Upcycling Plastic Containers

If you lived with a little old lady who was obsessed with keeping every sour cream/yogurt/margarine container (thus making EVERYTHING in the fridge look like you live on nothing but sour cream/yogurt/margarine) then you would probably start spray painting plastic containers too. 

Lets face it, she isn't going to actually stop keeping these things. And there is no amount of explaining that I can do to convince her that I would rather not because of carthinigens (however the heck you spell it) leaking into food from plastic. She can't stop me from painting the shit though, gosh dang it. (like that? trying to cut back on the swearing. nothing else was satisfying for the word "shit" there though... sorry)

Ok so this paint is pretty awesome, i have washed this containers a few times now and have yet to have a single issue with it. I would say hand wash it though, if you can. Think it's been through the dishwasher a time or two though... i am "releasing my need to control" on that one...  

The high quality lettering you see there is done with a Sharpie. Think I might rename this blog to "janky-white-trash-crafts". Come on, it's not like I have a "crickut" that I am doing schmancy stencils with. I'M POOR. Free handing and camera photos are what you get because it's what I've got. There is no point in pretending that I have the time/patience/money/space to make this look like the frickin pioneer lady.  And that's ok. If I can survive it, so can you! I believe in you!

I am doing this because people ask me "How'd you do that" and I am lazy enough that I don't want to write this three million times. Seriously people. It's efficiency. I email a link, you get an answer to your question, we're all happy little campers. And if other people get a kick out the idea, awesome. I couldn't be happier. But lets not operate under the delusion that I am ever going to be working towards being a paid professional blogger or something.  I've got other things to do. Like spray paint a bunch of plastic....

Magnetic Chalkboard Wall for Grandma

As you know, it's my job to take care of my very lovely grandma.  She is pretty amazing. And as I am sure most of you can attest, family have their "things" such as certain foods they all grew up (Aunt Linda's Sourdough Biscuits, Grandma's Beans, my Mom's Roast Ribs) with or certain made-up/augmented holidays (like St. Crispin's Day...yeah I'll tell ya later...). One particular staple everyone on my mom's side of the family grew up seeing was my grandmother's picture board. At the top of it was the senior photo of every one of her 11 children and then it progressed down to more recent pictures accumulated through the years showing the family tree growing on into grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. Grandma is going to be 90 this year and she'll tell you herself that her hands don't work like they used to. Tacks are out of the question, especially with her blood thinners. Wouldn't it be nice if she could use magnets instead? And wouldn't it be nice if she didn't have to reach up so high to put up those pictures? And she needs the chalk board handy too....

Wait whoa what?! there's a crafting need??? like i'm not gonna take that on. A plan was born. let the make-over begin.

{Grandma's Photo Wall}

Just the magnetic primer so far

Putting up the Senior Pictures of her eleven children at the top

Button Tacks

Twine for clipping the photos to, like clothes on a line

Fun Magnets

Gma's Kitchen ReOrg: Spices

You should have seen Grandma's face light up when I told her I was going to make refillable kitchen containers so that we could buy more things in bulk. I think it made her day! It's the little things...

So, because finishing the downstairs...ish...wasn't enough, I have decided to take on the kitchen we share with Grandma. A part of this is self serving, I cannot fit the things i want to fit into the pantry downstairs until i move kitchen things currently in it upstairs. We plan to be here a while, at least a year, so I'd like to.... i dunno.... use my snazzy kitchen gadgets in the next year. And not break a sweat going up and down all the time. Grandma is ok with it. Commence reorganization!

It's going to have to be in baby steps. There's just too much to take on to simply move things over and make an empty shelf for us. I have to take Grandma's needs into consideration too, and one thing she likes to do is buy in bulk. However, she loses track of things at times. Or buys it simply because it's on sale. 

(Hence the 5 pounds of sugar.)

I want to respect this method (it's not hard, I am all for buying in bulk and getting things cheaper, not to mention wasting less plastic by not buying bottles),  AND also admit that because I am not used to it, I will not be able to manage this all in my head. To accommodate this, I plan to make an inventory list. Before I can do that, I have to figure out what's in the kitchen. Besides 5 pounds of sugar :) 

As I set about this, I found there were multiple bottles of the same thing. Not to mention I have some of the same spices and there is no sense in not combining them. I also have these beautiful blue vitamin bottles that i cleaned up to use for the wedding, just empty and doing nothing. Hmmmmmm... I see spice jars in their future....

I gathered up supplies:

For some reason, my black ink wasn't being very....black....so I used a black fine point sharpie to help it along. Then I set about combining everything, labeling bottles as I filled them with their destinies.

They came out pretty cute! I like the messy typewriter look of the letters. Its the book nerd in me :) My only qualm is that you can see the glue on the bottle, because I was trying to seal off the label. My husband says it makes it look more "rustic."

/eyeroll 

yeah...He's cute when he's trying to keep me from getting all perfectionist. :) I am pretty sure I can sand it down though....

My Happy Glue Shelf!

Yes, it's happy. It makes me smile, so it must be! I found a random wooden drawer in the shop. It has no home, I don't know why it's there. What I do know is that I have some glue bottles that need a home. So my hubby took this shabby-chic-by-nature drawer and nailed it to the wall. It's the perfect fit and I LOVE IT. Makes me all excited and happy inside every time I look at it. I know....it's weird.

Hello, Beautiful....

And....yeah....that's it for that! Hey, it's the weekend, what do you want from me? :) 

Desk Organizer: Trash to Treasure (with unexpected success)

So I set out to make a desk organizer for my new crafting corner (YAY! crafting! You know, it's the first time I have had all of my arts and crafts stuff in one place before? it's a very exciting moment). So I gathered together some tin cans. They were too uniform in size so I decided to mix in some glass jars. There was too much roundness going on so I took some old stacking blocks and turned them upside-down. Eventually, I got this snazzy configuration:

Now, one thing I would change about what I did next: paint first, then glue. Buuuuuut, in my defense, I was in a hurry. The downstairs has been a disaster for a week longer than I wanted and it's freaking me out. So I was not interested, initially in prettiness. I wanted function and by golly I wanted it now. 

Thus, I glued these pieces to the cardboard, waited for it to dry and then took it out to garage and painted them.

sorry it's dark, the shop has poor lighting.

It looked....better. But not amazing. I wasn't supposed to care though! I wasn't going for amazing! I was going for functional! BUT BUT BUT....it COULD be pretty! Right? How long could it take?

/sigh

Yeah...the internal battle began. My need to have things be pretty started fighting with my need to have immediate usefulness. As I stared at the uniform hammered steel colored organizer, contemplating, the need for pretty...won.

I started to pick at it, put one color here, another there. Decoupaged old pages and fun words. There had been no original vision, so I wasn't expecting much. And...yeah...it's not the best thing I've ever made, but it was unexpectedly cute! I was so excited by this turn of events that I really loved it by the end. 

Isn't it cute?? :) It got a bit of steampunk influence. See, the reason I had to do hammered steel paint is because my white paint up and died! It's a full can, you can feel it, it's not clogged, it just doesn't let the paint out! anyway, since I was in a hurry to make this happen I just grabbed the next best neutral I had. When I started adding color, all we really had was left over paint from our steam punk costumes. It works though :) My living room is burnt orange and neutrals, I like to think it ties it all together. 

I cut the cardboard off the edges to finish it off. And added a penny to the flower :) I just love it, I do!

The Bedroom: My Favorite Things

I still have one major project to complete with the bedroom and then it will be all done and amazing! I have a vision of a giant collage type thing...it's complicated but fantastic. Till then, I am excited about everything else that has gotten done in there! So here are my favorite little nooks and whatzits of our new bedroom (**note** a lot of this decor was left over decor from the wedding. When I designed stuff for the wedding, I tried to make sure it was usable after so it wasn't wasted money and it has worked out wonderfully!) Enjoy!

Found this $50 shelf for $17 and then used dollar store bins

Gave our laundry sorter a little more character with a shower curtain from the thrift store

Repainted thrift store items=awesome decor

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The teeny closet we successfully organized!

My Bathroom Makeover: Complete

Hello World! Ah, it's a beautiful day...why? because when I walk into my bathroom I see nothing but cuteness. I have spent all weekend scouring thrift stores, the hardware store, craft stores.... and last night, my husband helped me finish putting up shelves in both the bedroom and bathroom. You don't get to see the bedroom one's yet, the room's not ready, but the bathroom is one mat away from being done!

Here's some before shots:

My Aunt's grandsons' cat attacked this thing i guess...

See the lantern and the glass boat? Thrift store =D

Organized but not pretty

Yay for bottles that don't fit in cabinets!....

just cleaned my brushes :)

So, as you saw hints of, I had decided to do some sailboat theme's. I thought some hints at the nautical would give me some direction and work well with the yellow towels. I think I would have loved to do sea glass but the yellow just wouldn't have gone. And my aunt made those monogrammed hand towels with bold blue thread so that really wouldn't have worked. Another time maybe. But I like sailboats :) not so much to collect them but I enjoy them and they remind me of the bay's where I grew up. So I made a list of what I would need to change in order to integrate that feel, as well as some red and more blue.

• new shower curtain (the one left here is beige)
• cover the rip in the towel bin
• new bath mats
• cover organization boxes
• shelves
• baskets
• rope accents

That was where I started. I went to the local thrift store and found this (as well as that cute lantern and boat cologne bottle you saw there):

Perfecto! Then I went to hardware store and bought some twine, rope, wire and super glue. Another trip or two to other thrift stores led me to some awesome little metal pails for putting things in, a wooden shelf that looks like it belongs on a ship, a mat for around the base of the toilet and a frame. I had to give up and go to target for the shower curtain because by that time I had such a specific idea of what I wanted i just wanted it. Now. Ever have that moment? So i broke and i don't much regret it because I got a finished bathroom! YAY! Here's the after pictures :) 

The whole shebang....as much as i could through the door...

Now for a close up or two...

Lucky for me we got a calender with this "painting" on it's envelope. Win.

Hair doodad's up top, make-up down below.

 *These hanging baskets were inspired by Be Different, Act Normal, just oh by the way.

Think i might put some cute letters on this. When I'm not so tired.

In case you missed my other entry about making these cute guys :)

The pictures don't do it justice, i suppose, but i freaking love my bathroom. Everything has a little spot and clean up is oh so much faster! The bedroom is next to be featured, it's been making some progress. It's nice to have things actually feel like a room! Tomorrow is the big day, you know, if it doesn't rain. Like it is right now. Grrrrrr. Normally, I love rain, but right now it is preventing me from having all the stuff i have waited YEARS to have out of storage and so.... 

Rain, rain, go away. 

Please?

One Saturday afternoon is all I ask. 

Thank you.