Kids' art wall

The girls' Pink Kitchen (as we call our loft area) was falling apart and messy.

And the big, blank wall above it was calling my name, asking for a new way to hold the girls' artwork.

Ikea to the rescue. On my first trip to the brand-spanking-new Denver Ikea last week, I picked up three of these Dignitet cable systems. They can be used to hold up curtains and who knows what else, but I'm using them to hold my kids' artwork.

The package didn't give me a whole lot of insight into how I would get it up on the wall.

And at first the typical drawing-only Ikea directions didn't, either. But eventually I figured it out.

In addition to what came in the package, I needed some wood screws to mount the system on the wall. If I were going into drywall, this would have been a major pain. I'm not a fan of drywall anchors (even the new, easy screw-in ones -- I never seem to be able to get them in exactly the right place). What can I say? Not so detail oriented, I guess.

 I marked my holes and pre-drilled.

And then screwed the left part of the cable system into the wall. The next few steps didn't get photographed since they happened at about one in the morning. Such is life as a mom, right? I had to abandon the project to pick up the kids from school and didn't get back to it until really late at night.

 

Here's the final product: 

 

The artwork is held up by little metal clips that come with the cable system. Easy to change out, easy to re-arrange. Perfect for artwork.

 Scott even replaced the broken hinges on the Pink Kitchen's cabinet door. I'm thinking this kitchen should be good for another year or two before we re-vamp the space as a computer lab/homework area. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the girls' artwork and the ease of updating it!

Canning spaghetti sauce

I'm not sure how a giant box of tomatoes turns out to be only seven (and a half) quart-sized jars of tomato sauce. It sort of makes the time I put into the project seem like a waste.

But I know the sauce tastes heavenly -- we ate some last night.

The recipe I used is derived from Marcella Hazan's classic recipe with only three ingredients: butter, tomatoes, and onions. The onions are halved and cooked with the tomatoes but removed before serving. Her recipe calls for canned tomatoes but since the whole point of this exercise was to relieve myself of a giant box of fresh, organic, heirloom tomatoes, I used what I had on hand. Since I've got yet another giant box of tomatoes on the porch, I think I'll be heading out to buy more quart sized jars and repeating this exercise tomorrow night.

The Gossip Bench, part 3

I'll spare you the original bench photo. It was ugly -- there's no doubt about that. Here is what the bench looked like yesterday morning after a coat of primer and two coats of Valspar Antique White (which is a misnomer, since it is clearly Butter Yellow).

And here is what it looks like today:

Cute, right? I mean, maybe not for YOU or for your entry way or living room, but perfect for a crazy little girl who wants a place in her room to do her homework and draw. The color is called "Watermelon" by Valspar. It's a high gloss spray paint -- it is one of the ones with a great nozzle on the can. Super easy to work with, dries quickly, coats well. I bought it at Hobby Lobby (not on sale, which is about the worst decorating sin one can commit). It took about a can and a half to coat the whole bench. I put the first coat on with the bench upside-down and the second coat with it right side up in order to get both sides of the spindles. If I had tried to paint it with a brush I think I'd still be out there painting.

Here's a close up of the upholstered cushion I made for it. The fabric is also from Hobby Lobby (although the calicos were 30% off, so no sin here). I bought a third of a yard and only used about half of it. Hobby Lobby has some super cute, modern calico prints. It almost makes me want to do some sewing. Almost.

Although I think I have some extra 1" foam around the house somewhere (maybe up in the attic), I wasn't in the mood to go looking for it. So, this little cushion is a piece of 1/2" plywood wrapped in two layers of cotton batting and one layer of felt, all stapled to the back. Then I wrapped it with the fabric and stapled it and then screwed it into the seat from underneath. If anyone can teach me how to get decent corners on a piece like this, I'd love to hear it. Mine usually look okay, but I can't seem to get them perfect. They came out a little more rounded than I would have liked.

Here's the cost breakdown for this project:

1 can of Valspar primer -- $3
2 cans of Valspar "Antique White" -- $7
2 cans of Valspar "Watermelon" -- $10
1/3 of a yard of fabric -- $3.50

I already had the sandpaper, glue, screws, plywood and staples. So, altogether this sweet bench came in at $23.50. Not bad at all.

The Gossip Bench revamped

As you may remember from this post that a few days ago, I went dumpster diving for this little beauty.

Okay, so it wasn't much of a beauty when I grabbed it off that trash pile. But I've been working on it. Originally, I thought it would do well to fill a little empty space in our family room. I thought it might be a convenient place for Scott to charge his laptop. But the longer I stared at it (and I do stare at things like this) the more I believed it should be in a little girl's room. And where would I find...oh, yeah. I've got two little girls' rooms upstairs. How convenient.

This morning, after repairing, filling, sanding, sanding, sanding, cleaning up dust from said sanding, priming, and painting, this is what this cute little piece looked like:

I call that color "butter yellow" but Valspar calls it "antique white." Clearly a mistake on their part. I think the color is beautiful and calm and sweet, but when I looked at it with the fabric I wanted to use for a little cushion on the seat, I was underwhelmed.

Although the fabric doesn't read quite right in this photo (those red flowers are definitely pink in person) maybe you can see what I saw: it was just a little blah. Maybe I should preface this whole discussion with this: I decided the bench needed to go in not just ANY little girl's room, but CALLIE's room. Here is what Callie's room looks like:

 

Although the walls are calm, the rest of Callie's room is full of color. It is vibrant, happy, loud, unexpected...just like Callie. So sweet, kind, meek "butter yellow" was not going to do for that little bench. Plus, it was too close to the butter yellow on Callie's walls. I needed something with a little more punch. Something that shouted "Callie!" as soon as you saw it.

And so this morning, before I upholstered and attached the cute fabric seat, I re-painted the bench a color with a little more pop. When Callie got home from school, she fell all over herself in excitement. In other words, I got it right.

Any guesses on the color?

Our dishwasher is protesting.

The Lowe's stock photo of our new Bosch dishwasher. More details on it later.

Our six year old Maytag "Quiet Series 300" dishwasher must be smarter than we thought. It certainly doesn't clean dishes well. Usually. But last night, after we went to Lowe's and paid for a new Bosch dishwasher (15% off with the Labor Day sale), we came home, loaded up the old dishwasher, and ran it. When Scott opened it to then hand-wash half the dishes (like he usually has to do), he found them all clean.

It seems like the old dishwasher has something to prove. A lot to prove.

Too little, too late! The new one comes next Friday.