New Lights!

So, it's raining really hard here today. Like, flooded my backyard, really hard, but despite that the boys and I HAD went to Lowe's this morning. I went with every intention of buying ONE piece of wood and two corbels for a shelf, but you know how that goes.

I came home with four - FOUR - lights and a new lampshade, no wood.  (in my defense, the lampshade has been on the list for ages, but I kept forgetting).  AND, one of the lights is for my sister, so I really only came home with three lights and a lampshade.  Would it sound better if I told you I only spent $25 on three lights???  And no, they weren't the cheapest things I could find either - Lowe's was having a HUGE clearance!!  Yay me!  At that price I couldn't pass them by.

Despite the fact that the boys and I are living in a rental house right now I could NOT pass up a new light fixture (wait until you see the before picture!) and for $7 who can argue?  Onto the pictures!

I am in L-O-V-E with school house light fixtures.  Like this one from Restoration Hardware:

But, I can honestly say I do not like the $139 price tag.  No sir.  Not for me.  But $7??  Yep!  Sign me up.

The hall light was the same as this kitchen light (I forgot a before photo of the hallway...too excited to replace it!):

Nice, huh?  Comes complete with a clip on plastic shade (bugs are free).

Here's the $7 steal I got from Lowe's.

What a deal, right?  While I was there I also scored this new pendant light for above the kitchen sink ($8 for this one instead of $42):

Here's that beautiful before light again:

 

And now:

And it even works!  (I've never installed a light before - today I installed two!  Yay me!!)

The third light is a wall mounted swing arm lamp for the guest bedroom.  ($10 instead of $41).  I'll install it another day.  My boys are up now, naptime is over..time to get back to work! 

Have a great Tuesday!

 

Using a tension rod as a spray bottle hanger

I saw this pin on pinterest the other day and was awestruck at the utter simplicity and brilliance of it.  Using tension rods under the kitchen sink to create hanging storage for spray bottles.

So, armed with a clever idea I put it to good use this morning while my kids ate breakfast.  I had some leftover tension rods in the garage from my recent move, and while none of them fit under the sink (they were all too big) I figured I could cut it to length and then wedge it between the walls so it would hold.  Sure enough, it worked brilliantly!  Here are the pictures:

After:

 

Nice and tidy, with room left over for storage of other very important stuff :)  (note: I store my garbage bags in the bottom of the garbage can under the bag that's currently in use so I don't have to store them someplace else).

And here's the before.  Obviously, everything was just shoved under the sink with no attempt to organize anything.

So, I took a standard oval shaped tension rod and held it in place where I wanted it.  I chose to go front to back along the left side wall because there's no wall on the right side under the sink for a rod to hang (see above picture).

I measured the rod accurately ;) then cut it with a hacksaw.  I just sawed back and forth a few times and then bent it to break it.  Super easy.

 

I pulled the extra cap off the side of the tension rod I wasn't using.

 Unfortunately, it was a little too big so I just shoved a paper towel under it to make it fit.

I wedged it in place where I wanted it.  I didn't put a level or anything on it I just eyeballed it.

Then I hung all my spray bottles and voila!

It's all clean and organized now!! 

If you have any questions just leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

Thank you!  Happy Friday!

 

Breakfast nook before and after

It's amazing how quickly life just takes over, isn't it?  In the past three months, EVERYTHING has changed.  Since we talked last there was Thanksgiving, (too much turkey, anyone?), Christmas (had some great family time!), New Year's (totally missed it - went to bed early :), my house was leased, the kids and I moved to a new place, we've had a couple birthdays...all in all, a LOT has happened!

I thought I'd share what I've been working on - well, part of it at least.  We (the boys and I) got a rental house not too far from where we used to live, but in much more convenient to everything.  I still have some boxes to go through, but in under three weeks we've really started to settle in to our new home.

Here's a before of the breakfast room:

The plate wall started because I don't have as much storage in the kitchen as I do stuff (shocker, I know!) and I couldn't store some of my most favorite platters.  So, I decided to do what any normal person would do and hang them on the wall.  I figure they're my favorites, yet, they're so large I only use them a couple times a year, so why not hang them up and enjoy them year round?? Genius, if you ask me :)

I started with my favorites, and added others for color and interest.  I only bought one plate for the entire wall, so the wall only cost me one $3 plate and the price of the dischangers.  (and they are WELL worth the money).  No wire hangers, no wondering whether or not they will hold, they're just great - and no I'm not being paid to advertise them, I just love them.

First came the new light.  Metal plant hanger painted teal and turned upside down, wired into the existing fixture.

terrible picture, but you get the idea...

Vintage Edison bulb from Lowe's.

 

Then I started hanging them.  It took me about a week or so because I just hang two or three at a time so I could see how I felt about them.  I'm big into pre-planning, you can tell.  I finally finished about three days ago.

Enjoy!  Happy Tuesday!!!

 

Nutcracker Knockoff

I heard the first Christmas song on the radio this morning.  It reminded me that I needed to share these awesome nutcrackers with you today!

I saw these awesome Nutcrackers online at one of my favorite window shopping stores, West Elm.  But with the small one starting at $29 there's just no way I can justify that!  Not to mention, there's not the widest variety of colors to choose from.  (do you see where this is going?)

Then I came across this knockoff at House of Hepworths and I liked where Allison was going with her idea.  (she has a great tutorial too).

So, I took both ideas (and knowing that I definitely wanted some color) and ran with them.

Let me also say - if you make these yourself get some double stick foam tape (3M makes some) and double stick the bottom of the nutcrackers to the lid of a spray paint can (or something similar).  It will serve two purposes A) it will give you somewhere to hold while you paint them {everyone paints things while holding them, right?  I found it was the only way to really get them coated well} and while you glitter them, and  B) it will make it easier when sitting them down to dry so they don't topple over.  Ask me how I know this.

Left: glittered white Center: textured metal paint (black with copper flecks)  Right: glittered apple green

I used just about every color spray paint I have :)  and I added my favorite accessory:  Glitter!!

Left: plain red with glittered axe Center: plain blue with glittered drumsticks and drum Right: glittered orange

Left: glittered aqua  Center: glittered red  Right: hammered metal paint in gray

Some of them are solid glitter, some solid paint, and a couple of the tall ones I added just a touch of glitter.

Left: glittered apple green Center: glittered lilac  Right: hammered metal paint in gray

And here they are all lined up outside.  My little nutcracker terracotta army.  And no, I'm not completely nuts (you did notice I had to say not COMPLETELY nuts, right?), I only have one of these in my house (the little fat red one) the others are going to the shop today!

 

Are you getting in the holiday spirit yet?

Boa-tiful Christmas Mantle

I have a fun, easy, beautiful Christmas garland to share with you:

None other than a white feather boa!! :)  I thought it would be mostly gaudy and tacky, with a side of fun and 'ok' but I was so not giving my idea not enough credit.  The boa is fabulous (yes, a little gaudy still) but fabulous none the less!

I just strung two boas across my mantle with a string of white lights and voila!  Instant awesomeness.

Do you recognize these trees?

 

Last week I told you about them in this post.

Now they're on my mantle and I put lights in one and the other I stacked on top of an old pot (painted teal) to make it taller.

And these candlesticks?  Also from last week's post?

Now they add the a little silver to my thrifted glasses which are the perfect touch of color.

One was a teal glass that I painted the inside of with looking glass spray paint.  The other one was a clear drinking glass I painted with krylon's glitter blast spray paint (sparkling waters).  I haven't used this before and I have to say even though it coated wonderfully I was rather irritated when after using the can ONCE (to paint this glass) the nozzle stuck in the OPEN position and I could not.  get.  it.  stopped.  The entire can sprayed out in my trash can (outside).  Needless to say, tomorrow I will be getting a new one.  Hopefully they'll trade it out - we'll see how that goes.

Anyways, here they are side by side - one sparkly with glitter, the other shiny and sophisticated, but surprisingly very similar in color (that part was all luck - I bought the paint for a different project and had no intention of painting this glass - maybe that's why it sprayed all out ;) ?

And here's a nice dark picture of my mantle.  Tomorrow when it's light I'll photograph it in the daylight.  I was too excited to share and didn't want to wait for pictures. UPDATED: with daytime photos :)

Enjoy!

ps.  remind me to tell you the story about half the stuff off my mantle coming crashing down around 11pm last night...