Spring Cleaning

Not sure if it is just me, but spring does feel like the time to clean. Spent a couple hours on the weekend cleaning my condo, much more thoroughly than I have done in a while. I am also going through my clothes to see which ones no longer fit or I don't wear to get rid of or donate. Something about the warmer weather and longer days makes me want to get out of hibernation mode and get everything in order!

 

Under bed storage

I keep my seasonal or travel clothes in large boxes under the bed. My set up isn't quite as fancy or mechanically advanced as this one, but it still works! If you are needing space, get yourself some large underbed rubbermaid-style boxes, or any box will do. One that I use is a Prada box a pair of boots came in!

 

I love buying cheap glasses. I get them online, and they can be anywhere as low as $7 a pair. Up until this month, I did not have contact lenses either, so it was always glasses. It was getting a little overwhelming to store them all in their cases. Also then you had to search through the cases to find the pair you were looking for.

Got this product at Ikea for $10. More than I would usually pay for something like this, but I feel it gets the job done and I hadn't found any other suitable alternatives elsewhere. 

Lots of places are selling these type of jewellery storage hangers, but I wasn't willing to pay $20 or $25 for one. I found this one on eBay and bought it (including shipping) for <$5. I still need to come up with a storage solution for my earrings, but this is a step in the right direction.

 

Looking at the internet can be dangerous for my wallet. Here are a couple of thing that I stumbled across that I want! 

Hidden charging station

 Happy spring cleaning everyone!

Monday Inspiration - Saving Space

While on the internet, I came across this fantastic concept. I would call it a couch/coffee table/ottoman combo. This has the unique feature of being able to fit together like the ultimate tetris to maximize your space. 

Some of the parts of this couch also even look like tetris blocks! 

While I don't think I would be able to find this set up on my usual kijiji or craigslist, I do think it is a fantastic concept. Perhaps something even worth splurging and paying full price for (the horror!). 

I, of course, would need to do the sit test to see how comfortable this couch would be. Some back and throw pillows may be in order to make it a little more livable, even if that throws off the modern clean lines. 

This is something I have talked about before in my Form and Function post. It is really about making the most of your space, however much space you have. When you live in a small place like me, it is those items that do double (or even triple) duty that are really worthwhile. 

Super smart piece. High five to the designer, whoever that may be!

Glitter Top Desk / Vanity

I used to have a small vanity table with a stool in my bedroom, that I painted and reupholstered of course. It had no storage, so I kept all my makeup and hair stuff under my sink in the bathroom. This was not very practical, so I decided I needed to upgrade.

I wanted a vanity for my bedroom, but something with enough room for all of my makeup, hair products, nail polish, etc. (And ladies, I am sure you know that can be a lot of stuff!) Researching vanities, most didn’t have the ample storage that I needed. I figure, why not use a desk and make it into/use it as a vanity.

I had been browsing my favourite spot to pick up furniture – kijiji, but wasn’t able to find anything that I was in love with. Was chatting about this with my parents, and they mentioned they had an old desk of my grandfathers that needed a home. And when I checked it out, it was perfect! (And the price even more so – FREE!)

Before picture

This desk was bought I believe in the 1930’s by my maternal great-grandmother for my grandfather. She thought if he had a nice desk, it would encourage him to study more. Wrong! (Sorry great-grandma!) But now this desk has been passed along to me, with a great story behind it.

Got the desk into my workroom (aka the kitchen/livingroom of my condo) , it has some water damage to the desk surface and a couple chips taken out of it. As with any furniture redo, start by deconstructing as much as possible. For this one, there was a rail on the back I could remove, pull out all the drawers and remove the hardware. Then, I filled in all the chips with wood putty before sanding the whole thing down.

Water damage on the top

Chip on the side

For my credenza project  (HERE), I had borrowed a friends mouse sander. I decided it was time to invest in one of my own, and for $30, it will save you a lot of time if you are sanding large flat surfaces.

Deconstructed

Chips filled in

After I sanded down and cleaned off all the dust, I taped off the surfaces. I had a couple special ideas for this project. I wanted to paint the desk black, but have the inside of the drawers another colour, as a fun surprise pop. I had leftover wall paint from my bedroom in an Oscar de la Renta type pink that would be perfect!

After I painted all the insides of the drawers, then had to retape to paint the outside of the desk black. 

Painted!

For the top, I also wanted something a little different. I have been envisioning a sparkly table top for a while, so I thought I would try it out. It would also work well for this project to disguise the water damage to the top of the table, some of which was still visible after sanding and painting black as it went pretty deep into the wood.

Rubbing glitter into the top (first method)

The glitter I bought at Michael's. If you are ever shopping there, use a coupon, they always have them. You can even go online and use it from your smartphone. Often they have coupons for 50% off an item of 40% off your entire purchase. Why would you not go online for 2 minutes to save that much?!

Now, I am not going to lie,  the process of creating my sparkly table top was not an entirely smooth one. There was some trial and error, but you guys can learn from my mistakes.

First method of application was to basically paint glue to the top of the table and then rub the sparkles onto it with my fingers. The glue I was using (Gorilla glue) did not enjoy being watered down, so I was using it straight up, so to say. This application technique worked pretty well, but gets the fingers quite messy.

Second application method, I tried mixing the glitter into Mod Podge and painting that onto the surface of the desk with a foam brush. I did not like the result of this, as the Mod Podge took away some of the lustre and effect of the glitter.

View of the top

Third, I was conceiving ways to cover the glitter, or to create a coating over top. Here I tried some epoxy – fail. This stuff was expensive, was not easy to apply, smelled horrendous and was messy (perhaps I am partially to blame there.) The worst part of the epoxy was that it created a glass-like finish over the glitter that removed all of the glitter/sparkly element from it. This I then scrapped off of the desk.

I returned to a technique similar to my first one to cover the desk completely. Or sometimes brushing on glue and sprinkling the glitter in a certain area that needed some spot coverage. I think brushed off the loose-ish glitter by hand.

To seal it all in, I used multiple coats of spray varnish. While this doesn’t give a completely smooth surface like the epoxy would, it lets the glitter retain its sparkle!

To finish off my fabulous desk, I needed some fabulous hardware! These were the most expensive piece of the project, about $6 per knob at the Home Depot. I love them though, they look like little diamonds, and really finish off the piece and add glamour.

Diamond shaped knobs

If you are thinking about doing a glitter or sparkle top desk, feel free to ask me any questions. I love the final result, and can’t wait to get my new makeup battlestation set up! Here are some pictures of the result: 

After picture - drawers closed

After picture - drawers open

Closer view

Slipper Chair 2

Browsing kijiji, and I come across a slipper chair, quite like the one I redid before. And when I say quite like, I mean both in the shape of the frame and in ugliness of its original condition. 

Before picture

 This one was already stripped, so no additional reconstruction required there. The legs were also already dark wood, so I did not need to stain them, which was nice. Perhaps these justify the increased cost I paid for this one - $10! Twice as much as the last!

If you want instructions, see my previous Slipper Chair post. 

After picture

While they may not be identical twins, I think you can safely call them fraternal twins. The incremental cost of this project was very low, since I used leftover batting and fabric from the last chair. The only incremental cost was the chair itself ($10) and upholstery tacks for the back ($2.50). 

Upholstery can seem daunting, but it is not that bad. Don't be afraid to try it, all you need is some patience, some fabric and a staple gun!

Travel Frame

Ever wonder what to do with all that foreign change you have lying around?

This is a great quick craft to create a great way to display some memories of your travels.

All you need are:

-Foreign coins

-A picture frame (got mine at the dollar store)

-Hot glue gun

-Picture or keepsakes to display

Simply hot glue your foreign coins around your picture frame. Get creative! My frame had some space for matting inside, so that is where I placed them, though you could put your coins all outside the frame. Just be mindful when you are glueing, hot glue can be stringy, and you don’t want that getting on your glass.

Inside I placed a picture of my bff and I at Petra, Jordan and sent it to her for her birthday.

With digital pictures, it is so rare that we print them now a days, but I say print them and show them off!

And happy travels!

Fruity Lip Gloss

This is a quick and easy way to make a great tasting, moisturizing lip gloss.

Living in a super dry climate, Vaseline is a life saver. It is great for dry cracked feet and dry lips. If you are like me, plain Vaseline on your lips can get a little boring, so here is a way to spice it  up.

All you need are:

-Vaseline

-Crystal Light (I would recommend the single packets, for size convenience)

-a little container

-something to stir with (I happened to use a chopstick)

Supplies

This is also a great way to reuse those little jars or containers. I always keep empty lip gloss or moisturizer containers. I find they are great to use for cosmetics if you are going away for the weekend, to hold some Tylenol or other pills, or to your own lip gloss. If you don’t have any of these laying around, go to Sephora and ask for a sample of some makeup or moisturizer, they will put it in one of these containers for you. And maybe if you are a smooth talker, the sales girl will give you a few extra.

On a difficulty scale, this project is about a 0.5/10. All you need to do it put some Vaseline in your new container. Pour in a crystal light and mix, add as much as you want until you get your desired colour. If you try and use your new lip gloss now it will be a little exfoliating, because the granules are still present. If you wait an hour or two, those should all be dissolved and now you are left with a great-tasting treat.

New DIY Fruity Lip Gloss

Custom Mugs

This is a present I made for one of my best friends. I was going to be staying with her and her boyfriend one night right before Christmas, and couldn't go there without a gift. They enjoy some geeky things, so I thought I would make some "His and Hers" items just for that. 

Items you will need:

• Mugs, or whatever ceramic piece you are choosing to customize. Plates, bowls, etc. could be done as well. 
• Sharpies or paint markers - I used Sharpies, but I have later learned via the interweb paint markers hold up better. If you have any experience in this area, would love to hear it. 
• An oven
• Paper - not too thick, should be able to track through
• Pencil

1. Draw or trace your desired picture to be transferred to your ceramic. I traced mine off the computer. I suggest tracing it on BOTH sides of the paper, and using the Sharpie or paint marker, so you know exactly how much detail you can include and how it will look on the item.

2. In case you didn't notice, I chose Mario and Princess Peach for my geeky friends. After you have traced your design on the front and back of the paper, draw with your pencils over all the lines in your drawing. This we will use to transfer the design to the cup. (If you are better at drawing than I am, you can just draw straight on the ceramic. If I did that, it would turn out bad, so here is my alternative for us artistically challenged folks.)

3. Place the side with the pencil squiggles on the inside of the mug, and tape it in place. 

4. With a pen or a pencil, trace your drawing again (this is why we drew on both sides of the paper). The pressure will transfer the graphite of the pencil onto the surface of the ceramic. It will look a little something like this:

5. Trace the pencil outline on the mug with your sharpie or paint marker. 

6. Carefully remove any excess pencil marks, if any. I found that if I scrubbed hard, the sharpie would come off, so you could correct any errors if necessary. 

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes to set the design. 

Here is a view of the completed mugs. I also wrote "His" and "Hers" on the bottoms in blue and pink sharpie. 

I hope my friends like them and they hold up. I hear hand washing can help extend the life of these designs.