A DIYer's Nails

Have you seen those manicure photos on Pinterest?

Some of those nail artists are amazing. 

 I adore a pretty manicure. 

It is nearly impossible for my nails to look pretty for more than a day. 

They chip almost immediately because of the chemicals we use at the school.

All my crafting and DIYing doesn't help them either. 

Do you have the same problem?

 I've thought about getting a gel manicure for a long time but I worried about the harshness of the remover and sitting with nails in tin foil didn't sound like fun. 

CVS has a line of gel polishes by Sally Hansen. 

They require no special lamps for setting and no special solvent for removal.

I thought I'd give them a try. 

  

It is a little pricey initially. 

The polish and the required top coat were about $10.00 each. 

The manicure is supposed to last 14 days. 

 

Let's see how a deep red does. 

Day 1

 

Are you kidding? 

I already broke a nail. 

 

It was an easy fix. 

 

On day 3 they were not looking so good. 

I touched up the tips to make the manicure last one more day. 

 

This was before removal on day 4. 

This is great polish remover.

It took off regular polish without much effort. 

 I love that I can get a manicure to last four days even if I have to touch up the tips at some point. 

The pink lasted 5 days.

Does it last 14 days?

No. 

It lasts twice as long as regular nail polish. 

Sally Hansen makes this line and it includes some cute colors. 

Pink and burgundy are the only ones in my collection at this point. 

This pink is gorgeous. The burgundy reminds me of my favorite OPI colors.  A rosy red is next on my list.

Kroger had this line for two dollars cheaper than CVS. 

If you are hard on your nails, you might want to give this a try. 

Let me know in the comments what you think.

Check out a sneak peak photo of our new marble back splash on Instagram. 

 Forgive me if my I'm a little slow to blog the next few weeks.

Our accreditation team visit is just two weeks away. 

Bill is coming back to life on insulin and we continue to process the past six years. 

I'll have some deep reflections on this. 

We want his story to help others so I apologize in advance if I'm sharing too much. 

Have a blessed Easter. 

He lives and so do we because of it! 

Katie 

 

Laundry Room Brackets

I wrote about my laundry room shortly after I started blogging.

The post has had a total of 11 readers. :(

Not a big surprise though, I only had about 6 followers at the time.

I was happy with how it looked in real life, but somehow rooms look different in photos.

Of course now I know all kinds of new tricks about taking pictures but I still thought it needed more.
This room is a beast to photograph.
I always wanted to have cabinets. Our builder didn't splurge on the room by any means.

My plan was to find a cabinet, mount it in the middle above the washer and dryer and re-install shelves on either side.

I love the idea of some hidden storage and the rest display space.

Bill and I saw these shelf brackets at Hobby Lobby back in February.

Hobby Lobby Shelf Brackets

We thought they would be wonderful to redo the shelves in the laundry room. They were only $4.00 a piece because it was half off metal week.

Have I mentioned how much I love Hobby Lobby 50 percent off sales?
Bill bought the wood to redo the shelves, but I could never find the cabinet.

I thought I saw one at the restore, but Bill said it was way too heavy to mount on the wall. 
It must have sat on a counter in another life.

I came across the brackets a few weeks ago when I cleaned out my fabric closet. I decided to at least mount them in the interim until we find a cabinet.

I screwed the brackets to the wall in front of the support braces. Here they are just decorative.

It was a pretty simple project and totally do-able with some basic skills with a drill.

I had a hard time with a power drill at first, 
but I just kept at it. All it takes is a little practice.

The trick is mastering the forward and reverse function, so that you can drive the screw into the wood or the sheetrock. If you have trouble, make a little pilot hole with a small drill bit. You don't want too big of a hole or the screw won't fit tightly.

Laundry Room Shelf Brackets: Hobby Lobby

 I replaced the brackets that were in the middle. I noticed they didn't even match. The middle brackets actually support the shelf so use anchors if you don't have a stud. 

I had forgotten that Bill added the top shelf shortly after we moved in.

That shelf wasn't screwed in on the ends so it nearly fell on my head when I took the middle bracket off. :/

I picked up this old iron at the thrift store. It reminded me of my mom. I love the black of the iron brackets and the black of the antique accessories.

I can visualize my mom as a little girl playing with her toy washboard.

I got the old pot at a junk store and put the stickers on it.

The locker basket came from Round Top, Texas.

  A few vintage items for the other wall.
I rescued the old school clock from work.

Bill bought me the Vera Bradley shopping bag.

  We made the wall hook from a piece of architectural salvage and some vintage hooks.

A few of my aprons. I don't like to cook that much, so they don't get used too often. :)

My $5.00 chandelier.

Clothes pins.

Having a cute laundry room helps make the task a little easier.

New brackets make them feel like new laundry room shelves.

They are still the same old shelves and they could 

use a coat of paint. 

I just love this vintage iron. I remember my mom had an old coke bottle with some sort of top so she could sprinkle water on the clothes when ironing. I wish I had one of those to complete the look.

One of my readers reminded me of how blessed I am to have a laundry room inside the house.
Our first house had one in the old, nasty, scary garage.
I locked myself out of the house barefoot and pregnant with my
 firstborn. 
When I called my husband to come let me back in the house, he couldn't get away. I didn't know that until he sent his boss with the key.
I was not happy!!

Do you have any fun laundry room collectibles?

Katie
Linking with,
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style 
A Cottage Style Linky Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage
Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage 
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage 
Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Redo of the Deck Cushions

The mornings around here have been beautiful. I have been hanging out on the deck since I cleaned it up, made some new pillows and freshened up the accessories. If you have been one of my readers for a while you know how bitterly I have complained about our summer last year. 72 days over 100 degrees. The heat and sun reaped havoc on my outdoor cushions. I know, I know I should have pulled them out of the sun, but it was even too hot to do that. 

I came home from work one day last year and found that my hot mess of a dog sensed a weakness (in the force) and went nuts tearing up one of the cushions.

She also has an affinity for pillows.

Ai, yi, yi!

 I was able to remove the shredded cushion and turn the rest over and hide the damage for the time. 
But I have been wanting to recover them for a while. 

I went around town looking for drip dry outdoor fabric. 

I am not one that likes my upholstered pieces in anything but a neutral, so I can jazz things up with pillows and such. 
 The cost of outdoor fabric was a shocker.

 Outdoor fabric at Joann's was $24.99 a yard.

I need about 8 yards. I would be willing to do that for a fabric that I loved but I didn't see a thing. We only paid about $299.00 for the whole set three years ago. It would be very difficult to spend almost that much to refurbish this set. 

I shopped around for new cushions but they were not really 

what I needed either.

So.... I turned to my "go-to"fabric. 

Drop Cloths!!

Bill got me a gift card to Lowes for Mother's Day :)
 I only paid a dollar out of pocket to stock up on all the drop cloths I needed.

This is the brand I like:

I have used them for table cloths and pillows.

Read about a chair I slipcovered here.

 Bill bought one to lay down in the car for our dog.

They get softer with each use and washing. 

Here is my big secret for making cushions.

After sewing three sides and turning it right side out, I hot glue the fourth side closed.

It is time consuming to hand sew the openings closed and it is very hard to get the sewing machine close enough to the edge once the pillows or cushions are stuffed.

I change pillows around quite frequently because I love pillows so much!

It makes for a quick change when I tire of pillow covers.

This only took about 41/2 hours. I was having trouble with the tension on my sewing machine.

I really need a new sewing machine. Mine is about 21 years old and has issues.

The canvas is not water proof. I got the 8 ounce instead of the 10 hoping that if these get wet they won't take too long to dry in the 
hot, (very hot) Texas sun. 

Dixie Lou wouldn't get out of the picture. Picture taking is very time consuming. I was just too lazy to move her. 

.

 I found the cute lantern while rummaging through the shed. It has been around a while and had faded to pink. I taped off the glass and hit it with Rustoleum red spray paint

Loving the fire engine. It's a trash pick from the neighbor.

See the little ferry? I picked it up a few years ago at a antique shop. 

 Each of my kids has a quilt I made them. This is Chris'. His was the most intricate because he is the first born, not because I love him more. I just had more time!!. The other ones got easier quilts. 

The sailboats squares on this thing were a beast!

Put it is such a cute pattern.

We have a fairly long hot and dry season. 

I don't think this would work in a wet climate. 

Before: 

After:

This furniture is so comfy now!!

The love seat stays shaded until about noon. 

I will let you know how hot it gets out there.

Let's just hope that little miss doesn't decide to chew up more cushions.

Katie
Linking with,
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style 
Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage 
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage 
Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors 
White Wednesday @ Faded Charm 
Vintage Inspiration @ Common Ground