Recreated Crate

I've been stealing from my son's nursery(can I even call it that anymore? He's getting so big!) a lot lately...first the curtains and now his wooden crate.
I found a pair of these old crates while antiquing with my mom just a few short months before Finn was born. I brought them home and decided to put casters(fancy word for wheels) on one of them.
Then I put it in Finn's room to hold toys and books.

But, after seeing an idea on Pinterest, I wanted the crate for my rosemary! So I took it and lined it with some thin fabric to keep the soil inside. I guess you could use black plastic as well and it would blend in better with the soil.
I used a staple gun to fasten the five pieces of fabric.

I put some gravel pieces on the bottom after cutting a few slits into the fabric so that water can drain easily.

Then I transplanted the rosemary...I'm hoping it'll get even bigger, like shrub size!
I plan on doing the same to the crate's match and using these for little herb gardens to wheel around the back patio before I get comfortable enough planting into the ground...I have anxieties about plants dying once they're in the ground.

Oh, and we started landscaping the front yard-so excited about how "grown up" the front of our house is looking!

Allison

Up off the Counter

One day long ago I went to a thrift store and bought every single metal candlestick they had. At less than $1.00 a piece why not? At the time I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with them, only that I had just been introduced to the wonders that spray-paint can accomplish so I figured I'd give them new life with color.


Then Pinterest happened (yes, I've had these candlesticks for that long). And when I found this fruit/cupcake tiered stand, I knew exactly what I would use my candlesticks for!

Mary Janes & Galoshes

Here's what my collection had become, minus a few that I've already converted to useful items.

Candlesticks have been a cinch for me to find. The pie tins are another story-maybe I just don't know where to look, and I suppose you can buy them brand new; I've found four without looking too hard, and they've all been purchased at antique or thrift stores. My first step is placing tins on top of sticks until I've found that perfect match up for what I had in mind.

I spray painted the candlesticks a shade of blue, the pie tins I gave a white coat, and then I used an odd sort of metal putty called SteelStik that completely hardens after a while and secured the pieces together. The guy at Lowe's advised me to use this.

This metal glue stuff STINKS. It smells just like this town called Sulfur Springs in Texas that I used to drive through on the way to Tennessee. I was hilariously amused to read the packaging where it stated that this stuff is from none other than....Sulfur Springs, TX! Sorry to anyone out there reading who has a love for this East Texas town...

So here they are, painted, stuck, and dried.

I'd planned to use the big tin to hold hand soap, lotion, and a dish brush to keep next to the kitchen sink. The smaller tin was the perfect size for bar soap for the bathroom sink. 

I also laid a doily at the bottom of the larger tin just for something extra and I found a teensy porcelain bowl for the dish brush to sit in so it'd look fancy and wouldn't drain onto the doily or spray-painted surface.

I love how everything is contained together, just how it would be directly on the counter, only somehow this elevated dish makes it look cleaner....and gives me back that little bit of counter space.

Next, I'm definitely going to make a tiered piece for my jewelry, and eventually I'd love to make something for fruit and to have on hand for little treats or cupcakes at a party. Something like this...

So there you have it, a creative way to get your necessities off the counter but still at arm's length!