Fork & Spoon Art

As you all know, I took a little break from blogging and DIYing over the summer, and I also took a break from my thrift store shopping. Yeah, it was as horrible as it sounds, but we were so busy that I wouldn't have had time to work on projects anyway. The last time I went to Savers was back in March and I couldn't have been more excited to find these beauties sitting on the shelves just waiting to be snatched up and, hopefully, given some spray paint love. I have seen other crafty bloggers use these decorations in their kitchens/dining rooms for years and couldn't wait to get my hands on a pair. The ones I found, although a not-my-favorite-or-even-kind-of-doable rusty gold color, were only $3.99 a piece, made of heavy duty metal and well over a foot long each (I put my iPhone in the photo below to show you a comparison). Woohoo! This is what they looked like back when I first picked them up (and how they stayed over the last 6 months while they sat in the basement).

I had seen them all over blogs and websites for years, so I had lots of ideas for how to hang them and what color to spray them, but ultimately went with my beloved Oil Rubbed Bronze. I just love how well they go with the pot holder next to them. I've only had them up for a few weeks, but I still get a smile on my face every time I walk by the kitchen. Such a fun, easy and inexpensive way to add some "art" to the tiny kitchen!

Wine Cork W

So... it's been a little over four months since I've posted anything on the ole' blog. Woops! I knew I was going to take a bit of a break with DIY projects over the summer so Caton and I could spend all of our time enjoying the weather outside, visiting family and friends, going on vacations and not being cooped up in the house, but I have no excuse for the last month or so since fall officially began. I'm happy to report that I have been working on a few fun things around the house, so I'm excited to share them over the next couple of days and weeks.

First up is my wine cork W. I originally saw this idea on Pinterest (I'm just as obsessed as everyone else, for sure!), originally found from this site, and have been gathering up supplies over the last few months. It's no secret that Caton and I enjoy a glass of wine every now and then, and we (well, at least I) have been drinking it since college (as you can tell from the huge hurricane of corks shown below), so there is quite an accumultion of corks. The only problem was that I wanted this particular project to have all real corks instead of those rubber ones that many companies are switching to lately. So, thanks to the help of my lovely vino-loving friends and family, as well as generous wine bar up in Parkville that let me raid their stash, I finally had all the corks I needed.

The process is pretty self explanatory... buy a cardboard letter from Hobby Lobby, arrange corks as you wish (asking your helpful hubby to cut a few of them to size with the appropriate tools) and hot glue the corks to the letter. When you take out the months of waiting time to come up with enough real corks to fill the W, this entire project only took about 20 minutes. So easy and such a fun addition to my favorite piece of furniture in our entire house, my 9-cubby shelf!