Unveiling

OK, breaking news!  I have been working on this for a while and the kinks are still not all worked out, more collections will be added but I think it is ready to unveil....
I have a website! If you have made an item with my fabric, you may be featured in my Customer Projects page. If you have made something with my designs and would like to be added, let me know.

Little Drawers

Anyone who has moved knows that there is always a lot of set up to do in the new place.  It seems that every new space has different requirements.  In our new home it seems we need more desks.  So I have lost my sewing desk but it has been replaced with our old, and now too small dining table.  The good news is that I now have space for my cutting mat and sewing machine all in one area.  The bad news is I lost all of the drawer space of my former sewing desk.  I have a lot of little tools and pens that I prefer tucked away in drawers.  After looking into my local options, I found an older cabinet for the larger items and a little wooden drawer cabinet in a craft store for the rest. 
The little cabinet seemed to be just the perfect size for my wallpaper sample of Ghana Fantastic Floral on White Petite  from my Ghana Floral Collection and indeed I was able to wrap it in the design.  I simply removed the drawer pulls and traced around the drawer faces to get a total wrap look.  I really like the little black drawer pulls in contrast with the light and bright design.  Now my supplies will be happy!

 

Ghana Fantastic Floral on White Petite

Christmas Celebrations

When I first went to Boston to visit my husband's family, it was during winter break between college semesters.  They took me to see Christmas Revels and I absolutely loved the show. The Revels is a series of vignettes celebrating folk customs around winter for the current theme.  No matter the theme there are always certain elements, Morris Dancers, a mystery play with St George and the dragon, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, a dance with the audience and a lovely poem by Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day.   Christmas Revels and other seasonal shows run in several US cities. You can find your closest Revels here and further links for a taste of the Revels.

Susan Cooper reading The Shortest Day

This week's Spoonflower contest is for a monochromatic winter scene toile design.  My design below is based on remembrances of Christmas Revels past.  Hope you can take time to vote for designs you like.

Bunkbed Remake

The boys have had bunkbeds since my middle child moved out of the baby bed.  Now that we are entering tween territory we needed separate beds.  I really didn't want to buy new beds so I plotted a way to reuse the bunk bed.

Here is the original IKEA MYDAL bunk bed

My husband and I had discussed making this bunk into two separate beds when we were disassembling the bed in Dakar.  So we went ahead and measured the height of the cornerposts for a new bed and marked them for each bunk. 
The bed below was designed for my oldest son (my middle child's headboard is not yet finished.)  He wanted that flat, modern headboard which really is the easiest thing in the world to do.  I purchased a nicely veneered piece of plywood at the hardware store and had them cut the bunkbed posts down at our premeasured marks. After, we sanded the whole thing and wiped it down.
By now you probably have guessed my love of the Krylon spray paints and I do love the 2 in 1 paint plus primer paints but this bed was made of untreated wood so I really felt I needed a base coat.  We used a spray on primer followed by the hammered textured spray on paint in black.  I think the reflective properties of the paint make it look like a charcoal grey instead but that works as well.  Following painting we reassembled the bed and attached the headboard in front of the headboard corner posts.
My son is pretty happy with his bed.  See how it compares to the MALM bed on the IKEA site which is the bed he wanted.  I think we spent about $30 total on paint and the plywood, not bad for a 'new' bed.

Thrift Treasure

I love thrifting.  It is treasure hunting, ecological, inexpensive (if you just buy what you need) and appeals to my creativity.  I think I have found a terrific treasure. 
First, a little background.  We have just moved into a new house and the kids are getting their own rooms.  I have been working on a series of projects to reflect each of their personalities. The little one predictably wants a PINK and PURPLE room.  Preferably with FROZEN princesses everywhere and a lot of glitter thrown in to boot. 
Pinterest has a lot of great ideas for updating thrift projects.  And I found a terrific update for my little girl's room, a chandelier, can you get more princess than that?

Check out this old brash finish chandelier I found at the thrift store.  In this photo I am starting to remove the glass panels by melting the solder between the panels and gently pulling them out.  It took a bit of patience with my trusty soldering iron but I managed it with no prior experience.  I am setting them aside--maybe I will be able to make something with them?
Here you can see all of the glass pieces off.

And here is the finished piece, pink, per request.  I sprayed it with Krylon Paint plus Primer glossy pink.  It is pretty tricky to get an even coat on such a detailed piece.  After the paint was dry, my daughter and I went to the store and picked out the embellishments; beads to hang for sparkle and cording to trim the area on the platform the beads are hanging from.  I also painted the 'candlesticks' with turquoise glitter.  The last touch was to purchase dimmable LED bulbs.  Her room has a dimmer and regular LEDs do not dim well.  OK, really the last touch was to hang the lamp but that was Dad's job.  Thanks Dad!

Stripey Walls and Ornaments

The two for one fat quarter sale at Spoonflower has been extended one day so head on over there because the twelfth is the last day.  While you are on the site, please consider voting in the Ornaments giftwrap contest.  My entry is simple and a little retro with silver tinsel in the background.

Snowflake Ornament Bright

As you know from a previous post we are getting settled in to our Michigan home.  Sadly, though, we still do not have our household effects from Africa.  This means that we are all sleeping on the floor until they arrive.  The best thing about that is that instead of unpacking I can focus on other aspects of decorating, like the nightstand remake from my previous post or painting my eldest son's bedroom.  

A little background...my oldest son was not very happy with the house we selected.  He feels crowded with all of the trees surrounding us but the biggest problem is the lack of basketball hoop. Pretty much every other house we looked at had one, except this one.  All of the flat parts of the yard are right next to big windows and we are up on a hill, so there isn't really a good place to install one. We offered him a budget to decorate his bedroom so at least he feels like he has some space his own.

My son decided he wanted a grey room with a blue feature wall.  At the paint store he selected seven blues but just could not not narrow it down.  He decided he needed little 8oz samples of all of them so he could get a feel for which would look better with the grey.  Still he couldn't decide.  So I suggested we find a way to use all of them.  That is how we ended up painting the subtle hombre stripes seen in the picture below.  He is pretty happy with how it came out.  I used this tutorial to get really clean lines.  And now you also know why his bed is on the floor.  :)

Upcycled Nightstand & Fat Quarter Sale

I purchased this nightstand as well as several other pieces of furniture for my daughter's bedroom.  She needed us to acquire almost everything since when we left Maryland she was still an infant.
The photo above does not reflect how this nightstand looked when I purchased it.  I was so excited to get started, I forgot to take a photo of the 'before' view.  The nightstand was painted in white matte paint and had a baby blue and leaf green sponged overlay.  Since that was not quite the look I was going for, I spray painted it with white gloss Krylon paint plus primer. 
I knew as soon as Spoonflower announced their ballet contest theme I could work with the design in her room.  She is such a girly girl and loves ballet and princesses.  So, I purchased a 2ft piece of Graceful 1950's Ballerinas in Turquoise and Coral wallpaper (they sell wallpaper by the foot) of my ballet design from Spoonflower to upcycle the drawers.  The process is really quite easy and instructions come with the wallpaper.  The hardest part was embossing the wallpaper around the rectangular ridge on the drawers.  When I was done, I had enough paper left over to also add a wallpaper inset to the top. I added new drawer pulls.

In other news, Spoonflower has 2 for 1 fat quarters starting tomorrow and the sale runs Nov 6-11.
I plan on purchasing some knit fabric in Hexie Roses Deep Hues and the coordinate Profusion of Roses in Red  to make a dress or leggings for my daughter.  I plan on covering some dining room chair cushions in Yellow Wagtail Birds on Dogwood Branches in one of the heavier polyesters.  Many of the knits and polyesters are 56 inches wide.  That makes a pretty big fat quarter.  You can find out the specs on the different fabric types here.  I bet you have some projects that you could use this sale for too.


Profusion of Roses in Red

Yellow Wagtail Birds on Dogwood Branches

Hexie Roses Deep Hues