Sidelight Solution–Version 1

I wanted to cover the sidelights next to our front door with something other than gathered floor-to-ceiling sheers. If it was somehow blue (to coordinate with the blue door), even better.

Long story short, inspired in part by the amazing “stain glass window” on FilthWizardry, I decided to cover them with tissue paper. And on the same day I decided this, I discovered blue tissue paper in a box left by the previous owners. I love happy surprises like that!

It was SO easy – just watered-down school glue, painted onto the glass with a foam brush, then the randomly-cut tissue paper scraps placed on top, and painted over if the paper still seemed dry. Took part of an afternoon.

And I don’t think it’ll be hard to get off again – I’ll just have to spritz it with water and it’ll come right up. In fact, it did come loose at the bottom where there was condensation during the winter.

I’m already thinking about Version 2.

For one thing, I didn’t realize there were two different blues in stack of tissue paper; other people maybe don’t notice, but I see it every time I pass by. (Photos below show the sidelight I did first, then the sidelight I did next.) Do you see it too?

And for another, the triangles are too “fractured” for me right now. I’d like something smoother, calmer. I’m thinking nice thin horizontal stripes…

I just need to find some more blue tissue paper.

New Door, Blue Door

I don’t know how some bloggers do it – pack up and move to a new home without skipping a blogging beat. Not me. Managed to put up 5 posts during the month we found out we were moving (May), 3 posts during the month we put our old house on the market and bought our new one (June), and NO posts during the months we cleaned and caulked and trimmed and tossed and unpacked and updated and and and (July, August, and September). Now it’s already October!

But I’ve missed this place. And Heidi—madebyk’s biggest fan and most avid reader!— has too. And I’ve got lots to share, stuff from before the move, and during, and after. High time to jump back in.

Let’s start with my door. This was the new door. Or rather, the old, rust-colored door on my new-to-me house. Framed by the faded brown storm door that was hanging too crooked to actually latch. Yuck!

        

And while I thought we’d paint it white, to match the white framing on the new windows…

…it wanted to be blue. Perhaps to match the amazing blue skies we’ve had every day for the past two weeks. Oh, Indian Summer, please stay!

So this is now my blue door. And I love it so!

The Wall Behind Me

I love the idea of using fabric-filled embroidery hoops as wall art, especially in a studio/craft room/atelier. (Desire to Inspire has a great collection of hoop art photos here.) And today I finally got started on my own.

Well, actually I started last weekend at the huge neighborhood-wide garage sale, when I found this in a “FREE” box.

Poor Mr. Bear is now in the garbage, but the 10” hoop that was holding him is up on my wall, full of blue fabric from the scrap box and adorned with a princess one of my kids drew. (I think it would be a cute design to embroider on something someday…)

And a few houses later I found an even bigger hoop; had to pay for this one. A quarter. I was going to leave it just fabric, but then while tidying up found this card that makes me smile.

It’s just pinned at the corners from behind. But it got me thinking, I could add some cardboard circles behind the fabric, so I could pin or tack stuff to the now-sturdy-backed fabric if I so desired…

I hope to find some more hoops (for cheap/free) to fill things out a little more. Hey, if you run across any, can you send them my way? I’m sure I could find a little sump’n-or-other for you to show my appreciation.

: )

Oh, and I added one more tack in the wall for my project list so it’s always close at hand. (It’s being used a LOT! Yippee!) I had to laugh when I read Quilary’s comment last month; like her, I almost let my brain derail me. In my case, it said “A clipboard, I can’t start using this list until I have a clipboard.” But then remembered my pile o’ cardboard and box o’ binder clips – derailment avoided. Take that, Brain!

P.S. I’d actually gone downstairs to work on the squares, but then started tidying up, which led to ripping Mr. Bear apart, which led to…. Then suddenly realized I’d “started” a project but had no recent “done” ones! Scanned my list and quickly found some to finish up and cross off. I think I’ve finally found the balance of structure and spontaneity I needed in my creating.

Continuous Family Calendar

Funny story at the end, but first…

I keep track of all our events, appointments, and such electronically (in Outlook’s calendar) but a big problem is that usually I’m the only one who looks at it. So a few years ago, we implemented a new system, which looks like this these days.

On it, we can see the events of the current day as well as the next two. Circled letters stand for the person(s) involved in the event. Every evening, I erase the current day and its notes, write a squiggly line under the next date to indicate it’s the “current day” now, and fill in the empty spot with the new date, three days away, and its events. So, the current day just keeps cycling through the columns – left, middle, right…

Any large erasable board would work; I chose to make my own wipe board. It hangs in our hallway just off our kitchen so everyone can check it and know what’s happening. Additionally, it’s helped me so much because it forces me to look at my electronic calendar each evening, specifically three days hence, so I know what to add to the wipe board. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve said “Oh, that’s right! I’d forgotten!” And best of all, I still have two full days if I need to prepare anything for that forgotten event.

We used to just show two columns: “today” and “tomorrow.” We also had a bunch of bright clingies that we’d received with another laminated calendar a while back. Since none of the girls were reading yet, it worked well to help give them an idea what was going on. e.g. crayon = school for Heidi, apple = school for Sophie, red balloon = something fun!

Unfortunately, the clingies eventually lost their clinginess and all my attempts to revive them were in vain. Am now trying to think of ways to make (or buy?) some. Any ideas or leads?

I’ve started to loosen my grip on the reins of control and perfection by letting Heidi write some of the stuff too. Loved this from a year ago when she was just learning to read… Our task for tomorrow: laundry.

In the photo above, you can see that I was still marking lines between days, as well as lines for our meals (which made it easier to see when events were happening in a day), with the erasable pen. And they were constantly getting erased.

I finally got smart and added some ribbons and rick-rack under the glass to designate the lines instead. It’s so much quicker now to erase a day and write in the new details for the next day.

Well, I hope that covers it. If not, you can always ask.

So to finish, my funny story:

In my quest to add more structure to my life this year, I certainly think it’ll help that my cousin Jana is living here with us. Some of her über-responsible, über-orderly tendencies will surely rub off on me, right? Yesterday morning, she had to be out the door at 7 a.m. I was so surprised to find her still in bed, asleep, at 6:57. She’d never overslept before; apparently, the volume on her alarm clock had been turned down to silent by accident.

So what does she say while she’s rushing to get dressed – in the clothes she laid out the night before – and grab all the things she needs for the day – all neatly lined up next to her door? She says, and I quote, “Oh shoot. Now I won’t have time to make my bed!” 

And did I mention she’s 19? Oh, yes, I do hope I learn some things from her these two years she’s with us!

Hanging a Large DIY Wipe Board

As mentioned here, one of my framed glass wipe boards just hangs from a picture wire. Which is fine because I only write on it once a week.

But the other one is written on daily. And is bigger and heavier. So I wanted something stronger and more stable.

French Cleat

Years of watching HGTV to the rescue! (Or was it on Trading Spaces?) …I remembered seeing a large headboard attached to a wall using a french cleat, which is made from a board cut in half lengthwise at a 45° angle. One half is attached to the wall and the other half to the hanging piece, such that the two halves lock into place. Here’s a video in case my picture there isn’t enough.

Note: there also needs to be a spacer at the bottom to keep it from swinging towards the wall and tilting the whole piece. So I started with a wider board and made two cuts: one straight (creating the spacer), one angled (creating the cleat pieces).

Another Option

If you don’t have a way to make an angled cut but have some eye screws, another option is to twist the eye screws into the back of the frame near the top. Then attach a board (e.g. a 1x2) to the wall, rest the eye screws on top of it, and drive a nail or screw through each eye screw hole into the top of the wall board. Again, you’d need a spacer at the bottom too. 

Bi-Level Hanging

In my case, I wanted to hang the board out of Lucy’s reach, but I also wanted Heidi to be able to comfortably write on it at times. Lucky for me, my cleat boards were too long. So I cut off the extra 5” and used the two pieces to form a second hanging level – you can see them in the photo below left. Photo below right shows it hanging at that lower level and you can also see the long high-up piece from which it usually hangs. (Yeah, that was  out of Lucy’s reach… before Lucy figured out how to push various pieces of furniture over there as stepstools!)

 

Note: I screwed the short little pieces—and the long piece too—into studs for added strength.

I also made sure, when placing the lower level, that it was high enough so it wasn’t in the way of the spacer at the bottom of the frame. See figure at right.

You could do the bi-level hanging with the eye screw option too; you’d just need to attach another 1x2 with nails/screws in the right spots.

Happy decorating!

DIY Wipe Board that’s Pretty too

I love the function of wipe boards but I don’t love their form. So a few years ago, I made my own wipe board. Compared to its white plastic cousin, it’s a breeze to wipe off and I think it looks a whole lot nicer hanging in my home.

Six months later, I made another one, seen above. And took pictures of the steps. Then never posted them. And still not sure I really need too – my cousin (who maintains she’s not crafty at all, but I disagree) made herself a board just based on the picture in the original post.

But I avoided some mistakes my second time around, so here’s my somewhat superfluous “how to make your own DIY wipe board.”

(I’ll leave the explanation of this second board’s purpose for another post – preview: it’s a bit of structure I implemented in our home that actually lasted longer than the usual two weeks or so!)

Materials:

I used a large frame with a glass insert. Some plastics inserts can also be written on with dry erase markers; but be sure to test it first! And be a little more inconspicuous about it than me, who started to write a big “Hello” on another frame insert and realized after the first four letter that it wasn’t coming off…

Also needed a big enough piece of light-colored fabric. I used what I had on hand. A solid with a small stripe/accent of printed fabric might be nice too.

Paint, because I wanted to change the color of my free frame.

And various trims. On my awana verse board, the ribbon stripes were just for decoration; on the larger one, I used them to mark off sections so I wouldn’t have to keep drawing the section lines in by hand.

Oh, and I used some white paper – see step 5 below. 

Oh, and some tools for step 1 below – I used a screwdriver.

Oh, and some tape or hot glue or such.

Procedure:

1. Undo whatever is holding the glass/backing/etc to the frame (in such a way that you can redo it later).

2. If desired, paint your frame. (Clearly, I took these photos a while ago; my driveway is currently covered in about 1/2” of ice… But cold weather is not a reason not to spray paint! That’s what garages are for.)

3. Do yourself a favor and iron your fabric. The glass pressed against the fabric will likely not be enough to squish the creases out. Ask me how I know that… 

4. Do yourself another favor and clean the glass. Both sides. Trust me.

5. If the backing is dark and makes the fabric look dingy because the fabric is so light, cover the backing with some white paper.

6. Wrap the  fabric around the backing, adhering it as needed. I was a little skimpy with my tape. Hot glue might’ve been faster/better/easier but I didn’t own a gun yet at the time. Shocking, I know. That I, as an avid crafter, lived 33 years without owning or even using a hot glue gun!

7. Anyway, then pop the glass and backing back into the frame and redo whatever you undid in step 1.

Here’s a few (overexposed) close-ups of the corner fold I did…

 

And it’s done.

Oh, as for hanging them: The awana one, below, just hangs from its wire deal in back, like a normal picture. Since I only write on it weekly, sometimes I leave it on the wall when I write, but it’s also small and light enough that I can lift it off the wall easily. The other one is larger and heavier and written on a lot, so I used a different method… which will receive it’s own post.

P.S. I move things around the house pretty regularly, including all the stuff on the sideboard under the wipe board. But the short, wide-mouthed pitcher (bottom right corner) usually stays because that’s where I store a couple markers and a paper towel “eraser.”

Jana’s Light Fixture and other Happy Discoveries

What a crazy week it’s been in our house.

• Our window installers arrived last Thursday and have been here every day (except Sunday) since then. (Try putting a 2-year-old down for a nap when a guy is using a Sawzall in the next room.)
• I’ve been decluttering and passing on still-useful stuff to Freecycle recipients. (Love my local FC group, but it does require some work, sifting through email replies, making pick-up arrangements, etc…)
• Ken had minor surgery on Monday. All went well but he’ll be spending this whole week at home recuperating. (So now I’m tending to the needs of 4 instead of just 3 “dependents.”)
• And on Tuesday evening, Jana, my cousin from Germany, arrived; she’ll be living with us for two years while she goes to college here. Yay! (But as of Tuesday afternoon, her closet was still filled with clothes to be sorted and moved. Eek!)

But of course there’s been fun and making and such going on, too. Keeping me happy and sane, if also surrounded by some chaos.

One thing I really wanted to get done before Jana arrived was switch out the ceiling light in her room. Ever since a run-in with the bunk bed ladder (months ago), the once-upon-a-time square glass cover has looked like this:

So in addition to all my offers on Freecycle recently, instead of going out and buying something new, I posted a wanted for a light fixture. Here’s the “beauty” I got for free a day later:

Hmmm. (In case you can’t tell from the photo, the base of the light is that gold-ish, black-ish, ugly-ish metal that was oh-so-popular 20 years ago when our house was built.)

Spray painted the base – and the “knob” I intended to add on – a bright silver. Too bright. Figured Kristi might have some black paint. Sure enough – in the 15 minutes I had between errands, she hooked me up pre-stirred paint, a rag, a foam brush, a garage to work in, and a friendly encouraging face. So then I had this:

Here’s a close-up of that “knob” thingie. I wanted it to look more like fixtures that are in the stores these days.

That “knob” thingie was actually the top to a rose water perfume holder that I got about 25 years ago! And that has spent the last 15 years in a box in my parents’ crawlspace until the decluttering weekend there when the box was sent home with me. And then I found it at just the right time when I was listing some other box contents on Freecycle… Anyone else needs a “knob” for an out-of-date light fixture? I still have one more. : )

But really, all summer, I’d been hoping to find a chandelier-y fixture to hang in Jana’s room. Well, what did I see in the window of a boutique I’d never even noticed before, on the way to bring Ken to his surgery on Monday? A couple sweet-looking chandelier-y lights, one of which now belongs to me!

I also wanted to get a dresser for her room. Found this sweet little guy at one of the local thrift stores, one day before Jana’s arrival. So no time to paint it, and perhaps I won’t after all… Not sure yet. With the scuff marks and scratches, I figured it was a no-brainer. And it’s the perfect specimen to receive fabric-covered drawer fronts. But seeing it in her room now, next to the swirly-metal-and-dark-wood day bed, and the overstuffed grey leather chair, and the redone ceiling light, and the chandelier globe… it’s kinda growing on me, just the way it is.

Plus, not painting it removes one more thing from my somewhat lengthy to-do list…

P.S. To Ima (and interested others): the dimensions for the Hankie Hem Dress will come just as soon as I can make them understandable for non-Mathletes...

Curtains… and Decluttering Loot

My mom  is here for a visit this week. (Sister-in-law and nephews and niece too!) Reminded me that I meant to post photos of the curtains I made for my parents’ living room.

Well, since they don’t actually close over the windows, perhaps they’re not technically “curtains.” So, photos of “window treatments” then.

Most of the fabric was unearthed during our Whole-House Closet Reorganization; I just bought a bit of blue to tie it in with the blue wall.  We found some old curtain tape too, so that made the gathering of the panels super easy!

And as a thank you, she sent me home with lots of other goodies we unearthed: lace and other scraps from my grandmother, eyelets and an eyelet pliers (so I don’t have to use a hammer while making my labels), a bunch of other stuff, and these big flat baskets, which now reside here on my used-to-be-SO-empty wall.

(Note of confusion: my amaryllis bloomed once, beautifully, this winter. Then I read that one could make it bloom again by cutting everything off and continuing to water. Sure enough, a shoot emerged. And another. But they just keep growing longer and longer. And no new blooming shoot in sight. Hmm, I think I should probably cut it off and put the thing to rest til winter again…)

P.S. Just finished chatting with a friend who told me she shrunk her curtains and needs to make new ones. Perhaps will post a little tutorial soon… when the house isn’t so busy and full of people.