How to: Make a wind chime w/Sea Shells

This how-to post is brought to you buy Mother Nature! yay.

So if you've been reading my blog for a little bit then you know that we regularly head to the beach. And when doing so one of our traditions is to search for sea-shells.

So over the past couple months ive been putting the shells we've collected into a large glass jar and with Summer right around the corner {for us at least} I decided to make something with said sea shells {say that one 3 times fast....}.

One of them fancy seashell wind chime type things you see in all the beachy type stores!

It was really simple actually. Just gather your shells, a drill and a piece of wood.

The piece of wood is for when you drill the hole into the shell. You want the shell on top of the wood to not only support the shell {the wood is soft} but in case your drill bit goes a little to far, you won't damage what's underneath except the piece of scrap wood you used.

ALSO, I want to note that you don't need to live by a beach to create one of these. If you don't have beach shells readily available, they typically sell them at the dollar stores and all craft stores.

Lay your shell 'upside down' on the piece of wood and then slowly drill a hole in the middle, towards the bottom of the shell.

The drill goes through the shell pretty quickly, but make sure you keep the shell steady with one hand or else you risk cracking the shell {I know... trial and error heh}.

Find yourself a stick. A thick medium sized stick will do. We happened to have an abundance of stick in the yard and for this one instance, it actually worked out in my favor.

The purpose of the stick serves as the top piece where your shells will be hanging from.

You can keep the stick 'as-is' or you can clean it up a bit. I opted for cleaning mine up a bit. I wanted it to appear as if it were a piece of drift wood. SO... grab anything that you can easily scrape the tree bark bits off with. For mine I used a putty scraper.

We had a lot of heavy rain over the past couple days so all of the sticks in the yard are pretty water logged... normally it wouldn't look this 'dark' but all in all this is what your stick will look like once it's done being 'cleaned up'.

Now you will need some twine, or fishing line... or anything that you want to use to hang your wind chime from and also the shells to be hung from.

I used twine for this one.

Cut the length you want for the part you will use to hang your wind chime. Then tie a couple of good tight knots around each end of the stick.

Next you will use the same string you used for the hanging part of your stick, for your shells.

Loop the twine through the hole you made with the drill. For the bottom shell, tie a knot around it.. a nice tight knot. Then with the rest of the length of twine/string, loop as many shells as you want for that one piece, spacing them as close or as far apart from one another as you would like.

To add the shells, just bring the twine through the hole, then loop it around again and bring it back through the hole again. This allows you to adjust the space between each shell. No knots are needed, only for the bottom piece.

{and yes. I am wearing a 'Cars' bandaide. That's how I roll}.

Lastly- tie the top of your string of shells to the stick. Make a couple of good tight knots for extra durability.

And there you have it!

A sea-shell wind chime!

Perfect for adding a little 'beachiness' to any room or patio... or anywhere!

Luckily for me it's a little breezy out today and they really do make different sounds when they hit each other. I love the beach so I was really excited to create this project. Now we have a little something for out by the pool, to remind us of all the family trips we take to the beach to collect sea-shells :0)

Mirror Mirror off the wall

I have had my eye on those little wall shelves.. ya know... the kind that you can place frames on? What are those called? Im not sure. Im going to call them frame shelves [I like being self-explainatory]. Anyways this weekend I decided I wanted to make one. We have quite a bit of scrap wood in the 'garage' so all I needed was a drill, screws, wood filler, sand-paper and some paint.

I would have even cut the wood myself but at that moment, once I measured the boards out, I was wearing a tank top and seeing how Josh already had the table saw out I figured he mine as well do it [I have this thing in my head that if im wearing something along the lines of a long sleeve than I am nothing short of invinsible].

So once my boards were cut, I pre-drilled some holes, put some screws in, followed by some wood filler...

Like so peeps... like so. Doesn't that just look so simple?? ...Well it was!

I also want to note that this shelf is far from perfect. As you can see I have 3 different types of wood. One of those being plywood [lol!].. but it was free, recycled and it works.

So here is the wall with the large mirror in our dining room before. I liked it but at the same time it was a little to formal for me. Almost like it's expected... Ya know what I mean?

So with the mirror off the wall, I measured some painters tape to the length of my newly painted [white] frame shelf and centered it on that long wall.

Using my trusty [p.o.s] stud finder... I marked where the studs were, on the painters tape.

Once I had my markings for the studs on the painters tape, I transferred the tape to the back of my frame shelf. As you can see from the photo I used hooks to hang the frame shelf instead of drilling holes through the wood and into the stud.

-I also scored these hooks for free. By taking them off the back of the mirror. [Not to worry, I can still hang the mirror up!].

Lastly... frame shelf successfully hung and assembled with some various pieces of art, fabric and photos.

I think it was just the character this wall needed.

The orange paintings I made this weekend, which you can read more about here. The frame with the flowers is some of my colorful fabric that I had bought at Joanns a few months back and to the far right is a simple light green palm leaf print and one of my bird prints.

So... any ideas where or what I should do with the mirror that used to be on this wall?

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Don't forget to enter my giveaway going on at Spunky Junky for a chance to win a Free print from my shop [any print of your choosing]. Contest ends on Sunday by 4PM [central time].

Soap Pump - Tutorial

For awhile now I have had a 'glass soap pump' on my mind. I have been looking through different types of glass soap pumps on the internet and there is just something about them that looks so appealing to the eye. Of course they look better next to your sink than a plastic-white 'made in china' soap pump, right? Because that's what we have had for awhile now.

As you know I love glass. All things glass. Sometimes I will purposely buy pasta sauce, solely based on the type of jar it's in. ....Okay, maybe not that obsessive but you know what I mean. I also have some small mason jars and a few other plain glass jars. One in particular that had been sitting on the counter for quite some time now was an empty small, Salsa jar. It was plain and fat. I just loved the size and shape of it and after some thought I figured 'Hmm... why not try and make a soap pump myself [for free] and use that small-fat salsa jar!?'.

And so I did.

First I had an old soap dispenser away in my tub of 'goodies' [as I like to call it]. We've had this since Josh and I first started living together. It hasn't been used since than because ... Over the years my taste's have changed and that there soap dispenser did not fall into that category. So I took it out of the goody tub to take the pump part of it.

Next... A clean and dry empty jar.

I than took the pump part of the soap dispenser out and cleaned the parts of it.

I took the larger white piece of the soap pump and did a rough trace around the inside of the jar lid.

Next up was gathering all the tools needed for the 'job'. As you can see I already made a simple hole within the traced circle... And remember your safety glasses! :)

I took my wire cutters and started cutting away bits and pieces inside the circle, until it was large enough for the soap pump to go through.

Once I had the pump within the lid, I used some gorilla glue to secure it on the inside and the outside of the lid, as you can see it bonds metal and it also 100% waterproof!

I let the glue dry overnight and the next morning I used a good coat of metallic Valspar spray paint over the lid and the pump. After it dried... I have my finished product!

I think it looks so much better on the counter than what was there before. Granted I might have went a little overboard on the glue, hence it bubbled a little around the edges of the pump, but ah... it was free and it works!

Before

After

And there you have my complete tutorial on how to make a simple hand soap pump/dispenser. Any glass can be used and depending on the lid you can easily use a larger drill bit to drill the hole into the lid instead of using the cutters... my lid was a thin piece of metal so I just used the cutters and it only took me about a min. 

And if you were wondering, because I know you were, working with a Salsa jar made me want chips and salsa after I was done with this project. Unfortunately we didn't have any chips. Boooo!

$19.99 Cabinet Re-Do - Reveal

I probably should have waited until the top layer was dry and I could add a few pieces to 'dress' it up a bit, but that is not the case. I am to excited to reveal the finished cabinet I scored for $20.00 @ the local Goodwill. You might remember my post Here where I discussed how we happened to just casually walk around the place after our delicious dinner at Azteca [yummy!].

Let's take a quick look back shall we?

Good bones. Good design... just a little dated with the stain and gold handles.

So with some primer, paint, spray paint and a few days, I have managed to give this dated little number a totally new leash on life. Now before we go any further... I wanted to do something bold... well a little more bold than what I'm used to. I wanted to stray away from white or black.

So with....

That fabric, which I am using as the color palette for our living room, I wanted a nice bright, fun color.

And that is what I had in mind. There are still a few touch ups I have to finish off [like right next to the door hinges... I would have took them off the doors however they aren't attached with screws, and whatever they are attached with, we don't have the tool that fits]. Overall though it's about 99% finished.

 Source

The color I used was 'Beach Ball' from Olympics Premium Zero VOC interior paint in Semi-Gloss. The color doesn't have an exact match to my fabric-palette, however I preferred a yellow over an orangy-gold hue.

For the top knobs [something about that just doesn't sound right... ha!]. I wanted to keep the original ones that came with the cabinet because they have that 'vintagy' feel to them, and they matched the rest of the designs within the cabinet. The original color was a brassy/gold... so because that is not part of my color palette, I used Valspar's premium enamel interior spray paint for metal, in a brushed nickel color.

I did the same for the door handles. I kept the original brackets because they matched the designs in the wood, also because I think it would look weird to just have a simple knob there and another knob at the top of the doors.... to many knobs, so I figured the bracket would break it up a bit. The knobs however I switched out with new ones for the doors. I found those at Lowe's and they matched the same brushed nickel in the shade of spray paint I used for the bracket and original knobs. They also seemed a little 'vintagy' so I figured that would work well with the entire cabinet.

So there you have it. My finished $20.00 cabinet. It's sitting in the living room, right by the window. That space has always bugged me because it was so bare and I have been on the look out for something special to put there and I am so excited now to have filled that boring ol' area. This cabinet will also be used to store all of Jaydens toys that he keeps in the living room, which will work out great with hiding them all whenever we have company over!

Como se dice..... I heart Goodwill

Yesterday in a bid to save myself from cooking for a day, that and we had Saturday night open on our meal plan, we decided to go grab a bite to eat since we hadn't been out for quite some time. So we headed over to [one] of the local Mexican restaurants which conveniently happens to be located next to a Goodwill. So of course after we ate ourselves into chips and salsa oblivion, we walked next door to take a peek at what they had.

At first I noticed a long, sturdy TV stand. My eyes widened and my gut fluttered with excitement. You see right now we have a glass TV stand and 1. I cannot stand that thing. It is nothing but a major dust magnet and 2. It doesn't go with any of our decor [it really is the only 'glass' piece in the house, other than my glass bottles, frames and mirrors]. So I quickly walked over to this TV stand before anyone else could [even though the place was less than half empty] and first I noticed the price. $29.99. I seriously wanted to jump and giggle a bit however when I saw the word 'SOLD' written across the tag my heart sank and I came back down to reality. -Of course it would be sold, right?

That's alright. Something else caught my eye that quickly made my mind forget about that TV stand anyways.

This here little beauty is a 2-door cabinet. I knew the perfect spot for it inside the house and I already knew the perfect color for it. I was ecstatic!

At first I thought it was two doors on the lower half and two drawers up on the top half, but it is just one solid door on each side with knobs at the top to give the illusion that it has drawers.

Although it did have a little surprise hidden inside... See the bottom right photo. That little thing on the top left of the cabinet is actually a drawer. It doesn't have a handle and blends right in. I'm going to name it the 'secret' drawer, and the best part? It's made of real wood, and we all know how rare it is to find some pretty awesome pieces these days that are actually made of real wood.

The bottom has this detailing that goes all the way across to the other side. You can say it gives me the warm fuzzies.

And these little shelf-style designs in the wood are just darling, and you know it has to be something special because I hardly ever say the word 'darling'. It really is.

So right now it is currently primed and the first coat of paint is drying. I already have my spot picked out and I will more than likely be using this to store some of Jayden's toys, neatly hidden from view.

So the best part... The price.

Any guesses?
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$19.99 - Cha-Ching!

Stay tuned for the finished reveal! :)

Sugar, Spice and .... Paint?

When we bought our house we were kind of puzzled as to why there was a closet in the dining room. Ya know, the traditional style closet with bi-fold doors. From what we were told [Our Realtor told us she knew the owners from a couple of years prior], the dining room started out as a dining room, than the owner turned it into a bedroom because he had a fairly large family and needed the extra rooms. The the next owner after him turned it back into it's original purpose. A dining room.

So now we have a formal dining room with a closet. What we didn't have was a Pantry, and boy do we need a pantry! So in the end the fact that our dining room had a closet wasn't so bad after all and the fact that the dining room is right off the kitchen makes it even more of a good idea to turn the dining room closet into a pantry.

Up until now this is what our 'Pantry' has looked like. Pretty simple, messy and just that... a place for food storage and extra Kitchen gadgets.

The shelves Josh added a few weeks after we moved in. We were tired of rummaging through boxes of canned goods and spices, so he built some simple shelving. Very sturdy simple shelving. I than painted two shelves before I ended up running out of paint [that was 7 months ago... I KNow!] and up until now I haven't had the chance to grab some new paint, that and I always seemed to forget [I tend to do that sometimes].

So I completely cleared all of the mess contents from the 'Pantry' so I could finish painting the shelves and also the wall within the Pantry itself.

On a side note, I know the shelves look ridiculously uneven, but with the comforts of living in an old home, come the joys of uneven floors. The shelves really are leveled for the closet pantry however. 

Luckily I had JUST enough Valspar- Mount Pilier white [which is what the actual dining room is painted in] to finish the entire inside part of the Pantry.

Next up is to finish painting the shelves white. I have some ideas for the wall, one of which is 'drying' as we speak... although im not sure if im 'sold' on it just yet.

Other ideas I have cooking away in my brain are to removed the bi-fold doors [because honestly they just seem to bedroom-ish for me, and after all this IS a dining room] and organize all of our stash within baskets, glass jars and other 'easy on the eye' display wares.

Do you have a Pantry? Do you like exposed pantry items, or items that can just be stashed away quickly and out of view?