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!