artsy-crafty babe

before & after table

I kind of left you hanging with my ten on ten photos, didn't i?  I did indeed finish my table on Saturday, right before (a late) supper.  Let me start by saying that this is a crappy table purchased at a big box store.  When I bought it, I was looking for something inexpensive that I wouldn't mind my kids destroying.  Our previous table, a farmhouse table made from reclaimed fencing, looked cool, but wasn't the least bit practical and was uncomfortable to sit at.

After only a few weeks of use, the finish on this table was destroyed.  It scratched easily and there were spots where the finish chipped off.  With such a dark finish, these imperfections were very noticeable.  I emailed to complain and was given the option to return it or take a partial refund.  I no longer had all my packing material and I liked the size and general sturdiness of the table, so I took the refund.  I knew I could do something with what I had.

After more and more chips, I couldn't take it any longer.  My plan was to paint the table top with chalkboard paint.  With the kids in mind, I thought this would be a good solution.  Before I could paint, I had to sand, so while I was at it, I decided to sand it all the way down, just to see what was under that dark chippy finish.  I liked what I saw.  The grain of the wood reminded me of my old farmhouse table, kinda sorta. 

 
There's no way I could leave it bare like that, so I chose a water based stain applied very lightly, just to give it a little color.  I finished it with a few coats of paste finishing wax.  Yes, I know this table will still be destroyed (especially without any sort of polyurethane finish), but now it has a little character, and will hopefully gain a little more with all the spills and 'oops' crayon markings.

Shoot, if it starts to look too shabby too quickly, I can always go back and paint it.  At this point, I've got nothing to lose!  And while I'm at it, the legs night get a coat or two as well.

**the white chairs are from here - they didn't get great reviews, but I've had no problems with them.  Again, I had the kid destruction factor in mind when picking them out.  I'm still on the hunt for the perfect end chairs, but haven't found them yet...

upside down

My house is somewhat turned upside down at the moment.  We do not live in a large house, in fact, we're bursting out of our 4 walls, so when we empty the entire contents of one room, it feels like we're living in a shoe box full of stuff.  The kids think it's cool, especially Alex, who slept on his mattress on the living room floor last night.  He also thinks it's pretty neat that his bookcase is in the bathroom.  He told me that we should leave it there.

His room is empty because we're redecorating.  After his allergy tests a month or so ago, we knew that his carpet had to go.  We thought it would be fun to paint the concrete floor.  You know, cheap and easy.  We talked about it a bit, but had no definite plan.  Well, one night while I was at my sewing class, Matt decided to pull the carpet up.  I had forgotten how gross the concrete floor was.  (we lived with bare concrete floors when we first moved into our house because every bit of flooring had to be changed)

What were we thinking?  This project is NOT cheap and easy.  Well, it is cheap, but definitely not easy.  We have no idea if this will work or not, but at this point, we're carrying through. When we started all this, I didn't realize how long this process is...all the washing, then the priming, and now all the drying between coats, and then we'll have to seal.  I suppose it doesn't help that we've been having super humid days lately.  I think once it's done it will be really cute, but until then - disaster zone. 

While we were in paint mode with an empty room, I decided to paint the walls.  Those were nasty.  I never did like that wall color, so changing it was a good thing.  The boy wasn't too impressed, but now that the floor is green, he's coming around.

All this change has renewed my interest in making his quilt, which I kind of started a year ago.  I feel the need to make this quilt right now because it's just about the only thing I can do...other than watch paint dry.  Again, when I showed him all the swatches, he wasn't impressed.  I think once we get the whole thing pulled together he'll like it.  I know that I sure like the vision I have in my mind!

**if this turns out terrible, then hardwood, like the rest of the house will do down.  also, everything that came out of that room will NOT be going back in...lord, help me!!!

outdoor living

My backyard is my favorite place to hang out when the weather cooperates.  I love to spend afternoons tending to my vegetable garden and potted plants.  As of now, we've only carved out a little spot contained by the picket fence, which was a great solution when the kids were smaller, but I dream of putting a big privacy fence around the peremeter of the yard so that I can enjoy the big live oak tree at the corner of our property and I no longer have to stare at the back of my neighbor's house. 

Man, my little garden is doing so well right now, I almost hate to blog about it in fear that I'll jinx it.  Some of my patio plants have yet to come back (boo) and others are off to a slow start, but over all everything is doing well.

My first attempt at growing vegetables from seeds is going well.  Look at those beans!  I finally got around to building a simple trellis with bamboo this weekend.  The beans were starting to reach the fence.  As usual, my little garden is overcrowded.  I suppose I'll have to expand it yet again next year.  For reference, this was my garden less than 6 weeks ago.

Look, little green tomatoes!  I can't wait for those.

The jasmine is intoxicating.

The hydrangeas make me so happy.

My re-vamped patio furniture.  Do you remember when I got this set?  It was a free from my babysitter's neighbor.

All my cushions are from Costplus World Market and Pier 1.  These matched the tablecloth I purchased from World Market last year.  I shopped around for outdoor fabric to make my own, but in the end, it was easier to just buy them all ready made.  I've finally figured out my problem - because I can make things, I feel like I should, but in the end this holds me up and keeps me from finishing anything because I don't have the time to make EVERYTHING.  I felt a little guilty, but I bought the cushions and called it done.

As you can see, my Corks-n-Canvas paintings found a new home.  This is where I originally wanted to hang these.

The kids helped out with artwork for the other side.  These wooden pieces were in the packaging of my new bar stools.  Alex painted the more subdued one, with the help of Lily, and Ava and her friend did the more colorful one.

This table was the first table Matt & I bought when we got married.  It is made from reclaimed fencing.  We used it as our dining table for a long time, then as a desk, then as a catch-all table, then a dining table again, but that proved to not work well with 3 messy kids.  Do  you know how hard it is to get sticky rice from the cracks in that table?  And what a pain it is when spilled milk flows through the cracks all over the floor?  I needed an easy clean up solution, so this much loved table became the patio table while we got a new table to dine off of (which turned out to be a piece of crap, but that's another story).  The plastic chairs will eventually be replaced with benches.  Hopefully one day this table will make its' way back inside, I do love it so!

Have I ever shown you this Singer treadle table?  My dad gave it to me a few years ago.  I think some one was giving it away????  Thankfully he rescued it and gave it to me.  I love it and think it works perfectly out here. (yes, I have twinkle lights strung through the lattice, but I need more)

There are still a few things I need to do, like attach and fill some flower boxes with ferns to add some privacy from the back door, but other than that, this space is complete.  Anybody care to swing by for Birthday Happy Hour on Friday?  We'll have cake & ice cream (and margaritas) on the patio...

a bag & a peek

Hmmm, I'm not sure about this one.  In my head, it was gorgeous, but in execution I can't decide if it is cute or 'country craft fair'.  I think it has everything to do with my fabric choices.  Maybe a little too pink?   Am I being too harsh?  Anyway, I like the idea and plan to try it again.

This bag was made from my Ava Rose pattern. It is fully reversible with a pocket on both the outside and inside.   I'm not really a fan of the tie closure, but for a reversible bag, it works. 

You may remember my zig zag quilt from last summer.  Ever since I made that I've wanted to revisit the idea.  Right now I have an ivory/beige/white version in the works (in my mind), but I wanted to figure out a way to make those diagonal rows easy.  When I made the quilt, I sewed the strips together to make a rectangle, then cut rows on the diagonal.  For the bag, I tried using paper piecing.  I think the paper piecing is a good option for small pieces, probably not on a large scale like my quilt.  Maybe I'll make some pillows to play around with the idea some more.  I know I could use the triangle method that most zig-zag quilts use, but I like the skinnier, irregular lines of my versions.

I don't know, maybe I like the reverse side better?  Yes, I think it is definitely the pink that is throwing me off.  I usually gravitate to pink, but this time it isn't doing it for me.  I wonder if this one is a little too pepto?

Anyway, are you like me in that you enjoy peeking into windows around the neighborhood at dusk?  Nothing perverted (ha!), of course, just a little peek at the interior of the house?  I love doing this.  Last night I was walking towards my house after getting the mail and I got a little peek at my own interior.  It wasn't so bad!  Just excuse the primed front door - we're painting soon.

I'm usually hesitant about showing a room in my house (other than the kids' rooms because they're just plain fun), mostly because I have no confidence in my ability and I'm never satisfied.  I've even sought help over this past year in pulling my living and dining rooms together, and I'm STILL not satisfied. (I know I drove Jamie crazy with my incessant questions)  I'm almost there, I promise.  I'll show you my rooms very soon, and then you can be underwhelmed and wonder what all the fuss was about ;-)

out back

Ever since spring sprung around here, I've been on a mission to get my patio in order.  This poor patio of mine, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.  I started working on it a few years ago, but nothing ever got finished.  Last year we finally (it wasn't the first try) got the pavers just right, now my attention has turned to making it pretty and pulling it all together.

I spent the majority of my weekend working on the three doors across the back of my house, which all open to the patio.  I now have 3 more black doors and 3 repaired & re-screened screen doors.  Thanks to a cat and a little dog, the screen on two of the doors was shredded.  I re-screened them with pet screen, or something like that, which is supposed to be pet proof...we'll see.

I wanted to get to oiling the wood on the screen doors and my farmhouse table top, but I had a little accident.  I stepped on a bee.  Sounds like a harmless enough incident, right?  It hurt like hell and my foot swelled up, which should have been the end of it.  This morning (Sunday) it still hurt like hell and was quite swollen.  I took a look and saw that it was getting infected (i won't go into details).  Ick!  I've never had anything like that happen before, but I guess on the bottom of the foot it can easily happen.  I'm always barefoot, but I'm starting to reconsider.

So here I am with my foot propped up trying to entertain myself with TV and some hand sewing, which is KILLING ME!  Sitting still when I'd rather be outside painting my patio furniture (also on the agenda for this weekend) is no fun at all.  Sitting still in general is not my thing.  I suppose I could start folding the laundry, but I'm not that desperate yet!

beer label decor

Back in Matt's college days, he had a fondness for beer (go figure).  A favorite hangout of his was the Chimes, which is known for its extensive beer menu.  A popular thing to do is to go 'round the world'.  I'm not sure if it's the same now as it was back then, but I see on the website that means 60 beers from 20 countries.  From what I remember, you had to sign up for it, you got a card that was kept on file and on that card you could check off what you drank.  Once you met all the requirements - the 60 beers from 20 countries -  you got a t-shirt and your name on a plaque that hangs in bar.  Oh, you also had to do this within a certain time limit, 6 months maybe?

Well, my dear husband did this.  Twice.  I tried once, but I couldn't do it.  For one, those imported beers are expensive, which is tough to do on a student budget.  And sometimes they're yucky.  Anyway, on one of his trips 'round the world' he decided to peel the labels off the bottles and save them.  All this happened before my time, so I don't know all the details.  He collected them by sticking them to a big sheet of paper all willy-nilly in a poster frame (I think it is the sheet that comes in the frame that has all the dimensions).  It was quite classy, let me tell you.  I'm sure it was the prize of his bachelor pad.

I love personal mementos, so I never made him get rid of it.  It never hung on our wall, but it stayed out of the trash.  One day I got the idea that it would be pretty cool to frame those labels.  When I pulled the sheet out of the frame I thought there was no way that I could salvage them.  I thought about slicing up the sheet with the labels attached, but I wasn't too keen on that idea (willy-nilly, remember?). 

With some time and a lot of patience, I was able to remove most of the labels from that sheet of paper.  I then trimmed some of the labels, removed bar codes, and arranged them neatly.  I filled up two frames and have still have labels left over.  For being a bunch of old beer labels, I think it turned out pretty nice...nice enough to hang on the wall of our house.  Needless to say, Matt was very pleased.

an imperfect transformation

I was going to wait until I finished this, but I'm not sure when that will happened.  Too often, I've put off blogging about something because it wasn't done enough.  Well, this is done enough for you to get the idea.  I still need to go back over a few spots, but I'm hoping that doesn't show up in the photos.

Do you remember this cedar armoire?  I went back through all my flickr photos to find one that showed it in its originality and this was the closest I could find - please excuse the clutter.  This was taken when we strarted our kitchen/dining re-do, oh, over 2 years ago.  I think I had just painted the walls here.  This armoire was made in the 50's (it has a date on the back) and belonged to my great uncle.  At the time I inherited it, it had been in storage in his shed.  The finish was always icky.

Once we started changing up our kitchen/dining, I gave it a white wash, just to get rid of the cedar look.  I never really loved it, but it was a change.  It ended up looking a little too shabby for my taste, but it was better than before, I thought.  I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, so I lived with it.

Now, here it is in gray with white detailing.  Isn't it fancy?  I was amazed at what a difference the white detailing made - it really pops!  My old cedar armoire now has a new life.  I love giving an old piece of furniture a new look with a fresh coat of paint.

Like I said, it isn't perfect - there are a few spots that need some touching up, but I ran out of white paint and I haven't made it back to the store yet.  What you're seeing in the corners of the right door is actually primer.  I did the corners of each door different, then decided that the one on the left was my favorite, so the right door corners got primed out.

My dining area is almost done, but I'm not sharing it just yet. There's a project in the works to hang on the wall, and I'm still on the hunt for 2 end chairs for my table, but if I don't find those chairs in the near future I'll show you anyway.  Could it be that I actually finish a room?  It will be a first!

sprucing up

In my usual pattern of seasonal nesting, spring has me in a tizzy (or maybe it's a chocolate induced sugar high)!  I *wish* I could bottle up my current energy level and this perfect weather for when I'm not feeling up to it, but right now, I'm going full force.  I know that this won't last forever, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can!

This past weekend I was able to check off a few things on my never-ending-continually-growing to-do list.  I'm not gonna lie, it feels pretty good to cross things off the list!  First up is my back door.  I wish I had a before photo to show you, but it might gross you out.  Just imagine a dingy white door with peeling paint and mud splatters (at least I hope that's what that was) at the bottom.  Yeah, GROSS!  And this is the door that is used the most - by everyone.  That poor old door got a good scrubbing, a scraping, a priming and a new coat of paint - black.  I was a little worried about the black, but I love it.  It really adds some depth.  I still needs a little something, maybe wreath and a new doormat, but it is much improved from where I started.  Now I have 3 more doors to paint across the back of my house, but I'm saving that for another day.

And now when we walk through my back door, there's a nice long row of hooks to hang all of our stuff, conveniently placed at kid level.  This is something we've been wanting to do for quite a while.  It's a little thing that I think will make my life simpler - I can't tell you how many bags, jackets, hats, etc that I pick up which have been flung on the floor because there's no real place to put them...now there's no longer an excuse.

The biggest project I tackled was new curtains for my dining room, 4 panels in all.  Oh boy, am I ever glad to have that behind me!  Drapery panels aren't difficult to make, but they sure are time consuming, and a pain in the butt - fooling with all that fabric isn't my favorite thing in the world.  This fabric made a mess.  It's a heavy white linen, which shed all over the place.  I'm still cleaning up white linen lint from every surface in the room, and probably will be for a while.  I do think the effort was worth it - this space seems so much more airy with the white panels. 

Did you notice the top?  I got fancy and added a little pinch pleat at the top.  I find that panels hang so much nicer with the pinch pleat.  I think I need to start underestimating how long my panels should be because I always end up with panels that are too long.  This time was no different, even though I cut them shorter than my previous panels.  One thing I didn't take into account is how linen grows (the hem is folded in the above photo).  Oh well, lesson learned.

While I was in the dining room, I finally hung up my little collection of blue & white plates. Love!

I've been taking advantage of the gorgeous spring weather by doing a little gardening.  My window box got replanted.  I don't seem to have much luck with keeping things alive in my window box, but I have high hopes for this year.  Last year my geraniums did well, but that's all I had in there.  I decided to go with my tried and true while mixing it up a bit with some additional color and a few things that will trail down (to hide my pieced coco mat).  I sure hope this takes off!

My little vegetable garden doesn't look like much, but it's jam packed with veggies!  I'm being adventurous this year by doubling the size of my little raised bed.  I've planted quite a few seeds, which I've never done before.  I can't wait to start tending to this.  Checking on my garden every afternoon is one of my most favorite things to do.  And picking the fruits of my labor, well, that's just icing on the cake. 

Boy, do I ever love this time of year!  Happy, happy spring!!

a bit of decorating

Goodness gracious - I wasn't expecting ALL THAT!!!  Y'all are the best, really.  Thanks for all your comments on my last post, I read each and every one of them.  They kept me smiling all weekend long.  There's no need to worry, nothing will change around here, except maybe being a little more chatty.

Occupying most of my brain space these days is sprucing up my home.  I blame spring fever.  The last time I went through this was late last summer when I re-vamped my living room.  I never did show you the results because I never quite finished it.  Well, now I'm already changing it - not too much, just a little bit of rearranging and some new throw pillows (and I'm still not finished!!). 

My poor throw pillows.  After only 6 months, they were looking pretty rough.  A chewed up ink pen (thanks, Ruby) didn't help the situation any, plus, I was getting kind of sick of the stripes.  After a few trips to the fabric store, I had a plan.  I'm not finished yet, but so far, so good.

I was also tired the location of my big leaner mirror (which was on the wall in the first photo).  I thought getting it was a brilliant idea, but shortly after bringing it home, I learned that it was a kid magnet.  We had to anchor it to the wall so that they wouldn't knock it over.  I had to constantly clean it because they wanted to touch it, kiss it, and generally be all over it.   I feared that they will fall onto it, so I moved the mirror behind the console table behind my sofa.  I like it in its' new spot - it looks kind of fancy that way. 

Moving the mirror meant that I had to move the architectural prints that were hanging above the table.  I simply swapped their places.  There wasn't enough room for all 6 prints, but 4 works just fine.

On my round table top, I replanted my planter (which had a pitiful dying plant in it) and I found a cute silver clock (those are fabric swatches in the foreground, I still need one more pillow fabric).

I swapped out my cube ottomans with my heirloom blanket chest, which was made by my grandmother's great-grandfather.  Pretty cool, huh?  It usually resides at the foot of my bed, but I was ready for a real table surface to hold books and whatnot.  I love having old family pieces.  That console table in front of the mirror is also a family piece, it belonged to my grandmother's grandmother.

The last change I made was to move a little side table next to my slip-covered wing back chair.  I previously had a plant there, but the plant was looking kind of sorry and needed to be on the patio for a while to rejuvenate.  That map won't stay there, I was just testing it out.  It's a little too big for that space.  Matt told me that I have to keep things in their new places for at least 2 days before I change it again- he knows me well.  I'm not sure that particular table will stay there, but I like having a lamp in that corner to make a cozy reading spot.

And while I'm on the topic of home decorating, if you happen to pick up the March issue of Romantic Homes magazine, you'll see a mention of my blog under the "sites we love" section.   I'm not going to lie, seeing your name (or blog) in print never gets old!  Dufus that I am, I forgot to tell them that all photographs were my own, so my name doesn't appear.  That's okay, y'all know who I am!

it's like a new toy

I think this may be a record for us...Matt and I are do-it-yourselfers, but the problem is that we don't really have time to do it ourselves.  The usual situation is that we get the supplies and then...it sits.  This is why my kitchen still doesn't have new counter tops over 2 years after starting that project.

A few weeks ago we ordered this chandelier.  I was instantly in love.  I've never shown you the light that was hanging in that room because it was, well, embarrassing.  A big mass of glass & brass.  Nice.  Of course, after almost 5 years of living with it, I didn't notice it anymore, until I had guests over.   In my mind we would install the new light immediately, but realistically I knew that wouldn't happen.

I think the dinner guests did it.  We only left it in the box for about a week or so!  A few hours before our guests were to arrive we installed the new chandelier.  Gosh, what an improvement!  I wasn't really prepared, so I just hung the cards that came with it.  It was okay, but I envisioned more.  Actually, I envisioned something more like the book pages that were shown on the website, but you don't get that when you order it.

After looking at my skimpy chandelier all evening, I was ready for a change the next morning.  The cards came down and a tube of open weave fabric went up.  Eh, still not what I had in mind.  I really needed more fabric to make what was in my mind, and my bum finger wasn't helping the situation any, but it was fun to experiment and I could see the possibilities.

In the end, the fabric came down and the cards went back up, but with some printed paper.  Again, I was using what I had on hand.  It still wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I need supplies for that.

On Monday I made my way to Hobby Lobby to pick up some scrapbook paper, which happened to be on sale for 50% off.  I really wanted mostly whites & off-whites, but they didn't have that, so I got the most neutral double sided papers I could find.  While I was there I also picked up a tiny hole punch and some large jump rings - also 50% 0ff.  With my new half priced supplies, I cut out circles in 3 sizes then attached them together with the jump rings.  Each clip got a strand of circles.  Voila, a whole new look!

Next, I'd like to try some type of crochet/knitted  wire, or something like that.  I can see myself having LOTS of fun with this!