Sunday, April 24, 2011

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Ironing Board Makeover

Let me start with this….I HATE ironing!!!  I pretty much never iron my own clothes.  If it’s wrinkled it goes in the dryer for a few minutes.  That’s it.  Well I married a man that works at a bank.  He has to wear dress shirts everyday.  A place that if he wears a dryer ‘ironed’ shirt they might actually call him out on it.  So my job as a ‘good’ wife is to keep his closet full of nicely pressed shirts. 

We have had our ironing for for only 6 years, but it was in a bad condition.  The padding beneath the cover was pretty much gone.  It was like ironing on the thinnest fabric and metal with tiny little holes it.  Who wants those tiny little holes to show up in your ironed shirt?  I would usually put a towel under the shirt so it would be thicker and run smoother.  As usual, I was looking at blogs and saw that someone got a new ironing board cover.  Why did I not thing of that????  I have to iron all the time! Why not have a pretty area to do it on?? :)   I also recently went to a friends house to help out because she had a new baby, while I was there I ironed shirts for her and she had an amazing new iron.  I realized how terrible my iron was and that I needed a new one. My iron ended up breaking the very next time I used it, so it was the perfect opportunity.  All new ironing stuff!!!

Ok, so first, I got non flammable ironing board fabric.  I cut it to size.  The original plan was to use elastic around the edges to secure it on to the frame.  That ended up not being an option for me.  Actually it would have been an option if I had been willing to go get a different needle.  I was too excited. 

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Enter hot glue gun….

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I know this is ghetto, but I am totally okay with that.  It worked fine for me.  At least so far it has.  I just pulled it tight and glued around the edges.  Now I have a nice padded ironing board!

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Next up, a new cover.   I used my old cover.  I ironed and flattened it out,  cutting the new fabric 2 inches bigger than old cover.  So,  since nothing ever goes right for me, I somehow ended up cutting it too small.   To make a long story short.  I cut out an extra ring to go around the outside.  This new ring will just be added to the edges and will have the draw string sewn in it.   I recommend cutting the fabric the correct size the first time.  This was a nightmare:)

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Finished product!  I am very pleased with it.  I haven’t used it yet, but my mom has and she says it works great!  and she LOVES my new iron:)

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Next step is to spray paint the metal frame black.

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Friday, April 8, 2011

Tiny Light Box

I will probably say this 1,000 times, I LOVE looking at blogs.  I LOVE getting ideas from other people! So,  I found a blog where a woman made a light box out of a diaper box.  It looked easy enough.  I am not really sure I need a light box, but I have most of the supplies, why not give it a shot?   I planned to link the blog I used, but when it came down to it, I couldn’t even remember which blog it was, so I had to wing it.  Hopefully I did it right:)

1. I only had a very small box that wasn’t being used already.  Maybe I will make a bigger one later.  So, you cut squares in the box.  One on top and on each of the 2 sides.

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2.  Cut poster board to size and tape it in.  You want to cut it so it covers the entire back and bottom of the box.  The poster board doesn’t need to fit snug, it needs to curve slightly.

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3.  Take a sheet of paper and cover each hole.

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This is a picture I took using the box.  It is unedited, so I imagine it could look better slightly edited.

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This is my set up

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This is another shot I tried with a book.  The book took up most of the box so it was slightly awkward.  This box may be really fun though:)

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