Pinning on Pinterest

I'm finally getting around to posting about the Pinterest-inspired project I did a couple of months ago. For those of you who don't know, Pinterest is a giant online "inspiration board", a digital clippings file if you will. You can "pin" pictures from anywhere on the web. Pinterest will create a link to the original source, so for instance, if you pin a picture of some delicious-looking recipe posted on someone's blog, you will later be able to click through to go back to the original post to get the recipe.

On my Pinterest account, I currently have 17 different "boards", almost 400 pins, and a lot of ideas of "hey, I should do that some day!" Back this summer, a home DIY blog I read did a Reader Pinterest Challenge where they challenged everyone to pick a project they had pinned and complete it. After all, it's supposed to be inspiration on what we want to do or make, right?

This was my inspiration photo:

Photo from Design Sponge here: http://www.designsponge.com/2011/05/diy-project-clothespin-mirror.html

I knew I had an old circular mirror somewhere. This mirror is about 2 feet in diameter, and came from my Great-Grandparents W's house after my Great Aunt passed away back in the '80s. The mirror itself is in pretty good condition, not too wavy and only 1 or 2 small dark spots. It's etched with a saw-tooth pattern around the edge, but other than that it is very plain. No frame or beveled edge. I liked the look of the clothespins around the circumference of the inspiration picture, and I knew I already had some wooden clothespins from back when I lived in Rochacha and dried my laundry in the basement. I dug out what I had for pins, made sure they would fit on and stay on the edge of my mirror, and then headed to AC Moore to pick up additional clothespin supplies.

I wound up getting 3 different sizes of pins - mini, medium, and large. The large ones were the same size as the ones I already owned. I figured I could alternate sizes around the mirror. Here is everything laid out before I got started:

I tried a couple of different patterns of pin sizes, but eventually decided on a large-mini-medium-mini-medium-mini pattern repeat. It took me 17 repeats to get around the mirror, so that's a total of 18 large, 34 medium, and 68 mini clothespins.

End result:

I love the sunburst pattern that emerged with varying the sizes. I also like that the pins had slightly different wood tones depending on size, so there is some variation in color. The original instructions with the inspiration photo called for gluing the clothespins in place, but I didn't really want them attached permanently. There seems to be plenty of tension in the springs to hold them in place; the mirror has been hanging in the guest room since August and none have fallen off yet.

So - one Pinterest project complete. 399 to go!

Weekend Productivity - Somewhat Achieved

How did I do on my latest Ambitious To-Do List? Less than stellar. There was a significant lack of cleaning or exercising that went on at Chez Kate this weekend. I did manage to put away 3 half-unpacked suitcases and an over flowing laundry basket, and in doing so confirmed that I do, in fact, have a bedroom floor! Other than that, lots of projects half completed. Oh well, at least I didn't spend all Sunday sleeping like I did last week! Here's hoping I can cross off a few more of these during evenings this week.



-Once again, oh dear Lord, the recycling. Why does it always manage to take over the basement stairwell before I get to the Transfer Station?
-And once again, scrub the bathroom.
-And also, vacuum.
-Bring flowerpots with annuals and garden decorations in from outside before we get any more snow.
-Pull remains of veggies from garden beds. I got one of the two beds done, but ran out of daylight to finish the other one.
-Cat boxes. Ew, but necessary.
-Sand the bathroom cabinet doors and get at least a coat of primer on them.
-Hang the light in the laundry closet.
-Talk to handyman neighbor about installing shelf in bedroom.
-Update the random financial crap that is boring but needs to be updated.
-Including filing all my travel expense reports for work.
-Start working on my photos from the Israel trip so my book can be done by Christmas.
-Make at least 1 Christmas present. No pictures of it until after Christmas though! The recipient reads my blog occasionally.
-Go to the gym at least once and actually work out (not just shower because there is no power at home).
-Go for a looooong walk outside. Maybe even consider jogging for part of it!
-Dig out ski gear and winter clothes, swap out with summer shorts and tanktops in dresser.
-Drop the dry cleaning off.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday I posted an Ambitious To-Do List for the weekend. I know myself, and I know the lazy is strong within me, so I figured I'd be happy if I got at least a couple of things checked off. I have a bad habit of procrastinating projects in favor of sleeping in late and reading. I thought if I had a list posted somewhat publicly, it might give me some incentive to get off the couch on Saturday and Sunday.


-Oh. Dear. God. Take the recycling to the transfer station. This was actually the first thing I did on Saturday - no missing closing time at the transfer station again!
-Scrub the bathroom. The downstairs bathroom sink got overlooked until tonight, but both baths are now sparkly clean, and the upstairs one has been swiffered to pick up all the stray hair, both human and feline. 
-Figure out what is causing the upstairs toilet to leak, and fix it. Diagnosis: Leaky fill valve. Solution: Install all new guts to toilet. Result: Much swearing, 3 trips to the hardware store, and some very sore muscles, but in the end the water both runs AND stops when it is supposed to, and does not drip out of any unanticipated locations. Win! In fact, I am so impressed with myself, it may warrant a post of its own.
-Everything that was listed Tuesday regarding the laundry closet? Yeah, do that. Mostly done with this one. The shelves have been secured to the wall and the hanging bar installed. The CO monitor is back in place. Everything is organized neatly back on the shelves. All that remains is installing the bar light and hanging the curtain.
-Vacuum.
-Do something productive with the basement - put things away, or at least stack them neatly. I probably should have been less vague about the basement, but then again, the vagueness means I get to check it off. Put all the books away and pulled out a bunch to swap/donate. Tidied up the camping gear, repacked the two camping totes, and stacked them by the door, since I'm going camping again this summer. Finally cleaned out the bar cupboard and put all the booze away. Gathered up a bunch of junk to throw out, and stacked up the empty boxes. It's still kind of a mess down there now, but at least you can see the floor in the main part of the finished room.
-Mail a belated b'day gift to Auntie L.
-Turn the house upside down looking for the round mirror. Found in only the second place I looked, so I didn't have to rip the house apart too much.
-Turn the house back right side up. Half marks for this one. It didn't get too trashed looking for the mirror, and I managed to clear some trouble spots, like the guest room bed. There's still more work to be done though on the straightening up front.
-Recreate some photo shoot ideas and play around with the camera.
-Put together at least one section of the Israel trip photo book.
-Do something for the Pinterest Challenge. Technically, I still have until tomorrow to do this! :-P
-Cook real food. Grilled chicken tenders, zucchini, and garlic bread for lunch on Saturday. Made rice to go with leftovers for Saturday dinner. Ate more leftovers, a nommy grilled cheese sandwich, and made peanut butter cupcakes on Sunday. Yay, real food!
-Go for a run.

So 14 tasks overall, and I completed 7 and gave myself half marks for 2 more. Not bad. I also went out for dinner and drinks with a friend and then played Wii until 1 AM on Friday, and slept late and spent half the afternoon reading on Sunday. So even though it looks like I only worked on the boring household stuff, I still had a fun and relaxing weekend.

I really should get off my butt and go for a run though....

The Final 5%

Why is the last little bit of a home improvement project always so hard to motivate myself to complete? The latest on a long list of not-quite-done tasks that has been growing since 2006 is the laundry closet redo.

Here's what I've done so far:
-sold the old washer and dryer
-had the walls repaired, the dryer vent moved up to the level of the outlet on the stacked dryer, and an extra subfloor put down
-removed the shelf and patched all the screw holes
-painted the ceiling (1 coat), trim including inside the door frame, and walls (all 2 coats)
-installed press-and-stick vinyl tile floor - please note that there were 6 tiles I could lay whole and 9 that needed to be cut!
-had a new washer and dryer delivered and installed
-bought and assembled a closet shelving unit to go next to the stacked washer and dryer

You know what I need to do before I can call it complete?
-buy 4 extra-long L brackets and secure the shelving unit to the wall (and a shorty level, since mine is too long to fit on the shelves to line everything up)
-install the hanging rod that came with the closet shelving unit. This involves carrying the stepladder upstairs, so you know, quite the effort there! But I can't really do that until the L brackets are on.
-buy some ironable hem tape, turn up the hems of the curtains I use instead of doors, and hang the curtains and rod back up. But again, there's no point in doing this until the other 2 tasks are done, because they'll just be in the way.

If I really wanted to get crazy, I could also reinstall the CO detector in the closet (took it down to paint the ceiling) and mount the little bar light I had on the shelf previously to the door frame. But let's not get carried away here!

Le sigh. Motivation. Sometimes it's so fleeting!