questioning one's sanity

After a few days of some serious avoidance, I felt like I was ready to get a start on gutting my new sofa.

I came armed with a notepad, camera, and a mental resolve to face something I knew would be pretty gross.

I was not disappointed.

With the shop fan on full blast, trying to decide which was more disgusting--breathing through my mouth or my nose-- I started to examine the couch. I learned from doing the wingback chair that you have to be systematic--taking things apart in the reverse order of how they were put on, making note of the order for when it comes time to put the fabric back on. It also helps to take pictures of tricky bits that  are easy to forget. Thus prepared, I started peeling off crusty yellowed gimp cord, only to reveal hundreds and hundreds of tiny nails.

NAILS. Not staples, which come off fairly easily, but flat-headed, flush-with-the-wood nails. Ugh. 

As if digging a bazillion nails out of old, smelly wood wasn't bad enough, I discovered that the couch was stuffed old-school style with some kind of weird fiber over the cotton batting that, when tugged upon, exploded into a mist of ancient pee-soaked dust to be immediately absorbed by my nose.

Halfway through!

It took me a good three hours of nail pulling, ripping, yelling, gagging, and holding stiffened yellow brocade as far away from my body as possible to get it (mostly) gutted. I left the bottom layer of webbing with the springs attached for two reasons: I wanted to keep the springs together until I'm ready to re-tie them, and I was just tired.

I bagged up all the junk, vacuumed up all the nails (expect the baker's dozen I had stuck in my flip-flops jamming into my feet), and called it a day.

Next step: refinishing the wood, and replacing one crossbeam that is likely ruined by the pee.

At many points during the gutting process did I begin to question the mental soundness of taking on this project. All I can say is, it better turn out good.

urine luck, part deux

I just got the couch of my dreams last night. Here it is:

Hahaha oh...*wipes away a tear* IF ONLY.

Anyone remember last year, when I posted this, about using my iron to sear some hot cat pee into old satin?

Well it looks like I've inherited another project of the cat pee variety, and I'm super duper excited about it. Okay not the cat pee part, but the project. Meet my new baby.



Tada! Oh boy. I found this on Craigslist, and was instantly in love. And like the true waste-not dumpster diver that I can sometimes be, I said, "Cat pee? Pshaw. I've dealt with that before. Total reupholstering? Easy! I've already reupholstered a wingback chair (that I found next to a dumpster)! How hard could this be?"

Um.

It was free? That's all I can say in my defense. And she's got good bones, really solid, nice wood, and I love her profile. And this time around I kind of know what I'm doing. For example, I know that I need to get fabric I'm sure I'll still love in 5 years, aka the gray velvet I've been longing for these past four years. I need to get a staple gun for the air compressor because last time around I got carpal tunnel from using a squeeze staple gun 40,000 times in two days. And I need to refinish the dumb wood BEFORE I reupholster. Ha.

Really though, as much as I don't look forward to tearing out antique fabric covered in at least a gallon of feline whizz, I really enjoy making or re-doing furniture. I mean, I made this bed for my youngest:



I built this bench to go with my table.

Years ago, my sister-in-law scored a really messed up orange table that was a prop at Urban Outfitters. The table top was crap, but I loved the legs. After a few years of sitting in my husbands shop, I recently  took them down, painted them, used a wire brush on the painted-over brass toe caps, and attached them to a small pine table top. 

Oh and see that chair there? It was six bucks at the scariest ghetto thrift shop ever. Here it is before:

 I tore off the seat cushion, stripped the wood, sanded the heck out of it, and used some leftover leather I had to re-cover it. I gotta admit, I was pretty proud. Even my perfectionist husband was impressed with that outcome.

I've really made or fixed quite a few things, so I'm hopeful about this new project. Now I have a question for you all: does anyone have any experience with button tufting? Because I'm seriously thinking about changing that smooth back to a tufted one. Thoughts? Opinions? I'm just curious.

March Pin Madness

So "Pick a Pin" was sort of a misnomer for the month of March. "Pick a Few Pins" doesn't work either. The only thing I can say about last month was that a sort of madness overtook me. And I went with it.

In no apparent order, here are my picks and makes and purchases for March from things I've pinned:

I bought: a fiddle leaf fig.

A couple of Ekby shelves for my studio.

This cheap but super functional desk lamp for drawing.

I made: Geo wall hooks.

Neon macrame.

Leather baskets.

Blood orange marmalade.

A pallet compost bin.

Homemade linen spray.

The one thing I didn't do? Those egg geodes. I couldn't find alum powder anywhere except online for ridiculous prices, and I would rather spend my money on plants and crafts than 2 ounces of powder.

On a related note, suddenly I can't link pins from my boards onto my blog. Anyone else having similar difficulties? I know Pinterest has switched over to a new layout but why, I wonder, am I no longer allowed to put pins on here? Anyone know?

free is my favorite kind of cheap

Every year I seem to have the same two issues when it comes to buying a calendar. The first one is finding one I like enough to have hanging on my wall for a whole year. The second is...they're just so much money! And being that like most people I'm broke after December, I never get around to getting one till at least the end of January. *shrug*

Today I was pondering my predicament, when suddenly I remembered that I have a big chalkboard wall. Right there in my kitchen. Where I keep my calendar anyway. And I have chalk. Lots of chalk.

Free stuff rules.

a few Christmas faves

Out of all the things I made this year for presents, this one was definitely my favorite.



Isn't it cute? If I had been a girly girl as a child, I probably would have loved this.



I hope it gets lots of good use.

Here's my husband with his favorite gift--the vice for gun cleaning. Check out that leather doodad on the butt of his rifle--he designed and hand sewed that whole thing. How awesome is that?

When I realized that my dad and stepmom had gotten the kids an Xbox for Christmas, I was a little worried that the rest of the presents they got from us would look super lame. I mean, what's a Mason jar full of marbles compared with a video game? But to my delight they were equally excited about the marbles and legos and board games as they were the video games. Still, they were (are) pretty into this Disneyland game that came with the package. And that Kinect thing makes them super hilarious to watch while they play.

My gift this year from my husband was a gun. No pictures of that one, but maybe I'll post some later of me shooting it. I haven't had the chance to try it out yet. We were supposed to spend some time doing target practice at our camping/hunting trip we just got back from, but everyone got the flu, and it was freezing, so we never got around to it.

What about you all? Did anyone get something they were really excited to get?

Holiday DIY--The tiny village

It's been a good long while since I did a little tutorial, and even though these are super easy, I thought it would be a fun little DIY project some people might like to try without having to think about it too much.

What you'll need:

• Toilet paper or paper towel tubes, cut into various sizes. 
• An Xacto knife and scissors
• Cardstock for the roofs and windows
• Hot glue gun and regular glue or gluestick (not pictured)
• Scotch tape (not pictured)
• Parchment paper (not pictured)
• Flameless LED tealights

First, cut out a small square or rectangle of card stock for your window and use the regular glue to attach at the height you want. Then *carefully* cut out your window panes with the Xacto knife.

Next, you'll need your parchment. If you only do one window, you only need a piece big enough to go behind it. If you do two (one on either side of the tube) you'll need to just make another cylinder to go inside the whole tube.

Since parchment is designed for stuff not to stick to it, your best bet is to use a small amount of tape to attach it on the inside. When you're finished, you should have a nice opaque window.

Why? Because this is Christmas, not Halloween, and without the parchment your candle will give the impression that the cute huts are on fire, rather than warmly aglow with cozy light.

See what I mean? We want cutesy village, not burn and pillage. Anyhow. Moving on.

Next cut out your template for the roof. It is a half circle. Nothing fancy. Decorate it if you wish. Go nuts. One of mine has a little chimney. I might even do a glitter one later, who knows.

Wrap the roof into a cone shape, and hot glue the edge down. Then carefully put a bead of hot glue all around the upper edge of the house. Checking for level (I say this because my first house looks a bit...um...tipsy) push the roof down on top of the house.

Et voila! Tiny little casa de cuteness. (See what I mean about the drunkeness? Too many hot toddies this Christmas, I guess.)

Pop a fake candle in.

Light it up! Then make a bunch more.

Easy peasy.

Now turn down the lights and enjoy your fun little village!

star anise and flying geese

Normally I would say origami is not my thing. My spatial reasoning skills are just...meh. The day before yesterday, when I attempted to make this Carambola flower, I repeatedly said in a less than pleasant tone of voice, "Origami is NOT. MY. THING!"

But then today when I decided to give it a go again, and to be super uptight about every little crease and corner, I found that while it's still not necessarily my thing, I can muscle through it to get something I really like.

I think what I like about this model is that it looks like star anise. I love star anise. I'd buy a million packets of it from the store if you could be guaranteed a lot of whole ones. I always see the packet with one whole one and then a bunch of busted ones.

Anyway, I'm thinking a wreath interspersed with the tiny pinecones I collected in California this summer. Eh?

I also got started sewing my x & + blocks together. And I gave up after one row. One thing I've learned about quilting (or anything) is that if you're not feeling into it, you'd better just stop before you destroy your work or kill someone. As much as I'm feeling the deadline approaching, I know when I'm beat. So I decided to make a doll quilt for my niece as part of her Christmas present this year.

Fun! I've always wanted to do a traditional flying geese (as opposed to these flying geese I did awhile back), and this was great way to get rid of some purple scraps. My niece is totally obsessed with purple (remember that purple stormtrooper I told you about? Yeah.) so I figured it'd be hard to go wrong here.

Now all I have to do is bind it. Oh, and make the bed to go with it. In the meantime, I should probably contemplate putting up some outside decorations. For some reason I'm just not feeling the outside stuff this year--probably because it's December and it's 80 stinkin' degrees outside. Yuck.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

Hey. About that internet silence.

Two words: Busted. Laptop.

That's the bad. The good? My mom had an apple computer she wasn't using, and offered it in exchange for my husband to fix up my stepdad's gun. Yes!

The ugly: the horrendous pictures my ancient camera takes. The disadvantage of having a giant, HD computer is that I can see very clearly just how awful my pictures are. AND--there's no place on this computer to stick my memory card, which means I need that USB cable that came with my camera a million years ago which I have since lost.

So. About that internet silence. Yeah.

The thing is I'm dying to share some stuff with you all--quilts in progress, pictures of my trip to Birch (Fabricworm!) fabric store in California....aahhhhh!!!

Oh well. I guess you'll have to wait. Boo.

No, I'm not dead

...just busy. And sick. Here's the bullet point for the last few weeks:

* A week of getting ready for the triple threat weekend: our anniversary, middle son's birthday, and fourth of July.

*A week of preparing to be at VBS

*The actual week of VBS. I was busy herding Kindergartners so I didn't get any pictures, but it was great.

*And lastly, the week of VBS resulted in this week which has mostly been me carrying around my heavy congested head and wishing my kids came with mute buttons.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Swaziland quilts are gone! That is, at least, they're gone from my sewing room. I took them all to the church to start adding to the pile. I think we've actually got over forty quilts, which makes me smile and sigh with relief. Everyone was excited to see all the different quilts plus the cute crocheted dolls I received....oh dang. I just realized I forgot to get pictures of those to put on here. Man! I'm so scatterbrained lately. Anyway, the trip is in September so be sure to check back after that for pictures of the quilts in action. Yay!

With all the quilts being done and gone, I'm taking advantage of the cleaned out sewing room by using it to make more, even bigger messes. This week, to take my mind off my compressed brain and nagging cough, I turned the back room into a greenhouse/upholstery room. I built a new light box and started a whole mess of seeds--most of them the herbs I plan on putting in my big herb garden.

Then I finally decided to tackle reupholstering the wingback chair I dumpster dived a few years back. THAT has been more than I bargained for, not so much in how hard it is to figure out how to do, but in how hard it is to remove 80 billion staples from the chair frame. Ugh. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will all turn out well and I won't have ruined a perfectly good free chair. Here it is in all its naked glory:

As if all that wasn't enough, I also started sewing a dress. It's been ages since I made any kind of clothing for myself and I'd been drooling over this pattern for the last year. So I decided to just take the plunge and just make it already. So far I've got the top bodice sewn, only I sewed one part on wrong (the directions, while cute, are very unclear on this one part) and now I've got to seam rip and re-sew and that's just something my snot-filled head is just not in the mood for right now. So I think I'll try to finish the chair first.

And LASTLY (yes, there is an end in sight for this long-winded post), this Sunday I will be hosting the first meeting of the Tampa branch of the Modern Quilt Guild, of which I somehow ended up being the de facto leader. I'm excited and just a little nervous, because I pretty much have no idea what I'm doing. I've never been a part of any kind of guild or group like this. I'm hoping it will be fun, and I won't make an idiot out of myself.

It's a work in progress...

Over the last month I've been attempting to transform this useless triangle of dirt in my front yard into something a little more presentable. Since I appreciate the pollination butterflies provide, but would rather have them laying eggs somewhere other than in my vegetable garden, I figured a little butterfly garden wouldn't go amiss. I bought a few butterfly plants, dug up some old pavers from the pile o' crap the former owners left behind the workshop (speaking of which, that place has been like a goldmine for me and my cheapskate, DIY mentality), weeded, mulched, et voila! The beginnings of a butterfly habitat. 

One thing I was sorely missing was a water source for these winged beauties, but at a ridiculous $40-$60 for some ugly concrete or plaster birdbath I wasn't in any big rush to go out and get one. (Enter the aforementioned cheapskate.) I figured there had to be a way to make one, but the idea just wasn't coming. Until today. 

Tada!! Presenting the 2 dollar bird/butterfly bath!

So I had this lamp that my brother gave me, but the shades were paper and they broke, then the electric bits stopped functioning, so it was slated for the dump. For some reason my husband pulled one of the lamp poles off the base and stuck it in my little pumpkin patch, and it hung out there uselessly until today. I checked it out, and thought--"Hey, I bet if this had some kind of bowl on it it would work!" So I went to Target, bought a cheap 2 dollar wide melamine bowl, drilled a hole in the middle, and screwed the lamp parts together. Pretty cool, eh? And it has the added bonus of being a) turquoise, a color I'm a sucker for, and b) kinda mod looking and not a big bulky concrete clamshell from Home Depot. Although if I'm honest it does pretty much look just like a lamp sitting in my garden. Oh well.

Anyway, it makes me happy. I realize my garden is sort of pathetic at this point, but I plan to pad it out with more plants and let it grow a little wild. Anything is better than that atrocious dirt triangle, and I'm not a huge fan of bushes, so...there you go.

vanilla, baby

okay, so i have a confession. for most of my life i considered vanilla to be like the ultimate tasteless flavor. vanilla ice cream? booooring. vanilla perfumes and soaps? blech!

and then at some point my mind began to change. little by little, one day at a time, i fell in love with vanilla. my boring adult self began to detect subtleties in the smells and tastes of different vanillas. vanilla bean ice cream became my favorite. what is the meaning of this? i asked myself. the answer is probably that i'm getting old and boring. but i don't care!

then, about two years ago when craft magazine was still in print, i came across this article. oh. my. gosh. DIY vanilla? how freaking cool is that?! unfortunately, i had no money for pricey vanilla beans. so i waited. and schemed. and waited some more. i saved every empty vanilla bottle i used in the hopes that someday, maybe, i'd have my own little vanilla stash, and could bestow delicious fragrant homemade vanilla on all my bakey friends. yes, i know bakey is not a word SHUT UP. 

well the other day i bit the bullet and ordered some vanilla beans online. and yesterday they arrived. i could smell them through the box and ziploc they were in. heavenly! 

today, i jaunted into the liquor store with a baby on my hip (because i am always a classy person) and picked up a giant, look-what-a-lush-i-am bottle of bourbon. i then went home and made me a big old mason jar of vanilla. 

(note the lid. that's right, i save spaghetti sauce jars, too. don't hate me because i'm a cheapskate.)

i'm really stupidly excited about this. i can't wait until it starts to develop. i can't wait to hand out little bottles of brown vanilla joy to passersby on the street, while my halo of benevolence is shining behind me. the fortunate people of tampa, florida, will go home clutching their precious extract and telling their children bedtime stories about the crazy vanilla lady who tosses around small glass bottles with reckless glee.

on a side note, i also used to hate the color pink and would mercilessly mock those who wore it or used it in pretty much any context. and now i sort of guiltily like it. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME.