How to make Jewelry and makeup organizers

My goal this year was to make my home a home of order. 

I seem to make this resolution EVERY year, which doesn't speak much of my yearly progress. I am only a failure if I give up, right?

My recent project focused on tackling the clutter and chaos in my bathroom.

Everything was kept in a little plastic drawer unit that sat on my counter. 

It looked awful and wasted my time.

I hated digging through my makeup containers trying to locate a specific product. 

My jewelry was tangled. 

I needed to get everything off my counter space into the vertical space.

This was my solution:

I love how everything is orderly and accessible in a hurry (which is really helpful Sunday mornings when I have only 10 minutes to get ready for church- gotta love those early-morning meetings or choir practices!).

It really streamlines my mornings, and I like the visual appeal of this system.

This is a tutorial for how I made my bathroom organizers.

I found two matching frames at the thrift store and re-purposed them. 

(Editor's note: I love snagging good frames at the thrift store! The uglier the print is, the cheaper the frame is. There are some fantastic frames holding ugly faded kitten prints. I paid $4 for each of these frames. If you pick up frames for a project, be sure to check the joining at the corners. That's the only part of a frame that can fail.) 

The frames were an ugly color, so I repainted them with a copper spray paint. There was no primer necessary since the paint I chose would adhere to any surface (Even plastics! You'll see why this is cool farther down.)

I wanted an aged look, so I applied a wash with Burnt Umber acrylic paint onto the frame, quickly buffing the paint off the raised scroll-work with a cotton rag to make it stand out. 

The directions are a bit different for the two organizers. To read about the jewelry organizer, scroll down a bit. 

Here is how I finished the make up organizer.

Nathan cut out a piece of sheet metal to fit inside the frame so I could organize everything with magnets. (Be sure you don't buy aluminium sheet metal- the magnets won't stick if you do.)

This was the most expensive part of the project. I was surprised how expensive sheet metal can be. I think I paid $20 for it, but we didn't use the entire sheet. Maybe if you buy sheet metal someplace other than Lowes you can get it cheaper.

(The leftover metal is going to be installed inside our kitchen cabinet doors. Why? To store all the to-do lists, school announcements, and artwork that normally clutter the fridge. )

I wrapped a pretty batik print fabric around the metal and glued it into place. 

I glued magnets onto the backs of my makeup compacts so they would stick to my organizer. This was super easy and pretty quick to accomplish. My Littles were so eager to help with this part.

I wanted my brushes to also be stored on the frame, so I made a pretty container for them. 

Can you guess what I used? 

It's a plastic frosting container that I spray painted copper. Ta-Da! 

I glued several magnets on the back like this:

And viola! One gorgeous organizer was done!

The jewelry holder was a bit different to create. 

It doesn't need the sheet metal background. Instead I spray painted some hardware cloth with copper paint to match the frame. I cut it to size and just placed it inside the frame on top of the fabric. 

I purchased some S-hooks from the hardware section of Lowes and painted those as well. I just popped them onto the hardware cloth and hung my necklaces. Ta-Da! 

The total price tag for these organizers was around $37. 

Reclaimed frames- $8

Sheet metal- $20

Copper spray paint- $5

S-hooks- $1

Magnets- $1

Fabric- Free, from my fabric stash

Hardware cloth- Free, from our barn

An organized bathroom- Priceless.

Linked to:

Things I Never Thought I'd Say as a Parent

We do not throw horseshoes at people!

I'm not talking to you until you put on some clothing.

Why did you put oatmeal in your brothers pocket?

Please take the kitten out of your shirt.

Well, that's what happens when you sleep with markers in your pocket.

Why are you pouring milk in my purse?

No, you may not stay up late and do extra chores.

How did spinach get on the ceiling?

BTW- this is picture is from the coolest house ever. 

Our auntie in Utah let her son install this rock climbing wall in their front entry. 

Our kids LOVE visiting her home!

Did you ever say strange things in your parenting journey?

Pitbulls, Possums, and Inspiration

 This week was great. 

In my effort to focus more on creating neat memories with our family, I made this sign to welcome our kids off the school bus:

They thought it was so neat! All the kids on the bus were looking out their windows trying to read the sign. Matthew was beaming when he stepped off the bus. I like how the gate to our property makes a perfect billboard space. 

This weekend I had the privilege of filling in for our Relief Society president while she was out of state. I had mixed feelings of inadequacy and honor to fill that position. Just my luck we had an emergency needing urgent attention....what an initiation this was!

In the end, I was very thankful for this opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and grow in new ways. I was taught so much during these past 3 days of time-consuming service. 

I learned a few things-

1- I never want to be a Relief Society president! It's exhausting! How does anyone do this full-time?

2- My heart changed as I helped a sister bear with her heavy trials. I couldn't remove the trial from her life, but the Lord wanted me to provide spiritual comfort. It was humbling to be serving His child during this difficult time in her life.

3- The Lord truly steps in to make up the difference when we serve Him. It was incredible to feel Him guiding my steps when I felt like I was fumbling through the dark due to my inexperience.

4- My respect for our current president increased by leaps and bounds (which I didn't think was possible- I already nearly idolize this woman) as I grew to understand  the physical and emotional demands she deals with every day....but she never shows that burden to others. She is unfailingly cheerful and patient with everyone. Boy, do I have a long way to progress!

Later that day I attended the General Relief Society Broadcast. I look forward to this all year long! I love feasting on the words of Christ. I felt so inspired to become a better person. I felt so loved by the Lord and encouraged in my journey to be more like Him. It was a memorable evening for sure.

In other news, last night we were awoken (again) by frantic squawking from our chickens. 

Nathan ran our to investigate.....I always think it's slightly funny when that happens. There's never time to pull on any clothing other than a pair of galoshes. Are we officially country bumpkins if we chase off predators across the pasture in our unmentionables and boots? I used to mock that behavior in hillbilly movies. Life is ironic, isn't it? It's a good thing we can laugh at ourselves I suppose. 

The predator was too fast for us, but not fast enough for Bella. 

We heard the bones crunch. There's officially one less possum in Texas. She's such a great farm dog! 

Speaking of dogs, I forgot to share my pitbull story here. If you know me on Facebook, you've already heard this, so I won't be hurt if you leave now.

Our neighbors own pit/lab mix and he keeps coming into our pasture and killing chickens. This has been going on for a looong time. This week he was back again. He tried to run home with a rooster in his mouth, but I caught up to him. 

He wouldn't drop the bird even after I kicked him in the ribs. The bird was still alive and I wanted to get it safely away before those canine jaws squeezed the life out of him. There were no rocks or sticks within reasonable distance, and kicking hadn't worked, so I punched him as hard as I could on the head. 

That worked.

He dropped the bird in shock and I rescued it before taking this dog back to its owners (again). 

The good news is the rooster is fine. The bad news is I really hurt my hand and had to wrap it up over the weekend before I could get into the doctors office for x-rays. 

The good news is everyone at the doctors office was impressed and thought I was gutsy and sassy for punching a pitbull in the head. The bad news is I had to tell our neighbors we were buying a gun just to shoot their dog the next time he comes over. I felt terrible saying something like that! 

I hope your weekend was lovely! Aren't you excited to welcome October into your lives today? I'm so excited! Pumpkin soup is simmering on my stove....yum!