Fireplace Redo

Oh, the mid-90's. So much brass. WHY?! I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. Unfortunately, our house was built in the mid-90's and is full of said brass. My Fella takes personal offense to two things in the house: the brass on the fireplace and one light fixture in particular in the basement. I can't say I disagree with him. He thought he was stuck with the fireplace, but he's got me...and I've got Pintrest! So I searched, I KNEW there had to be a fix, and I knew if anyone could tell me about it, it was my fellow Pintrested parties. As it turns out, Rust-Oleum makes a high heat paint (as does Krylon, if you have a preference). My store only had the Rust-Oleum brand, spray paint variety, but it IS sold in cans according to the website.

We debated back and forth a bit about how you're not supposed to spray paint inside and then decided we were way too cool to worry about that stuff...especially since we didn't seem to have an option if we wanted it done NOW (and we DID). We opted for the silver because I was afraid it'd look like we just had a big, black hole in the wall. My fella thought he might like the black better, but didn't care so long as it wasn't brass anymore!

When we got home, we opened all the doors and windows, stashed the cats in a bedroom, and got to work. The horizontal strips above and below the doors pop off on our fireplace, so I removed those and the door pulls and took 'em outside to be painted. I used a really, super duper fine grit sand paper and sanded all the pieces I would be painting. Then I papered every surface that was nearby. I even threw a cheap plastic table cloth over the couch and plastic bagged the coffee table.

I've started to spray here, but quickly realized I needed to protect more of the surrounding area.

The final result isn't EXACTLY what I wanted...maybe I should've gone with the black?? My Fella actually prefers the silver, though. Typical lol I'm definitely changing out the door handles, too. I just haven't found anything I like :( Aaaaaaaaand we're still trying to agree on what to do with the mantel...hand to God, we got this far with the new items, but can't agree on what to put IN the jar. And I think we need colored candles...the white blend right in. But, for now, here's the new fireplace!

Whatcha think? Should I have gone with the black? What would YOU put in the apothecary jar?

Mo-roccan the Red and Gold

The Girl recently went to her high school orientation...a school whose colors are red and gold. For days, every Facebook status she posted read, "ROCK THE RED AND GOLD ROCK THE RED AND GOLD ROCK THE RED AND GOLD..." and so on. Every comment she posted on MY wall read the same. (I might've mentioned that she was accepted to a well known college preparatory high school ranked 6th in the state that may or may not have some very successful alumni at least one of whom whose name you'd all recognize. /bragging)

I promise my daughter is NOT Matthew Gray Gubler. That IS, however, her actual profile picture.

Meanwhile, back in The Sticks, I wanted to make a Moroccan pouf her room. Part of her room redo project is using as much of what I already have as possible. Kids' tastes change and I'm not big on the idea of spending a lot just to have them want to change it in a year. Plus, repurposing seems to keep with the hippie/boho concept. That said, when planning her pouf, I went digging through my fabric stash to see what I had. Coincidentally, I found this great gold fabric I'd bought ages ago (even more coincidentally for a DIFFERENT Moroccan-inspired project) and a shimmery red curtain I knew I was never gonna hang again, but was holding onto (I'm a mini hoarder! lol). I set them on a chair together and walked away for a few days. During those few days, all I'd read were those status updates and when I saw my fabric choices again, they seemed even more perfect.

I had scoured the internet for the perfect pattern. Which I didn't find. But I did learn what I wanted the thing to look like, and created my own. I wanted the top to be an eight-pointed star and the sides/bottom, to just be eight long panels. That's why I chose two fabrics for this...I wanted the star to stand out. So, I literally pieced together pieces of newspaper and folded and cut and recut again until I had what I wanted. The Girl was NOT here to help me with the math, so I was just winging it.

These are BY NO MEANS to scale!!

So those were the measurements I used. The side panels measure 28 inches along the fold, 6 inches along the short angle, 12 inches along the long angle, and 14 3/4 inches along the straight edge. The distance from the fold to the edge is 6 5/8 inches. The star pieces measure 15 inches along the fold, 6 inches along the short angle, and 11 5/8 inches along the long angle. The distance from the fold to the edge (where the two angles meet) is 4 1/2 inches. You'll need to cut eight of each from both your material AND lining.

Yep, I totally used a cheap blue curtain for my lining 'cause I'm a REBEL!

Starting with your star pieces (and star lining!), sew two together (right sides facing and all that), along one LONG edge. I forgot to take pictures for this step, sorry :( You'll have a sandwich of pieces though, where your lining is the bread, and your main fabric is the meat. Continue until you've joined all eight pieces together. It'll look like this when it's done:

Here's where I deviate from EVERY other tutorial out there. I practiced with my lining, and just could NOT manage the "other" way. Most (all?) of the other tutorials have you join the eight side panels in the same manner as the top pieces and then join the top and bottom "halves". If you can do this, go for it! I just could NOT get my pieces to line up correctly; it was a hot mess of funky corners. So I joined each side panel and lining pair individually to my finished star and THEN joined the side panels to each other.

I've started joining the panels as seen by the two panels in the bottom right corner of the picture.

I left two sides of the bottom points open for stuffing.

I took a tip from the Better Homes and Gardens tutorial and used old towels and stuff I had lying around the house to stuff the "core" of pouf, and fiberfill around the "outside."

Stuff I had lying around

Then used a hidden stitch to close it up. I DID remove the cat, first. I promise.

You can see my points didn't meet up perfectly. I didn't care since it was the bottom. I considered adding an octagon to the bottom to cover it, but then I was like, "eff it." I would love to make the mathematical adjustments to the pattern for you guys so you won't have this problem, but I have NO IDEA HOW. *shame*

I really loved the decorative stitch they used on the seams in the BHG tutorial, so I busted out the gold thread left over from my graduation favors and got to work. If you looked at the illustration in the link, it looks a little complicated, but it's actually pretty easy and a lot faster than I thought it would be. The steps in photo form:

I wasn't able to complete it in one evening, but I DID get pretty far and was able to finish it up the next day.

Proof that, despite my urges, I did NOT sew him inside the pouf

Finished stitches

The thing weighs a ton. And you can see it's not little...Cat is an average-sized house cat, 8-10 lbs. Despite my mathematical and joining issues, this was actually really easy to make. Not counting the time I spent practicing my methods, I probably had it completed in a few hours each day, over the course of three days...quicker than her curtains!!

Peaces of Love

The other day I mentioned I would be working on getting The Girl's room decorated. It's all about peace, and love, and a bohemian lifestyle. And a while back, I'd seen this on Pintrest:

Source: http://lisaloria.blogspot.com/2011/05/peace-ful-project.html

and IMMEDIATELY thought of The Girl...and this was before the plans for her room. I traced it back to a great little blog, Lisa Loria :)

The problem was, The Girl didn't love it. Whaaaaaaat?? EVERY. SINGLE. THING. about this says The Girl. Peace sign. "Christmas" lights. Flowers. WHAT is not to like?! Hell, I kinda want it in MY room. She shrugged.

Fast forward to her telling me how she wanted her room decorated. I couldn't get this peace sign outta my mind. Remember when she and I went to the dollar store for the supplies for her mobile? Well, I seized the moment. I pressed the issue, even! (I REALLY wanted to put it in her room and live vicariously through her.) "What if we changed the flowers? Daisies? You love daisies...we can get extra and do both." AND IT WORKED! VICTORY!!! In the end, I came up with this version:

She loves it. Oh, the fickleness of children...

I didn't have the light fixture from Ikea, and while the Ikea was in walking distance when I lived in Philly, it is, sadly, two hours away now. Wait. Is there one in Baltimore?! Remind me to look into that. Moving on...So while I didn't have, and wasn't able to get, the light fixture, I DID have the wire wreath frame I'd be using for the mobile. Surely I could take the thing apart and get more rings, right?? I could, and I did. All in all, it's a pretty easy project, but here's how I made mine...

What you'll need:

Wire wreath frame
Short strand(s) of Christmas lights (I used 2 40-light strands)
Fake flowers
Floral wire (and cutters)
Glue gun
Needle-nose pliers

What to do:

First, if you're trying to use your wreath frame for more than one project, you'll need to take it apart. Do this by lifting the wire "brackets" from the outside ring, all the way around. I used the largest, outside ring for this. Of course, you can skip this step and use the frame as is.

Now you'll take your floral wire and wrap it into a peace sign shape.

The wire will slide around on the frame, so to make life easier, put a little dot of hot glue where the wire meets the frame. Just enough to hold it in place while you're arranging your lights and flowers.

Next, wrap your lights around the entire shape and secure with more floral wire. If you're like me, this could take days, months even. I can never get my lights to go the way I want the first time. Seriously. I actually rage quit. But when I came back with a fresh cup of coffee, I got it on the first try!

Now you're going to add your flowers. This part takes into account the type of flower(s) your working with first, and then your personal preference in regards to those flowers. I imagine there's no "wrong" way". I used these.

Remove them from the stems, but leave the back part (I dunno what it's called, but I bet it has a name) intact. I'll explain why later.

Ignore the whiteboard paint on my nail

I started with the blossoms. Using even more floral wire, I attached the blossoms to the middle of the design and plugged the lights in to make sure they weren't TOO covered.

The larger daisies and (I think?) sunflowers, I was able to just "snap" (they actually made that sound) between the lights and the frame or between the twists in the wire for the lights because I'd left that little thingie on there. There were a few I added some hot glue to, just for added security, but for the most part, they held tight. Alternately, you could trim the little thingie (not too short or your flower will fall apart!) and hot glue them in place. I opted not to so I could move them around while arranging them.

And that's it! All that's left to do is hang it on the wall and plug it in!

I going to be productive today...

I really was. Last night, I painted my work-bench-turned-craft-table with whiteboard paint, but turns out, it has to cure for THREE days! Who's got that kind of time?! So I was just going to work elsewhere, but then I started watching videos of people saving animals from harm and the rest of the day looked like this:

Videos of people saving animals from harm --> animals saving people --> service member/pet reunions --> returning military personnel surprising family members.

Suffice it to say, I spent the better part of the afternoon in tears.  Damn YouTube and their recommendations sidebar!! I have a date with my bestie, Agent W, on Tuesday, and The Girl will be home the following Sunday, so I have no business watching videos all day! I still have SOME time, so let me go see if I can't make it up to yous!

Soon-to-be-famous Cherry-Peach Crisp

Because it's that good. And I don't even LIKE cherries OR peaches! I mean, I don't hate them, but I don't love them either. *shrug* BUT...

Ok, back story. 'Cause if I don't love these two fruits, WHY did I make this dessert?

So My Fella's mom came by the other day with a gift:

Lookit! Seriously, don't you love those colors?!

And that's not all! There was corn on the cob, and string beans (which were promptly served up in Agent-S-fried-green-bean fashion), and asparagus, and banana bread, and an apple pie! My Fella says she over does it. I say all I need is an excuse to bake, so hush!

Anyway, for some reason, despite my indifference to both cherries and peaches, the idea of them combined appealed to me. So I called up Agent W and after some deliberation (mostly about which was a crisp vs. a crumb vs. a cobbler vs....), it was decided that I should make a cherry-peach crisp...because who wants to fuss with preparing a crust for a summer dessert?! Not I! But I didn't have such a recipe on hand (fascinating considering the amount of cookbooks, especially those devoted to desserts, that I own!). So we discussed it some more and decided on the basic ingredients it must have: sugar (both brown and white) and cinnamon and "toss together in a bowl. Taste. If it tastes good, top it and pop it in the oven." That's how we roll. I prepared this while making dinner at the same time, so I don't have as many pictures as I'd like...but I DID have the foresight to write down my recipe for future use:

This is, sadly, NOT the only recipe I have with no name, and only half the indredients

In my defense, I didn't know how it would turn out, so, ya know. In the end, I realized flour was missing in the early stages of our recipe. The question mark was my first "check-in time" and I'd add more if needed.

Using farm-fresh fruits requires some pretty messy work for this. You'll need to peel your peaches and pit your cherries. The easiest way to peel peaches is to cut an X across the bottom of each peach, immerse them in simmering water for about 30 seconds to a minute (you'll know it's been long enough when the skin starts to peel away from where you cut the X). From there, drop them immediately into ice water for about a minute to cool. Once cool, use a paring knife to lift the edges at the X and peel the skin away.

Here's where it gets messy...pitting cherries. Everyone's favorite, right? Well, like I said, I don't love cherries, so I do NOT have a pitting tool. So I Googled. And I found this at theKitchn. They suggest using a pastry tip. Oh, and I've most certainly got pastry tips! AAAAAAND IT WORKS! See?

Insert joke about the blood of the cherries being on my hands.

After all that was done, I did, in fact, toss it together in a bowl, taste it, top it

This is where I realized I hadn't taken a single picture. And the topping was already half on. Sorry, guys!

and pop it in the oven

Out of the oven and NOT marked with a B

So you know you want the recipe ;) Well, here it is:

Ingredients:

Filling:

4 peaches, peeled and sliced
1 pint of cherries, pitted
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

1 c. brown sugar
1 c. flour
1 c. oats
1/2-1/4 tsp. salt, optional (I use salted butter, so omitted the salt from my topping)
1 stick butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients for your filling. Add your fruit and stir gently until coated. Turn into casserole dish (or your favorite cast iron skillet). Set aside. Topping: While your butter is melting, combine dry ingredients. Pour melted butter over and mix until combined. Pour (or shake, really) topping evenly over fruit. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until topping is browned and fruit is soft. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Or, ya know, both.

Agent W mentioned a dislike for oatmeal. Sigh. But I imagine this could be made with a crumb topping and still be just as good!

After you make this (because you really, REALLY should make this), let me know how it turned out!

I-Don't-Care Curtains a.k.a. Patchwork Curtains

You lookin' at somethin'?!

*Warning: You know how I said my cats are incorrigible? You're about to learn why in this post*

So I've been moving along with The Girl's bedroom. She wanted mismatched textiles and mismatched-but-sorta-coordinating-because-I'm-anal textiles is what she'll get! I wish I could tell you that this is a tutorial. But then I'd be a liar. And nobody likes liars. And I want you to like me, because I like you! But anyway, a tutorial it is not! And that's because 1. I suck at math; my skills are embarrassingly poor, 2. I didn't really know what I was doing, and 3. every time I asked her opinion on anything about the curtains, she answered, "I don't care." Well, sh*t. Neither do I then. So I figured I'd just wing it!

I gathered some material and scraps I already had (I'll admit, hippies are the LEAST expensive decorators and I can totes get on board with that!), cut out some big square and rectangle shapes, and assembled them thus:

Hey. Hey, guys? I'm going to need those...

Ok, so I did use SOME measurements. I knew I wanted (needed?) a shade rather than traditional curtains for two reasons. Her room is on the second floor and, despite the central air, is UN-frickin-bearable, so she's got a window unit, too. So I needed curtains that wouldn't block the ac. SHE needed (wanted?) the curtains to block the sun in the morning. If I'd made panels, she'd need to close them at night, blocking the ac unit OR leave them open and risk the sun shining in. And we couldn't have THAT *eye roll* So I decided to make a single, tie-up curtain. That meant the finished curtain would need to be the same size as the window (67x37") so my raw measurements needed to be *somewhere* around 75x41" plus seam allowance for EACH square. That's when I was like, "WHY DID I TELL HER I'D MAKE THEM?!" To avoid having to do more math, especially considering the blocks were different shapes and sizes, I just overlapped them as I put my little curtain puzzle together to account for allowance, and continuously measured the overall length and width. I was just wingin' it all the way! Eventually, I needed to move to the floor because the table wasn't big enough. And lemme tell you how fun THAT was:

Ok, so that is kinda cute, but also a huge pain!

You're probably wondering what's going on in the picture above. Or you're a quilter and you know exactly what that is. That is smaller, odd-sized blocks sewn together to create larger, less odd-shaped blocks. Eventually, those larger blocks get sewn together to make the completed projected. I imagine this is an actual technique. But I'm NOT a quilter, so I don't know what it's called or if it even exists. It's just the only way I COULD sew some of it together if that makes any sense. Anyway, it ends up looking like this in the end:

I decided it wasn't gypsy-like enough and it needed something else. I ended up taking one of the sheer panels she already had hanging and cut two more rectangles from it. I attached beaded trim to each, hemmed the edges using a BAZILLION pins, and attached them to the curtain by ONLY sewing along the top edge. Now they flutter.

Lookit how the trims don't match each other! I had a breakthrough, yous guys!

I did line the curtain with some off white fabric I already had from another (although unfinished) project. There's probably a proper technique for that I ignored, too. I just hemmed the bottom of the lining, then sewed up the sides of the two pieces (right sides facing).

While admiring my handiwork, I saw this:

There was NO way I was ripping the seams out of four squares to fix that. So I improvised. I cut a square out of the peace sign fabric:

Ironed on some fusible web:

Cut the peace sign out with my trusty Xacto knife (while MAYBE pretending to be a surgeon) and scissors:

And ironed that bad boy right on there:

Will it last forever? Probably not. Will it do for now, until she decides to redecorate? Probably.

For the ties, I dug out an old scarf of mine with silver thread through it and tassels...and cut it up. This part hurt a little bit, actually. But in reality, I almost NEVER wear that scarf. 

So I took each strip, sewed it into tubes, and attached it to the top of the curtain at the same time I attached the rod pocket. I hung them just to be sure they fit, but not on the actual rod we'll use, or even inside the window as I intend for them to be mounted. But here's your peak at it before it's installed properly!

It MOVES!

So, they turned out fine, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'd attempt something like this again with the different sized blocks. Maybe there's an easier way (it probably involves math, though) that I'm unaware of. If there is, and you know it, PLEASE share it with me! I love the look, but won't do it again without instructions!