Make a Cookbook Knife Holder

 Hello Readers. I wanted as knife holder so I could get my kitchen knives out of my kitchen drawer. The knives would bang against each other and other utensils too. There must be a better way to store my knives right? Let's make something fun and useful. And cute! Let's make a knife holder out of cookbooks. (This will be twice as handy because it will get my cookbooks close to where I am cooking too.)

The knives are handy and ready to use. And no books were harmed in the making of this knife holder.

The first thing you need to do is gather some of your cookbooks. You can also borrow some from your friends, your parents, steal some from grandma, or go buy some cookbooks for yourself. I like to look at thrift stores, there are always a lot of cookbooks there. Used bookstores are great places to get books for less too. 

  

When you have your cookbooks gathered together you are ready to go on to the next steps.  

 

I took all of the paper dust jackets off my books. You don't have to do this but I liked how they looked without the covers. They just seemed more cohesive without the extra cover art. But yours might have a really fabulous cover so do whatever you think looks the best. 

 

I arranged my books with the tallest in the middle and the shortest on the outsides. It made a slight pyramid shape that looked really nice. 

 

I wanted to tie the books together. They need to stay closed to hold the knives so I found some natural looking twine or cord. You can use any kind of ribbon or string that you have and any color would work so use whatever you like. You can match your kitchen or use something for the season or upcoming holidays. 
 

I used 2 pieces of cord, I wrapped it around the set of books and tied a simple knot in front. You can tie a big bow if you want, I wanted the books to be the focus so I kept it simple for now.

 

You can set you books right on the counter if you want. I like this basket-tray. (It keeps my cutting boards from falling over.) I slide the knives in between the pages of the books. I put the largest knives in the largest books and the smaller knives in the smaller books. If you have a lot of knives you can add a couple more books to hold them. If you only have a few knives, you can use less books. Make a set-up that works for you and your kitchen. 

 

Having the cutting boards and knives right next to each other is really nice and handy. Will this make me the next Julia Child? No, it's not going to work miracles. Will this make me a slightly better cook? I can't promise anything, but we'll see what happens. 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

Scrabble Tiles to Magnets

 Hello Readers. I have a family and we are always on the go. I thought we could communicate more with some magnetic letters on the refrigerator. We could leave little notes for each other, say hello on busy days and even make a note that we are out of milk or eggs. If you live with someone else, this might be fun and useful for you too. 

These letters are small enough to fit many of them on the fridge but not so small that they are difficult to see. Esspecially in the morning without my glasses on. I can barely see anything then.

 

The first thing you will need is a pile of letter tiles. You might have them somewhere in the house from board games you have in the closet. I like these letter tiles because they are very neutral in color and won't clash with the kitchen decor. There are magnetic letters for toddlers and preschoolers but my kids are older and I didn't want the chaos of glaring bright colors all over my refrigerator.  

 

You can take the tiles from old Scrabble games you don't play anymore. And you can also find lots of board games at thrift stores for very little money. You don't need the complete game, just a collection of letter tiles. 
 

 

There are also other kids games that use similar letter tiles, like Bananagram's. It is a less well known game but you can use whatever letter tiles are easiest for you to get your hands on. Or use a combination of letters you can scrounge up.

 

You will also need some but strong but small magnets. With a little work, these will keep your letters on your refrigerator. 

You will need a glue gun. They can be super hot so be careful. I added a small blob of glue to the back of the tile with the glue gun. Don't skimp on the glue, you want everything really well stuck together. If you do not have a glue gun use a strong glue and let the glue dry fully before trying to use the letter tiles as magnets.

My next step was to add the magnet to the glue and pressed it down firmly. The glue and the magnet need to adhere to the letter tile well. 

 

When you are all done with the glue, you will have a pile of magnetic letter tiles that look like this on the back. The great thing about using a glue gun is that they are already set and can be used right away. No waiting hours for glue to dry. 

 

Just a note- I tried using a roll of magnetic tape with adhesive already on the back. It did not stay on the letter tiles well at all. It was not sticky enough and it did not want to lay flat on the back of the tiles. I do not recommend using this type of magnet for this project. 

 

My letters were getting used immediately. I thought these would be useful for making it known we needed important groceries or household items. My family wrote notes and my youngest was trying spell words he didn't know. (That was an educational bonus for me.)

 

  I hope this helps you and your family and friends and whoever you live with. 

Now go make something fun (And magnetic!) for yourself.  

Fixing a Curtain With Big Holes

 Dear Readers. Hello from my house. I found these holes in my curtain and it seemed like the identity of the vandal was obvious. It had to be Gordon. No one else in the house is that height and no one else took the blame. Who did this doesn't really matter, I really wanted to repair the curtains. 

He is really sorry. Let's fix this. 

The curtains are actually one large panel. They were custom made and then returned to the decorating shop my mother-in-law worked at. She bought them with her employee discount and gave them to me. I can't afford to replace them so I wanted to try and fix this in some way. All the damage was on the left. The holes were too big to just sew the holes together. What else could I do?

Could I remove the section of curtain that had holes? That would mean removing the the 2-3 feet of fabric on the left. I decided to take the curtains down and take a better look. 

I got up on a step ladder and took the curtains down. 

 

 My curtain hung on little hooks but the way it is hung won't really matter for this fix-it job. 

I stopped for a quick wash. Since I had the curtains down, I might as well wash them. 

I used sharp sewing scissors to cut off about 2 feet from the width of the curtains. My curtain had stripes woven in it. That helped me cut straight up the curtain. I wanted to have an even straight cut to make a new side of these curtains. This was a lot to cut off one side but I wanted to try it and see if it would look OK when I hung it back up.

 

I folded the newly cut edge under twice. I needed to make a new seam to finish this side of the curtain. I made this new seam as small/narrow as possible. This curtain is going to be more narrow now but making the smallest seam might help a little. 

 

I hung the curtain up the way it was before and kept hoping it would cover the whole window. It did, but not quite as full and fluffy as before.

 

The curtain is more narrow now. But it looks so much better with out the big holes in it. If you try this fix your curtain will be a little more narrow too. That isn't necessarily a terrible thing. As long as the curtain covers the window, or most of it, I was happy.

 

Gordon has been spending time thinking about what he did and he promises not to eat curtains again. Thanks for reading along, now go fix your curtains too. 

***Year End Update***- Gordon has not eaten any other home decor items. What a good boy.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refresh Kitchen Cabinets With New Knobs

 Hello Readers. I have lived in the same house for 20 years. Some things are getting a little worn out, of course. All those years, the kids, the dogs and everyday life can wear things out. One of the places I can see the wear is the kitchen, specifically the cabinets. I wanted to do something bold and different to brighten it up and I decided to replace the cabinet knobs. 

These gold knobs were what the builder decided we were getting when the house was built. We lived with them for all this time and they were ... fine, for a while anyway.

 

This poor sad knob had been to war and back. I replaced it with a new bright fresh knob and gave the kitchen a fresh new look.
 

This little rack was my inspiration. These blue and white ceramic knobs were so fun. This was hanging in my daughter's apartment. It occurred to me that I could buy some knobs like this and I could replace my beat up old gold knobs with new bright knobs. It would really freshen up my kitchen cabinets.

I needed more knobs so I started shopping around. Look at all the different shades of blue in these knobs. If I wanted new knobs to have a visual impact then bright colors and various patterns would be best. These are the knobs I chose.

This is a look at my kitchen before replacing any knobs. The cabinets are all white and the counter is blue. If you think there is a blue and white theme to my choice of new knobs, you are right. Those blue knobs will really work well here and give the kitchen  more custom look.

 The first step was removing the gold knobs. I used a screwdriver to help loosen the screw from the inside of the cabinet and the knobs came right off. 

 

There was 20 years of crud under those old knobs. YUCK!!  I scrubbed all the dirt away on each cabinet.

 

The new knobs I chose came fully assembled on a long screw. I pushed the screw through the hole in the cabinet. There were already knobs on these cabinets so I did not need to drill holes. 

 

 Once the knob was in the hole I put the washer (Metal O) on the screw. The 6 sided nut went on last. I tightened them up by hand. You can use a wrench to tighten the whole assembly if needed.

Here is a video reenactment of the whole process.

 

 I love the little pops of blue and the variety of the shades of blue.

 

Here is a little side by side comparison of the old and new knobs. The blues really pop. The blue knobs look great against the white cabinets.

 

And one more before and after picture. 

 

I love the effect of the new brightly colored knobs. Will it always stay this neat and orderly? No, but the new fun knobs definitely add a new fresh look to the overall decor. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

 ***Year End Update- These knobs are fun a colorful. They really made my cabinets look more custom. They seem to catch to the eye.