Picture This...

There’s a walkway from the front door into the rest of my house that was just kinda blah. I put some pictures up on the main blank wall, but it still didn’t do it for me. I wanted more.

Then, while looking for ideas to work into T Bub’s room, I saw this at Thrifty Decor Chick .

I knew right where I wanted it to go. Nice!

Lemme tell you, this was my first time working with a miter box and the results were… less than spectacular. Cutting that moulding out was not an easy task. But that’s a story for another time, people.

Today I’m going to show you how I took three cabinet knobs from the Home Depot (Three knobs for three bucks. It was like shopping at the Dollar Store!) and turned them into picture hangy knob thingys. Geez, there’s gotta be a better name than that. ; )

If you have a toddler, this is where you can start singing Special Agent Oso’s ‘Three special steps’. Because it’s stuck in my head, I thought I’d share with you and now you’ll be singing it too. You’re welcome.

Step one: Turn the knob upside down and using epoxy or a glue gun, squeeze glue into the opening where the screw would go.

Step two: Place the head end of the screw in the glue. Make sure the screw is in there straight before the glue hardens.

Step three: Let dry. Now you can just screw your knob into the wall. I used the glue gun to attach the ribbon to the back of the picture frame and simply hung up the pictures.

For stability and safety when hanging bigger or heavier frames, I would hang them the traditional way first, then add the knobs and ribbon (so the frame isn't really hanging from the knobs).

How easy was that? Those knobs can be found just about anywhere, so pick out some that match your décor and go to town!

Five Things on Friday...Fix it With Epoxy!

It started out with just one thing. It was a piece of Bitty's bed that had gotten broken off during a particularly loud and crazy playdate. I set the piece on top of the piano with the intention of gluing it on later that day.

A week later, it was joined by two picture frames. Victims of our basement flood last year, the backing had separated from the front of the frames and needed to be glued back on.

Then, while walking past T Bub's room, I noticed that one of the hang-y thingys from his coat rack had come off and was lying on the floor. Up on top of the piano it went.

The stuff sat there for awhile, gathering dust and making me feel guilty every time I walked past it.

Then, two things happened on the same day. I was hanging my coat on the coat rack when, heavily weighted to one side, the thing tipped over and crashed, breaking one of the coat hooks clean off. Secondly, I saw these and decided I needed a set in my dining room.

Off to Target I went and came home with this:

Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about. I'm not just going to glue this stuff, I'm gonna epoxy it! And because crafty stuff is oh so much more fun than fixing broken stuff, I started with my Dollar Store hurricanes: I still haven't decided what I want to put in them, so I just threw in some sand and an Easter egg. Hmmm, maybe I should clean the glass off ; )

The coat rack has had this treatment before. Yep, all four of those hooks have been glued back on at various times: Next up were my two picture frames: Awww, lookit baby Bitty...

Then T Bub's airplane coat rack: At this point I was having fun and started prowling the house looking for other things I could glue together. Bad Idea: this epoxy has a five minute dry time so by the time I remembered I still needed to glue the post onto Bitty's bed, the epoxy had started to harden inside the spout piece. I managed to rip that spout off so I could still use the epoxy and fix Bitty's bed: And there you have Five Things I Fixed With Epoxy.

Have you fixed anything lately?