May I Have the Envelope Please?

And the winner is... (cough, cough) ...

Handy was one of eight possible blog aliases for Kelli's husband.

Wow, this is really unexpected.  I don't have a speech prepared or anything.  I honestly thought Isaac would win.  After all, that is his real name.  Or maybe even Superman.  I mean, that's a really cool name.  But me?  I just can't believe it.  I'd like to thank the readers, the judges, and most of all Kelli for creating me.  I promise I won't let you down and I'll always try to be the best alias I can be.  I love you all!

Thank you to everyone who offered input regarding my name dilemma.  After mulling over the options for a while and reading your comments, I had a moment of brilliance.  Why not just ask my husband how he'd like me to refer to him?  So I did, and he chose Handy.  I'll have to admit, it was secretly my favorite.  But I promise I didn't sway him in any way.  Although, I might have vetoed him if he'd chose something different...

Nightstands Turned...

...End tables?  At our old house we didn't have room for end tables.  Consequentially, we're in the market for some.  I'm having trouble finding any I like because I think most end tables are bulky.  Or at least, most end tables that my husband likes are too bulky.  I want something cute and little.  Something with character.  And something that won't cost a whole lot.

Enter these nightstands:

We picked them up at Goodwill for $15.  For the set.  They were the half price color of the week, so I was happy.  They're a little scuffed up, but nothing a little love can't fix.  And they were a little too tall, so my husband chopped a couple inches off the legs.  Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the legs before the saw got to them. 

We had all intentions of using the nightstands as nightstands, but after they shrunk, we brought them in to the bedroom.  Turns out they're too wide for us to use next to the bed.  So now we have two mutilated tables and nothing to do with them.  End tables maybe?  What do you think?

Furniture From My Mother-In-Law

My mother-in-law (I started this post yesterday and had typed MIL, but in a conversation that had nothing to do with my blog, my husband said he thought it was totally lazy to use MIL, so mother-in-law it is.  I hope he appreciates the extra typing I'm doing) moved out of the country and gave us two of these benches/stools. 


Kindly ignore the random pieces of molding in the background

 We're having a bit of a debate about whether they would be considered benches or stools.  I guess the debate is really if you're supposed to sit on them or rest your feet.  Feel free to weigh in.  I'm not going to tell you which side I'm on because I don't want to sway you at all. 

Back to the bench/stools.  That's kind of long to write and say though.  I should come up with a portmanteau.  My niece and I are big on making portmanteaus.  Oh, you don't know what a portmanteau is.  I didn't know the technical term for it either.  I had to look it up to write this post.  Portmanteaus are where you combine two or more words together to make a new one.  Like brunch (br[eakfast][l]unch).  Or linner (l[unch][d]inner).  Can you tell I'm hungry right now?  How do you guys feel about benools (ben[ch][st]ools)?

I'm getting majorly sidetracked today.  I don't know what's wrong with me.  So the benools came to our house (technically garage, I'll explain why in a minute) from my mother-in-law's.  We need furniture, so why would be pass them up?  The fabric is kind of retro cool.  Kind of.  And the lines of the stools themselves are nice.  So why not just stick them in the living room and let them be?

The colors don't go well with our wall color (which we just painted when we moved in) and it's definitely less work to change the benools than to change all the walls.    



I know it's not really poisonous to mix gray paint with brown and orange fabric, but it might make me feel sick if I had to look at it all the time.

The most important factor causing me to change the benools is the smell.  My mother-in-law had these benools for who knows how long and the whole time they lived with her she was chain smoking around them.  We've had them in the garage for a month and they still wreak of smoke.

I sprayed them down with Febreze.  No change.  The smell is stronger than what Febreze can handle.  I think it has inundated itself into the depths of the fabric and it's not going anywhere.  So if the smell won't go, I guess the fabric will have to.  I'm going to go to Fabric Depot this weekend to find something new.  I'll let ya know what I find.

 

Spotlight on Me

Courtney at Not So Homemade chose me as one of her Spotlight Sunday features!

Courtney has an amazing blog where she shares crafts, recipes, and blog design tips.  You can see some of her tips in use here on my blog.  And she makes adorable, simple projects that make you say to yourself why didn't I think of that?  Like this headband made from a ponytail and a piece of ribbon:

Super cute, right?

What makes me so excited about this feature is that it's not just that she likes one project I did, she likes my blog as a whole.  And she thinks I'm funny!  Which means a lot coming from someone funny like Courtney.  Thank you so much Courtney!

Simple Home Love

Jackie over at Simple Home Life featured my Chalkboard Cabinet Organizer today!

I first fell in love with Jackie when I saw her Painted Rug: 

And when I got a glimpse of all her other amazing projects, I knew I was hooked.  Plus we're quatrefoil background twinsies.  So head on over to visit Jackie at Simple Home Life and while you're there link up to Simply Creation's Friday.  Who knows, you might be next week's feature.

Why Are they All So Mean?

Anyone else super envious of the people that have Silhouettes?  They're always making the cutest things with them.  I'll look at a post and think to myself I want to make that and then I read the tutorial and see they used a Silhouette.  And now there's Spring into Silhouette going on over at I Heart Nap Time.  There's a Silhouette linky party, guest posts about Silhouette projects and a Silhouette giveaway.  It's like all the Silhouette owning people are choosing this week to rub it in.  I figure those of us who are still Silhouetteless have four options:

By far the easiest option is to just keep on feeling sorry for ourselves.  It's worked for us this long...

Seems easy, right?  Oh, wait a second.  Does  anyone have that kind of money to throw around?  Me neither.  Now I remember why I haven't done that yet.

We don't always have to make things ourselves.  And it seems like everyone is selling vinyls these days.  If I decide to break down and buy some myself, I think I'll buy them from Crystal at Giggly Gumdrops.  She makes adorable stuff like this:

And she sells it for so cheap.  You should definitely check her out.

I know, it sound ominous.  Wasn't vinyl made to be used in Silhouettes?  Ali at Found In The Ali says no.  She cut these super cute chalkboard vinyl pantry labels BY HAND. 

They look as good as any Silhouetted vinyls I've seen.

I don't know about the rest of you, but Ali's inspired me.  Maybe I don't need a Silhouette after all.  But that doesn't stop me from wanting one.

What is Wrong With Me?

You know when it's a nice day out and you're wearing a scoop neck or V neck shirt and at some point during the day you look down and notice you got a little bit sun burnt (or tan if you're skin likes to do that sort of thing), but it doesn't look too bad so you forget about it.  But then later that night you take your shirt off and you see that the exposed skin is a COMPLETELY different color than the rest of your chest. 

That happens to other people right? 

Right. 

Well it happened to me last night.  But instead of my skin being pink, it was blue.  From that stupid spray paint again.  I thought I learned my lesson and would never spray paint in the wind again.  Yeah, I guess not.

Chalkboard Cabinet Organizer

I know, everyone's doing chalkboard projects right now.  But in my defense I've loved chalkboard paint for years.  I also realize that my application of this project probably won't be relevant for anyone but me.  Unless you also have just about every old school video game system and need a way to convey to your husband where to find the corresponding controllers and cords.  Anyone?  Yeah, I thought not.  So you can go ahead and use this for some cabinet you have filled with normal stuff.  You'll need:


You can use a piece of wood instead of foam board if you have it laying around.
  You can also use white foam board if your Dollar Tree doesn't have black.  Chalkboard paint
 on a black surface lets me be lazy finish quicker by not have to do as many layers of paint.

Figure out what size you'll want your chalkboards to be and use your pen (and something straight) to mark your foam board.  You might want to use a measuring tape to be precise.  We have 3 measuring tapes somewhere in the house, but I can never find them when I need them, so I just eyed it.  When your lines are drawn you'll have this:

What's that?  You can't see the lines because I used a dark colored Sharpie to write on a black piece of foam board?  Yeah, I could barely see the lines either.  But I didn't feel like rummaging around for something that might show up better, and for some reason I keep that Sharpie on the kitchen counter.  How's this:

Cut along the lines.  I used scissors because I couldn't find the utility knife that I used for my gallery wall project (I'm sensing a pattern), but if you have a utility knife or razor of some kind it works WAY better. 

See how rough the edges are?  They'd have been cleaner
with the utility knife.  But don't worry, they'll be covered.

Apply your chalkboard paint according to the directions on your container:



What?  You don't put a piece of masking tape on your trigger
finger to avoid getting paint on it?  Where have you been?
All the cool kids are doing it. 



And you'll get this:



My chalkboard paint said to let it sit for 24 hours after spraying.  I got distracted and forgot about this project, so mine sat like 60 hours.  It was good and dry when I got back to it. 

Next I "primed" the surface by rubbing a piece of chalk across it:

Then I erased everything: 

Now for the edges.  I used decorative Duck Tape because I'd had it sitting for a while waiting for the perfect project.  If you can't find any at your store (or they don't have any colors or patterns you like) you could use ribbon instead.  Just use double sided tape to attach it. 

I cut the tape for the short sides a little shorter than the chalkboard and attached them.  Then I cut the pieces for the long sides a little bit longer than the board:

For the corners, I cut out a square:

Folded in the ends:

And then the long side.  When all sides were done I had this:

Then I did it all a second time:

I flipped them over and added poster mounting tape:

Stuck them to the inside of the cabinet doors:

And got to writing:

Voila!  A beautifully organized cabinet:



Sorry about the photo quality.  I promise to find my camera soon!



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