I want to bring the fanny pack back

For the past year or so, I have been talking with my friends about how I want to bring the fanny pack back. Unfortunately, we have been told this source
I hate carrying a purse, so usually I have my pockets stuffed full of well...stuff. I've been trying to be better about keeping my phone on me at all times. In the past I have always used my cell phone as a way for me to contact people when I want to contact them.  Not really for them to get in touch with me.  Not really the best use of a cell.
So, in my pockets, I have my keys, my phone, a few bucks, and sometimes my credit card and license.
I own two fanny packs. I bought one to use as I trained for my first half marathon, but then I decided that I hated it and would prefer to shove the things I needed down my sports bra. The other one I bought because I for seriously am trying to bring the fanny pack back.
Yesterday, while discussing my desire to bring back the fanny pack, a graduating High School senior {so you know she's cool} told me that Victoria's Secret is actually selling fanny packs now.
What the what?! Yep, they call them hip packs.
Not the gold lame of the 90's but still a fanny pack nonetheless.
Who ever said I wasn't trendy? So do you love the fanny pack trend?
source
Hope it comes back? Let's start rocking the pack shall we.

Custom boot shapers with a pool noodle

Now that I have this fantastic new closet,

I have been doing my best to come up with good organization methods to keep it clean and tidy.

I found a simple solution for my boots.

This is how they looked before.

I bought three pool noodles at a garage sale for a quarter.

My husband helped me out and did the manual labor.

Not because it's hard, but because I was busy.

Measure out the noodle and cut just below the top of the boot.

Here is the closet after.

With the pool noodle boot shapers in place.

Pretty awesome right?!

Total cost, 25 cents Totally worth it!

Garage Sale Finds Friday

Welcome to another week of garage sale finds Friday.

Where I share with you some of my favorite garage sale finds from previous weeks.

A few weeks ago, I had a major score.

I love old crocks.

Not sure why, they are just such cool pieces of pottery.

I loved this one more because it's from Indiana.

The land I called home for 21 years of my life.

Way out here in Washington, we don't get a lot of Indiana relics.

See that 12 on there?

That's because it's 12 gallons.

And it's heavy!

Like at least 50 pounds heavy.

It still has the original handles, which are super hard to come by.

It's a very rare piece.

Want to guess how much I paid for it?

$10!  That's it! I'm guessing it will fetch upwards of $200 if I can sell it. I think that's a pretty good return on my investment, don't you?
Do you garage sale shop to resell? Or do you keep everything you buy?

My {cheap} chalk paint recipe

On Tuesday, I tried to explain the difference between chalk paint and chalkboard paint. If you missed our little chat, you can find it here. I learned a lot about the difference just by picking up my first jar of Annie Sloane chalk paint last week. I won't show you {yet!} what I painted with my red chalk paint, but I will show you how I made my own chalk paint for a fraction of the price as Annie Sloan's.   You will need: plaster of paris a bowl filled with about a quarter inch of water paint plastic spoon

I added about three tablespoons of plaster of paris to the water in my bowl.
After mixing those together, I poured in about a half a cup of paint.
Stir the combo together.
You want to end up with a thick paint mixture a little thicker than yogurt.
It's not an exact science, add more water if the paint is too thick, or plaster of paris if the paint is too thin.

I've had a vintage door in my garage for about a year and my husband is dying for me to get it out of his parking space.  I starting painting the door with my homemade chalk paint.

Once the door is covered, let the paint dry.
Chalk paint dries fast, so you won't have to wait long.

As I explained yesterday, chalk paint goes on very dull and in order to bring out the color of the paint and to seal your work, you need to apply a layer of wax.  I used SC Johnson paste wax.
You literally brush on a thin layer of wax

and wipe off the extra with a dry cloth.

I took out my sander and distressed the edges of my door.
This is the final result with my home made chalk paint.

What do you think? Have you tried chalk paint yet? Do you love it? I would love to see what you have painted with it.

Sand dollar epoxy necklace made from a custom mold

A few weeks ago, I got a HUGE box of supplies from Plaid.

It was the most amazing selection of the new line of Martha Stewart jewelry available at Michael's.

I already posted about my woodland bracelet that I made with epoxy clay, and enamel.

Today, I am going to show you how I made my very own silicone mold of a sand dollar and turned that in to a necklace.

The new line of jewelry has some amazingly easy rhinestones and settings to work with.

Each of the boxes is labeled with the size making it quite easy to chose the right items to work with.

I used a toothpick in my jewelry glue to make an easy fine tip to apply the glue with to the settings.

We all want to hurry up and use our glue thinking that it will dry so fast that you won't be able to work with it, but jewelry glue is the opposite.

You want to let the glue cure for about 2-3 minutes before applying your rhinestone.

I used this cool wax tipped tool to pick up the small rhinestones.

The stones stick to the tip like magic!

I love magic.

To create your custom mold, you need the Martha Stewart custom mold kit.

It comes with a silicone base, catalyst, a measuring cup and stir sticks.

I used my own bowl that I didn't care about using again, and a sand dollar that I found at our local beach.

Measure out your catalyst and pour into your bowl.

You will need 1 tsp of catalyst and 1 fluid ounce of silicone base.

Pour the measured contents into your container.

Stir them together well.

Let the mixture cure for 6-8 hours.

You want the item you are molding to sit on top of the mold, not sink down in to it.

I let the sand dollar sit in my mold over night.

I was a bit nervous in the morning about removing my sand dollar.

It was pretty stuck in there!

But since I didn't care about taking it out in one piece, I broke it up and removed it piece by piece.

Here is the completed sand dollar silicone mold that I was left with.

I love that you can still see so many of those subtle sand dollar details.

I brushed olive oil into the mold to prepare it for my epoxy clay.

I used red epoxy clay because I was out of the white.

I thought it would make a statement.

I also put a hole in the top of the epoxy clay with a toothpick to make it into a charm after it drys.

After about 24 hours, the clay is dry and you can remove your custom piece from the mold.

I wiped my piece down before preparing to put a glaze on it.

The red was a bit much and I wanted to tone it down with the gold and white glaze.

I used a pouncer to put the glaze on the sand dollar to give it some texture.

Several coats were needed.

Let your glaze dry about an hour between coats.

 While the glaze was drying, I found a necklace in my jewelry box.

I got together a few rhinestone charm settings that I had made earlier and my round nose pliers to remove the feather from my necklace.

 I put my sand dollar and my charms on the necklace in place of the feather.

I think it's a super cool, unique custom piece that I will get some wear out of during these summer months.

 I must confess, I was most excited about the silicone mold kit.

The possibilities are endless.

What would you make a mold of?

The difference between chalk paint and chalkboard paint

For years, I heard people talk about the newest rage in painted furniture. A product they called chalk paint. Annie Sloane is quite popular with her full line of Annie Sloane chalk paint. For some reason, my brain never fully clicked over and understood that there was a difference between chalk paint and chalkboard paint. That was until last year, when I met my friend Mandi at her painted furniture shop, Persnickety's Awesomeness Emporium. Mandi made a comment about a piece of furniture being painted in chalk paint. I probably made a stupid comment about chalkboard paint, and she said, no, chalk paint, it's totally different. This launched into her explaining the wonders of chalk paint with me and I finally understood that there was a difference.
However, not until last week when I played with chalk paint for the first time, did I fully understand what chalk paint is. I don't want to get ahead of myself though. Let me start with chalkboard paint. Chalkboard paint is paint that can be applied to nearly any surface creating a fully erasable chalkboard. I used chalkboard paint on this dollar store plate and on this vintage door to create a message board for my tween daughters room. As I mentioned earlier, Annie Sloane's chalk paint is by far the most popular brand of chalk paint. source People love chalk paint because it is so easy to work with. Chalk paint requires no sanding or priming, which is perfect when you are painting vintage furniture. Chalk paint is very versatile in that you can add water to make it smooth, leave the lid off to thicken it up a bit or make it into a wash by adding more water.  You can even mix colors making it even more versatile. Because chalk paint goes on and leaves a matte finish, it's recommended that you apply a soft wax after the paint is dry.  The wax brings out the color of the paint and takes away some of the dullness that the chalk paint leaves.  After you add your wax, you can distress your furniture for your desired result. source I bought some Annie Sloan chalk paint to try last week because I had heard so many great things about it. Once I gave it a shot {and got over the hefty price tag!}, I instantly fell in love! Come back on Thursday, and I will show you how I made my very own chalk paint. I'm no expert, but if you have any questions on what the difference is between the two, let me know. I will see what I can find out for you!