The Swing

(This post is LONG overdue...)

Our front porch was a bit bare, so I decided to bring my porch swing from my old house. All was going well, it was a bit annoying to get the screws into the wood, but I managed it.

The old swing (already slightly sanded and hanging on my new front porch)

SUPPLIES-- 2 large wood screws with an eye
-- 2 S hooks
-- 2 long pieces of sturdy chain (make sure it is long enough!)
-- Swing
-- Tools (screwdriver, nail, hammer, a drill if possible)

PAINTING THE SWING
I attempted to sand down the swing completely to stain it, but I couldn't find an electric sander and didn't want to invest in one, so I did a rough sand and re-painted it. I actually hung the swing before I painted it so that I could get underneath it easily.
-- Make sure you put down some kind of tarp or something (I used a $2 shower curtain liner from Wal-Mart.)
-- Have a large brush to get the big areas and a smaller one to get in the cracks and small spaces.
-- On the first coat, it is okay if it is streaky. The more you try to paint it, the more you're just going to push around the paint, actually taking paint off. The first coat is NOT supposed to be perfect. That's what the second coat is for.
-- Be sure you read the directions on the paint as far as drying time between first and second coat! All paints are different.

PUTTING UP THE SWING
1. Decide where you want to hang it. I actually put it up once and then decided I didn't like it, so I re-did it. Try to avoid this by placing the swing below wherever you choose to hang it to make sure it is where you want it.
2. Mark the spots where you are going to put the hooks in the ceiling or wherever you are hanging it from. Make sure they are even and centered.
3. Make a hole using a hammer and nail (or drill) on the mark. It took me a while to figure out the best process for this.
-- You need the hole to be big enough to be able to start the screwing.
-- I ended up using an old, stripped phillips head screwdriver and hammered that into the wood to make the hole bigger. You can make this much easier by using a larger nail or a drill (but us poor college kids have to make do with what we have!)
4. Insert the screw into the hole and start twisting it. You should feel it catch and see it going into the wood.
-- Make sure it is straight!
5. Use a screwdriver to continue screwing once it starts getting to hard with your bare hands. To do this...
-- Insert the screwdriver through the eye of the screw. The screwdriver should be perpendicular to the straight part of the screw and parallel to the ceiling.
-- Use the leverage of the screwdriver to turn the screw. It can still be difficult (trust me, my arms were sore the next day), but it is much easier than doing it just with your bare hands.
6. Hang the S hooks and chain once your screws are in all the way. One side of the S hook hangs from the eye of the screw, the other holds the chain.
7. Connect the swing to the hanging chains, and you're done!

All finished! Such a nice little front porch getaway.

I then made pillows for my swing because I decided it needed a bit of comfort and something to spruce it up. I made a simple envelope pillow case and used some small pillows that I had on my bed that I didn't really want anyway. (Someday when I get a chance, I will write a tutorial on making envelope pillow cases).

-Soo Coco

Productivity at Its Best

Today was a very satisfyingly productive day. It started off sleeping in a little more than I'm used to, which was nice. Then I decided to do things around the house all day.

Yesterday I started re-painting the swing, so I finished that this morning. Then I cleaned the entire house. Well, my room, the living room and the kitchen. I started with my room, cleaned out and reorganized everything from under by bed, emptied my desk drawer, put away summer clothes (it was so tough to pack up the seersucker and white linen), and then started the hard core cleaning.

So here's my cleaning tips and what I like to do and use:
-- I started in the bathroom. I used Scrubbing Bubbles on the shower, and actually on the sink too, let it soak for a minute or two, and used a sponge to wipe down the sink and then turned on the shower. Then I used Clorox wipes on the toilet, Clorox toilet cleaner inside (let that sit, used a toilet brush to scrub, then flushed).
-- Then I did my closet. That was really just putting all the clothes away that I tried on and didn't re-hang on Thursday night when we went out.
-- Next came my bedroom. I un-made and re-made my bed (so that the sheets and everything was in the right place), and picked up all the other stray things lying around. I hate things that aren't in their place.
-- Then the really intense cleaning started...I used Windex Multipurpose on the counters, wiped them down with an old rag (I hate using and wasting paper towels). Cleaned out the sink, put all the dishes in the dishwasher, started the dishwasher, Windex-ed the fridge (there were finger smudges everywhere).
-- Next came the dusting. Gotta love Lemon Pledge made for wood! So all of our furniture is nice and shiny again, and our house smells pretty.
-- I vacuumed the entire living room, moved furniture, all that fun stuff. Oh and the kitchen too. Moved all of the chairs, got underneath the bar, under everywhere and everything. Then I moved to my room, did the bedroom (under my bed and all), in my closet and in my bathroom, using the hose attachment in spots where the vacuum didn't fit.
-- Then I used the Swiffer Sweeper with the wet cloths on it (I much prefer the Swiffer Wet Jet, but I haven't had the heart to invest in one when I already have a Sweeper and wet cloths). I swiffered my bathroom too, since it's tile.

Then I was done! It was a great feeling to have everything so nice and clean.

THEN..... I re-hung my swing. I didn't like where I put the original holes, so I decided to move it back to the next stud-thing. Then I put it up and It was all nice, but so bare. So I decided to make some pillows! I used some New Orleans Toile that my mom let me have, and made pillow cases for two 18x18 pillows that I don't really use (one was actually under my bed because I didn't have a place for it). I'm going to make a tutorial sometime in the near future on how to make easy envelope pillows. Now that the swing is all finished, it is dark outside, so I'll have to take a picture tomorrow. And my water is probably boiling now for my Mac and Cheese (I'm too tired to cook anything real tonight), so I'll update and put up pictures later!

Yay for productivity!

-Soo Coco