My Goodwill lamp

Awhile ago I found this lamp at Goodwill for $3.95. It was on the ugly side and it was missing its shade, but I liked the shape and thought it had potential. Our front room only has two weird sconces above the fireplace, and they don't provide nearly enough light. I thought this lamp could help solve the problem.

I didn't think there would be much wear and tear on the lamp, so I didn't bother sanding it. Mostly because the thought of sanding metal rubs me very wrong. ick.

I did spray it with primer though, and then sprayed it with Krylon oil-rubbed bronze and some spray poly sealer.

Doesn't it have a nice shape? It's much more evident with the darker paint than it was with the nasty gold finish.

I dressed up a plain lamp shade I found at wally world. I used part of a drop cloth that I already had to cover the shade and make the flowers. I started out with just a few flowers and it looked fine when the light was off, but when the light was on, the seams and such showed, so I added more flowers. I already had the brown ribbon that I used on the upper edge, but I'm not completely sure I like the look now. I think it looked better before. I'll probably end up re-doing it, but I've got lots of other projects to work on, so for now it'll stay as-is.

The wood printers drawer I found at a yard sale will eventually hold Mr S's rank advancements, awards, and service coins, but for now it sits in the corner.

The blue canning jar is one I've had for years, the other blue jar is from IKEA, and I found the glass insulator at a yard sale for a buck.

The square vase and rocks also came from IKEA and the star was from the dollar section at Target.

The home sign was on clearance for a couple bucks at Seagull Book.

Sad to say, but this is one of first real "decorating" attempts. However, I like how it looks, and it'll be easy to change up if I ever get bored with it.

Our pumpkins this year

I saw polka dot pumpkins a couple years ago, but didn't get a round apple corer till this past year, so this was the first time I got to make them. I like how they turned out, but using pumpkins that are similar in size would definitely work better.

LMS wanted another kitty cat pumpkin, so I cut out more sticky back felt. We had a bigger pumpkin this year, so I had to make the felt pieces a bit bigger.

I love pumpkins in the fall- on the porch and in the kitchen. I've been trying out recipes for gluten free vegan pumpkin muffins and cookies. They've all tasted pretty good, and they smell heavenly! I looove the smell of baking pumpkin goodies (pumpkin with all the spices), so yummy!

Our Halloween Costumes

Little Miss Sunshine wanted to be Cinderella this year, so I decided to sew a dress that could be used for dress-up later, just like I did last year. I started out using the pattern I used last year for her Aurora dress, but the sizing was weird and I didn't like how it looked, so I ended up altering the bodice and side floufs. It was a lot of work, but the results were worth it, in my OCD opinion. I used the tutorials here for the accessories, which was a clever idea that I totally wouldn't have thought of myself. And of course, I changed them up a bit and made them my own. I'm really happy with how her costume turned out, and LMS loves it.

The angle of her head in this pic shows off  her hair nicely. I like this pic, even though the light isn't great.

I wanted to dress up for our ward trunk or treat, but like every year, I couldn't think of anything. As I sewed LMS's Cinderella dress, I realized there was a perfect costume idea in the movie. I sewed up some sheets, and I became Cinderella's Fairy Godmother.

Very blurry pic taken by a neighbor. We were leaving for the ward activity, and it was getting dark, so the lighting wasn't the best and I didn't have the flash on. And LMS wasn't smiling. Oh well.

Better pic, at the ward activity. 



I'll try for some more pictures tomorrow. Since Halloween is on Sunday this year we'll be hitting the mall for some trick or treating tomorrow afternoon. I just have to decide if I want to dress up also. Hmmmm.

Coffee table re-do

The finished table, sitting on a recent craigslist find.

Like the cabinet, I lightly sanded the edges of the legs. It'll get kicked and scuffed up, so why not give it a head start?

I like the contrast of the painted base and the stained top. I've seen others do it, and I like the look.

What my $15 craigslist started out looking like:

What it looks like now:

I like the results!

Inside the craft cabinet

On the outside, it looks nice and neat.

But when you open it up, you can see all the stuff it's hiding:

What exactly is all of this stuff?

The unfortunate thing is that there's no room for fabric, so after I finish sorting it all (not quite done yet), I'll put baskets-full of fabric on top of the cabinet.

Want to see my quick and easy way to keep the door panels in place?

Those two red dots are red plastic push pins.

I put two in the top and two in the bottom,  and the panels aren't going anywhere.

It will be very easy to switch them out.

The cut edges of the fabric do show, but only when the doors are open  :)

My new craft cabinet is finally finished

We got back from our road trip a week and a half ago. After the usual unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping (our frig was completely empty), and trying to get back onto a schedule, I managed to finally finish my cabinet. 

After putting the top back on the base, I put all the doors and knobs back on. Then I lightly sanded all the edges and corners. Nothing super-noticeable, just enough to cover up any future dings. Because let's face it, I'm a klutz, and I will be banging things into the edges. The top coat of paint is a really light blue/gray- it looks almost white, but you can see the difference where the white primer peeks out. I like the two-tone (three-tone if you count the dark wood under the primer) look.

I then cut thin plywood (leftover from replacing the backing on the cabinet) to replace the glass that was originally in the doors. Since the cabinet is full of sewing and craft supplies I wanted the cabinet completely closed in- I'm not a fan of open cupboards. I prefer to close the doors and hide the mess. Not that there's a mess right now, it's all still organized, but things don't always stay that way.

Then I covered each panel with fabric I bought on sale at JoAnns. I just hot glued the fabric on the back, and it will be easy to switch it out. LMS actually wanted a different fabric and was disappointed that I went with this one- I like it though. 

 I liked the one on the left, but it's a little dark for the room, which really doesn't get very good light.

LMS liked the one on the right, but it's a little too bright for now. Come spring, though, I think it'll be a nice change.

A couple of the panels ended up a little crooked, but I'm ignoring it. (squash that OCD, squash that OCD)

I left the medallions in place on the base cabinet doors, and used the original knobs on all the doors. I didn't replace the original magnetic closures. The doors stay closed without them, and I was too lazy :)

I spray painted the knobs, but that was all I did to them before putting them back on. They were kind of brassy black before, now they're all black/brown.

Love the detail!

What my $50 craigslist find used to look like:

What it looks like now:

I'm happy!

Coffee table sneak peak

The other project I had to finish up was my $15 (!) craigslist coffee table. This didn't take long at all, especially compared to how long the cabinet took. I'll let the paint and stain cure while we're gone and when we get back I'll distress the edges a bit, since they'll get distressed anyway.

Here's what it used to look like:

And here's what it looks like right now:

Cabinet sneak peak

There's nothing like a firm deadline to give me the extra push I need to finish up my projects. We're heading out on a roadtrip to visit family on Monday, so I had to get all my painting finished and the pieces brought inside. The paint will cure while we're gone, and I'll put it all back together when we ge back.

In the meantime, here's a reminder of what the cabinet used to look like:

And a sneak peak of what it looks like now:

Painting progress

While it was definitely a pain to have to make sure everything looked nice for the showing Friday, it did give me the push I needed to make some progress on my painting projects, despite the heat and humidity. There's nothing quite like having sweat dripping off you onto the floor while you're painting a piece of furniture.

I finished painting the cubby bases Friday morning and Saturday I drilled holes for the knobs and adjusted the drawer slides a bit for maximum smooth movement. Now I'm just waiting for the paint to cure before we fill them with LMS's toys.

Friday morning I also painted another layer of primer on my craft cabinet. Saturday I did a light sanding, cleaning up stray drips and dried shmootz. It's now ready for the first of two coats of paint.

Saturday I also started sanding the coffee table I found on craigslist for $15. A couple of the feet had been used as a chew toy, so I also had to use some wood filler. I need to sand some more and use a bit more wood filler before finishing up the sanding.

I forgot to take the pics till after I'd already started sanding, so the chewed up areas aren't as noticeable as they were before. Once they're sanded and painted, you won't even be able to tell.

Purple ruffled wall

To give LMS her purple room without actually painting it, I stapled a purple sheet to the wall, then thoroughly wet the sheet with liquid starch, smoothing the sheet to the wall as I went. I actually had to re-starch various places 2 or 3 times in order to get it to lay flat. I let the sheet dry in between each starching, so it took several days before I was happy with the result. There's still some wrinkles, but they're only noticeable when the light is just right.

I didn't like the look of the edges of the sheet, especially since the staples were visible. So I went a bit OCD and made 20 feet of ruffle (which means I needed about 80 feet of fabric strips).  I did the ruffle in one long strip, so it was kind of awkward to work with. After ruffling the strip, I sewed it to some lavender ribbon to provide stability and rigidity. Then I sewed some tiny white ric rac over the seams in the middle of the ruffle. Definitely OCD on my part, but I like how it looks.

Once the ruffle was all done, it was time to put it on the wall. I just hot-glued it on, making sure the glue was on the sheet, not the wall (that would be a mess to clean up). It didn't take too long and it's stayed up without any problems.

Close-up view of the ruffle and the wall. I cut a hole for the light switch, and put the switch plate over the rough edges. 

Embroidery hoop wall art

The hoops I ordered off ebay. I had bought 6 or 7 from Michaels, then decided I needed more :)

I didn't use the biggest ones, but I'll find a use for them.

The PBK curtain panel I found for cheap on ebay. Very pretty, but not long enough for the window in LMS's room.

A butterfly all cut out and glued into a hoop.

The backside: I used small amounts of hot glue to hold the fabric to the inside of the hoops. This went better than I thought: I did around 20 of these, but didn't get any bad burns. Since I'm a klutz, that's saying something.

Some of the finished hoops, stacked and waiting to be hung. I just hammered a nail in between the metal adjusting thingy and the hoop, and they stay up nice and easy.

My favorite hoops are the two with the flowers. After I stretched and glued the fabric, I hot glued the flowers to the fabric. I love how they turned out!