Homemade Sofa Shelf

Hiya.  I decided that it was about time to start thinking about the projects aspect of this blog.  I was thinking about potential projects when I realized that I have already done this one.  Mine doesn't look as nice yet.  I have not been able to find the lamps that I am wanting for my shelf.  This is the original Pinterest post:

Piece of wood from Home Depot cut to size of couch, stained, attached to wall with L-brackets

And this is my (work in progress) final result.  I didn't think about taking photos during the process of  putting it up, which is probably a good thing... it was a mess!

I do still have a Christmas garland with lights running along the shelf.  No my decorations are not still up, but I like the way that the lights give just enough ambient light.  We all need twinkle lights in our home.  They may go away if I ever find the lights that I am looking for. 

We'll see.

We did have to do something a bit different than the original pinterest idea.  My husband has a projector.  I don't get the need for it, but whatever.  I gave that arguement up a long time ago.  We needed a way to incorporate it behind the couch.  When we bought the pieces of shelving from whichever home improvement store it was (I can't remember at this point), I found this little riser shelf.  Actually it is supposed to be a shoe shelf for your closet.  The color is a dead on match though and I think that it works out perfectly. 

I went to dust...

But ended up making a wreath instead.

I am not really sure how the thought process went from dusting a shelf to making a pink and purple feather boa wreath for my daughter's sleepover... but it did.  

I started by cutting a circle out of a cardboard box that was just lying in my garage.  As you can see, it doesn't really matter if the circles are perfect.  If you are going to use this post as a tutorial to make your own wreath, please do not focus on perfection here.  No need. 

I then rolled up some grocery bags loosely and used clear tape to tape them to the board.  Again, do not focus on perfection.  I just wanted to add a little bit of padding to make the wreath look more full. 

These are feather boas that I confiscated from my daughter's dress up box.  I hate these things.  They came from the dollar store and they shed feathers all over the place.  You cannot stop it, nor can you contain it.  You can see some of the bare spots where the feathers have all fallen out.

The dark purple one was by far the highest quality one... it was still full and it was the longest.  I used it as the base and wrapped it all the way around the circled board.  I then took the multi colored boas and filled in the gaps.  I only had one light purple one and wasn't sure how to make it look like it belonged so I turned it into a sort of boa flower.

You can't really tell in the photo but the light purple one is hooked to the front of the wreath and not wrapped around the circles like the other boas.

This was the first wreath of this kind that I have made, and I am rather proud of it.  I hope you like it too.

I love Science.

I have written before about the amazing things that vinegar and baking soda can do.  Well today the dynamic duo struck again.  I have a large roast pan that is nasty.  So today while doing other normal dishes, the thought to try the duo on the roast pan popped into my head.  So here is what the pan looked like before I began... Yuck!
*I am only grossing you out with this photo for educational purposes.*

I rinsed it out and sprinkled baking soda on the sides and on the bottom.

I just happened by lucky coincidence to have an empty spray bottle rolling around in the kitchen, so in went the vinegar.  (Like my stack of clean dishes back there?)

I sprayed the vinegar all over the pan.  I probably got a little carried away because, of course, it makes bubbles and its FUN!  I let it set for a while, spraying it again whenever I happened to be in the kitchen (cause it will keep bubbling).
One Harry Potter movie later:  I used hot water (the hotter the better cause its greasy) and a scrubby pad to scrub off all the ick.  The sides are the hardest part though since they don't get to sit in the paste the duo makes, but with a bit of elbow grease on my part, this was my result:

TA-DA!

Please, no applause.
Obviously there are still some sticky looking spots on the sides and over on the right, but WOW major improvement!  I will probably hit it with another spot specific treatment tomorrow.  I bet this will work on my icky baked on gunk cookie sheet too... hmmmm.

July 4th/ Rodeo Parade

Last Saturday, my daughter and I went to the Rodeo parade.  She loves horses so she would get excited everytime a new batch of them came down the street.  She really liked to see the rodeo queens/princesses and the Rodeo Rounders.  The Rounders are our local version of the Sweethearts.  (If you have ever seen the movie Cowgirls and Angels you know who they are... if you have not seen it you really should watch it)  Kiera would really like to be a stunt rider right now.  She is always trying to do the hippodrome on her rocking horse.  (Again if you have seen the movie you know the trick.)  We had a great time together.

Sunday Scavenger Hunt

I have to admit that this weeks prompts were harder than they should have been for me.  The colors mostly. I wanted to avoid a photo that had all the colors in them, like say a flag.  And I have plenty of White and Blue things around my house, but didn't think that taking a photo of the shampoo bottle would really set the right tone.  I did finally come up with a photo for each prompt... although they may not be my best.  Without further ado...

Red

My daughter and I attended our local rodeo parade this past weekend.  Afterwards they were having an antique car show.  My father-in-law loves Corvettes so we decided to take him a photo.  The one we found just happened to be red.

White

This is the photo that I had the most difficulty with.  I found this seeding plant on the playground to my daughter's school when we went there to play.  It was white.  It works.

Blue

Nothing says long weekend like a blueberry martini.  They are so sweet (almost too much) and so pretty.

Stars

My daughter recently got an ice tray that makes star shaped ice.  How could I not use that for Stars?

Sparkle

We had a wonderful 4th.  We saw beautiful fireworks, ate good food, and played (that was mostly Kiera though).

Oh Snap! photo of the week

Of course this week was the Fourth of July, so everyone will have their own fireworks shots.  My family was invited to a very large BBQ get together.  This photo was taken at the beginning of the show so it was still just slightly light out.  This is one of my favorite shots from the hundred or so photos that I took that night.

By the way:
In case anyone was wondering the settings that I used were f/16; ISO 100; SS 2.5 as suggested in this post by Courtney at Click It Up A Notch.