Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Quick Crafts

My island was initially supposed to be 2 Ikea kitchen counters but the guy I got it from off of Craigslist put a large butcher block top on it.  This left the back of the cabinets exposed with raw edges.  I wanted to cover it with something pretty.  I chose some fabric that had the colors I wanted to incorporate in my kitchen.  I found this lovely fabric :)


So here is the before picture:


And here's the after picture:


I hemmed the edges and sewed velcro at 10 inch intervals on the back of the fabric.  Then I stapled the other velcro side to the back of the island.  I think it makes a huge difference :)  The hubby thinks it looks like something out of the 70s but I love it :)

I had some small pieces left over that I wanted to use.  I had some small canvas covered frames I got from Big Lots for $2.  They had some bland picture on them so I covered them with some left over fabric and ended up with some wall decor :)


Overall, I'm really happy with how everything turned out :)

Happy crafting everyone :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Yarn Wreath

It's never too early to start crafting for the holidays :)  I made this pretty yarn wreath in a few hours.  


All you need is a styrofoam ring, yarn and pompoms/felt for embellishment.  Wrap the yarn around the ring  - I went around 3 times.  Then glue on the pompoms and felt embellishments.  You can also make little felt rosettes too :)

Happy crafting :)

Taking care of butcher block

Quality products are hard to find and when you do find them you have to pay a pretty penny for them.  When I was looking for an island for my kitchen, I knew I wanted something sturdy and with a relatively large surface area AND I didn't want to pay a lot for it.  I looked online and saw lots of islands - nice granite islands - but they didn't really have the area that I wanted and they wouldn't have fit the look of my kitchen.  Then I found a 45" x 60" Ikea butcher block island that a guy was selling on Craigslist for $45!!! At the time we didn't even have the house yet but I knew I needed it.  However, I didn't really have any idea of how big it really was or how it would fit into the kitchen. When I was actually putting it together, I realized that it was actually 2 Ikea kitchen cabinet pieces with butcher block sides and a top.

Needless to say, I have no idea how I'd function without it now.  I'd never owned real butcher block before so I did some research on how to take care of it.  You should season your butcher block at least once a month with a light coating of warmed mineral oil.  Since I didn't have any mineral oil on hand, I found that you can substitute grapeseed oil since it doesn't go rancid.  If your butcher block is new, do one coat and let it dry.  Then, repeat 5-6 times letting the coats dry each time.



On the left is the treated area and on the right is untreated.  See what a little oil can do :)