Kitchy Kitchen Art

I wanted to post a little something about the newest addition to my kitchen. I found this idea on Pinterest of course!



My kitchen has an aqua and red color scheme, but you could do this with just about ANY color. This is a cheap craft to begin with, but I think I've come up with some ways to make it even cheaper!

Supply List

• 2 8x10 frames
• Set of plastic silver
• 2 sheets of scrapbook paper (the pattern is up to you!)
• Craft paint
• Paint brush/sponge
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Scotch tape

Steps

1. Pop the glass out of you frames
2. Remove the cardboard backing from the frame
3. Cut your scrapbook paper to the size of backing (if necessary)
4. Use your scotch tape (or whatever adhesive you choose) to adhere the paper to the backing
5. Reinsert the cardboard backing into the frame
6. Paint your silverware (this may take several coats), be sure to allow drying time between each coat
7. Once your silverware is thoroughly painted, and dried, use your hot glue gun to adhere the silverware to the covered backing
8. Hang your Kitchy Kitchen Art!

I know my silverware looks pink, but it's just the lighting ... promise!

Estimated Cost

I purchased all my supplies at Michaels, but I'm pretty sure you could find everything you need at the Dollar Store, which would reduce the cost significantly!

• Frames (on sale): $4.99 each
• Scrapbook paper: $1.29 per sheet
• Paint: $.99
• Silverware: $1.00
• Paint sponge: $.39

I had the hot glue gun, glue, and scotch tape; but if you don't, add another $10 to $15 to the overall cost!

What project ideas have you completed on the cheap?

Kitties and Kegorators

Everything came together this weekend for our Housewarming party. We had great food, beer, and great friends! A lot of preparation was made for this weekend, and the last thing on our TODO list was to install our kegorator in the basement bar.

Bartender Not Included

When we started looking for a house, we knew that a basement bar was something that we both wanted, but it wasn't on our MUST list. But when we found the house on Adams Drive, we knew we lucked out! Half the basement is finished, and there is an unfinished bedroom that backs up to the built in bar, the perfect spot to put a kegorator! We purchased the previous owner's fridge with the intent to use it in the basement. 

Mike once again used his Googling powers and found a company called Beverage Factory, which specializes in home beverage systems, http://www.beveragefactory.com/. We got everything we needed from them to install our kegorator for $160. Now all we needed was Mike's dad, Jeff, to come up from Colorado Springs to help Mike install everything. 

Jeff was able to come up last weekend, and while they worked to install the kegorator I made myself scarce and set off to do some estate saleing! More on that later ... 1st up, READ THE DIRECTIONS (always important), empty the shelves out of the fridge, and build a shelf to support the keg ...

Next step, following the directions of course, Mike drilled a hole for the tube that goes from the keg to the tap ...

Ok, so at this point you are ready to install the wall tap. In our bar, the tap was being installed into the wood paneling, so to give it more support Mike and Jeff attached it to a 2x4 on one side. 

The final step is to tap your keg, and get to drinkin'! But there was one small oddity about our bar that we needed to rectify ... In order to get in the bar, you must open the half door, and crawl under the shelf that runs along the bar! No one can figure out why this door was installed without some sort of hinge allowing easier access. So before Mike and Jeff were done, they wanted to add a hinged door to the bar. To do so they had to remove the molding from the shelf, cut where the hinge should go, install the hinge, and reapply the molding ... Voila!!! 

This is about the time when I returned with my acquisitions. I managed to hit 3 sales, and the antique mall, all in about 4 hours! Here are my finds

Copper napkin dispenser, flower cookie cutters, vintage kitchen clock, copper measuring spoons, about 50 plastic coasters, and a handmade lantern

My favorite find of the day was the lantern. When I'm out estate saleing I have a list of sales that I plan to hit, and I use http://www.estatesales.net/ to find them. If I see a sign for an estate sale, I'll drive by to check it out, but can I just point out to everyone that an estate sale is different than a garage sale or moving sale!!! An estate sale implies that the owner has passed away or is willing to part with everything in their home, and it does not take place on a lawn. I can't stand when I drive off my route only to find some housewife calling her garage sale, an estate sale!

Anyway, back to the lantern, I found it by following a sign, and it actually was an estate sale. The owner was there, and she was in the process of downsizing into assisted living. She had the lantern priced at $25, and I offered her $20. She told me she would give it to me for $20, but only if I really loved it because her husband's great-aunt had made it for them! I told her, not to worry, that I loved it, and that I had the perfect place for it!

Special thanks to Jeff for all his help! 

I can officially say that our TODO list is done! However, that only means that now I can focus on all the small little projects that I want to do including painting the foosball men on our vintage foosball table (U.S.A. vs. The Netherlands), and stenciling the vinyl window shades throughout the house.

Kitten Intermission!!! 

I would like to introduce everyone to the 4 most amazing cats in Denver, CO (heck maybe the world), Mr. Bojangles, Lucky Boots, Barbara, and Detective Ricardo Tubbs ... 

Mr. Bojangles

Lucky Boots (and Mike)

Barbara (and Matt)

And now for your viewing pleasure, a video featuring Detective Ricardo Tubbs, brought to you by The Ambitious Procrastinator herself, http://theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com/

Remarkable Recycled Rag Rugs

As some of you may know I am an estate sale junkie, as well as an avid crocheter. A few months ago I found a way to combine the two ... rag rugs!

Every estate sale I go to has a bed with stacks, and stacks of old sheets. I'm not interested in putting someone's old sheets on my bed, but on the floor is another story. Vintage sheets have amazing patterns, especially, if like me, you are going for a retro look. So I began looking for sheets that would work in my new house. I new I wanted something pink for my pink master bathroom, but before I found sheets for that, I found a great set for practicing. On one of our random weekends of estate saleing Nikki, Matt, Mike, and I went to a sale in Highlands Ranch. For those who don't know, Highlands Ranch is not an old neighborhood, in fact it's typically pretty "cookie cutter", but we found a gem! 1st up we walk up the driveway and find a free pile! In that pile were some cute sheets that I knew I had to have, but I knew that no one else would want them, so we kept walking. Next up, inside we found some great stuff too. In fact, this was the sale where I found my hutch and kitchen table. Matt and Nikki also picked up some good stuff, including a box of old National Geographic slides, and a couple of classic books (I will add pictures as soon as I receive them!)

 

Chairs not included

Anyway, enough drooling over my hutch. After arranging to come back for the hutch and table later, I grabbed my free sheets, and we headed out. I had seen several examples of rag rugs, like this one, http://pinterest.com/pin/45312132/, on Pinterest, so when I got home, I Google'd "rag rug crochet pattern", and found a couple patterns that seemed easy enough.

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/02/rag-rug-tutorial.html

http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2008/09/27/recycled-round-plarn-rug/ 

I don't write patterns, so instead here are some tips I've come up with:

Wash your sheets (duh!)

Most rag rug instructions say to cut the fabric (sheet, tshirt, whatever) into strips, and then to knot them. I found that it was much easier, and weirdly relaxing, to spend the evening cutting the sheets into one continuous strip, and winding it into a ball. Even when you run out of one sheet, there is no need to knot it to the next one, since the ends are frayed, the ends blend in!

I would recommend trying to find a queen/king sheet set. Once you're done cutting, you are going to have a GIANT sheet ball, but trust me it takes a lot to make one of these rugs.

OK, so you're all set, so get crocheting! Keep in mind that your rugs are going to have frayed edges, but I think it adds to the whole vintage look. I have thrown both of my rugs in the wash since finishing them, and neither have fallen apart, or overly frayed. Also, as we crocheters know, a lot of times a round pattern does not lay flat, however, I have found that once you put the rug on the ground and start using it, it will flatten out.

I eventually did find the perfect pink sheets for my bathroom, and here are the rugs that I have made thus far:

I was able to make both of these with a queen sheet set, and the matching pillowcases (estate sale find) 

This is the practice rug, aren't the flower colors great?! This one is also a queen sheet set, but it is bigger than the round rug above.

Taylor, hope this helps, and thanks for this post's inspiration! :)

P.S.  Some of you may be aware, but I left my camera at Nikki's house this weekend, and I have a ton to blog about! So I hope to have another post up this weekend. Spoiler alert!!! The tentative title is "Kitties and Kegorators"

Save Your Relationship With These Easy Picture-Hanging Tips!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Hope everyone is taking the weekend to be "labor-free"!

Manhattan Poster by Jim Datz

We set the date for our housewarming party for September 17th, and to get ready there are a few things left on our To Do list. 

1st up we need to hang pictures. In the past, hanging pictures has tested our relationship. There isn't much else that will bring us both to the edge like hanging pictures, and Friday afternoon I prepared myself  for gritted teeth, clenched fists, and angry storm-outs. In addition to the art that we already had, we had ordered several posters from allposters.com, and 2 awesome prints from threepotatofourshop.com. In the past we had ordered the posters we wanted, and then made a trip to Michaels to pick out frames, but this time Mike found vendor on amazon.com called arttoframes.com.

For all the frames we needed, we easily would have spent over $300, but thanks to arttoframes.com, we only spent $130, including S&H! Each of the frames came with the necessary tools to hang them with. 

Once Mike had attached all the wires we were ready to hang, so I braced myself ... but guess what??? These frames were the easiest frames to hang I've ever used! Pick your spot on the wall where you want your picture, hammer in the nail, and hang your picture! SO SIMPLE! Here are just some of the pictures we hung using the frames from arttoframes.com

Unfortunately, not all of the pictures we hung were so easy. So once again we had to employ the old adage "Measure twice, cut once", or in our case "Measure twice, hammer once". There was some disagreement as to placement, but overall it was a the best time we have had while hanging pictures (the beer, and comic relief ala Justin Savidge helped).

Since I've been plugging arttoframes.com this whole time I guess it's only fair to talk about one other product that we picked up this weekend, the Come With Me Kitty leash and harness. When we lived in our old apartment we let the cats out onto the balcony, but now they are not allowed outside, and are devastated. We decided the harness would be a great idea, and picked it up while we were at Target. Let the hilarity ensue ...

We thought if we put the leash on the clothes line, Boots could walk up and down the grass, but needless to say she never figured that part out ...

                                                                                                                                                                        

... So Mike decided he would try and walk her, that also did not work out because she kept eating the grass instead. So we ended up looping the leash through one of the patio chairs ...

... Meanwhille in the house, poor Mr. Bojangles was left only to watch his arch enemy have the time of her life outside ...

After making sure that Boots was safely secured to the patio chair, I ran inside to get a drink. When I returned, (inside of 3 minutes at the most!), this is what I found ...

... My cat is an escape artist! Don't worry, she didn't go far, but thus ended Lucky Boots' outdoor adventures!

I should mention that Lucky Boots is THE Lucky Boots from theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com! I also received these awesome pink pillows from Nikki, made using her tutorial!

We found this fabric at Ikea