#3 Cushion Covers {52 Projects}

I really wish I had written the blog post that shared my mudroom, as well as the post that showed my baby bed, because I feel like this post is a total spoiler to those. Oh, well! I won’t write one for the bed now, since you see it here, but the mudroom post will show up in the next week or so.

I’ve had “sew bench cushion cover” on my to-do list for a while, well over a month, and I finally decided to tackle it last week. I bought the fabric back in November, it was 50% off the red tag price at Jo-Ann. I don’t remember what I paid for it, but I remember being proud of myself for finding a fabric that I thought would work with the colors in the mud room. It’s not technically machine washable, but if the kids get it filthy, I’ll be okay with tossing it in the machine and seeing what happens. I can always sew a new one, right?

I knew I’d be able to find an idea for sewing the cover on Pinterest, and I was right. I found a great tutorial with pictures, and pinned it here.

Here’s how it looked after the first two seams were sewn (connecting two side panels to a larger middle panel)

I followed the tutorial to make pretty boxed corners

And the opening on the underside is just what I need for taking it off for cleaning (I didn’t want to mess with a zipper, and this solution was great!)

The finished cushion on the floor (couldn’t wait to get it on the bench before taking a photo)

And here it is on the bench

I also needed to sew a cover for the cushion/mattress on the baby bed I made last month. It also needed to be removable so I can put waterproof pads between the cover and the cushion. I thought I could modify the tutorial above to use just one side panel. But it didn’t work out quite like I planned …

Side panel and large panel

The idea was that the flap would be towards the top of the “mattress” …

But while that was nice in theory, in practice, it forced me to sew seams that show on top that I just don’t love. This is the underside, but if you look close, you can see seams on each side that are also visible with the top is showing.

However, on the bed, it’s okay. I just changed my vision for it, the opening is now towards the foot of the bed, and when I photograph a baby on it, I’ll position it so that the seam isn’t sticking up.

And do you love my bed? I know I do! Here’s the pin to the bed plans (Ana White’s plans rock!)

Like this project? Feel free to

Isn’t she lovely? {Leesburg maternity photography}

I’m so excited for this mama-to-be as she meets her second child today. I had the pleasure of photographing her maternity session three weeks ago, and we had so much fun doing it. I really love all of the great images from the session, I’d be hard pressed to select a favorite.

I bought this fabric to create a wrap for her, knowing that this color would look great on her. I’m quite pleased with how this turned out.

Isn’t she just lovely?

Creating this look was definitely a process! Her husband was in the car with their napping toddler, so I had to improvise with clamps and a chair to hold the fabric behind her. I still smile at the memory of it, happy that it worked out well.

With the solo shots done, it was time to wake little man T, and involve him and Daddy in the action.

And Daddy got to paint the belly, which was such a neat idea!

I can’t wait for an update on the new Baby T!

Week 3 – black & white

Love the prompt for this past week. I definitely looked at everything differently, since I knew that I’d be converting to black and white. I didn’t want a crazy background, and I wanted good light so that it would be an easy conversion. I really wanted Jack to be my subject for this week … but I also managed to get a cool non-person b&w shot too.

I had Jack sit on our front step and look up at me … I just love this!

A slightly different conversion, more browns

Just after I took those, I took a picture of one of our outside lights. I had the feeling it would convert nicely, and I am happy with the end result.

And because I don’t tend to blog as much as I should, here are some other fun pictures I took that afternoon. I really love my little guy!

Our backyard was practically a swamp after a lot of recent rain. So I had him wear rainboots in the backyard. He found a puddle, and really enjoyed it.

And a cute one from the front step

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#2 Nesting {52 Projects}

I feel like I spent all last week nesting. I had all intentions of sewing for my project for last week, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I tackled a lot of housekeeping related projects, a little of everything. I’m not sure I even nested quite like this when I was pregnant, any of the four times! There’s nothing juicy in this week’s post, I’m not sure it’s inspiring. There’s your heads up in case you want to abandon reading this on that basis alone. Actually, I did make a “book stop”, so that might be worth checking out …

The project from the first week was my end table. And it wasn’t done by the end of the first week. I thought I was done when I wrote about it, but I was unhappy with the finish of the polycrylic. I ended up sanding again, and some of the paint came off. So there was more retouching and the more sanding. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands, literally. I used my hands and fingers to paint both paint and polycrylic onto the surface. I’m finally happy with it, and it made its way into my family room today (where it was promptly scratched by child #3). I’ll update that week 1 post with a photo of it there later. The “fingerpainting” pictures are in my week 2 post for my Focus 52 project. Anyhow, that took a lot of my project time over the first half of last week, which was a bummer.

But I also got crazy with some other stuff. My crafting room is also our guest room. This is probably where I spent most of my project hours last week, and why I consider it nesting. I refinished a dresser for my son last month, and his old dresser will be used in the guest room. I was going to get rid of the dresser that has been there for the last 9 years, but I decided that I had better plans for it.

This is the dresser in its previous location. I know I have a better “before” picture somewhere on my computer, but no time to search for it. The contents of the dresser are all over the bed, and it was quite the mess. The missing drawer was broken, so I had to fix it. No pictures of that process, but I’m very happy with the repairs I made.

The dresser contents (not all of it, but most – I ended up freecycling at least 20 frames as a result of this!)

And this is where the dresser was moving to. The bins are for the consignment sale I participate in twice a year. I sell the outgrown clothes and toys from my kids, and the money goes into our vacation account (which is slowly growing)

The dresser in its new place. But it’s empty …

My upcoming projects now fill the space. Each drawer is filled, mostly with projects (but two drawers are reserved for wrapping paper and future gifts). I pared down my consignment bins, and relocated some of the stuff in that closet to our storage room (which is a total disaster right now). I need to put the wicker chair somewhere else, but don’t know where. I have it for my photography, but have never used it.

This is where Andrew’s former dresser will go, once I get my husband to help me carry it down. It will hold guest linens for the bed and bathroom, in addition to being accessible for those visiting to use for their clothes (especially for my parents).

Another “nesting” project was fixing one of the side tables that I had in my garage for a while. I was going to refinish them, but have changed my mind. Instead, I’m bringing them to a consignment store to barter for something else. I am excited, as this is my first true bartering experience for something other than my photography. One of the tables was missing a guide for the drawer, so I wanted to fix that before bringing it to the store.

I was quite proud of my handiness here …

Sadly, the top part didn’t function quite like I wanted it to, so I ended taking it off, just leaving the bottom to guide the drawer straight back. It serves its purpose (no photos though).

My youngest is always pushing my books straight back on the bookcase. It drives me nuts!!! Not sure if you can tell, but these are pushed back at least 6″ from the front.

I decided to build a “book stop” behind them so they wouldn’t move. I had to use a 2×4 under the longer 2×4 to give it the proper height – behind the wood are shelf holders in the holes on the side, they prevent the wood from budging.

Now he can’t push the books back! (However, he does like to take the picture in the front down, and sometimes hides it from me).

I also totally rearranged the basement play area. The craft table for the kids was a MESS – my older daughter practically covered the surface with glue, it was a disaster. I cleaned it up, and moved it to a place with better light. I don’t have any current before pictures, but the after is nice. The two bins under the table are a future project – it’s all crafting stuff for my kids that needs to be sorted and properly organized on the desk and in the two drawer storage bins. I’m dreading that task, actually.

It’s in a more central place now, you can see the play area for my youngest in front of it, and the kitchen play area in the foreground.

Lastly, here’s a sneak peek for a BIG future project. This is my crafting corner, and as you can see, it’s a total mess. I plan to reorganize the pegboard (I have a bunch of great buckets that I need to figure out how to optimize the use for). I also have plans to build a great crafting table and shelf system, but that will have to wait for warmer weather so I can take over the garage again.

And that just about sums up my “nesting” week of projects last week. Not what I intended at all, but it’s just how things worked out. Hope you enjoying seeing my project week in review.

Week 2 – I am …

I am most definitely sidetracked … especially this week.

But I’m creatively sidetracked, mostly. I almost said I am handy … because of the photos below. And I can be handy, when I do things right. This was a week of handiness, for sure. And my 52 Projects post for this week will reflect that. So I won’t go into all of the details here. Suffice it to say that my being sidetracked resulted in not accomplishing the project I meant to do, but instead I accomplished smaller “fix-it” type projects.

And in this case, every time I passed my table that I’ve been working on, I had to do SOMETHING to it. I hated all of the lines that resulted from the paint brush. So I took matters into my own hands, and reverted to kindergarten mode. Fingerpainting with latex paint, must be the grown up version.

Taking these photos one handed was definitely tough! On my left hand was a latex glove, as I had a big cut on one of my fingers that I didn’t want to get paint into. I was still working, and wanted to capture my paint covered hand to share here before I moved to the next step (which involved washing my hands first).

But you have to admit, it gives a nice finish … This is after polycrylic was applied the same way

 

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#1 Rescued End Table {52 Projects}

Well, I made it through the first week with one project … and into the first two days of this week. I’ve actually spent hours and hours on this little   table. But as you look through the pictures (and there are a LOT … I wanted you to have an idea of what was involved here), you can see why. I think I learned a few things, but I won’t know for sure until we start to use this table.

I applied the final coat of polycrylic yesterday, so it should be ready to move into the family room today. Although, I just checked on it a few minutes ago, and I need to sand a little more as it’s uneven in spots. Here’s how it looked Monday night (after the second coat of polycrylic)

Beautiful, right? I mean, I might be biased, but I don’t think so. This turned out much nicer than I thought it was going to, after the rough start.

Speaking of rough starts, here’s the before pictures. I got this table from behind a dumpster not far from my house. I really liked the lines of the table, and couldn’t resist loading it into my minivan. I was on my way to Home Depot anyway, and ended up buying a finishing sander – a purchase that probably wouldn’t have happened that day if I hadn’t just scored this table.

With the sun’s glare, you can tell that the surface is uneven with whatever gunk was on it (and trust me, it was NASTY)

The drawer … nice lines, right?

The inside of the drawer, gross!

Here’s the top of the table after my first run with the sander. Not loving the sander, either I’m doing something wrong, or it sucks. It leaves marks from the screws under the sanding pads. I sanded it again after this picture, but didn’t get any photos of that.

A small piece was missing from the side, so I refashioned a new one with scrap MDF I have. I’m very proud of this.

I primed it last month, and that was a disaster. I used an oil based primer, because I didn’t want it to go anywhere. But it went on thick, and the brush marks were INSANE. I spent countless hours sanding, and adding more primer when I sanded too much. You can see where I sanded a bit in this photo, where the wood is showing. What you can’t see are the crazy brush marks that I couldn’t make disappear.

And I couldn’t wait to paint the drawer, so I did that first, as the primer was fine on it.

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I first decided on how to paint this table. I knew I wanted a brown top, and I somehow wanted to use a blue-gray and a cream. You can see the blue-gray above. That’s actually a mix of two colors I had on hand, and I was happy with how the blend worked. I went to Home Depot and bought a sample can of Behr Brown Suede – it’s an almost black brown, with undertones of green. I painted the legs with a color called Artist Canvas. That was an “oops” paint purchase, also in a sample can.

I painted some of the brown on to the drawer, and then wiped it off. It’s kinda cool, but as you can see, the whole thing just doesn’t work.

I asked Rich’s advice on the table, knowing that he didn’t love it to start with. But I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to continue. He made the suggestion that I paint the legs to match the drawer. It’s going into our family room, and the rug in there has the browns and blues (it has cream too, which is why I was going for my initial combo). I thought his suggestion was good, and I also ran it by my decorative-savvy friend who agreed. Then it got COLD. If you read my introductory post to 52 Projects, you’d know that I had to move everything out of my garage to park there again. To paint it, I had to move everything to the basement. Here it is after the first coat of blue.

Once that was done, it was time to glaze. I mixed some of the brown with Behr Faux Glaze, brushed it on, and then wiped it off with a rag. I’m totally loving the effect!

But the top continues to drive me nuts. The brush marks started with the primer, and every time I sanded, the next layer would show, causing me to repaint. And the grove was killing me! It was a challenge to clean it to start with, as it was filled with the nasty stuff on the table to start with. I tried using our Dremmel to sand it, but that wasn’t the smartest thing to do, as it tore the sides up. I decided to be intentional with my brush marks, going in one direction. But you can still see imperfections from the primer in the surface.

I’m so tired of sanding. The top is what’s killing me, and I really need to get over it. I have four kids, nothing will be perfect. But I just want more out of this surface. So I will sand once more today (the photo was taken on Sunday, before the first coat of polycrylic)

I used Brasso to clean up the original knob, thinking I’d spray it with Oil Rubbed Bronze when it’s warm enough outside.

Then I remembered the knob I got in the clearance section at Lowes for only a quarter.

Perfect, right? I mean, that’s what I think. Here’s a closer look for you.

So you can see the before and after together …

Here’s the table in its new place in our family room

Like this project? Feel free to 

 

Week 1 – New

 

New year, new Focus 52 (aka Project 52, not to be confused with my 52 Projects!). The theme for this week was “New”. Well, I have some new toys to play with, and so that’s what I wanted to capture this week.

 

My newest toy is the Wacom Bamboo Create pen tablet. My husband gave it to me for Christmas, but I didn’t get it until a few days after Christmas. I’m still getting the hang of it, and need to use it a lot more. But I think it’s going to work out well for me.

Unfortunately, the USB cable that came with it was too short to reach the back of my computer. And my front ports wouldn’t work with it either. So I needed a USB hub. Gotta love Amazon! I ordered this cutie, and it arrived just two days later.

Not a toy, but definitely new. I needed a better way to organize my inbox. So I’m using two magazine boxes on their sides. I need to come up with a good labeling and divider system, but that’s a project for another day.

FYI, I cleaned my desk. I usually have too much clutter going on, but I’m loving how the clean desk makes me feel. And I dusted in honor of these photos. Ha ha ha ha Seriously, there was a crazy amount of dust behind my printer! I had no idea, I never move it. But with my new tablet, I needed a bit more space on my desk, so I slid the printer over, and discovered a lot of dust. No pictures of that for you.

A shot of the new and improved desk surface

 

Just for kicks, here’s the “before” shot of my desk. This was taken about a week ago.

 

There’s gotta be a good saying about a cluttered desk is the sign of a great mind. Right?

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52 Projects

I’ve been a little (well, a lot!) obsessed with Pinterest lately. I will lose hours just surfing the pins and related blogs. I love the inspiration, the ideas, the creativity, the wonder of it all. And as a result, I’ve gone CRAZY! My photography has taken a backseat several times over the last three months as I work on different projects. In fact, I have a TON of projects and crafts that I want to share here that I’ve accomplished but haven’t found the time to blog about. You’ll see them, I promise.

I wanted to find a balance in 2012. I think my husband would be thrilled with such a balance too. I spent three months parked in my driveway instead of my garage. If you knew me, you’d know that I really like parking in my garage. It finally got really cold this week and I was motivated to clear out my side of the garage so I could park there again.

This is what it looked like until recently

After that project finished (and I really need to share it but I have one final thing to do before it’s really done), then I moved on to another project, taking over BOTH sides of the garage for a weekend (my husband was out of town, but then he had to park in the driveway for an extra day because I needed paint to cure)

My husband’s side

My side

Now that my garage is back to the way it should be, I feel like I can take a saner approach to my project planning. If I can limit myself to one project a week, instead of a half dozen simultaneously going on, then I can also accomplish other things that I love to do, as well as spend more time with my family. So, I came up with 52 Projects. I plan to share each project here, along with details if I can. I also plan to catch up on recent past projects, but they won’t fall into the 52 Projects label because they were done last year. Make sense? I hope so!

Meanwhile, here’s the link to my Pinterest, in case you want to follow me there and see the inspiration of most of my projects.

If you’re not an email subscriber of my blog, I’d love it if you became one. That way you’ll know when I’ve added a new post.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Week 52 – Celebrate

Had to celebrate the end of 2011 first …

Hoping for peace all around

And from our actual family celebration on New Year’s Eve

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Week 51 – Sweet

I’m behind the power curve with my blog. Shocking? No, not at all. But one of my goals for 2012 is to blog twice a week. It’s important to me, I like to share what I spend my time on. I think that’s the downside of being a SAHM, I do a lot but it doesn’t really get noticed. There’s 35 minutes left of 2011, and so I want to catch up on my Focus 52 photos. I don’t have the last week ready to go yet, but at least I can share some of the sweetness of Christmas week from our home.

Snuggles with Daddy, one of the best displays of sweetness there is.

Andrew made this overdose of sugar when he was at Odyssey of the Mind. It took two days for him to eat it, and he did sort of share with some of the family. Definitely sweet.

I was behind in baking this year, and so this was the scene at 8:45pm on Christmas Eve as we finally made sugar cookies to decorate.

I laughed when I saw the reflection of the cookies in my Red Bull, as I was photographing them. Yep, needed that Red Bull that night. Both the cookies and my drink were sweet.

And that’s my collection of sweet. Stay tuned for “Celebrate”, hopefully tomorrow if my family is cool with me spending more time on the computer.
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