Little projects.

So a while back I was shopping at Hobby Lobby and they had a bunch of knobs on clearance. Being the crafty gal- I immediately thought-- "I could make something cool with those"- especially since all were less that 50 cents. Ten small blue ones that I put on two light lime green boards I painted were 10 cents each. So FINALLY made some "coat hangers" out of the knobs and some plain "1 by" pine boards that Mr. H routed the edges for me. I had cut them to the sizes I wanted months ago. Then holidays had them sitting in KY house while waiting for the routing to be done. Mr. H finally did that a few weekends ago for me (technically the router is my B-day present many years ago but it's a little tricky to use so Mr. H said he'd do it for me as long as I cleaned up the mess.)

I drilled smaller holes all the way through the boards to fit the bolt of the knobs through then used a larger bit with tape at "stopping point" so it wouldn't go all the way through so the nut would be below the wood's surface on the back. (Countersink bits would do this but I didn't have them so I MacGyver'ed my own countersink bit.)  Last year's B-day present was a new cordless drill- I am quite handy with it since I've been installing most of window treatments I've made, on my own, for years. After I drilled the holes I did a light sanding to take off any sharp corners or slivers. Painted 3 of them in white paint (used trim paint I am painting the trim in GA house) and 2 smaller ones a light lime green I had from a cork board project where I painted cork-board & frame this color. On this project I used bolt cutters on the knobs bolts so they wouldn't go past the wood before I mounted them but from doing the project I would wait until the bolts are mounted and cut the bolts at the end because the nuts were hard to start on the already cut bolts.

I used Command hangers to put them up since they were mounted in GA house and not sure we will be long-timers here. One is mounted in the entranceway- it's handy for putting the dogs' harnesses on when it's bedtime. Or a light jacket for all the potty breaks with the pups. The theme of this one is squarish knobs. 

Next is one that is in laundry room. I hang my collapsible laundry hampers (for when I sort laundry) on it along with vent cleaning brushes (I've got multiples-- this dryer in GA gets a lot of lint through the screen and different brushes do a better job collecting all the lint that gets through.) This shows the nice routed edge a little better. 
Last is one I hung in the kitchen. I went with darker knobs since the knobs in the kitchen are dark on white cabinets. I can hang my dish washing aprons that I made- sewed aprons and then cut clear vinyl same size and sewed together with binding. Keeps me from getting front of my shirt wet when I do dishes. I also made cute matching "regular" aprons for baking (and sometimes eating like a bib--- hehehe) Two Christmas ago I made my mom several dishwashing and regular aprons to match her kitchen. This Christmas she brought "hers" back for me to fix because she used it for baking and burnt holes in the vinyl. Have to say it kind of pissed me off because she had regular aprons to use- just too lazy to use it- and disrespected the time and money I put into them. Most times materials for handmade things are more expensive than buying a ready-made similar item. My mom doesn't make things so she tends to take for granted my time and effort on the things I made for her. This Christmas I made my mother-in-law the dishwashing aprons to match her two kitchens and she is a sewer and valued them greatly on clever design of them and how useful they were. She thought I should mass market them. When I told her my mom burnt the crap out of hers my MIL says "Why didn't she just turn it over? You did such a nice job on the finishing of the wrong side of the apron that you can barely tell it's not supposed to be used." 
These "coat hangers" are probably a handmade craft that the materials were cheaper than trying to buy something like them. At 50 cents at most  a knob and just 1x3 or 1 x4 pine boards- I was able to make 5 of them for about $20 in raw materials since I already had the paint. I gave my daughter one of the green ones with small blue knobs to hang necklaces, scarves, etc from at her apartment. I plan on giving my mom the other green one so she can hang in her kitchen and hang her aprons on it so that she has no excuses for not changing aprons when she isn't doing dishes. 

I still have to finishing painting trim in kitchen and master (& little hallway by master) then I'm finished with entire main level of painting projects to do for GA house. Today I just picked up the 26' multi-position ladder I ordered from Home Depot because the one I bought from Walmart is not tall enough for Mr. H  to use in A-frame configuration in middle of the room to reach the ceiling and hang new chandelier I bought for dining room. I am in love with these kinds of ladders. With the 20 ft one I was able to paint vaulted walls in dining room and a guest room by using as extension ladder on these vaulted walls- painting edging on extension ladder & then rolling using pole & A-frame ladder. Normal wall heights I was able to use in A-frame configuration to paint edging (& top of window trim in vaulted living room.) 
We are thinking about retiling the main floor bathrooms-- cheap 4x4 white tiles and are #1 not attractive and #2 not very safe for flooring. It's going to be a job because have to pull up the crappy tiles but would be a great "add value" project to the house. Mr. H wants to paint the exposed concrete walls too. That's an easy one to do and probably a good summer project for me as basement isn't heated. I may do some painting in the finished rooms in the basement also but just looking forward to finally getting the main level bright white trim and new colors on the rooms that weren't so great. 

Of course I have ideas for other projects too- thinking about making two "bookcases" in white for the kitchen. One for right next to a countertop near stove that is just empty floor space (great place for cookbooks) and another in corner near kitchen table-- maybe a corner kind of thing- for phone/computer/etc charging station, and little items used at kitchen table? Also want to make a stool for the bathroom. There's some space behind the door that would be a great place for a small seat to put shoes on/take them off for bath or shower as skinny tub surround isn't very good for doing this.

Of course I still have loads of knitting and sewing projects in the works most days. I still need to fix my mom's dishwashing apron... not too inspired since it's destruction was no accident.