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Remember this project?

If you do, you might also recall that I was contemplating an extra credit quick fix – That is, I wanted to screw the frame directly into the drywall so that the following wouldn’t continue to happen every time I handled the earrings:

Since the frame was balanced up on the wall by two measly nails and a very frayed picture wire, the whole thing wobbled and tilted every time I used it…There’s almost nothing that I hate more than crooked art/shelves/etc – I use our trusty level on EVERYTHING to make sure that it’s “just so”. I know that’s anal but we’ve all got our quirks right? 🙂

So when we drilled and screwed the file boxes in, we also took care of this issue.

First, down came the earring organizer exposing the nails. I removed those and then spackled the holes.

Then I flipped the frame over and removed the older-than-dirt screw eye hooks and hanging wire. If I hadn’t removed the eye hooks the frame wouldn’t have laid flush against the wall.

After that, it was just a matter of putting it back in place next to the necklace organizer, getting it level (woot!!), and then drilling holes through the frame into the wall. Easy-peasy!!

Two screws later, we were all done!

(Not sure why the earrings suddenly disappeared…I guess I was packed up to go home to my apartment!)

Luckily there’s still plenty of room for the back of the earrings to slip through the wire, even without the added millimeter of space the eye hooks provided.

I think the thing I’m looking forward to most when this move is FINALLY over is getting all of my earrings up on this organizer. There’s just something exciting about the idea of seeing my collection all out at once. Right now, they are organized (by color of course, haha) in a little painted wooden box with drawers from Michael’s. You can see it on the counter in this picture from my current apartment – It’s to the left:

I bet I’ll realize that I have pairs I’ve never even worn before – The tiny ones always get lost in those little drawers.

Oh, and if you’re wondering if the screws fixed the problem, here’s a photo of me actually trying to shift it around.

Mind-blowing that two inch-long screws securely drilled into the wall can actually do the trick, right?? 😉 I love reiterating the obvious…

One last point – I recently had the chance to recreate the WHOLE PROJECT!! I mentioned the framed organizer to a coworker of mine and she just loved the idea! Coincidentally, she had a birthday coming up, so I made her a copy of my own earring organizer and gave it to her at our office celebration. She loved it!

Let me know if I should make some more! 🙂

Have a GREAT weekend! See you back here on Monday – Hoping I have some results to show you from a couple of stenciling/painting projects I’ve got going!!

After past “Thrift Store SCORES!” like these…

I wouldn’t be surprised if today’s “SCORE!” disappoints fractionally…We are used to posting about our decorative second-hand treasures – The pieces that make a statement in our home just by looking at them.

Today’s post is all about practicality though – There’s nothing “pretty” about this recently acquired piece, but it has already proved to be an imperative tool at our house:

That’s right! We’re going to gush for a moment about our brand new (to us) step-ladder! It’s a little rusty and a LOT dusty, but it gets the job done and allows us to work on ceiling fans and lighting without dragging the kitchen chairs and/or table into a room to stand on (no, I’m not kidding about that – Otherwise, this project would have never happened).

Thankfully though, we don’t have to resort to such ridiculous (and unsafe) means of reaching high wires anymore. This step-ladder is something that we’ve been needing for a while (we even mentioned needing it in the post linked to above), so it was meant to be when we stumbled upon it in the basement of Estate Specialist a couple of weekends ago.

And for $8, we couldn’t refuse! A brand new one from Lowe’s probably wouldn’t have cost too much more, but we like that we were able to save at least a handful of precious green bills by going used…

They actually had a bunch of them so we may go back and get a second one to keep upstairs – Ya never know when it might come in handy!!

Speaking of, we already got some great use out of it. We FINALLY hung the displaced fan that’s been lying on the studio floor for the past month or so:

If you remember we took it out of the living room to put up our new fan – We decided to keep the old fan though and hang it in the master bedroom. There was already a standard white fan in there but it wasn’t quite as sleek and updated as this black one.

So we unfolded our thrifted step-ladder and got to work! Here’s the fan newly wired and in place:

Thanks for pulling your weight, step-ladder! (or should I say thanks for holding OURS – ShaZAM!)

ANYWAYS, definitely our handiest “Thrift Store SCORE!” to date 🙂

Tilt No More! Finishing the Earring Organizer Project

“Thrift Store SCORE!” of the Week {6/2/11}

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