diy – pause then press play

An easy and pretty way to write on glossy surfaces

August 18, 2014September 20, 2014 Evelyn Loh

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Use a marker and clear nail polish as a quick way to write on glossy surfaces!

The things you’ll need:

What you do:

Simply write on the glossy surface with your sharpie and use the clear nail polish to remove it. I used coloured nail polish pens to give them some dimension. When you’re bored of how it looks or you need to repurpose it, simply use some nail polish remover and wipe it off. You can probably stick it into the dishwasher a couple times before it peels off!

Imagine labelling all mason jars in the pantry. All your teas and spices would look amazing – the possibilities are endless!

For this post, I used this olive oil and vinegar jars with the spouts for when I was on my no poo regime. It was perfect for the baking soda mix because the spout helped me get the solution right to my scalp. Also, labelling them Step 1 and Step 2 seemed a little less crude than “Baking Soda” and “Vinegar.” Here’s how they look on my butt bench.

diy

EASY DIY Mirror Box

July 30, 2014September 20, 2014 Evelyn Loh

I have a thing for mirrors. I like that they can make a room look bigger, add more light and who doesn’t like checking themselves out? Come on, be honest.

Anyway, I had bought some cheap square mirrors a while back (from Xcess Cargo I think?) for crafts and recently found them in my basement. Bad Evelyn, buying things and hoarding them. I don’t even remember the price anymore, but I know it was a good deal.

So I found them and my interest for making them into something was rekindled. But I didn’t want to just glue them to the wall or hang them somewhere. So I made this mirror box and I like how it turned out. You can use it to showcase little trinkets or place it in a dark corner for some light.

Building it was easy, I just made a square frame to size, then I used two pieces of wood, wood glue and clamps to make guides on the inside of the frame so that it would hold it in place and the mirror doesn’t fall out the back like so:

Then I glued down the mirror with this industrial strength glue :

Added some nails and string to the back like this (if you want to hang it up):

And I can tell you it’s pretty sturdy. I’ve been moving it around all day photographing it. It seemed like it took me longer to photograph the thing than to build it. I must have taken about twenty photos and to my dismay only a few were OK to post, even then not great ones for the matter. Who knew photographing mirrors would be such a daunting task? It was mostly because I was trying to avoid getting any furniture or lines in the reflection of the mirrors which would cause it to look messy, including myself. Umm, yeah, bad hair day. But these are the survivor photos…

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I’ll be making more in the future. Maybe as Christmas gifts.

diy

The DIY No Build Butt Bench!

July 11, 2014September 20, 2014 Evelyn Loh

Hello World!

I have made myself a butt bench, and life is good.

What is a butt bench you ask? This is a butt bench:

It’s a bathtub bench and I’ve wanted one for so long. Now, you ask why would I ever want to sit in the shower?
It’s not just for sitting, my dear…

Oh no, no, no, it can be used as a caddy/storage unit for your toiletries, a leg lift to aid shaving, a table during a bath, a place to sit for a foot bath, a place to rest whilst waiting to scare my fiancé…the benefits are endless!

And it looks great!

And yes, maybe I would like to sit in the shower once in a while and I just never thought about it because the possibility wasn’t there!

Like I said, I’ve always wanted one, but it was a “pricey perk” not a necessity so I never got one… till this happened today.

The shower caddy broke when I was cleaning out the guck buildup on it. That shower caddy has been there for a while and was a remnant from the previous owners. I hated it, all plasticky and meh, but it serve it’s purpose so I let it stay. Anyway, it broke and I thought about my beloved Butt Bench once again. The problem was that it would set me back a whopping $85. The bench only costs about $40, it was the shipping from the States to Canada that would hurt. Plus, I ~~could not~~, ~~would not~~, refused to pump shampoo from the bathtub floor for 2 weeks while waiting for a Butt Bench. So I decided to build one. While I was thinking about how I would construct it, something caught my eye, it was a shelving unit that we recently bought and it was shining brightly like a beacon in the night.

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Mmm, yes, you see where I’m going with this.

I put it down one and sat on it.

It was perfect.

Fit perfect, looked perfect.

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And now I can sit in the shower whenever I want!

And there you have it, how to make The NO BUILD Butt Bench. Technically speaking, someone did put it together (build it) for you, but you didn’t have to do it, hence, NO BUILD (on your part). I did paint mine with some leftover weatherproofing deck cedar stain since it was going to be in contact with water lots. The shelf of the unit I have measures 15″ x 30″ and we bought it on sale for $10 at Lowe’s (sure beats $85). If you can’t find the shelving unit I used at Lowe’s, you can probably use this GORM one from Ikea to a similar effect for $25. The only difference is it has 3 panels instead of 5 and it’ll be a little shorter than the one I have. A word of caution here, the real Butt Bench has suction cups which mine doesn’t. It helps secure the bench and prevents it from sliding around. You can easily add your own with a little ingenuity, however, I opted no suction cups since I want to move it around when I have a bath to use it as a table and I’ll be extra careful. Also, this version isn’t weight tested. I mean I sat on it and my fiancé sat on it, so tests up to 170 pounds, but if you’d like to try this out, please make sure you test it out yourself and take all necessary precautions so that you may enjoy your butt bench to the fullest.

Don’t worry. The three extra shelves I had leftover did not go to waste. More on that later.