T-Shirt Brine: UPDATE The Results!

Most of the time, when you brine something it is to get it ready for cooking. I am a big fan of using a brine for a pork butt before I make pulled pork. Well when I was on Pinterest the other day, I came across a pin that stated using a brine for T-Shirts will make it super soft. 

Source: octaneshop.com via Hilary on Pinterest

Well, I decided to put this Pin to the test. I didn't want to ruin a shirt that I really like before knowing if this worked or not, so I just used one of my plain white v-necks. I put the shirt in a gallon sized ziploc bag and then added the salt and water, gave it a good shake, and now it is sitting in the laundry room waiting. 

We shall see if it actually works. I hope it does because I have a few t-shirts that I love to wear but they're not very soft. I'll be back in a few days with the verdict!  

It was painful, but I was actually about the wait the full 3 days before discovering if this nifty trick worked. And the verdict is: Not Really :( 

I was hoping that this would work, but it just made the shirt feel kinda funky. I don't know if it is because I used a shirt that had been worn a bunch of times; maybe it would work better with a new shirt. It is a bummer that this didn't work :(

The Doctor Sucks

I feel so lazy for not posting recently, but I've been running here and there for the past week. I've been in Austin, then headed to Houston, currently in College Station, and soon back to Austin. 

I just found out I have a precursor to having a herniated disc in my lower back :( so I have been to the doctor a million times in the past week. I've been x-rayed(not a word), MRI-ed, poked, prodded, and massaged (the last one was totally worth it).

Needless to say, I haven't been able to get many projects done recently and that makes me sad. Hopefully, once I get the rest of my doctor visits out of the way I can finally get back to doing some fun stuff! 

Glittered iPhone Charger

I'm not an iPhone person. I just never really liked them, I love my Motorola Droid Bionic :), but my sister has recently gotten an iPhone and she has fallen in love with it. Well today when I mentioned a way to bedazzle her iPhone charger she got super excited, so we took a trip to Wal-mart and grabbed some glitter.

I already had Mod Podge (who doesn't), so once William went to bed we got to work. Well I worked and she sat there and watched.

 You're going to want to tape off the parts that you don't want glitter on, like the important metal parts that go in your phone. 

 Next gather your supplies: Glitter and Mod Podge (not pictured is a paint brush). 

 Paint on a layer of Mod Podge and then glitter away! Beware glitter is the herpes of the craft world!

 Emily actually helping by holding the cord while it dries. :) 

 Once the first layer dries you can go ahead and do another coat of Mod Podge + another layer of glitter. That way you will for sure cover up all the blank spaces. 

Once it dries, peel off the tape and you are ready to go :) Well almost, I would let it dry for 24hrs and then do a clear coat with clear nail polish just to make sure the glitter stays put (I haven't done that yet).

I think this was a successful little project and it only cost $3 for the glitter because I had everything else at home :) Plus it was a great way to spend a rainy day.

Linking up here:
 

I Love Lamp!

The other day I was going up into our attic to store some boxes when I noticed something rather interesting...

What's that?

A huge cheetah print lampshade. As I climbed the ladder, I noticed that this lampshade was attached to a pretty nice looking brass lamp. Hooray a free lamp! I've been searching for a new lamp to put in our bedroom for a couple weeks and there it was above my head the entire time!

A lamp!

Covered in insulation :(

 The lamp was in pretty bad shape. The shade was destroyed, the lamp base wobbled, and I was not even sure it was going to work. So after tossing out the nasty cheetah print shade, I screwed in a light-bulb and crossed my fingers as I turned the switch. 

 

Hooray! A free lamp that actually works! So I got to work making it beautiful :) I peeled off the nasty brown felt on the bottom and carefully tightened the nut in the base of the lamp. (Make sure that the pieces of your lamp are in line while you do this; you don't want a crooked lamp).

Once I got my lamp tightened and aligned, I sanded it down with 220 grit sandpaper and then cleaned it really well. I started to sand and clean my lamp during William's morning nap, and quickly decided it was a bad idea because the sun was shining directly onto our back porch. Less than five minutes into working and I was already sweating :(

Later in the afternoon I went back out and finished sanding, and I cleaned all the dust off really well. Next comes the paint! Start by giving the lamp two good coats of primer (don't forget to tape off the areas you don't want to paint) and let dry overnight. I know it sucks having to wait, but it will be worth it in the end!

Two coats of primer

One Coat of primer

After the grueling overnight wait, you can now paint with your choice of color. I chose a subtle classic grey color for my lamp. I love the way it looks next to our new Minty Fresh bed-frame. Again give it two good coats and let it sit overnight again.

Well at this point in time, Jeff had come home for the weekend and he was really excited about my newest project until he noticed the wiring in the lamp was crappy. So being the electrical engineer that he is, he suggested that I replace it just to be safe. When I ran to Wal-Mart the next day I grabbed a lamp rewiring kit and got to work.

Lamp Kit, $6 at Wal-mart :)

All my hard work is in pieces!

It's starting to look like a lamp again!

After a speed bump of rewiring the lamp I was now ready to spray with the clear coat. I decided to go with Rust-Oleum Clear Specialty Lacquer because I wanted to have a super high luster coating. I like shiny things :)

I love how the lamp turned out! It took a bit longer to get it finished, but in the end it was totally worth it! I think that the grey looks amazing next to the mint green of the bed frame, and the crispness of the white drum shade makes me happy :)

Now I have to decide if Jeff gets to have this awesome lamp on his side of the bed, or if I am going to be greedy and put it on my side of the bed :) I think my next project is definitely going to be refinishing the end table the lamp is sitting on. It needs to be as pretty as everything else in the room.

When it's all said and done, I spent around $30 total getting this lamp looking fabulous.

I'm linking up to these fabulous blogs!

Bloggy Olympics Event #4: Crafting

For the fourth event in the Bloggy Olympics I have decided to make tie-dyed t-shirts for William. I made him one for the 4th of July and one for his 1st Birthday coming up in August! 

I've tie-dyed shirts before but it was probably 10+ years ago at girl scout camp, so I was really excited about doing this again :) 

 I bought one of those tie-dye kits at Wal-mart and got to work as soon as William went to bed for the night. For his 4th of July tank I did a spiral pattern with red and blue dye, and for his Birthday shirt I did a folded pattern with yellow, green, and blue dye. 

 

I got him a tank top for his 4th of July shirt, and a regular t-shirt for his Birthday shirt. I think the tank top is my favorite :) 

I love the Tulip tie-dye kit I got because it has everything you need to do a tie-dye project. It even came with the rubber bands and plastic gloves so you don't turn your hands colors :) and it has really easy to follow directions. I finished both shirts in under 30 minutes; I was kinda bummed it didn't take very long :(

 You want to pre-wash your shirt WITHOUT fabric softener, and as soon as the washer is done you can start tie-dying.

 For William's 4th of July shirt I did a spiral pattern. Just pinch the shirt where you want the center of the spiral to be and twist it into a flat circle. Once it is twisted wrap it into six sections with 3 rubber bands ( I doubled up my rubber bands).

 

 I alternated between red and blue for my wedges, and then put it in a ziptop bag to sit overnight. The longer the shirt sits with the dye, the more vibrant the colors will be. 

 

 For William's Birthday Shirt, I did a folded pattern so that when it was done it would look like stripes. Basically you fold it like an accordion and then put rubber-bands every few inches.

 

I like the combo of colors I used for this shirt :) the yellow dye turned out super bright and I love it. 

 The next morning, cut the rubber bands and throw into a washer set on HOT and at the biggest load possible. You want a lot of water in the machine because the extra dye will run. (I washed the two shirts separately so the red wouldn't ruin the green and yellow)

 Ta-Da! All finished! I love how the swirl one turned out not so perfect(pretty much the best part about tie-dye) and how the stripes look so defined :)

I'm going to be linking up to some amazing blogs on Thursday for the 4th event in the Bloggy Olympics! You can head on over to Here's to Handy Andy, c.w.frosting, or freaking craft to check out all the Bloggy Olympics awesomeness!

UPDATE: Picture's from the 4th of July! William and I drove down to Houston to see Jeff, and we went to the Museum of Natural Science. It was so much fun! William loved the paleontology exhibit.

 Jeff and William looking at a piece of a petrified tree trunk! William was rocking his awesome tie-dye tank!

 Blurry baby trying to grab the camera :D

He was so tired by the end of the day!


I'm also linking up to these amazing blogs: