How To Make Your Food Blurry in 87 Easy Steps

Here's a fun thing about my 1965 duplex:  there's no pantry.  Like, at all. So my Ikea HEMNES glass-door cabinet is now a food-holder.  It works great!

The problem is, you can see the food. All the time.

Also, my kitchen is full of snakes:

Yes, I forgot to take a "before" picture again.




















Anyway, this is nothing a can of glass frosting spray can't handle.   I copied my design from a window cling film design you can get just about anywhere.


I sketched the pattern onto the front of the glass doors with a sharpie, a yardstick, all the math ever, and about seventy-eight little square templates (okay, 3 of them. But I had to make them over and over again because the Sharpie ink kept making the edges soft, which wasn't remotely helpful).

The next step was to tape off all the lines on the inside of the glass, using the Sharpie lines as a guide.


Frosting the glass on the inside means - I hope - that it'll be less likely to get scratched by people going in and out of the cabinet.  Of course, there's more chance of the food scratching it this way, so, six one half dozen the other?  Time will tell.




















In all it took four rolls of thin Washi tape, for both doors. Man that stuff's handy.

The next step was a Pinterest Fail.  I attempted to do the thing where you spritz water onto an area to be painted (in frosted or silver, from what I've seen) and it comes out looking like *drumrolllll* antique glass, or watered glass, or whatever you want to call the pattern of wibbly woobly melted-looking bits of glass.

However. This is not what happened.

What happened was the water caused the frosting spray not to adhere to the glass at all, and it fell off in big chunks as soon as it was dry. Also, some of the glass outside the squares was not as dry as I thought it was - hence the streakiness you see here.

So,  I had to un-tape and scrape clean an entire door and re-do it from scratch, including taping. So, I guess technically I did three doors this weekend, not two.

However, the end product was worth it:

Can you see the food? Is there soup??  YOU HAVE NO IDEA!  MUAHAHA!!! *ahem*cough*

So it doesn't block out anything.  At best this made the food blurry - but I'm satisfied with it. It's still a little less messy-looking, but this tones down the chaos effect that we had going on here before. The food just sort of fades into the furniture now, instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.



















The full monty.  Sewing machines and stack of grocery bags and all. (Sorry).


Even though I used the thinnest Washi tape I could find for the "lead lines", I still wish I'd tried for something thinner.   Still, I think it works just fine the way it is.  It's not supposed to mimic leaded and frosted glass, only lend the impression of.

Overall, I'm pleased with the way it came out. The food is nice and blurry, and it helps the cabinet, and the kitchen, look a bit more clean and organized. And I like the way the glass pattern works with the style of the cabinet itself.  I'll be honest, I neglected to even consider that when I was picking a design - I just wanted something pretty - but it works!



There are, of course, more things I want to do with this cabinet.  But these doors were the thing I wanted to be sure to have finished before the Halloween party this year, so that people don't have to look at all the disorganized food.  Fait accompli.


See you next time!

Ikea RASKOG Cart Makeover

Making over the RASKOG is a pretty big deal. Google it, or search Pinterest, and you'll see a million different variations - lots of crib-side diaper carts, bathroom carts, bar carts, and an endless barrage of art supply carts.

As much as I love these things, and as many RASKOG carts as I have* I've managed to have never jumped on the RASKOG  re-do bandwagon...until now.

Do your index finger a favor and get a spray gun handle that attaches to a can.

I disassembled the cart and cleaned it thoroughly (dust, dog hair), then primed it with Krylon self-etching metal primer.  It eats into the original finish, giving the spray paint something serious to adhere to, so it doesn't peel or scratch.  The paint I used is Rustoleum's Chalky Finish spray paint, in "mink."

I LOVE THIS PAINT.

Chalk paint is another bandwagon I haven't yet taken a ride on, but man this paint is amazing! Soft and smooth looking, it really is soft and smooth to the touch.  The matte finish means no reflections, which I've always found makes a thing seem to recede into its surroundings (which is awesome, when you have a small house and too much stuff).  Plus, I'm really digging the color.

It's not fully outfitted with all the stuff that's going to be on it yet, but I'll post another pic when it is.  The idea here is that it'll basically be a rolling coffee table that also holds my colored pencil cases and a tablet, so I can have it next to me while sitting on the couch.  I love to watch movies while I work. Especially Moana.  :)

*So, how many RASKOG  carts do I have?  Four: 

1. A turquoise cart which holds my small hand tools in the garage
2. A dark blue cart which holds my art supplies
3. A black cart which holds my bike tools and accessories
4. A newly-painted taupe cart, see above ;) 

Oops, five:  it's not a RASKOG, but I also have a similar cart from Michael's in a mint green, which currently holds all of my music books and doodads.  The mesh on the floor of the trays is finer than the Ikea cart, and not as thick.  It's kind of weak and flimsy, so I don't put a whole lot of weight in it. Originally I used it as my art cart, but the bottoms bent so much they made my cups of brushes and pens fall over.  This cart is the next one I'll be refinishing. 

What's Next?

There's a LOT happening in the living room right now, and it won't be over til about the 13th - that would be Bulk Trash Day, when my giant, ugly, smelly, broken couch goes to live on a farm.  I'll have another living room project for you after the weekend, and then a big update on the living room the second week of August.  I hope!

Meanwhile, please enjoy this little vase of goofy poppies I drew on the inside cover of my 6" Moleskine sketchbook.  Man, I love drawing on black paper. I need to get a lot of it.

Putting Together Ikea Furniture

Did you know the 79" Ikea BILLY bookcase weighs 80lb?

My right shoulder sure does.

Three hours.  It took me three hours to put together three of these bookcases.

But my roommate made me this nifty cardboard Bracelet of Power to give the strength to go on.


~* WONDER WOMANNNNN *~

Oh, and we also ended up with this nifty wall o' books, built by me and stocked by my roommate, who would like you to know that the books aren't organized, but they will be soon.

I think in all there were 22 boxes of books! Next time you move, scavenge the recycle dumpster behind your local liquor store. Liquor bottle cartons are perfect for lots of small but heavy things, like books and DVDs.




There's a lot more to do in the new place, but at least the "library" is handled, and the floor space all those boxes of books were taking up is cleared.  Onward!

Impending Closet Makeover

Next on the list of Thing I Keep Meaning To Do But Haven't Yet is, apparently, my bedroom closet.   You guys have seen it...

Exhibit A: nasty shelf, piles of crap (and dinosaurs)

Exhibit B:  tiny practically worthless dresser (that is now a
nightstand anyway) and not much room for hangity clothes,
on the right side there. 

Those are both photos of the long (east) wall of my closet.  Here's the floorplan:

(Icovia Room Planner)

It's the same blue as my bathroom and bedroom, which I thought would be soothing and contiguous, but instead is just too cotton-candy cute for my level of concentration first thing in the morning when I'm trying to figure out what to wear without getting pissed off.

On the left (north) are some shelves, floor-to-ceiling, white MDF.  On the long wall are crappy, picture-of-wood stackable Cube-It cubbies and rickety shelves holding neat, organized baskets piles of crap (and dinosaurs). On the right is the clothing rod, attached to a wire shelf which supports more piles of crap.   There isn't enough room for ANYTHING.  I don't even have my shoes in there - most of them are on a shelf in the living room hallway.  Basically it looks kinda like this:

Blehhhhh.   (Olioboard)

Enter:

Ikea STOLMEN post, $30, mounting
hardware included, ivory finish.   (Picture
from Pinterest via Ikea 2011 catalog)

Dresser from Target:  $40 on craigslist

The idea:  

I love Olioboard. 

Brighter, less light-sucking and color-confusing walls!  A dresser to keep things in and put things on!  The main idea here, though, is that STOLMEN post across the long back wall, for my hanging clothes:  I can hang everything that's folded neatly piled on and stuffed into the shelves, which frees up space on the left side for shoes and linens, and space on the right side for that dresser (and some dinosaurs).  Yay!

Just kidding about the rug.  And the chandelier.  Maybe.

more room to throw shit on the floor move around, too. 

The question, Raymond:

Will I actually get around to doing this any time soon?

The world may never know. 

Hooked on Using Unused Space

This one's fairly simple:

This is the empty corner of the master bathroom before.  It's empty, unused wall space that kinda always irritated me, because if it was recessed even just a little, I could have put some small, cute bathroom furniture here.  But nooooo.  Empty wall space.  Right there between the room entry and my closet, and directly across from the toilet cave.

Meanwhile, (a) there's not nearly enough towel storage in this bathroom. The house came with a rinky-dink little towel rack that was IN the toilet cave (because that's useful), which I promptly removed and replaced with a double-hook on the wall-end next to the shower, which is much more useful.  

And (b) everybody's bathrobes ended up in my closet, which, no.

And so... 

Here's that same wall between the doors, after having installed a simple 1/2x4" board (very securely, with wall anchors, and caulked in place, just to be sure), and three silver hooks I had sitting around in the garage.

Now that empty wall has a function and we have a space for our bathrooms and extra towels.  Let's hear it for less crap in my poor cramped closet!


♥ ¸. • * ¨ `* •.♫. • °☆ * ♥ confetti and stuff ♥ •*• * ¨ `*~♫♪☼ ¸.☆























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Moving On

While I'm waiting for the next steps on the aquarium stand (which requires a payday and a shopping trip), I've started my next major project: cleaning and re-organizing the garage.

Yes, AGAIN.  Shut up. 

When last we met my garage, I posted this "goal" picture: 

(note the awesomeness)

And no, it never got there.  It mostly got there.  I did make my little rolling red tool cart out of the salvaged file cabinet I picked up from the office move: 

That was the last time my work tables were even visible under the mound of crap I tend to accumulate.  Case in point: 

Crap! Everywhere!  OMFG! 

Look, a floor!  The pile of sleeping bags from my camping trip will soon
be washed, rolled, and stored away where they belong, never you fear. 

And

Mid-way through: pots on the right organ-
ized; crap on the left not so much. 

Now everything's organized!  Same green boxes I scrounged
from the office,  and also used in the craft room. 

Keyword:  getting there.  

The plan is to get everything organized and purged, and then pull these shelves out, paint the walls and the shelves, put them back, build more shelves for another wall, swap the stuff on the other two walls so the water filter doesn't get sawdust in it anymore, and then...mess it all up again.  :D  J/k. 

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AHA!!!! (Craft Room Closet B&A!)

It took six hours, and it like to killed me by the time I was done last night, but I have FINALLY fixed up the craft room closet!  What was wrong with it, you ask?  This...

Before

O_O

1.  I mean REALLY. 
2.  I am so. over. the green.

catbomb!

See the "panels" on the wall back there?  Once upon a time, this closet was a little computer desk nook, and those cleats were part of the support system for the desk top.  When I turned it back into a closet, I left the cleats on the wall thinking maybe, just maybe I'd end up putting another desktop in there...

After

the same blue from the bedroom and laundry room

Et voila!  The desktop returns, and can be used for storage or as a small work surface on occasion (when the closet was a computer nook, I really liked being able to do small crafty things in there, too). 

The top shelf is the same one from the "before" picture;  the middle two are adjustable, thanks to the rails and brackets.  The narrow space between the top shelf and the first of the adjustable shelves is intentional:  I have so much flat art stuff - canvases, giant sketchbooks, rolls of paper, trays of supplies - that I always ended up piling it on my sewing table (gah!!) or putting it on a shelf and then stacking stuff on top of my artwork because of all the wasted space on the shelf (gah!!!!)  Now I have a dedicated art-stuff-shelf which is exactly the right shape and size.  I am SO excited about this.

Now all I have to do is take all the stuff from here: 

And put it here:

 

 

HAHA

Ah, if only it were that easy. 



To be honest, though, I'm not crazy about the blue doors:

The green's gone, which is awesome.  But the blue is ...wrong...for where I'm planning to go with the room (which is a completely different place than I was thinking of last year, so if you remember that post, please shake your brain's Etch-A-Sketch and erase it). 

Anyhoo, I think I'd rather leave the blue closet as a surprise, and paint the doors white again, like they were before the green thing happened.   They could probably use, like, knobs, too.  Or...bifold doors? Or...*gasp*....curtains??  Hm...



Anyway.

FREAKING TADA!!!   I did something, yay. 


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Wildebeests: Nice Rack (Part II)

Remember this bit o' headboard from Friday?

And the front hall with the hook and wad of jackets and scarves?

After: 

door open for light

 Couple of cuts, some paint, some decorative glass knobs, some wall anchors - voila!  

Green glass knobs from World Market*.  There are two of these, and four other styles/colors, all mixed in there together.   Hee. <3

(See what I mean about the carving not being even, in that last picture?  Must've been a cheap headboard, LOL.  I don't care.  I love my new "old" coatrack thingy). 





* You know, they have some amber-colored ones, too, that I didn't like at first...but now they haunt me.  I must find an excuse to use them for something.  Possibly even...*GASP*...drawers! 


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Secret Beer & Other Plans

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (I think...?)  Kress and I have recently joined the SCA.  Very simply, for those of you who might not know what that is:  the folks who get dressed up in Medieval and Renaissance costumes and fight with sticks in the park.  This is why I'm so busy this week: I'm up to my ass in alligators with costuming and putting together gear for our first event, which is in two weeks!

The SCA involves camping, and camping involves, amongst other things, brightly-colored plastic coolers...which don't exactly add to the ambiance.  My friend Nan sews cushioned slipcovers to drop over hers, to turn a plastic cooler into an ottoman!  Camouflage and additional seating! Awesome.

So in addition to three full adult costumes, I'm sewing an "ottoman" disguise for my rectangular, rolling cooler this week, based on this pattern:

And since we're on the subject of me sewing things, here are a couple more ideas I'm planning to put into action as soon as I'm done with all this costume business:

That's:

1. another cooler cover, this one to turn a cube-cooler into a Moroccan pouf
2. a drop-cover for the old desk chair that I use at my sewing table, because it's FUGLY and scratched and stained and torn
3. a canvas "tent"  cover for the wire shelving units that I currently use to hold up my sewing table top (1), which will eventually be replaced with nice shelving, once I have the extra funds and the time to build them, paint them, and fill them with baskets (2)

2 and 3 actually use fabric that I already have in my "Storage Pit" which is what Kress has taken to calling my craft room closet, which he swears has an entrance to Fabric-Narnia hidden in the back behind the stack of spare pillows, LOL.

cube-cooler pouf:  yeah?

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Wildebeests: Guitar Rack (Part II)

Before: 

+

After:

 

Much better, yes?  

 

This is what the black pipe insulation was for.   If it looks like the pegs are spaced differently, it's because they are:  we have two different types of guitars that need to go into this rack, with different body widths.

Of course, they're not 100% secure like this:  the weight of the guitars + the angle at which they lean makes this a very stable setup, but in order for this to be cat-proof we need...

 Dog collars.  No, seriously:  3/4 black nylon dog collars with plastic click-locks, affixed to the back of the top of the rack, which will wrap snugly (and softly) around the neck of each guitar.  Just in case.

I'm also going to hang a plastic file folder container off the back of this unit, to store music, books, and bits and pieces like tuners and pencils and cables.   

Yay!  

After the rack was done, Kress and I had one more project:  putting a strap on my guitar, which is the acoustic in the first "after" picture.  That doesn't sound like a big deal, until you consider two things:  

1. I had to drill two holes in the guitar, in order to install "buttons" (pegs) that a strap attaches to, and 
2. my guitar is thirty-seven years old.   

I just about had a freaking heart attack, but with Kress' steady hands and calm reassurance, we got the holes drilled without incident, and I didn't die from fright.  Plus now I can play standing up.  :o)


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