Antiquing

Right on the corner on my way to work is an antique mall. I drive by it every day and I always see a handful of cars parked outside. I am not one to hunt down antiques and collect them, but I am willing to look every once.

After months of just driving by, I decided to finally stop in today and check it out. The place is chock FULL of stuff. It is a big warehouse building and there is just enough room in the isles to walk. The rest of the place is piled high with furniture, dinnerware, frames, etc. You name it, they probably have it. 

Initially I went in there looking for some pretty home accessories, a storage  box of some sort for jewelry, and maybe score a good deal on a desk to renovate. 

I walked up and down the aisles for about an hour and here are a few of the things I spotted...

Isn't the mint ceramic just gorgeous? Even the box is just as pretty! The trouble with buying something like this is I don't have somewhere to display it right now since I am not staying in my own apartment during the internship. Packing and moving with breakable items is not fun. I thought about buying the single white ceramic with a lid to store bracelets but for some reason passed it up.

I love this pink chair with the fancy detailing. Spruce it up with some white paint and it would be good to go as my pretty desk chair. I checked the price tag and they were asking nearly $400! Ummm....is it just me or is that a bit much for an antique chair that isn't designer?

Yep, that's an old KitchenAid mixer.

Now none of the above I actually purchased, but I did walk out with one good find -- although no antique at all. Recently I've seen acrylic boxes used as a display for jewelry on top of a dresser. When I saw this I thought it would work well to store bracelets since it is clear, so I can see all of my pretties :) 

It even has dividers to keep things organized. 

Have a great weekend and see you Monday with another floral workshop!

Makeup Storage: Before and After Pics

Hey Guys! Welcome to A Hammer & Heels! I am SO excited because this is my very first post. I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now, and I finally just did it. I will be blogging about makeup, fashion, shopping, decor, and everything in between. I hope you will follow along and get to know me a little!

Enough of that...you will hear my story soon!  Now on to my FIRST blog post!

I like to store my makeup in clear plastic drawers rather than a cosmetics bag of some sort because I think I use more of my products if they are in sight and easy to get to. A cosmetics bag full of powders, eyeliners, eye shadows, highlighters, and bronzers etc. does not work well for me. I don't like to dig around for the item I want to use at that time. So that is why I started storing my makeup in clear plastic drawers. The first drawer shown below in my before pictures is from Target a couple years ago. It was about $10 and did the job, but it was not clear (it has a little cloudiness to it) and looked cheap and flimsy. I also could not find it in Target again an I was running out of makeup space. 

Before

You can see it is a single drawer with my hair products on top. The drawer does not look pretty or neat.

Before - Inside the Drawer

 Everything is just sprawled out in the drawer with no real organization. 


So....I finally came across an acrylic 5 drawer makeup storage online to replace my single, flimsy, ugly drawer. I just got it in the mail yesterday! I put all of my makeup inside, but I still have a few things I want to grab at Target.

After!

I like the way these drawers look much better because it looks a lot more organized. (Ignore the ugly counter, this is my temporary home!) 

Inside Drawer 1

The first drawer just has my Naked 2 palette. I wanted something clean and not messy on the first shelf since you can see through it. I also have room to add some more things when I need to. 

Inside Drawer 2

In this drawer I have my bronzers, blush, and concealers. Again, plenty of room for more things. 

Inside Drawer 3

This drawer is still a little messy. Right now my eye liners and mascaras are just loose in the drawer, so I would like to find a couple small containers to at least sort the liners from mascaras. My other eye shadow palette is in this drawer since it didn't fit in the first one with my Naked 2. :(

Inside Drawer 4

Here I have some more eye shadows and brow supplies. I might want to get a couple plastic containers for this drawer as well.

Inside Drawer 5

The final drawer, I promise! So far I just have a portion of my lip products here. My favorite glosses are usually in my purse for daily use. 

I'm liking the new makeup storage. It looks so much better and I can easily get to all of my stuff! I like that it has more storage available when I need it in the future as well, however, I wish the drawers were a little taller because a few things didn't even fit in the drawer like my eye lash curler, so that is sitting on top. 

There it is, my very first blog post! I did not plan on it being this long, I apologize!  Please leave comments or ask questions! 

What makeup storage have you found that works for you?