How To Clean Your Kicks (Shoes)

I have a few pairs of Converse that I love, but they are a few years old, well used and looking pretty beat up. I decided use a Magic Eraser on them and it worked perfectly! 

I like to cut off a smaller piece of the Magic Eraser and wet it. Then rub it on the white rubber areas of the shoe. Immediately all the dirt, grime and stains came off! As you can see, my shoes look almost new!

I love the black Converse All Stars, they go with everything. But I have them in a few other fun colors too.

Patio Furniture Redo

My outdoor patio furniture was on it's last legs and it was either time to invest in a new set or rehab what I had. Of course I decided to redo what I had! I felt like I had nothing to lose, because the furniture was in such bad shape, so I took some risks.

Before

First, I decided to stain the furniture with a black/ebony stain from Minwax. I haven't ever used a colored stain before, so I had no idea how it would look. One of the couches and the chair's cushions were faded and ripped in places. They were beyond repair! Patio cushions are very expensive to replace and I've found it difficult to find the right sizes. I was very lucky to find this great pattern that fit from Walmart for about $30, I needed five.

After: new stain and cushions

Up close of the beautiful black stain

 On the larger couch, I found the cushions to be intact and decided to paint them. They were a light beige, but had stains and discoloration. They needed to be thrown out. Unstead, I used a regular dark grey paint, mixed with water and fabric medium. I found a few tutorials online on how to paint fabric and it turned out beautiful. I painted at least three coats of paint, letting it dry in between. It looks pretty awful after the first coat, but it gets better with each layer.

First coat on left, dirty with midlew on right

After: painted patio cushions

Finally, I recovered all the pillows. Armed with a Joann's Fabric coupon, I picked an orange duck fabric for one side, and a black and white pattern of outdoor fabric for the other side. They look great against the black pattern of the cushions and the grey.

 

I also tried painting the pillows, but in the end only kept one. This is a silver metallic spray paint with black fleur-de-lis. I like how it turned out.

In the end, I only spend $160 on the cushions from Walmart ($32 x 5) and $15 for the Ebony Minwax stain. Pretty good for a whole new patio set!

Finished product!

More Repurposed Jars

 I've mentioned before that I save all glass jars, and I wasn't kidding. I just wash and clean them, and set them aside... waiting for inspiration or a project to come up. Since I have a household full of boys, I don't get to be girlie often, by I love to use glitter in my projects.

For the pen jar above I used a Coconut Butter jar that has a nice wide mouth as a sparkly pen jar. After the jar was clean, I used small paint brush to coat the INSIDE of the jar with Modge Podge and silver glitter. I let the jar dry three times and redid the painting process after each time. Otherwise you are just moving all the glitter around, but if it is dry you are truly adding another coat. This fully covered the inside of the jar with glitter.

When dry I did a thick layer of Modge Podge inside the jar with NO glitter to seal layers and so the glitter won't come off.

In the background is a large olive jar that I used thin painters tape and gold spray paint to created a shiney vase with stripes. The last is a probiotics bottle, with a more narrow mouth. I used Snow Glitter (which is coarse and opaque, a lot like epsom salts) on the outside, applied with Modge Podge. Here is the same vase with a few pretty flowers.

Three Toned Dresser Redo

This project Mom and I got to do together, which is very rare! We painted it with love for my niece who was spending the summer with my family in California. My guest room doesn't have a dresser, which a long term guest needs. So after scouring a local Free Cycle site with no luck, I put a WANTED notice on Free Cycle and immediately someone offered up this simple dresser. 

Mom and I picked up these beautiful glass knobs at Cost Plus World Market and used paints I already had on-hand. 

My niece picked the colors and wanted to do three different colors. We removed the original wood knobs, cleaned and sanded down the entire dresser. We left the top natural (no stain!), just sealed it with Wipe On Poly. With the drawers removed, we painted the body a light grey. The drawer fronts got Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Aubusson Blue and the drawer trim is a bright white. I started adding Floetrol to all my paints a awhile, and found it leaves a smooth, more consistent finish.

The whole dresser was finished with Wipe On Poly after it had dried.

Total cost was just the knobs (since I had everything else in my crafting stash), which wasn't too bad and it turned out so perfect!

The Goldfinch Dream Casting

The Goldfinch is being made into a movie (or is it a mini-series?) and I can't wait. This is a great book, intense with lots of layers and a big story to tell. I'm so obsessed with The Goldfinch I have created a Pinterest Board and am hosting a book club with my girlfriends to discuss it!

Usually by the time I read a book this popular, it has already been made into movie and is coming out shortly, but not this one. The book covers a large timeline, from a 13 year old Theo to his mid-twenties. So Theo, Boris, Pippa would have to be played by young and older actors.

The story moves from New York City prep school, to the deserted suburbs of Las Vegas, back to New York City with a lot of time in an Amsterdam hotel at the end. Even in posh settings, like a 5th Ave townhouse with great works of art, there is a very seedy undertone and drug use is everywhere.

It hasn't been cast yet, so here is our chance to pick our cast!

Theo - Theo Decker is a tough one. I imagine him, tall and lean (because he never eats), with long brownish hair in his eyes. Adorable and evokes a motherly response from everyone he meets. He has a restlessness and self loathing you have to believe, but mostly he is vulnerable. Hunter Parrish would be good, but you might have to scrub some of the handsomeness off of him for this. Or Ian Harding.

Boris - Dane Dehaan would make a great well travelled, wired up Russian teen/young adult. Loved him in In Treatment. He looks like a young Leonardo DiCaprio, and like Boris, it seems trouble would follow him everywhere.

Kitsey - Mia Wasikowska is perfect for the society ice princess with a few secrets of her own.

Larry Decker (Theo's Dad) - A washed up actor who has moved from alcoholic to pill addict gambler, who the ladies love.. ummm Jon Hamm please! He can play dirty and mean, as well as charming. Matt Dillon would be good too.

Mrs. Barbour - Blonde high society charity dame has Robin Wright written all over it. She is warm and fragile in the end, and Robin could play both off.

Pippa - Pippa one is a hard one, and of course the redhead of the moment is the obvious choice. Someone quirky and not obviously a beauty. Australian actress Sarah Snook is one that comes to mind.

Kotju - Wouldn't Kristen Stewart with black stringy hair be great as Boris's strung out high school love interest? Maybe she's too old (and she is older than all the other kids)... but I love idea of her in this role.

Who do YOU see as Andy, Theo's Mom, Hobie, Welty, Xandra and the rest of the characters?

Faux Sequined Bag

I love the idea of adding a little sparkle to my wardrobe! But not too much, you know? Recently I've seen really nice sequined straw bags on the arms of elegant looking women and thought I'd like to give that a try.

I picked up a straw bag at Target for $3 and knew this would be the perfect piece to try out my idea on. Instead of sequins, which take a lot of work, I opted for glitter.

Supplies: * Straw or Canvas bag or tote
* Painters Blue Tape
* Old newspapers
* Fabric Glue
* Fine Glitter

How To:

1. Use painters blue tape to make a line around the area you want glittered.

2. Use a small brush to generously coat the area with glue. You may want to work in sections to keep glue wet.

3. While holding over the old newspaper, and while the glue is still wet, cover glue with glitter.

4. Once dry, shake the bag (while over the newspaper) to removed any unglued glitter. Fold the news paper in half, catching the glitter and return it to the glitter jar.

5. Spread a generous layer of glue on top of the glitter area and edges, using the brush. This will seal in the glitter, so you don't leave a glitter trail behind you!

Super Easy Chalkboard

Chalkboards are all the rage right now, and I've been using them to decorate for the holidays and parties in lots of different ways. But I've always found it a pain to have use chalkboard paint on these projects. I had a huge charity party I was responsible for decorating and I started thinking of how other black mediums would look with chalk. It needed to easy and inexpensive too! The three methods I use below held up really well and looked and reacted like a real chalkboard.

1. Butcher Paper

This could not have been easier! If you don't already have access to butch paper, it ~ $15 for 100ft roll that will last forever. The butch paper as chalkboard is perfect large projects, like my Selfie Wall. Test both sides of the paper and see which works best for your project. But for me, it worked as is. I also used butcher paper in the small gold photo frames. I have erased and reused a few times and the are great. (Note: I did not "season" the selfie wall and it worked great, but I usually do for all my other chalkboard projects)

2. Black Poster Board

Black Poster board worked great for me too, and available at big box stores like Target, RiteAid, etc. It is ~ $1 22"x28" sheets that will fit into poster frames you already own (I display my kids art work in large poster frames and removed them and replace it with the black poster board for the weekend. More substantial or ornamental frames would look even better). I used this method for large Menu Boards that I put on easels, and it turned out perfect! (Note: I did "season" the Black Poster Board and it made the look more authentic). 

3. Plain Old Black Paint

That's right... black paint works as a chalkboard too! It doesn't HAVE to be a special chalkboard paint. I used an old can of Glidden black paint on cardboard cutouts, and that I used for directional signs at the party. FOOD, BAR, RESTROOM, etc. Plain old black paint is much less expensive than chalkboard paint, so this was a big win for me! I was just experimenting, so if this didn't work it was just cardboard I was painting so. (Note: I did "season" the plan black paint, just like you would with chalkboard paint)

4. Traditional Chalkboard Spray Paint

Below I reused cookie and coffee tins to make Christmas gifts for the kids teachers. I used Chalkboard Spray Paint on these pieces, and you definitely need two coats of paint. I filled the coffee tin with a 1/2 lb of nice coffee beans, and the others with candies. So the paint works great too :) and I'll continue to use chalkboard spray paint on projects like this.