Favorite: Coordinately Yours

I stumbled upon Coordinately Yours by Julie Banner in the wonderful world of Pinterest. I was led to the blog by a pin for hostess gifts, but I found oh so much more.

Like amazing printables and suggestions for events. I just love this table setting for Easter:

Place Settings

Great place setting for Easter Brunch!

It’s simple and elegant with a fun touch (and smell) of lavender. The menu cars/baggies are adorable.

There’s also great recipes and DIY projects (a little something for everyone–most of all the Pinterest obsessed).

Pinterest Project/Vintage Finds: Utensils

So along with my Pinterest obsession, I have a thing for utensils (which is just kind-of a fun word to say). In fact, I’ve started a whole new board dedicated to utensils from DIY projects to fun designs and inspirations for future Studio Gatz products.

Here’s a snapshot of the board:

Utensil Board

Oh! The possibilities!

I’ve been thinking about projects like these for a while now, so literally flipped out when at an antique show. Why? You may ask. Well there was a whole dusty basket filled with old silverware.

I tried to hid my excitement so as to not spoil my negotiation tactics, but there I was digging into the basket with zeal. Should I buy a few? Should I buy them all? Should I focus on spoons, or forks, or knives, or sets?!?!?!

Such decisions! I ended up with these:

Antique Utensil Find

Spoons, glorious Spoons!

I did get mostly spoons, but also a few sets to play with. I can’t wait to try some of these projects. I’ll be sure to post here on what I make. Stay tuned… And follow Studio Gatz on Pinterest for a constant stream of utensil-mania.

Pinterest Project: Storage Baskets

I have a very tiny condo. When I say tiny, I mean itty bitty — 425 square feet. For all those New Yorker’s out there that may seem large, but for me, it’s small. So I’ve had to be creative with storage. One thing that’s great about my place is that it has very tall ceilings, so I’ve been able to utilize the vertical space.

I was super excited when I found this storage idea on Pinterest.

Basket Storage

From "I'm Busy Procrastinating"

I had been storing extra towels under my bed and I wanted to use that space for my crafting supplies. My mom was in town for a weekend and so we tackled this project. I should warn you, I make simple tasks very hard and this project was no different. Below is a the saga of the basket storage…

First, I bought three nesting baskets at Christmas Tree Shop. For those who haven’t experienced the Christmas Tree Shop experience, well all I can say is it’s an experience. It’s not Christmas supplies as one would expect by the name, but more like a discount home goods store.

When my mom got into town, I sent her with a basket to the hardware store to find the best way to hang them. She decided on whatever these are in the picture below, after ruling out picture hangers and decorative hooks.

Thing-a-ma-jig

Thing-a-ma-jig

I had originally thought I would put thee baskets over my toilet and quickly realized that was not going to happen — I would have hit my head on the bottom basket. So I had to put them on the only other available wall space in my bathroom, where I currently had decorative shelves. (Hence why this turned into a saga rather than a simple project.)

The shelves were secured with mollies/wall anchors, so I needed to take those out and repair the holes. I did have a stroke of genius at this point, and determined my baskets’ locations based on being able to use the wall anchors already in the wall. I now also needed to hang the shelves over toilet, which meant putting in more wall anchors there.

(Helpful Hint: When ever hanging something that will have weight on it and be jostled, it’s best to use mollies or wall anchors. I usually buy the kind that can be screwed in or out since they are the easiest to remove. There are also ones that you can just hammer in.)

Walls

Prepping the Walls

So after I filled in the holes and repainted, I went to work putting in the rest of the wall anchors. This is what took me so long. I’m in a bathroom, and what’s in the walls of a bathroom? Pipes. Don’t worry, I didn’t go through one. I might just have tapped them a bit. I had marked where I wanted the shelves and baskets to go, and started drilling and hammering and hit tapped a few pipes. This meant re-patching holes and changing my locations.

After doing this a few times, my AMAZING mother had a brilliant idea! SHORTER ANCHORS! Why didn’t we think of this before all the spackling! So after about a day and half of wall repairing, we finally finished!

Finished Product

Yeah! Bathroom storage!

Now I just need more towels…

Pinterest Project: The Great Twisting Challenge

By now almost everyone has heard of Pinterest and for many it’s become an obsession. From recipes and crafts, to clothes, scenic photographs, and funny quotes, it’s a great time-waster. I will admit that I quickly got sucked in and decided to make homemade gifts for Christmas.

My first project was to recreate this wreath. The blog post said it took about a day and I had a bunch of smutty romance novels laying around, so one Saturday I started what I now not-so-lovingly call “The Great Twisting Challenge.”

I twisted three paperbacks worth of flowers over the course of a month in order to recreate the pinned project. Apparently, I didn’t read the directions correctly or have the sizing correct on the paper rosettes. Below is my twisting timeline. Moral of the Story: Yes, you can make that amazing thing on Pinterest, it just might not be as easy as you’d expect.

ImageAfter spending so much time on the wreath, which at this point I now was calling the “god-damned wreath” (and a few other choice words), I just couldn’t imagine giving it away for Christmas. So I selfishly kept it. It hangs on my condo door and already people are asking if I can make them one. “No, I cannot, but I’ll give you some smutty novels to make your own. Oh and make BIG flowers — it’s easier to play hide-and-go-seek for the naughty words!”