My Kitchenaid Is On The Move

Ok, maybe it’s just me but I have this thing about my Kitchenaid mixer. (Besides the fact that I am in LOVE with it.)  Like many people I like to keep it tucked in a corner of my counter top under the cabinets. Then it’s out of the way when I want to use the counter top for something important like piling dirty dishes there. I know I’m not the only one.

The one thing I don’t like about shoving the mixer in the corner is that it makes this horrible screeching noise when I pull it out to use it. I’m sure that super sticky bottom is probably so the mixer won’t walk all over the counter when it’s running but it does not make a fun sound.

So here it is, my solution to the horrible noise, the fantastic mixer rug. I rummaged through my scraps and found two pieces of fabric that were about 12″ x 16.5″ and a left over piece of Warm and Natural batting to give it a little more thickness and strength. I stitched up all three layers with the outside fabrics having right sides facing each other. I didn’t sew all the way around, I left a bit of a gap to turn it all right side out. Once I had it turned I just top stitched around the whole thing, including my hole to close it up. It was Simple and quick.

One side is solid teal and the other you can see here is a white background with a black pattern and small flecks of teal.  Since a lot of my kitchen items including my towels are teal it works well with the rest of the kitchen.

The only regret I have is that it turned out being a little bigger than I needed it to be. The rug tends to bunch up in the back when I push the mixer back into the corner. Other than that I love it. It’s fun and pretty and makes pulling the mixer out easy and quiet. It has been simple to clean. So far I have just wiped of any flour or bits of mix that has gotten on it. If I need to I can also just throw it in the wash to give it a better cleaning.

Anyone else creating something from some fabric scraps?

Chevron Thread Holder

For a while now I have been thinking about making a thread holder. I love the idea of having all my thread displayed and organized instead of shoved into a drawer all mixed together and hard to find. I have a hard time remembering what I have and finding it if I do.

After looking at and pinning a number of options I finally decided to go with a tutorial I found on Craptastic. I liked that it was simple and inexpensive but it didn’t just look like the standard thread holder with a bunch of pegs.

To make the thread holder I used one 1×6 – 6′ which I cut into 3 – 2′ lengths making the overall size 16.5″ x 24″. I screwed the three boards together using my kreg jig and stained them using Minwax Express Color in onyx. Then I taped off the chevron pattern and painted over it using a few coats of an off the shelf high gloss white paint that I had left over from another project.

Originally I considered painting the stripes using a bright color but I love the way it turned out and I’m glad I went with the glossy white. After all the thread holder doesn’t need any color since the threads bring all the color.

Once the boards were painted I used graph paper to map out where I wanted the nails in a 8 x 12 grid so that the nails would be about 2″ a part. Then I just hammered in the nails at a slight angle over the graph paper and ripped the paper off.

So there it is, one more small project done in the sewing and craft room. I’m happy to finally have a thread holder and one that I think look great.

Anyone else finishing a small project that was quick and rewarding?

Quick Bench Update

I bought the Molger bench at Ikea a few years ago to use as a coffee table to go with my tiny couch. After I bought a real couch and got married it ended up living at the foot of our new bed so we could pile stuff on it. It got thrown here again when we moved into the new house.

Our bedroom furniture is all from Ikea (of course) and happens to be all black and white. I never really liked the mix of colors and wood in our room and I kept talked about painting it white to match our nightstands.

Well it never got that far. I was looking for something to go near our garage entry to catch things on the way in the door and this bench was the right size. After painting and hanging the canvases above were I wanted to place the bench I decided to go with blue to match.

After giving the bench a light sanding and wiping it with a wet cloth, I used a basic white Rust-Oleum primer to base coat it. Then once that was dry I gave it a few coats of a true blue color.

It turned out to be a great landing spot for bags, purses and other things we want to remember to grab on the way out the door in the morning. Unfortunately, it more frequently looks like this than I would care to admit:

It looks a little more like this once I prettied it up a bit up to take a photo. I tossed some magazines on the bottom to display and get them off the floor.

I think I ended using one can of blue paint and could have used more as there were still a few splotchy areas. Although the spots aren’t very noticeable from a distance and they don’t bother me at all.

I just love the bright color splash on this wall now!

Have you taken spray paint to something to give it a new look? Is anyone else in love with the new HGTV mag like me?

Jumping on the Canvas Bandwagon

It seems like painting canvases is all over Pinterest. I find a new canvas inspiration at least once a week that I love. So, after finding some inexpensive canvases at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s I started working on a few fun ways to use them.

The first set I wanted to do was two 8×10’s and two 11×14’s. After painting the base an off white for a crisp uniform color, I taped off and painted a chevron pattern on two and stripes on the others. I used just the basic acrylic paints that can be found in most craft stores. Then I printed out letters on computer paper and cut them out with an exacto knife to use as stencils to create the lettering.

For all you lovers of either Switchfoot or The Chronicles of Narnia you might recognize the quote. If not check it out on youtube! (This Is Home)

I really enjoy the fun pop of color that now fills a once empty wall in our family room.  They were simple and quick to make. I think it took me a lot longer to figure out what I wanted to do then to actually paint them.

Now I have one more thing hung up on the wall! Little by little I’m filling all the empty walls we had when we moved in.

Have you been jumping on the canvas “painting” bandwagon lately?

Keeping the Master(s) Private

One of the first things we wanted to do when we moved in was put up some curtains in our bedroom. Although the nice pink sheet that we had taped above the window was oh so pretty, I don’t think my husband loved it as much as I did.

I think we spent weeks looking at curtains in stores. We had the hardest time finding anything long enough for our 9 foot ceilings that we didn’t think looked cheap although not actually being cheap.

So, after all that looking I just decided to use Ana Whites Tutorial on making tab-top curtains and tweaked it a bit to make it work for our room.

It’s a little hard to see in the photos above but I used a brown/black suiting fabric for the main fabric. The striped center fabrics are attached to each panel and are a home decor fabric that have a tonal brocade print that you can see a little better in a closer up.

I think they turned out great. They are a good length (around 106″ i think) and have just enough gathers to hang nicely but not too much that they look like a prom dress from the 80’s. We hung them on a basic oil rubbed bronze rod that we found from Home Depot (Martha Stewart).

After the curtains had been up for a few weeks I added the curtain ties. I’m happy with the way they turned out and I think they finished the curtains well.

One important thing I learned on the way:

Always pin up your hem while the curtains were on the rod. The first time I attempted the hem by measuring and they ended up looking like a bad hair cut. Talk about disappointing.

Has anyone else attempted to sew their own curtains? Did you find dealing with the long fabric difficult? How did it go?