Makin' a place for my shoes....

Much to the Bearded Wonder's (BW) dismay, I have a lot of shoes. I don't have a lot of shoes when compared to most women, but I do have a lot of shoes when compared to him. Mainly, I harbor an extensive collection of flip flops.... It's the California girl in me. Here is a preview of the finished product.

Here is how I made it.....

I purchased a 12 foot length of wire shelving at Lowes (Home of the JJ #48 race team) and had them cut it down into 45" sections. This left me with a little shelving blip that I threw away. I also purchased the shoe rack brackets. For this project I used 2 brackets per shelf for a total of 6 brackets.

I used a laser level to ensure that the racks were level across the small space on the left hand side of the closet.

I placed the first shelf and then I did something completely strange for me, but it worked out....  I eyeballed the height of the next shelf. Nailed it! First time for everything.

Then, after I had the spacing I wanted, I measured it and installed the top shelf at the same height differential.

The picture above is the final product. It fits perfectly.... As the BW would say, Like a Glove.

Next, I had to load up my shoes..... and ran into a problem... wop wop.

My stiletto heels were falling through the mesh. Crap on toast.

I know they make some good products to cover the mesh to prevent this type of occurrence, but I really did not want to journey back to Lowes at 8:30 pm.... I just wanted to make this project my beyotch and move on.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Here is my invention. TP Roll Heel Guards (patent pending).

Here is how I made them:

Step 1: Gather your quality parts... scissors and a TP roll....

Step 2: Cut the TP roll in half

Step 3: Cut a cross into the TP roll half

Step 4: Place stilleto into TP Heel Guard

Step 5: Place heel on shelf and bask in your own prowess and glory...

Step 6: About halfway through the project realize that you do not possess enough TP rolls to cover all of your shoes, then come up with another brand-able idea.... Stiletto "Box Top Pads"....

Step 7:  Cut a small square out of the lid to the shoe box you are trying to downsize.

Step 8: Place "Box Top Pad" on the shelf

Step 9: Place shoes on the "Box Top Pad"

Now is the time to tackle my endless supply of the evil flip flop....

Notice how in the picture above, there is not a lot of space left for 10 pairs of flops and 2 pairs of boots....

Example:

A lot of space is taken up by placing them side by side.

This is where my big hair comes in.  I have a surplus of hairbands that need to be thrown away. I decided to "upcycle" them into a useful tool of flip flop containment.

Then I placed them all on the shelves.

This is the final product. 

Nice project that took about 3 hours to complete from Lowes to final product.

Cost Break down:

12' wire shelf               $ 16.95
Shoe Brackets              $ 2.64 for 2 brackets, $ 7.92
TP Heel Guard             Free
Box Top Pad                Free
Rubber Band                Free

Total Cost:                   $ 24.87

Time: 3 hrs

Skill Level: Beginner

Tools Used:  Hammer, Laser Level, Pencil, Cordless Drill with 3/8 drill bit

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Weekend Chili and Wreath Making

This weekend kicked off with a chili competition with some friends followed closely by some wreath making, house cleaning, and uber organization (more on that in the next post).

As for the chili, I will tell you all that I did not win, sadly.

I worked an awesome recipe that used beer, chocolate, and bacon. Who doesn't love bacon?

Sadly I lost to someone who used beer, chocolate, bacon, and deer meat. Dang it! I need to use buffalo next time. I will not be outdone by lousy deer meat!

After licking my wounds, I decided to distract myself with a little wreath making.

I went to Joann's and purchased the supplies to make 2 very different wreaths.

Wreath #1: The Nursery / Hospital / Delivery Room Wreath

I had an awesome baby shower. I was lucky enough to receive a lot of gift bags stuffed full of a wide variety of tissue paper. One of the ladies at the shower clued me in to a wreath that can be made with all the tissue paper.... I decided to keep it and see what I could cook up.

The final result:

As I said, a lot of tissue paper in some amazing colors! 

The only part of this wreath that was not given to me at the baby shower, is the green foam form wreath that I bought at Joanns for $3.00.

This is what it looks like from the back....

I started with a huge bag of tissue paper collected from the shower. 

Then, I sorted and smoothed it down in a few different piles. I cut the paper along the middle seam, long ways. Then I cut the tissue paper into 5 x 7 squares, approximately.

I then twisted the papers in the middle of the sheet making little tissue flowers.

I placed the "flowers" into holes that filled I poked into the foam wreath with a screw driver and filled with hot glue.

After the tissue was placed all around the wreath, I used a pretty piece of ribbon that was wrapped around a box from my shower to make the loop to hang the wreath from. I made one tail quite a bit longer so I could use it to secure the glitter letter from a different box in the center.

I am quite happy with the final result!

Wreath #2:

I purchased the following:

I was inspired by a wreath made in West Virginia blue and yellow. However, as I have no affinity for any one particular sports team, I decided on teal and white.

Here is the final product....

I made the wreath by making loops with the burlap and securing it to the wreath form with pipe cleaners.

There are 3 loops of burlap.

The inner loop is the smallest, the middle loop is double that size, and the outer loop is 1.5 of the middle loop.

I then made the chevron striped bow and secured it to the wreath with pipe cleaners and added the blue flowers.

Bam! Two wreaths.

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