Be the Decision Maker: Bar Cart or Desk?

Last fall I came across a wood slab that spoke to me at a yard sale. (What, old, beaten pieces of wood don't call out to you? ;) ) After finding out it cost $2, I had to have it. Much to the chagrin of the hubs. But to his credit, he did help me put it in the trunk. Here she is:

I know, it needs a little work. But look past that, it will get there! It's 18'' x 50'', by the way.

The slab sat in the basement until Mike cleaned in there recently. He started using it as a shelf to hold other crap stuff I've hoarded, but little did he know that doing so brought the piece back to my attention. Muahahaha ;)

Of course, now I must do something with it, but I have more than one idea floating around in my head. Bar cart or desk, let the battle begin.



First, the bar cart. Right now we have a small cabinet in the kitchen dedicated to bar stuffs (mixers, spoons, shot glasses, koozies, etc.) and it's not working. Every time I need the bottle opener, an avalanche of breakables comes tumbling out. We could definitely use an upgrade.

Here are some inspiration photos for what the wood-slab-turned-bar-cart could look like. I couldn't find any bar carts with slab tops, but these at least give you the feel of what I'd go for.

Of this ilk? From here.

 A rustic/industrial feel? From here.

Maybe with a pop of color? From here.

And then there's the desk...With this new blogging thing I'm into I could use a pretty place to channel my genius ;) . Here are some inspiration photos:

Those hairpin legs are to die for. From here.

Or maybe something like this...are you getting the rustic/industrial theme yet? From here.

The truth is, I could/would use both of the pieces equally, so there's no pragmatic advantage to either one. Which one do you think I should make??  Yes, I'm talking to you! To help me decide, we have our first ever Folksy Home Poll! Vote vote vote! Without further adieu:

[polldaddy poll=5889686]

Thanks so much for voting. I'll be deciding on Friday! :)

Dying Cashmere: It Can Be Done

Ah, my love/hate relationship with the classic Rit Dye goes way back. Tie-dyed t-shirts: love! Tie-dyed hands: hate! Beautiful colors: love! ...but they all came off in the wash: hate! You get the idea. Needless to say, I was less than optimistic going into this project. During my recent closet overhaul, I pulled out two cashmere sweaters I bought on eBay and decided that it was time they get an upgrade.  I sniped them at a great price, but regretted my trigger finger after realizing they weren't exactly, ahem, complementary to my skin tone. That 'place bid' button has a way to make you put blinders on. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

This photo booth background, so beautifully displayed behind my family in this photo booth picture from our wedding, was my last foray into tie dying:

But, cashmere? The soft and delicate and damn expensive goat's fur? Yes, cashmere can by dyed at home. Now, I'm not saying this method will work for ALL cashmere (so don't hold me to it!), but it worked for me and my sub $30 eBay find cashmere sweaters (I was surprised, too!). Maybe the secret ingredient was having nothing to lose. Weird how it works out that way sometimes, right? (So much easier to make the half-court basket when $50K isn't on the line!)

Anyways, me and my fearlessness started dying with these ingredients:

We have two pots, a stock and a sauce, used ONLY for dying. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but dying pots should be used only for dying - it's toxic stuff! So, we have pots, white vinegar, a measuring cup, the dye, fancy stirring stick (some may call it a broken shim), and the sweater to be transformed. Coffee maker not included.

Now, I cannot lie, I basically just followed the directions on the box, but I do feel that a few of the steps were more important for this process in particular, so I'll highlight them here. #1) Pre-measure your sweater, so you can lay it to dry with the same dimensions!

After measuring, we go on to dissolving the dye. I put the burner on medium-high, and poured in the dye. I don't like this part because the fumes smell caustic and weird, but it has to be done. Now that I'm looking at this pic, I'm not sure having an open flame so close to the burner was such a great idea...

While that was warming up, I presoaked the sweater in tepid water. Now, I really think this made a difference in ensuring even coloring. The cashmere is weirdly hydrophobic, and it took me a good 5-10 minutes just to get it all soaked, but I'm pretty sure it was time well spent

Once that was soaked,  I filled the stock pot with warm water (not scorching hot, or the sweater will shrink!) to a level just above where the sweater would be submerged. I poured in the dissolved dye,

and dunked in the sweater. It was totally a 'Here goes nothin'!' moment, fingers crossed and all :).

After 5 minutes, add 1 cup of white vinegar (apparently, with animal fibers, it helps the color stick). Then starts the waiting game. I soaked it for a total of 60 min, stirring around every 15 min. After 60, it looked pretty red and I decided to go for the rinse. Wearing some rubber gloves (that luckily Mike had in his work truck!), I squeezed and twisted the sweater, then rinsed it in warm-then-cold water until the runoff was clear. It. Took. Forever. (20 min? In my defense, it felt like forever.)

Simple task, simply boring. BUT, through the magic of Rit, the dying worked!! The color was even, and didn't wash out! Score! I laid it to dry (according to the original dimensions). Sorry for the bad pic, I think by the time I got to this step I was a little tired of dying.

It took about 4 days for it to dry all the way, and for research sake, to make sure I was dolling out at least semi-useable advice, I took it to the dry cleaner to ensure the color was held fast. Guess what? It did! And now I have a fancy red sweater that I'll actually wear!

Heck yes! I also dyed an obscenely orange cashmere Lands End cardigan (also an eBay score) black. Now, this one didn't come out exactly as promised (and hasn't been dry cleaned yet).

I used black dye, but it came out mocha brown. For some reason I thought black would be a guaranteed slam dunk, but after cogitating, I realized dying black takes more pigment than any other color. So, maybe because it was originally orange, or because it required more dye, I now have a perfectly neutral mocha cardigan. Also, I think the thread used on it was synthetic, it didn't take color. Call me crazy, but this was a happy accident. It does forewarn you, though, that this dying thing is a fickle beast. Proceed with caution. However, if you're game for a little color adventure, grab a piece of clothing and dye away!

Then & Now: Dresser Side

Ah, here we are, back to sipping from the bedroom well. I think it'll be worth it! But yeah, last time, promise.

For a frame of reference, here is the out-of-scale floor plan again:



We're talking right siiieeed today. That's where the dresser, rope shelves, TV, and most importantly, Fishy live. Here it is, pre-intervention:

Boooriiiing. The clothesline with mementos hanging from it was an attempt to bring down the height of the ceiling a bit because with all our furniture sitting so low, the room seemed empty and cold with such a high ceiling.

I have to say, I quite liked that idea, mostly because it allowed us to see all the ticket stubs, lift passes and love notes we've collected over the course of our relationship. Sappy? Nostalgic? Romantic? COUNT.ME. IN.  It was cool to just glance at that stuff and have all the good memories flood back. Ahhh, I remember our first brewery tour together like it was yesterday...

The only problem, however, is that it looked...unkempt? teeny bopper? Not sure, but I wasn't feelin it anymore. Not that I lost my sappy side. You can't get rid of it that easily.

Anyways, ta-da! Here is the after:

Booya. Ain't it fancy?! Along the way we got a new TV (thanks to my grandma's donated AMEX points!!), but the dresser, lamp, curtains and fishy are the same :).

Detailing in on a few small changes I made, here are some custom finials. (Please excuse the dust, didn't even notice it until it was uploaded. Observant, much?)

They are the same stock Ikea ones from before, but I hack sawed off the decorative part and used E-6000 glue to attach some beach-rounded quartz pebbles I found on Cape Cod way back. Up close you can see a little glue spillage, but from standing height, it's all good in the hood.

Here is another small update I made: that lamp seen on the left of the 'before' pic. It's a Christmas Tree Shop special, ('Oh my gawd, lighthouse plates for only a dollah!' Please tell me you've seen that commercial.) and was originally filled with periwinkle shells.

I emptied the glass of its contents leaving just the clear jar and updated the shade by trimming the edges with the same twine used to finish off the rope from the shelves. Looks like a whole new lamp!

The accessories on the shelves are kind of a mish-mash. (Again, I'm no whiz at accessorizing. Maybe another New Year's Resolution?) On the top shelf we have a jade plant and a series of photos that spell out our last name (an awesome wedding gift from our upstairs neighbors!). The photos are sitting in Tolsby frames from Ikea (can't beat 99 cents) and I think look pretty snazzy.

In the middle we have some frames filled with pics of us as kiddos. We love looking at our cute selves. (Really they were from the welcome table at the wedding and we still haven't changed the photos because, well, they are pretty cute. And I haven't thought about it that much.) There's also a brick I found on a Boston harbor island, some candlesticks salvaged from Mike's grandparent's old house, and a rock from a beach in Lima.

The bottom shelf is a bit more functional. Mostly because I can reach it.

We have three blue glass mason jars I found at our local flea market. One is filled to the brim with wine corks (what does that say about our wine drinking habits?), one is empty, and one is filled with mineral samples (what does that say about our rock collecting habits?). I think they make a nice trio, only it's a little too dark in that corner to see what's going on in the glass.

There are also some other rocks we've collected (the Folksy hubs is a geologist by day) sitting in front of a surprisingly very a-la-mode ceramic horn vase we found in the grandparent's old house.



When I saw that baby sitting in that old house, I finally felt like one of those holy grail thrifters who somehow find antique-road-show-worthy pieces at yard sales. 'Something fashionable! With personal meaning! For free! What did I do right?!?!'

On the right there's an oil can from M's grandparent's old farm, and a mason jar that holds all our loose change (how fun is going to the Coinstar and getting a fat Amazon gift card with just extra change?). In front is a ring tray we got as a gift from cousins that holds my earrings every night.

Finally, over the light switch is an ode to New England in the form of starfish. This little craft used to hang on our old front door when the entrance to our apartment was indoors and now it pops nicely against the new wall color in our bedroom.

Phew. How's that for a laundry list of what's going on in the bedroom? I'm pretty happy with the new digs and realize there's still work to be done, not the least of which is finding something grand for over the bed. Got any accessorizing suggestions?

**In other news, my dad is coming up from Florida this weekend. I'm SUPER excited! Woohoo for dads!

A Series of Quick Jewelry Fixes

As I mentioned Monday, I cleaned out my closet recently because of serious style stagnation (SSS syndrome?). While I was going through it, I pulled out everything that needed a little TLC: stuff to be sent to the dry cleaner, pieces missing buttons, pants I want to hem, and jewelry that needed a little fixin'. The intent was so that everything in my closet is wearable at any given moment. Now I won't shouldn't look at something and then dismiss it because it's x, y or z. I needed to maximize my closet shopability!

I sieved out this pile of jewelry that either hasn't been worn or needed some updates:

Let me tell you a secret, or maybe you already know, but doing minor jewelry fixes is easy! Was I the only one who didn't know this?? The craft store sells all kinds of finishings and beyond those, all you need is a pair of needle nose pliers and a sprinkling of patience. I picked up cord ends, jump rings, and head pins:

I started with the easiest thing first; eased my way in. I have a lot of pendants I've picked up during my travels, but they were attached to either hemp cords, cotton cords, or something else more Phish concert appropriate than work appropriate. After detaching them from whatever they were hanging from, I attached the rings (called 'jump rings' in jeweler lingo) in 3 easy steps.

1) Open the ring:

2) Put the ring on:

3) Close the ring:

Bada-bing, bada-boom, ready for hanging on a nice chain! (The jump rings, by the way, come in all sizes for any kind of pendant.)

Here is my jump ring handiwork (and clearly my nails sacrificed a king's ransom to make them happen):



Like having 4 new necklaces!

Next up was a simple bracelet with a little charm I bought on Etsy ages ago. I fixed it using two cord ends, and a clasp closure (which I already had laying around from other broken jewelry):

This was also beyond simple. So simple, I forgot to take pics of the process (whoops!). All you have to do is brush a little super glue on the inside of the cord end (how genius is the new brush on krazy glue bottle?! Why wasn't this thought of earlier?)  and crimp closed with the pliers! Attach the closure like I did with the jump rings above, and you've got yourself an easy to take on and off bracelet!

The last project was those earrings. They are a Christmas gift from my in-laws and I absolutely love them, but the little blue bottoms on them were kind of a distraction to me. No fear! I fixed 'em right up! Originally, they looked like this:



See what I mean? Those little blue flat beads didn't match the rest of the earring. I took them off by opening the jump rings they were attached to using  the needle nose. I saved those puppies because they are cute and I know they will be useful in another project eventually. Here's one of the earrings after removing the flat beads:



I used the needle nose to remove the round beads from the earring and then took them off the wire. Then it was time to bust out the head pins:

I slipped on the appropriate bead, and cut the pin short.

Then the dexterity came in. The pin gets threaded through the hole on the earring

and then bent over to form a closure.

Simple, right? WRONG. This isn't impossible, or even hard, it just takes patience to figure out a way to hold the earring, the bead and the needle nose in a way that gets the wire closed. All the advice I can give is PRACTICE AND PATIENCE. Like most other tasks in life. Go figure. In this instance, however, the patience was totally worth it, because now look at my snazzy earrings:



Score! Simple update made them like a whole new pair.

Phew! I know that was a lot of niche info. But maybe it'll be useful! I had always avoided the jewelry isle at Michael's because of sensory overload from all the colored beads. No more!

Anyway, moral of the story here: don't get rid of your easily fixable jewelry! A little effort and a lot of nail splitting could mean a few (basically) new pieces added to your closet!

Got any jewelry fixing tips for me?

Everything Under the Kitchen Sink

[caption id="attachment_322" align="aligncenter" width="590" caption="You'd be this scared too. (Psycho pic from here.)"][/caption]

Remember how Monica on Friends was always SUPER organized, but had that one closet that was a hot mess? Yeah, I barely do too. Anyways, I had an under-the-sink equivalent of Monica's h-e-double hockey sticks hole closet. It looked like this:

Which from a higher angle looked like this:

and this:

Makes me itchy just looking at it. Mold, disorganization, a pile of empty sunflower seed shells; all of it was under there. Don't ask. And every time I wanted to grab something, I had to root around that nightmare of a cardboard box to find it. I had had enough and finally just emptied it out and figured if I took stuff out and put it back in, I'd at least know what was in there.

Well, of course, after everything was out, I got inspired to at try and improve the space a little. That mold in the back was enemy #A1. I know, I know, mold is dangerous. Please, don't let what I did diminish that fact. Anyways, I decided to let sleeping mold lie and painted over it. I figured the spores were better left in-tact and attached to the wall than airborne after of trying fruitlessly to scrub it clean. I got out the trusty Kilz II from the basement and painted right over it. I understand it may come back, but at least for now it's under a thick coat of primter. I painted the rest of the surfaces under there also, just to start out with a fresh coat on everything.

Then, I had to come to terms with what was going back in there. Little space, lots of bottles. I laid it all out so I could take stock and start to scheme how to put it all back so it wouldn't devolve into an abyss again.

So, what did I have under the sink?

• Big screw-top bottles


• Aerosol cans


• Spray bottles


• Trash bags


• Spools of aluminum foil and other misc. papers


• Rags and kitchen towels


• Emergency tea light candles


• Sponges


• Paper towels


• Brushes


• Trivia place mats. Once, when Mike and I first started dating, we spent a whole Friday night memorizing the presidents in order. I can't bear to get rid of them.

Conclusion? Mishmash. I really didn't know where to begin, so I took a look around the basement for inspiration. I found these old farm boxes (a blueberry and apple crate, I think) I bought off Craigslist when we first moved to PA. I committed to buy them and then realized they were about an hour and a half car ride away in rural New Jersey. Did you know New Jersey could even get its rural on? Trust me, it can.

I used two of the one on the left, and one of the type on the right. After fitting the jigsaw puzzle of goodies back into the cabinet, I was left with the spools of paper, paper towels, and spray bottles. For the spools, I hung the Ikea metal paper dispenser back up on the right side of the cabinet.

Paper towels got a custom job using these ingredients found in our Hoarders worthy mud room.

After marking out where the roll would hang,

[caption id="attachment_334" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="Gratuitous Ring Shot"][/caption]

I screwed in an eyebolt on the right side,

and a hook on the left side.

No exact science here, totally eyed it.  It is on the back of a cabinet, after all. Then, I broke out the clothesline and tied one end to the eyebolt and measured to the hook, leaving a little slack so that a full roll could sit on the string without being too tight. I knotted a mini carabiner (from an eyeglasses screwdriver key chain) to the end. Voila! Feed the clothesline through the roll, hook, and grab a sheet.

The spray bottles were the last obstacle. There was an Ikea tea towel holder (I can't, for the life of me, find the official Ikea name for it) screwed on the right side door in the 'before' cabinets.

The holes serendipitously were the perfect diameter for hanging spray bottles. I added two more holes, for a total of five by drilling VERY carefully and slowly. This wood wasn't exactly industrial strength.

I wanted it hung up-and-out-of-the-way, which of course meant putting it where no screwdriver could fit. Mike was changing the oil in his car, and when he came back in to get something I lured him over with my endless DIY-in-sweatpants charm and made him hang it. He's much more patient with hanging things. He got out the smaller screwdriver and toenailed in two screws by going up through the holes made for the bottles and screwing into the cabinet side. Boy, I do love that man.

BOOM. Spray bottle caddy, love ya.

And here is the organized, non-panic inducing and sunflower seed-less after. I must have opened the cabinets to just stare at the organized bliss at least 12 times the day it was finished.

Attack 1 of the 2012 Organizing Monster is a sweeping success.