DIY Servant

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I mean, serving tray. Tray. This post is about a tray. It all started with this tray I found for $8 at Ikea.

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Then I was browsing Etsy and found this dreams-really-do-come-true fabric. $10 a yard. I was in love. Sometimes things just come together better than you can even imagine.  It would make a beautiful tray bottom.  I wasn’t digging the bottom at all.

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I began disassembling the tray. Thanks Ikea for making it easy!

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I’m not really one for measuring so I just laid the fabric down and cut around the now free bottom.

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I gave the fabric a good ironing to get out all the folds.  I knew I would not be able to tolerate them showing up once I’d completed the project.

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I then covered the entire white bottom the tray with Mod Podge and placed the fabric down over that.

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I plastered the entire piece of fabric with Mod Podge and – this is really important – smoothed the fabric out in all directions.  The Mod Podge should dry and help any ridges to shrink down a little, but I did my best to preemptively handle that issue.

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Once it had dried completely, I trimmed the edges off.

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After sliding the bottom piece back in a few of the edges escaped the groove they are meant to rest under. I took my exacto knife and just trimmed them off.

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At this point you can stop, sit back and enjoy a really cute tray. I did not, and I wish I had. I tried using this stuff.

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Using Acrylic Water is still something I want to do on a future tray, but maybe not one that is made up of many pieces. The acrylic water leaked out of the cracks something fierce. I suppose you could try to seal up the cracks with caulk or use wood glue when you reassemble, but that all seems like an awful lot of work for a tray that you are probably trying to make on a budget. I have considered Mod Podging all the cracks and edges and then using the acrylic water, but I’m a little afraid to pull the trigger on that.

Strike a Pose

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I know that most of the people that read this blog have blogs themselves. For that I thank you sincerely. I am more grateful than the acceptable amount of grateful because you read this blog despite the enormous lack of good pictures.  I confessed here that I only have a camera phone to capture all the memories I’m making these days. Well your suffering is about to come to an end. Today I purchased this:

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Target is having a big camera sale right now so I jumped at the chance to get something better than what I have. As far as phone cameras go, I have one of the best.  It doesn’t hold a candle to the fancy DSLRs or even a point and shoot though. So I upgraded to the Canon A2300.  It is a 16 megapixel camera  with a wide angle lens. Definitely a step up from my lovely but lacking camera phone.

Here is the cost breakdown:

Original Cost: $179.99

On Sale For: $79.99

With RedCard Debit Card: $75.01

Along with the camera, case, and SD card that are included, I’ll be receiving a $10 Target gift card. Like I wasn’t already addicted to browsing.

Thank you for suffering along with my while I did my best (sometimes) to make my posts look good. Now the real challenge will be to see if I can make them look even better in Photoshop.  Now go get yourself one if you need it!

I Love Lamp: The Saga Continues

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Nothing makes a home sadder than not having enough windows or light.  My house is quite sad. Very few windows make for a very distraught Katie. When we moved in, there was no shortage of brassy and oddly shaped lamps. We took full advantage by adding new lampshades and light bulbs and making due. Then I found this monstrosity. Where can I find a blissfully out of touch mom stuck in 1992 to take this off my hands?

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Then a light went on in my head (pun intended). I should just pull a YHL and paint this mutha. First, I had to scrub the dust, grime and nicotine off and….it wasn’t much improved.

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Then I wrapped the metal bits and cord in plastic and painter’s tape.  Target bag, so fancy!

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Then began the gloriously cathartic spray painting in the garage. There is something so refreshing about making something your own. Confession: I propped the lamp up off the floor with stale marshmallows. It was the best thing I could think of at the time.

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After a few coats, you can still see the raised lines from the pink glaze.

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A few more coats of navy and a few of super gloss and I was beginning to think I hadn’t gone insane. Then, one miraculous browsing trip to Target, I found this navy ikat lampshade and I nabbed it for a staggering $8. Boom. You can still see the raised stripes from the pink glaze, but thankfully the hearts are MIA for life. I like the texture the stripes add more than I thought I would.

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Thus ends the story of how I took a lamp from Full House and made into something that I actually love.

Have you done any projects with a “make do with what you have” attitude lately?

Cleaning Out My Carpets

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I couldn’t resist a good Eminem reference, sorry. The title is eerily accurate though.  Yesterday I rented a RugDoctor steam cleaner from my local grocery store because the carpets in my house are startlingly disgusting. In light of a few recent happenings in my boyfriend’s family’s lives, we just can’t afford to do new floors for a while.  At first, this was distressing to me. The carpets in my house would reduce Martha Stewart to tears, I’m sure. But, being the take charge kind of person I am, I decided to grab a RugDoctor and see what I could do.

First I vacuumed the house about 4 times. I didn’t want to waste any of my time with the RugDoctor sucking up dog hair. I think you just need to see the pictures. I wasn’t shocked about how dirty the carpets were, but I was shocked about how much cleaner they actually got. The RugDoctor was worth every cent of the $28 I paid to have it for a day.

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The stain in the middle is actually what the entire area to the left looked like.

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The stained area on the bottom right of the photo is actually my entryway.

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The black stripe on the right is what the whole area looked like. It has since been removed.

These pictures are both befores and afters. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined I could have gotten as much dirt out of the carpets as I did. There were stains that I’ve tried almost everything on to no avail that are now gone.  I’m tempted to rent it again this coming weekend and see how much more I can get out.  The High Traffic spray that we bought along with the regular cleaner was amazing. The entryway and first floor hallway were practically black and now they are starting to resemble their correct color.

I also cleaned our upstairs hallway and it got every mysterious stain out. I didn’t get to the stairs or the bedrooms this time, but I plan to soon. Everyone in the house was amazed by the transformation. I would highly recommend doing this at least once a year even if your carpets aren’t as disgusting as mine. This is what we were left with when the previous tenant moved out. He literally never cleaned anything. I just want that to be perfectly clear. We didn’t gross up this house.

Projects in the Pipeline

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I am not sure how many times I’ve mentioned this, but I am reminded during every waking hour I’m in my home that it is a complete and utter disaster in almost all facets. However, being my father’s daughter, I’m constantly brainstorming and working on remedying it.

Right now I have these projects in progress:

  1. Tray project
  2. Lamp makeover
  3. Bathroom reno

If I were to make a list of all my To-Do projects this post would never end but my high priority projects are these:

  1. Bar makeover
  2. New flooring (whole house)
  3. My entire master bedroom (the whole thing needs love, desperately)

As I look around my house, there is no place I find that doesn’t need some kind of help.  Thank God for handy aunts, Ikea, Pinterest, and blogging.

Moving Right Along

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The demo aspect of the bathroom complete, my aunt and I began the exciting process of tiling. Honestly, it was mostly all her. But I supervised. Ok, I was watching and handing her tools and I got to put a few tiles in and measured things. This is the point in the project where things have taken a sharp turn from “Hideous Pit of Nothing” to “Starting to Look Like a Real Room Again.” Lemme show ya.

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I am so deeply in love with the wall tile that I wish I could put it everywhere.  We have a new toilet, and a new vanity picked out. Once it’s done, you are all welcome to do your business in there.

Be Fun

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A few months ago, when I started Suburban Fervor, my goal was to just better my life and keep track of it here.  Being 23, I assumed a better life had to do with work, health and home and I was right to a degree. What I was forgetting was the fun part. I’M 23 FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. I need to stop living like I’m 43.  I can’t forget that this is the time to have adventures and to make memories that aren’t all weddings and babies and careers.  So like all 23 year old girls, I started pinning. I literally have a Pinterest board called “Be Fun.” Yeah, I’m that girl.  Just love me.

So I went to dinner and a play on Tuesday night and stayed out past my bedtime. Sounds tame, but for me that’s wild. I’m still a work in progress. I made a date night jar for the sole purpose of spicing up my life.  I love a good night of reality tv and leftovers as much as the next girl, but sometimes I need a little excitement! I need something new. Perhaps a road trip or a vacation to the northwest or super north (Canada) or super south (Belize).

I’m not married, no kids, and my job is pretty flexible. HOWEVER, I need a little help. Boring little Katie has a hard time with thinking up fun crap to do. What do you do for fun? How do you keep life interesting? Tell me!

Neglected

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That’s a feeling I don’t want you to feel! I know I’ve been away from Suburban Fervor for far too long (a month!) and I’m super sorry. However, I have some news. It’s a long story but it ends with my friend and I starting a collaborative blog together. I was telling her about my newfound obsession with Pinterest so she had the idea to make that obsession work for us. Let me present to you:

Pintertesting

I’m pretty proud of the header, I made it in Adobe Illustrator and it actually looks like real things in the real world! Please enjoy our DAILY posts and our weekly contributors. So far, it’s been pretty fun and I hope you enjoy it. I will still be updating SF now that we’ve gotten Pintertesting up and running.

It’s Happening!

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I’ve talked about our downstairs bathroom before, but last night I had a super not-even-remotely-a-secret meeting with my aunt about it. She offered ever so sweetly to help me rehab the bathroom as my Christmas present. She has insane amounts of experience with this stuff. She and her siblings are basically gutting and redoing an entire house for their parents. They added a second floor all on their own! So yeah, I’m gonna take the help.

She has some great ideas and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for me. I was too afraid to tackle that vanity top, but she says it’s out of here!

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I showed her the towels and hardware I bought for my little plan so those will be the springboard for the design. She is the kind of person who can envision a room and execute it perfectly. Actually, all my aunts are that talented. I’m a very lucky neice. So stay tuned for the revision of my bathroom plans!