Basket Makeover!

I bought the following basket about 1996 or 1997 when I lived in the Denver Metro area. It went well with the wire and wicker shelving for my bathroom. The shelving doesn't have apples in the motif but the color was the same (forest green) and I think I got them from Linen's N' Things...anyhow, here's the before shot:



For a while now I was thinking I would have to replace it with a new basket but it dawned on me this morning to clip the wicker pieces that were holding the upper part on the basket. Like, whoa (taps side of head). I was going to paint it with avocado green or burnt orange but as I have stated before, painting baskets with a brush is a pain in the butt so I pulled out "carrot" Super Saver yarn (since I already had it) and made what basically is a wide headband about 1 1/2" smaller than the perimeter of the top of the basket (it's a bit smaller on the bottom) and here we have a cheap and easy finished product:



I store some of my office supplies in it and the clear plastic thing peeking out is a peanut butter jar with my paper clips in it. It's mostly covered so I am not going to get too involved with making that pretty.

Here it is with its shelf-mates and you might notice I finally spray painted the blue basket which makes it look much more cohesive:



Bonus part of that is only my thumb would go numb instead of the thumb, pointer finger and middle finger so now I can put more emphasis in finishing my afghan.

Well, I hope everyone is having a fine holiday weekend. It's been pretty quiet around the apartment complex but I wont hold my breath for it to remain that way.

EDIT: 9:25 pm

Oh, I did a similar thing for a banker's box under my computer table (pardon the wires, I need to secure them out of the way):



I use it as a foot rest and the cat also hangs out on top and between the box and the warmth of the tower...

PS I really despise that ugly, very, very ugly "chandelier". It's just dreadful!

EDIT: Sunday 3:50 pm Oh, a bit early but I think this post is well suited for Metamorphosis Monday! Yes, it's still Sunday but with the holiday weekend, might as well get a jump on things.

Check out the links and add yours at her blog!

EDIT MANIA: Sun 6:00 pm Another link list Trash to Treasures + she's going to have a "giveaway". Stop by, check out the other links and add yours! Yay for having some idle time to click through all these links I am finding today!

EDIT yet again! Mon 2:15 pm I can't pass this one up, Thrifty Decor Chick was the second blog I fell in love with when I started looking at ways to update my decor. She's a master at this decorating thing as far as I am concerned so go check out the Before & After links other people have posted. Oh my. This poor little post is getting edited like never before a post of mine has. :-)