How to hang a curtain rod

Hanging curtain rods used to be such a pain in the behind. 

I would take the rod and measure and drill and they would still not be level. 

One time when I was a curtain rod I ended up with 8, yep 8 holes in my wall from where I was trying to hang it. 

Out came the spackle and paint and I fixed the holes, 2 years later. Yep I am super on top of things.

After that "incident" I set out to find a new solution. 

After a lot of thinking about and trying a few new things I came up with a solution that works like a charm.

And now you are all lucky enough to get that answer. 

No more millions of holes and uneven curtain rods.

First take a piece of card board.

Cut the a small square at the bottom corner of your card board, making a ninety degree cut.

Make sure you leave enough room on the side and top of your piece so you can actually use it. 

You will want the height and length of it to be the same as the height and length you want your rod to be from the window frame.

Place your piece up against your window sill.

Put the screw in where you want it to in relation to your window. And make sure you poke it all the way through so that it leaves a mark on your wall.

(don't you love the black paint residue on my thumb, yeah I pretty much live with paint on my hands.)

When you pull the cardboard off the wall, you will see the mark left from your screw. You can now use your hooks and screw the pieces into the wall.

Flip your cardboard piece over and you will see the whole make from before. 

Take the cardboard piece and put it up against the window sill again. 

Take your screw and poke it back through cardboard and leave your mark again.

You can now hang the pieces for this side.

And the final product, all halloweenie, because well I'm addicted to all things holiday and its that time of year.... 

The only holes in the wall are the ones where the two correctly hung screws are! BAM!!! no more going back to fix it two years later.

Enjoy. Go. Do.

Have fun!!!

Spooky branch

I have been wanting to make a spooky branch to go with my Halloween decorating for some time now. I have however never seem to have found the right branch. It could be because I once lived in Vegas and the trees were few and far between, but now I live in Utah and there are lots of tree's every where, so there are branches for the taking.

Landon and I were on our way home from his soccer pictures one day and I saw the most beautiful branch on the side of the road. I kind of did a wheel yank and skidded to a stop right by the branch. I threw the car in park and jumped out to collect my prize. Landon kept asking what was wrong. When I showed him my new prize he laughed at me and said, "Mom that will NOT fit in our car." I of course was bound and determined to get it in. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to get it in the car and once I did I was doing a happy dance, right there on the side of a busy road. I have to admit I almost shed a tear when the branch would not fit in my car after about  5 tries. Yeah I am weird. I know!!

So here is my beauty.

I got it home and spray painted it black and then I swooned a little bit at how beautiful it was.

And then I put it out as my first Halloween decoration. 

It was is absolutely beautiful. Gorg. I tell you GORG!!!!

And the best part is, it cost me NOTHING!!!! 

LOVE IT EVEN MORE!!!

How to hang a shelf

Being a military wife we move a lot. 

Sometimes it is just to a new(er) house on base.

Sometimes its to buy a house and live off base.

And sometimes its to a new base all together.

At least that's how it has happened for us.

So needless to say I have hung a lot of pictures up in my day....(geez that makes me sound old).

Any way, I have learned a pretty awesome trick along the way. 

I pinned a bunch of stuff on pinterest once but have never read it because this actually works really well for me.

I thought this wall in the bathroom looked pretty blank so I decided I wanted to add a shelf and some pictures.

 I have not gotten to the pictures yet but the shelf is done and I wanted to show you how I did it.

I have several shelves in my house as well are large pictures that require 2 or more nails  to be used.

I am sure you all hate, just as much as I do, when you have done all the measuring and hammering and you go to hang the picture or shelf and it turns out all caca. (is it okay if I cuss in spanish? because I use that word AHH LOT!)

Then of course you measure and nail again and hope it turns out right this time. 

But even if it does, you now have more then 2 holes in your wall. 

No fun! 

Sometimes you just might hear me cuss (gasp!!! I know, I know! but usually its only kid friendly curse words, you know the kind that are not really curse words and when you say them people look at you like you are 6. Yep! I am an expert at those curse words.)

So here is my solution for that pesky problem.

All you need is:

 your picture/shelf

some nails

 a hammer

and some painters tape. 

That is it! It is so easy and fast you will be wanting to kiss me when you are done.

First you take your tape and you stretch it from one end of you shelf to the other, making sure you cover the hanging clamps, or brackets, or holes (whatever it is that your object has.)

Then you take your nails and you find the spot you want them to go. 

I usually find the middle of the bracket.

Then you poke the nail through the tape on both ends of the object.

Now remove your nails and set them to the side.

Then you take your tape off and put it on the spot on the wall where you want it to go.

I then take a leveler and line it up with the top of my tape to make sure it is even. (I did not get a picture of this because well... I did not have enough hands to hold the leveler and stand back far enough to take the picture.)

Sometimes I even skip the whole leveler all together (WHAT???!! yes, I admit it, sometimes I skip steps. I am a mom of four kids, can you blame me! Sometimes I only have 1 minute to do this, instead of the needed 2.)

Then you hammer your nails into the spot on your tape where you previously had pocked them through.

Now remove the tape, hang your shelf and viola!!! A none caca product.

Now my shelf was all beat up from the move, so when I hung it up I realized how bad it was and I took it down and roughed it up a bit more. 

(this is the before picture)

Now Viola! The real masterpiece.

(sorry about the lighting in my bathroom. It stinks, to say the least!)