And the trophy goes to.....

Yes.  This is a DIY blog (-ish).  But it's also a family blog.  And so today's post focuses on two things we love here at the yellow barn: Craft Projects and Fantasy Football.  Yes.  both of those deserve to be capitalized. 

So a few weeks ago Hubs and his fantasy-football-loving buddies decided to have their annual draft shindig at our house.  He had mentioned casually the day before that he wished they had a trophy to pass around each year for the winner.  So of course I decided that the boys needed a trophy.  Laugh all you want, but as I laid in bed that night, I was mentally trophy-building, and as soon as I got up the next morning it was off to purchase the necessary supplies.

 First on my shopping list: a football player action figure which I finally located in the toy section at Target for about $5.00. (Those suckers are hard to find!  The salesclerk kept suggesting Spider Man and various Star Wars characters and I had to explain my project before he finally helped me locate one of the two figures they sold)  Then it was off to Home Depot for a can of gold spray paint ($3.00 ish) and finally Michael's for a wooden plaque similar to the one from my "belt hanger" project to serve as the base of the trophy. 

I managed to keep Hubs out of the shed while I sawed an extra 2x4 to my desired height, spraypainted by football player gold, nailed the base to the 2x4 and stained the whole thing with stain left over from some previous furniture-revitalizing project.  I also spraypainted two pieces of cardstock to look like "metal plates" and "engraved" them using a fine-tip-sharpie with the name of the league on the front and the previous year's winner on the back....the back plate is big enough to add the winner each year.

I think the boys thought I was mildly weird for having made it...but thought the trophy was just kitchy enough to be awesome.  The "Aresnal" coach looked pretty happy as he took it home at least....or maybe that was just because I sent some left-overs of my home-made "Tennessee Titans" themed cookies home with him as well.

Buckle Up.

So I figured I'd make good on my promise of blogging about my DIY adventures by posting about a 10 minute project I did last weekend.

One of the best decisions we made during our home re-model was to transform some unused kitchen space and part of a hallway into an awesome master closet and tear out the mini-closet that existed in the master bedroom.  This added square footage to our actual bedroom, gave us a functional closet, turned the master bath into a private master bath (instead of having an entrance from the hallway as well) and gave purpose to a hallway and kitchen nook that weren't really used.  So. Lots of bonuses.  But I digress.  Back to my DIY project.  We had our carpenters build a killer custom closet organization system complete with short and long bars for hanging clothes, a shoe rack, and a shelving system.  However.  I neglected to have them make hooks for hanging things such as belts and scarves.  Fortunately I'd picked up this baby at Target a few years ago for our old laundry room for $15.....














.......but as you can tell, it quickly filled up. 

Apparently Husband and I have more belts and scarves than I originally thought.  Frustration ensued every time one of us needed something from one of the hooks and we'd started just leaving things around instead of hanging them up.So clearly, we needed another set of hooks. And while they were still in stock at Target, I'm cheap... we're on a budget, so I refused to drop another $15 at my favorite superstore even if that's what needed to happen.  Plus, it's a closet.  It doesn't have to look amazing.

So I went on a search in our shed two-story storage building out back in my little boxes and jars and found everything I needed in the "hooks and random brackets" box.  Yes.  That exists.  I had these lovely hooks from the back of my old bathroom door (we got new interior doors during the remodel and I refuse to drill into them!), a hanger from a picture hanging kit and a small plaque of wood I'd bought at Michael's for another DIY project that never happened.  Then I snagged a can of paint left over from our interior trim (glossy white) and went to town transforming this stuff.......

......into this. ta-da! another belt hanger!  So easy.  So quick.  So needed. 

and even though they don't exactly match, I'm not complaining. Close enough. And functional. I'll take it!

and it's clearly remedied the over-stuffed-hook situation. Now everything has a place.

So here's the rundown if you're looking to do something like it on your own.

hooks: free (we already owned them, but I think they were $2.50 a piece originally at target or home depot)
wooden plaque: free (again, we already had it in storage.  it was originally 99cents at Michael's craft store)
picture hanger hook: free (yup, we had it in the shed, but a new one should cost no more than $2.00 for a package at a home improvement store)
paint: free (again, leftover from other painting projects.  a can of white spraypaint would work (about $3.50 at a home improvement store, or purchase a sample size plain white paint at the store for around $2.50)
my total cost: free  
total cost of new materials(in case you don't collect junk, hoard save treasures to be repurposed like I do: about $9.00

still cheaper than the ready made Target variety.  And the whole thing took ten minutes to assemble using only a hammer, electric screwdriver, and a paintbrush.  Not including the time waiting for the paint to dry.  Which wasn't long either seeing as I chose a 100 degree sunny day to do this project.

So I know it's not exactly rocket science....but I thought I'd share my fun, easy project with you.

Home, sweet Blog

Have you missed us?  Or have you just totally forgotten that we exist (more likely than the first option, methinks!)  We'll, we're still here, people.  And lots has happened in the past year since last I blogged.  Namely, the entire inside of our house has been redone literally, from the studs up.  And we're a little obsessed about it.  There's still lots to go however so I've decided that we'll morph this forgotten and neglected blog into a DIY space....because there aren't enough of those already out there.  So gear up for lots of info on our various nesting ventures.  I'll keep you updated as we continue to improve, and I'll take you back in time to various projects that you've missed over the past year or so of dormancy.  Maybe I'll even convince Hubs to write a post now and then. 

Looking forward to being back with you.

-B