Climbing the Ladder of Clutter.

Crazy it's been since January that I've last posted. Time flies when things are always busy! I've been working this summer at the downtown farmer's market in Cedar Rapids, and also at Newbo Market, and enjoy every minute of it! I've met some great new faces, artists and customers alike and constantly find myself being inspired by the people around me. I miss the market goers at the Freight House Market as it's my first summer not in Davenport, but I've been climbing the ladder trying to get my business closer to home, and this summer has been a joy!

I've been doing some revamping around the house, and decided I needed to solve my scarf collection problem. Anyone who knows me know that I never have just ONE of ANYTHING. If I like something I usually start to collect it and that's how I ended up with 30 summer scarves just hanging around the house.

I was in a boutique in North Carolina a few months back and saw a ladder used to display shirts, it was so cute I decided I needed to do it myself! I found this old ladder in an antique store in downtown Marion for $7.00. I initially planned to use it to re-chain my basketball hoop, but after getting it home and realizing it didn't support the weight of a human and it only reached half way to my hoop...it became decorative.

I even color coordinated each rung of the ladder...we'll see how long they last looking so pretty but for now I'm in love. The best part was the ladder fit snuggly in the nook behind my front door and is tucked away. It adds a pop of color to the wall and balances my crazy painting on the opposite end of the room!

One of these days I plan to make a bookshelf out of it - until then I'm pretty happy with this repurposing project. For $7.00 and a few minutes of my time, I have one less thing to pick up out of my clutter of collections.

Months of wiping - makes for metal wall art

A few months back I kept seeing people on Pinterest post pics of items made out of old toilet paper rolls. Since then I've been stowing them away and waiting until I hoarded enough to make something fun. About 6 months in my stash has become overwhelming and I forced myself to create a wall hanging for my bedroom. The process is simple and easy to do, it only takes about 30 minutes and the supplies are free (or trash depending on how you look at it).

Collect all the rolls and clean off any remaining toilet paper fuzz.

Using sharp scissors cut the rolls into evenly thick smaller rolls. (I cut each cardboard roll into 5ths)

Once cut...and you'll be cutting for awhile...you'll end up with about 200 roll slices. Now its time to have some fun and arrange them.

Lay out the roll slices in a fun pattern. I've seen a lot of people bend the slices to make more of a petal shape but I wanted mine to look organic and not like flowers.

Glue all of the roll slices to each other. This process is annoying and messy but the results are great when you're finished!

Find some old spray paint in the garage that's been sitting around since college and put it to work! I coated my toilet paper roll slices about 4 times. Make sure and get a good angle while you spray so you fully cover the insides of the circles. Also avoid over-spraying or your driveway will end up with a silver square...

Admire your spray painting skills. After the paint has dried hang on the wall with one nail and call it done! Easy as pie and looks like metal wall art!