This Is a Cleat Towel Treat, Easy Towel Holder and Inexpensive, Too!

 Are you familiar with cleats?  I've seen them, but didn't know their name until I started looking for them online.  

If you sail, you may have seen these simple looking items holding ropes.  They look a bit like skateboards or skiis with a stand.

This is the simple design I made to make towel holders.  

Here is what you need to buy to make this version or a similar style to suit your style:

•   Cleats  They come with the mounting screws. 

I bought mine from Walmart.  They are rubberized. I liked the rubber/plastic version instead of the metal versions which need serious scrubbing to remove the protective oils they are shipped and sold with to the stores.  The oil has a strong odor, too, which is a particular turn off for me.  Also, I thought the rubber type would hold up better (not rust).

• Photo frames.  Mine were from Dollar Tree.  I removed the glass and saved that for another use.  These frames are 5x7.

• Placemats.  I found these at Walmart to match the silver/chrome finish of the frames and the bathroom fixtures.  As a bonus surprise, the placemats are that pretty opalescent  finish (like a mermaid's tail.)

• Power or Hand Tools to attach the frames to the wall.  

• Ruler or Tape Measure.  Pen or Pencil.  Craft Knife or Sharp Razor Type Knife.

How I made the towel holders:

• Remove  the cardboard backing  and the "mat" from the frames. 

• Safely remove the glass from the frames and set aside. Use the glass in a different project.

•  Place the cardboard backing over the placemat and cut to fit the frame.

• Put the cardboard over the placemat and make "starter holes" through both for the mounting screws to drill through into the wall. It's probably easier to make the holes with a manual tool such as an awl or knife.

• Make sure you place the cleats in the direction you want to hang your towel- vertically or horizontally.  Also, center the cleat on the frame if that is the look you want to see.

• Reassemble the parts:  Mat, Placemat, Cardboard Backing into the frame. 
• Mark on the wall where you want to hang your Towel Holder. 
• Drill carefully and that's it.  

After using these towel holders with the original paper mat (as in the photo) for a few years, I am surprised that the water has not damaged the paper mat as that it can be noticed.   

For a change, I have added a new edging "mat" which is a woodgrain look fabric placemat, a bit more protective than the paper mat.  Also, the new placemat looks better with the vanity and contrasts nicely with the opalescent placemat.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

DIY Egg Cozies, Easy Egg Casserole, and Happy Easter Greetings

Happy Easter!

I like easy recipes, and this one is for fresh eggs as opposed to the hard boiled ones from Easter.  The weather here is very changeable, so one day it's 43F and the next it's 72F.  Which makes me want to use the oven on the cooler days.  Here is the recipe for the egg casserole.

If you have a couple of minutes to spare, you can make these egg cozies with fabric scraps, ribbons, or what you have handy.  Here is the post where they first appeared on the blog.

I hope you all have a very Happy Easter.

Gloria

Changes to Google Friend Connect Advise Your Blog Followers

"Recently Google made an announcement on their blog an  Update on Google Friend Connect.  Have you read it?  These two paragraphs are the highlights:

    *  As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow. *

If you're reading this from your blog's dashboard through Google, you should be okay when the change takes place.

Some of our readers may not know of the change, or don't have a Google account.  Tell them to please consider signing up for one so they may follow our blogs.

If a Google account is not an option, there are other options, some in my sidebar. Thanks.
Reminder, the Google Friend Connect change starts during the week of January 11, 2016. "

Keep reading the how to post of a simple install of a GFC gadget, I first published this on February 12, 2012.

The original post follows:

If your Google Friend Connect gadget stops working, you can install this code below to add a Follow Button to your blog.     The button will not have a count or images of  your followers, but it serves to let them follow the blog, a little convenience.  When  the GFC stops working on non-Blogger blogs sometime this Spring,  March was mentioned, you might try this as a substitute, I have no idea if it will work at that time, but here it is if you need it.

Before you copy and paste the code, write  your Blog Id Number down, you will type that number in the space where I've typed in RED, below.  Don't type in "YOURBLOGIDNUMBER."  You can find your Blog Id number by looking at the address bar after you are signed in and have your draft.blogger page loaded.

Sign in to your account and go to your draft.blogger where you choose Layout and Add a Gadget, choose add HTML.  Paste this code in with your id number and give it a title if you want, Save, and move the gadget where you want to place it.  Preview if you like, and Save Arrangement.

<center><a href="http://www.blogger.com/follow-blog.g?blogID=YOURBLOGIDNUMBER" target='_blank'><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4nu6WfvjBpxeZ8cPEC0VuiILQkf5H-Dhkl70ahdP8ZwOWiPEWHHOm8sfz6UZi5F-NVnyQWwEKWC_1k0bCQ7I5YsCLEh2oaAmxYLZl21Kry5vvboQFtWuO2tkYg-DjZoq23qFGEW8FJKU/s1600/Blogger_Follow_Button.PNG" /></a></center>

That's it, simple and quick!  You might want to bookmark this post to come back to after the GFC changes are made or try it out now.

Stick around to read the next post about the new Linky Followers tool, which I'll leave at the top of the page for a while.

Coloring Jars Experiment

Here are my results of experimenting with coloring glass jars, or the horrible, the nasty, and the passable.

Most of the tutorials circulating are to use food dye, usually the gel type with a small amount of warm water and add these to Mod Podge.  I don't have any  Mod Podge, what I do have are other glues collected and unused, so I decided to go ahead and use some of them to see what would happen.  I used my liquid dyes, at one time I had the gel food dyes, which I liked, but didn't have right now.

In the jars in the image on the left I used clear Elmer's Glue, water, and dye in the smallest jar to get a red translucent/stained glass type of result- which is what I was aiming for.  For the two green jars and the dark jar where I was aiming for a look of a big jar of Yoo Hoo chocolate milk I used white Elmer's Glue, water,  and mixed the dyes. In this image the jars are upside down and draining off the excess mixture before putting them in the oven at 180 F for 25 minutes.

To view bigger, click on the image.

The only jar to retain the coating and color after baking them in the oven was the red jar.  In the second image from the left, you can see how the colors just disappeared after baking in the oven.  My chocolate milk look disappeared completely except for the ring at the bottom of the jar.  The dark green jar was a little streaky.  The other green jar came out a bit brown and with a big ring in the bottom, too.

After the jars were completely cooled, I washed out the interiors and thoroughly dried them in order to try another experiment.  In the next image I used Aleene's Collage Glue, water, and paint, not food dye.  This image shows the jars after they were drained, baked, and cooled.  I didn't put the red jar back in as I was satisfied with the result from the first baking.

Even though the chocolate milk jar, the bright orange jar, and the turquoise jar were well coated and drained before baking- they still came out of the oven not looking like they were done properly.  The orange jar was somewhat streaky and the turquoise jar was less streaky, but not as nice as I wanted it to be.  The chocolate jar was just not working.  I think there must have been something about that jar that did not adhere the liquid to the surface.  It also had angles which were harder to cover, but the jar just repelled the mixtures both times.

In the last image you can see the red jar with silk flowers in it.  The majority of the tutorials are to make the jars have a shabby chic look, but I was aiming for a translucent style.  I may try this experiment again, but I would rather just paint the outside of the jar, maybe use a stencil or design on it, too.  In this way, the inside could be used to store things or used in some other way and the paint would not be scratched off in the jar by the items put inside it.



Now, if I could just stop thinking about cold chocolate milk, I haven't had a  Yoo Hoo for years, have you ever had one?   Even though the jars experiment was kind of a flop, I'm glad I tried it to see what would develop.

Do you like to branch out and experiment or are you not a gambler in that way?

Lampshade Makeover and Shakespeare January 27, 2012

It's winter, the option of doing outside activities is limited for me, so I'm turning inward as a lot of us do.  Decluttering, rearranging, and making things over.  It feels like the winter of my discontent, well, maybe not.  Sorry Shakespeare:

   "Now is the winter of our discontent
    Made glorious summer by this sun of York:
    And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
    In the deep bosom of the ocean buried."
                       From "Richard III"

This small lamp was too bright at bedside, so I darkened it a bit with the paper napkin and a lower watt bulb.
  
I decoupaged the napkin on to the outside of the lampshade.  The napkin was 3 layers thick, and I used the outermost layer with the most color.  So easy to change the look of a lamp with a napkin of your choice.   But, it's missing a little something... any ideas to add trim?


I wanted to add that it's time for you to go to the aceo challenge blog have a look at the January entries and vote.  My aceo is one of the aceos you'll see there.  Thanks for checking it out.

Thrifty Kitchen Valance from Fabric Dinner Napkins

Useful Skills 101

• Remembering, "Lefty Loosie and Rightie Tightie": Check
• Driving under hazardous conditions: Check   
• Safely using an electric carving knife: Check  
• Making friends with a Sewing Machine: Aackkk!!!  

To be fair, most of the problem is that I can't see the eye of the needle and which way the bobbin thread is leading.  Hope you enjoy this improvised kitchen valance.  It would work in a bathroom and elsewhere, too.


Linking to: I Gotta Create, The Shabby Creek Cottage Two Succulent Sisters

How to Speed Up a Slow Loading Blog Page

With all the gadgets and beautiful backgrounds on blogs, some of the slow loading pages have something in common.  The speed of a loading page may not have anything to do with your internet connection, bandwidth, etc.

Many times the blog  page loads slowly
because the blog background,
the HTML which you have set as a Gadget
is located at the top of your blog's Layout.
Move the Gadget with the code to the bottom
of your Layout.  See if that improves the load
speed of your blog.

Another possible reason for the slow loading blog is that there is another background page still in your Template and you didn't remove it.  Sometimes when I've waited for blog pages to load, I can see the multiple layers of backgrounds loading one on top of another, yet they are not visible once the blog page has finally finished loading.   Just recently I had this happen on this blog because I forgot to remove the Background.

If your blog has a selected background whereby you copied the code and put it in your Layout as an HTML Gadget, you may want to go to Template and see what Background is shown.  If it's not the one you installed, just check the Remove this Background box.  Be certain that you see exactly what you selected for your blog background and if everything looks okay, click Apply to Blog and then click Return to Blogger.

Humongous images and banners sometimes drag the blog's loading time, too. If there are broken links, these affect the page speed as well as lots of widgets, tools, and flashing items.

With limited time, some readers don't wait for slow pages,  and they'll never know how terrific your blog is if they don't stick around for it to finish loading.

If these things apply to your blog, you fix them and it still loads slowly, maybe it's just a bug, a ghostie, one of those unexplainable facets of internet nature.  There's a lot of that going around...

The Bride Gets an Inkjet Copy Transfer and Secret Santa Aceo

There's a lady underneath the old washcloth.  She's going to get a good scrubbing and then she will be fit for entertaining visitors- that would be you.  Why is she covered up?  This lady is an Inkjet Copy Transfer and this is her virgin excursion.  That would be my first attempt with the transfer process and I think the end result is fair considering that.




If you want to try this process too, this is what I did:

Little by little the lady is revealed.

First make your copy on the copier.  All of the info I read said that you could not use a regular inkjet copy, that you must use an inkjet toner based copy, and not a laser copy.  I used a regular inkjet copy.  My image is graciously and generously provided by the terrific Karen at Graphics Fairy.   The image is of a bride in a blue dress and can be found here.  Linking this to the Brag Monday post here and to IA theme  here.

The second step was to paint a 5x7 canvas panel with acrylic paint and let it dry thoroughly.  You don't have to paint your panel and you could use a different surface, wood for example.  Put something under the panel to protect  your counters or desk if you need to, I used waxed paper.

The third step was to cover the copy's good side, the side facing you, with medium gel; I used Liquitex Matte Gel.  Don't miss any spots.  Then take the copy and lay it on the canvas panel with the gel touching the panel.  I read that you could use Modge Podge in place of the gel, but I didn't try it.

The fourth step was to put more gel on top of the copy, cover it thoroughly and evenly, not too thickly and work out all the bubbles and creases with any tool or your fingers.  I used one of those plastic credit cards the banks keep sending to entice me to open an account and I also used my fingers.  Be extra careful not to move the copy.  It'll be wet and want to smoosh around.  Don't let it dance on your panel.


The fifth step is to forget about the panel until the next day, probably at least 8 hours or more.  When it's completely dry, you'll know.  The copy will seem to blend right into the panel, smooth, dry, and flat.

The paper even comes away in little peels.

The sixth step is to take an old dishcloth or washcloth, or something similar and thoroughly wet it and wring it out really well.  Then place it over the panel until the dampness has penetrated, not saturated the copy.  You don't want to soak the copy.  You may need to wet it a second time.  Then use your fingers or the cloth and start rubbing the copy and the paper will release while the image remains on the canvas.  This is better than magic.  Some people use a sprayer to mist the paper instead of using the cloth, but I think the cloth is a more even dampness than the sprayer.

You might say, she's not in the blue dress.  That's because the Chrome printing option kept changing the image to black and white, so I didn't stress over it this time.  I believe if I download the image and save it to my computer then the colors will be as they should.  Also, Chrome printing option didn't have the feature to reverse an image, so she is reversed in the panel, but as long as there isn't any writing it looks okay, otherwise the words would all be backwards.  I also could not resize the image using Chrome printing.

She needs a name, any suggestions?  I've made her look a bit wistful in a distressed setting with the look of old tiles as a mosaic border.  The word, "Love" is in a pretty blue.  She has not been varnished yet, I'm going to test the process again and try Modge Podge as a topcoat versus a Varnish and see which won't disturb the ink from the copy, which I read the decoupage glues would smear.  This new to me process has opened up lots of possibilities- transferring from old magazines, album covers, books, photos, etc.  Do you use this process?

It's been really dark here for the last week or so.  To get a better photo I'm going to have to make a lightbox.  I see a new project to add to the list.

The Aceo Challenge Blog wants your aceos!  A little fun linkup and you get to post a badge on your website or blog if your aceo is chosen as favorite.  Why not add your aceo to the group?  Once per month you can add up to three aceos, so no pressure and you have weeks to complete except this month's linkup closes in a few days.

I decided to be seasonally silly with my manipulated photo aceo.
That's my original photo of a squirrel in my backyard and I went to Picnik to edit and make it just as you see it.  He's perfectly positioned upright, kind of looked like Yoda before I gave him the red nose and hat.  Why not bookmark the aceo challenge blog and join in sometime?

You're Stuck With Me and Ribbon Organizer from a Wine Carrier

I've got in the habit of checking both of the craft stores in my area, the one that's well known with the initials JA and then the non-conglomerate one which carries no fabrics but does have a really good assortment of art supplies.  I used to only go to JA, but since they are still not responding regarding the faulty alphabet stencil set, I  decided to also go to the other store, I'll call it LP.

If I haven't confused you yet, I am finding the same items in both stores but LP is selling at a cheaper price.  I bought this jewelery form in LP for $3.59 and it's $4.99 in JA.    Paints, glue, inks, papers, and other items I was looking to buy cost more in JA than in LP.  The price differences are substantial.  LP=lower prices, not the store's real initials.

So, I've been wrist deep in glue this week.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  While I've been covering the form in papers, I've been gluing other things that needed to be fixed.  The temperature knob from the car broke and I hope the repair is long lasting, since I don't think we're going to find a replacement knob.  The cute little kitty on a Jack o' Lantern (pardon the blurry image)- his ear broke off in the bag, so I was able to glue it back on.  He was the figurine from the box of Red Rose Tea.   I used Dazzle Tac, it's a jewelery glue but it worked really well on these repairs.

This is as far as I've gotten on the form:  

I've been carrying this wine basket from home to home for years, and I'm always going to donate it, it didn't sell in my one and only yard sale.  Last week while rummaging in the basement I picked the basket up and said to it, "If I can't think of any use for you in the next day, you're going out the door!"  I don't know what happened, but within a minute or so, the idea of a ribbon organizer came to me.  Here it is on my wall:

I never did use it for wine, so at least it's getting some use even though as yet, I rarely use ribbons, don't know why I keep buying them, "just in case."  Are you a "Just in Case" shopper?

Are You Missing... Followers Gadget

Are you missing your Followers Gadget?  It seems to disappear for days at a time.  Now you see it-Now you don't!

Here is a little button which gives your readers a chance to link up and follow your blog.  I installed it in the sidebar.  To get the simple instructions, go to the links below and, Bob's your uncle!   Okay, maybe not Bob, maybe Josh or Colin or ... 

Your new followers will be added and counted in your blog's dashboard.  They need to let you know who they are, though, as you get the total number, but not the images or names. To follow back, they need to let you know who they are in a comment or an email.  

Latest-techtips shows the process and Ladybugsteacherfiles shows how to add the centering capability.  Thanks to these two bloggers you can have your Followers link, too.

P.S.  I'm having a Giveaway, please enter for a chance to win this fun Bright Ideas Book .  GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THANKS FOR STOPPING BY.

ETA on Dec. 29, 2011:  The GFC gadget with the images is going away for non Blogger blogs sometime this coming Spring 2012.  This button may be an alternative for those blogs,
time will tell.   You can use it now, and it's free to use.

I'm linking this post here , please go check her blog for even more tips and fun features.