Good Gracious, We Had Company!

HI AGAIN, Y'ALL!

Did you know I read other people's blogs?  I do.  Mostly they are other women, and mostly they are homemakers with flair, and mostly they are mothers with kids...and mostly most of all, they are people who pursue grace in their lives, families, homes, community, and world.  One of my favorites is the Nester; she writes an awful lot about letting people in on our messes (physical and otherwise) as a fundamental part of showing others grace.  "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful," she says.  I'd like to add an idea to that idea...it really doesn't have to be beautiful to be perfect.

The Cupboard, and Done!

Ta-Daa!

Remember my dream for the mudroom slash boredom project?

The Cupboard, for now

I did say, didn't I, that I'd tell you about the missing piece of the mud room?  Well, today I will tell you Part I of that story.

Despite the implication in the above (blurry) photo, there are actually next to zero progress shots of this piece.  I was in the I've-only-got-so-much-time-plus-this-is-a-weird-piece-of-furniture mindset, and I didn't think anyone would really be that interested in the process anyway, so why take progress shots?

URN-ing It

We found a new-to-us thrift store the other day.  There are no prices on anything; you just offer what you can pay, and the proceeds go toward upkeep of the shop and community services.  There's a table of canned food and dry goods at the front for people who need it...all children's clothes are always free, all other clothes are $1 each.  So I got a couple of cake tins (heart shaped!) and this...beautiful...pair of urn vase things.

Trust me, the pic doesn't do it justice.  It's kinda yellow-y, with brilliant gold detail, and delicate pink and green roses.  Very...faux something.  Regency?  British/Asian?  Grandma got a gold-leafing set?

Boredom and the Mudroom

These days at work drag on so long sometimes.

 I spend my long days surfing the internet, talking to the other pilots, designing and redesigning things on SketchUp...

Decorating for Valentines, What?

It's not really that much...my decorating for Valentines is really just me putting Christmas away but still wanting something festive out.  So I put together a pretty "mantel" on my beautiful iron tree with help from David.

(This is what I call my "mantel" since I don't have an actual mantel. Just, you know, FYI.)

Necklace Portrait

I know I don't post very often...do you know why?  It's because I compose post after post after post in my head.  And then I sit down to write...and there's nothing there.  Not only that, there's no pictures to go with that nothing.  When do I take pictures?  When I'm doing a craft.

Ta-daa!  My new necklace portrait storage system.  It is a Heidi Interpretation of Carrie's portrait storage system, so, yes, piracy in action.

Plans, plans, plans

I've been dreaming again.

Candy Cane Wreath

So now that Christmas is well over, who wants to make a nice wreath in the spirit of the season???

I know, I know.  No one.  BUT.  I have all these nice photos, and I love my awesome wreath (being the first I've ever made), and maybe if it's on your radar now, maybe you'll want to make one next year, too.  This isn't really a tutorial, just an idea.  And the lighting and colors in the nice photos, just to warn you, are not stellar.

Magnet Memo Boards

I'm not sure this deserves its own post, but recently I made some magnet boards.  I thought you'd be interested.

I started with some Goodwill beauties:

$5 each.

 A little frightening, no?  In a faux-classical-1960's kind of way.  Their new purpose in life?

 ...to declutter the front of my fridge.

Take a moment to mourn what are probably pretty expensive, solid oak frames:

Then break out the white spray paint.

 You may, if you like, get irritated that you didn't think sanding and wood-filling would be an important step here.

 Instead, slap on some latex wall paint over the "primer" spray paint.

 It doesn't help much, but we can pretend it did.  Or we can pretend that the heavily textured, porous look is what we were going for in the first place.

Now buy yourself a piece of galvanized metal.  I got this one at the orange store for $6 in the plumbing section.  Pan sheeting, I think it was called.

At this point, you need to decide how you're going to cut your piece of metal.  I elected the trusty Dremel with the metal cutting attachment.

I also elected the trusty, stable, available ironing board as a proper work surface on which to cut metal.

 Directly beneath the smoke detector.

 Which is hard-wired to all the other smoke detectors in the house, so if one goes off, they all do.  But I was wearing eye protection, so I feel good about my decisions.

Next, you will want to take note of the glass size your frames use...

 ...because if you have decided to store the glass fronts on the floor, as I did, you may find yourself...

...in need of a piece of replacement glass.  This costs $7 at your local framing/dry cleaning shop.  Shop early...they close at 5.

If you have decided to paint your board, a nice, simple motif will look classic and clean.

  But you likely won't have time to execute this portion of the plan, as this wasn't supposed to be a time-consuming project and we've already invested over 24 hours in it.

**Incidentally, the whole reason you need that glass in the finished project is because you decided to paint the galvanized metal in the first place.  And if you read the spray paint directions (either before or after you painted the metal pieces, either way), you would know that spray paint is not intended for use on galvanized metal.  Therefore, without the glass, you will have a very scratched-up bit of framed metal within 24 hours of hanging.  So you have to use the glass.**

And if you do use the glass, don't allow the painted metal to touch it or it will do this black smudgy thing:

 Don't ask me how to keep them from touching.  I obviously wasn't successful at this myself.  If I were you, I'd just cover that spot with a card hanging from a magnet.

 And so there you have it!  From a cluttered fridge face to a somewhat less cluttered fridge face.

 The downside of these particular boards is that I had to keep the glass on them.  That severely weakened the magnetic pull of the metal, and so I can only use plain magnet buttons with no embellishments on them (I would have glued buttons on them if I could have, but they can't hold the weight).

The upside to this project is that we finally have a nice place to display the photo cards people send us!  So when I want to look up and see friends and family, there they are.  I like them, and I think having a quality thing that I invested not only money but heart into makes this project a win for me.  And not too terribly expensive.  Would've been less if I hadn't crushed that piece of glass.

Total price per board: $14 (including paint)

Guest Room Reveal and a Good Idea

Welcome to the completed guest room!  For as much work as we put into it, it's not really anything fancy.  But Mom and Dad seemed to like it, and I'm excited to show it off to any prospective visitors out there!  Someday, I'd love to paint it other-than-pinky-orange (which is really hard to photograph, btw), but that day is not today.

Here are my $45 dresser and beauty-full antique rocker:

 The dresser's top is pretty rough, but I just happened to have this pretty damask/linen runner from the Lowders who brought it over from China.

Voila the free bed (with brand new mattress set and pillows):

 I got the pair of tables from the Medina Antique mall for $20 each...more than I was hoping, but they required zero effort, since they were already in perfect condition.  The lamps, I am told, are from the '30's:

 ...and I love that the bottom lights up as well as the top.  A little night light!

This is the desk that's in there right now:

 It is what the Behemoth replaced in the office.  It's a good little desk, and I intend to pretty it up a bit and make it my crafting station in the Craft Room (which is next-door to the guest room and hideous).  I'm still debating about that pretty vanity from The Bucket...maybe...maybe.

So I have no before/after photos, because before this room was simply bare.  Well...it had a sewing table, a 6' ladder, and a plastic drop cloth in it.  But otherwise, totally bare.   In lieu of those make-over photos, I promised a good idea.  So here it is:

Turn a Coffee Table Into a Bench!

With...

A CRIB MATTRESS!

HA! Weren't expecting that, eh?

 It turns out the beautiful wood and wrought iron coffee table Jo-Ann gave us is exactly the same dimensions as a baby crib mattress.  It also turns out Goodwill (some of them) will sell second-hand crib mattresses for about ten bucks.  With my recent trip to fabricguru.com and their micro-suede inexpensive-ness, Presto!  We have a "built-in" bench!  I didn't have time to properly stitch the new cushion cover, so I just wrapped the fabric around it as a place holder.

 Just one tiny problem, though...no one likes to feel like That Guy who made the other half of the seating unit rocket skyward when they sat down...so...

A little rippage across the top, and the effect is minimized!  It still kinda does it, but in a somewhat less comical way.

 So, along with a new comfy chair purchase, we also had a living living room to offer our guests!  Dave is thrilled!

It totally looks like adults live here!

I have so much to catch up with on the blog...photos from Mom and Dad's trip, coming up next!

A Behemoth Someday...

Oh yes.  Yes, She Has FINALLY Arrived!

We've had the support structure finished for a little while, now.

And we started on the solid red oak desktop back in...April...?  Wow.  And to think I once truly believed this was a 2 week project.  Anyway, supports by themselves do not make for a beautiful office area, but they DO make for a stressful home.  And guests don't like stressful homes.

So once the assembly of the desktop was complete (which, actually, was back in April)...I lost all drive to actually finish the Behemoth.  Plus, I was paralyzed on the stain issue.  David, my partner and hero, stepped in.

He is the one who sanded the beast's seams, cleaned it all up, and together we used a simple tung oil finish to build the wood's natural color and bring out it's innate lustre.  This was followed by 3 (it might have been 4) coats of oil-based polyurethane, sanding between each coat.

 I love the way it turned out.

Like my yellow kitchen,  it makes me really, really happy, and I keep finding excuses to come back in here to admire it.  I took 30 photos of it, trying to capture its beauty...alas, none of them quite do it justice.

Now who's not a sucker for a good before and after??

First, the before-before:

Ugh-eeww, how could you live like that, right?

And finally...

(And the chorus of Hallelujahs soars to the heavens!)

Thanks for reading!  Mom and Dad, I'm looking forward to showing you guys around! Fly safe!!

No-Sew Blackout Roman Shades

...using nothing but an old T-shirt, popsicle sticks, and some string!

Just kidding.

So the guestroom is coming along.  We've made major progress on the list:

1. Dresser
2. Desk-type thing (we're using one we've already got...for the moment)
3. Bedside tables (and lamps, maybe)
4. A corner sitting chair
5. Window a/c
6. Curtains for over the a/c, blackout preferable -  see inspiration here
7. Hardware for the free bed we scored
8. Box springs/mattress for the free bed we scored
9. Hangers for the closet (and maybe a curtain for the closet?)
10. Maybe some pretty things?  Pictures, maybe?

...and today I'm showing you my fabulous new window dressing.

Start with el cheap-o plastic mini-blinds.  Find yourself a table.  And a coffee.

 See this turny-knob thing?

 You don't need it.  Rip it off.

 My window's dimensions (above), and me figuring out how many of the plastic slats to keep (below).

 So you take your desired length (29.75 for me), subtract the width of the top and bottom bars (the structural ones), and find a good, round denominator.  I chose to make my shade fold every 5" with one short fold on the bottom (I'm not given to the pursuit of perfection, especially for a no-sew project).

This means I'm gonna be keeping every 5th slat, or so.  See?

 (The +'s are for illustrative purposes only, you really don't have to keep those particular slats...just so long as you keep enough slats to accomplish your 5 folds (or however many you do...one of the other bloggers I looked at said '6" - 12" make the best looking shade'...I disagree, do whatever you like)).

Now you can cut off all the ladder-strings, the ones that are strictly used for tilting the slats up or down.  Do NOT cut the fat string running through the center of each slat.

You can pop off the white discs at the bottom of the shade, slide everything off all at once (except the slats you're keeping), or you can cut the unwanted slats.  Your choice.

You're gonna have to pop those discs off anyway, though, in order to shorten the pull strings.  Oh, and get those orange stickers off.  Not a choice.  Believe me, just do it.

Now, my hardware store was out of the correct width for my window.  So my blinds needed to lose 1 1/2" off each side.  I accomplished this with scissors on the slats and a Dremel with a plastic-cutting blade for the top and bottom.

It makes a lot of white, powdery dust.

As you can see, I way overestimated how much fabric this thing was going to need.

Blackout fabric first.  Cut it to size, and then lay your stripped-down, correctly-sized mini-blinds on top, face up.  I marked each slat's position right on the fabric in pencil.

Now, flip each slat over and dab E6000 (my favorite, industrial-strength, crafters' glue) into the inner curve of the slat.  I tried to leave at least 1 1/2" between the pull strings and the dabs of glue on either side.

This doesn't take long, unless you sit there staring at it because you're afraid to break out the glue and dive in.  Come on.  You already cut the fabric.  You're already committed at this point.

I chose to glue the blackout fabric exactly flush with the edges of the slats, the top bar, and the bottom bar.  This is because the fashion fabric will wrap over and around those unfinished edges, hiding them.  Oh!  And one more thing...on the top bar, don't glue the fabric all the way to the edge...leave it hanging loose for the last 1-2".  Trust me.

Ok, now we're gonna add the pretty fabric to the front.  This is how I did this part:

You've got the top, folded and pressed in a nice, neat line.  Take that pressed bit, and glue it to the underside of the top bar, missing the place where the pull-strings come out at the end.  Like zis:

Same thing here, too...leave the last 1-2" hanging free.

Now you're ready to glue the pretty fabric to the slats.  Again, be careful to leave a nice gap to either side of the pull strings.

I choose to glue only a thin line right at the back of the slat...I dunno, it seems to have worked.  Maybe gluing the whole slat to the fabric would've been better.  Oh well.

Doing it this way worked pretty well for me because my fabric (100% polyester) was pretty stiff, and I had pressed it out well before this step.  So as I glued each slat, it fell into place easily with no bubbles or hitch-ups.

At the bottom, I glued only the edge of the bar to the fabric.  I'll show you why in a second.

Once the glue is at least semi-set, flip the whole carnival over.

This is the part where we tuck all the raw edges to the back so they can't be seen.

See?  There on the bottom, I left it rounded under instead of pulled taught.  It looks a little more balloon-y, a little less professional, but whatevs.  I think it looks nice.  This is just glued along the edge, nothing fancy.  Raw edges are still raw, but they're facing out, behind the blackout fabric.

Up at the top, those edges we left hanging free?  Um, fold, glue, tuck, glue, make it kinda work, fabric to fabric (not to the bar).  It won't matter much in the end...it won't really be seen.

On the bottom corners, um, fold, glue, tuck, make it work.  I chose to fold mine like a present.  You could meiter yours.  Or squish it up and flatten it with the iron.  Just don't melt anything.

This is the back, once it's done.

And the finished front:

A little loosey-goosey, but in a romantic, rumpled way (I hope).

So those top corners?  Not so nice looking.  Let's cover them up (and that cheap-o white plastic bar, too!).

Your package comes with an extra slat with no holes in it.  Get it out.  Cut yourself a long piece of pretty fabric, maybe 6" wide (eh, however wide you want it).  Now run a line of glue down the middle/middle-bottom of that slat.

Line up one edge of the back of your pretty strip on that glue.  The back of the fabric to the front of the slat.

Fold this set-up in half so that the slat is now facing down with about 1/4" of the pretty fabric poking out from under it.  Like this:

Follow the numbers.  You're finishing the left and right edges of this piece so they won't show.  It looks like this in the end:

Now take that top, raw edge of pretty fabric, fold it down onto the slat, and glue.  I set a weight on it for a few minutes to help it set correctly.

And while it's setting, you're free to go hang your shade!

What did I tell you about removing those orange stickers??   Sigh.  And it's crooked. Oh well! When it's closed, it'll sit on top of the a/c unit, so it doesn't matter.  Hehe.

This is how my shade looks when I just pull the strings without worrying about the folds.
And this is how it looks when I run my hand back behind, helping the folds fall correctly.

I don't really see much difference, but I thought you might be curious.

Wanna know how to hang your finishing touch?

Yep.  Tiny Command strips, the poster-size ones.  I put one on each end and one in the middle.

Ta-daa!

And that, as they say, is that.

So now, Mom and Dad, you have the comfort of a black-out (your window faces east...sorry), you don't have to worry about the curtain blocking the a/c, and it's as pretty as can be!

So cost breakdown, for those who want one (fabric from fabricguru.com):

• Blackout fabric (<1yd) = $6
• Pretty fabric = $5
• Blinds = $5

Total = $16 for custom blackout roman shades!  Pretty sweet, huh?

Ok, awful lot of cleaning left to do.  Hope you all had a lovely Monday!