Back with a vengeance

It has been one heck of a long time since I have posted a project. Over the summer, as I was in my temporary residence, I was itching to do something creative. I couldn't wait to get in to my new, permanent house and go crazy making it lovely. Seriously, there were moments I was giddy with anticipation. Embarrassing picture? Yes. But I am not above embarrassing myself, and now you know what I sometimes do in my free time. Yeehaw.

My roommates and I have been in the new house for a month. Things are getting pretty and pretty settled as of a few days ago. For the first few weeks, I had spurts of organizing, hanging pictures, and general new-house activity. This weekend, we hosted a house blessing-housewarming party. It was an excellent excuse to put the medal-to-the-metal, as it were, and finish up my To Do list. While I am still editing House Tour pictures, I wanted to share two projects I tackled in the last few days.

These two projects are ones I've been wanted to do, and simultaneously putting off, for two years.  Perhaps because I am a procrastilaxer extraordinaire, I suddenly felt very motivated to complete each last week instead of doing other things that might have been more worth my while. Something tells me this is a skill I should leave off my resume....

Moving on. There was an informal "Thirsty Thursday" organized for people in my program. It was optional, so I took them up on that. Instead of getting my drink on, I locked myself in my basement with some paint fumes and gave this set of boring black mirrors a face lift.

  

Before aaaaaand After

I went into the project intending to paint two mirrors solid gold and two solid silver. Though I didn't snap a picture of it, I found the scheme too boring so I went on to add the check/stripe effect on the two gold mirrors. I was, and still am, very pleased with this second result.

Can you say, "Fabulous"?

The quartet now takes up wall residence next to our front door. Prime location for last minute beauty checks as we dash out the door.

I know you love it.

Up next is this baby:

After returning home from dinner and drinks with friends for one's birthday, I whipped this pillow up. No sewing machine. No pattern. Just an uglya$$ pillow, new fabric, and needle'n'thread. Oh, and can't forget Grooveshark.

closest thing to a before-after...I.e. I still have another one to cover=the fun ain't over yet(!)

As I said, I had no pattern to follow while sewing. I have a little experience making pillows, but I did not want to replicate that pattern since this pillow would be in the same room as the first. Still, with no sewing machine, my options were pretty limited since there is no way I can hand stitch as well as a machine. So--simple it had to be. Thanks to my mom, I know how to make a ruffle, which came in handy in making the design less boring that it otherwise might have been.

I have to admit, I am pretty surprised and impressed with the outcome. Call me a design geek, but each time I catch a glance of this baby I'm like, "Did I seriously made that?!"

Talking to oneself = Super-cool.

As they say: Pride cometh before the fall; I expect to face-plant sometime soon. So I should probably stop while I am ahead and you are still awake. As always, thank'ya muchly for reading. Up next: Re-cap of the move-in and a house tour. Get excited!

Dream House, Round Deux

Do you remember when I told you about my dream house? Well, good thing dreams are malleable concepts because I need to make some changes/additions to my dream house.

I don't care about bad puns: This facade is dreamy. 

Blue is not my favorite color, and I doubt I'd ever paint a whole room blue (ceilings included). However, I love the little window nook of this room. The ornamental work work is fantastic. Please, mother may I?

Besides this room being absolutely darling, cozy and chic, I find myself increasingly drawn to rooms with visible ceiling beams. There is something so charming about this architectural element in a room.

Okay, this is all for now with my dream house!

UPDATE: For those interested in how it is coming with the lamp project: It is coming along! I had hoped to be finished by now, however I have run into a bit of a snag with the lamp stand. More details to come on that. I have, however, finished the lampshade! Here is how that is looking:

Keep your fingers crossed for the bottom half!

Featured! {Roadkill Rescue}

Many thanks to Beckie over at Roadkill Rescue for featuring my French Country chair makeover!

Check out the whole feature!

Thanks so much, Beckie and Roadkill Rescue!!

Next on the Horizon

You will recall that I spent some time last summer prettying up the bed area of my bedroom.

It is quite lovely and I still enjoy this side of the room. But, the time has come to face the music and admit that the other side of the room is less-than-stellar.

I didn't even attempt to "tidy" it up for the picture because, fact of the matter is, it wouldn't do much. There is only so much you can do with a futon, a multi-head floor lamp and miss-matched picture frames. It is still going to scream "College Dorm Room" no matter what the arrangement of the elements.

I have decided that I want to spend as little money as possible in fixing up this space. In other words, I am going to try to work with what I have, fixing up--"maturing," if you will--the elements that I have (e.g. the futon and lamp) with the help of some creativity and elbow grease.

Here is my current list of to-do's:

- Re-furb the 5-headed lamp: New paint job; new bulb covering of some kind
- Futon: Introduce bed skirt in place of fugly faux-locker drawers; figure out a way to re-enliven the mattress
- Recover boring green pillows

- Re-do gallery wall (Possibly paint some frames and replace pictures?)

- Find rightful home for excess crap strewn across area.

First up is fixing up the 5-headed lamp. 

Oooo-ooo! Look at that beauty! I can't wait for it to look like something else. 

I have already begun to work on it. I don't have any good preview pictures. However, here is a picture of the inspiration:

 

Don't be too scared. It is only loose inspiration. Look for the final result later this week! 

A Long Time in Coming

Do you remember how I told you that I am a garbage person?

Well, I might have some fairy magic in me too. Because lookie how that hot-mess-of-a-chair looks now.

But wait, it gets even better...

               

Ah! I am so glad that I am finished with this project. For those of who have been paying attention to this blog, you'll know that, from start to finish, this was a six-month project for me. Now, in my defense, I was NOT working on this project during the entire six month spread. I didn't touch it for a full and a half months (Thanksgiving through mid-February) because.....well, time just happens.

For those of you new around this blog, here is a quick run through of the past posts on the subject of this chair.

Choosing Fabric

Trying to Prep for Paint

More Decision-making

Sanding, sanding, more sanding

Sneak Peak

After telling you so much about the chair, I am just going to let the pictures do the talking for a while. Anyways, my fingers are a bit tired after pulling out so many staples...

In Progress:

Finish product (and in its new home: The Living Room)



A few imperfections here and there...oh well!



Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures while making the pillow. It is a very simple design, however. I saw a pillow at Walmart. I liked the way it looked and just kind of "winged it" at the sewing machine. Didn't turn out all that bad, eh? The fabric and the *shiny* pin are from Hobby Lobby. Gotta love that store.



So shiny!



Up-close deets

Though it was a lot of work and demanded a lot of patience and perseverance on my part, I am really happy with the outcome! It is really exciting to have accomplished this (it was my first attempt at reupholstering). I wonder what the garbage dump will give me next!

Linking to:

The Girl Creative Today's Creative Blog Tip Junkie Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus Petite Hermine Cherished Bliss Funky Polkadot Giraffe Lady Bug Blessings Bowl Full of Lemons My Girlish Whims Sew Much Ado  Polkadots on Parade Handy Man, Crafty Woman  Someday Crafts Lil'Luna Sugar and Dots Fabric, Bows and More Trendy Treehouse Not Just a Housewife Like Mother, Like Daughter

Pearls are a Girl's Second-Best Friend



With the camera flash, these pearls might give diamonds a run for their shine

(Second only because Diamonds are shinier, of course.)

Last summer I completed this project, yet it almost-eternally slipped my mind to share it with you.



This could be due in part to the fact that it done while I was still in my dang-it-I-forgot-to-take-a-before-picture phase.

So, yeah, that means I can only show you the finished project, because I also failed to take any in-action shots too. But, work with me here for a second: Imagine a plain old spherical flower vase and you will have a pretty good idea what this thing looked like before I went glue-gun-ninja on the vase and covered it with faux pearls (courtesy of Hobby Lobby, naturally).

Good times.

When I first started gluing the pearls on the vase, I simply squirted a big glob'o'hot-glue on the vase and tried to get as many pearls on that glob as I could. I quickly realized that was a poor strategy because it looked messy--not messy in the aesthetically pleasing way, but in the "she has absolutely no idea what she is doing so you should feel sorry for her" way.

Ahh, see ye the Orb of Pearlyness





Since I don't usually do projects with the goal of racking up consoling reassurances that I am special (however much I do love attention, even I have standards), I took my pearl-and-glue strategy in a different direction. I attempted to attach the pearls to the vase in lines, or rings, around the vase. Because pearls don't have straight edges, my lines began to take on some wavy effect as I tried to minimize the gaps between pearls, which were created by the nature of their sphere-shape.

Although the asymmetry of the lines boast the DIY-ness of the vase, I find that I don't mind that fact at all. If I hadn't attempted to minimize the "holes" in the pearl coverage, I bet that would be driving me crazy by now because it would seem so "unfinished." Instead, I can enjoy the DIY glamour and fancy-pantsness that my Pearly Orb adds to pens that other wise would be piled atop the desk in my bedroom.





So, here'ya'go, folks. A little DIY G-rated drama to bring to your bedroom or office.  In case you're wondering, here is a picture of how the pearls jive with the other beauties on my desk. (This pic is proof that I did this project last summer...there is no way it is that light outside at 7:43 P.M. these days!)


"Actually, it will be 'Mr. Pen' to you"

 
 

The fun that never ends: Chair Update

Last you heard, I had chosen the faric for the infamous french chair that I classy-ly salvaged from the garbage. I am SOOO close to being finished with it. Indeed, I feel like it is so close but so far! You'd think (and hope, I bet) that I would be finished with the chair by now; however, this chair is full of surprises. Last weekend I spent a grand total of seven hours working on the chair. What did I accomplish? I got it sanded and primed.

Here is what I started with:

After removing the seat pad, my goal was to sand away all of the gold (and the underlying coat of red, which you can't quite see in this picture) and repaint the chair's frame a brilliant white. Easy, right? Nope! Three and a half hours later, here is where I was:

At this point, I really began to wonder if I ought to pursue another way to remove the gold paint. It seemed that the gold was an oil-based paint or something. It was beyond stubborn when it came to my trying to sand, scrape, rub, etc., it off of the wood. Particularly, I wondered if I should strip the wood. Having read articles about how and when to strip wood furniture, I breaked from the chair (my finger and arms were quite worn out...) to hop inside and on to the internet to see what folks said.

Most of everything that I read talked about the horrors of striping wood and strongly recommended trying to strip as a very-last-point-of-no-return option. After looking through a few articles I thought, "Well, I guess I can stick it out. I mean, maybe I am just being a wimp and simple need to put some more time and elbow grease in to it."

So I worked for two more hours that day, and three more hours the next day and I finally finished. 

Moral of the story? I definitely should have opted for stripping. <Le sigh> Lesson learned. As much as I might be tempted to call this "The Project From H-E-Double-Hockey-Stix", I have decided to call it more affectionately my "Labor of Love." Why? Because I want to finish the job well and enjoy the finished project. I would much rather be sitting on the chair in six months thinking, "Oh, all of the work was worth it!" instead of "Man, Chair, you sure were a pain."

Having removed the paint, I quickly primed and painted the chair.

Now she is all ready for her dress fitting! I would have started this soon after the paint dried; however I needed to send away for some Curve-Ease (aka Ply Grip) to use for attaching the fabric to the frame. I just received that, so I plan to finish this baby up in the next couple of days. Stay tuned! This time for real!

Garage Sale Success!

Living in the midwest has its blessings and challenges. One of the blessings is that we don't live anywhere near the ocean and therefore we are (mostly) spared from the yearly wrath of Hurricane Whoever and All His/Her Friends. But, for all of those who do live on one of the coasts, don't get jealous of us midwesterners just yet. Though you have the scourge of hurricanes and popped collars, at least you don't live in the midwest with Big Bertha The Lake Effect. She is not a very hospitable guest to say the least.

Case in point: Just recently we had ten straight days of rain. It was depressing, it was gross and boring . Yet, what the hardest part for me was that it kept all of the garage sales closed indefinitely. *Le sigh*

Thank goodness all of my (patient) waiting paid off. When the rain finally cleared and when the timing was just right, I found not one but FOUR garage sales all in a row over the weekend. What is even better is that I made off with some sweet stuff while spending only ten dolla's. I think that some of the sellers were more desperate to get rid of stuff than I was desperate to find a good garage sale. They practically paid me to buy what I did. For that, I am quite thankful to them for letting me do them the favor of relieving them of these awesome items.



All of these are gems in themselves. They are nearly priceless too....I paid only $10 for all three together. Okay, that was a corny joke. Moving on. Oh, bee-tee-dubs, that $10 also got me a 6' Christmas tree, but that really isn't worth showing here.