Painted Countertops: 6 Years Later

We're in the process of remodeling our kitchen and in celebration of the dumpster containing the old cabinets and countertops (shown above) being hauled away this morning, I thought I'd give an up-date on our painted faux granite kitchen countertops.  

It's been almost 6 years since we painted our countertop and many people have e-mailed me inquiring about how the paint job has held-up.  Overall I would say it held-up very well aside from minor scratches that have dulled the shine.  

(keep in mind our countertops are black, so these photos have really been lightened to show the scratches which weren't' that bad in read life).

Ideally we should have put a new seal coat on probably every year which would have helped with the minor scratches. 

There were a few spots where the feet of our small appliances made dents in the paint overtime, as shown here:

In hindsight I'm glad we painted our countertops when we did, as it was inexpensive and allowed us to visually up-date the kitchen until we were ready to remodel and purchase stone countertops.  I would not say it's an alternative to granite, but rather a better option than ugly laminate countertops.  

Organizing with Bankers Boxes

We are very lucky to have a walk-in closet in our guest bedroom, which we've re-named the 'party closet' because it stores all of my party gear.  The space is great except every time I would get something out I found myself having to re-organize the entire closet, which is the last thing I wanted to do on top of cleaning up a party. I decided there was a better way to organize it to make everything more accessible.

Here is a before picture of the closet.  Although it looks really messy and unorganized it really wasn't.  I had actually set everything neatly on shelves.  The issue was that everything was a different size making it hard to neatly line-up and stack.

In order to make everything a consistent size, I used bankers boxes to store all of the random goods. At first it seemed like a waste of space since larger awkward items left a lot of dead space in the box, but everything ended up fitting into the closet better when in boxes, and looked much more organized.

I created labels for the boxes by running card stock through the printer.  Not only does it make it easy to find what I'm looking for, but it no longer looks like a bunch of files stacked in the closet.  Storing our party items this way has also been great for lending out party items since everything is wrapped-up inside and already boxed.

Due to the gained space I was able to move all of my tablecloths from hangers to a spare shelf:

Before                                   After

Valentine's Day Dinner

My family is coming to visit on Valentine's Day, so I thought it would be fun to stay-in and make a Valentine's Day Themed Dinner!  

Here's what I have panned for the menu:

1. Valentine's Day Caprese Salad
2. Heart Salads with Homemade Croutons
3. Valentine Surf & Turf
4. Roasted Heart Potatoes
5. Heart Shaped Carrots
6. Jell-O Strawberry Parfait

Up-dated Craft Storage with Casters

In preparation for changing our 'blonde' floors to 'espresso',  I've been trying to go around the house and change any of our espresso furniture that might blend in by either setting on a light colored rug or swapping out for something lighter.  I really like the espresso shelf I have in my craft room and the storage it provides.  Rather than swapping it out or painting it, I decided to add silver coasters to the bottom to lift it off of the 'soon-to-be-dark' floors.

Here are some before pictures of the shelf sitting directly on the floor:

 

I bought 6 of these casters at Home Depot for $5.48 a piece, so the total cost to up-date was about $35.

 

Hubbs screwed them into the bottom of the shelf for me, and here it is now! It was an easy up-date and added a bit of industrial detail to the shelf.  Best of all, we're ready for the dark floors I've been wanting!

 

Pinterest Fail: Washing Legos in the Washing Machine

A few weeks ago I found a huge bin of legos at Goodwill and I had a 25% off coupon--major score! I thought they would be great to own for when kids visit.  Like most things from Goodwill, I immediately thought about how I would wash all of these tiny interlocking bricks before setting out in my home.  I had seen legos washed in mesh bags many times on Pinterest, so for the $4 mesh bag investment I knew how to easily go about this (or so I thought.....)

In order to get rid of all of the loose junk mixed in with the legos, I picked out each lego individually and put them into the mesh bag.  I put the bag in the washing machine on hot, with bleach.  I peeked in half way through the cycle and the legos were floating!!! They completely ripped through the mesh bag and were loose! I figured it couldn't hurt and left it go. 

After the wash was complete, what was left of the legos in bag were completely tied up around the agitator. I had to cut it loose with a scissors.  After getting that out, there was about 6" of loose legos I had to scoop out by hand and put on beach towels to dry.  Some of the larger legos used as a flat base got cracked in the wash also, but are still ok to use.

When its all said and done, I probably spent 3+ hours of my life cleaning my discount Legos.

DIY Reminder Tag

My husband often forgets his lunch, not because I'm a bad cook but by accident.  Sometimes he leaves it in the fridge but I usually find it sitting on top of the cabinet in the entryway.  I've actually learned to look for it so I can put it back in the fridge.

We were joking about how often he forgets it and that he needs something in his face to remind him. Being crafty, I went into my gift wrap stash and grabbed an inexpensive chalkboard tag I had purchased from Michaels and was saving for gifting a bottle of wine. Using chalk I wrote 'LUNCH' across the tag and the reminder tag was done!

We keep it on a 3M hook inside of the cabinet in the entryway and put it on the door knob after dinner if there are leftovers.  Since the chalk is easy to wash off, we can use this to remind ourselves about anything before leaving the house.

Simple Scrap Cards

 

Sometimes the simplest cards can be the most elegant, so for card making I'm always looking for simple ideas that I can easily mass produce and if I can do it using scraps that's a bonus.  I had found a similar card on Pinterest that I really liked. Instead of reading the directions I eye-balled the size of the design and cut.  Well, it was not the right size so instead I came up with this design to use all of the 'pedals' that I had cut, which turned out even better! 

Here's how I did it:

-Cut colored card stock into 1" squares (4 of color #1, 3 of color #2, and 3 of color #3)

-Using a corner rounding punch, round two opposite corners of each square

-Starting in the upper right hand corner, glue the first pedal of color #1 (the one with 4).  Work your way down and across the paper.

-Stamp a sentiment and that's it!

'Merry Christmas' Breakfast Pastry

This pastry came about when I sent my husband to get groceries to make a Christmas Breakfast Pastry Ring to bring to our friends' annual Christmas brunch.  The pastry ring uses crescent roll dough that comes in triangles which are put together to form a circle for the ring.  He came back with Crescent Seamless Dough Sheets, which is actually really great for most crescent recipes I make but not when the triangles are actually helpful.  

Rather than trying to mess with cutting triangles or a large circle, I decided to change it up to make things easier, got out my cookie cutter set, and the 'Merry Christmas' breakfast pastry was born.

I baked this at a friends' house so I don't have a photo of it baked with the glaze, but it looked even better after baking!

'Merry Christmas' Breakfast Pastry

Pastry:

2 packages refrigerated Crescent Seamless Dough Sheets

1 8oz.  package cream cheese softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

1  can  pie filling ( Blueberry used here,  Strawberry is also great)

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 teaspoons milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees F

For filling, combine cream cheese, icing sugar, egg and vanilla extract.  Unroll one crescent dough onto baking sheet. Spread cream cheese mixture over dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge; top with pie filling. Use cookie cutters to cut 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' letters out of second crescent sheet.  Arrange letters on top of pie filling layer.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

When cool, mix powdered sugar and milk until smooth to create the glaze: drizzle over pastry.  Cut into slices and serve.

Winter Wonderland White Christmas Decor

Here's a look into our main living room 'Winter Wonderland White Christmas' decor this year!

This year I wanted our white tree to be decorated entirely with snowflake ornaments.  I started getting them on clearance after Christmas last year, and throughout the year collected them as gifts and from thrift stores and gift shops.  When I finally pulled them out to decorate the tree, I had collected 100+ unique snowflake ornaments. It's so fun to look at all the different variations!

The tree takes on an entirely different look at night since the light can't shine through the solid flakes.  It's fun to see it change depending on the lighting.

For gift wrap, I printed large labels using some snowflake clip-art to add interest to some packages under our tree

On others, I made personalized tags that double as ornaments using inexpensive snowflake ornaments (the kind that come in packs of 10 or 12 for about $3) and a tag maker

Since the tree was all snowflakes this year, I found this ornament stand at a thrift store for our family ornaments

 I finally treated myself to a fun snowflake pillow from Pier1

After seeing this saying on Pinterest I had to incorporate it into our snowflake decor.  Using a $10 goodwill frame, white spray paint, white poster paper, inexpensive snowflake ornament, and scrapbook letters it was easy and inexpensive to make!

A tip I learned from this project: Using sticky chipboard letters is so much easier than basic sticker letters for projects like this, since they can 'sit' on a guide ruler always go on straight!

 
'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, but if the white runs out I'll drink the red' was another Pinterest saying that I had to use in our bar cart area.  We made the chalkboard using a Goodwill frame and paint.

I made this snowflake tree using objects I had around the house including a garage sale vase, lighted twig branches, and inexpensive snowflake ornaments.  Since it branches out it has a large impact and adds light to our bar cart.

Here it is in the dark, shiny and sparkly!

Christmas Card Display Strip, Take Two

My Christmas Card Display Strip post from 2011 has been one of my most popular posts and Pinterest Pins!  We are still using it years later.  Here's an photo of it last year full with our 2013 cards!

For instructions on how to make one for yourself, click here.