DIY Yarn Bowl

I have pets. And they shed - a lot. Because I make things to sell, I either have to lock myself in my pet-free craft room (and away from everyone else in the house) to make anything with yarn or shove my skein into a bag and hope that it doesn't escape and roll across the floor while I'm crafting.

There's nothing worse than having to spend your time meticulously cleaning every project you make to be sure that your yarn didn't pick up any stray hairs.

To solve my problems, I turned to yarn bowls. The beautiful ceramic ones that are so popular right now generally won't hold the large skeins I like to use and as it has no lid, I still struggle with hair. I needed a large container with a lid. 

When my boyfriend finished his jar of animal crackers a few months ago, I insisted that he save it. It was too cute to throw away and I knew that I'd EVENTUALLY find something to use it for. 

And I did.

There he is, all cute and unassuming. My parents bought me a Dremel for Christmas and this is the first project I've ever used it on. 

I used the drill bit attachment to start on the lid. After a few glancing blows, I had John hold it down for me so I could apply enough pressure. I don't want to say it got away from me, but it wasn't exactly pretty. Especially considering I didn't keep my finger on the on/off switch, so I had to flail around for a few seconds to get the thing cut off.

Not my best work, I'll admit. Apparently, I'm really scary with power tools, so John took it from me to finish it up. 

He switched to one of the sanding heads and worked on smoothing out the mess I'd made.

(He doesn't like me to photograph his face. He's one of THOSE.)

We made sure to cut out the side of the lid to make it easier to stash skeins inside when you're already working on a project. Just unscrew the lid, dump your yarn inside, thread the yarn through the side and screw back down. Voila! A cheap, recycled and super cute yarn bowl!

Please, please, please be careful while doing this project! It's super easy and really only took us a few minutes, but be wary of moving parts and flying pieces of tiny plastic. They can be very hot when you're using the sanding attachment. 

But so far, it's worked like a charm! 

I hope you like it. Share pictures of your Animal Cracker jar makeovers!

                                           Happy crafting!

Desk turned chalkboard!

Whew! The holidays really kicked me in the butt as far as blogging goes. I told myself that I wasn't going to let it get in my way but first came Thanksgiving and then my birthday and before I knew it I was caught up in the mad rush to Christmas.

I feel like I blinked and the last two months just sort of disappeared.

So here's to hoping that everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving, Christmas and that 2015 is a great year for all of us!

On to the craft of the week!

My family owns property in the neighboring county that we've mainly used as a hunting camp for the last 20 years - its full of rolling hills and mountains, a river, some creeks, an abandoned cabin in the woods and a couple of old barns. My boyfriend and I explored one of the old barns a few weeks ago (risking life and limb on the rotten ladder joists that lead up to the hay loft) and discovered a treasure trove of forgotten old junk. I think my uncle's been using it as a dumping ground of sorts for the last two decades. There were huge piles of old lumber, twenty or thirty old tires, moldy hay, old school desks (score!) and huge glass window panes. Underneath all of this, covered in mouse poop and what I'm afraid is bat guano was a pile of furniture parts. We're assuming that after my great grandparents died, this desk was part of the estate that didn't find a home with other family members and didn't make it at the estate sale.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of it when I found it. I always do that and it drives me nuts! Maybe that should be my New Year's Resolution . . .

Anyways, I smuggled a side piece home with me, filled with ideas. It would've been a beautiful desk, but the top was missing and some of the pieces were too damaged for repair.

Here's the end result and I'll explain what I did to it:

I started with a magnetic primer on the inner piece. I have to say I didn't really like it that much.


I was so excited when I read the back of it at Lowe's - for only $20 and half an hour of your time you can make any surface magnetic! Exciting!

Except not. The stuff stunk to high heaven, the bottom was thick as molasses and the top was the consistency of stain. It took a solid 20 minutes of stirring to even come close to the "smooth gray consistency" that the box suggests and over an hour for the first coat to dry. I did the suggested 3 coats and was so excited that it will now hold a promo magnet from Pizza Hut. That's about it. Forget getting anything else to stick.

I dashed my dreams of being able to keep my bills posted on my new board and moved on to Valspar's chalk paint. This stuff went on like a dream. One smooth coat took only a tiny bit of my can, so I'm looking forward to a long line of chalkboard decorations.








The outside of the piece I painted with cream acrylic paint and rubbed with fine steel wool before it fully dried. It gave it a really nice, used look to it without tearing up the wood as I'm wont to do with sandpaper.

I love it! I'm still a little disappointed about the magnetic paint, but I can't help but love the lines on this thing. As soon as we buy a stud finder, we'll be mounting the chalkboard beside the front door.


Thanks for reading!!