Measurements anyone?

I feel a little bit giddy inside over this latest DIY.  I've seen these all over Pinterest!  And to me, it seems so useful for two reasons...

A:  I don't know about anyone else but I have a toddler who loves to get into my miscellaneous kitchen drawer and play with my baster and measuring cups. She's cute and staying away from things in my kitchen that would kill her, so I let her and just wash them a million times. But she also loses things sometimes. Which means I have three sets of measuring cups and spoons and none of them are complete... AND... I don't even have ONE 1/4 tsp!

B:  I always find myself thinking, "how many tablespoons are in a 1/4 cup? Can't I just do 1/4 cup?!"  (And yes... I know that somehow I lost an "S".  It's in the works)

Wonder no more!!! I have a delightful friend who just happens to be able to do anything... Even cut vinyl! Add that to world markets beautiful and affordable measuring cups and spoons, some hooks... And we have THIS beautiful masterpiece!

Let's just look at it for a moment...  It's so pretty!

.........

Thanks for humoring me. 😜

I used some command hooks for the cups but they didn't work for the spoons so I had to break out some tiny little hooks.  I actually might replace the command hooks. The real hooks look so much nicer!

Ghetto sewing trick

I'm not a precise seamstress. I hate patterns and I don't always follow the rules. But I have been sewing a long time (since I was about 8) and I have a few tricks up my proverbial sleeve... This is one of my faves!

When unpicking a seam you inevitably have all these little stray threads torturing you!  I hate them. I used to just leave them instead of picking all the stupid little buggars out. Which takes a million years. 

Until... Drumroll please... This is big...

The lint roller!!!

(If you thought of this 10 years ago, don't tell me. 😜)

Roll it over your picked out seam...

Viola!!! No more million tiny threads! And it takes about a minute. Sigh... It's the little things. Am I right?!

Hanging a Skateboard

Having a tween (man I really HATE that word!) makes decorating this room a challenge. He has an opinion and I want it to be something he can grow into. Enter, useful decor!  I've incorporated a few items that he uses as decor. One of them is the new skateboard he got for Christmas!  

This is an easy-peasy project!  Use a hack saw, or really whatever saw you want, to cut some PVC pipe in half and hang the two halves on the wall with some screws and wall anchors. 

Then just set the skateboard in the new "hangers". 

LOVE it!

Fix-a-fan

As I'm whittling away the last touch ups on my big kids room, there are a few little projects that need to get done. One of them is this fan. 

I found it on eBay for an awesome deal. I thought that it was grey, but when it came in the mail, it was decidedly not grey. And looked super old and ugly. Sad face

Old I liked but not ugly. I had this idea that I could take it apart and paint it. But then that seemed like a lot of work so I didn't. Haha!  Then I thought maybe I would just paint it all one color. Looks like that is what the previous owner did. I was all set to do that but when it came time to pull the trigger, I just couldn't. 

So I broke out the tools and disassembled the cage, blade, and switch. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Then I taped off all necessary parts that were still silver and unpainted. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be!

Let me remind you of the before...

And now...

I love it so much!!!!  Let me tell you... Rustoleum spray paint is a miracle worker. Sigh. So go ahead... Take 

something apart and spray paint it!

Living room reveal... FINALLY!

I am pretty much in love with my new living room!  Having it done gives me so much motivation for the rest of the house.  I love having a vision in my head and then using my hands to create that vision... and even better!  When the vision works out!  Because it doesn't always.

Here is our living room before the reno.  

(These are listing pics)

Ive been working on the paint, wainscoting and finishing touches for about 6 months now.  It is finally done!  So here is the finished product!

I LOVE the front door!  It used to be dingy and had some old broken blinds.  Now we have some lovely roman shades and a fresh buttery yellow coat of paint.

Here is a close up of what the doors and moulding looked like before... 

And here they are after!  Sigh... so pretty!  

Chairs

I bought a "new" dining room table and chairs when we moved here. The old one was clunky, didn't fit the space, and I wanted one with leaves to expand. 

Our "new table" is oval, has three leaves to expand (we have to move to the living room to do this) but is nice and compact when it's in the kitchen. It was love at first sight!  But the table is a project for warmer weather. 

Until then, I've been working on the chairs. They are so cool!  So much fun detail.  But they looked a little sad. 

The padding was non existent and stained. And the weird flocked burgundy fabric was not my favorite. 

Luckily, we were getting rid of a memory foam mattress topper!  Perfect!  So I ripped off the old (and SERIOUSLY gross) fabric and gave these chairs a facelift.  

They are so comfy now! And they don't hurt your eyes to look at either.  😜

(I liked the look better without plastic but sadly, I have children... So it's a necessity.)

Summer is at an end and projects are kicking up

It's been an awesome summer!  We have had our Little House on the back burner for a few months while we enjoy the months of warmth before prairie winter sets in. But now we are back to work!  

Ever see one of these?  We are replacing all the outlets in the house, room by room. (No tutorial because I am NO expert and if I steer you wrong it could be dangerous!). I decided to throw one or two of these in here and there. I'm so excited!!! 

I will say this, replacing old outlets isn't hard and there are plenty of YouTube videos to help you out. A lot of ours don't even hold the plugs in. So if you have troublesome outlets, don't be scared!  Give it a try!