DIY Yarn Cabinet: A Post with a Moral

“Things don’t always turn out the way you plan.”

I hate that phrase.  Yeah, life is full of change and the unexpected always tends to happen and blah blah blah.  Unfortunately, it’s one of those annoying quotes that is so true it demands a sort of grudging respect…and sometimes it deserves to be the theme of blog posts.

I wanted to make a yarn cabinet.  I pinned, I planned, I plotted, and I scoured stores waiting for JUST THE RIGHT CABINET.  And then I found it.  Granted, it was ugly and banged up but that just knocked it down to the perfect price.  I ripped off the door and got to work turning it into a glorious yarn castle.

See the awesome mirror and “wood” lattice work?

Door ripped off and ready to paint!

There was a lot of sanding, profanity, and finally:  PAINTING!  I decided to paint it white (it’d go with everything!) with a chalkboard front.

White Paint. Chalkboard front.

Well, in the photo it doesn’t look so bad.  But after painting it white, it showed every single little hole, ding, and scratch.  And the white just seemed wrong, even though I had spent an hour in a Lowes picking it out.  I was displeased.  Still, I decided if the outside wasn’t what I wanted, the inside sure as hell would be. Another trip to another store! One hour later (I may be the tiniest bit indecisive), I found some scrapbook paper that was EXACTLY what I wanted.  Sure, I should have gotten contact paper…but the three options I found weren’t doing it for me.  There was a LOT of measuring (and remeasuring) and cutting.

Mad cutting skills.

I used a spray adhesive to line the inside and….IT WAS GORGEOUS!!! SO BEAUTIFUL!  Totally made up for the lackluster outside.  Super proud of myself, I started modge-podging my perfectly placed paper liner.  In the words of Pretty Woman:  “Big mistake.  Huge.”  The paper immediately turned to MUSH.  It wrinkled, it bubbled, and all the color smeared.

I WAS HORRIFIED

Lots of profanity, and I tore the paper out.  Out of a desire to have the damned thing done, I slapped the door on anyway (more profanity), spent way too long trying to write something in chalk and called it good.

Ta-Freaking-Da

After I got the door on, a lot happened in my life.  I got a job offer, quit my job I had at the time, and found a new place to live within the span of a week.  Needless to say, the cabinet got bumped down on the list of things I was thinking about.  While it was a lot of change and a lot of chaos, it was better than anything I had planned or even COULD have planned.  A week or two after moving, I happened upon some perfect chevron contact paper.  FOR $3.00.  I took it home and put it in my cupboard.

Chevron

The paper was better than the scrapbook paper I had originally planned for my cupboard.  Granted, most of it is now covered by my yarn stash, but I know it is there and it makes me happy.  The same goes with my entire cabinet–it was definitely a lesson in going with the flow and that your plans aren’t necessarily always the best.  Also, it holds my yarn…which reminds me…I have a crochet project to finish.

Bye Felicia!

Let’s Get Organized: Coffee Corner

I like to think of myself as an organized person. Truth is, I’m really not. I’m more like an organized-person-wanna-be. I mostly get away with stuffing random things in pretty boxes and saying “Look at how organized and clean I am!”

organized • [awr-guh-nahyzd]
adj. adjective
1. Functioning in an orderly way or according to a plan.
2. Having the ability to plan and accomplish things in an orderly fashion.

Sounds simple enough. And it just makes sense, right? If I’m organized, then I feel like I can breathe a little easier and relax a little more. Maybe spend more time looking at my yarn or working on crafting projects. Who knows?

So here’s the goal: less clutter!

For my first organizational project, I decided to fix-up one corner in the kitchen. In this case, it’s a 4-step program.

Step 1: Find an area of the house that could use a little sprucing up.
(That part is easy.)

Step 2: Decide on an action plan.
(Thank you, Pinterest.)

Step 3: Spruce it up.
(Enter helpful husband.)

Step 4: Bask in the glory and satisfaction that you accomplished something.
(Again, easy.)

Here’s how it played out for me:

Step 1: Corner in the kitchen with coffee maker and mugs. And other random, unorganized objects.

It was actually messier than this but thankfully there’s no documented proof.

Step 2: Go on Pinterest.

Step 3:

But seriously, thank goodness for husbands with lots of tools.

Step 4: Ta-da! Look how pretty it is!

It still needs a few more touches added to it, I need to decorate the chalk board, and what’s inside the drawers are a completely different story.
But for now, it makes me happy.

Learning to Knit: The Struggle is Real

Although I attempted to learn how to knit in high school, I quit when I had exasperated several expert knitters who tried to show me how easy it was. In college, I picked up a crochet hook, managed to make an ugly afghan, and became solidly Team Crochet.  At that point, I hadn’t discovered fancy yarn and couldn’t read a pattern; I simply enjoyed the process (so relaxing!) and liked the idea that I could make something useful out of string.  Enter Portland.

One of the greatest things about living in the Portland area is that it’s known for its “craft” culture.  People here are serious about their hobbies (but for the love of hipsters, don’t use the word hobby), be it coffee makin’, beer brewing, or backyard chicken raising.  Portlandia humor aside, I think there’s definitely something to be said for being apologetically, unabashedly passionate about the small things in life.  Case in point? One visit to a local yarn store (which is basically Narnia for anyone who knits or crochets) and I became a dedicated yarn enthusiast.For the past several years, I’ve been a proud crocheter/”happy hooker” and have gladly defended and explained my fiber craft of choice.

Get it right, fools.

And then I got the knitting bug.  Maybe it was seeing people crank out so many amazing sweaters on Instagram.  Could’ve been that I went to Iceland and drooled nonstop over fair-aisle patterns I had no clue how to replicate with my hooks.

Not that I’m desperate or anything.

Either way, I talked about needing to learn how to knit so much that, by the time Christmas rolled around, the majority of my loved ones gifted me with knitting needles in the kindest, not-so-sublte “For the love of God, just stop talking and do it already” push ever.  So…guess what my New Year’s resolution was?!?

Hint: this.

Slowly, oh so slowly, I’m sorta-kinda getting it.  Knitting is tricky.  You have to learn how to hold TWO needles instead of just one hook and there are cables and all sorts of gadgets involved.  My first attempts at casting on and trying to just practice the “knit” stitch involved a lot of profanity and crossed eyes.  And although I’m better than I was…

I still look like this & knit at about this speed.

I’m finally beyond making swatches though!! I’ve started a scarf with the most gorgeous, expensive yarn I have ever purchased (Madeline Tosh’s Mandala colorway).

Yarn on a plane.

It’s an absolute joy to work with–which is good because otherwise I’d probably ball it up and call it a day.  Eventually, I will finish it.  At the moment, I’m getting ready to start a brand new job and move so all my learning-to-knit/crafting time has been severely reduced.  However, once I’ve got that time back:  prepare yourself for a scarf post.

Alphabet Wall

DIY: Alphabet Wall Project

My daughter’s room has been in a serious need of a make-over. The walls were decorated with decals that matched her crib bedding but it turns out those don’t like to stay stuck to the wall for very long. I knew that I wanted to find some new way decorate but I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do.

Enter Pinterest.

I found this do-it-yourself alphabet project that looked simple enough and immediately knew that this was what I wanted.

… 4 months later, I finally went to the store to buy the supplies.

Here’s what you need:

• Paper mache letters
• Mod Podge (I used gloss)
• Paint brush
• Scrapbook paper
• White spray paint (I used flat)
• X-Acto knife (not pictured)
• Picture hanging strips (not pictured)

I found most of the supplies that I needed at JoAnn.

Tip: Google “JoAnn Coupon” on your smart phone.
It’s most likely that you’ll find a 10-15% off coupon that you can have the cashier scan.

Alright! Here’s how to make your own alphabet wall!

Directions:

First you’ll need to spray paint the letters. I wanted the sides of the letters to be a different color than brown.
This step I actually did over a couple of days. I sprayed the front and sides of the letters, let them dry, then sprayed the backs of them the next day and let them dry.

Tip: If you enlist the help of your husband, this step may go a lot faster. If you don’t have a husband, you can substitute a fiance, boyfriend, brother, father, or any big, strong man will do.
It did in my case, anyway.

Here’s a picture of all of the letters painted:

Next, you’ll want to figure out what scrapbook paper you want to use to cover the front of the letters.
I laid the sheets out over the letters to see how it would look, then traced, and cut!

Tip: Cut the letters out a little more than you might need.
You’ll go back over them later with the x-acto knife to make the edges smooth.

Once I had all of the scrapbook paper cut out, using the mod podge was the fun part!
This was actually my first time mod podging anything and in the words of Hayley “it’s like painting with glue!”
She was right.

Tip: After a few of the letters were done, I realized that I was putting too much mod podge on before the scrapbook paper.
It started to leak out the sides, so just a light layer should do the trick.

I let those dry overnight and the next day I took my x-acto knife to cut off the excess paper on the edges and to cut out the insides of the some of the letters.

The next step is fun, because you get to use more mod podge! I put a light layer over the tops of the scrapbook paper to make them shiny.
Let them dry overnight then they are ready to be hung up!

Hanging them up was really easy. I used two Command picture hanging strips per letter.

Tip: This is another time where my wonderful husband’s help came in handy.

And here’s the finished product!

This was a super easy and super fun project to do. I am really happy with the end result and hope that you will be too if you try it!

— Jamie —