Sewing Nook Makeover -- Painting

Progress -- more specifically, painting -- has been slow going on the sewing/craft nook makeover, but things are finally starting to come together! This is especially exciting because the level of un-organization is really starting to get to me and I have at least 5 things lined up on my sewing to do list that I'm anxious to get started on -- Katie, yours is at the top of my list! 

As of this morning, the nook is looking like this...

It's a tad bit messy but I see it as a vast improvement over the 'doors-and-drawers-everywhere-drying' look I had going on just a few days ago.  Several things to note in that picture: first, the desk is totally complete and finally in working order, just need to find a chair to sit at so I can start sewing again! second, the new hardware has been installed -- yay! and a BIG THANKYOU to the boy for drilling all those new holes! third, the doors need to be reinstalled and fourth, the back to the china hutch is still untouched and unattached.

First things first, the painting. My strategy basically consisted of a lot of online research -- mostly reading through posts such as this and this from some of my favorite DIY bloggers -- and talking to the wonderful people at home depot when I purchased supplies.  Since this was my first painting adventure and I am by no means talented in this area, I'll keep my description of the process to this: I removed all doors, drawers, and hardware, filled necessary holes with wood filler, sanded everything with medium grit sandpaper, de-glossed every surface, primed, painted (x3), added a protective poly coat (x3), reinstalled new/old hardware, and put drawers and doors back on.  For each of those steps, I simply followed the directions on the bottle/tub/can to find out the best application process or tool to use and proper drying times.  I followed the same steps for the desk and china hutch, just using different paint colors. 

When it was finally time to add the hardware, I was equally excited as I was scared.  After all that work, the last thing I wanted, was to drill a hole in the wrong place or have things not level and even with one another.  I decided the most fool-proof method was to make a template and have the boy do the drilling -- of course he didn't mind since it meant he could use power tools :) 

Template may actually imply something fancier than I used -- I simply traced one of my drawer pulls onto a piece of card stock, and found the center of each circle.  I then measured on each drawer or door to find the proper placement, secured the template with painters tape, and the boy drilled right through the center.  When it came time to attach the handles, all were spaced perfectly and they appear to be even with one another!

After making it through that exciting/scary step, I was eager to get the doors put back on. When I removed all the old hardware, I kept everything in a bag in case pieces needed to be reused.  I tried for days -- on foot and online -- to find nickel hinges to replace the old brass ones so they match the new drawer pulls, but had no luck. Apparently, the half circle hinge in size 1 3/4" is not popular these days.

After accepting hinge defeat, I decided to put the old brass ones back on and hope it isn't too noticeable. If it does bother me, I can always attempt to spray paint them later on.  So, while the boy was finishing the new drawer pulls, I started reattaching the old hinges and the doors.  With the first one in place, I proceeded to close it to make sure the fit was right and to my horror, found this...

I must have been too eager to even notice that the old screws were two different sizes -- a longer one that fits into the china hutch and a slightly shorter one for the doors.  I felt utterly defeated.  Knowing I would have to go through the painting process once again on this door, I angrily removed it and the hinge and called it a night. Despite the set-back, I'm hoping to get the other doors attached soon -- triple checking screw sizes -- and start filling it up! I figure I can handle one missing drawer for a couple days :)

Along with correcting the door, I have to decide on what to do with the back.  I bought some fabric that I want to line it with, but when I draped it over, I noticed you could see the wood paneling showing through. Right now I'm deciding between painting it and then adding the fabric, or simply getting a solid piece of white fabric to attach underneath.  The double fabric option seems to be the fastest solution, but down the road, I may appreciate having the back painted the same as the rest of the hutch in case I decide to scrap the fabric -- pun intended :)  I suppose it won't be too much more work since I'll have the paint out for some hinge mishap corrections. So, you know what I'll be doing this week -- fingers crossed that I'll be done in just a few more days!

Holiday Happenings, Part 3

I mentioned in July that I was starting a Christmas puzzle. It's a tradition we do each year in our family and I thought it'd be fun to slowly get my own collection of puzzles started.  I did finish it during the summer, but since it was meant to be glued and displayed for the holidays, I thought it'd be appropriate to show it off now. And of course, it wasn't as simple as put puzzle together, glue puzzle, and frame it, so here's the run-down of what happened.

Before many of the pieces found their mate, the sprawled out puzzle had a tough time fitting on my little table. I feared then that the puppies would quickly devour any piece that fell on the floor since they're used to tasty food crumbs falling in that general area, and sadly, I was correct.  By the end of the puzzle, two pieces were quite obviously missing.

I found some teeth marks on one piece I rescued from the floor, so I'm positive the puppies enjoyed chewing on them and pretty certain they were the culprits behind the two missing pieces.  Since the spots were in such obvious places, I knew if I wanted to keep it, I'd have to try and create my own pieces to disguise the holes, or order a new puzzle and sort through each piece until I'd found these two.  As a family, we have done this before, and I was not looking forward to doing it once again. 

So as I was cleaning one day, I picked up the puzzle box, and noticed the front did not show the entire picture, rather it was zoomed in on a spot. And not just any spot, it happened to be zoomed in on the area where my two pieces were missing!  I brought it near the puzzle to see how the sizing was, and you can see by looking, they were pretty exact.

I decided to cut the top of the box so I could flatten it and see how the colors would look if I somehow used them to fill in the missing pieces -- lucky for me, the missing pieces were hardly visible!

With the top positioned under the puzzle holes, I started to trace the missing shapes.

I cut out each piece slightly larger than I traced so it'd be snug fit -- as if it were a real puzzle piece -- and then used a wet cloth to wipe away the trace lines.  The pieces were cardboard, thanks to the box, but not quite as thick as the other pieces. I contemplated backing them with something, but figured once it was glued, they'd stay in place like all the rest.

Here they are filling the missing holes and wouldn't even be detected without those circles highlighting their spot!

Once I was happy with how they looked, I started gluing it together. I placed it on a white poster board and applied two layers of Mod Podge and let it dry completely.  With the white poster board on the back, it'll be easy for everyone who helped put it together to sign their names -- which has always been part of our tradition.  It's always fun to go back and see how handwriting has changed and what the little messages are each year. To keep them in order, we always date the front as well. 

I didn't have a chance to frame it before the holidays, so next up is looking for a frame sale so I can get it completed.  For now though, I am content knowing I have officially started a Christmas puzzle tradition of my own! Hopefully I can keep it going year after year like I did growing up :)

Holiday Happenings, Part 2

For Christmas this year, my sister got me the Canon  EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens -- how did she know it was exactly what I wanted?!  :)

 

It's perfect for all the close-up shots I like to take while I'm working on projects and around the holidays, it's great for creating the popular bokeh effect.  So, before taking my tree down, I decided to give it a try and came up with some fun photos.

I placed a small stool about 8 feet in front of my tree and grabbed any object close by to set on top. I took some photos during the day and some at night and think I like the effect at night better.

I even tried to get some of the puppies while I was at it. Shiloh didn't mind having to sit on the wobbly stool too much -- I know she needs a haircut and a bath! -- but Nolan just wasn't having it.

With a little more practice, maybe I can get the puppies to cooperate for next year -- and plan better with some freshly groomed little ones!

As for me and my new lens, I'm in love and using it daily -- thank you Samantha!

Holiday Happenings, Part 1

While looking through some recently uploaded photos, I realized there are a few holiday related items I never shared -- I think all the painting right after Christmas distracted me.  Although it's nearly mid-January, I figured this would be the last chance to elaborate before you think I'm a total weirdo for talking about such things.  First up is a rundown of all the gifts I decided to make by hand this year.  I've never made so many in one year before and I'm pretty shocked and slightly proud that I got them all finished on time.  I showed a sneak peak just before Christmas, so I thought I'd share the actual gifts and tutorials now that they're all given out and I can't ruin any surprises.

My sister had asked for some make-up brushes this year, so I thought I'd get those for her and go one step further and make her a brush roll-up to store them in. I did some google tutorial searching and came across this step by step tutorial from Sew4Home. I choose this one because 1) it looked nice, 2) the dimensions fit the brushes I'd purchased, and 3) it would give me a chance to practice my binding skills since I'd be doing it on a quilt very soon.  The rounded corners gave me a bit more trouble than I'd expected and I need more practice with that, but overall, I'd say it turned out pretty well.

 Folds up neat and tidy...

Plenty of storage for any brush you could ever own...

 And different sized compartments if you had anything larger to add in...

Once I finished the roll-up and had extra fabric to use, I decided no brush roll-up would be complete without a matching make-up case. I did more google research and came across this awesome tutorial by Skip to My Lou.  It's the perfect size to store all of my sister's make-up and her new brush roll-up.

Now that those were done, I moved on to dog collars and leashes.  My sister has been begging me to make her two puppies OU themed collars and Christmas seemed like the right time to finally give in and whip some up.  I've been making collars and leashes by just mimicking ones I already owned.  One day, I will try to get a step-by-step post up including where you can find all the necessary hardware. For now though, here are my OU themed collars for little Bentley and Bella.

There are three collars in the pic above -- Boyfriend's grandmother loves red and has a sweet little Maltese, so she got her very own collar and leash set as well. My sister likes to walk her two on the same leash and use a split lead to hook on each of their collars so by the end, I had actually made three collars, two leashes and one split lead.

And here are Bentley and Bella modeling their new gifts.  Somehow I had some extra time before Christmas to make a little bow tie for Bentley and a flower for Bella and Angelina. All of them have snaps and can easily be removed.

This next gift was made around Thanksgiving, but I figure it's close enough to the holidays to count :)  They were made for and inspired by boyfriend's love for Words with Friends...

I caught Shiloh snuggled up by them at one point and it spurred a whole puppy photo shoot -- I'll spare all the pictures I have and just share a couple.

Here's little Nolan.  The look on his face says, "Seriously, that black thing pointed at me again... can I just be done?!"

And then little Shi, who's always been so good at posing as long as you make a high-pitched noise right before snapping the pic.

This was another project that I made up as I went and put together as practice before making the quilt -- I used a similar technique when I attached the name on the quilt. So, it is on the list for a follow up 'how to' post.

And last, but certainly not least, was the quilt for boyfriend's niece. I shared my process in an earlier post but had not quilted or bound it yet. For me, the quilting was a little frustrating but the binding went surprisingly well -- originally it was the part I was most afraid of!  I followed instructions from The Polkadot Chair's quilt-a-long for the quilting part and will definitely be doing the same on the next one. For the binding, I found these instructions and they worked perfectly for me!

Since she's only 3, I put together this patch on the back so she'll remember when she received it.

Santa actually brought her a pink princess bed for Christmas so the quilt was gifted at the perfect time!  I am so pleased with it and ready to make more -- just need a little time to rest my sewing hands :)

linking up to The Polkadot Chair

Sewing Nook Makeover -- Planning

Well, I decided to re-sign my lease for another year which means another 14 months in my apartment.  I LOVE my place and am so happy to be staying longer!  Plus, making this decision meant I could feel good about making a few changes I'd been contemplating.

The first thing i did was rearrange my apartment -- AGAIN! I'm somewhat indecisive on a furniture layout, if that wasn't obvious already.  It's back to the way it was from the very beginning with a few additions, but all that is for another post and another day. For now, know that it looks mostly like this once again.

Once the furniture swap was done, I set my sights on the sewing nook. I've been spending a LOT more time is this area lately, especially right before Christmas whipping up some gifts to give. It was becoming more and more obvious that the space was not working out so well anymore.  

Now that I'm able to complete things more quickly and starting more projects, I'm running out of room to store fabrics and things I typically use while sewing. Because of this, I have stuff stored in here, in my closet, in my bedroom, and random nooks and crannies around the apartment. It's exhausting trying to remember where each and every little thing is.  I am an extremely organized person and even I was struggling to keep up with where things were. It was clear, I needed more storage so everything could be in one place.

I remembered an old china hutch from my Dad's family that was being stored in a spare bedroom upstairs at my parent's house. We once used it in our 'craft room' at home to store things like glue, paper, scissors, markers, paint, etc. so I knew it could be easily transformed into a storage center for my sewing and random bits of crafting things. Lucky for me, my parents weren't at all torn about letting me have it. So, I did some quick measuring and it is an absolute perfect fit for my sewing nook -- I just needed to uproot the puppies' corner.

If you remember, a few months ago, I started a crate makeover to get this area looking more presentable while holding onto the much needed crates. I got this far, and haven't done anything since -- I'm also terribly indecisive when it comes to picking fabrics.



Since I never finished the makeover and the crates are portable, I wasn't too heartbroken to move them elsewhere. I'm still not ready to take those crates down permanently, so they have a new home in the living room -- and now that they're more visual, hopefully I will finally make a decision on some fabric and get them looking better! So, with the crates out of the way, I had room for my new storage.  Only problem, I wasn't happy with the current look of the hutch.  I loved the lines and shape of it, but wasn't crazy about the wood color, the knobs or the condition it was in. So, I decided it would need a new coat of paint -- luckily, my parents were also fine with me giving it a little makeover.

Knowing I was going to paint it, I started to think up a whole sewing/craft nook design scheme.  I thought the hutch would be most versatile in white -- here and later when I move -- so with that decision made, I started to figure out the rest of the area and landed on something like this...

I decided on a teal, yellow and grey color scheme so I could use a lot of what I already have and add in some cheerful pops of yellow. I picked out the grey as an additional 'neutral' so everything, including the walls, aren't white. The hutch pictured is similar to what I have inherited and will be white with a very subtle grey and white fabric background. There are three shelves in it and I plan to fill them with the grey and white storage containers (from The Container Store) along with some other pops of teal and yellow.  My black desk is being made over to a light grey similar to the one above and I would love a whilte lamp base with yellow shade to sit on top. The curtains are already teal and plan to stay. I haven't decided on a desk chair or a rug, but am searching for similar items to the ones above. The rest of the pops of teal, yellow and grey will be some fun accesories I have around and a few I've already found on random shopping trips.  Also, since the hutch has room for sewing stuff and more, I plan to store anything and everything that helps me be crafty and have therefore dubbed this little area my Craft Nook :)

Now, to make it happen... I have begun painting the hutch white and did manage to makeover my black desk to a pretty light grey and added some fun yellow knobs.  It's been slow, but I think it will be well worth it when I can have all my stuff in one place! For now though -- and all weekend -- back to painting!

Happy Friday!

Sneak Peek

I've been spending a lot of time in the sewing nook the past few weeks working on little things for the holidays. Since it's just a couple days until Christmas and there is a really good chance no one is looking at my blog before then, I thought I'd share a little glimpse of the projects I'll be gifting this year -- aside from the quilt which I gave a full look at the other day.

Any guesses?! Here's hoping no one figures it out before the 25th!

Christmas Cookies

This week, the boy and I spent a night baking and decorating Christmas cookies. Although I try to make this a yearly tradition, I don't have special recipes for the cookies or icing that I use each time. I usually just look around the web until I find one that sounds interesting. This year, I stumbled upon this recipe for the cookies and decided to try it because of the almond extract -- which I LOVE. Before even baking the cookies, we were in smitten! This recipe will definitely be saved and most likely become part of a yearly tradition.

For the icing, I was going to try the recipe on the same site as the cookies, but couldn't find meringue powder so I searched for a different royal icing recipe.  I found this one from Alton Brown and picked it mainly because I had all the ingredients on hand. It was so-so and probably won't be a repeat, but was really easy to throw together and definitely has not kept me from having a cookie -- or two, or three -- each night.

So, after we baked up our cookies and whipped up the icing, we chose to color a third of the icing red, a third green, and leave a third white.  Although our red looked red while mixing, it quickly turned into a very bright, hot pink!  Still looks cute on the cookies, just a little less traditional :) We put the three colors in Ziploc bags and cut a small opening in the corner so we could pipe them onto each cookie.

Boyfriend has not done this in many many years and was fascinated by the Ziploc bag trick. 

We just kept on going until we had plates full of cookies! Along the way, we 'tested' the broken or deformed ones and approved of their quality :)

To top off the Christmas-y, fun-filled night, we took the puppies and drove around looking at Christmas lights.  It was one of the most fun ways to spend a weeknight! 

Hope everyone else is getting their fill of holiday activities before they fly by!