tomato tower christmas tree

Okay, so I love the lighted Christmas trees that you see in all the yards this time of year.  I have some of them myself, just haven't figured out where in my yard they are going to go this year.  Thanks to my hubs and the landscaper, my tree hill is now covered with purple and white lantana...yes two colors :(  the lantana situation reeeeeaaaaaally annoys me, mostly because they should both be 1 color, not 1 of each color.  Ugh!!!
ANYWAY!!!!!  I wanted to put a lit tree on my cabinets, as part of my holiday decor.  I couldn't find any that i liked though, actually all of the ones I found had lights going up the tree in a circular motion, and all came in packs of 3 trees.  Hey holiday people, I only need ONE tree.  (totally random, but gabby spilled something on my keyboard and the shift key is sticking......not cool gabs, not cool)  OK, so the rugrats and I were at Home Depot the other day looking for inspiration...well I was looking for inspiration, they were looking for the box of donut holes I brought along to keep them quiet.  Out in the garden section, between the cacti and bougainvillas...there it was, the base for my light tree.  A tomato tower thingie.  I don't know it's real name.  I don't think it's a stake because, well, it's not a stake.  Maybe it's a cage.  I don't like things being caged though, so we're calling it a tower.  I put three of them in my cart, and was on my merry little way.

the tomato towers (this is 2 of them stacked)

I then went to Lowe's to get lights, because they were on sale for $1.98 for a 100 pack of clear lights (4.98 at HD).  2 packs for the price of 1, way to go Lowe's!  I already had bag ties at home, so I was good to go!
I used 3 packs of lights on my tree, starting at the bottom and tying the lights on in a circle around the bottom of the frame.  at the top, i pulled the 3 posts together teepee style and wrapped a tie around them.  then, i tied the lights up the length of the tower, tying them at each point they came in contact with the tower (at each circle level and the bottom)  up and down, up and down, up and down....you get the picture....till it went all the way around the tree.

2/3 of the way there...wanted you to see how it's coming together 

tied on with bag ties

after all that, I took the topper from last year's christmas tree (don't worry, i think a cowboy hat might go on top this year...cowboy tree?? i don't know yet)  then, i climbed up on the cabinet and moved some things around, climbed some greenery onto it after i placed it, and that's all!!  

turned on, for nighttime prettiness

lights off, still cool

too bad the star is crooked....i'm going to have to fix that.  i would show you the whole set up, but i've got to get some poinsettias.  

not your normal clothes pins

I always need clothes pins to hang my workout gear when it comes out of the wash.  Workout clothes are waaaaaaaay to overpriced to have them shrink up on me, and I like my zumba pants baggy...so I don't take any chances.  Since I painted my laundry room and made it really nice to look at, I figured I should do something to the ugly clothes pins that hold my zumba clothes. I teach zumba 6 days a week, so I always have the clothes hanging in my laundry room (and by laundry room, I usually mean the pull up bar in my closet...but I promise that I will start hanging clothes to dry in the laundry room now that the laundry room is pretty)

I don't remember which blog I saw this project on, but I thought it was such a great idea!  It's really simple too, mod podging scrapbook paper to a clothes pin...instant upgrade!  I was just thinking too, since it's almost Christmas and all, that my laundry room might have to get a mini-tree this year...with clothes pin ornaments...YES!!!!

Here's what you need:

mod podge, any type

clothes pins, i bought a huge pack at walmart for around $4

scrapbook paper, i bought a big pack at walmart for $5

scissors

small paintbrush of foam applicator

a ruler

a pencil

a piece of cardboard

Here's what you do:

Measure the width and length of the clothes pin with your ruler

Make lines across the back side of your scrapbook paper that are the width of the clothes pin

Make lines down the back side of your scrapbook paper that are the length of the clothes pin

Cut along the lines

Clip the clothes pin to the cardboard, and apply a layer of mod podge to the clothes pin.  Be careful not to get mod podge on the spring, because your clothes pin won't work.

Lay a piece of your cut paper on the clothes pin, and apply another coat of mod podge on top of the paper.

Once it dries, flip the cardboard over and do the same thing to the other side.

what you need

-Amanda

weekend projects (painting cabinets)

My husband has been stalking google for the past few weeks, looking for pictures of white painted kitchen cabinets.  We have medium brown oak cabinets, you know the ones that come with the house...nice quality, not awesome color.   We have known since we moved in that we were going to redo the cabinets.  But, over the course of this past year and a half, it has gone from me re-staining to having them refaced, and now to potentially me painting them white.  not white white, but creamy white, maybe with a little distressing?  I haven't decided yet.

Because my kitchen is literally the heart of my house, being part of a very open floor plan, I have to make sure that whatever I do (or hire out) results in something that is beautiful and compliments the rest of my house.  I hate spending money on things that I don't need, like thousands on cabinet refacing.  That money could be much better spent on more important things like shoes and Coach bags!  If I am anything, it is frugal in the wrong places!!  But that's ok, because I am quite sure that a new shiny Coach bag will look awesome sitting by my diy painted cabinets!  I decided to paint my laundry cabinets and guest bathroom cabinets this weekend, as "practice" for the kitchen.  Here are some pictures of my laundry room, I just finished it this morning.

newly painted laundry cabinets...i accidentally put the door hardware on the drawers, and the drawer hardware on the doors...i think it looks good though

the other side of the laundry room, i really need to find the pedestals to go under my washer and dryer!  that's what i get for buying appliances on craigslist!  that lighter color on my wall is reflection from the light, not a bad paint job  haha!

i still have to sand and repaint the door to the garage...previous homeowners half painted it....it looks really crappy, especially now that my laundry room is so pretty!

I am such an airhead, I forgot to take "before" pictures of my laundry room.  So, I'll tell you what it looked like.  The cabinets were stained oak, the walls were a light tan color from Raplh Lauren's "river rock" collection, that shelf above my washer and dryer was deep red, and there was a builder installed basic light.  I forgot to take pictures of the new light fixture.  It's not that exciting though, so I'm not too concerned with showing you.

Here's what I did on the walls:
1. 2 coats of Killz2 primer to cover the grittiness of the river rock paint
2.  2 coats of Martha Stewart eggshell finish in Cumulus Cloud

Here's what I did on the cabinets:
1.  Light sanding to remove varnish from the cabinet doors
2.  Instead of sanding the door facing, I used Sander/Deglosser on the door facings, because I didn't want the mess of the sander in the house.  Actually, I don't even know if it is called the door facing...but that's what I'm going to call it.  It's the part of the cabinet that holds the shelves and is attached to the wall, you know what I'm talking about!  :)
3.  2 coats of Killz2 primer, sprayed on with a spray gun (I hate the spray gun, by the way)
4.  3 coats of Glidden semi-gloss in Picket Fence, with light sanding (220 grit paper) in between each coat.  I did a final light sanding with 320 grit paper after the last coat.
5.  I added hardware to the drawers and doors.

Here's what I did on the shelf:
1.  Light sanding to remove the gloss from the red enamel that was on the shelf.
2.  2 heavy coats of Killz2 primer with a paintbrush (not the stupid sprayer).  I let these coats each dry overnight, because i was covering red with white.
3.  2 heavy coats of Glidden semi-gloss in Picket Fence, to match the cabinets.

Everything I did to my laundry room was so much easier than I expected it to be, which is the reason I am sharing.  I get easily intimidated by things like putting holes in my cabinetry to install hardware...but it was a piece of cake.  Be looking for some tutorials soon, just in case you are interested!

-Amanda