Pinterest Thursday!

Hello! I hope you enjoy today's triangle-themed edition of Pinterest Thursday! 

As always, thank you for reading!

Kilby Gets an Upgrade

So, I have a lot of stuff. I don't mean to acquire so many things as I do, it just happens! So many tiny things go into sewing, crafting & the like...it is difficult to be a crafter without things to craft with! As a result, I need a ton of storage. 

Two apartments ago S and I bought the Kilby from my favorite home store, IKEA. The Kilby has been very useful for storing things, but unlike its grown-up big brother, the Billy, the Kilby is not very pleasant to look at. The blonde wood is okay, not my favorite; but the nondescript grey backing is just so sad. I've been wanting to cover it up for some time now, but have been unable to commit to a pattern.

In case you were wondering why S and I bought the ugly bookshelf, it is because the Kilby costs decidedly much, much less than any of the comparable Billy products. In fact, I just bought my first Billy shelf this week!  

Last week S and I had a rare day off from work together. The whether was great so we hit the city, hanging out at all our favorite places. I decided that today was the day that we fix up the sad Kilby, so we went to Trohv, I picked out all  my favorite spring-weather papers, and we went home & got to work!  

Before!

See the grey + blonde bookcase on the right? Sad, huh.

 Before - All cleaned off. Notice we also took down the black wall shelf on the left?

Before

 We cleaned the Kilby from top to bottom to get rid of all the dust.

To test out the effectiveness of this adhesive we put a test strip of paper on the bottom. 

What pretty piece of test paper!
As expected, the adhesive worked great.

I laid out the paper rolls to measure. I wanted to cut as little as possible.  

We taped the edges of the shelf walls with painters tape to protect them from the spray adhesive.

We decided to cut the paper about an inch longer on each side so we could razor the edges for a nice, clean finish.

After!

I just love how it turned out! The sunroom is SO much more cheery now that the grey backing has been updated to bright dots & floral prints.

The project was quick & easy; with two people it took us less than two hours from start to finish. 

Thanks for checking out my bookcase makeover! I hope you have been inspired to update an old piece of your furniture into a piece that makes you smile.

White Ceramic Chicken

This is a quick & easy DIY makeover that has a big impact. 

Every once in a while I make time to check out the local thrift stores. The last time I went I found this amazing ceramic chicken. I love chickens & this little one was pretty cute, but rather tired looking. I knew I had to take it home with me & make it pretty!

Before Chicken

After I got the chicken home I cleaned it with soap & hot water, then let it dry completely.

I took it outside with a drop cloth, and used spray primer & spray paint to make it pretty!

I used one coat of Zissner spray primer (because that stuff sticks to everything!) and two coats of Heirloom White spray paint.

I let the paint dry then sprayed it with a coat of polycrylic. The Heirloom White paint is a matte finish which is why I chose to finish the chicken with polycrylic; I wanted a shiny chicken. If my spray paint was a glossy finish I would not have bothered with the sealer coat. 

After Chicken!

Check out how nice the chicken looks now! 

I have not decided where it will stay, but for now it is hanging out on my newly updated IKEA bookshelf. (Blog post to come later!)

This was a quick & simple project that transformed a forlorn thrift store find into one of my favorite home decorations! I hope you will be inspired to transform one of your old statues into a new treasure!


I am linking up with Tip Junkie today!

Pinterest Thursday!

Welcome to Pinterest Thursdays! 

I've got some awesome pink inspiration for you today!

I would love to paint my chandelier pink!

I love the pink, orange & turquoise combination

Shiny pink modern shelving

This is so different. The XL desk lamp is really funny.

So comfy looking! Bedding set comes complete with complimentary kitty. 

I hope you enjoyed this week's edition of Pinterest Thursday!

As always, thanks for joining me!

Homemade Pesto

The weather has been so unseasonably warm & wonderful that I decided to try my hand at homemade pesto!

I did not add pine nuts, so I guess this isn't a traditional pesto, but S and I thought it was delicious!

I bought a package of fresh basil from my local market. When I separated the leaves from the stalks I ended up with about three handfuls of basil leaves.

I decided my stick blender would be the perfect pesto-making tool. My older sister gifted me a hot pink stick blender for this past Christmas. Lucky me! The stick blender came with its own container for blending which was pretty cool. It it tall and skinny which helps eliminate splatter. I love pesto in my belly, not in my hair!

I love garlic so I used ten cloves of garlic. Haha, yes, ten. I minced it up by hand, and threw it in with the basil.

I seasoned my deliciousness with a little kosher salt, lots of black pepper, and a little shake of red pepper flakes.  

Next I added a bunch of Extra Virgin Olive Oil & blended away!

Yum! Look how delicious it looks!  

To finish it off, I added Parmesan cheese to the pesto. I like the powdered stuff best. (Strange, yes?)

S and I made grilled fresh mozzarella & pesto panini sandwiches with my homemade pesto.

They were ooey, gooey, garlicky & delicious!

I hope you are inspire to try your hand at homemade pesto - it was a quick & easy way to amp up our supper!

Pinterest Thursday: St. Patrick's Day Edition

Welcome to the St. Patrick's Day edition of Pinterest Thursday!

I hope you enjoy the green-tinged food I found on Pinterest today!

Shamrock Cupcakes - Yum!

Green Chocolate Chip Cookies

An ombre green version of the rainbow layer cake

Mmmmmm...cucumber sandwiches

A big, green stack of pancakes!

Printable green-themed beer labels - perfect for those of us throwing a party at home

I hope you have been inspired to make some delicious green food for St. Patrick's Day this year!

And as always, thanks for reading. 

DIY Green Earrings for St. Patrick's Day

I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day. I love the celebrations, the Irish food, the fun, & the green! 

This whole week I'm going to be celebrating one of my favorite green holidays! Today I'm featuring a mini-tutorial on how to make your own green earrings.

This was a spur of the moment project. (The project I was going to start the week off with will be featured in a few days!) S and I took a walk around our neighborhood earlier this afternoon because it was such a warm & beautiful day here in Baltimore. In fact, some readings stated that the temperature reached 80 degrees in our neighborhood! So excited for summer!

So, on our way back home from lunch, we passed this bead store that I always drive past on my way home from work, but have never visited. I dragged S inside to look around, and instantly became smitten. There were So. Many. Beads. 

They were all arranged by color. It truly was a wonderful site to behold...almost like being in the middle of a rainbow! 

Immediately I found these awesome glass rooster beads. I'm not sure what I will do with them, but I knew I had to have them. 

So cute, right?

After I secured these roosters, I was wondering around, almost in a daze, not really sure what to do but look at all the pretty, shiny beads. I think S noticed my semi-state of shock and he mentioned to me that it would be neat if I made my own earrings for St. Patrick's Day & feature them on my blog! 

Ba-zing! I quickly picked out some green beads & we were quickly on our way.

These pretty things were straightforward to make. I threaded the beads onto the straight pins, then used my needle-nose pliers to twist the straight pin onto the earring part. The round beads made the project a bit challenging, what with trying to grip the beads while simultaneously using the pliers to bend the straight pin, but the end product was worth the struggle!

Biscuit wanted to hang out with my bead goodies

The beads, straight wire pins, & earring wires

The green beads

After about fifteen minutes of fighting with green beads & wire, I had a fun pair of new earrings!

Green earrings & Harry Potter

Ready for St. Patrick's Day!

Bottle Cap Mirror

It is no surprise, I love IKEA. Many items at IKEA have very simple & clean lines, just begging to be customized! IKEA has carried the MALMA mirror for years now. From the first time I saw it, I knew I had to use it to make something really neat. 

I work at a very fun restaurant. We carry over 200 different types of bottled beer, many of which have really interesting bottle caps. I knew that I could combine my love of beer, my access to many different types of bottle caps, & my love of IKEA to make an interesting mirror for my home.

I bought this plain, black mirror from IKEA

Used painters tape to mask off the mirror part

Primed the mirror with spray-on Zinsser primer. This primer is awesome, it sticks to everything. The finish on the mirror was smooth & shiny, so I knew I needed to use Zinsser in order to make my paint stick.

I used neon pink spray paint from Montana Gold to paint the mirror. This is the same paint I used for my Neon Kitchen Makeover. I just love bright colors. 

I used hot glue to adhere the bottle caps to the mirror. The dimensions of the mirror allowed for exactly nine caps to fit across & nine down. It was perfect!

Close-up!

I'm not finished yet! It is looking really cool so far thought, I wanted to show it to you. 
I love the contrast between the bright, neon paint & the bottle caps.

I hope you have been inspired to personalize a piece from IKEA for yourself!

As always, thanks for stopping by & reading. 

Pinterest Thursday!

It's Thursday...you know what that means! 

Today's inspiration is one of my most favorite colors. Seriously, I can't help but smile when I see something pink!

I hope you find some pink inspiration from today's Pinterest finds!

Love this textile! 

Yellow chevron & pink chairs....perfection!

Pink triangles...so cool

Pink & Zebra!

This is just wonderful. What a bright & happy shade of pink.

I hope you enjoyed the pink today.

Thanks for joining me for Pinterest Thursdays!