The search for cloth napkins

I need to get a dozen cloth napkins, but they seem to be so pricey.  My dishes are white and robin's egg blue.  I thought a nice white or linen color would look good and be easy to bleach and clean.  I've also considered navy, chartruese, or brown.  These are from Walmart and run $8 for 4, which means they obviously aren't the greatest quality.

These are from Pier 1 Imports and really beautiful.  They are $4.95 a piece which on my budget would really add up.

Home Goods Ala Carte on etsy has these lovely napkins.  $4 each ($16 for 4).

Quick Thinking

I am currently in the middle of getting our house really clean.  And not just clean, but organized as I go.  That is no small task in our house.  One of the projects in the kitchen that has been sitting unfinished for about a year was to put in these little metal rack things that hold your cookie sheets and drying racks up and not fall all over the place.  Ours definitely needed something because there is a good 18" past where the door opens to that they kept falling into.  The door itself is about 12" wide, a very snug fit.  I managed to get the one on the left put up pretty easily.  But then the one on the right made for an even tighter squeeze.  There was no room for me to hold the screw, and use the screw driver with the other hand.  I couldn't find our screw gun and I was starting to get really frustrated.  Then I had one of my moments of genius.  There are magnets in my bathroom's medicine cabinet that I put in there to hold the tweezers and finger nail clippers to the side for storage.  Anyway, decided it should work that if I put a magnet on the screwdriver, it would be able to hold the screw on too.

So that is what I did.  And it worked like a charm.  I had that second rack up in a minute flat.  Now, I know they make screw drivers that are magnatized, but if you don't have one, or are more like me and have one but would have to hire Lewis and Clark to hunt it down, this method works pretty well.

Outside Lights

I bought 3 of these lights at Lowe's for $25 a piece.  I'd searched online for something to go by the front door and on either side of the garage door.  These were ones I'd seen before and instantly loved.  When I got them home I realized the metal color didn't really contrast enough for my liking against the painted brick.  I decided a little spray paint could fix that.

I took the lights out of the box, unscrewed the bolt in the left of this picture and removed the plate that attaches it to the wall.  I wanted the plate and outer part of the light shade to be blue, but not the hooked part of the light.

Here you can see the light, without the wall plate.

Next I taped off up to the light shade, then taped a bag around the rest of the gooseneck.

All ready to paint.  And despite what this picture looks like, my left hand is not deformed.

I wanted the inside of the shade to remain galvanized so I laid the shade flat on our sidewalk with newspaper under it.  As I sprayed I would walk around the light instead of moving it, so the seal that was made around the light wouldn't be messed up and paint all splotchy on the inside.

Here you see 2 of the 3 lights drying.  I just used some indoor/outdoor spray paint from Walmart.  I used the same color to spray some flower pots I have on the sides of the garage door.  When spray painting, it's best to do it in light coats instead of putting it on too heavy and having it run.

Here is the light that's by our front door.  It had to be placed where the old light was, which is a bit higher than I would have chosen, but some things just aren't worth a battle.  I forgot to photograph spraying the base, but it was pretty much the same.  You can see the gooseneck is metal, and the inside of the shade, plus the little cap that holds the light to the wall.

The finished blue light by the door.

Here is an old picture of the door, before the brick was painted.  You can kind of see what the old light looked like.  It had a light sensor that hung down, then two bulbs that stuck out in weird directions.  A note to myself, I just realized part of why it feels so empty by our front door... no shutters.  Hopefully soon...