Upcycled, organization with quirky style

Hubby surprised me with this one. He's always interested in these multi drawer metal cabinets when I find them. I picked this one up for him at a recent estate sale. Wish I had a before pic, but I don't .

Anywhoo...He surprised me with it's makeover. Hope you like it.

Here's his process in a nutshell. He need to buy  2 handles from Home Depot and spray paint. He cleaned Cleaned, sanded with scotch bright pads, and painted, and then found some fonts of various inspirational words, printed them and Voila!

I love his color choices.  Good Job Honey!

Mid Century Desk Update and makeover

 

 I've been looking for a smaller mid century desk for awhile now, and I had some ideas of what I wanted to do with it.

 When I spotted this one I knew it would work, but...

 It had a few problems, and needed a complete makeover.

 First I had to sand the top, and glue the veneer back down. This desk was not top quality even when it was new.  So it was gonna need a special touch.

 Sanding, spray paint and glue would be needed in abundance, as well as what ended up being a complete dis-assembly.

Anything and everything is a work surface in my workshop.

Once I removed the "gold tape" from the spindles and sanded them down a bit they only needed a couple of coats of spray paint to bring them back from ugliness.

I wanted to give the legs a "dipped look" which you'll see all over pinterest.  

 I knew I wanted the drawer red, but beyond that I really had no clue about colros. I used pinterest as my guide and came up with white as my accent color and it worked great. 

Only a little color in a few places was all that was needed to give it some pop, and the rest was left brown or painted brown. The top was in such bad shape, once sanded I just painted it brown.

I found this piece of fabric in my stash and it's perfect for lining the drawer. Gotta have some Orla Kiely in there somewhere :)

I'm really please with how it turned out and plan to put it to good use.  I'm always amazed by what a little spray paint will do.

Getting the Creative space in order

I think my creative space is starting to take shape.  I've actually added more to this room to make it serve it's purpose better. But I've also re-defined it's purpose and gotten rid of a lot of stuff that did not need to be in here.

I organized and condensed my tid-bits of creativity in clear jars via the inspiration of fellow blogger Shabby Vintage Junk.
 See the before photo at the bottom of this post to see just how far this area has come.

This area has been greatly de-cluttered

 

I have no closet in this room, so I fashioned a make-shift divider with this old dresser.

Behind it are bins of my Etsy inventory, giving this room some more functionality.

As promised here is a before shot from a few years ago.  Creativity is Messy!!!! 

Purging the Purse

I want to share with my method of cleaning out and transporting all the stuff of life that lives in our purses.  I don't need to tell you that if you carry a heavy purse, you are hurting your shoulders and your back and this damage can be long term. 

But what exactly is the solution?

 Let's think about what men do.  They carry just what they need, in their pockets, and then they have a brief case, satchel or backpack for the rest, that stays in the car most of the time.  This system is based on the idea that we really don't need to carry everything with us all the time.

 First dump out everything in your bag, note:I've already edited my bag or there would be a lot

more junk here.  Then remove anything you absolutely do not need to be carrying around, ie trash, etc.

 You will be working with two bags. One large and one small. Even a large wallet can work for the small bag (see my note at the end of this post).  Look at all your items and decide what exactly you MUST have with  you when you run into the store, or restaurant.  For me this would be ...

 Glasses, Money, Credit cards/ID car keys chapstick and phone.

Here are a few of my solutions to make these items take up less bulk.  For Cash,

I took a plastic file folder, cut it to just a bit larger than my bills and they tuck nicely inside. These folders have one size fuzed, so it's closed on two sides,and open on two sides. I love this and it is much smaller than a wallet. 

For my cards, I have a snap close card case, when opened they are all easily visible and easy to get to.

 I purchased some of those dental tooth picks with the floss attached just for this thin case. Inside I keep a few tooth picks and a couple of Ibuprofen.

 My car key, chapstick and lipstick are tucked into the two built in pockets.  My phone can also fit nicely in here if needed,  and there is enough room for my reading glasses. This bag weighs only 1 pound and has a long strap for wearing cross body which I love. 

Note: Because my car is keyless I never have to dig for this key, it just stays in place. If you don't have a keyless car, Put that on your wish list for your next car. I absolutely love this feature.

Now for what goes in the big bag or what I call my Back and Forth Bag. This bag goes from home to car and work to car and that is it . I never carry it into the store, or restaurant for good reason.

 Once packed it weighs 3 pounds.

 First my non car keys go on an attached strap for easy access. I rarely need these, as we have a push button combination lock on our home door (Very much worth installing)

A ribbon can be pinned into any bag for this feature. A small pin flashlight is hand too.

 A plastic folder. In here I put items that I need to take from home to work or from work to home. A Few coupons etc. It is emptied daily, I don't  let things accumulate in there.

 I love pouches, and I picked up these two clear ones at The Container Store. I can see what is inside easily. One holds emergency snacks and the other is for medicines etc.

 the pouches, and kleenex go in the large zipper pocket in the big bag.

 I purchased this cosmetic case at Target, It's a perfect organizer for a bunch of other stuff I need at hand. I keep a calendar (purchased one that fit inside) checkbooks, business cards, business cash,

paper, pen and tape measure in here. All zipped up and easy to get to.

 In the open pockets I have a pen, comb, lipstick and gum. The small purse fits nicely inside and I'm ready to grab and go.

As you can see I love Orla Kiely bags, but any bag will do. Just make sure it's as wide as a file folder and large enough to carry any planner or other items you need handy. But remember, those things stay in the back and forth bag.

I like the cross body pouch better than a wallet for a couple of reasons. 

1) I've actually laid a wallet down or dropped it and lost it in the past, I can't do that with a cross body bag. 

2) If a wallet is in my hands or on my wrist my hands are not free to browse and a cross body bag is not in my way.

Adjust this system to fit your own way of doing things. Your back and shoulders will thank you.

Fun Fabric Tray project

 

One of the items on my do not buy list is trays, but when I saw these old fiberglass trays I knew I had found what I've been looking for and  at just $3 each I had to get them. One of my first projects once home was the one in the back of my mind, just waiting for the right trays. It came out so nice I had to share it.

Start by painting the top of the tray white with spray paint, and let dry.

I put masking tape around the edge, to keep the paint only on the top of the tray. The reason for this is so the color(s) on the tray do not show through the fabric.

Once Dry, remove the tape and either apply spray adhesive or mod podge to the tray. Then align your fabric, and starting from the center begin to press it down moving outward,  avoid air bubbles as you go. Pay special attention to the curving edges, and pressing down on the top lip to get good contact. Paint over it again with mod podge on top of the fabric this time.  Allow the excess fabric to simply spill over and set aside to dry overnight.

Once Dry, use a sharp knife or razor to carefully cut away the excess fabric aligning it with the edge of the tray. Get as close as you can. Use an up and down motion to break the threads.

Then apply a second coat of mod podge, You can do this as many times as you'd like. I stopped at the 2nd coat. Allow it to dry overnight.

Note: The tray will probably not feel smooth to the touch. Fabric fibers tend to stand up when wet and they dry this way.  The tray will have a rough feel, but I don't mind this.  I was afraid to try and sand paper for fear of making it dirty.  Different fabrics may react differently.

The last step is to apply a coat of clear acrylic spray paint.  I do this because the mod podge will remain sticky and items you set on the tray will tend to stick to it.  The spray acrylic helps with this problem.

This process can be used for many projects.  How about clip boards, or luggage etc?  Use any fabric you like, old scarves, tea towels, clothing etc all work great.

Orla Kiely News

I know I'm a blog about junking, but I have another obsession and It's Orla Kiely.

Known mostly for her purses and fashion, she has ventured out into the Home Decor arena lately.

She has two good books that you might like. Of course I own both. One thing I like is that within the books are full pages of her designs that can be removed for framing.

 

I know that a few of my readers love her as well and I thought I'd share some recent finds and news with you.  First, you can get I phone and tablet cases from Best Buy in the US. I'm in love, but I recently bought one when they were at Target and I don't think I can justify another. :(

 

Also, I found some Orla Kiely Towels from her House collection at Marshalls and I've heard they have them at Home goods (same parent company) as well. I got several and I love this huge one that is perfect for Beach or pool.

Target has a new line of Orla Kiely Cosmetic bags just now showing up in stores.

  I also stumbled upon some Orla Kiely Canisters recently at The Container Store. When I turned down this isle, my jaw dropped to the floor and I was doing an internal happy dance. I think the employees thought I was crazy.

 You  may think at this point that I'm a shop-aholic. Well I am kinda, but I do reign myself in. We don't have a lot of good shopping in my town so when I go to the "big city" I usually splurge.  I got one of the tube canisters and the square canister set.  

But I think I may need some help :/  This is part of my OK collection and a few "copy cats" as well, and I've added to it since I snapped this pic.

It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

It's been a very busy holiday season. My youngest got married on Dec 7, then my uncle had a heart attack on Sunday and had bypass surgery on Thursday. I'm glad to report that a full recovery is expected.  And to top it off I have caught a little stomach bug. 

But I am managing to finally make it look like Christmas and it's a good thing too, as the big family meal will be at my house this year.  I thought I'd share a few of my Flea Marketed, and junky vintage decorations with you. Some I've shown before, some are new. I hope you enjoy.

You can read about this fun project here

Orla Meets Cathrineholm Meets the nativity

 

I had to have this crate when I found it back in June :)

I typically like my regular decor and don't really like putting my prizes away for a month. So I just decorate around most of them.

 

I love this red Cathringholm bowl, and the graphics on this old box of snow.

some fleamarketed package decor

 

A spindle tree in my Snowman Crate 

A little bit of everything in my entry way

.

I hope you are enjoying decking your halls and that you and yours are all healthy and happy this Holiday season.