Sunday, November 29, 2015

Super Saturday

Hello, it's been awhile since my last post. 
Since I went back to college I haven't had as much time to woodwork or refinish furniture lately. The love is there, but the timing is off for me to do more projects. I did recently do a Super Saturday for the ladies at my church. Super Saturday is a day where we meet at the church and several of us who make crafts teach the ladies and help them make a take home project at cost. 
These are the three projects I did. The pillow, the trees and the tags.  I am going to show you how I made the trees. I started out with long strips (4ft long by 8" tall) of inexpensive backing board and I glued several strips of small trim to it until it covered the 8" of height. 
I then decided what angles to cut the wood trees. 
After lining it up I matched the angle on my miter saw. In cutting them all from a long strip, it saved time and energy from just cutting out one piece of trim out at a time. 
I ended up repeating the glue and cut process until I had enough for all the orders. 
Some of the wood trim didn't want to stay down. This is where having a lot of clamps came in handy. 
I was playing around with the trim after I was done. It would make a neat ceiling medallion if it was all done in the same pattern and lined up and caulked just right. 
I would say the Super Saturday was a success. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the ladies finishing the trees. I was jumping in and helping those who needed help. 
With the tags, some kept them the natural wood color and some painted theirs white. 
The tags and the trees were definitely the most popular of the three crafts that I did. 
Again, I am sorry I didn't take more pictures of the ladies painting and staining their trees. I was up to my elbows in paint and dark wax.  To do the base of the tree, I used a square wood dowel and an old wooden spool. The spools were donated by my mother-in-law. (thanks Shirley!)
The square dowel was clamped and glued to the back of the tree.  I used the blue end dowel at Home Depot and I drilled a hole bigger in the spool with a 3/8" drill bit.  To fit a square dowel into a round hole, I used my belt sander to round the corners off of the dowel to make it round. I then added glue and used a rubber mallet to hammer it in tight. 
I used Behr white paint for the tree and then I used Annie Sloan dark wax to go over it for the example trees. Annie Sloan wax is very expensive so I made my own dark wax to bring for the Super Saturday projects. It looked and worked identical and was less than 1/4 of the price. Again, sorry for the lack of photography! I got busy working and I didn't remember. I only snapped a few of the ladies with their tags. It was a successful day and it was fun to show & help the ladies how to do a new skill.

Have a great day!  Love Lori

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Ladder blanket racks

These are the finished products, 3 blanket or towel racks for my friend. 
Last time I showed you a pile of lumber I had brought home. These are 2x4's and 2x6's.  I have gone back to school so I am sorry about the long time between building and blogging.
After cutting the boards, I drilled pocket screw holes in the middle boards and gave everything a good sanding. 
Here they are assembled. The ladder rungs are tilted to try and dissuade the kids from climbing. 
After the first coat of stain, they started looking pretty good. 
I don't know why gloves always split on me when staining, they just never hold up. 
Most projects leave my hands looking like a crime scene. Lol 
I got the building plans from Shanty 2 Chic. I like how they give you step by step instructions.  They have a ton of fun projects! I tried to post the link but I couldn't get it to come over. If you google shanty 2 chic blanket ladder rack, it will take you right to it. 

Here they are done after the second coat of stain and two coats of clear poly.  I enjoyed making them, building projects is my favorite. I would do it full-time if I had a better back. 

Have a great day! 
Love, Lori

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Mouse Pad

I wanted to show you how I spruced up this mousepad.  First it came home looking like this. 
My 6 year old had won it in her school's carnival. I need a mousepad since I am taking night school, but one that looks like a prescription pad is definitely not my style.  So I gathered some scrap materials from around the house and tried them out. 
I was going to use the turquoise circles but the white part of the material was too thin and you could see the writing underneath. 
I used the spray adhesive very liberally on the mousepad. Then I laid the material out over the sticky mousepad and I pressed and stretched out all the bubbles and wrinkles. After I used my rotary cutter on my Silhouette Cameo cutting board to trim the fabric.  I went back with my sharp fabric scissors to make sure all the strings were cut. 
It cost me nothing since I got the mousepad for free and I had all the other materials here at home. I think this is an easy way to update an old mousepad or just make it match your own unique style. The total makeover time was less than five minutes.

Have a great day! 
Love, Lori

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Rolling along

The VW Bus dresser is coming along nicely now. I got the windows, wipers and the headlights on! 
It just has a few more steps and a clear coat before I can call it done. 
I put a VW symbol on top just for fun as well. This little baby has come a long way! 
I couldn't find the hood ornament I wanted, so I cut one out of wood and patched and painted it to look like an authentic one. I was happy to get some use out of my Ryobi bandsaw I purchased early this spring. 
After I glued and wood filled the cuts, it painted up nicely. 
Here it is before the windows and the detail striping. I had just clamped the headlights to estimate the location they would be mounted on. 
I sponged on the top logo and then I went back and did the edge in metallic silver as well. 
Here it is before the lights. 
And here it is again after.  I am going to finish with a few more details but this piece doesn't have an owner quite yet. If you are interested it will be $199 for pickup here in Utah.  Please contact me if it's something you would like in your home.  


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Vw dresser still in production

With both of my fashionista's in school full time I am excited I am getting back to work! I haven't sat down and blogged or had much time to paint, or build all summer.  These crazy gals keep me busy and I love spending time with them. 
With the girls gone all day, it's time for this mom to play! I am working on overall better health first and foremost (mind, body, spirit). I have been meeting with a personal trainer at Vasa fitness once a week and exercising as many days a week as possible 3-5.  I lost 5 inches on my waist so far but the weight hasn't gone down much. 
  I see a nutritionist soon (my insurance covers 5 visits with for free) to help get my diet more in line with my goals.  I have been listening to books on CD in the car and at home to get my mind active. The public library has oodles! I really recommend trying it out.
I went to a week long church retreat, and I start part-time online college at BYU-I next month.  I am really trying to work on self-improvement without getting overloaded, I will let you know if it works. 😉 
  So on to the fun stuff! I started working again on my VW bus dresser.  
I raised up the blue line a bit and I added a silver trim line.  It's not much of a difference so far but I am happy for any progress. 
Soon I will add the lights back on permanently, put windows and the windshield wipers and finish the tiny details.  Here it was with the lights clamped on in the spring.  I think raising the blue and adding silver really added to it.
They are fun working lights and the small ones are the yellow blinker ones.  I was at a local VW dealership looking for my future mid-life crisis mobile. (I am wanting a convertible VW bug someday in the distant future) On the wall of the dealership I saw this graphic. 
VW's are just fun to me. My first car was a Jetta that I purchased a year before my wedding and I loved that little thing. We sold it for a "family wagon" but since we are only able to have the two kids, I am thinking a zippy fun car is in the works for the future once again.  

*update* windows are on and here is me adding a touch of chrome trim to them. I love the shiny silver. I used silver guilders paste and my finger between the tape lines. 

Saturday, June 27, 2015

A long, long time.... In a galaxy very close by

So unfortunately this isn't a Star Wars post, though I do love the show. 
  The long, long time is in reference to how long it's been since I have posted.  It's summer time and having my little fashionistas home with me 24/7 has given me much less time to work on home decorating and furniture than I had hoped.  I do have a bit to show you.  Remember when I said I was dreaming of buying Beddy's zip up bedding for my girls? I still dream of it (I LOVE their styles) but I am on a very limited budget.  For now I found a less expensive solution and I purchased Zipit bedding for their bunk beds. 
This is their beds now. I had them make it. -I wish I would have tucked in the bottom one for the photo-  The bedding is a fitted sheet that zips on both sides and attaches to the comforter and one standard pillowcase.  Any additional pillows or accessories don't come with it.  Each of these costs approximately $50 so around $100 for both bunks was a good value to me.  The Beddy's seem like a much higher quality bedding set start around $250 each. 
Making their beds is super easy now they just zip up the side and arrange the pillows. It takes about 5 seconds and no tears and that is nice because it's so hard to make bunk beds! When I ordered the bedding and I was about to check out with two in my cart, it said it would waive shipping and handling if I ordered another. I was curious if it would do this on one bed set and make the overall purchase price less and YES, it did! So if you decide to order 2 or more, only put one in your cart and then it will make you a "deal" to get more.
I saw these cute turquoise curtains at Target the other day and since my girls have decided on hot pink and turquoise, I may have to pick them up on another visit. 
   I have also been working on my VW bus dresser. 
I have a little model car on top for perspective. I want to move the turquoise color lines up higher because they are too low for a bumper and license plate to be added and I really want to have those. All the lights are just clamped in place right now but they will be bolted on eventually.  The colors would match my girls new color palette for their room but I haven't decided quite yet if I will keep it. It is still up in the air if I will sell it, keep it in the garage to hold my tools or add it to the collection of random furniture in the house. I do like that the headlights work. When I get done with it, I will do a blog post about how I got them all to work including the little yellow safety lights. 

I hope you are having a wonderful day! 
Love Lori 

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Ghosts of organizations past

Sorry I have been silent for awhile.  I had more things going on than I could keep up with.  I was browsing through my old Pinterest boards and I stumbled on some of my old organization projects.  
In my old house I made this inside my spice cupboard. It was so handy to always know where my cups and spoons were. It was just made from a couple cheap boards and some teacup hooks.  I used the same teacup hooks and dowels to store my ribbon on this shelf. 
I have always enjoyed crafting and design so IKEA has had many tools of organization that I have loved to utilize.  Here is some of their kitchen storage in my craft room. 
My paper punches sit nicely on the bars while my markers, pens and tools dangle below.  I have a busy, hectic life at times and my little girls love getting into my things.  So as much as I love organization it doesn't always stay as clean as I want. My big goal is to de-clutter now that they are getting older and to teach them how to care for nice things. 
In my old place I had removed my lazy Susan and installed more IKEA rods and hooks. I didn't like things falling behind the Susan and getting trapped.  This was a halfway done photo, I installed a second set in front of these and I LOVED it.  I just wish I had taken a photo before we moved. 
This is on the wall in my kitchen right now. 
Yes, this is how we eat, very fancy! I love great and easy solutions to everyday needs and I am determined to get my house more clean and organized in the future. 
I would show you my little fashionista's room -a soon to be remake- but the mess is embarrassing right now.  Please let me know your favorite tips and tools to clean and organize, I could sure use them. 

Have a great day! 
Love Lori


Dedicated to my oldest child Bernie who passed away about two weeks ago.  We had him 12 years but in our hearts forever.