Either I have a black thumb or indoor plants are a little bit trickier than I had anticipated. Maybe a little bit of both. Last week, as I was admiring all of the greenery that I added to our home, I noticed that our upstairs plant was starting to mold!!
After a quick Google search, I learned that house plants mold when you keep them in dark areas of your house and/or water them too much. (I did both. Imagine me with the watering can saying, “You must be really thirsty after I gave you a new home.” Actually, don’t. That’s a little creepy.) The websites that I perused recommended throwing away the top few inches of soil, adding more, and not watering plants often–especially during winter months. After obeying those last few directions, the plants are going a couple days strong with no signs of mold. Keep your fingers crossed that my sweet little plants will stay that way.
The weather in Austin, Texas has been pretty fantastic. When I work from home (which lately has been pretty often), my field of vision looks a lot like this.
My darling husband realized that my view was slightly depressing and brought me home a tiny rose bush. The rose bush didn’t get as much light as it needed, but it’s presence made me realize that having a plant in my field of vision really is quite nice. So last weekend, Peter and I bought a couple of house plants and some nice pots from IKEA. The pots that they offer don’t have holes for water to drain like other pots, but this can be remedied with a simple drill bit.
I was sure that these drill bits would shatter my pots, but with no other alternative I decided to drill away. To my surprise, the holes turned out great. I haven’t tried them out on glass, but supposedly they work great on that too.
I can’t tell you how pleased I am with our new indoor plants. Isn’t this bright green one really cool? I think you could easily repot three of them and then put them in a line in the middle of the table for an inexpensive centerpiece that could later be repurposed as home decor.
(That tall, Medusa-like plant was a gift from my mother. Isn’t he neat?)
The best part is that now when I’m working from home I see a tall leafy plant out of the corner of my eye!
About a week ago we had some friends over for bimuelos. We were all standing around the stove dipping the deliciousness into the honey sauce when I looked down at our floor and realized how unbelievably filthy it was. Now, these were really good friends. The kind of friends that you don’t clean for before they come over, yet our floor was that disgusting. It was the kind of dirty where you try to stand in the way of the gross spots, hoping that they won’t see them. Yeah, that bad.
As soon as they left, I knew Peter and I had to find a solution. He promised he would clean the floor, but his method of cleaning the floor is getting down on his hands and knees and scrubbing it Cinderella style. Don’t get me wrong, whenever he does it, the floor looks fabulous, but I knew we needed a simpler way. A way that would allow us to clean the floor at least once a week.
I went to Target and wandered between the Wet Jet Swiffer (which I’ve read uses chemicals that are really bad for your animals. Apparently they absorb them through their paws, and of course, whenever they lick the floors.), the Rubbermaid version of the swiffer (which lets you add water or whatever chemicals you want), and the Shark. I knew we needed more cleaning power than just plain water, but I also didn’t want to use anything on the floor that would make our sweet little dogs sick, so I settled on the Shark. I figured I could bring the thing home and if Peter thought it was too expensive, I could take it back. Luckily, Peter loves it. We’ve used to twice and our floors look amazing. Plus, you can even use it on your carpets!! It steams them, making the room smell so much fresher.
{via}
After receiving a lot of beautiful but space consuming wedding gifts and tetris-ing dishes into the cabinets one too many times, Peter and I decided that a pot rack could be the solution to our disorganized kitchen. I started with a few google searches to suss out our pot rack options. Immediately, I realized that people were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a bar that attaches to the wall. I also realized that Peter and I were not those people, so we headed down to Lowe’s and picked up a black steel pipe, some hardware, and a few black rubber chair ends. After another trip to IKEA for hooks, we were set.
Basically, all we did was find the studs, drill some holes, screw in the hardware, and insert the pipe, but here are a few details to help you out if you decide to do this on your own.
Here’s the pipe we chose:
I wrapped the ends with duct tape and then slid a black rubber chair tip over each one. This hid the ugly ends of the pipe and ensures that the pipe will never get shoved over in a way that would force it to fall out.
Peter was very proud of us. Isn’t the face he’s making hilarious?
The hardware that we used looked a little bit like this. We used three to support the weight of the whole project
You’ll also see me coloring the pipe with a Sharpie. When we took the sticker off the pipe, it got a little scratched up, but it wasn’t bad enough for us to want to spray paint the whole thing. To our pleasant surprise a couple dots of Sharpie worked perfectly.
After we were satisfied with the base, we hung the IKEA pot hooks (we bought the largest size) on the rod and added our new pots and pans. We’re excited that they’ll stay out of the cabinets and that we won’t have to worry about them getting scratching in the midst of a chaotic cabinet.
{Recognize the hutch? You can read about the process of us refinishing it here.}
This project was ridiculously simple, but it did require some trial and error. Even though we were finding studs, Peter was terrified that the weight of the pots would pull the hardware out of the wall. We started out using SUPER long screws. Because they were longer than the drill bits, Peter we ended up cursing at the walls and stripping the screws.
Now we have the rest of the kitchen to reorganize and the days before Thanksgiving are quickly vanishing! Does anyone have any tips? Are their any organizational products that you can’t live without? Please, let us know!
All of the light fixtures in our house have a copper patina finish. It’s interesting, because they actually get uglier when you dust them. The finish is unpleasant in every room in the house, but paired with the silver faucets and accessories in the bathroom it was downright unsightly. I forgot to take a before photo until I was already removing the fixture from the wall, so please forgive the bad picture.
We spent a few days browsing light fixtures and realized that we would spend about $100 to get the same look in a different finish, so we did what any sensible person would do and spray painted it.
After shutting off the power and disconnecting the wires, we were left with this.
We carefully taped off the part of the fixture that house the light bulbs.
After just one coat of Kilz and a few light coats of spray paint, the fixture was looking a hundred times better.
I have to be honest: I love it. It really goes with the light and airy vibe that we’re hoping to achieve in our new space. Plus, the picture shows what else we’ve been doing for the past two days. Things are starting to come together beautifully.
I think the best part of this project is that I was playing electrician/painter while Peter was cooking for a party. I guess we’re not the most traditional couple. He was excited because he got to try new things in the kitchen and I was excited because I got to learn how to connect all the wires. Win-Win.
So, what do you think? I was a little apprehensive about using something flammable to paint a light fixture, but after looking into it more and testing the temperature of the fixture when it’s warm, it should be fine.
