Pure Organization Project #11: Make the Switch

We ended up not going anywhere for our Spring Break & just hung at home & enjoyed the sights our area has to offer.  We got so much JUNK cleared out of the house (even after only a year we have way too much!!!) and started a few more organizational projects. 

I might be a little late on this, but this week's project is to make the "Switch" from Winter clothes to Spring clothes.  Hit your closet,  your kids closets {if you have them}, and the coat closet. 

 It's such a great feeling... Spring clothes & coats take up so much less room thanWinter ones!

We still haven't made our bedroom closet "pretty."  (It's more than not "pretty"...  things accumulate in it because I have yet to find a place for everything.  It actually kind of stresses me out, but not nearly as much as it did when we first moved in.) 

...so the closet's on my list...

...as soon as we get the chance!

xoxo,

lauren

ps- i wish these were my clothes!  (imaginary wardrobe from anthropologie)

Pure Style Project #9: How To Make Wax Drip Candle Covers for Your Chandelier

Hope you had a great weekend!  We painted the nursery, organized it (finally!) & I started hanging things on the walls.  wahooo!!  Our washing machine broke and our house got so trashed from working on the nursery and neglecting everything else,  that we decided to head over to my parents' house and do laundry & order pizza & watch movies Saturday night.  They'd gone out for the night so we got to relax in their newly finished basement (redone after the flood.) (For those of you who haven't been reading this blog since the beginning, Dave & I had moved into my parents' last year to save up for this house.  It was one of the best things we ever did, although at the time it seemed like an eternity.)  It was cool to be back in our old "home" (the basement) Saturday night and remember all of our saving & dreaming & planning for a new house and to realize that we were there.   

Also, I've decided that because so many of our projects are decorating-related and not necessarily organization projects, I'll include both.  (BecausetTicking stuff off of my "to do" list gets me more organized even if it is purely decor-related.)

For this week's project I wanted to share with you the wax drip candle covers we made.  The stark white candle covers always bothered me on our old chandelier.  (We'd had to rewire it and replace the old damaged candle covers that were oroginal to it.)  I wanted pretty wax drip candle covers. 

So we made glue drips down the sides of the 30 cent plastic covers with Elmer's Glue.  I let a layer of drips dry before starting another one.  Here's the first layer (below).  Just start at the top with a glob of glue and let it drip down.  (As you can see from the pics it was a learning process.)  And use something better than a paper towel as the surface...  it sticks to the candles.  ;)

Once they'd dried and I had enough layers, I painted them with a cream paint we had lying around:

Here's a close-up:

I'm really way more into the orangey-aged color of the one wax drip candle cover below on the left (It adds so much to a chandelier) but I didn't have the right paint lying around. 

 So here they are for now & when I get the chance, I'll be recoating in a more orangey paint & antiquing:

But so much better for now.  (At least I don't cringe when people look up & examine my poor chandy or I put pics up on the blog.)  So if you have any chandeliers that are in need of new wax drips, please join in and link up!!  

xoxo,

lauren

ps-  This project's at your own risk.  I didn't use heat resistant paint, which I'm sure would be the smartest thing to do...  We checked our covers (prior to painting) and they don't get warm so we went for it, but that's up to you.  :)

On a Crafty Scale, I'm probably above-average for normal people but below-average or average for crafty bloggers/ blog readers/ DIYers.  I get very impatient & sloppy and like quick & easy projects.  This was sooo easy.   

*update -  also I didn't come up with this myself-- I think I must've read it in a magazine a few years ago**  :)

Pure Organization Project #7: Declutter the Kitchen

Somehow things just accumulate in my kitchen.  We have a little tray that's supposed to be for wallets & cell phones & sunglasses, but it ends up overflowing with coupons and batteries & lightbulbs & screws &chargers and other random annoyances.  Things just come into our house & if we don't stay on top of them, they build up, particularly in the kitchen...  cards, coupons, new (old) purchases, candles, etc...   Sometimes it's just stuff that needs to be put away in another room but remains in the kitchen for weeks.  argggg...  Now my junk drawer is clean, but the rest of the kitchen is starting to feel like a giant junk drawer.  eeek!  

So,  I put every single item that needs to find a home or leave the kitchen on my kitchen island.  Here it is, my junk:

And today there's no "after" because it's still sitting on my island where I'm typing right now. 

So Project #7 is to Declutter the kitchen of everything that doesn't belong.  Find spots for the things that do need to stay and ditch the rest.  (Preferably to a good home in another room instead of making more clutter in another room as I'm tempted to do!)

Good luck & I'll be back on later today to add Mr.Linky!  (I am so strapped for time right now & didn't get a chance to look at all of last week's links but promise I will!!)

The Better Homes & Gardens crew arrives today and will be here all week-long for our Christmas shoot!!  The tree's up & we're getting ready to go.  I'll be posting to let you know how it's going & how it works.  (I'm so curious!!!)

xoxo,
lauren

Pure Organization Project #4: Update an "Ugly" (Bathroom Sink)

Well, you all said you were interested in even seeing the not-so-pretty projects, so this one definitely fits the bill!  Our kids' bathroom is AWFUL.  Really bad.  (And it's also the bathroom nearest the main living area so everyone uses it.)  Our house was built in the 70s and so was graced with beautiful green bathroom fuxtures!!  yum yum pretty...

When we replaced the old linoleum floors with hardwoord, we (Dave) installed a new white toilet. Since then, I've been dying for a new sink.  The green shower can be hidden by a shower cutrain but that sink is just out there.  We bought a new sink and then returned it, realizing that this bathroom isn't a space we want to put any money into right now.   So as a temporary fix, I decided to try out a porcelain refinishing paint kit from here for around $50.   It was a simple 2-step process of spraying on primer (2 coats) and then multiple coats of the spray-on Epoxy/ Porcelain Hard Finish. So here it is before:

And here it is now (san- new caulk-  that's happening soon):

It's SO MUCH better now.  My mom gave me these cute little blue gungham animal towel sets for the boys (from PB Kids)  and so I'm using these as the starting point for the design. 

I'm planning on sewing a sink skirt that removes with velco (thanks Eddie!) to hide a couple baskets of toiletries/ diapers/ etc.  I've also got a blue & white sheet to tun into the shower curtain & some art work for the walls.  Dave's adding in some woodwork for towel hooks.  We may or may not paint from there.  So, how did the spray on stuff work?  It looks much MUCH better but there is still a bit of a greenish hue about the sink when comparing it to the white toilet which is next to it.  If you look right at it alone it looks like a pure white as seen in this pic:

Since we haven't used it yet (we're letting it cure) I can't tell you about its performance.  I'll let you know how it's working in a month or so.  But for now, I'm very happy with it as an intermediate fix until we're able to do more in here.   When we're finished with this little bathroom redo, I'll of coures take pics & show you!

And now for Project #4:  Update an "Ugly"

Maybe you're lucky enough that you've already updated your uglies (Oh how I wish I were!!) and if so, you get the week off!! :)  But if you're like me and live in an old house or even a house that was done by someone else, or like to collect flea market pieces in need of a little TLC, you probably have some things that need a little updating or freshening up.  Door or cabinet hardware?  Any furniture you've been planning on repainting or refinishing?  Light fixtures?  Faucets?  Outlet covers?  Mailbox?  Door knocker?  Anyway, doing this little thing makes our whole bathroom feel 100 times less fugly.  Is there anything you can do to update a little something in your house?

UPDATE**  I LOVE getting all your photos & seeing them, but I'm getting so many that I've decided to use Mr.Linky's widgets so that you can link up to your photos straight from the post.  As soon as I figure out how to set it up, I will add it on to the end of this post so check back!! :)

Goodl luck!!    THANK YOU!!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps - Don't forget to vote again for Eddie's window!  (The top right pic on my sidebar is a link to the voting and you can also text "1" to 89800)

And tonight is that last night for the LISA LEONARD DESIGNS GIVEAWAY (previous post) so be sure to enter!! :)