Making a Bath Mat, Fail

I snagged a couple of bath mats on clearance and had the idea of putting them together to make a more interesting bath mat.

I thought chevrons.

Then I thought, eh, too much work.

The problem is once I finally got around to trying this, I already knew that I am completely changing the bathroom. So it's hard to put too much effort in.

I decided I would still try something, but simplified my idea to stripes.

I measured, marked the backs and cut.

Once I laid them out, I noticed that the mats were not quite the same size. Then I couldn't find the duck tape. At this point, with fuzzy bits all over the place I just about said, "screw it." (In a less PG version. ;) )

But I had come this far already. Might as well continue. I just grabbed some packing tape and taped the rug strips together from the back.

In the picture it's not as clear just how uneven the edge wound up being. Or how much fuzz I had every where.

In an ideal world I would have used actual carpet tape (at the very least duct tape) and I would have finished it by binding the edges, but I know I'm not keeping it. So, I was lazy. That's okay though. Not every project works out.    

Edging the Garden

I once learned how to edge from a gardening magazine, but I never put my new-found knowledge to use. Then I saw a pin/post from Funky Junk Interiors explaining the same method, and I had Sherry Petersik in my head saying, "Dude. Get on that." And it was a weird moment of cross-blog mojonation. But, Austin Powers flashbacks aside, 

Oh, behave!

it was  fo' sure time to get 'er done.

Last May we changed up a few things in the front planting bed, but never properly edged.

I pushed the mulch out of the way.

Dug straight down with my shovel, and then created a slope in my bed toward the edge I just created.

Then I put the mulch back, being careful not to load up the edge too much.

Before:

After:

Easy improvement.

  

  

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my ... Yard

Honestly, we were starting to wonder if we were supposed to start building an ark. We had a lot of rain. Well, first we had a lot of late winter snow, then rain, then a break, then a lot more rain. We also had hard clay which doesn't absorb water very quickly.

Spring has pretty much sucked around these parts.

This was our back yard.

Incremental changes that neighbors have made over the years means that all the water runoff pools in our yard. This year was the worst it has been.

Luckily we did not have water in the basement, but the boys took to calling the yard a lake.

Mateo hooked up a couple pond pumps to hoses and we just steadily pumped water out to the storm drains in the street. But we need to start investigating more permanent options.

Today, while doing some yard clean up, I snapped some pictures of the garden path.

The sand base completely washed away and the the wood disks floated up.

Some floated clean out of the garden. I'm so annoyed because it had wintered well. When the snow first melted and I check it, it was in good shape. And now this.

I'm honestly just not sure right now if I am going to fix it or scrap it.        

Marbling Eggs

I love making Easter eggs. I also like trying out new techniques.

This pin has made the Pinterest rounds, but I can't find the source:

If anyone knows where it originally came from, please share.

With no instructions, I decided to experiment to see how exactly to accomplish this wonder.

I tried paint (figuring less risk of dying my hands) and I am disappointed to say it didn't work at all.

So here's what worked: I squirted about a palmful-worth (perhaps more) of shaving cream onto a piece of aluminum foil. Then I dotted it with food coloring.

I used a toothpick to swirl the color through the shaving cream without fully mixing it.

Then, we rolled the eggs in the mixture, just once to coat all sides.

To give the color a chance to really stain the eggshell, we left them sitting for about five minutes.

Then with a paper towel, I just wiped it all off and was left with a pretty marbled Easter egg.

Given that eggs are semi-porous I wondered if the shaving cream might leech through, so I made Mateo try one. :) He said it was fine. Just tasted like a regular boiled egg.

Then, because I was just experimenting and didn't have a whole bunch of eggs ready to color, I decided I need to somehow do something with my left over shaving cream/color. Didn't want to waste it.

So, I laid a piece of white paper on the shaving cream, lifted it up, laid it down again, and so on until I had covered the whole paper.

Then I used a paper towel and just wiped the saving cream off. No fancy technique, just wiped.

I was left with a very pretty marbled paper.

This way of marble paper was so much easier than regular marbling. It's a bit messy, but so is regular marbling. I highly recommend this method for young kids.

Once the paper is dry, the possibilities are endless: make cards, use for origami, paint a picture, write a poem on it...              

Crowning Glory

Peeps, I try never to speak ill of others on the interwebs, so I will not mention names. However, there is an epidemic of silliness going on that needs some addressing.

Crown molding.

Don't go to DIY bloggers for instructions! Go to the professionals!

Recently we added crown molding to our living room. Mateo looked up "This Old House" and followed Tom Silva's instructions. Because, you know, he does this for a living.

Hi, Tom!

Here's the quick video that simply explains the cuts.
What we discovered was that you don't need to go buy a special tool kit. For shame, home improvement stores who rip unsuspecting people off with these (and for shame, bloggers promoting them.)

A miter saw helps, a miter box and hand saw will do.

A coping saw.

A hammer.

That's all you need.

What most shocked us was that for inside corners, you don't cut angles on both pieces of molding, just one. Oh, my goodness did that make things so much easier!

During install, I couldn't always be there to hold the long boards, and nailing without a nail gun takes a bit more time and effort. Mateo's ingenious solution was this bitty block:

He nailed it in place just under the molding like a little shelf. It acted as an extra hand while he was working. Once nailed in, he popped it off. Little spackle to fill the holes and tiny bit of touch of paint and no one's the wiser.

We painted our molding before installing. After install we filled the nail holes and then caulked. 

Pre-caulk, you can see the dark shadowy gap in the center.

 
This is key to making it look completely seamless especially in older houses with less than straight walls. 

Post-caulk, nice and smooth.

Therefore, painted molding is easier than stained molding. And, of course, there will be some touch up painting.

If you plan to tackle this, I say go forth and crown things. It's not so difficult. But check out "This Old House," since, you know, they were teaching us to be DIYers before it was cool. :)  

   

Painted Headboard

I talked about the hows and whys of changing the boys' room in this post.
 
Today I'm just going to explain how I made the red stripe on the painted headboard without measuring.

I did use a level to make the navy rectangle. Pretty standard stuff. But I wasn't about to measure and use the level and mark to figure out my red line. Too much work.

First, I bought one and half inch wide painter's tape because that is about how far in from the edge I wanted the line to be.

Source

I placed the tape right on the edge of the navy blue all the way around. Then to get a crisp edge I burnished the tape with my finger nail, but you could use a tool such as a popsicle stick. Just rub down the edge. I don't have a picture because it hadn't yet occurred to me to do a post on this when I did that stage. Oops.

(Walls aren't smooth and painter's tape is designed to grip very lightly, so you burnish to force the tape into all the mini divets in the wall.)

I settled on a 1.5" stripe of red, so I tore bits of tape and spaced them out around the first tape line. I lined the edge of the tape bits to the edge of the tape line.

Then it was time to take advantage of the straight line quality of tape. I simply connected the dots, so to speak. My next tape line was placed carefully along the edge of the tape bits.

I used an x-acto knife to trim tape that when over.

Once in place, I removed the tape bits which were now sandwiched between my long tape lines. I then burnished the tape.

For such a small space I just bought a sample size of red paint. It did take five coats to go over that dark navy color. But red usually takes at least three coats anyway.

Once the paint was dry, I pulled off the tape. I pull straight off. Not at an angle either way, just straight.      

Oh, Boys.

 Messy. Messy. Messy.

First, the begged to share a room. Weird, I know. Don't most kids beg for their own rooms?

So I said okay. We bought some bunk beds and put them together. But the mess just multiplied. The nice open floor space for playing just became a pile of dirty clothes and abandoned toys.

Enough. New plan. Un-bunk the beds, eliminate floor space and add storage.

If they aren't going to use the space for play, they don't need it at all. So, let's take a little tour.

Not only did we un-bunk the beds, but I painted a headboard on the wall with navy paint and a red stripe. 

Their names are wood letters that were spray painted silver. (They helped hang them, so don't judge the wonky placement.) Gabe likes blue and Malachi likes red, so it's been easy to work with.

They have a cute little roll top desk that we snagged at a church rummage sale. It makes a great spot for a lamp and clocks.

Opposite the beds is the wall of storage.

 Boys' toys are either tiny pieces or huge things that don't fit anywhere. For the small stuff, on each side, the bottom is a 6-cubbie storage unit from ClosetMaid. 

We have randomly selected colors over time because the companies change the colors all the time. This way when I need to replace one, I don't have to worry about matching what we already have.

The middle shelving unit was built by Matt.It has a twist due to a warped board that he didn't notice until it was almost done.

It's more obvious in person than pictures, but you can see it pull away from the wall in this shot.

 He hoped he could just anchor it to the wall, but it didn't work. So, this is temporary. He's building a better one.

But it is easy for the boys to see and select a bigger toy and slide it back on the shelf when done.

 The 3-cubbie units on either side of the shelves are also ClosetMaid, but these have adjustable shelves.

Great for the books, but we also drilled a hole in the backing to fit the cords for their DS chargers. A little container holds the games and they can store and charge their DSs now.

I painted the wall behind the storage navy to tie it together and tie into the hanging space. We added a double hook to each side so the boys can hang their coats and backpacks.

We put their dressers in the closet. They don't have much hanging stuff anyway. 

And yes, you can open all the drawers. The curtain add a pop of red for Malachi.

The walls are just a hodgepodge of favorite posters and their own art work. We left some space so we can add more.

I think the Charlie Harper alphabet above the storage is my favorite.

Malachi has had it since he was three and I was glad he still loves it because I do too. They are actually flash cards which I just hot glued to the wall.

 
So far they love it and want to keep it clean. I don't expect that to last forever, but I hope this arrangement keeps it all in check better.

Almost forgot. We have storage bins that slide under the beds which are storing things like Legos and art supplies, so those are handy too. Un-bunking the beds actually made more room for storing things!