Nailed It!

Do you know what I love best about House No. 3? 

Nails.

Yep. It's all mine, and I can pound nails into the walls without thinking twice about it. See, we were renters for five years, and even though some of my things hung on the walls, the walls were not my own. 

I'll admit that after all the hard work of painting the walls of House No. 3, it took me a while to work up the guts to stick a nail in the sheet rock. But I am long over it, which brings me to today's project.

We've been working on the basement, and in the middle of it, the bathroom got flooded by the washing machine up above. I know, right? Distractions, distractions. HOWEVER, today I decided not to let a silly little thing like a flooded bathroom get to me, and I refocused on one little corner of the basement, which I like to refer to as Down Under. I've mentioned before that it's being decorated in a travel theme, so Down Under seems a fitting name.

My mother-in-law gave me a big, round basket for Christmas. At first I thought it might look good on an ottoman or tabletop where it could catch stuff. But we don't have either of those things Down Under, so then I decided it would look great hanging on a wall! It seemed kind of lonely up there, so yesterday, I took a trip to our local thrift store to find it some friends to hang out with. And wouldn't you know, I found THREE baskets for 50 cents each! FIFTY CENTS!

Here's what I ended up with:

They were easy to hang, too. I just pounded those babies to the wall, using nothing but small wire nails.

The big basket took two nails, while the smaller baskets each took one nail.

Don't you love how they fit right in to a world traveling theme? The globes and the clock add to it, as well. I like the miniature spotlight, too. I found that at Lowes. When my kids have friends over for movie night, the rule is that one light must be on at all times. This was a good solution.

The best part is, this little project was SUPER cheap and I didn't have to go through TSA to complete it!

As Seen on Pinterest

It's Pinterest Monday! Like many of my friends and relatives, I'm a weeeee bit hooked on Pinterest. I enjoy being creative, but I often joke that with Pinterest, I never have to have an original thought again!

Today I thought I'd share my own version of something I saw on Pinterest a while back. House No. 3 has a small powder room off the entry. It's pretty cute and has a pedestal sink. However, with a pedestal sink, that means there's no place to keep stuff! And you NEED stuff in a bathroom! Am I right?

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a super idea:

And here's what I did:

The rod came from Ikea. I bought it for House No. 1 and actually sort of used it in House No. 2. I picked up the baskets at Michaels for $4.00 each. I like them because they are nice and sturdy, and framed with thick wire. As for the ribbon, I just happened to have it on hand, because, well I'm a bit of a hoarder. It came wrapped around some pillows I purchased several years ago, and I just couldn't throw out a nice length of grosgrain ribbon!

The baskets are really handy. I'm keeping soap, extra towels, and toilet paper in them. My husband tried to put an ugly tub of anti-bacterial wipes in one of them, which I promptly relocated to the laundry room.

It's a simple project for a lot of convenience!