Summer Pinterest Challenge: Measuring Cup Organization from Tidbits from the Tremaynes

My third pin tried for the Summer Pinterest Challenge, and my third food-related pin. This one also helps with organization, though.

I found the inspiration for the idea at Tidbits from the Treymanes. Since I'm constantly losing measuring cups and spoons, and hate stacking them up, this sounded like a wonderful idea, so off to Lowe's I went to gather my supplies.

I bought some Valspar Chalkboard paint, 7/8" cup hooks, a cheapo doors and cabinets kit with roller, as well as a stick of trim, not shown here because it's 8 feet long. I already had painter's tape and some wood glue.

I also had this glorious little thing. My father calls it a key, but I don't know what the actual name is. They had them at the paint counter and they make opening paint cans super easy.

I then wiped down the cabinet door to remove any grease or dust, let it dry, and taped it with the painter's tape. I probably could have carefully painted and avoided using the tape, but where's the fun in that?

I needed about 3 coats for the chalkboard paint to cover completely and smoothly. Once it was painted over to my satisfaction, I removed the tape and let the door dry. This is where my "hindsight 20-20" moments begin. I maybe should have removed the cabinet door prior to the whole process. It really became apparent when I went to attach the trim.

Before starting the whole process, I had also measured and cut the trim to size and painted it with some white paint I had for my baseboards. I tried to use wood glue to attach the trim with the cabinet door still hanging up, and the trim just tried to slowly slide down the cabinet door. At that point, I chose to hunt down a screwdriver and take the cabinet door off and move the project to the table.

This is also when I realized that I don't have any kind of clamps, and the trim wouldn't stay down without some help. I decided to use a chip clip, then stacked some teacher editions and my husband's Warhammer 40k army bag to weigh down the trim. I let the whole thing dry overnight.

Once the glue was dry, I spaced out my measuring cups and spoons to make sure they'd all fit. I marked each hole with a pencil so I would know where to insert the cup hook.

Now, I used a bit of a strange method to get the hooks into the trim. A normal, patient person would have waited until her husband was home with his screwdriver to drill tiny guide holes. Instead, I decided the project would be completed RIGHT THEN and used a hammer and nail to create the guide holes. I only hit my fingers once.

After creating the guide holes, I then twisted the cup hooks into the holes.

Here's a view with all of the cup hooks in.

I then wrote out the measuring equivalents and cup measurements with a chalkboard marker I already had.

I then hung it back up. You can see the evidence of my missing cups.

The only issue I've noticed is that if my hands are a bit wet, the words wipe off a bit. I had to rewrite the 1 cup writing after a mishap with baking.

Summer Pinterest Challenge

Last year, I posted a Wedding Summer Bucket List. Except, in the course of a year, all of those links broke when Pinterest updated their site, so I'm in the course of editing that entry so that the links are accurate.

I am writing this post because of a site I am a member of, Swap-bot. At that site, you can sign up for various swaps - e-mail survey, pinterest board, ATC, tea, arts, crafts....the list goes on.  This swap that I signed up for, in particular, asks for a "Summer Bucket List" of sorts, with Pinterest links.  I will then complete some of the Pinterest projects, and write about my results.

In this post, if you click on any of the Pinterest embeds, it should take you to my pin.  If you click on the pin, it will redirect you to the site that originated the tutorial or idea. Or do it the quick and easy way and just click on the direct link in my list to the original blog post with the idea.

My list of to-do's consists of fairly simple projects, but we'll see which ones I get to this summer.


1. Library Book Bag from Endures All Things. I likely would not take the time to sew my own (that reeks of effort. Effort bad. Why sew a canvas bag when you can use one of the dozens of totes hiding around your house?) but I really like the phrase used and the placement of the phrase on the bag. I may use a slightly different font when I complete the project.





2. Oven Cooked Corn on the Cob from House of Joyful Noise. Here's to hoping I don't burn my house down! No, really, I started a small oil fire after two weeks in our house while cooking chicken, but luckily put it out quickly. My father then bought us a fire extinguisher as a housewarming gift.  Thank you dad. Now I can put fires out with an extinguisher, and not swears and putting the pan outside (so doing EVERYTHING you're not supposed to do - remove heat source, smother....not panic and run with burning pan, then spray with hose). I love corn on the cob, but the idea of grilling it scares me, and boiling it bores me...so this sounds like the perfect compromise.





3. Crash Hot Potatoes from The Pioneer Woman. I LOVE POTATOES. I love crispy potatoes.  The idea of these potatoes makes me salivate. I want to have them with burgers, or chicken, or pork chops...or, gosh, I don't care, I just want to have them. {{Done! Check out my attempt at these here}}





4. Organized Recipe File from Be Simply Organized. Currently, I just have a plastic baggie of all the recipes I want to try.  I would love to have them all actually organized and usable.  Once I try and approve of a recipe, I add it to my TasteBook account (which is great, because my mom can see it then, but that's a whole different story!).





5. Melted Crayon Peacock art from a Craftster post by RaeRaggs.  Two of my best friends just bought a house, and I think this Peacock art would look beautiful in Katie's dance studio. Nick's not so much of a peacock fan, but that's too bad.  I would probably change it up and do it on a painted piece of plywood, instead of canvas, since that takes away the flexibility element.





6.  Wedding Lyric Wall Art from This Humble Home. I'm going to play around first and see if I can get a version of this put together that I like, but then I'll probably just give up and order from This Humble Home's etsy shop. Because laziness wins over things that take up time for me, usually.





7. DIY Fridge mats from It's an Organized Chaos. This one seems like a quick trip to Target, then done.  I really should do it, because I hate cleaning my fridge.  Also, it would have made cleanup way easier when my husband decided to shake the Parmesan without checking to see if the lid was secure, and covered the fridge with cheese.





8. Dual Pocket Folders from Put a Little Shush in Your Home. I'm slowly working on organizing our finances, lists, and other adulting-related organization. These would help with keeping things together in the binder.





9. IKEA kitchen cart makeover from Funkytime. I have yet to make my trek up to Ikea (which also includes going to The Container Store and Lush), but this kitchen cart is on my list when I do, and I love the idea of painting it and adding various hooks and helpful metal bits.  I would love to have somewhere besides the counter to do my food prep.





10. Infinity Scarf from The Cottage Home. I LOVE SCARVES. I also love infinity scarves.  For me, they're straight-forward and easy to style, and have the upside of making cleavage-filled outfits more appropriate for teaching. This tutorial may not be all that unique, but it is straight-forward and seems easy to follow.





11. Measuring Cup organization from Tidbits from the Treymanes. This is a late addition to the list...I saw it and knew I just had to complete the project.  I am constantly losing my measuring cups, and I always have to look up conversions...this will make it a bit easier.