Idle Wednesday

A New Shoe Clutter Solution!
(Don't mind the scratched up wall, that's what you get when you have a Weimaraner who loves the backyard!)

For more than a year now we've been taking our shoes off at the door just as we get home, and tossing them into a corner of the kitchen. Mind you, there is an antique chair/step stool we are supposed to line our shoes up on, but no one ever does. The shoes end up in a pile, only organized every once in a while, or hauled upstairs when I can't stand to look at them anymore. Not only that, but my Hoosier cabinet gets loaded up with purses, backpacks, mail, keys, sweaters and so on...when it's supposed to only hold the coffee maker, the crock pot and the toaster. Drives this slightly OCD Mama nuts. So, I went in search of a solution today. I've tried going with Jay, but he hated everything I pointed out, so this time I went alone, and so whatever I liked I got...by the time he gets home I've already spent the money and screwed holes in it, so what can he do? Anyway, I took the kids to my favorite store (LOWES) after school and picked out some simple hooks to add to the side of the shelf for our sweaters and bags, and there ya have it! A five minute fixer upper that will hopefully keep the mess off the floor. The best part was that my tinkerer-in-training helped me out. One day Miah will proudly be getting a tool belt and power tools for her birthday, just like her Mama.

Idle Wednesday

Once a Wine Rack, Now a Bookshelf!

I have this new wine rack that I bought at goodwill for $10 which will be featured in next week's Idle Wednesday, so I'd been debating what to do with my old one. I've had it for more than thirteen years, so I didn't want to just throw it away. I contemplated giving it to goodwill, but as I sat at the computer one day and idea just popped into my head. I'd like to free up the shelf in the art room for bead magazines, since cookbooks don't really go in an art room. I decided to get rid of all of the cooking magazines because I really don't' go through them, and I'm not ever going to get around to pulling the recipes I want out of them (So if you want them, let me know quickly, and you can have them for free. After those are gone, I really only have a couple of books I use. Remarkably, when the project was done, there was exactly enough room for all of them. Now that's serendipity!)
There is only one counter that has free space to put cookbooks on, but it's the counter that I dry the dishes on. It sometimes gets quite wet, so I need to put the books on something to keep them dry. This is when my eyes land on the wine rack. Ah ha! So, I took it down, cut the middle out, and started brainstorming. I painted it the same yellow as the table, but the light in the kitchen this morning was really bad.