Cleaning the Pantry

Before

Those that follow my blog know that my youngest son, Nick, broke his arm. For those that don't know, Nick loves to stay home. Now that he is injured and has an excuse, there is no getting him out of the house. I'm about to go crazy, we have not left the house since Wednesday when he had his surgery. Yesterday I decided to clean out my pantry. I have been wanting to clean it out for the last month. Might as well do it while I'm stuck at home.
After

Oh, this is so much better, I can see everything we have.

Last week Wal-mart had their jars on clearance, I bought every single one they had. In the above picture I put cereal, powdered sugar, bird seed, anything that was in a bag, I'm now storing them in the jars.

I have been looking at different blogs and all the cool things they have done to their jars.
Thrifty Decor Chick labeled her jars.

She even painted rulers with chalkboard paint and labeled each section in the pantry. Too CUTE!!!


Kimm at Reinvented painted her jars with chalkboard paint and then labeled them with chalk. Love this idea also!


My Sweet Savannah labeled her jars also.

I have some ideas, I'll be back later to show you what I did. :)

Yard Visitors

These were the visitors we had this morning. I looked out the bedroom window and there were 10 deer in the middle of Nick's RC track. By the time I ran and got my camera, some of them had left.(Don't they know they are to remain together and standing still until I take their photo?) The photo is not that great. Taking it through the screen blurred the pic. And then when I opended the window, the deer that were still there ran off.

Home from the Hospital!

Hey everyone, we finally made it home from the hospital. Nick crashed his motorcycle last night and broke his arm where it attaches to the shoulder. They sent him home last night and wanted him to come back today for his surgery. Of course I had to take the camera. I don't know if the look on his face is from the pain or if it is because of the camera stuck in his face. Notice his half of a wave. Anyways, now that his arm is back in place he feels 100% better.
And this is how he has been since we walked in the door. All of his friends have been calling to see how he is doing. He must be feeling better, he has a grin.

The leprechauns made a visit

Happy Saint Patricks Day! During the night the leprechauns made a visit to our house.

My mom was reading a blog the other day and the poster showed how the leprechauns stopped at their home and left a bunch of green candy. I did not see the post, so sorry if this was your idea. If so, let me know and I will give you credit. Anyways, I copied her idea. Here is what we did.



On each of my sons' bedside tables we left a bunch of green candy, oops, I mean the leprechauns left a bunch of green candy.
Then from their rooms they left a trail of gold coins leading into the bathroom (if you follow my blog, yes, they are using their new bathroom).
In the bathroom the leprechauns left a pile of gold coins on the bathroom sink. They must have been playing in the water because the sink and toilet both had green water.

Update- The boys just left for school, of course wearing green. Since they are both older, 14 and 12, I didn't know if they would get into the leprechaun thing. They did, huge hit. Nick even came downstairs and said the leprechauns messed his room up (Ummm for some reason I think the room was already a mess before the naughty leprechauns stopped by). And then when he couldn't find his jacket, you guessed it, the leprechauns must have hidden it. Mom in High Heels just left a comment about her blog. They are several hours ahead of us, she posted about the green food they had for Breakfast and lunch. Now I'm off to the store so we can have a green dinner.

Once upon a time there was a plain beige bathroom

Thanks to Susan for hosting Metamorphosis Monday. Click the butterfly to the right and it will take you to Susan's site for a list of other great projects.



Before


This past week I have been very busy trying to take my sons' boring beige bathroom and turn it in to something they would love. Their rooms are upstairs and they share this bathroom. They hated it and would never use it, even in the middle of the night they would come downstairs, at 2 a.m., turn on all the lights and use the bathroom downstairs.

One day I was reading Nester's blog and she said something about, "it doesn't have to be perfect". Nester also had a post about how they fixed their kitchen up to sell the house and how she wished she had done it long ago so she could have enjoyed it. I decided I wasn't going to wait for a carpenter or someone to come do it for me, I was going to do it all by myself, it didn't have to be perfect. Thanks Nester!

This is what I started with, a boring beige bathroom

One week and $400.00 later, this is the after.

At first I was just going to paint the bathroom and buy some matching towels. Well, you know how one thing leads to another. One day while reading Karla's blog
It's the little things that make a house a home I came across this. (Hi Karla, hope you don't mind I stole your picture)
I knew this look would be perfect in the bathroom. Go check out her blog, she gives directions.

I called my friend, Cindy, told her to come over I had a project and this is how we spent the day. That is me in the photo.



By the end of the day, this is what we had accomplished. Is it perfect? No. Does it matter? No.




Next came the paint. I found several old looking sports pictures, I pulled the colors for the paint from those pictures. I love the red.


We started out with the cheap premade cabinets that you buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Even though this bathroom never was used, the cabinets looked pretty sad. I painted them black. So of course, they needed new handles and hinges. I can't believe what a difference the handles made, cost was around $30.00
Before
After

The nice new paint job on the cabinet made the big plain mirror look terrible. I bought trim, cut it to the length I needed and attached it to the mirror with Velcro. The trim for the mirror was $30-$40. The nice new trim around the mirror needed a new light, $100.00. I called the electrician to come hang it for me. He couldn't come until next week, so I did it myself. And Hey, it works!!
After
Before

Next came the accessories. I knew my kids would never fold towels neat and place them on towel bars, so I put up hooks. I think they were around $5- $6 each at Home Depot. I am loving these, I will probably put these hooks in all of my bathrooms.



To finish the bathroom I hung shelves, place hand towels in old locker baskets I got from our local grade school, added old tins that I bought years ago, placed soap and other bathroom items in jars that I found at Wal-Mart on clearance, added a light because that was one of the things you need in Nester's post on "Having a bathroom you love". And there you have it, hopefully a bathroom my kids will use. And I can not tell you how satisfying it is to be able to say that I did everything in there by myself (My friend, Cindy, did help me hang the boards).




Thanks for stopping by my blog. Keep scrolling down to read each day's progress and the "how to" on framing the mirror.