Sunday, October 21, 2012

Adventures in Italy

Reality bites!  (Name that movie - haha - trick question).  Once again, I've been M.I.A.   I was busy checking something off of my bucket list!  I went to Italy!  I am part Italian and as long as I can remember, I have wanted to go there.  My great-grandparents traveled by boat to the U.S. from Italy and ended up in the San Francisco/Oakland (California) area.  I have memories of visiting my great-grandparents when I was little and being frightened of them!  I think the fact that they spoke only Italian to me scared me, but I was always swayed by animal crackers.  :)

I went with some friends and we had a blast!  Here are some highlights from the trip (prepare for picture overload!).

ROME
Vatican
Rainbow over the Vatican
Spanish Steps
Colliseum
Inside the Colliseum

Colliseum

View of the Colliseum from Palatine
Pantheon

SORRENTO
Sorrento coast

Sorrento coast

Amalfi

Lemons are a big product here
 Kitchen in Pompeii

Pompeii

Pompeii victims of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD

The baths in Pompeii

Pompeii marina
View of Mt. Vesuvius from Pompeii
Capri
In Capri - my friend said she should have worn her capri pants in Capri! hahahaha

Capri

Blue Grotto - Capri
Blue Grotto
Blue Grotto

White Grotto - Capri

FLORENCE
On the Arno River

Us girls on the Ponte Vecchio

Duomo
"Perseus with the Head of Medusa" which is in the Loggia dei Lanzi

At the Ufizzi Museum (with our new purses!)

Florence view from the Piazelle Michelangelo

Enjoying the view from the Piazelle Michelangelo

View of Ponte Vecchio (bridge)

Ponte Vecchio

View of Florence at night from the Piazelle Michelangelo (and right before the clouds dumped rain on us while we were walking back to our hotel!)

Are you ready to see some of the food?
Ravioli

Spaghetti with meatballs

Gnocchi

Hawaiian Pizza

Margerita Pizza

Spaghetti Alio, Olio, y Peperoncino (spaghetti with garlic, oil, and peppers)

Chocolate gelato
Chocolate lava cake

We had such a wonderful time!  (although, all the walking, especially on the cobblestones, killed my feet!)  I love history, so it was an amazing experience and I would love to go back again.  The food was great, although, I wasn't impressed with the food in Rome, especially the pizza (thin crust).  The best pizza I had was in Amalfi (the Margerita pizza above) - so yummy.  And my favorite dish was the spaghetti alio, olio, y peperoncino in Sorrento - I had it twice!  There were TONS of gelato shops, so of course we had that too.  :)

I had to really prepare for the trip for about two weeks prior (shopping, cleaning the house, and finishing up any projects I started).  And for this week that I've been back, I've been a bit useless because of the jet lag.  But, I'm ready to enjoy my favorite month and holiday (Halloween) and ready to start some new projects.  Happy Fall!

posted by: Adventures in DIY

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Paint Can Organization

Hey, hey there!  First of all, I just wanted to say that I was very excited for today to come because the new No Doubt album "Push and Shove" came out.  They are one of my favorite bands and the album is excellent!  It has an 80s vibe to it and I just love it!  You should check it out if you haven't already!

Ok, onto the post...as part of my garage organization project (which seems to be never-ending), I have re-organized all of my paint.  Ideally, I would rather store the paint in a room that has more temperature control (our summers get pretty hot).  But for now, the garage is where my paint has to be stored.  So, this is what I was dealing with before (for the record, it wasn't me that stored the cans in this way.  Ahem).

These cabinets in the garage have removable shelves.  The shelf was taken out and the cans were stacked on top of each other.  They were an accident just waiting to happen. I could just picture them toppling onto me & splattering all over the floor whenever I needed to get in there.  And you can see that some trays and dropcloths were just stacked on top sloppily.

Here's what I did..
1)  Take all of the paint out of the cabinet & check if they are still good:
This step was easy.  I just opened each can and stirred the paint really, really well.  Some of the colors had separated from the paint,  but once I stirred it, they were back to normal.  I only came across one can of paint that was bad.  You can see in the picture below, the paint was very gloppy.   It reminded me of when you melt marshmallows and there are still some blobs that aren't completely melted.  Marshmallowy paint is no bueno.

2)  Make a label for each paint can:
All the paint labels/color information is stuck onto the top of the can, so I would have to pull out each can to search for a particular color. With the labels attached to the front, I don't have to do that. Even though I planned on using the original paint cans as opposed to the pretty silver cans in the link below, these labels made them look a tad bit more uniform. I just downloaded the printable from Brooklyn Limestone's post and was able to customize my labels with the following information: Brand, Paint name, finish, date purchased, store purchased, and rooms used in.  Using dabs of hot glue in each corner, I attached the label to the front of the paint can.  Easy!

 

3) Transfer paint into new containers:
I decided to skip this step. I had enough room in the cabinet.

4) Re-do the shelves and clean them:
One of the shelves had been taken out of the cabinet so the cans could be stacked. Before putting it back in, I cleaned that cabinet really well and put the shelf back in it.

Once I did these steps, I was ready to put everything back and this is how it came out.
The teal colored box with the handle (on the bottom shelf) holds all of my spray paint and small pots of paint samples. I made this out of an old cardboard box and covered it with the teal wrapping paper. I punched two holes in the front and threaded the jute rope through for a handle. It makes it easy for me to pull out all the spray paint and paint samples all at once. It all looks much more organized and not like a big mess.

Again, here was my plan of attack:
1)  Take all of the paint out of the cabinet & check if they are still good
2)  Make a label for each paint can
3)  Transfer paint into new containers??
4)  Re-do the shelves and clean them (one of the shelves was taken out and put into another cabinet)
5)  Organize paint supplies (brushes, rollers, trays, dropcloths, painter's tape, etc)
6)  Find a disposal center for any paint I know I won't use again 

My main focus the other day was 1-4.   #5 will be done later since the supplies are stored in the other cabinet below the paint and #6 - well that's just going to take me awhile to figure out where to dispose of the paint and actually get myself to do it.   It will get done, though.  Promise.  I'mjustnotgoingtosaywhen.  :)

Here's a quick before-and-after since we all love those.
BEFORE
 AFTER
I feel much better now that it's all organized. I've been doing more painting projects lately, so this makes life easier. And it's another step closer to getting the garage organized. Baby steps, people...baby steps.

Posted by: http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/