my a tidy closet.

So... here we are, stuck into the project before I remembered to take a photo. I got out the post-it's and painters tape after painting the walls and ceiling white. With my stud finder I marked all of the studs, and planned where my upright supports were going to go. Then I screwed them into the wall using a spirit level.

These plastic beauties are what I found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They don't really give you a breakdown of prices when you go there, so I don't know what exactly I paid, but it was pennies, not dollars.... I got a bunch of them so I would have enough to play with.

This photo shows the original length, and the length I had to cut them to to fit perfectly. I just used a hand saw.

Then I stuck in some shelf supports, and started cutting shelves to length! The plastic rail supports I screwed into the bottom of the shelves, and then used L brackets to hold the shelves in place. Which needs more explanation actually..... You can't put a rail and clothes under a shelf at the shelves edge without the back of the shelf tipping from the weight. So, with an L bracket, I put one edge on top of the back of the shelf, and the other edge against the wall, and screwed it in to the wall -at a stud. This stops the back of the shelf from going anywhere when clothes get hung near the front edge. Clear as mud?

Oh ya, must mention the rails...... LOL Yes, from yet another yard sale!!

And yes... I attract these things to me by planning my projects in my head and on paper before I ever start. Knowing what I need, and "putting it out there" means I come across bargains like this one!!! Yes 75 cents for a rail that is NOT bent. I totally could have used the one I took down, but if I don't have to use bent, I won't. And it was the same length as the one I had... so just what I needed!

I cut it to length with a pipe cutter. These baby's are super cheap, they just take some work on the part of your hands. I'd love one that was ergonomic.

Shelves going up... nearing completion...... You can't believe my excitement!

Oh... shelf cost... I didn't buy all my shelves at once... see planning... you don't want to over buy either. (These were by far the most expensive part of the project.) An 8 foot length of white malamine board, which is basically laminated chipboard costs $12 each. A 4 foot length is $7 each. Plan well, and use less board. Look at my one long board... It's a rail holder and a shelf on the right... Eh? Wink wink!

And this is why I say it's like having new clothes. They're all where I want them... Not getting neglected now.

TFL

Where do you put your bed pillows?

2009-09-29T12:17:00.003-06:00

The decorative ones you don't sleep on? For years mine have lived on the floor! And because I only make my bed when someone is coming over, the pillows have lived on the floor for the majority of their lives.
So I had an idea... I need a Pillow Cupboard!
Once I decided this, I found a part of a TV console in the clearance furniture at IM HOME in Provo. It was in clearance because it was only the top part, and discontinued... plus it had a scratch on the top. Then I found these green doors at a cabinet maker's workshop... (amazing guy, long story)

The doors were slightly too tall for the cupboard, but perfect in width, so I attached feet to the cupboard, and connected the doors to the cupboard with hinges. Then I drilled holes and attached knobs I got at home depot for $1.29 each... (I'm such a cheapskate I know.)

Then I attached a catch for each door too!

Then I went looking for a design for my doors... I'm good at ideas, but not good at designs... and I found something I liked online and this is it....

I then opened it in photoshop and converted it to B&W. Then printed it.

Then I inverted it, realizing it would be easier to work with and printed it again.

Then I drew lines through the image after deciding the scale I wanted it to be on the door. This is a hard process to explain, but an easy one to conceptualize.... So I'm sure you get it.

Then I drew the corresponding lines on the doors, and drew on my design... Trying to decide how much and where as you can see... lots of eraser marks. :D

Then I took it out in the garage and cut out the shapes with my drill and jigsaw. Drilling multiple holes makes lining up the blade of the jigsaw much easier.

Also, if you have some narrow places, support those narrow places when you are cutting near them... after you have cut them... they are thin enough you want to baby them a bit.

Then I took the doors outside and spray painted them with 4 colors... each in tern. I wanted a mottled uneven look.

Then I got out my trusty Walnut Stain, (that I use on like everything -huh?) and I stained the inside cut out edges on the whole design. Then I stained over the paint and made it even more mottled.

Then I bought some adorable upholstery fabric... on sale so I paid just over $5 for what I needed, and I cut it out to cover my shapes, and I hot glued it to the door, making sure I glued in between all the cut out pieces, not just around the edges. I would like to find something thin and large like a big sheet of chipboard so I can paint it and cover this fabric... protecting it really. But I need to find that.

Then I reattached my doors! I'm super happy with it, and think it's a cute design.

No more pillows on the floor in my room!

Love it, love it, love it!

2009-08-28T16:25:00.008-06:00

For once I have a project that needs very little explanation, and I have lots of photos.
This was such a fun project that it has jumped the queue of projects for my blog... which is why I'm so late in posting a project this month... I had to do this one!
I found this funny piece of furniture at my new favorite place.... The Park City recycle center!!
You can recycle almost everything there, and they have a shed with stuff you can purchase. I found this interesting beauty for $10... You read that right -ten smackers!

It's a very strange piece... it seems to be made from a bunch of pieces that were once other things. See those holes in the middle top of that side... they are holes where there was once hinges.... The top piece on the right is solid with the bottom, and the top left piece is attached.

No real handles to speak of on the drawers, and they didn't all seem to fit.

The back was 5 pieces of wood that were all different thicknesses and colors.

It's even dirtier than it looks.

And it's been sitting in water... odd smell, and a little black staining!

It looks like it once had a hinging front that covered the drawers, like an old fashioned desk. There were three holes like this.

And screws everywhere!!! all rounded tops and standing proud of the wood.... even on the top of it.

So... I removed all the screws, filled in all the holes and dents, and removed all the boards from the back.

I've decided it was a piece of furniture used on a move set. Why else would it be so cobbled together? Parts of it are so nice, and parts are such a mess.... I dunno.

Then primed it with white primer.

Then I painted it a seafoam blue. I painted the 3 hinges on the front... they were silver, I wasn't going to use any silver on the finished piece, so I painted over them.

Look, no more missing hinge holes .

This is the scary part. I then got walnut stain, and painted over 1 section at a time.

Then I used a rag and wiped it off to "antique" it. Trying to keep from drawing lines in the stain as you wipe it off is a little tricky.

I tried to make sure I got stain in all the grooves and details.

When I finished the staining, I cut a thin board to replace the back, and painted one side of it white. I forgot to mention I painted the inside of the bottom section white too. I screwed the back on, and then moved onto the drawers.

After painting the drawers to match I drilled holes in them and added old knobs I found at ReStore... The Habitat for Humanity store. I also found a handle for the bottom section there too. They are a kind of antique brass color and very worn.

I'm pleased as punch with it!!!

An unwanted CLOSET becomes a VANITY. (complete)

2009-07-14T15:00:00.007-06:00

Without the need for a closet in my master bath, I’ve ripped it out!

When we moved into our house we put shelves in this clothes closet since we had all our clothes hanging where they should be (in the closet in our bedroom).
Despite the shelves, the closet remained pretty much wasted space housing towels and unused toiletries.
Then I had an idea… Rip it out, and build a Vanity! So much of my hair/make-up “stuff” lived on the bathroom counter, I decided I could create a vanity that would hold it all, and hide most of it. I get excited when I have ideas that will help me be tidy, and I LOVE to have a home for everything.

So, de-construction of the closet was first. Then I took out some sheet rock to tap into the electricity… (since I would need to have an outlet for my hairdryer) and then I mudded my joints, and texturized all of the walls the vanity would be part of, then I primed it… (the rest of the bathroom will have to “match” later… a bathroom remodel takes a fair chunk of money)
Also at this point, I ripped out the bathroom door and door frame, adding drywall to the opening and mudding it also. I did this because I wanted a sliding bathroom door. (This was a project on its own, which I won’t go into now. Not all that exciting. In this photo you can see my child height counter tops. -They meet my thighs. One day they will go!)
This vanity in its entirety, was a lengthy project, so I struggle to know how much to share. I took lots of photos! I’m going to try and keep it short and sweet, not going into too much detail, because it might get boring. Even doing that… It’s a long project that I think I’ll break down into more than one post.

Then I went to Lowes to look for lighting. Home Depot didn’t have enough selection for me, and so Lowes to the rescue! I ended up finding two vanity lights on clearance for $13.50 each! Originally $54. each! Score!
So, that determined what I was going to do with lighting, and I called my dad!

He helped me with this set up, which is just what I wanted! Wires would eventually be hidden with my plan… so don’t worry about them.

Then I built a frame onto the wall using left over scraps from a really cool project I’ll eventually share when it’s finished. (I never seem to post projects in order. Some take longer eh?)

This frame is in 2 sections for a purpose… you will see why later in the project. Then I painted it white.
*(here's where I stopped on the first post, and now will continue :)

Between the two lights, I located the studs with my "stud finder". This is one of the handiest tools ever! I placed a piece of masking tape on either side of the stud, and then used a strip of blue between my marks to be my center stud line.

Then with L brackets, and strips of wood I painted white, I screwed them into the studs. I also taped a scrap board up level on the right to use as my "stopper". (IDK what to call it.)

Then I kept going with three more shelves. Worth knowing, I screwed the L brackets into the shelf prior to screwing it to the wall; using the measurement between pieces of blue tape. ;) I love my spirit level!Here's the shelves all spaced differently for different height items.Then I used two pieces of wood (not these two, as I decided they were too small, but I didn't take a photo of the larger wood) and screwed them into my shelves as so. These serve as the boards to which I attach the hinges for my mirror. And I painted them white.Under the bottom shelf I did a little side project. I found some eye screws at the hardware store the size of some thick dowels I had. I screwed it into the bottom shelf, then I bought two rubber gromets to place on the dowel either side of the eye screw. This kept the dowel where I wanted it, and I am able to hang my bracelets from the dowel.At this point I did a few things I didn't photograph.

I painted the walls white, and the wall on the left of the vanity I painted "Cafe Au Lait".

Then I hung the mirror I "made". I just built a frame larger than the mirror to fit the size I needed, but used wood thick enough the mirror could still fit in the opening. I painted it white before I decided I wanted it the same color as the wall, so I painted it again. Then I attached some braces across the corners of the frame, painting them with black metal paint first. These will match my black door handle.

Also at this point I attached the wood to the frame. I did not photograph this process either, but I can explain what is here. At the top back of the vanity I have a solid piece of ply that spans the width, but is only about 14" deep. To this I attached two piano hinges, then two pieces of ply for my left and right sections. (Obviously I stained my plywood before attaching it.)

I also attached a piece of ply to the front of the frame. (ps to this... I had Home Depot cut my 12mm board when I purchased it. I think I paid for about 9 cuts, and then refined it at home as and where I needed. But, by having them cut it, I saved myself lots of work with my lack of ability to chop up an 8'x4' sheet.)

So... Then I screwed a board to the bottom of the vanity... I think this is like Malamine, but not as stif... It's textured one side, and flat the other. I painted the flat side white before screwing it to the bottom of my frame.

Then I did this little project...

I have designed this vanity so that I have to lift open to access my crap. I did this for two reasons. 1. A drawer would mean I would have to keep moving back and forth from the mirror, opening it towards me. Not good. 2. A lifting top would FORCE me to keep the top clean. Can't set something on it if I want to get something else out.

Here, you are seeing my solution for the hairdryer side... Ya I want the ability to keep my hairdryer put away, but I also want the ability to use it easily while it's out. I tend to dry my hair in 2-3 five minute stints.

I couldn't find brackets the shape of a C, so I bought two L's and attached them together with a short bolt and nut. Then I screwed them to a shelf I covered with a faux leather remnant. (I found this remnant at JoAnn's. It was from a bolt that cost 16.99 a YARD, and this little piece of left over was $1.89! I bought it not knowing what I'd use it for, and the following day I thought of this! Bargain tangent over.)

As you can see, I also used the short bolts to attach it to the bottom of the vanity.

This is hairdryer out and in use...

Did I say I drilled out a groove to accomodate the cord?

The reason I drilled it on the right side of this section is because I will be sitting in the middle of the vanity, and when I pick it up, the cord will be near me.This is hairdryer put away.We are nearing the end! ( I wish Blogger were more friendly with uploading photos and moving them around. All these photos -on an updated post has taken AGES! I won't do it again.)

This is the vanity with the mirror open, my earring frames hung on the wall. A shaving mirror attached to the side for me to see the back of my hair, and the shelf above the vanity boxed in to match the vanity top! This also hides my electricity box and wires for the lights.I keep a blue duster on top to polish and keep my vanity free from dust so prevalent in a bathroom. You can see my sliding door in this photo. I also boxed in the top of it to match the vanity!

One day the floor will get redone, then skirting will go in, and the child height cabinets and sinks will be replaced.... one day. And then towels can live in a cabinet again.

One thing I forgot to mention or photograph. I attached a stay hinge inside the right side where I keep my makeup and the majority of my stuff so it will stay open at an angle if I'm going in and out.

I hear the yawning! Sorry this was so long. I don't do long ones like this often :)

TFL!

Hope it was worth the long read.

PageMaps Blog

2009-07-06T14:43:00.005-06:00

I don’t often share my scrapbook pages on my blog, (since it's all about projects) but the wonderful Robyn Weatherspoon pointed out a challenge Becky Fleck posted on PageMaps, so I went a lookin’.

Here’s Becky’s sketch and challenge…

Here’s my take on the sketch…

Thanks Robyn, and Thanks Becky!

Transforming my Headboard.

2009-06-05T22:46:00.002-06:00

Good Morning Blog Hoppers!

I have a great project that is easy. I hope it gives you some ideas.
(Sorry there aren’t lots of photos. I think I was so excited about finishing it, I didn’t take as many photos as I must have thought I was.)

I bought this headboard for $49 two years ago at a furniture clearance store. It wasn’t in perfect condition, but well worth the $49 I thought!

This Headboard hasn’t ever been my style, but that doesn’t normally stop me, and it didn’t in this case.
Well, it took a while, but I had the BEST idea for transforming it.

First I took off the screw-on knobs at the top sides of the headboard. I filled in the holes and painted it all brown since I didn’t care for the mahogany color of it. (I don’t like browns to have a red or orange hue.)

I measured the middle section, and the two side sections which as you can see are the same size.

Then I bought a sheet of ¼” particle board (chipboard like MDF) that has a little flex in it, (since the headboard is slightly rounded). I paid $11 dollars, and took my measurements with me to Home Depot. Then I had them cut it for me to my required sizes. EASY 4 ME!

Then I drilled a hole in each of the 4 corners on all 3 pieces. I placed a 2” bolt, through each hole, and screwed on a nut.

One at a time I held up the board to the respective section of bed, and used the bolt to mark the wood. Then I drilled holes into the headboard right where the bolts touched/scratched the bed.
Then I placed the board on a piece of foam (I try to keep foam handy in a closet for projects. Buying it new is expensive, and I love having it around when I need it.) and drew around the board with a marker. Then I cut the foam with an electric carving knife.

This picture doesn’t show the fabric, but I placed fabric that was at least 6” longer and wider than the board on to the floor, then I lay the foam down, and then placed my board on top with the bolts skyward.

With my staple gun I stapled the fabric around the foam and onto the wood.

Then pushing the fabric covered board onto the headboard and forcing the bolts through the holes, I got more nuts, and screwed them onto the bolt at the back of the headboard, thus holding it in place.

With all 3 pieces attached, here’s my new headboard!!

I’m redecorating my bedroom, and when I’m finished this brown headboard will no longer be against a brown wall…. That’s my current big project…. And I’m taking photos…. I’m loving it so far… watch this space!

Thanks for stopping by. Please now Hop over to the sweet Andrea Amu’s blog: I’m Livin’ on Scraps.

post script: I will be randomly picking a name from those that comment on this post, and sending a prize of jewelry that I've made.

Hanging Laundry in a small laundry room.

2009-05-31T17:52:00.006-06:00

My apologies for taking so long to post a new project. I’ve been working on lots of things.

Ah, hem….
Long ago I went to a yard sale… (it gets better)
This was the yard sale of a compulsive shopper, and everything there was brand new. I got towels, a fancy iron, leather purse, waffle iron, too much to list… but I also bought a strange thing called a “laundry mate”.

It’s supposed to be used for men’s dress shirts, it has all rods that are supposed to conform into a human form allowing the sleeves to dry nicely so you don’t have to iron the shirts…. Sounding stranger the further I go… so, I will just say that I bought it not for what it could do... but for what it was going to become.

Over 3 years later, I came across the box it lives in and I finally said…. “Let’s make this sucker! I want to hang laundry in my laundry room and not in my spare room.”
(One more thing to add… I think I bought two of them at the yard sale and put all the parts into one box. Which is why I have so many pieces.)

The parts are all plastic, and this is what some of them look like. I’m only concerned with the pieces I’ve put letters next to for ease of understanding what I’ve done.

Then I bought two thin wood boards costing like .60 cents each and painted them white.

I drilled holes into the A pieces, then into the boards (at measured intervals), and then used small bolts and nuts to connect the A pieces to the .60 cent boards.
I made two identical.
Then I slid the B rods into the A holes ( LOL) and connected the C caps to the B rods. Thus connecting both .60 cent boards into something resembling a ladder.Then I drilled a hole into each of the .60 cent boards near the end. I put a karabiner through that hole.

(The karabiner's were the most expensive part of the project... having to buy a pack of six for $7.)

And then connected the karabiner to an eye screw I put into the wall.

Here’s where I admit that I was SUPER lucky to line up both eye screws with wall studs. (I use a stud finder on a regular basis, but rarely get so lucky I get to screw into two studs on one project.) So… simple enough. I made sure before deciding the height of the eye screws that the length of my ladder thing would be able to rest on the top of my washer and dryer.

K, THEN… I got a piece of wood, cut it just wider than the ladder, screwed large hooks into the ends, spaced the same distance as the .60 cent boards.

Then I used butterfly screws to attach this board to the ceiling. No way was I going to try and mess with whether or not I would find wood in the ceiling to screw into… working over my head is hard enough.

I attached it at a distance that would allow the ends of my ladder to rest inside the hooks just right.

I use my laundry hanger both up and down…. It’s easier to load down, and if I don’t have to be going in and out, I go ahead and leave it down while the laundry dries.

Now, I realize this isn’t a project that everyone is going to do cause they have a “laundry mate” hanging around in a box under the stairs, but I’ve posted this in the hopes that you may be inspired to take one thing that might be a poor idea/invention, and turn it into a great idea that fits YOUR space.

I’d like to add, if you ever do a project inspired from one of mine, and would like to share, please feel free to email me pictures (instructions if you wish) and I will post it here on my blog. getskatty@q.com (Yep with a k)

TFL!

Using what I’ve got…. Doing a little laundry room make-over!

2009-04-25T08:28:00.003-06:00

Being currently unemployed, I am keeping myself busy with projects in my house and trying to do them as cheap as I can….. Not so different than usual actually.

I decided I wanted to improve my laundry room, and make it feel like I have more space. When we bought this house a few years ago I quickly built a platform to put my new front load washer up on so I wouldn’t have to bend over to load and unload it.
I thought I would also raise my dryer, but then decided if I did, I couldn’t use the top of it, so keeping it on the floor was best. Especially since the cabinets along the wall above the machines would mean I couldn’t set anything on top of the dryer if it was raised.

Anyhow…. I got a flea in my hair about these cabinets along the wall that have always felt in the way since I kept rags and dryer sheets in one of them and the others remained unused. I also had a corner cabinet on the left side of the washer that served for me as a shelf. What a waste of space!
I didn’t think to take a picture before I ripped out the cabinets since it was a spur of the moment idea. Then they were out in a matter of 10 minutes! THREE screws held each cabinet to the wall, and the bottom corner cabinet… that was only held in by TWO screws. Badda bing –gone! Don’t know if you can tell by this photo, but there were loads of holes in the wall under the cabinets. So I had some patching to do.

I had also previously put some shelves in the laundry room for dirty laundry baskets. Light, Dark, & Red. Now that the corner cabinet was gone, I could move the laundry baskets into the corner, thus making me feel like I had more room, and actually HIDING the dirty laundry from view when standing at the laundry room door! Bonus!

Ok enough of the boring stuff! Here’s the best BEFORE pictures I have.

Here’s the AFTER.

A couple things I really like about this room now….

*I have a gap under both the washer and dryer where I keep laundry baskets. Under the washer is the basket for the clothes that come out and need to be hung. Under the dryer I have two baskets for clean dry clothes to be carried upstairs. They stay out of the way, and then just slide out to have clothes dropped into them. If I had the typical raised boxes that are sold with these machines I would have paid about $300 for storage that I wouldn’t use because I hate bending over. My 2x4 platforms are just the job! I would like to take the time to paint them white, but I haven’t got there yet.
*You can’t see I have dirty laundry in baskets living left of the washer.
*My shelf above the washer and dryer is long and all the storage I need.

It’s still a work in progress because I want to do a couple more things in here.

*I want to get myself a cute rug for the floor. (I know what you’re thinking… "but if you have a leak…." Well this laundry room was built w/o a drain in the floor. If there is a leak, I’m gunna have issues, so I figure I may as well have a cute and soft rug to stand on.)
*I also am coming up with a way to hang some laundry in this small room. I currently use a guest room for that and want it all to happen in one room. (This will be another post)
I’d also like to make it “cuter”. My AFTER photo is a little boring. This butter yellow color could lend itself to quite a few combinations, so I would like to come up with some cute ideas for this room. Melissa Phillips recently posted a laundry room photo on her blog, and it’s incredibly inspiring. So I know I can “cuten” this up! (Open to suggestions too!)

So, let me tell you the few things I did to save some money!
*I didn’t buy any paint. I combined two half cans of what I had creating this pale yellow color.
*I used scrap 2x4’s to build the platform I raised the dryer onto.

*I used a door to create a shelf above the washer and dryer. Which I’ll elaborate on:

I cut the door in half, and filled in the panels with joint compound. (already had both of these)
Then I sanded the joint compound down, primed the shelf, and painted it white. Then I painted a strip of frame molding white and glued it to the front edge of the shelf.

Worth knowing… the joint compound takes time to dry when it’s the depth of door panels. Also, it shrinks, so it needs to be filled in a second time after it dries. (This meant that my shelf was one of the longest processes for my room.) The door is hollow, so the joint compound didn't make the shelf too heavy. Just heavier.

Two things I did spend money on for this room:
*I went to Sam’s Club and had a 30x20 print done for my window frame. That cost $11.66! (w/o tax)
*I bought two plastic tubs for rags. They were $3 each! (w/o tax)

Some things I spent money on in the past for this room….
*These dirty laundry baskets. I got them at “Wally World” for around $3 each.
*Shelf brackets…. Two shelves gave me location for three dirty laundry baskets. And leaving a gap between them allows me to overfill them. (which I do on occasion ;)

Ok, I think that’s it for now! I do hope I gave you some ideas for YOUR laundry room!

Outta This Funk Blog Hop Friends… (those “blopping”) Please move on over to the amazing Regina Easter!

Photo Albums Revisited

2009-04-17T19:10:00.001-06:00

(My post from Outta This Funk)
I have a fun idea that gets an event scrapped without all the time and expense... with just as much fun. This is great for those of us that want to accomplish more than we should expect to... I might just be doing this more and more since I find it so enjoyable.

Ever given a photo album by someone who knows you love photography and scrapbooking? I have. I used to get disappointed; thinking, what a shame I won't be using this... but now I see it as a fun project with just enough challenge to excite. Sure opening them you just see 4x6 slots looking very uninspiring, but since so many people print 4x6 photos, and it's easy to have them done quickly, this is a no-brainer for many people, but it felt like a light bulb moment for me :)

I started by deciding what was going into my photo album, and made me a mini title page. This took like 10 minutes! That's a die cut fish I had left over from a fishing page I did at a crop. (not my die)

Then I stuck in some photos, and cut some paper to fit.

I had a few photos I'd printed at home, and one 4x6, stuck in a piece of BG to journal on later, and moved right along.

While a passenger in the car, I wrote up some details about fishing on some 3x5 cards and scrap paper, these I will type up later and print them. If I hadn't been in a moving car I could have just written it to use. When I print it up, I will either matt it on scrapbook paper, or print it to cut out at 4x6.

It's crazy how fast an album builds when you're slotting photos into place, and leaving slots to tell the story. I have 2 events I'm still trying to finish large scrapbooks for... now I'm wishing I'd started them this way... I'd be done by now.

The big plus for me doing it this way -I'm not compelled to find ways to embellish each page.

~That's so liberating!

Maybe try this the next time you want to scrap an event and feel you have no time for it :)

Give a little pop of color...

2009-03-25T14:20:00.004-06:00

This fun project is at my friends house. She has a bay window with four blinds... and we spiced it up a little. First, we painted the wall yellow. We taped around the windows since we were not painting the whole room, and this allowed some original wall color to remain, and continue to coordinate with the other walls not getting painted. (not so obvious in this photo)

Then we took the window cornice pieces down.

This is an image of the front and back of the cornice pieces. If you are able to see.... there are two hooks stapled to the back of the cornice that hook over the top of the blinds, hiding the main body of the blinds.

This is fabric you may have seen before if you are an Outta This Funk follower. I was so excited when I found it, I used it in a post. It has colored stitching and sequins, on a shimmering brown silk. I love it, but I've had it for about a year now, and have yet to find anything to make with it.

Well I do now! Here starts the project.

I bought two sheets of foam board and cut them into strips 4.5" wide.

Then I cut my fabric into 12" wide strips, folded it in half (right sides together) and stitched along one edge.

I then held it next to the cornice, determined the length needed (I had 5 windows, one above the sink, and these 4 I showed you which are two different widths) I then stitched the second end the same way.

Turning it right side out, I then slid the foam board into the pocket of fabric.

Here is a close-up of the side -once it's slid in.

Back to the sewing machine, I stitched the pocket closed along the large side opening.

At the back of the cornice, knowing this may not be a permanent thing, I used hot glue to attach the fabric to the cornice, butting the foam board up to the bottom edge of the cornice.

Then stapled the fabric into the cornice a couple of times where the cornice was its widest.

Both the staples and hot glue can be removed later if needed.

Then I hung them back up!

One of the things that made this fabric so great for my friends room... her colors are brown, yellow, and burnt orange.

TFL!

Oh My DCWV!

2009-03-17T15:09:00.001-06:00

K, I rarely impulse buy (big lie) because of being suddenly inspired (total crap) but I did today.

I missed the DCWV warehouse sale, mostly because I forgot, and then while I was in JoAnn’s today buying foamboard (for another post) I saw this adorable matstack, and since I’ve been thinking I really need to sit down and make some birthday cards, etc…. this is just what I need to inspire me to do it… Now, I want to do it today!!! But I have other things I need to work on, so I figured I’d just share my little piece of fun instead of feeling like I can’t do anything with it. It will be great to have it waiting in the wings for me :) (and yes, I'll try to remember to share)

ALSO, while I was at JoAnn’s I found this strange thing.

And it spoke to me... “You want me!”

Well, actually, I don’t know what to do with it. Ya I love it, but I think it’s for a candle, and I don’t burn candles. So, if it were yours, what would you do with it?
I need some suggestions.

Ttfn.

A Wall Album

2009-02-28T19:34:00.006-07:00

This is an awesome project for scrapbookers.

I made this video quite some time ago and kept saying I'd share it eventually... well finally I am.

This is super easy, and SO satisfying for years to come. If you have a "doing room", "scrap room", or even a plain old "office" :D this is a great way to dress up one of the walls and swap it out as often as you like. In this video, I made a small version for a small wall too.

If you aren't a scrapbooker, this is still a great idea for displaying children's artwork, photos, or just a collection of anything flat. Don't forget, although I used 12x12 page protectors, you could use 8.5x11, 8x8, or whatever.... No doubt you'll make it your own.

I divided the video into 3 parts to be courteous of time. Maybe if you can't sit and watch the whole thing in one go, you can come back and watch the rest.

TFL!

If you end up making one for your room, please comment with a link :)

Another idea for storing Jewelry

2009-02-13T16:17:00.002-07:00

I decided it would be great if I could hang my bracelets next to my earrings. (2 posts down is an Earring Frame)
Kristy Plessman used some S hooks on her chicken wire to hang bracelets and necklaces in a version 2 of her earring frame. Which is a great idea, and I have another one. I’ll call it a Bracelet Tree.

This is a super fast idea, that you can adapt to your space and it’s super customizable.

This is one 9” length of 1x1, and two lengths of hand railing (18 & 21”)
I screwed both pieces of hand railing at their centers to the 1x1 from behind. (Always good to drill holes first for ease.)

Hand railing is round with a flat side to accommodate the rail brackets. This flat side is perfect for this idea. (Feeling super proud of myself for finally recycling that crappy hand rail I replaced over a year ago.)
Then I drilled two holes in the 1x1 beneath each of the attached branches. (slightly hard to see)
Then I spray painted the whole thing.
Now all I have to do is nail two nails into the wall at the point of my drilled holes and hang it up. I have not actually hung it up yet because I am not finished plastering the wall where it’s going to live. (I’ve ripped a small wall out and I’m making myself a vanity where I put all my hair/make-up/jewelry jazz that stops my bathroom from always looking messy. It will now all live in my vanity area of the bathroom which won’t be the first thing you see when you walk in. Just another way to help me feel tidy…. Sorry; tangent.) When I hang it, I might make the holes in the new plaster, then use large nails and nail through the front of the bracelet tree into a stud. This way I can use nails with heads that will sit flush against the wood, and stop if from being able to be pulled off the wall on accident.

The 1x1 holds the main branches of this tree away from the wall so the bracelets & necklaces will slide on and off easily without coming in contact with the wall.

I say this is customizable for good reason…. If you have space that is long and narrow, cut a long piece of 1x1, and shorter lengths of hand railing. Add as many branches as you wish. I have a space that is wide and not long, so I made my branches longer. This means that for my stretchy bracelets, I will have to remove the ones on the ends to get to the ones in the middle. So…. A long narrow one with multiple branches is a great idea because then there are less bracelets living on each “branch”. All you need to be sure to do is hang it by more than one nail so that it won’t hang crooked with an uneven weight of bracelets on it. The longer it is, the further the distance you can put between the two holes for the nails.

I don’t care for necklaces, so I only have a few, but they will hang from my bottom branch. This maximizes the space, w/o me having to make more branches. If you have a lot of necklaces, consider the bottom branch to be where yours hang too. Also consider how far your branches need to be spaced based on the size of what you will hang on them. Leave yourself room between branches making it easier to remove and add bracelets without running into the jewelry hung above it.

Simple idea, all you need is a patch of space on the wall. Preferably near your earring frame :)

Scrapbook paper inspiration

2009-02-09T10:49:00.004-07:00

This is a project I did quite a while ago, before I started my blog, so many people haven't seen it unless you've been to my house.

Remember KI Memories Color theory line?

http://www.kimemories.com/fullimage.cfm?IID=1718

http://www.kimemories.com/fullimage.cfm?IID=1742

remember that paper?

Well I loved this design from the moment I first saw it, and I reproduced it in my own colors for my house!

I made the canvas from a 36" door. Cut it to 54" in length. Covered it in fabric (duck cloth to be exact) and then painted it white for a blank canvas. Since it's the width of a door it stands proud from the wall, and I continued the design over the edges of it. which looks real nice.

I used a drywall ruler and a large colander for my lines and circles.

Then I decided there had to be rules for which color landed in which spot... I won't go deeply into it cause it sounds confusing to explain even though it is fairly straight forward. but.... it went kinda like this:

*If a diagonal line intersected a wide vertical line the color would be: X. *If a diagonal line intersected a narrow vertical line the color would be: Y. *A Wide vertical line not intersecting anything would be: Z.

And so on :)

It took a long time to paint (used acrylics) but the end result is really the focal point for the room it hangs in, and it dictates the overall feel in the room. Which I love.

Tip: When using inexpensive acrylic paints, it is easy for the paint to dry in the brush strokes you used. Try to keep your brush strokes moving in all directions for an added effect that doesn't look strange. You will see what I mean when the light catches it.

TFL!

Inspiration for lighting

2009-01-28T17:57:00.005-07:00

I've changed some of my ceiling lights recently and thought I'd share with you.
This first image is the before of a typical bedroom light. I ripped a wall out to remove a bedroom and create an upstairs "open area". (code for TV room) I figured this was no good to stay -so I got creative.
This is the skeleton of a lamp shade that I no longer wanted to use. I made a paper pattern for the section around the lamp. Cut it out eight times from fabric that started out as a skirt from a yard sale. I didn't buy the skirt to wear, I liked the fabric so much I made a bed pillow out of it, and had left overs....

Then I sewed all 8 sections together, hand stitched it onto the frame at the top and bottom, and stitched a bunch of beads onto it. I also used a ring from another lamp shade on the inside of the frame so that I could attach it to the ceiling light. I basically jerry-rigged it at the spot where I wanted the upside down shade to sit (1/2") from the ceiling. I did that with wire attaching the two lamp frames together. (a little hard to explain, but basically I cut 4" pieces of wire and connected them twisting the ends of wire together.

Then there's this one.... I have two lights like this in my main living area. (I took it down before I remembered to take a photo, so that's why it's sitting on carpet.) I was telling a friend of mine how much I don't like these brassy fixtures, and she told me that she spray painted her brassy fixtures!!

I was like.... Well Du! I spray paint everything else... why not these! So I did!

And now they are up on the ceiling fitting in with my decor 100 times better than before. Now I can live with them longer.

**Please note.... Don't take down any lighting that you have to disconnect wires, unless you have the help of an electrician. I consider myself quite handy, but I've learned there's so many things to know about lighting... don't mess with it. Get the help of an electrician. (Thanks Dad)

I hope I've inspired you to reconsider your lighting without spending any big money... new lighting is SO crazy expensive! What's up with that?

I Needed This Idea!

2009-01-18T10:23:00.006-07:00

And I can’t take credit for it :)
Kristy Plessman, one of the two incredible photographers for Scrapbook Trends shared this idea with me.

I’ve been saying to myself every time I open my drawer of earrings that I need a better solution. A way to hang my earrings up so I can see what I have, and find the pair I want. Kristy is just like me. She loves taking something ugly and making it wonderful. She’s an Optimistic Recycler too!!

K, so the concept is simple, the execution I found is just a little tricky, since I didn’t get instructions from Kristy, but I figured out a couple things to make it easier. I made two at once, but I'll show you the how-to for the easy one :)

Check this out!
It’s a picture frame with chicken wire inside it!

I had the frame from a yard sale… .50 cents. And the Chicken wire at ACE was $2.51 a foot.
Here’s the low down:

Old frame… Looks like maybe Bill Clinton painted the picture in it :D (& signed it with a sharpie!)

Remove the picture and sand the frame down slightly.
Spray paint it. (I used a dark bronze hammerite)

Cut a piece of chicken wire larger than the frame opening by 1.5” on each side.
Cut the corners of the chicken wire out -to the opening of the frame. (I used a monster pair of tin snips… the same pair I used to cut through the bamboo blind if you saw my post when I converted a screen and used a blind in the openings. From June 3rd 2008)

(Optional) At this point I spray painted one side of the chicken wire with the same spray paint.
On a surface that has a sharp corner, bend the wire from cut-out-corner to cut-out-corner. If you got your cut-out-corners correct, this folded edge should allow your chicken wire to fit nicely inside the frame. *Don’t rely on the lines in the wire to be straight… they aren’t. This is why corner to corner is so important.

Use a staple gun to attach the chicken wire into the frame. In my case, the front edge was too shallow to staple into, so I stapled into the other edge… worked fine!

Once all the edges are stapled in and you have the chicken wire in place, fold the raised sides over onto the back of the frame and staple it down.

Many frames don’t have much space from the point at which glass would normally sit to the back where it would sit on the wall… So, because I’m using this for earrings, and I need the earrings to have room between the wire and the wall, I used this…

And I just put it around the edge of the wire. This not only holds the frame slightly further from the wall, but it protects the wall from the scratchy cut edge of the wires.

Then I just needed a hanger on top, so I went to my box of goodies and found something that I think came with the microwave… who cares where it’s from… I used it! I cut the foam insulation out of the way, and screwed it in!

Viola!

I do have a couple more tips…. I learned that since chicken wire doesn’t have a lot of strength, and is never perfectly flat, a frame this size… (20x16") is probably the biggest you’d want to go. Much bigger, and the wire could bend inside the frame and there would be areas where the wire is closer to the wall. Which might impede earrings hanging on it. If you have Loads of earrings, I’d recommend you make more than one frame, rather than go bigger.
And lastly, if you hang all your earrings on one side, it will hang crooked :P

I hope you love this idea as much as I do. Thanks Kristy!!

Ideas WANTED!

2009-01-12T11:41:00.002-07:00

I'm always impressed when I watch Devine Design with Candice Olsen and she manages to bring so much sparkle into a room!!!!

I don't tend to even think about sparkle when I'm decorating, but I always love it when I see a room that shines all over.

So share with me....
I'll list a few ideas for bringing sparkle in, please share any ideas you have too!!!

Mirrors
Extra lighting
Glass tiles
Crystal vases
Varnish
Shiny fabrics

Why is this so hard for me? I love to brainstorm, and I'm at a loss for ideas.
(probably because it's my house and I see it all the time.)

I was thinking how it might be neat to tape off areas on my walls and varnish, creating a shiny dimension, w/o using another color of paint. Maybe a horrizontal stripe around the room?

I was also wondering how I could bring in mirrors w/o placing them where I'll have to see myself all the time. Clever ideas for mirrors wanted.

Please help me make this list bigger. :)
I swear I can think clearer when the sun is shining. The clouds steal inspiration!!!!