Odds and Ends

I've decided to make the Odds and Ends post a recurring one. It will be my chance to cover any little tidbits that need some screen time!

-New layout! Blogger got fancy overnight it seems :) I'm working with a friend to make the blog a little more personalized but I like having the option to spruce it up a bit before then! I hope the layout works. I like the 3 column set-up but feel that now the middle is a little too scrunched :/ Any opinions? I'm sure I'll keep fiddling with it!

-I've recently found quite a few crafty sites and they've inspired me! I don't know what I'll work on next but here are the links so you can check them out for yourself! Once I make a choice, I'll be sure to post all the gory details.

-Dollar Store Crafts

-P.S. I Made This

-Can I just say how ready I am for the weekend? The sad thing is, I don't even look forward to it since I work 6 days a week. (One day at the bookstore and 5 at my temp job.) This weekend I have Sunday off so I'm looking forward to just staying home and not spending any money!

-I am desperate for a good source of pictures! Beautiful, fun, quirky, any and all kinds. I want to make each post a little more interesting and have the darnedest time finding anything good when I do a Google search! You'd think typing in, "child looking at night sky" would get you something good but NO! Any resources would be greatly appreciated and I'll make sure and add photo credits!

This is what I got with 'child looking at night sky'. Not awful just kind science musuemy. Bleh.

Photo credit

DIY - Bathroom shelf

A little back story for you. My mother is crafty...or at least she was while I was growing up. And she was one of those crafty types that would've made money off of it if things like Etsy had existed. She is also someone who has control issues with how things need to be done.

For example: We were stenciling flowers onto my bedroom wall and this basically devolved into Mom not liking the practice flowers I did so she stenciled all the flowers herself. That way she knew it was done right, you see! I developed a bit of a complex about things like this. That may sound a little bitter but it's quite funny to me now and I find myself doing those sort of things too. Especially when it comes to making the bed! Pants tries to help out but he doesn't even bother with the bed since he knows I'll just take it all apart and do it myself anyway. I offer up this story to showcase the fact that I am NOT a crafty person. As a kid it was hard for me to care when everything Mom did was so much better. I can't sew or paint very well and don't usually attempt crafty projects.

Well all that changed this weekend! I bought myself a can of glossy white spray paint and got down to business! As previously mentioned, I had a little shelf in my bathroom that was dated and I thought would be an easy update.

Here is where our journey begins:

According to my Mom it's from Home Interiors and was purchased somewhere in the 90's. The bronzed metal finish wasn't the most awful thing I'd ever seen but it most certainly subscribed to a certain design aesthetic that I don't follow.

I started out by ripping some pages out of an old magazine laying around the house. Why yes, yes that IS the issue of US Weekly featuring Sandra Bullock's marital woes. I'm sure she wouldnt've minded me ripping out the pages and spraypainting them ;)

I pretty much just followed the directions on the can. It said to wait a minute between coats but I don't think I was that patient. It supposedly came with some nozzle that could be turned this way and that depending on what you were spraying but I just left it the way it came. From what I could tell, there was pretty good coverage with just a once over but I wanted it to be very white and very glossy so I sprayed it a few times.

Only issue was that everytime I thought I was done and attempted to pick it up to move inside, I would see a new spot that hadn't been hit! With all the scroll-y bits I figured this would happen once but not 3 times! Eventually I just held it by a section that was dry to the touch and went to town on all the parts I couldn't hit before.

Here is the finished product:

Overall I don't know that it made a HUUUUGE difference but it certainly didn't hurt anything. I've already got a couple more projects lined up too! Stay tuned!

Projects

To keep the motivation from my closet going, I decided to set forth some projects for myself this week!

1) Clear out the bags of books cluttering up our living space.

2) Try out some DIY. I've got a little shelf in our bathroom that has literally been in the house as long as I can remember (and I've lived in this house off and on since 2nd grade!). It needs a little love and I bought a can of glossy, white spray paint this weekend that's calling out to it! I'll take before and afters :) I might just start spray painting everything! Mwhahaha!

3) Take a load to the thrift store. I've already got a pile of stuff I want to donate, it just needs to make it out of the house and into the car.

I'm gonna stop my list there. Much more could be added but I'm hoping to actually accomplish everything by the end of the week!