We Need A Little Christmas

Last December, Daniel and I took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. The place was all decked out for Christmas, and it was really fun to walk around and see all the decorations, which were handmade out of all natural materials--tree branches, fruit, flowers, etc. Here are some examples:

While we were there, we attended a wreath-making workshop at the historical museum. This year, we decided to try to put our untested wreath-making skills to use.

Daniel gathered the necessities:
- a couple of fake wreaths, needed for their wire frames
- several bunches of different tree cuttings from the local garden center
- florist wire
- florist tape
- a bag of cinnamon pieces and pinecones
- assorted fruit

I supplied some pliers/wirecutters, and we were off.
The first step was removing the fake wreaths from their wire frames. Then, we attached individual branches to the wire frames using the florist wire, and then added on the final decorative touches at the end. The process is easier to see using pictures:

Scout inspects the back of the fake wreath. The wire frame seen here provided the frame for our wreaths.

Some of the clippings. We used red cedar and fir for the wreaths' bodies.

My wreath in the beginning. It looks best if you start at one point on the wreath and go around all the way in the same direction. This hides the ends of your branches.

Using florist wire to attach a branch to the metal frame.

My wreath once I got all the red cedar branches on!

Then I attached some of these small decorative branches with the yellow tips.

I also added on a few fir branches.

And finally, some pinecones and cinnamon stick bits, all attached with the wire.

The final product!!!

Here it is hanging up outside!

Daniel's wreath - he used fir for the body and then added on apples, oranges, and some little red faux cranberry-ish balls, as well as little pinecones on the piece hanging down. Again, everything attached with wire. He used the green florist tape to wrap the ends of the branches so they would be better disguised. Looks great!


We were actually quite skeptical of the whole process before starting out. At one point early on, Daniel whispered to me, "I have no idea what I'm doing." Well, I didn't either. I think the real key is getting enough of a base built up so it looks beefy and hides the frame and the individual ends of all the branches. This can be time-consuming, though, since you're basically building the wreath one branch at a time. I think the entire process probably took us about 4-5 hours, spread over two nights. We are quite pleased with ourselves! It's going to be a new yearly Christmas tradition. Stay tuned to see what we do with all the leftovers.

The tree is going up...

...and she is being so patient.

Thanksgiving montage

Continuing tale of a bookshelf

I have had this plain Jane bookshelf since sometime in high school. In fact, I think I'm being charitable by calling it "plain Jane." It's particle board covered in wood veneer with a super cheap cardboard backing. My junior year of college, I was moving into an off-campus apartment and I wanted to bring the bookshelf with me. I decided I couldn't take the veneer anymore and painted it.

The first paint job was a total disaster. I went to the store with a very vague concept of what color scheme I wanted, and ended up leaving with cans of orange, yellow, and pink paint. Just visualize the atrocity... I stopped halfway through because it looked so bad. The next colors I ended up with were inspired by my mother's bathroom rug, and this is what the bookshelf has looked like for the past 4.5 years:

With most of the shelves removed. You get the general idea.

Well, after these bold colors for so long, I decided it was time for a change. I'd been wanting to cover the back of the bookshelf with fabric for a while, and I had the perfect fabric to use thanks to my lovely former roomie Marlane.

The first step was wiping the whole thing down and then painting it white. I decided to use a small hand roller instead of a brush, which turned out to be both faster and left zero brush marks, which have plagued me in the past.

Once the bookshelf & shelves were totally covered (it took several coats...) and had dried, it was time to cover the back. I had mulled over several different ways of attaching the fabric to the back, but decided cutting foamboard to size and covering that would be the easiest route.

I bought three large pieces of foamboard (and only needed 2, but Office Depot doesn't sell them in 2-packs) and cut them to size after measuring the back of the shelf. I had to cut 2 separate pieces to cover the back because the middle shelf isn't removable, for obvious structural reasons. Once the pieces were cut and tested to make sure they fit, it was time to cover them with the fabric.

I cut the fabric to size and then hot glued the edges around the back. I know a lot of other tutorials for this type of project recommend using a staple gun to attach the fabric, but seriously, it's not going to undergo a lot of stress or movement and hot glue is so much easier.

After the boards were covered in fabric, I just pushed them into the bookshelf against the back, and voila! It was so easy and I think it looks great!

Cabinet Facelift

It was my sister's birthday on Friday, and I wanted to get her something good. She just bought her first house a few months ago, and she mentioned wanting something by her back door to hold her pool towels. Enter me and a thrift store.


I went down to the St. Vincent de Paul in Dallas and found a cute little cabinet that was in pretty good shape:

 

The color needed help, it had a lot of dings and scratches, the hardware was 1)gold and 2)rusty, and there were a couple of cracks in the top, but nothing that couldn't be fixed without too much trouble. It did have these beautiful dovetail joints in the top, and was solid wood, so worth the $30 I paid. Normally I would just paint something like this and be done with it, but the wood and joinery was too beautiful to cover up.

The first thing I did was fill in the cracks in the top with a wood filler putty:

The next step was the worst... stripping. I wanted to restain the cabinet, and for the new stain to take hold it was necessary to get as much of the old stain off as possible. Enter Klean Strip. I took the door and hinges off the cabinet and stripped one side at a time.

Stripper goooooooooooooop. Note: do not get this stuff on your skin, ESPECIALLY your face.

The stripper is effective, but really messy and gross and will burn if it gets on you. After everything was stripped, the cabinet had to dry overnight.

The next step was sanding, which is always a pain but a necessary evil. After sanding was the fun part, the stain! Here's a before-and-after of the cabinet body:

Big difference, huh! The final step was spraypainting the hardware. I was not digging the rusty gold situation and I knew my sister would not approve either, so it was Rustoleum to the rescue! The knob and faux keyhole on the front of the cabinet door couldn't be removed without an excess of effort on my part, so I carefully taped all around them and covered the door with newspaper before spraying:

 

By the time I was done, I wished I were keeping the cabinet! It was so cute and frankly I think it turned out awesome. I see a lot more thrift store rehabs in my future...

Final before and after!

A Dream and a Vest

Last night I dreamed that my blog had a ton of followers. Three days ago I also dreamed that I was a major league baseball player. Some things will just never come true.

Anyway, on with the post. I had been working on a crocheted sweater/jacket thing about a week ago, and when I was trying on the body before the sleeves were attached, I thought to myself, "This looks like a vest! How cute would a vest be?!" Mind you, I don't own any vests. I've never felt the urge to wear a vest. However, one cannot stop a girl once vest-possessed. So, I searched around online, found a free pattern, and got to work.

I used this pattern as my basis, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're feeling adventurous. It has quite a few errors and confusing instructions (it is free). I didn't follow the instructions exactly, either; I chose to make it smaller then the stated small size using myself as a form, which led to me having to redo the back, but it all turned out really well in the end. The whole thing took about 2 days.

Stairs fit for a dog

A few (okay, 7) years ago, my parents were totally against getting a dog. And then my sister brought this little dude home...

Jake as a teeny tiny puppy. Awww....

And the rest is history. They adopted Sadie from a rescue organization a few years ago to keep Jake occupied:

Saders.

Sadie and Jake sleep on my parents' bed (you see how far they have come...), and they're concerned about how high of a jump it is for Sades. She has a hard time getting up sometimes, and it's a long jump down. So, enter the dog stairs! I helped my dad make these a few weeks ago.

We started with a 2' square piece of plywood, which we cut into the stair sides, with 8" risers and 6" treads. Using other scrap pieces of plywood, we cut the actual stair treads a couple of feet wide, and nailed the pieces together.

We also added a couple of smaller pieces of wood for bracing on the bottom front and rear:

Once that was finished, all that was left was covering the whole thing with carpet using a staple gun...

and voila! Dog stairs!