[completed] painted toy chest

Awhile ago, I bought (for $10) a toy chest that had been spray-painted a primary blue. Not my color. I recently (finally) repainted the chest. I went with Valspar's Notre Dame, which is a light silvery gray, for the exterior of the toy chest.

... And Valspar's Orange Slice for the inside!

When the chest is in the sun, the interior practically glows. Like a treasure chest in a cheesy movie. It's awesome.

I'll probably be taking this chest to the craft fairs I'm attending to help display some of my quilts and crafty things. And aside from that, it will be used to store all the quilts that don't sell!

[completed] burlap lamp housewarming gift

Remember this burlap that I hand-dyed a long time ago? I finally used it - somehow all my work-in-progress projects are getting attention now. I used the yards and yards of dyed burlap to make another burlap lampshade. This time, I made one for my younger sister and her husband as a housewarming gift (they are moving in November).

I did dye this burlap especially for them and for this project. She had requested a lampshade in a peachy orange color. Hopefully this won't disappoint! 

And of course, what good would a lampshade be without a coordinating lamp base? I found a hideous brass lamp at Goodwill awhile back, and after scuffing it up a bit with a block of sandpaper, I spray-painted it a metallic cappucino color. (It's gorgeous in person). 

Even Gandalf the Cat likes the result!

[completed] aragon bag, take two

front

So I decided to make another Aragon bag. I am smitten with this pattern, although I have to admit that it is not the easiest to create! I just love the finished result - the bag has structure but is still pliable, the shape is fabulous, and the creative possibilities involving fabric, color, and pocket options are great.

This one is my homage to Betsy Johnson. I mixed two similar red and pink and black floral prints with brass hardware. I used one print for the main body and exterior pockets and combined it with the busier floral print for the exterior snap pocket, straps, and lining. For this bag, I experimented with using gold rings in the straps. I love that extra touch!

side

I also used a bright red as my accent color for the interior of the pockets. I love that little pop of extra color with the prints and the brass zippers.

back

 The back of the bag again features a long zippered pocket. Here you can see the red around the zipper. Love it!

lining

 The lining is the same floral print as the exterior pocket. The inside of the bag features a zippered pocket, a label of mine, and two gathered pockets for phones, pens, etc. All the raw edges of the bag are trimmed with bright green bias tape for an extra fun pop of color.

it stands without support!

I added more interfacing to this version of the bag than I did with my first, and the result is much better. Although my first bag stood on it's own, this bag stands taller and feels more structured. The finished bag is 16 inches wide and 10 inches tall with 13 inch straps. Perfectly sized for carrying, well, anything!

Once again, I love this pattern and the resulting creations, and you'll definitely be seeing more Aragon bags in the future!

[completed] aragon bag and pattern review

While pinterest-ing the other day, I found a new Sew Sweetness bag pattern, the Aragon Bag. I knew instantly that I had to make one. So I did!

finished aragon bag

Although I've admired several of the Sew Sweetness bag patterns, I've never taken the plunge to buy one. But for $9.00, this pattern was mine! I went to Jo-Ann's to get all the necessary materials, and found this great gray cross-hatch fabric. I combined it with a fabulous colorful peacock print on gray (for the lining and the straps) and used hot pink as an accent color. 

side view

I splurged on metal zippers, since they look so much better than plastic zippers and seem more durable. There is a 22inch zipper for the top of the bag, and a 14inch zipper for the zippered pocket on the back. The bag also has gathered pockets on the sides for stashing small-ish items. There was also supposed to be a zippered pocket and gathered pocket inside the bag, but I ran out of fabric. 

the back

The front of the back has a nicely sized pocket with a magnetic snap (my first time installing a snap!). 

the front snap pcoket

Overall, the pattern was easy to follow. I had no trouble figuring out what to do, just how to do it. But there were a multitude of helpful photographs of the tricker steps. My only complaint about the pattern is that I didn't end up with enough fabric for all the pattern pieces. I'm not sure if I cut wrong (there is no cutting diagram) or what, but I would definitely buy extra fabric next time. That aside, I love the end result, and I am so pleased!

[completed] scented sachets, take two

Remember these scented sachets? Well, today I made more! This time, I made them for a care package, for my sister. I used brightly colored felt in fushia, two shades of green and royal blue, and stuffed each sachet with rose-scented potpourri.

ready to be sewn up

I made a total of six sachets, which took me about the length of one (1) Twilight movie. Each sachet has machine-stitched petals and is backed with a cotton print from my stash. One of the sachets was machine-stitched around the edges, but the rest I hand-stitched with either a whipstitch or a blanket stitch. I actually kind of enjoyed the hand-stitching part of the process, which is unusual for me.

pretty scraps

 These will be in a care package with some other goodies, and will hopefully will be well-used!

[completed] pigs in mud cake

our finished creation!

While my dear mother-in-law was visiting last week, she suggested that we make a version of this pigs-in-a-mud-barrel cake. So we did!

She made the cakes, trimmed them down so they were flat, frosted them, and assembled the kit-kat barrel around the edges of the cakes.

my mother in law constructed the barrel

While she did all that, I made the pig figures out of delicious marzipan colored with red food dye. This was difficult - I kneaded the marzipan with the food dye and tried to get an even pink color but only achieved streaky red-and-white-and-pink piggies.

I made three piggy butts, one sitting pig figure, and one laying-in-the-mud pig. It took a few tries to get the shapes and cartoon-y realism that I wanted, but fortunately marzipan is a forgiving (albeit very sticky) medium. I used a toothpick to carve out the booty cracks, the smily-face snouts, bellybuttons and the folded ears. I looked at the inspiration photo a lot during this process.

positioning the piggies

Once the piggies met with my and my mother-in-law's approval, I carefully placed the pigs on the muddy cake. And then the cake was done!

proud cake-makers

Adam ended up taking the cake to work. He came back home without any cake! We should be famous around there now! The cake was apparently both hilarious and delicious, which is exactly what we wanted. Even the marzipan pigs were consumed and appreciated.

swimming pigs cake!

That was a fun little project. I'm a little sad that I didn't get to eat the cake or the marzipan (although I consumed a bunch of it while making the pigs), but I'm happy that it was well received at Adam's work!

[completed] embroidered pillow cover

pillow cover!

An embarrassingly long time ago, my younger sister embroidered a semi-original (she stole a little from Shakespeare) poem for our mother. 

my sister's hand-embroidered poem

She used our mother's favorite colors for her bedroom - dark red, light blue, and cream - and sent me the fabric to make a pillow cover. Today, I finished that pillow cover!

hidden zipper closure

I decided to try my hand at a zipper closure. I followed this Design Sponge tutorial (although there are others like it on the world wide web). I had to rip out quite a few stitches because I didn't thoroughly read the entire set of instructions before beginning. Let that be a lesson to you!

I am pretty pleased with the end result. The zipper works and everything.

the back

For the back, I used a subtle dark red polka-dot print, since there was not enough of the blue fabric to make the backing. I like the contrast of the backing against the pale blue of the front fabric.

I cut my fabric 19x19" but I found that to make a loose pillow cover for this 18x18" pillow form, even with a 1/2" seam allowance, so I stitched closer seams to give the pillow cover a closer fit. (This was a good lesson to learn, as I intend to make more pillow covers for my kitchen seat cushions).

kitten approved

This project has the Gandalf seal of approval.

[completed] tea cozy

teapot cozy and pad

For my mother's birthday, my younger sister and I decided to collaborate on a project. She had requested a new teapot and a tea cozy. So I suggested that my sister handpaint a teapot at a local (to her) paint pottery place. Which she did. She was kind enough to measure the teapot for me so that I would be able to make a snug tea cozy. Since she lives so far away, I never got to get my hands on the teapot personally.

I decided I wanted to use tea-themed fabric that would go (or at least not clash) with the color scheme in my mother's kitchen (which is yellow and green). I found this fabulous tea bag fabric on etsy, and promptly snatched up a half-yard. Which then sat in my colorwheel dresser for ages.

I finally sewed up the tea cozy and teapot pad a few weeks ago and mailed them both off. It only took about an hour to whip up both pieces. I followed the directions from a few different online tutorials, and then made the teapot pad using the leftover scraps. I followed a tutorial from V & Co for the heart block, and echo-quilted lines around the heart shape.

I am happy to report that the gifts were well-received - and the tea cozy fits (albeit a touch snugly).

This project had the Gandalf seal of approval.

[completed] successes and failures

So last week I posted about making diy deodorizing disks and bath fizzies. I am here to report back on those projects.

The disks failed. Twice. The first time they crumbled out of my silicone ice cube molds I thought "perhaps I didn't use enough water" so I tried again. No luck the second time either. So I have abandoned that project. Sometimes Internet tutorials just don't work out.

The bath fizzies, however, did just fine. They were more fun to make also because you get to use your hands to mix the ingredients and it felt nice. I've used one of the fizzies so far and it fizzes nicely, scented the bath nicely, and dissolved away nicely. I might acquire some cuter silicone molds and make some fizzies as gifts. I really want some more essential oils so I have different scents (particularly lavender) to experiment with.

So sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't.

[completed] thread catchall

I just completed a mini thread basket/bin/catchall! I followed a tutorial by The Sometimes Crafter. For this catchall I shrank the proportions a bit - I made the starting block 10x10" (rather than 15x15)" and cut out 2.5"corner squares rather than the suggested 4.5". (I actually made another basket following the exact instructions, but it turned out bigger (and not as well constructed) than I wanted.

This basket will be used to collect all those random bits of thread that always seem to magically appear during a sewing project. (Even though Enterprise has a marvelous thread cutting feature, little scraps of thread seem to be everywhere in my life).

[completed] diy kitchen island

DIY island

Today, Adam and I (and a few friends) finally finished our DIY kitchen island! I put the final touches on the paint this morning, and then just now we (and the friends) put the huge piece of granite onto the island body. We definitely needed the extra assistance to move and maneuver the heavy heavy granite.

The process was (fairly) simple. We bought a unfinished sink base cabinet, attached caster wheels to the bottom of the cabinet (which involved adding some wood to the bottom of the cabinet to attach the wheels to), put unfinished end panels on the sides and the back, attached a toe kick to the front bottom of the cabinet, put corner molding around the back and front bottom corner to hide the edges of the end panels and toekick, primed and painted the island three different colors (chalkboard black for the back, Valspar Mountain Smoke for the sides and front, and Valspar Wet Pavement for the drawers and door fronts).

chalkboard back

The granite was purchased from a local rock shop, after looking at multiple granite shops (and getting $800-900 estimates) and the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore (which had $20 granite remnants but no pieces big enough). At the local rock shop, we got a finished piece (64"x34") with demi-bullnose edges for exactly $300. It was so-o worth it - it looks about a million times better than laminate would have, and was not that much more expensive. Our piece came from a remnant. I wanted a lighter piece of granite, since the kitchen is already covered in black, and I liked that this tan-gold piece had flecks of black and grey in it. Also I loved the giant stripe that runs through this piece.

striped granite

Grand total: Less than $600 for a giant custom DIY kitchen island.

Compare that to the $1000+ premade, less than ideal, assembly-required islands, and I think we did pretty well. Plus it was fun to have a project to work on with Adam!

More pictures to come!

[completed] sewing desk

finished desk

Yesterday I put on the final coats of Krylon "Classic Gray" paint on the desk legs and put a clear protective coat over the desk top. After those coats dried, Adam and I carefully maneuvered this giant desk (it's six feet long!) into my sewing room. We had to take the door off the hinges to get it into the room, but we managed.

gray legs and white top
(and a curious cat)

This morning, Sassy graciously posed for me (before an unfortunate trip to the veterinary clinic and a bath - it was a rough day for Assassinationcat). The desk looks great against the navy and gray-blue walls and the white top matches the white chair rail.

The white desk top with gray legs were my mother's idea, and I'm very happy with color combination. The desk could have dominated the room if painted a brighter color, and I already have a lot of color in the room thanks to my color wheel dresser.

with my satin nickel chair

The gray of the desk doesn't quite coordinate with my satin nickel chair the way I had anticipated, but the colors don't clash either. I love both of my new pieces of furniture!

the texture of the desk top

Because of the quality of the wood, the desk top is not perfect despite about a million coats of spray Kilz and another million coats of glossy white spray paint. It's smooth to the touch, but you can still see the imperfections in the wood. I actually don't mind the texture - it gives the desk a more rustic feel and a lot of personality. Also, it won't be so noticeable if I somehow damage the table or the paint job.

my pretty model

Look how nicely the colors go together... and check out the glossy sheen on that desk top!

the final and complete package

I'm in love! It was worth all the trouble to have this huge, custom, personalized, one-of-a-kind desk!

[completed] sassycat silhouettes

before

Remember these previously hideous frames that I spray painted satin nickel a few days ago? Well, I finally decided what I wanted to use them for - silhouettes of Assassionationcat!

after

 I have made silhouettes before, and the process is pretty easy. I took two photos of Sassy that I liked, made them black and white and printed them out on regular paper.

sassy is so regal

just look at that face!

Then I took a sharpie and drew an outline around her, making sure to capture some of the fluffiness. I cut out the sharpie-d shape (I found this was actually easier to do on the backside of the paper, where the sharpie had bled through), traced it onto blue cardstock, and carefully cut it out again. This method means that you lose some of the details - it's like playing telephone -but it's pretty simple and doesn't involve any fancy image software. 

I cut ovals out of a gray cardstock and glued the blue silhouettes onto the cardstock. These frames don't have any glass, but that doesn't bother me - I just popped the cardstock into the frame and reattached the back. Glass is overrated.

finished frames!

 I love love love the result. The nickel and the blue and the gray complement each other really well. These framed silhouettes are going to look lovely in my sewing room!