Headband and Bow Organizer

Five girls (including me)= A LOT of hair things.

Do any of you have a drawer like this full of headbands and other various hair things?  Well each of my girls has one.  It stresses me out every time I open the drawer.  I have tried many different types of organizational things but, they all end up back in this drawer.   A while back I came up with an idea that has helped us solve both our headband and clip dilemma.

 I have an old shutter obsession.  I have collected few over the years and have used them for various things around my house.  I realized one day that I could put my shutters to use with our hair things.  

The slats are PERFECT for displaying and holding headbands all I needed to do was add something at the bottom to display hair clips and bows.

Would you like to learn how you can make your own????

First you need to find some wood shutters.  My husband and I have found them at the Habitat Re-store.  I bought this shutter for $1 last month. 

So here is where I will strongly encourage you to check out your local Re-store before doing ANY home improvement projects.  You will find so many deals it will blow your mind!  If your local one doesn't have anything useful check out any neighboring towns to see if they have anything you would need.  We always stop at the Re-store when we travel.  We have saved hundreds of dollars on paint, light fixtures, wood, old windows, furniture, knobs, doors, drywall, insulation, solid oak molding, chairs---you name it we have found it there!  You just might have to look around a bit.

 Okay there I am off my soap box.:)

Now back to the project:

 Now after you have your shutters you are most likely going to have to scrub them up.  You will have to scrub them a lot.  I actually ended up taking mine inside to finish scrubbing with some hot water and a wire scrub brush.

  Then cut off 14" off of each end of the shutter.

 Here is what they looked like after cutting them.  I didn't sand them at this point because I planned to sand them after I painted. 

 Now pick your spray paint colors.  I did 3 different colors for our different rooms. I have spray painted a lot over the years.  I have a preference of spray paint and that is Valspar which you can find at Lowes.  It is a little more expensive but, it sprays on so nicely and I have to apply fewer coats.  Krylon is also a nice brand but, in my experience I always have to apply an extra coat compared to Valspar.  

For this project I did a total of 3 layers of paint (4 with the Krylon brand).  Always allow each layer of paint to dry before applying another coat.

 

Here they are after my paint was done drying.

 Now on to sanding.  I like to rough up my paint a bit.  I don't have a certain technique that I use.  I just sand by hand until I get the look and the texture I want for each project. Since the base of the shutters is black I just sanded lightly until I reached that layer.  I wanted the black to pop through.  Definitely sand until you get the look you want.

 A closer look at my sanding.

 Then I picked my ribbon color.  I used a 7/8" thick grosgrain ribbon.  I would recommend using a sturdy ribbon so it can hold all of your bows and clips.

I cut 5 pieces of  ribbon to be 14" long.  I wanted to end up with about a foot of hanging ribbon.  I then singed or sealed the end of the ribbon by burning the tip of it with a lighter.  Then I thread it through the bottom slat.

 Then apply your adhesive-I used hot glue.  After applying the glue press the glue side to the under side of the long piece of ribbon.  Repeat that 5 times or as many ribbons you have to attach.

 Then I threaded a large yarn needle with the grosgrain ribbon.  This will be used to thread through the top holes of the shutter.   My shutters already had holes drilled in the top and the bottom so it made it easy thread the ribbon through.  The ribbon on top will be used to hang your shutter once you are done.  So measure your desired length---mine was about a foot long (I trimmed a little off once I got it on my wall so it didn't hang so low).  Make sure you tie knots to secure the ribbon like pictured below.

 There you have it!  Doesn't that look nice and organized?  I love how it displays everything in plain sight--easy to find.

Now as I give my sigh of relief that all our hair things are nicely and neatly organized I  realize I space for a few more headbands.  I think I will get to making a few more for my girly girls....

-Julia

A Couple of Gift Ideas

 So I have been working on finishing homemade gifts like a mad woman.  All of our family lives far away so I have to get everything ready in time to be shipped to their separate destinations.  I wanted to share a couple of the gifts that I have working on as of late.


 The simple Nativity: I wanted to make a simple Nativity this year to give to our family and friends.  I saw this a while back on Pinterest somewhere long before I had my own account set up.  So when I went to go find the same project again it was no where to be found.  So I improvised with what I remembered of someone else's inspiration.  I know that there is someone out there I should be crediting for this simple yet perfect Nativity but, unfortunately I can't find them.

 I wanted to make something that we could put down low for our children to touch and admire with their little fingers and not have to worry about the fragility of a fancier Nativity. I love the simplicity of it but, unmistakably you know who and what it represents.  I attached a quote from this year's Christmas Devotional:

“Of course, we do not need a Christmas holiday or Christmas traditions to remember Jesus Christ, the Savior. … May each Christmas season remind us to lift up our voices and fill our hearts with joy and gratitude that Christ the King has come! Christ lives! He is real. He is our Redeemer at Christmas and always.”

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 I love personalizing gifts.  So, on the side of each Nativity I put the families name of whom we will be giving it to with the year.   I am so happy with how it turned out.  We already have ours displayed down low for our girls to look at.

Would you like to make your own?  This is what you will need:

*6"-2x2 (I did not sand them down before painting. I wanted a rough unfinished look)
*5"-2x2
*1/2" square dowel cut 3" in length
*2x 1-1/2" ball knob (for Mary)

*3x1-1/2" ball knob (for Joseph)
*1x 1/2" furniture button (for baby Jesus)
*desired acrylic paint, gorilla glue, and some twine

I cut the 2x2s for Joseph, and for Mary. I did not sand them down before painting. I wanted a rough unfinished look. I painted them and distressed them topping each with a flesh colored 2and3x-1/2" ball knob and attaching it with Gorilla glue.
For the baby I did the same steps as above.  The only difference being that in order for the ball to attach to the flat piece of wood you have to let the glue dry while it's lying down in order for it to adhere together.

I glued all of the figures together.  I didn't want any of the pieces to get lost so I figured gluing it all together would be a good option.  You definitely don't have to glue them together.  You could just bind them with the twine or leave it loose. 

Scrabble Necklace:  Talking about personalizing gifts I decided to make my girls and their friends Scrabble necklaces.  I sorted through one of 3 Scrabble games and pulled out various pieces to match the initials of their friends.  Little did they know I made one for them too.  I am going to give it to them on Christmas.  I liked them so much I even made one for myself.

I found the colored ball chains and the square bail plates at Hobby Lobby.  I used my E-6000 industrial strength adhesive.  Just a little dab will do on the back of the Scrabble piece to adhere it to the bail plate.  That was it!  Super simple.  It only took about 10 minutes for it to dry completely. 

I found my metal stamps a while back at Harbor Freight Tools for super cheap.  I just saw that Hobby Lobby sells metal stamps also--they even have different fonts.  I  have been a stamping fool lately. 

Well I hope that this gives you a couple gift ideas.  I will post more of my handmade gifts later on this week.

  

-Julia

Reclaimed Headboard

So, for some time now I have been trying to figure out what to do for a headboard for our bed.  We faced a couple of challenges due to the fact that we live in an older home where the "master bedroom" is quite small.  So, we had to find something that fit the space and didn't overwhelm the room.  My other condition was that I really wanted something that had a lot of character.  Like a lot of things around my house, I wanted something that was a little different and quirky but, beautiful at the same time.

Between Cameron and I we have had a lot of different ideas and we had almost purchase several different headboards at different times.  I am finding that the older I get that I am quite picky about what I want in my house.  

Okay now fast forward to a year ago.  To make a LONG  story short Cameron came across a gold mine of reclaimed lumber through WYDOT.  You know those huge snow fences you see along the freeways in areas that get a tremendous amount of snow?  Well they tear those down every few years and all of the lumber they use to make them is left in piles off the freeway.  The lumber is weathered and beaten and beautiful--perfect for creating some one of a kind projects.  Anyways,  Cameron had a couple of connections and got us a TON of reclaimed lumber ---  FOR FREE!

I am not good at making this long story short.:)  So, last year when he brought the lumber home we started to create different things for around the house.  We had toyed with the idea of making a headboard but, weren't quite sure how to go about it.  The other day while cruising the Design Sponge blog I saw THIS beautiful headboard.  The heavens opened and I think the design angels sang for me.  This was it--this was the headboard we had been waiting for.

We didn't waste much time.  Last Saturday, my very handy hubby and I set to work on creating our own.  You can tell by the snow on the ground that the weather was not ideal but, we didn't let it stop us!  We followed the tutorial pretty close but, had to make a few adjustments to fit our space.

Getting it all laid out and measured.

The hubs hard at work cutting lumber into smaller puzzle like pieces.

Fitting all of the pieces together.

The back side.  We did end up adding some support to the middle but, I failed to take a picture of that.

All the pieces put together.  Now there are no photos of the next steps because that was all my job.  Just imagine A LOT of scrubbing and washing of the wood.  Years of snow and dirt needed to be cleaned off.  I also lightly sanded it to get any hanging splinters.  I didn't want to take away from any of the texture it had.

The finished product.  I am in love!  I know it's not for everyone but, it definitely screams us. I am also in love with the fact that Cameron made it himself.  Now I need to get to work on hanging some things on the wall. 

A small touch to make it our own.  -Sigh and a pitter-patter for my new headboard and my husband who put it all together.-

-Julia