As you know, I finally finished my spice rack project. If you were looking at the pictures from the post carefully, you probably noticed that my spice bottles don’t match. I had upcycled some old ones from an old spinning spice rack, but those that were still hidden in the spice drawer were left in their original bottles. I put the mismatched bottles on the new shelf, but picked up some clear spice bottles with white lids at the dollar store.
Spice Bottle Upcycle:
These bottles were only 3 for a dollar. I decided to buy a dozen and then see how many more I needed. (Had I thought of it, I would have counted before I left, but I actually went to purchase baking soda and peroxide for my weekend cleaning frenzy.) I put the bottles through the dishwasher and hand washed the lids and plastic pieces (with the holes for sprinkling). Once they were thoroughly dried, I spray painted them with black paint and printed the spice names on the lids with white Crayola twistable crayon. Here is the original post with the tutorial.
I really love the crayon in lieu of chalk. It gives the same effect, but you don’t have to worry about smearing. If you remember, I have chalkboard labels on my glass pickle jar canisters and the chalk is always smearing. I think I might actually erase them all and convert the printing to crayon. Not my idea, but certainly a great one!!
Yay! I finally got my spice rack finished. I am super pleased with it. The first pull-out shelf we built works great, but the empty space above was annoying me. Tim has been on holidays the past couple of weeks, so he ended up helping me more than usual and we finally got the spice rack painted and mounted. It was so great having him home. I could get really used to that!
Wall Mounted Spice Rack:
An old book display rack was where this project all began.
Here is the spice rack with holes filled and ready for sanding.
I painted the cabinet yellow to match the bottom and then spray painted the front face with chalkboard paint. I still need to decide on a handle, prime the black surface and apply my chalkboard art.
I love the way the two pieces line-up so nicely and fill the gap between the wall and fridge.
Here is a shot of both shelves.
I picked-up full extension drawer slides for around $23 at Home Depot. Tim mounted them on the back of the spice rack and on the back wall. The shelf tucks in the space perfectly and the two shelves line up really nicely. Both units were made from two panels of the original book rack. The cost was next to nothing for the entire project. If I’m not forgetting anything, I think we paid around $6 for chalkboard spray paint, about $6 for the metal strapping, $7 for the handle on the bottom and $23 for the drawer slides. We had all of the other materials on hand. So, even if I missed something I am guessing this project cost us well under $50 and totally transformed our kitchen. It is so much more organized. I was able to empty the top spice drawer and move my tea towels and dish cloths into it. The smaller drawer that they used to reside in is now for odds and ends like the remote for the fan, a tape measure, shoe horn, etc. These “gadgets” use to be in another drawer along with my foil, cellophane, parchment paper and Ziplocks. Everything is just so much tidier. Loving it!!
My spring cleaning spree continued and a I spent most of Saturday scrubbing the bathroom. There is a bit of a story behind our bathroom and perhaps it needs to be explained at this point. In 2010, we hired an independent contractor to gut and renovate our bathroom. This was a huge job and quite pricey for such a little space, but it was literally crumbling down and had to be done. We signed a contract, gave a deposit and were excited that his timeline was 3 weeks. Unfortunately, 3 months later the job was less than half done with no toilet, sink or floor and none of the finishing work completed. He would show up sporadically at best and never answered our calls or emails. When we finally reached our limit and gave him an ultimatum….finish by Friday or don’t bother coming back, he chose the latter. This left us with a huge job to complete and uncertainty about where he was in the process of some of the jobs. It was a huge stress and at this point we just wanted it done. It was so hard to find trades people and at this point we weren’t feeling very trusting, so we decided that Tim would finish the job. This added a lot to his plate because he was working full time and had to do the bathroom around his schedule. In the end Tim did a great job, but there was one major problem. The tile work. Although I know Tim is capable of doing pretty much anything around the house, he had never done tile before. We weren’t sure if the bathtub tiles needed any kind of sealer on them because “Darryl” had done this job before he walked off. We assumed it was complete and never did any kind of treatment over them. As for the floor tile, Tim took on this job himself, but under the time crunch of knowing our vanity was to be installed in just a few days. He pulled a couple of all-nighters in the midst of a family camping trip and got the job done, but there were issues with the grout. I can’t actually remember what went down, but the result was somewhat disappointing. I can be pretty fussy and especially when we’ve just spent an arm and a leg to get our bathroom done, but my husband had just spent every spare moment working his tail off to get this job done and believe me frustrations were high, so I had to tread lightly if you know what I mean. He knew there were some flaws in the grout, but it has always been a bit of a “touchy subject”.
Over the years, I have attacked the grout on that floor several times, but to no avail. It just doesn’t seem uniform in colour and I have never been very happy with it. Someday, perhaps we’ll get it redone, but for now it is what it is. In fact, some say it is natural looking and looks like it might have been the original floor with the normal wear and tear of a 100 year old house. So, having said all of this, the bathroom tile and I have a bit of a contentious relationship and it has never been “spot on”, even after its initial installation. I’ve had several fights with the tub and floor tiles, but always feel like I’ve lost the battle in the end. Well, for the first time ever, I actually felt pretty good with the results.
Tub Tiles:
I found a homemade mixture for the tub tiles and was quite pleased with results. I have tried several store-bought tile cleaners and feel like the discolouration never really goes away. This homemade concoction worked quite well.
1 part bleach
3 parts baking soda
Mix the bleach and baking soda together to form a paste and spread it over the grout. Leave for about 10 minutes and scrub. Now, I won’t lie…I did have to scrub the grout, but the whole thing didn’t take me longer than about 10 to 15 minutes. There really is no comparison between this method and other traditional cleaners I’ve used. Most of the discolouration came off and I was pleased with the results.
BEFORE application of the bleach and baking soda mixture.
Application on the wall.
AFTER application of the bleach and baking soda mixture.
This is an AFTER shot of the grout lines.
This is a BEFORE shot of the tiles. Normally when they have just been cleaned they look slightly better than this, but not much. Most of the stubborn stains would not come off.
I’ve always thought those “chocolate bar cards” are kind of cool, but have never made one before. We had the best coaches and management for Shay’s hockey team this year and I thought it would be fun to make one for them.
How to Create a “Candygram”:
It was a bit tricky to know how to start, so I began by searching the web for samples. The samples provided me with ideas for how I would word my “candygram” and also gave me some ideas for what candy to buy. (Keep in mind that many of the images will be American and you may not be able to get the same candy/bars in Canada.)
I made a list of candy and chocolate bars that I thought might work in my card.
I then began to play with words and write my message. You really need to write your message before you go shopping otherwise you have no idea what to buy. There were a few phrases that I wrote two different ways as I wasn’t sure if I could find the candy I needed.
Go shopping. The message can take up a lot of space, so keep that in mind. I ended up using two full sheets of bristol board. I did run into a few snags and had to change and delete a few phrases because I couldn’t find the candy I was looking for.
I taped my bristol board together (similar to the spine of a book). I then used a ruler to measure out the spacing for my printing. I did all of the printing with pencil and placed the candy in the proper place in the “cloze”.
I went over the penciled message in marker and used a combination of double-sided tape and staples to mount the candy on.
I had planned to embellish it with some “hockey” themed paper/images, but quite frankly, I just ran out of time.
I sometimes find males hard to buy for and yet want the coaches to know how much they were appreciated. This ended up being perfect because it was a nice addition to the “team” gift that was given. Obviously, this is more about the fun and the thought, than the actual quality of the gift.
You may remember the book rack upcycle I did a few weeks back. I used an old book display rack and converted it into a pull-out pantry style shelf that sits between my fridge and the wall. It works really well and I am happy to say that the chalkboard art has stood up extremely well – in fact, better than I would have ever expected. Not a single image has been smudged and I have yet to touch-up anything. I can’t honestly say if this is because of the hair spray I top coated it with or if it is just because I only move it in and out using the handle. Either way, it works well and I really do love it. However, when I was making it I knew that the empty space above the pull-out shelf would bug me. It just looks like something is missing. So, I decided that I would use the other half of the display rack and convert it into a spice rack.
Here you can see the empty space above the pull-out cabinet that I upcycled into a pantry.
Pull-out Spice Rack:
I began by taking the second panel of the book rack completely apart and then had to spend quite a bit of time thinking about how this would work. My plan was to create a spice rack using the existing wood from the display rack. The depth of the space would accommodate the full 24″ of shelving, but in order for it to fit between the cupboard support board and the wall, I would need to make the shelves narrower. I thought this seemed like a super easy project as the modifications were quite minimal. The issue was that there seemed to be lots of little details to think about: the thickness of the pegboard backing, whether to trim the back or front of the shelves, how to keep the little lip so the spice bottles won’t fall off, how far apart to make the shelves, how to make the cut shelves fit in the grooves they previously sat in, etc. I must say, I found it a bit hard to consider all of the details that perhaps wouldn’t even be considerations in a “new build”, but had to be accounted for because it was an upcycle. I got the boards cut and prepared to a point, but then had to ask my husband to help. The one and only tool that I’m not allowed to use is the table saw. I’m not exactly sure why, but Tim doesn’t feel that it’s very safe and at times I can be a bit careless. So, on Saturday I finally pinned him down and got the help I needed to do the final cuts. The new shelf is about 17″ high and 24″ long and should fit perfectly in the space, once the drawer runners are added. The front face of the shelf was not cut down as I wanted it to match the size of the bottom pull-out shelf. They won’t line-up perfectly because the bottom one is more centered in the space and the spice rack will end up sittng closer to the wall than the fridge. Keeping it the original 4″ width will also help to keep the contents of the rack somewhat hidden, as opposed to a more open look.
We got the boards cut and nailed the shelf together. I used the original top and bottom pieces from the rack and one of the shelves, but had to insert a second shelf in between so that the final spice rack would have a total of three shelves. My plan is to move all of my small spice bottles to this rack. It should be large enough to fit them all, so I will have some additional drawer space in the kitchen and perhaps some room on my pull-out rack as well. We filled all of the holes with wood filler and let it dry over night. I am out of time and weekend, so this is how it will stay until I can get back to it.
Here is the spice rack with holes filled and ready for sanding.
This will be the front end of the cabinet. You can see the side is wider to match the bottom pull-out cabinet.
This shows the end that will extend to the back wall. It had to be narrower to fit in the channel beside the fridge.
Here is the rebuilt rack. It is now the perfect size for my spices!
The next step is to sand and prime the shelf, so that it will be ready for painting. I can’t wait to get it mounted and see how it works!
My friend Michelle told me about this idea and the timing couldn’t have been better. As mentioned in an earlier post, my dad’s 78th birthday was on Easter weekend. I had planned on making him a card and then just giving him a gift card or some cash to go and buy himself some clothes. (He loves clothes and enjoys shopping, so I thought this would be good, but not very personal.) Michelle’s birthday jar idea was a perfect addition to the card and cash.
Birthday Jar:
Materials:
mason jar
adhesive (tape and/or glue)
coordinating scrapbooking paper
letters (I used my Cricut, but you could buy stickers)
ribbon
Using the metal circle from the lid as a tracer, I cut and insert a paper circle under the ring on the lid. Using a long piece (about 3″ X 12″) of scrapbook paper, I wrapped the jar and secured the paper in place. I then made a label and added a few embellishments and a ribbon. It was super easy to make.
For the inside, I cut strips of coordinating paper (about 1/2″ X 12″). Each member of our family wrote down as many things as they could think of to describe why/how my dad was important to them. We started each strip with “YOU…..”. I had everyone leave a space and then begin a new phrase on the same strip. When they were done. We cut the strips, so that there was only one phrase per strip. I then used a pencil to curl the strips and put them in the jar.
I made the card so that it matched the jar. My dad absolutely loved the gift and I could tell he was very touched by the words as he read each strip out loud. I know that he will cherish this as I could see the joy that it brought him. Thanks for the awesome idea Michelle!
Here are some of the strips we added to the jar.
Curled strips.
This is the perfect gift for someone who has everything. Everyone loves to hear how they have touched the lives of others!
This is a mid day post, but I figured its better late than never. My kids actually weren’t that interested in decorating eggs this year. They made Ukrainian Easter eggs at school on Thursday and I guess that was enough for them. We ended up decorating a few just before we left for dinner last night.
We tried two different processes both of which required no prep (other than having boiled eggs). Here is what we used:
Hard boiled eggs
Sharpies
Bingo Dabbers
paper towel
I had seen some Sharpie decorated eggs on-line and for those, we basically just doodled. The bingo dabbers were something I thought of on my own. One egg was just “dabbed” to create polka dots and the other was used to draw a random design. I used a paper towel to lightly blend the colours and the result is quite cool. The Sharpies take a steady hand and lots of patience, but really allow you to get creative. I loved the blended effect of the bingo dabbers. Perhaps some ideas you might try next year. I am guessing I won’t even bother boiling eggs next year as the interest at my house was pretty low.
I was searching for new Easter egg decorating ideas over the weekend, as we like to experiment with a variety of techniques from year to year. This wasn’t “eggsactly” what I was looking for, but I loved the concept and just had to try my own version. This idea was adapted from “The Better Half“.
Wool Wrapped Plastic Eggs:
For this project, I used:
plastic eggs
wool
hot glue gun
I actually tried doing these eggs two different ways. For the first egg, I hot glued the end of the wool to the bottom half of the egg and then began to wind it tightly around the glued piece following a circular path. I used the hot glue to secure the strands every few rows, in random spots. This helped to keep the rows fitting tightly against each other. I worked from the bottom of the egg, beginning with small circles and after the first few rows I was able to flip the half egg over so that I had gravity on my side. This helped to keep the rows fitting snuggly together. Once I got to the middle, I slid the other half on and glued it in place (it can’t be opened). I have to say this was the WRONG decision. Don’t do it this way. When you get past the centre point and are working towards the smaller end of the egg, you are in a constant battle to keep the rows tight. I had to use lots of glue at very regular intervals to make it work. It looks fine, but took me about 3 times as long to do the second half.
I followed the same process for the second egg, but instead of joining the halves together, I completed each separately and then slid them together at the end. I didn’t glue the halves of this egg together. If you decide to do this project, do one half at a time. This still allows you to open/close the eggs to place little goodies in them and would be especially nice in a little gift basket. You could also leave them closed and use them as part of an Easter centre piece. I had this wool on hand and just love the look of the multiple colours!
I have only made two eggs so far, but naturally I’ll be making a third, as I don’t want to break any decorating rules!
I was looking at Pinterest over the weekend and found this cute idea for Easter snacks. I picked up some disposable icing bags at the dollar store and a bag of Goldfish crackers. Fill the “cone-shaped” bags with fish crackers and tie the end with a green ribbon. One bag of crackers fills 3 icing bags. It can’t get much easier than this! I thought I would stick these in the kid’s Easter baskets along with the sweet treats I picked-up for Easter. They both love fish crackers and what a simple way to “Easterize” them!
In thinking back, I realized that I first became interested in home decor and design when I was in elementary school. I was a member of the local 4H Club and one year I joined the “Home Design” unit. I am not sure what you know about 4H, but if my memory serves me correctly (which would actually be surprising), members got to pick which group they wanted to join based on their own personal interests. You would study that unit for the entire year. I can’t remember all of the cool things we did and learned through 4H, but it was really fun. The groups were usually small and focused on a specific set of skills, lessons and activities that fit with the theme of the unit. I really don’t remember all of the choices, but it was based on volunteers from the community offering to lead particular units. It was great! You don’t really hear much about 4H in the city, perhaps it’s more of a small town thing?? Anyway, I think this particular unit was called “Home Design” (or something like that). Over the course of the year, your group would meet regularly to complete your unit of study. At the end of the year, you would create a final project that would be displayed at the culminating event called Achievement Day. I chose to create a flower arrangement for my final project (remember, this is back in the 70’s). Of course, this decorating tip is based on a childhood memory and is most likely skewed to some extent, but somewhere during the course of this unit, I learned about the power of odd numbers in design and specifically how to decorate in 3’s. It is just something that stuck with me.
Decorating in 3’s:
So, when preparing for this post, I thought I might just Google “decorating in 3’s” and sure enough, its an actual design principle. Did you ever wonder how to pull a room or space together? Why not consider the Rule of 3’s?
If you want to add a pop of colour to a room, but don’t want it to look out of place, the key is embedding it in 3’s. You might have one more dramatic piece and the others just added subtly to the background through a painting or fabric print. Check-out this post on Mr. Kate to see how colour is used in 3’s. This image is an example taken from the post.
Mr. Kate’s example of how the light green can be seen in the bench, chair and bowl of apples on the table.
The Rule of 3 is often evident in the architectural design of homes and buildings. Here is an example of how this was applied in the design of our 1921 home. Notice the architectural design of the windows in sets of 3 on either side of the front entrance.
The Rule of 3 can be seen in lighting as well. How often have you seen 3 wick candles or 3 tiered candelabra? How about pictures that are mounted in 3’s? I did a quick tour of our house this morning and included a collection of pictures that reflect the Rule of 3.
Furniture Design in 3’s ~ notice the three drawers across the top and 3 levels of drawers from top to bottom.
3 Shelves/3 stacked books
Avery labels can be spray painted with chalkboard paint.
Accessorizing in 3’s
Architectural use of 3’s
3 bulb light fixture
3 Panel Screen
Hang Pictures in 3’s
Hang Pictures in 3’s
When you are thinking about decorating a space regardless of whether its big or small, consider the Rule of 3’s. By applying this rule, you can create a visually appealing look that flows and appears balanced. For more great tips on the Rule of 3, check-out houzz or 21 Rosemary Lane. Happy decorating!
These bottles were only 3 for a dollar. I decided to buy a dozen and then see how many more I needed. (Had I thought of it, I would have counted before I left, but I actually went to purchase baking soda and peroxide for my weekend cleaning frenzy.) I put the bottles through the dishwasher and hand washed the lids and plastic pieces (with the holes for sprinkling). Once they were thoroughly dried, I spray painted them with black paint and printed the spice names on the lids with white Crayola twistable crayon. Here is the original post with the tutorial.
