In the Closet

This week's episode is brought to you from the closet. I know that sounds odd, but it's true! I went to my parent's house a few days before Christmas to help my dad get a new shelf and rod system installed in the closet in their home's new bedroom so it'd be ready for Christmas guests. Here's a shot of our "canvas":

The carpet's not really that weird mustard color—just looks that way because of the fluorescent lighting in the closet.

We decided that we would build a shelved tower in the center and have additional shelves above rods flanking the tower. To make sure everything was even on each side of the tower, we decided to start our project off with the tower shelving first. Dad measured our first board, cut it in half, and cut the halves in half leaving us with four small shelves.

Here Dad is measuring the board and prepping it for cutting.

After finding the center of the shelf, Dad measured the wall to find the halfway point. We'd line up the center of our shelf with this point on the wall.

We had to pry the baseboard moulding off of the wall so that we could cut the board down so that the vertical parts of the tower would be flush against the wall.

Now the tower's done! Here's dad installing the shelves.

You can see that the baseboard moulding has been trimmed down and replaced on the wall.

And... VOILA! Here's the closet with tower, shelves, and rod (a second rod was installed on the right side of the closet later).

Plenty of storage space for a future occupant!

Sew Nice!**

Remember those curtains and rods I helped my dad hang a few weeks ago? Some of them were some new drapes my mom got for the family room. They look really great in the room, but now the throw pillows on the couch don't match! I hate to see the current pillows go to waste, so I decided to make new covers for them.

I decided that I wanted to make two pairs of pillows—one pair in the same fabric as the drapes and another pair in an accent color. First I had to find another drape. Since these were on super-duper-clearance, it was especially difficult to get my hands on one. As it happens, one was finally located about 200 miles from my house and I made arrangements to have it shipped to me.

I found the red fabric in a remnant bin at the fabric store. It's a nice micro-suede.

See the beige cross pattern between the circles? I repeated that pattern in my red pillows. I cut the red square into fourths, stitched it back together, and added a few more rows of stitches. 

To top them all off, I finished one of the edges of each pillow with a zipper so that inserts could be easily popped in or taken out as needed. I think they turned out pretty good! I'm looking forward to giving them to my mom for Christmas. Think she'll like them?

**UPDATE! Mom liked her pillows! Here's a shot of them with the couch!

'Tis the Season

I'm still around! Just haven't been able to post much lately because so much of what I have been up to is Christmas gift related (check back here after Christmas for details)! However, I did finish up a project today that I can share with you.

Our family has some Christmas tree ornaments that we consider to be very special. I wanted to make some special pouches for them for during the off-season when they're in storage. First I found some red fleece (on sale, of course!)—it's that super cozy stuff that they make scarves and coats out of.

I cut from the left salvage edge to the right at a height of four inches. Then I cut my strips down into eight inch pieces. I finished the short edges with a zigzag stitch.

Here I have stitched the short edges on my eight inch pieces.

Once that was done, I folded the piece into thirds with a slight overlap of the two short edges and stitched the raw edges together.

The ornament will easily slide between both flaps with just the ribbon hanging out.

And... VOILA! Soft ornament pouches to keep our special ornaments from scratching each other!

Other projects I have been busy with:

• Helped my kid's Girl Scout Daisy troop make ornaments for a Christmas tree at the airport and Christmas cards for their teachers
• Assembled a firewood rack for a load of firewood we had delivered (we are REALLY enjoying our fireplace!)
• Resized the frame for the print above the fireplace mantle
• Sewed some Christmas presents

Another project I'm in the midst of is helping the kids in my daughter's class with some Christmas ornaments to give as gifts to their parents. The project involves painting the kid's hand and have them grasp a ball ornament. Once the paint is dry, the kids then decorate each painted finger as a snowman.

This is the inspiration image I found on the internet for the ornaments our kids are working on for their parents.

On Friday we got everybody's handprint painted on a ball. This week the kids will finish painting the faces and scarves and take the ornaments home to their folks. I'm super excited about this project—I hope the kids will be too when they see the end result! I'm especially excited that I get one!

So are you ready for Christmas at your house? We're getting there! I can't believe it's only a week away! Best wishes to you and yours...

Blinded with Ingenuity

Today I started my day by shortening the new bamboo blind on the front door. First, I hung the blind on the door backwards so that I could visualize where I wanted the blind to hang when shortened.

The shade came at a length of 72", but I only need about 47". The white line you see here is ideally where I'd like the shade to hang to when finished.

Then I shortened up the cord to the length I wanted. 

This is part of the shade's elevation system found on the backside of the shade.

After that, I took my bottle of Elmer's glue and glued two rows. This was done to keep the strings from unraveling when the bottom of the shade is cut. Once the glue was nice and tacky, I trimmed the blind below the glue line and folded the loose strings up into the tacky glue. 

Finally, I took my hot glue gun and folded and glued the bottom of the shade about an inch, and... VOILA! A shortened shade!

Again, my faithful companion is unimpressed with my skills...

I DID IT!

 I GOT ALL OF MY BALUSTERS INSTALLED TODAY!!! YAHOO! :)

(Special thanks to my sweet brother in-law for loaning me his finish nailer! xoxo!)

IT'S HERE!!

That's right! Baluster installation day has arrived! I had to take a break after installing the first one to make this post—the anxiety over starting the project and the excitement of getting one installed was driving me crazy! Now on to #4...

Baluster #2 is in! Here's #4 lined up and waiting to be marked for cutting!

Back to Work!

AT LAST! I finally have time to work on my house again!

Today I started by putting another coat of paint on my front door. After it dried, I pulled the contact paper off of the glass. When we first moved in here years ago, I put contact paper on the glass to keep people outside from being able to see inside; the contact paper provides a frosted glass type of effect. I am still concerned about privacy and plan on putting up some window tint instead.

In the process of removing contact paper. Note the difference between the panes; the far left one still has contact paper on it, whereas the other three have been stripped. 

Sometimes the afternoon sun really comes beating in the front windows, so we really need a way to block out the light, especially for TV viewing. I have admired my neighbor's bamboo window treatment for quite some time and thought I'd do something similar to my door.

This window treatment was just the right width! The length is a bit much though; 72" instead of the 45" I truly need. I am going to shorten it so it's not so bulky! I think I can do this by trimming this to the desired length and folding the raw edge under with a glue gun; kinda looks like that's what the manufacturer did.

Once I got that done, I turned my attention to the staircase again. I started this project yesterday by removing the remaining balusters. Then I sanded the treads and underside of the railing where the old balusters had been.

I brought the balusters in from the porch. Here they are, lined up like little soldiers. Number five gives me a hard time... doesn't want to stand up very well. Soon he won't have a choice!

Here's my youngin' (aka "Big Goonie") counting the balusters, making sure everyone is accounted for.

After many weeks of indecisiveness, I finally decided to paint the railing. Here it is in a brown color that is just slightly lighter and more caramel colored than my dresser I painted earlier this summer.

Remember, brown photographs weird...

This morning I applied the same glazing technique to the railing that I did to my dresser project.

Shot without flash to try to give a better idea of what this actually looks like. Regardless, brown is still difficult to photograph.

Once my railing paint is dry I will need to seal it with a poly-urethane coating so the glazing won't rub off with repeated touching of hands using the railing. After that I think we'll be ready to start fitting and nailing balusters! Check back soon!

Quick! Where's My Brush?!

You know that old saying, "While the hubby's away, the wife will paint!" ...or, something like that (since he whines about the smell of the paint, I usually wait for him to leave before I bust out my brush). Well anyways, that's what happened here—he left for a few hours! :)

Applying wall color to primed wall.

First I applied finish coat to the primed wall behind the front door, and I FINALLY managed to get all of that old paint off of the backside of the front door—on to the primer!

Prime, prime, prime...

Still need to prime woodwork around the door. Maybe tomorrow...

And lastly, I've had my eyes open for a sconce to possibly use in place of that mirror behind the door and came across this one. It is bronze with art glass. What do you think?

Back to the Grind

I've been busy, as of late, working on some computer-related projects that have taken me away from my home improvement projects. These last two days things have slowed down enough for me to find some time to get back to the grind!

First I started with priming the wall behind the front door. I had hoped to prime the door as well, but I don't quite have all of the old paint off yet. A little more pickin' to do...

Then there's the matter of the formerly hidden sconce outlet. Do I find a sconce to put here and put this mirror elsewhere? Or do I simply plaster over it and leave the mirror here? Decisions, decisions...

You can see where the old sconce was mounted to the wall just above the mirror.

FINALLY I was able to get some paint on the woodwork in this corner (at the bottom of the stairs)!

Primer in center of bottom square inset and on door trim.

Primer on door and door trim; finish coat in square insets.

Finish coat on door and surrounding woodwork.

Hopefully I can find some time to put another finish coat of paint on my door and woodwork in the next day or so. Will need to touch up my wall paint too. No biggie...


It looks so different looking at that side of the room tonight! Looking forward to working on that window next! It's coming along! : )

Will Help for Food*

My little one had a couple of days off from school, so we decided to leave Daddy at home and go visit my parents (2.5 hours away). As it happens, my dad is a "hack-of-all-trades" do-it-yourselfer too and has been helping my mom put the finishing touches on a new bedroom that was recently built in their house. They've been busy caulking, painting, and choosing colors, fabrics, artwork, and other decorative finishes.

Finally all that was left was the installation of window treatments, bathroom accessories (towel bars, etc.), artwork hanging, and the arrangement of furniture in the room. Dad and I decided to do this while mom was at work as a surprise! Since some of the readers of this blog will be guests in the next couple of weeks, I won't spoil the surprise of the "BIG REVEAL" but will post some snapshots of some of the projects Dad and I did!

New drapery and curtain rods

More new drapery and curtain rods

Cellular blind installation

Check out that room darkening blind! So nice!

Hand towel and bar

Bath towels and bar

We also got the bed assembled and all of the other furniture arranged. It was a productive visit and Mom was very pleased with what we accomplished ...AND I got to have some of mom's home cookin'! You can't beat that!

*To readers that will be visiting soon—we can't wait to show you the results of all of the hard work that has gone into this room in person! See you soon! xoxo

On To the Next Holiday!

Slowly but surely I've been getting my Halloween decorations packed away and setting out some Thanksgiving decor. I like the decorations, but I hate getting them out because it's so tedious putting them all away and they never seem to back in their bins as nicely as they came out!

Thankfully pumpkins can be used for more than one holiday!

Are you decorating where you are?

I See the Secrets That You Keep

Isn't that the name of a song too? I must have 80's music on the brain... Anyways, I discovered in my incessant picking that my wallpaper is keeping SECRETS! I took down the mirror to pick at the wallpaper behind it and..

...WHOA!! What the heck is THAT?!

Well, looky here... Appears that once upon a time ago there was a wall sconce where my mirror currently is! Whadya know!

Now I find myself contemplating if I will find a new home for the mirror and put a sconce here instead! What do you think? Is YOUR wallpaper keeping secrets??