Free, at last!

I mentioned in my last post that December is the busiest month, but Christmas is DONE WITH! I no longer feel stressed, and can resume my diy life :-)

The medicine cabinet I built for my bathroom is coming along nicely... Or... as nicely as a 10 second plan can come along. HA! The mirror that I had cut for the medicine cabinet was cut too big, so the mirror holders are stopping the door from closing. Woo hoo, right? So to make it work, I need to trim the mirror.

I'm not too thrilled about that!

If the mirror breaks, I'll have to go and buy a new mirror... Which will run into my like... $30 budget for the bathroom... So I'm procrastinating cutting it because i REALLY don't want to have to buy a new mirror.. I know, my logic is lacking... but bear with me for a few...

Ok, ok... I'll go cut the darned mirror!

"And they're off!"

We'll be heading out of town for a few days. Goin' back to my home-state (California), but not my homeTOWN (Sacramento)... We're going to DISNEYLAND!!!

I will be leaving quite a few unfinished projects, so I know they'll be weighing at the back of my mind... But I'll try not to let that ruin the fun!!!!!

I'm so excited.

So are you. You know it. ;-)

Starting a project in DECEMBER?!

Can someone please tell me what I was thinking..?

December is notoriously the busies month of the year, so WHY did I decide to take the mirror in my main bathroom down?

Ha, ok, enough whining. It was kind of lame to go a few days without a mirror, but since I took the mirror down I have lost my virginity to drywall, electrical, mirror cutting and cabinetry. It's been an interesting week!

I haven't finished (still have to paint a wall and paint/hang the medicine cabinet I built)... but just to keep you interested!

New light fixture, green paint and that B-E-UTIFUL blue mirror frame I built (and cut the mirror for!).

Yes, that is my stud finder on the wall... If it ain't doin' no harm, there ain't no harm in leavin' it! ;-)

Are we in the holiday spirit?!

I don't know about you, but I'm in a funk. Can't seem to get Christmas on the brain. Not for lack of trying, though! Oh no! There's a radio station out here that only plays Holiday songs from November thru January, I've been keeping the christmas lights on all day, and have tried to add a little winter-y decor to my house. To no avail!!

How do you get into a holiday spirit? Does it happen when the weather cools? Do candy canes all over he house help? I need a nudge.

On another note!

Today I took the big mirror out of my hall bathroom so that I would have to change it up in there. It was a 6ft long mirror with NO personality! And I love personality. So that bathroom and I didn't quite mesh...

I didn't think to take any pictures of the before, but here's my "template". I used duct tape on the wall to gauge the sizes of mirror and medicine cabinet I want.

These seem to work for me right now, so I need to make a trip to the home improvement store in the morning to get all my goody supplies. YAY!!! My neighbor and I went earlier so that I could get a glass cutter. No use in wasting all the mirror! Gonna cut it to size, and make my own frame. Custom mirror, baby!

Wish me luck :-p

Minor technical details....

I am having issues editing my blog. I think it's the template, because I was able to edit the one before this... buuuut... I'll be working on that instead of showing you my new, ADORABLE creations. You'll just have to deal ;-)

in the meantime, grab my button!

Oops, I built it again!

The toy I'm posting about was the cause of MANY stress-related coffee breaks (ok, I'll use any excuse to make coffee.. but if I say I'm stressed, I feel more "allowed" to sip and enjoy it). You will hear me say, time and again, that I HATE painting. Just. Can't. Stand. It. So it was a lot for me to actually take the time to "finish" a project before assembling it. But I wanted to build this toy for my nephews, so I had to do it the right way.

I built all the pieces, painted them carefully, and then referred to the plans to assemble it. Unknown to Marissa (at The Design Confidential, who did a great job putting the plans together) and me, the product she based the plans on didn't work well. So I built a DUD.

We I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to make it work before I realized that the angles were all wrong, and that I needed to make it taller. That means that all the time I had spent painting the towers was a waste.

I was disheartened.

Really, I was. So I took almost a week to build a toy that really only took about two hours... I should really stop moping.

Here's the final product!!!

Ok, I have issues following plans. I don't think I've ever followed a plan to the "T". But I thought it would be unfair for two boys to have to share ONE racetrack! So this was what I came up with! It's a little over 3' tall, and a little over 2' wide. 

It's a monster toy.

But the kid and I are still havin' a blast playing with *ahem* TESTING it out... 

Since I already posted a picture of the printer table...

Let me just say...

I built it! Based on amazing plans over at The Design Confidential. I've got a few projects based on TDC plans that I need to put some finishing touches on STAT, since she's running a contest that's ending SOON for a $100 gift card to either Lowe's or Home Depot.  I would LOVE that!!! Then I could paint my living room!

This particular plan was altered a tad, since I needed to go cheap (or free, actually). I used scrap 1x3s when the plans called for 2x3s (so i just had to alter the lengths of the stretchers to accommodate). And I used 1/4'' ply for the top, because I had it left over. I just added a support beam under the top so it didn't buckle. The paint was picked up in the OOOPS bin at Lowe's (GORGEOUS, no?!)... So there's my free take on a $20 plan.

That'll be my project for today. FINISH THINGS! I realized after doing the "tutorial" yesterday (if you could even call it that), that I don't LIKE doing tutorials, and it's hard! So if you find one that explains every step in great detail, appreciate all the work that went into that! It's definitely not as easy as it seems.