December – Dejá Vu a Month in Review

31 Dec posted by

Wham! This year has flown by so fast, it feels like I’ve been shot out of a cannon. December was a quick flash of light. As a courtesy to those of us that rarely have enough time to read all the fabulous blogs on a regular basis, I have for you a review of all the posts at Pretty Handy Girl in December.

1. Using Shutters for Displaying Christmas Cards


8. Why I Love My Cordless Drill
9. El Cheapo Laundry Room Makeover

And that finishes up December of 2010! I hope you all have a wonderfully Happy New Year.
I look forward to sharing some more DIY empowerment with you in 2011!
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Filed Under: Before and After, Crafts, Do It Yourself, Empowerment, Fix It, Guests, Month in Review, Sewing, Trash to Treasure, x-acto knife safety

The Best of Pretty Handy Girl 2010

29 Dec posted by

The end of 2010 is near and several bloggers are parading out their best of 2010 projects over at Southern Hospitality. So, in the spirit of parades and looking back, I thought you might like to go back with me to the very beginning of Pretty Handy Girl. We are going way back to June of 2010. Not too long ago, but it has been a project filled 7 months.

So, won’t you pull up a comfy seat and travel back in time with me?

The Best Before & Afters of 2010



Installing Heart Pine Flooring
Wow, what a year! I can’t wait to share some brand spankin’ new projects with you in 2011!
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Filed Under: Before and After, Best of 2010, past projects, Year in Review

Creating Silhouetted Gifts

28 Dec posted by

Now that the Christmas hype has died down and my cold has lost its grip on my sinuses, I’m back with a quick little tutorial on creating a special silhouetted gift for your child.

Thank you to my dear Pretty Handsome Guy for his guest post. I’m glad you all enjoyed a good laugh at his expense.

 

Christmas morning my boys were greeted by magical North Pole snow footprints (baking soda) leading up to the tree.

In an effort to keep the Santa myth alive, the two presents from Santa were constructed in a different style from the other presents under the tree.

My six year old exclaimed Christmas morning, “MOM! Santa knows what we look like!” So, I think I fooled them again this year.

Materials:
Scissors
X-acto knife (optional) and cutting surface
Profile picture of your child
Spraymount
White sheet of letter size paper
White cardstock paper
Black cardstock paper or construction paper
Chalk, Bistro marker, or White paint pen
Pencil
Glitter spray
Glitter glue

Start by creating your child’s silhouette. (My silhouettes took many steps in Adobe Photoshop, but I’ll give you instructions for the easy way.) Simply take a photo of your child turned sidewards (preferably in front of a blank wall.) Then enlarge the photo on a copier to the size you want to use. Lay the paper on top of the black cardstock and cut them both at the same time. I prefer to use an X-acto knife for the cutting, but you can use scissors if you like.

Unless you have a graphic program or a template to draw perfect ovals, you will need to draw one freehand. Wait, wait, don’t freak out. You can do this!

First, fold a letter sized paper into fourths.

Draw a curve on the paper with the fold sides inside the curve.

Cut along the line.

Open up your paper to reveal your oval. If you don’t like it, try it again.

Once you are happy with your oval, trace the folded oval onto white cardstock paper and cut it out.

Wrap your present (be sure to use wrapping paper that your child has never seen in your home!)

Spray the back of your cardstock oval with spray mount and adhere it to the present.

I added some glitter spray to the wrapped package to give it a little extra sparkle! (I know, it doesn’t really show up in the photo.)

So, here is a close up of the glittery goodness:

Spray the back of your silhouette head with the spray mount and lay it inside the oval.

Next, add a bead of glitter glue around the edge of the oval. Note of caution: Allow the glue to dry before setting your package upright or it WILL run. Of course I learned the hard way and had to unglue my package from the shelf it was sitting on. Drat!
Here are the presents before I added the “To & From” on them.
You can write your child’s name on the silhouette using chalk, bistro marker or white paint pen. Or leave it blank if you wish, your choice.
That’s it, not too hard, but the results are stunning. You could use this gift wrapping technique for any special present.
I have to share with you a little something that warmed my heart Christmas morning. My oldest carefully cut off the fronts of all the presents that I gave him to preserve the creative gift wrap designs.
He saved them all including his silhouette from Santa.
In stark contrast, my youngest tore into the packages as any other eager four year old boy would.
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Filed Under: Birthday Gift, christmas gift wrap, Crafts, silhouette

Fixing Common Gift Wrap Problems – Guest Post by Pretty Handsome Guy

25 Dec posted by

Brittany came down with a cold yesterday, so I thought I’d fill in for her today and share with you some common gift wrap problems and how to deal with them.  Think of this as the polar opposite of her Creative Gift Wrapping series of posts.

The Squish and Tape and Tape and Tape

Do you ever end up with a present that hangs out of the wrapping paper?

No problem, simply squish the gift inside the packaging as far as you can…

…and quickly fold over the end and slap on some tape. Then use some more tape to close the gaps,

and just for good measure add some more tape. Hey, tape is cheap, no need to be stingy with it!

All done, and the goal of hiding the present has been achieved!

The Panel (not to be confused with the type of pants pregnant women wear.)

How many times have you cut your wrapping paper only to realize that it is too short to go around the package? When it comes to wrapping presents I adhere to the adage “measure never, just cut it”.  I mean seriously people we aren’t building a house here, what you are wrapping is meant to be destroyed anyways. 

Here is the solution! It is called the panel. Simply cut another piece of wrapping paper the width of the gap (or maybe a little wider.)

Tape it on (no need to match up the pattern, no one will see the bottom when it is under the tree.). Bonus points if you can manage to use 2-3 different types of wrapping paper – just tell everyone it is a “holiday medley”. 

Super easy solution and the best part is that you don’t have to go back and cut a whole new piece of wrapping paper.  The environment will thank you for this one.

The Nip, Tuck & Roll

Now we are down to one of the most common wrapping problems. What to do when you have too much wrapping paper on the ends of your package.  And yes I realize most of these “problems” are a function of not measuring in the first place but whatever.

Normally I would simply roll the sides in until they meet the package, but in an effort to neaten things up a bit, you can simply gather the end in your hands and snip off the excess.

Now simply fold in the end towards the box.
Continue to roll the paper in…

…until you reach the box, then smash the end down with your hand to flatten it.

And tape your end down.
Done. Problem solved, any questions?
Adding a Gift Tag (bet you’ve never seen it done this way!)
I found the little key tags that Brittany bought for tagging her presents. Creative idea and all but sheesh a lot more work than a stick-on “To/From” tag.  But I devised a new way to attach them to the gift without ribbon.
Simply grasp a corner of your package and use a hole punch to make a hole in the gift wrap.

Then take a piece of tape and twist it into what I call a tapepick (looks like a toothpick.)

Thread the tapepick into the hole you made in your gift wrap.
Then grab another piece of tape and fold it over the ends of your tapepick to secure them.
That’s it. Thanks for reading my post today. Hopefully Brittany will invite me back to show you how I make a bed in less than 10 seconds!
- Pretty Handsome Guy
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Filed Under: christmas gift wrap, Guests, Pretty Handsome Guy

Repairing a Pop Up Sink Drain

23 Dec posted by

We just got back from a short trip to Vienna, Virginia to visit my family for the holidays. When we arrived, my mom had left me a note in the bathroom we were using.

Here it is:

My mom, she’s so cute, doesn’t she know that this sign taunted me the whole visit?

Besides, what kind of daughter would I be if I left this minor repair to a plumber? Puh-lease!

So, here was the deal with the hair clip in the sink. It was her way of holding the stopper up because the rod inside the sink had rusted and broken off. (Pretty creative in my opinion.)

But not the real fix for a sink stopper that would not stay up.

Let’s back up before I show you how to repair the stopper. Thank you to Dvorty Girl for the excellent illustration above that she posted on WikiHow.com.

Sink parts:
  1. Drain Down Rod
  2. Joint Clamp Clip
  3. Horizontal Rod
  4. Nut
  5. Ball, Rod, Nut & Gasket
  6. Stopper Notch
  7. Pop Up Drain Stopper

Materials:

Universal Pivot Ball Replacement Kit
Pliers (maybe)

Instructions:

1. Clear out enough room so you can work under the sink. (Okay, my mom is going to kill me for showing you her cluttered sink vanity. But, who’s sink vanity doesn’t look like this?! Please leave a comment and tell her that she’s not the only one!)

2. Lay down some towels to cushion the edge of the vanity (or your back, rib cage or hips will be in screaming pain.)

3. Locate the (3)horizontal rod and (5) nut at the back of your drain that holds the (5) ball, rod & gasket.

4.  Unscrew the (5) nut with your fingers or use pliers if it is really tight. Pull out the ball and gasket.
5. To release the (3) horizontal rod from the (1) down rod, squeeze the (2) joint clamp clip between your fingers and slide it off the end of the horizontal rod.
6. Lay out your old pieces to assess the damage. You may or may not need a new gasket (which is sold separately.) This one was broken and needed replacing.
7. Match the old pivot ball with the new ones in the kit. Be sure to choose the one that is exactly the same size. Thread the (5) new ball onto the new (3) horizontal rod.
8. Next thread the new gasket onto the horizontal rod and then the nut.
9. Next feed one end of the (2) joint clip clamp (the kit I bought contained two white stoppers instead of a joint clip clamp). Only add one side or one stopper at this point.)
10. Feed the (3) horizontal rod into the (1) down rod.
11. Line the other end of the (3) horizontal bar up and slip the ball joint into the hole at the back of the drain. Ideally the horizontal bar will be parallel to the floor, but you may have to make some minor adjustments at the end.
12. Screw the nut back onto the drain making sure the ball joint and gasket are lined up properly.
13. Now add the second stopper or the other end of the (2) joint clamp clip to the back of the (3) horizontal rod.
14. Look inside the drain, and notice the post end of the (5) ball joint inside the drain.
Pull up on the (1) down drain rod and make sure that it moves up and down freely and the post in the drain moves as well.
15. This next step requires a little patience, so put your patience cap on. Feed the drain stopper back into the drain. You want the end of the stopper to be at a 90 degree angle from the ball joint post as show below.
Gently rotate the stopper 90 degrees until the end of the stopper hooks the post.
16. Once the stopper has been properly rotated and hooked onto the ball joint post, test your sink by pulling up and own on the (1) drain down rod.
And you are done!
Pretty Handsome Guy thought it would be funny to re-arrange the letters in the sign.
And just to prove to you that my Mom can also be handy, this is a photo I found of her from the 1970′s when my parents were building my childhood home.
Next time your drain stopper is broken, I hope you will put off calling a plumber and fix it yourself!
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Filed Under: Fix It, Plumbing, pop up drain, sink
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