Busy!

I just realized I hadn't posted in a couple of weeks.  But I have a good excuse.  A lot of good excuses.  Really!!!

First of all, I had a house full of family.

It came together at the last minute. It was great, I don't often get all my siblings in the same place and it was great.  We celebrated my mom's 69th birthday.

I did do a Pinterest craft.  This is from a website where you can make your own word clouds.  I made mom a heart with all her kids and grandkids in it.  My sister did the matting.  It came out awesome.

Then we gave Mom a charm for her Pandora bracelet.

It was a cruise ship charm.

I could tell by the look on her face that she was confused.  All the charms we have bought her in the past had some significance to her.  I got her a rose bouquet charm that reminded me of the flowers my dad got her on their anniversary.

She was all ready to formulate her polite, "oh that's pretty" response to this confusing gift.

I asked her if she knew what the charm was.

"A boat?"

It's a cruise ship.  Your children are taking you on a cruise."

The look on her face was priceless.  We'd been planning this for a year and I was dying waiting to tell her.  I was so afraid someone would slip and she would find out.  I'm super excited about the trip!

Then last weekend I had plans Friday night and Saturday night.

Last Friday was Craft Night.

It is not the rumored "Ladies' Wine Night." We actually do crafts.  However, I cannot talk about anymore.

What happens at Craft Night stays at Craft Night.

On Saturday night we went to see "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County".

It is a musical collaboration by Stephen King, John (I will always add Cougar) Mellencamp and T-Bone Burnett.  It was Southern Gothic fun at its best.  The music was great and I loved the "Shape".  It was a great night out with my sister and her husband.

So with all this activity and work, I haven't done a lot of Pinterest stuff.  I did attack laundry mountain and now have clothes hanging in my closet and in my drawers.  But that isn't exciting or blogworthy.  I will be working on a new project.  I bought a pile of frames, printer cartridges and photo paper.  I am imagining a new wall in my dining room.

Then I need to create some art work for our bedroom and am thinking of turning an old door into a headboard.  It never ends!

Ten Minute or Less Projects

I have a lot of organization stuff that only took a few minutes to do and don't need a whole blog to explain or show.  Plus if I took pictures of the steps, it would be terribly boring.

The first is a new way to store pots.  I love the hanging pot holders.  But we have a false ceiling in our kitchen and it is long and narrow, so it wouldn't look right anyway.  I was shopping and saw the shower hooks first and thought, "that will hold pans".  Then I found the shower stall tension rod and it all came together.  It took just a minute or two to install, thanks to my husband.  And after holding one pan for 24 hours, I trusted it to hold all of them.  It has now held a week.

This was on Pinterest and was as easy as buying a hanging shoe rack to hold cleaning supplies.  The door to our broom closet is small, so my brilliant husband just folded it till it fit.  Super space and now under the sink is clear for other things.

Deep shelves under counters are a pain.  It is great for storage but almost impossible to get in the back.  I had cleaned out some laundry baskets and thought it might fit.  It did and I can now hold lots of things.  I just pull it out and access is great.

Here is a cabinet for our medicine.  We'd had a pile of medicine on the counter.  You aren't supposed to store it in the bathroom, so we had it in the kitchen.  But the pile was icky and lots of junk piled up.  We got this bathroom cabinet and John put it together.  It took more than ten minutes, but was worth it.  Now it is totally organized and looks great on the counter.

Now here are a few pictures for the next project.  I want to put a picture in the laundry room and this one about fits my opinion  on laundry in general.  Just need a frame.  I will be cruising thrift stores and clearance racks for cheap ones.

I am working on art in the bar area.  I have my rakes to make my wine glass rack.  I have family photos up behind it now, but am thinking of moving them to my staircase.

I think I am going to do famous people drinking.  Like Bogie and Bacall.

And Sinatra.

I have a long weekend. We will see what happens.

Making My Own Art!

I have an empty space above my hall tree bench.  It has been empty a long time and I decided to make it my project.  It was a case of the perfect craft storm.  It almost seemed predestined.  By the way, this is the cleaned off coat tree.  It was much worse!  These are merely the essentials.

Anyway...

When I cleaned out the storage bench I found these pictures.  We'd gone to Disney World about fifteen years ago and you could put your picture in famous pictures.  My husband chose the Three Stooges.  He was Moe and my son became Larry.  It is pretty funny.  So I started searching for frames.  But picture frames are expensive!  If they aren't they look as cheap as they are.  So I'd kind of given up.

Then I found these three pieces of wood.  They were left over from an old bookcase or shelving.  My husband tried to use them when we were working on the pantry and ended up setting them aside.  I spotted them while cleaning up and had a revelation.

A few weeks ago, my sister introduced me to Mod Podge.  We used it to make coasters out of tiles during my monthly craft night.  (It is Craft Night! Despite rumors it is not Ladies' Wine Night)

I didn't want to use the real pictures, so I made copies of them on the computer and shrunk them down a bit. My son was going through a wrestling phase at the time.  

So I did a coat of Mod Podge and stuck the pictures on.

Then I did a coating over it, going the opposite direction. It looks cloudy, but dries clear.

I am Scarlet O'Hara!  The lady who did the pictures offered to make Rhett my husband's picture, but I wanted Clark Gable.  Sorry baby! 

After several coats of Mod Podge, letting it dry about 20 or 30 minutes between each, it was time for the sealant.  This is important to protect the final product.  

I let it dry for the "at least 12 hours".  Which is excruciating for me.  I like instant gratification.

My husband helped me put them on the wall, making sure they were centered and equal.  And they look great.  I had all the supplies on hand and didn't have to spend anything but time on it.

I love making art!

The Fridge! (AKA I can't believe I am blogging about magnets)

I know that I have mentioned that I am a stuffer and hider.  This isn't limited to drawers.  I also do it on the fridge.  I like a good magnet.  And if someone sends me a picture, or the dog passes his heartworm test, I have to put it up there?

Soon my fridge looks like this.

Here is some poetry magnets that never became poetry.

This pile o' crap was on my fridge.  Yes, that is Darth Maul.  It was the dark side.  Very dark.  I found birth announcements for children in middle school.  This is long overdue.

It took some time to clean up the fridge.  It is a Magic Chef fridge, who knew!

I had magnetic hooks on the fridge to hold hot pads, but the fridge didn't hold them tight enough and they slid.  I stuck one on the metal shelf next to the fridge and suddenly found a new spot for them!  Yay!!  After this photo I also took down the 2007 calendar down.  It was time to let go.

I selected a few magnets and put them back.  These are for decoration only and I will fight the urge to stick stuff on them.  Only the recycling schedule made it back on the fridge.

It is so clean it is actually freaking the whole family out.  That is a bad thing, right?

So piece by piece I am tidying up the house.  My husband said today that he is loving the kitchen.  There is so much counter space!  Next week, I am climbing laundry mountain.  Wish me luck!

Organized Laundry Area!

I have mentioned previously that I am a bit of a stuffer.  If there is something that is in my way, I find an appropriately sized space and stuff it there.  I often forget what is there and until I look, it leaves my mind.  This is the shelving above my laundry area.  There are many things up there.

If you look closely you will see there are even waterbed sheets.  I have lived in this house for sixteen years and there has never been a waterbed in it.  I am a sick individual.  There are also tablecloths from my husband's grandmother's  house.  There are many aprons.  When you like to cook, people give you aprons as gifts.

It only took me about ten minutes to clear it all off.  And suddenly there is copious amounts of space.  I also found strange things up there.

Anyone need a cape?  Halloween is coming and this one is very velvety.

I had about half a bag of throw away garbage.

A bag of miscellaneous fabric, including those waterbed sheets to give to my friend's mom who upcycles old clothes.

A small pile of laundry.  Mostly towels and aprons.

And now I have this space.  It is filled with all the plastics we don't use daily but take up a lot of space.  I found the basket in there too, and now it holds the laundry do-dads.  This only took about an hour to do, including writing this blog post.  I can now relax the rest of the weekend.

Well, I can relax once I figure out how to store the yarn my friend gave me last night.

It never ends.

New Pantry!

I am a bit of a hider.  There are items that disappear into closets and spare rooms never to be seen again. But with my new project, I am working on using my usable spaces.  This is the closet in my dining room.  It was originally set up as a coat closet.  But it isn't really convenient for that.  What is convenient for?  Just check out the before picture.

This is usually what it looked like.  And most of the time it was a squeeze to get it closed.  Also you can see evidence of when I was going to strip all the paint off the wood.  I got bored and never fixed.  That is a project for another day.

Once we got all the items out, it wasn't as big as I remembered.

I am proud to say this project was free.  I had a set of shelves that used to hold DVDs.  We took the back off and stuck it in the closet, but it didn't work like I wanted.

By the way, somehow this pile of stuff fit in it.  I am only slightly embarrassed.  OK, I am a lot embarrassed, but that is what this project is about.  Better living through Pinterest!!

My husband got some cinder blocks from the yard to raise it, so the shelves would sit flush with the wall.  He was worried that it wouldn't be secure, so he added plumber's tape to secure it to the wall. 

Next thing you know, we have a shelving unit.  We filled it up.  All those appliances that you use a couple times a year and take up space in the counters.  Then the overflow of all our shopping bargains.  Soon we had a new walk in pantry.

Here is the after.  There's still plenty of space for more.  There is a window in the closet that gives light during the day but I will need a light at night.  But I think it came out pretty well.  And it only took a few hours, including the moving of Mount Crap from the middle of the living room.

Now I have empty space where the DVD shelves were.  I'm thinking some kind of bench.  Might need to go hunting for pallets.

Adventures in Pinterest

I love a good project.  I love planning, putting it together and finishing it up.  Now I do sometimes get a little obsessive.  Other times I get a little bored and kind of stop doing it.  So having some accountability makes my life easier.  This is my new project.

I have a friend.  Well, I have several friends, but that is beside the point.  She has committed to looking at all the things she's pinned on Pinterest and actually doing them.  I commented on her Facebook post that she should start a blog and write about her adventures.  She declined, so I told her I was keeping the idea and starting a blog of my own.  And here it is.

I'm on a budget, so my goal is to not spend money or spend only a little.  I will work on up-cycling whenever I can.

This will be my first project.  I have a lead on some old rakes and I already have wine glasses.  We'll see what happens and I will take pictures along the way.

Now I'm Pinterested!