Estate Sale Find

I'm looking forward to (hopefully) going to a big estate sale that starts this week and it reminded me to share this little find from a sale I went to with my grandma quite a while back.

I found two old wooden crates in the garage of this sale and bought them. Later, we picked up some little stainless steel casters at a discount store for the crates. Tyler put casters on one, and we gave it to his mom for part of her Christmas gift. I'm still waiting on him to put the casters on mine.... meanwhile, with the crate being so multi-functional, I found another use for it. I had some house plants sitting around needing to be permanently potted, so I dropped them in my crate and it makes a charming little plant box. I'm sure this crate will have many homes throughout my house, but for now, I'm loving this charming little set-up.

Here are some inspiration pictures of uses for these crates that I've run across:

{Pictures 1, 2, & 3 from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

And here is my little crate...dozens of possibilities for this little guy.

White Plate "Collage"

After a month of no posting, here I am. December was a month of chaos, and as other priorities rose above playing on the internet, there was no time left in the mix for conjuring up any posts. Things are getting back to normal, and I'm here (though you might see me a little less often than you used to).

I started a little white plate collection a few years ago, and I always intended on putting them up in a random pattern collage, like these:

{source here)

 ...but with less order/shape.

{source here}

 I don't have this many plates (yet), but I like this.

{source here}

My plates were just stacked up in my dining hutch until I thought of where to put them and it finally donned on me that I should put them in a line (instead of a collage) above my kitchen cabinets because it was bare up there. I think it's pretty charming and it subtly takes focus off of the fact that there is no crown on that back wall and a very crooked paint line (for reasons beyond my control)  ;) I will probably add more to them.

 

 

Project Post 28: Mudroom Wall

We moved into our house in February 2010, and I started brainstorming for this project shortly after that. After Pinterest launched and became widely used, I started finding lots of inspiration for this little project I wanted to tackle.

Here was my dilemma: our laundry room is also the walkway between the door to the garage (which is the door we use to enter the house 99% of the time; guests enter through the front door) and the rest of the house; meaning, it is a widely used, high-traffic area. It not only is a main source of traffic, but also used daily for laundry (I have a toddler, hel-lo), and up until a couple of weeks ago, it was the place we bathed my son every single day of his life (there's a huge tub-sink in there). I mentioned all of that to stress what a popular place this room is.



{Laundry room / walkway BEFORE}

You can see in the picture above that there is just a long blank wall on the left side of the room, and the doorway from the kitchen (there is a pocket door there, it stays open unless there is laundry going) and the door to the garage butt up against the wall so that there is no possible room to put a piece of furniture or any kind of organizational/functional anything there, without running into it every time you come or go. I really wanted a way to utilize this wall for storage or some kind of functional space. Our "landing strip" or "dumping post" for purses, diaper bags, and miscellaneous junk we bring in from the car was usually the kitchen table or island and it drove me insane. I wanted those things to have a "spot" out-of-site and not where we dine. The problem is now solved and it's beautiful!

Here is where my inspiration comes in. I saw a couple of these little projects in different posts on Young House Love, and the rest I found browsing Pinterest.

{Sources for 1, 2, 3}



 



{Sources for 4, 5}

I showed Tyler my inspiration pictures and he was on board and thought it was a good idea. After I pinched myself to make sure it wasn't a dream, I asked if we could do it that weekend and he said ok.......................(wait, WHAT?!) This was back in June and the reason it has taken me so long to share it, well, there is no good reason. It took me a good two months to get it painted and purchase a rug (yes, that's important) and take, upload, and edit some pictures.

We decided to go with bead board instead of doing the more craftsman-style option (which I do love) for 3 reasons:

1. There is really nothing about our house that is craftsman style

2. We couldn't just use 2x4s and paint the sheet rock because our walls are way over-textured (our painter called it a "Mexico house" and I absolutely agree - our drywall guys didn't listen)

3. Our cabinets throughout the house have a bead board panel so the bead board really works the best

 

The pictures will explain the rest:

 

{Before}

 

{Before}

 

 

 

{During Painting}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Blue Tumblers

If you are a family member or close friend of my parents, you know exactly what this title refers to. Yes, I am writing a blog post about the blue tumblers.


About 6 or 7 years ago, my mom bought a few plastic tumblers at Wal-Mart. It was about this time of year (early Spring), when they stock the shelves with all the colorful, summery plastic dinnerware. Let me give you a little background information first... My parents have everyday dinner glasses (for when there is company), fancy iced tea crystal goblets (for when there is really fancy company), but what they use the most are plastic tumblers. Anyone who knows my parents also knows that they always have freshly brewed iced tea ready-to-pour at all times of the day.


Back to the tumblers...Now, my mom is picky about her cups. She won't use just any tumbler, and she won't even touch one if it's not insulated (and not every plastic tumbler that says "double-walled" is really insulated...thanks Mom), but the ones she picked up at Wal-mart that Spring several years ago were pretty close to perfect if there ever was a perfect plastic insulated tumbler. She stocked up on a couple every trip she made throughout that summer, and she got her next-door neighbor hooked on them too. But much to their dismay, when they went to Wal-mart the following Spring to stock up on more tumblers (to replace ones that had disappeared, been lost, cracked, etc.), they had quit carrying them. Mom searched high and low for probably the next year and never found anything adequate (I realize Tervis Tumblers are the best of the best but at fifteen bucks-a-pop, who can afford to have a cabinet full of them, especially when the Wal-Mart ones were 96 cents?). After months, possibly years, of no luck finding the tumblers, and watching with dismay as the last few were lost, cracked from wear, or eaten alive because they mistakenly were put on the bottom rack in the dishwasher, my mom was about to give up. She put my dad in charge of finding a suitable option online to order, and he ended up finding a closeout on THE cups from the manufacturer who actually sold them to Wal-Mart. He found out that he could buy them at cost if he bought enough, so what did he do?


He bought 24,000.


That is a semi truck load if you're wondering. And they were all cerulean blue - not navy, royal, or sky blue - but like a neon cerulean blue, like the color in the box of 64 crayons. THE WORST color imaginable (strictly my opinion). You can now find these bright blue cups in the cabinets of every family member we have (and we have an insanely huge family). My dad started selling cases of the tumblers on eBay shortly after acquiring the mother load, and he's made pretty good money on the hideous little things. As it turns out, my mom wasn't the only person in America who hungered after those tumblers. They have quite the following. It's no question that I hate them, especially after seeing so many of them every day, in every house I visit, for all eternity (it seems), but it's really not the cup I hate, it is just the color.


All of that to say this: the unbelievable has happened. Mom told me a few weeks ago that Wal-Mart has the cups again, and in very pleasant bright Spring colors. They are exactly the same, except a dollar more in price, which is to be expected. In my opinion, they are worth the extra dollar. The outer wall is clear, and the inside is the bright color instead of white - so the tea stains don't show as well (we are all big tea drinkers). The only thing better would be if Tervis Tumblers were $1.96 each. I mentioned that I might buy us a few red ones (Tyler has mentioned before that he likes those cups too, but he knows I would never have those blue things in my cabinet), and my mom informed me that between she and her friend, they had already bought out our local store (wow). I did snag a few later.


And now, your life is richer for knowing that very long story :)

Project Post 22: Drip Pan Magnet Board

I saw this post on this blog, which led me to this pin:

The author in the blog post made her drip pan a chalkboard, but since we already have a large chalkboard (here), and the driveway is Levi's chalkboard, I decided just to leave it alone and let it be a magnet board (much less work).
The drip pan is from Wal-mart (automotive department) and is less than $10. There are a lot of things you could do with this! I love it - and so far Levi does too.

I made those "play" letters out of just wooden letters and scrapbook paper (both from Hobby Lobby). Don't look close because they bubbled up a bit from the glue/mod podge. I was going to make "learn" but decided "play" was one less letter - thus easier :)

Levi had fun with the magnet board. I kept hearing "this is fuuun," but unfortunately it wasn't my 16-month-old making complete sentences; it was my husband...as he was doing this:

And this is how we feel about that: