[wip] diy bath fizzies

With my newfound essential orange oil (of which I appear to have a lot), I decided to tackle a project I've been eyeing for literally years: the diy bath fizzy or bath bomb. Since I had a lot of the materials on hand (baking soda, epsom salts, essential oil) I figured why not? So I picked up some citric acid and witch hazel (and a little spray bottle for the witch hazel), and some silicone molds. Well, that part was tricky. I couldn't find any cute silicone molds, but for $2 for six, these cupcake molds seemed like they'd do the trick. The giant heart mold was also $2, and I bought it because a) I thought I might have extra bath fizzie mixture left over, and b) it was so cute. I love hearts.

Anyway. I followed these Design Sponge directions. There are approximately a million tutorials and sets of instructions out there, but I chose this set because it was simple and didn't involve a ton of difficult-to-acquire materials.

Mixing and molding the bath fizzies was very similar to making the diy deodorizing disks I tackled earlier today. Except that for the bath fizzies, you get to mix using your hands. Which was a great sensory experience, but might have permanently perfumed my hands with the scent of orange. I suppose it could be worse.

Like the deodorizing disks, the bath fizzies have to dry overnight. Now I have a whole collection of things drying! Tomorrow will be an exciting day.

[wip] diy deodorizing disks

supplies

 Today I decided to try a simple, inexpensive and potentially useful craft: diy deodorizing disks. I followed this tutorial by One Good Thing By Jillee. It was very easy - just the supplies seen above (the orange hot pad represents for the boiled water) - baking soda, essential oil (I used orange), mixing bowls and measuring cups, and a silicone ice cube tray or muffin tin (I used an ice cube tray from IKEA). It's not a very scientific process - "add water until you have a thick paste", so I'm crossing my fingers that these disks will be successful.

It ended up making quite a lot - I need to grab two more silicone ice cube trays, as you can see below. So now I will have starfish, stars, and long tube thingies as my "disks". Because I used ice cube trays, each disk is pretty small. I also added way too much orange by accident. They do smell nice and orange-y now, though! I have to let them harden for at least 24 hours, so we'll see in a day or so how well they turned out. I'm hopeful, though - I'd like to have something nice-smelling to put in the closet with the towels, in my dresser drawers, in the bottom of the trash can, etc.

And the best part is that you can supposedly throw them in the wash with your laundry when they stop being effective.

semi-finished product

[wip] it's a white christmas

cutting board, zebra rotary cutter, and scraps

My current work-in-progress is a request from my big sister. She asked for a queen size white quilt for this Christmas. I've started it already because Christmas is notorious for sneaking up on me, and I plan to give quite a few handmade presents again this year.

So I've been cutting yards and yards of fabric on my fabulous new island, and today I've been stitching, cutting, pressing, and stitching some more while watching reruns of The Great Food Truck Race.

This is going to be a long project - each quilt block contains about a bazillion pieces, and is a multi-step process. I'm following Cluck Cluck Sew's fabulous Wallflowers quilt pattern. My version of the quilt will be a lot quieter, with very subtle differences between each fabric. But I think it will be beautiful! I can't wait to see it come together.

Although I am so not excited to quilt another queen-sized beast!

can you tell this is scraps from 16 different fabrics?

[100 day city sampler quilt challenge] day zero

+

=

my new quilty life challenge!

Let me explain. I've been feeling pretty down lately, what with my new job being stressful (as new jobs often are) and leaving little time for crafting. It's gotten pretty bad here lately. I've browsing quilt books and blogs, and I found this Tula Pink City Sampler book quilt-along. I kind of fell in love with the whole concept of 100 different blocks. 

Today I took a little (haha) drive to the nearest Barnes & Noble (which is over an hour away) to find a copy of the Tula Pink City Sampler book (see above!). I spent some time browsing all the beautiful quilt books there, and reluctantly left with just the Tula Pink book. Then I went over to the nearby Jo-Ann's and picked out a stack of rainbow fat quarters (see above!) with which to make the 100 blocks contained in the (really pretty) book. 

So here's the challenge: I am going to make at least one block per day, going in the order they are presented in the book. In approximately 100 days, I will (hopefully) have the blocks completed and will be able to start assembling the quilt.

My goal is to have grace for myself if I miss a day, but to have this project to keep me going and looking forward. I'm in love with my rainbow fabrics, and the whole idea. I am excited to see this quilt come together over the new few months!

[wip] desk progress

gray

Yesterday, after a 25 minute phone call with my mother while I stood in Wal-Mart considering color options, I ended up spray-painting the top of my desk Krylon's basic glossy white. After that dried, Adam and I flipped the desk over and this morning I spray-painted the legs Krylon's "Classic Gray".

I used two full cans, but I need more coats. The can directions say to recoat within one hour or after twenty-four hours, so it looks like I'll be doing some more spray-painting tomorrow morning!

gray and white

I just cannot wait for this project to be done!

[wip] desk progress

love Kilz

Just now, I primed over the failed stain on my desk. I used Kilz Original Spray Primer, which seemed to work pretty well. It took a can and a half to do one light coat, which means I may have to go buy more!

I like the desk more already. Paint just really is more my taste than stain. Wait until you see what color I decided to paint it!

More to follow...

staining failure

You know how every DIY looks amazing on the internet? Well, today I am sharing a failure instead of a finish.

I decided to stain my new desk Minwax Charcoal Gray. I got excited, bought all the stuff, and started as soon as the weather hit 65F today.

And this was the result:

blotchy

uneven

stain

I followed this tutorial (which also featured Minwax Charcoal Grey stain), and as far as I can tell, I did everything right. Yet the results were awful. The texture of the wood shows through way too strongly, the color is way too dark (and blue, for some unfathomable reason), and the finish is terribly uneven.

As you can see, I didn't even bother finishing staining the legs or underside of the desk. I am going to switch to primer and paint and polycrylic for this project. No more stain for me.

It's frustrating and sad - a waste of time and resources and materials. But I am determined to fix this project (after all, this is a custom desk made just for me!). I just need to be patient and let the stupid stain dry so I can paint over it.

Not all DIY projects go swimmingly. I'm chalking this one up to experience. Adam told me of a great saying his mother used to repeat: "Adults have experience because they've done it wrong once".

So there you go.

yet another project

yet another project

Adam and I snagged this awesome and hideous (but very comfortable) glider chair at a yard sale for $10 this weekend. He promised me a glider ages ago, so I was very happy to find one we liked for such a great price. I like that it is white, but that fabric has to go. I plan to recover the chair cushions, but I have to decide on a fabric first! It's tricky because this chair is in the spare bedroom/future nursery, so I want it to be gender neutral for future children but also appropriate for a guest bedroom until we have a little person.

I plan to use a home decorator weight fabric for the chair cushions so that it will be durable. There are a lot of cute choices out there - I've been browsing fabric.com and have found a bunch of reasonably priced fabrics that I love. Especially this one. Is that wrong?

spray-painting all the things

before
hideous, right?

after a coat of paint

can you guess what this project is?

Man do I love spray-paint. Especially Krylon's satin nickel.

[wip] painting my sewing room

before

For the past few days, I've been trying to find a time to paint the sewing room in the midst of all the unpacking. This morning, Adam recruited a friend of his to help us prime the Mizzou-colored walls. I decided to keep the navy blue below the chair rail, but repaint the (hideous) yellow-orange color above the rail.

after priming

To cover up that intense color, we used Valspar's high-hiding primer. It was pretty effective, as you can see. As soon as that coat is dried, we'll be painting the walls in a light gray paint that I bought as a mis-tint at Lowe's awhile ago. I love buying mistints - first because I love random things, and secondly because you can get great unexpected colors for cheap!

I can't wait to get this room all nice and repainted! Then I will be able to finally unpack both the sewing room (obviously), and the spare bedroom (where all the sewing room stuff is being stored). I won't be able to start/continue any sewing projects for awhile, though... I still need to stain and prime my new unfinished desk so I'll have a place to work. That project is definitely on the agenda for next week!

I start my new job (yay!) on the 10th of June, so I have about a week left to finish up around the house. Of course I know I won't/can't get everything done before then, but I am certainly going to try!

[wip] giraffe shirt

cutting cute giraffe fabric
featuring a scented sachet as a pattern weight

Today, in between running errands and being super productive, I decided to make another top using the same pattern as my last one. When I learn something new, I like to practice those skills multiple times to solidify the knowledge in my mind. Practice makes... better memories?

Anyhow, isn't this giraffe fabric just the cutest? I'm pairing it with a matching turquoise solid for the yoke.

[completed] "mod garland" quilt

Remember doorway garlands like this?

mod doorway garland example

Well, I made a quilt top inspired by these mod garlands:

The quilt top is made from five fat quarters and a coordinating green solid along with some teal blue solid fabric from my stash. The quilt top measures about 37 x 45, which is significantly smaller than I had anticipated. But it's cute and cheerful!

[completed] "dare to be different" quilt top

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this quilt online, and I knew I needed to make a similar quilt. So I bought some tone-on-tone white fabric and used five fat quarters from my stash, drafted a quick pattenr and came up with this quilt top.

"dare to be different quilt top"

I love it! I love the message behind the quilt idea, and I love how cheery this quilt turned out. It's perfect for spring (which has (finally) arrived).

I actually made the entire quilt top except for the final borders in a single day. It felt good! My practicum instructor told me I must be on "crack" to churn it out so fast, but I used chain-piecing and the whole thing just flew together.

Now to decide how to quilt it...

[wip] blue dressers

covered in citristrip

Today it was finally nice and warm enough to start stripping my blue dressers. I am using citristrip to take off the (at least) five layers of paint. I started "painting" the dressers with the citristrip around noon, and it still isn't really ready to come off. According to this tutorial, I need to see it bubble. So I am impatiently waiting. I can't wait to get this hideous paint off!

[wip] sneak peek of "dare to be different" quilt

happy colored scraps

While browsing the Internet last night, I stumbled upon this "Dare to be Different" quilt and was immediately inspired. I drafted a similar pattern, chose some fat quarters, and today I started cutting and sewing. The quilt top is coming together very quickly, and I think it's going to be perfect for spring. I can't wait to finish it and reveal it!

[wip] sneak peek of a super secret present

As much as I love love love giving handmade gifts, I almost hate working on super secret presents because I can't share the projects until they are done and received! I mailed off one present this week, and I've been working on another. I'll just share this little sneak peek.

trying to match up colors and corners

This present is an improvisational quilt, a type of quilt piecing I've never done before. It's harder than it looks! There was a lot of cutting and adding and cutting and trimming and all sorts of things. Usually my quilts are carefully planned out (and this usually works for me, please disregard the houses on a hill quilt!), but this project called for something a little more spontaneous. The quilt top is almost done, but it's not due for ages, so don't get too excited. I am just trying to finish some presents before we move and everything is chaotic/messy/needing to be unpacked for awhile.

[wip] houses on a hill quilt top

absurdly proportioned quilt top

 Yesterday, I started a new quilt top, inspired by this Moda Bake Shop quilt. I call this quilt "houses on a hill".

As you can see if you follow the link, my quilt is not at all the same as my inspiration. I wanted it to be more colorful and look like houses on a hill (hence the name), with sky at the top. But I messed up the proportions - when I laid out all the pieces, I failed to account for the sashing in between the rows of houses. All the fabrics for this project came from my stash - the "houses" are made from a charm pack I've had for ages, and the green "grass" fabric is from my stash. The blue for the "sky" is leftover scrap from this quilt.

I was very careful to ensure that the green fabric, which is a directional print, was always arranged so that the print flowed in the same direction. I'm very disappointed that this quilt did not turn out as I had anticipated, although I honestly didn't spend a lot of time on it.

I might take off the bottom few rows and use them on the back of the quilt. Or I could add borders to the sides? Or both? I'm not sure what to do yet. I don't want to distract from the overall plan of the quilt (the "houses on a hill") with borders... So I haven't decided. This quilt top will probably be added to my stack of WIPs while I think on it. Which means I can start another project!

closeup

[wip] blue nightstand and dresser set

clean(er) and empty nightstand and dresser

Today I tackled Step One for my new nightstand and dresser set: cleaning!

I used a diluted amount of TSP (1/8 cup in 2 gallons of warm water, as the box recommended) and cleaned the outside of the dresser bodies and the outside and inside of each drawer with a sponge. Then I wiped it all down again with clean, warm water to remove the TSP. The dressers originally smelled pretty smoky, but using the TSP seems to have removed a lot of the cigarette smoke smell. Which is excellent.

Next step: stripping the at least five layers of paint (seriously). Then I plan to reclean all the interior surfaces with Murphey Oil Soap (which has a nice clean smell to it), and prime and paint and all that fun stuff. One step at a time!

clean(er) drawers drying in the sun

[wip] painting the bedroom dresser

wip in the garage

So far I have done two coats on my bedroom dresser! I settled on using the Sonora Rose and Soft Silk paint colors for the body of the dresser and the drawers. The Sonora Rose color isn't quite accurate in this photo - it's a softer, more dusky rose color. The Soft Silk on the dresser drawers is coming out very white - we'll see if it looks good with the dresser body.

That purple shelving? That's a secret for another post!

[wip] more paint colors for dresser

Now instead of mixing the Valspar Soft Silk color with the Summer Night color, I'm thinking of punching it up a bit and using Sonora Rose. It's from the same collection, so I think the colors will coordinate nicely, and I love the dusky pink color of Sonora Rose.

It has been too cold the last few days to paint, but it's supposed to warm up this weekend. Hopefully I'll make a decision soon so I can paint on Saturday or Sunday!