Finishing Touches - Powder Bath

It's a Friday. A cloudy, windy, dreary Friday. Usually on Fridays I'm either totally motivated to get tons done or I feel like goofing off all day (especially today which marks the start of Spring Break as soon as the half day of school is over) Today I'm neither - just blah. I think the people that say weather affects our moods are on the right track. So here I sit, having at least done my usual Friday morning bathroom scrubbing (thank goodness!), thinking I should be crafting but not feeling it. So what's the next best thing? Sharing one of my projects that did get finished at some point in the recent past when the motivation was flowing.

This is what I whipped up for my powder bathroom, with the help of my new best crafting buddy, my Silhouette.

It's just a piece of scrap wood that I stained. Cut out some vinyl shapes with the Silhouette (the bird comes with the machine, the cherry blossom branches were from the Silhouette online store) and applied them. Drilled a couple holes and added a ribbon. And hung it all from a hook I already had. Total out of pocket? $0! You gotta love those kinds of projects right?!

I do have to admit the idea wasn't totally original. I saw something similar on a blog, somewhere. Didn't save the link or the photo at the time but it stuck with me. So to someone out there - thanks for the inspiration!

Add a little picnic basket I had laying around to stash the toilet paper in and I declare the powder bathroom...

Done! It's the first room in the house that I can cross off the list as fully complete. Happy Dance! :)

One more time with the Before:
and After:

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5 Minute (and $0!) Project

I got bored today, and fidgety. Doesn't happen often, because usually I have tons on my To Do list every day and no end of fun things to explore online or books to read when I'm not working on something. But today was one of those days where it was full steam ahead first thing in the morning then way too much goof off time later. Seriously. By 9AM I had scrubbed all 3 bathrooms and the kitchen, had a load of laundry almost finished, had updated my 365 blog, and had even showered and done my hair! Pretty much my entire list of things I wanted done today. So I watched some TV. Started a new book. Blog hopped and chatted online. And still was restless and not sure what to do with myself. (yes I know I could have done something like wash windows but it's FRIDAY. And I already spent an entire day this week cleaning carpets and upholstery so my Spring Cleaning quota was already done for the week) Then I looked at my Things to Try file and decided I should get crafty.

And this is the result: Like it? I think it's fun and totally appropriate for our house, considering the recent move. My husband just laughed when I showed it to him. And the best part? Not only did it take less than 5 minutes - including finding the right paper and printing a map from online for my pattern - but I had all the supplies on hand so it cost me NOTHING. I'm sure if you went out and bought everything, including the inexpensive 12x12 frame, you'd probably still spend less than $5-$10 on it.

*the original inspiration for this one was found on Etsy. I think they are created completely digitally and sell for something like $20 each. Sorry I don't have the actual link.

Kids Art Corner

One of the things I have really been wanting to do with the playroom is create a corner where the kids and make and display their art. In the new house we no longer have a fridge full of magnets, nor do I want drawings Scotch-taped all over my newly painted walls. My daughter can churn out the art in bulk when she gets on a roll and loves nothing better than displaying them them all over the place. So I thought I'd share my solution, which I had Kaitlyn help me sweet-talk my husband into installing last night (usually I wait for the weekends and let him rest after work but these boards have been half-way finished for weeks and I couldn't stand it anymore!). I always get "please explain how you..." comments so I'll save myself the trouble of coming back later and do a quick How To while we're at it. -I bought a 1"x4"x8' board at the hardward store and cut it in half so I had two 4' sections. I asked my awesome husband to use his router on the edges to give it a bit of character. Then I stained it and added about 3 coats of poly. Then they sat in the garage for weeks. We had to buy short (1/2" long) screws so we could attach the clips to the boards. Then the boards were screwed directly into the wall. Easy peasy huh? Oh and I know the other question you will ask is "where did you get the clips?" Well, I tell ya, that was the hardest part. I had seen them used on more than one blog for different projects and had the hardest time myself even figuring out what they were called let alone where to find them. Went down lots of dead ends on this one - even Oriental Trading wasn't much help! (though they do have mini versions sometimes in their scrapbook section). So save yourself the trouble and pay attention - these little babies are called BULLDOG CLIPS and you can order them from Amazon. Costs about $6 for three dozen (so be prepared to see something else with these guys down the road as I still have more than half the box left), and if you add a couple more things to your cart you can get free shipping. As I said before, I had the hubby attach the boards to the wall in the playroom last night. Kaitlyn went right to work finding projects to hang up and assigning the upper board to herself and the lower board to her brother (because just putting things up willy-nilly just won't do!) This morning I grabbed a couple of frames and inserted a couple pieces of artwork and put my handy dandy Silhouette to work cutting out some vinyl lettering. And this, my dears, is the final result: Cross another project off the list baby! :) I have also refinished a bookshelf to hold all the art stuff, but you don't get to see that until I get it looking more like something from a Pottery Barn catalog instead of the cluttered mess it is at the moment. As always - stay tuned! :P This isn't the only small project I've been working on lately...

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