Dodging My Drafts

This has nothing to do with the war draft... it has to do with my window draft.

Our house is an oldie but a goodie... I just love this house, despite all the work it needs.  Since it's old, there are a lot of things to fix.  This extremely cold winter has been a good test of our little house, and one place that we need definite work on is the windows.  We've gotten an estimate on replacing them and we're going to do just that, but not all at once.  WINDOWS ARE EXPENSIVE, YO.

Until we can replace all the windows with some energy efficient ones, I am DIYing to stop the draft!

I had an old pair of flannel pajamas and a big ol' bag of rice...

I cut the pants off of the flannels along the seams... I ended up with four pieces.

I cut those in half again and then folded them, right side in, to sew up the sides and on one end.  Once that was done, I filled it with rice and pinned the ends...

And then I sewed up the pinned edge.  BOOM... a draft dodger.

Now if only I could DIY my way to Spring.

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Adding Cabinet Pulls

Hey all!  Thanks for all the emails about my new and improved kitchen cabinets!  We really do love how they turned out, and they really came together pretty quickly, considering the amount of work they took.

Today, I'm going to show you how I added cabinet pulls to my doors.  I am sure there is some real way to do it, but I didn't know the real way... so I made something up and it worked just dandy.

I added these before I painted the cabinets, so they are oak-colored in this picture...

First, I measured the space where the pull goes:

And when I had the length and width, I cut out a piece of cardboard the same measurements.  I used some junk mail... RECYCLING!

Next, I used the pull itself to mark the holes into the piece of paper.

Once I had that done, I measured once more to make sure that my holes were in the exact center of my template.

And then, I put the template on the cabinet door, aligned with the corner, and marked the holes with a Sharpie.

Then, I had the hubbers drill the holes.  EASY-SCHMEASY.

I did the same thing for the drawers, but I had to measure a bit more to find the center.  The whole thing took less than a hour for 22 pulls.

Oh, and it took me forever to find pulls that I liked that weren't a million dollars.  I found them on Amazon for a great price!

Now here's the part where you tell me there is a way easier method to installing cabinet pulls... :)

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How We Painted Our Kitchen Cabinets

Hi again, everyone!  I got some great emails about yesterday's post on our kitchen cabinets!  I really love how they turned out and I'm glad some of you did too!  The biggest question I got was about the process and products we used to paint them.  I thought I'd share with you what we did!

I used this product:

I'm sort of torn about even sharing this with you, and here's why:

I contacted Rustoleum with some questions about the product.  Nothing huge, just some feedback.  I do the same with most products I use and I almost always get some little tip or trick to share with you.

When I contacted Rustoleum, they were... how shall I put this?  They were insulting.  Really.  I actually read the email they sent to me and was insulted.  I won't go into details, but yes, I was insulted.

For me, I'm a highly principled person.  There are restaurants that I will no longer eat at because one person was treated poorly at one restaurant in the chain.  Really, I get very "uppity" about such things.  In this situation, I would have not used their product, just because of that snarky email.  But in this case, the product was purchased and tinted, so there was no going back.  I used it and am pretty happy with it, despite being insulted by someone at their company.

It turned out nicely:

But, seeing as I'm a highly principled gal and all, next time I'll stick with Krylon. :)

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Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

Hi everyone!  We are finally pulling out of this horrible weather pattern we've been in, although they are calling for more snow this weekend.  UGH.

A couple of weeks ago, the hubs and I painted the kitchen cabinets.  From start to finish, it took four days... MY HOUSE WAS SUCH A WRECK.  But we persevered and look how they turned out!

The kitchen is so different... it is amazing what paint will do for a room!

Here's the before...

And once more, the after:

I love it!

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Pretty Pens!

Hi everyone!  We are in the middle of a thundersnow right now, which I've never actually experienced first-hand.  With this winter though, nothing should surprise me.

I was absent on the blog last week, but it was for good reason: the hubs and I painted our kitchen cabinets!  I hope to take some good pictures today and post about it later this week.  For today, I will show you how I turned ink pens into awesomeness.

To do this, you need a specific type of pen.  It has to unscrew at the end so you have access to the inside of the barrel.  These pens work great, and they write well too:

First, you unscrew the end...

Then, cut yourself some rectangles of pretty paper.  I think it was around 2" by 4" pieces, but measure your pen to get the exact size needed.

Then, you roll up the paper around the pen...

Slide it back in and screw the end back on.  Easy-to-the-peasy, yo.

And then, you have a whole mess of pens!  And the best part is that, since they are all pretty papers, my husband no longer steals my pens.  TAKE THAT, PAL.

Who would have thought that ink pens would bring such joy? :)

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New Cabinet, Part Deux

Because just saying "Part Two" would be far too simple.

Yesterday I showed you the lovely cabinet that my mother bought me and also forbid me to change in any way.  Today, I'm showing you what I'm using it for!

I'm using it to store more crap!

OK, OK, it's not all crap... but I have so much STUFF.  And it's just EVERYWHERE.  *sigh*

As you can see, I got a couple of baskets from Michael's to hold some things.  The top basket has napkins, placemats, and other table-setting things, while the basket on the bottom has fabric scraps:

For the fabric I had that was bigger than scraps, I did this: I cut some cardboard to a size that would fit my cabinets, and then I laid it on top of my fabric.

I folded the top and the bottom over the cardboard...

And then folded it end over end.  I stacked them up side-by-side, neatly displaying all the fabric that I bought too much of. :)

On the right side, I filled a vase with my embroidery floss, all of it wrapped around a clothespin to keep it neat.

On the second shelf, I put my candles and matches, along with some faux flowers that I use for centerpieces on the dinner table.

And there you have it!  My mother's gift, even with her "YOU CAN'T CHANGE A THING" caveat is working out pretty nicely.

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A New Cabinet!... But My Hands Are Tied

I really hope I'm not the only person that has to deal with this.

When we moved into our new house, my mother wanted to get us a housewarming gift.  I was totally receptive to this, because it was really a sweet offer.  She likes to thrift for items just like I do, so she kept her eyes open for something she thought I would like.

OK, let me explain something about my mother:  she has no idea what I like.  She never has.  When she picks out gifts for me or my sister, they are things that my mother likes, but not things that we like.  And my mother thinks it's rude to ask for a specific gift, so we just trod along in life, with our gifts of Snow White shaped soap and collector coins.  We are thankful when we get these gifts, but we just don't like them and don't have the heart to tell her.  And before you tell me how ungrateful I am and that it's the thought that counts, let me say this: you're totally right.  I need to be more grateful.

But I digress.  She found a housewarming gift for us: a cabinet from a garage sale.  And it is actually a really nice little cabinet!

So I was all, "Oh, so cute!  I can paint it and switch out the handles and put fabric on the back!"

And my mom said "No".  The cabinet is too pretty, she said, for me to change it.  And because I feel such guilt about not liking anything she has ever picked out for me, I agreed not to change it.

Except I'm such a rebel.

I bought some washi tape on clearance...

And I added it to the cabinet shelves:

My mother saw it and didn't ground me, so I think I'm in the clear.  And the good news is, I now have another cabinet in which to put things!  Tomorrow, I'll show you what I'm using it for!

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Switching Out Switch Plates

Hi everyone!  Here in the midwest, everyone is preparing for Snowmaggedon.  I just came from the grocery store where I had to wrestle an old man for the last box of Twinkies.  I GOT THEM.

Anyhoo, the kitchen makeover is rolling right along over here.  We are planning to paint the walls and the cabinets, but with the wee baby, it's hard to take on any big projects right now.  So, I stuck to something simple and easy:  Switching out the wall plates.

Every time I go to Walmart, I buy a new wall plate... these are pretty and so they aren't cheap.  I buy one or two at a time and pretty soon, I'll have enough to switch out all the almond wall plates for these pretty little numbers.

And of course, when I switched out the plates, I had to switch the toggles, too.  I had the hubs do that, but it is really easy to do!

And another (easy!) part of my kitchen makeover is done!

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