ITS DONE!

So I finished the table.

I am actually pretty happy with it. I spent from about 2:00 yesterday to about 6:00 today working on the darn thing but I am happy. I did a gray table with black stain. I started by priming it with KILZ primer. I did two coats of that, then I primed all the chairs. I painted one coat on the table of the gray before going to bed last night. I did not like the color when I woke up so I added a little white and a little gray from my little stash of acrylic paint. Then I went to work! I did another coat on the table, then painted all the chairs twice. This took really long. I think if I had to do it again I would have used spray paint. Unfortunately, I could not spray paint yesterday because Utah decided to have a blizzard and it was probably 15 degrees in my garage. So, I hand painted the whole thing. After I was done I took a black stain and rubbed it in, then I used a damp cloth to wipe most of it off and just leave it in the crevices, corners, and cracks. Once I got this technique down it was pretty fast moving. Then I took a polyacrylic finish and painted everything with that. This just gives it a finish to protect it. It dried really quickly and hardly had any fumes. I started next on recovering the chairs. I picked the material because it had red and black (most of the colors in my living room), gray (the color I wanted to do my table in), and yellow (my most recent fav color). It tied everything and I love it. In case you are super attentive, it is the same material used in my skirt from a couple of posts ago. I just really like it!

First people to see and use them you ask......... Tim's YM came over to play video games. None of them really appreciated it! haha

sorry for all the pictures.... I loaded all the ones I took while working on it.


Here is the before picture in case you did not see my last post


after the second coat of primer


hehe, this is the blizzard that hit when I was trying to finish priming the chairs. I could not keep the windows and doors open for ventilation because the snow was blowing inside!


This is when I was trying to get the glaze/stain to work

I am doing it!

Yay, so tim let me go and buy the paint this morning to redo my kitchen table and chairs. I am so excited to get started. Here are a few before pictures. I absolutely hate the material on my chairs so those will be recovered. I love the tile on the table and think it is unique so I did not just want to buy a whole new table. I hate the different colored wood from the chairs to the table so that will be fun to get rid of. I will update you when I am finished with it. Wish me luck


See how the wood on the chairs and the table are different colors.

Quick update on yesterday's crafting!

I decided to update you on my crafting from yesterday. After finishing all the laundry and cleaning (4:30) I made a trip to IKEA for some new shelfs to paint. I did not have a thanksgiving one yet. I figured while I was making my thanksgiving one, I may as well make a christmas one too. If anyone wants one they are $22.00. That covers the cost of paint, stain, vinyl, hardware to hang from, and ribbon if hanging from the top. If you want a custom one they are $25.00.












If you want to see some other projects done with yellow check out this awesome site allthingsthrifty.com . She has some really cute yellow furniture that she is done. normally she uses a black glaze. I thought about doing this one with a black glaze but I wanted it to be thanksgivingy and my vinyl was brown, so I did a brown stain instead. Jump over to her site and give her some love!

This one, I wanted a reminder to say my prayers at night so this has glow in the dark paint behind the word pray! It looks awesome in the dark, and I think it will be an excellent reminder. Also sometimes I wake up scared at night and it will also serve as a reminder that he is always there and all I have to do is pray...

Skirts!

So a couple of months ago I decided a really really wanted a sewing machine. I did not know why I wanted it. I just wanted it. Did i know what I was going to make with it once I got it..... nope! So Tim thought this would be a good oportunity to bribe me. He said "if you go wait in the student aid line (for school), then you can get your sewing machine". The reason he said this.... because that is the worst line in the history of lines and he knew I would stop putting it off and go if he just bribed me. Sad... but sometimes that is the best way to motivate me. Today he bribed me that if I did all the laundry while he was gone and cleaned the kitchen that I could "craft" or at least that is what he calls it

craft VERB(in my case) /kraft/:
To spend lots of money buying things to make at home. Normally takes time away from cleaning and laundry. However, is lots more fun than cleaning and laundry, and can range from knitting christmas stocking, to YW handouts, to painting, and sewing. (this list is not inclusive).

anyways, eventually I got my sewing machine. I had been stewing what to make for a couple days leading up to the purchase. Sometimes when I am falling asleep or waking up I get ideas on things that I can make. This used to actually happen to Einstein too. Now, I am not saying I am Einstein by any means... but it is a proven fact that is when the idea part of our brains is most active. In fact, Einstein used to lay on a cot in his lab and hold a rock in his hand. He then would start thinking about things so he could get ideas. If he fell asleep the rock would drop and wake him up. He claims that this is where he go the idea for electricity. cool huh... Ok sorry for the history lesson but I think that he is brilliant. I try to stay awake a little longer and I never get out of bed immediately after waking up either. This is my thinking time. I don't normally think of projects but sometimes they come and that is where I get some of my best ideas. Weird ... I hope I did not lose all my readers right there (if I do in fact have readers)!

Well, I got an idea for a skirt. My most favorite skirts are the ones with the jersey knit on the top instead of an elastic or a zipper. They don't give any lines, and are just as cute as a zipper or elastic waisted skirt. I had seem some really cute chunky floral fabric and I wanted to make a skirt from it, then put a hem with the main color from the fabric. These are what I made... the night I got my sewing machine. I was just a little excited....



If you want the directions for these just leave a comment or facebook me. They are not hard, really! A great first or second project for beginners. Also, there is some really cute fabric out there. That is almost the best part of making them is getting to go pick out fabric. They are super easy and thrifty though... so easy we taught all the YW in my ward to make them for one of their Person Progress projects. My whole ward now has them, needless to say. Don't get me wrong though.. I am not mad that we all have them. I love that we are making the world a little cuter, one woman at time.

EASY PROJECT OF THE DAY



A cheap way to decorate for fall (they are just paper). I used my cricut to cut these but you could also just trace them and cut them out, or have you kids help you cut them too. Just make sure you use lots of different colors. You really could do this for any holiday or season. You could do christmas trees, bunnies, hearts, stars, and so on. You could also buy the fake leaves from michaels or roberts as well.

Well, Its been a while!

Hey all, I am posting here not really thinking many of you know this blog exists. I have not posted here in a long time. Like two years. I have decided though as of late that there are a lot of crafty things I do and I would like to share them with anyone who decides to read this. I think I will give tips on how to do the things I do. I also do a lot of handouts for young womens (church job) that I thought maybe some of you out there would enjoy copying. I really don't mind and I know some Sunday mornings, all I want to do is get out of bed and copy someone else's handouts, for convenience. I really have done a lot since my last post two years ago. I will try to do an update of all the things I can think of. I don't have pictures for all my things but I do have a few. A lot of what I do is crocheting and Knitting. Lately though I have really been into wood refinishing and designing. Here is a few pictures of the ones in my house.

















These are just some of the ones I have in my house.... They are super easy and CHEAP. This last summer when I had 6 weddings in probably two months, we decided we could not spend $25.00 on each present. We did however still want to show some love to those that were getting hitched so I made 6 of these... total cost for all of them.... about $30.00. That is about $5.00 a piece. You buy the wood at Ikea for $3.00. It is an unfinished wood shelf. Then you sand it, and paint it your desired color. After doing two or three coats and waiting for them to dry, sand some corners and edges. I would not do a equal amount of sanding all around (boring). Have some larger spots and in some spots do not sand at all. Then rub some dark stain on the whole board, making sure to get all the cracks, corners, and even the front. Let this dry completely (until it is not sticky to the touch). After letting it dry, take your sand paper and rub off the top layer of the stain. this will leave it in the wood grain and bring out your paint in the higher spots. Do not sand the stain off the parts where you sanded the edges and corners. I then used my Cricut to cut the vinyl lettering. You could also paint this on though. If you choose to paint it on, sand the middle of the letters to make it look antiqued.

like this



Thanks www.allthingsthrifty.com for the pic.
ps.... this is my all time new favorite site. I am addicted! Check out her blog and give some love. She is amazing. I am actually thinking about redoing my kitchen table and chairs like the furniture she puts on her website. I just have to get the courage

Check back later for some of the other things I have been up to for the last two years! haha