Cabinet Organization: Check!

This week Love and Renovations put out a call to arms in the form of an Organize-a-Thon. The challenge involves organizing one area of your home each week left in February and then either post or e-mail her about it. A kind of support group for getting organized. I thought to myself, 'I could use this!'

So, here we are on week 1, and I have shiny, clean kitchen cabinets. Score!!

Now, I know this not the before and after that TV shows are made of, but for me, and especially Folksy Husband it's a nice step up. He nearly refused to ever go into the pots and pans shelf because he hated the deafening clanking that went on trying to get something, and forget about the tupperware shelf. When emptying the dishwasher he'd just leave the tuppers on the counter because of the potential plastic avalanche when putting them away.

Here's a closer look at the bottom cabinet. These are un-tampered with befores, people. I'm gettin' real:

Muuuuch better.  My process started with emptying the cabinets of everything but the food and coffee mugs. Oats helped.

Funny story, see those red-striped popcorn containers in the center of the photo above? Mike and I won them on a mystery theater train ride. All the passengers' names were in a hat, and the MC happened to ask each of us to pick a name out. I picked Mike's and he picked mine! Everyone on the train thought it was rigged! Good stuff. They went the way of the yard sale.

Anywho, I separated out the things that was yard-sale-bound and got to work putting stuff back. Very exciting. It was mostly trial and error, and I think the biggest help was the added space from getting rid of the unneeded. Oats did a little scouting work and gave me the all clear:

Here are a few post-organization snaps:

No more excuses to not put away tupperware!

Small electrics within an arm's reach.

The other horror I tackled was the top shelf of the middle cabinets that is filled with baking goods. Here are the contents before: lots of plastic bags, which are not exactly organization-friendly.

After putting most dry goods in other containers like mason jars and swing-top jars that were hidden in the bottom cabinets before (using stuff and making space, double bonus!) this is what I was working with:

And the baking goods back in their place:

So, now Folksy Husband has no excuse to not put tupperware away, I don't get hives thinking about what could be hidden in there. Win-win!

Next week, it's gonna be a craft-cabinet extravaganza. I'm a little nervous.

(p.s. Bar Cart is coming along, and this weekend is Bar-Cart-a-Palooza oh-twelve. Mike is really getting into tricking it out. There were mid-day brain storming texts, that's all I'm gonna say. ;) )

World of FAIL Craft: Personalized Smart Cover

(I don't know what came over me with that World of Warcraft joke. I don't even like video games. I was compelled by a higher power. Only logical explanation.)

Oh boy, is this a doozie.

It's no secret that I love me some gadgets and my iPad is one of the most prized pieces in my techie quiver. I have the iPad 2, and protect it with a cute plastic case and a simple smart cover. Now, we all know those smart covers have limited color options, especially when you're the crazy lady who waited in line to buy the iPad the first day (yes, that was me). So, I had the coolest gadget in the world covered with one of the ugliest colors ever (ok, maybe not the ugliest ever, but not my cup of tea). Yeah, clearly something had to be done.

So why not paint, right? I mean, people paint tea towels, leather purses and who knows what else, so why not a smart cover? Oh, how wrong I was.

I settled on an oh-so-chic chevron pattern and got to work carefully making a template,

which involved serious number crunching

then it was on to measuring,

and taping,

and painting,

veeeerryyy carefully

with a little help from the Poats dog and a head lamp.

Then I sealed with modge-podge to make it stick and

got it looking so so good...

I was so confident/excited about this project I took 80 photos. Seriously.

Then I used it. F to the A-I-L. Cracked City, USA. Here is how it looks after 3 weeks of use:

Now, it's not thaaaaaat bad. It still functions as a smart cover after all. But it's cracked, and chipping, and not exactly chic. The major place I went wrong is painting over the creases where the cover bends. I think if I had incorporated those into my design so they remained the original light blue, it would have fared much better, but who knows. The paint also may have been an issue; I used acrylic paint, and maybe if I had used something meant to have a little give I'd have an EPIC craft instead of a FAIL craft. Either way, now that the smart cover personalization seal has been broken, I'm thinking of maybe decoupaging it? We'll just have to see how that goes.

Anyone else a resident of the World of FAIL Craft?

Bar Cart It Is!

Guys, I can't even fake it. I am DEVASTATED about the Super Bowl last night. Ugh, I wanted the Pats SO badly. I can't even talk about it yet, too soon. Mike is equally devastated, he's sent me at least 12 texts this morning reiterating that fact in different ways ("I'm glum city USA." for example). We'll have to kick butt next year. Brady and Belichick WILL get another one. Trust.

Anyways, because my mind was so preoccupied with football this weekend, I didn't write a post and now I'm too bummed to write one. But just as a quick peek, here are a few pics of the bar in production. (Bar Cart won!) We drew up a good (I hope!) plan, went to the big orange and picked up parts and started with the painting and sanding. I'll be working on it this week so hopefully a final product is not too far off! Here's what we got for now:

 Drawing up plans and putting parts together at Home Depot.

The wood slab that started it all after the first pass of sanding,

and a gratuitous Oats shot. This was going on while we watched the big game. Clearly he's not as into the Pats as we are.

Alright, is anyone as sad about the Super Bowl as I am? I will try to stop sulking ASAP.