Make Do and Mend Mondays

I am once again joining Heidi for Make Do and Mend Mondays. 

My pile of finished cross stitch designs keeps growing, so I am trying to do the final finishing on them.  In early 2009, I completed Little House Needleworks' design, Love and Faithfulness.  I have since discovered that it is very difficult to find square picture frames, so when I do come across any, I purchase them.  Over the summer, I was at the Dollar Store, and spotted these less-than-attractive frames, and I picked up three of them. 

I was excited to find that it fits this design, but thought it needed sprucing up, so I turned to my trusty spray paint cans, finding just the right color in our collection.

I still haven't gotten the stitched piece into the frame, but you can see what it will look like in this photo:

Make Do and Mend Mondays

Today I'm joining Heidi in Make Do and Mend Mondays.  This project has been well over a year in the making; sad, but true.

When we built our home, we couldn't decide on kitchen cabinet door and drawer pulls, so we told the builder to leave the cabinets without them and we would choose something later, which we did.  In September, 2005, I drilled holes for and installed 23 pulls*, leaving me with a great sense of satisfaction and tendonitis in my left elbow (which still occasionally bothers me to this day).  By last summer, here's what they looked like:

Ridiculous, given what these things cost!  I had seen an HGTV show in which they had spray painted these types of handles with a product called Plasti Dip, and thought it was worth a try.  I had saved some pieces of packing styrofoam, and by placing toothpicks in it, I was able to line up the handles for painting.

I'd like to say this was the end of it, but I discovered that it's imperative that the paint make contact with itself all the way around the handle, because I missed the underside of quite a few handles, and had to peel the paint off (really!) and repaint them.  All's good now, which is great because it's turned too cold to paint outside.

Don't you think these look better?  For about $6.00, I have "new" handles, which look almost new again.
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*You might think we have a large kitchen based on this number, but the reality is we have only four drawers and many little cabinets in our small kitchen.

Make Do and Mend Monday

I'm joining in Heidi's Make Do and Mend Mondays with a bit of a twist today. 

These pieces, seven in all, came from a small touch lamp that started looking worn after many years of use.  My husband didn't think we could re-paint the metal parts and retain the "touch" properties, so I saved these curved pieces from the "shade" and tossed the rest.

If you look in the upper left corner, you can see these have holes, and there are protectors on either side.  They are so pretty, and I couldn't bear to part with them (this is a continuing theme with me!).  My original thought was to string them on fishing line and hang them from something to make a mobile or wind chime of sorts.  But now I'm not sure that's a good idea because if they knock against each other, they could break.

So what do YOU think?  Do you have any ideas about what I could do with them?  Or would I be better off throwing them away?  I can't wait to read your ideas!

Make Do and Mend Mondays

It's Monday, and time for another Make Do and Mend Mondays post.

Have you ever purchased one of these over the sink shelves? 

(This one is from Collections, Etc., and would look nice in my bathroom.)  Unfortunately, if you use the water from your bathroom sink, the unit probably won't last long.  Quite a few years ago I had one of these, and it started rotting because of all the water that got under and around it, so rather than discarding it, I had my husband cut off the shelf, which I discarded, along with one of the boxes.  I was left with

which I covered with clear contact paper.  It now holds dental floss and barrettes.  So for a few pennies' worth of contact paper, I have a cute little box that is functional.  Maybe all that water wasn't a bad thing? 

Make Do and Mend Mondays

My blogging friend Heidi started Make Do and Mend Mondays back in May.  This week I am joining in!

We recently painted our master bathroom.  Not having a lot of money, we needed to "make do" with the items we already had, with the exception of the towel bars, hand towel ring, toilet paper holder, and light fixture, all of which I got at a great price.  Anyway, as builders are wont to do, our vanity is plain and not very functional, so we had placed an old bathroom storage cabinet in there to store our excess.  It always stood out since it was white, and the vanity is oak, so I decided to cover it - with contact paper.  I have had much success doing that in the past, including covering an old kitchen countertop in our last house (it held up well), so I took the cabinet apart, and painstakingly covered each piece before putting it back together.  I am pleased with the results, and that old cabinet no longer stands out.

I hope to have some more projects to share with you before too long.