Glazing Furniture

Okay. So I know none of you are going to be knocking down my door any time soon but I do appreciate my first comment. I am going to tell you a little story about a poor DISGUSTING bookshelf that I saw hidden beauty in and bought for a whopping $12 (part of which I borrowed from my 3 year old daughter's piggy bank, gasp). I still plan on paying her back, thanks MOo.

Unfortunately (again I know) I don't have any before pictures only after. I will paint you a picture with my words. The said bookshelf was found on KSL (Utah version of Craig's List) and with a price tag of only $12 I ran and grabbed it. Now if you will imagine showing up to a house where you first help coral dozens of puppies and are smacked by their lovely scent wafting up your nostrils; then you see the bookshelf, the one that looked beautiful yet in need of some love. Oh it needed love and a scrub and a hose-down in the front yard, yes, I wouldn't even bring the puppy in my house. It was covered in 'stuff' and dog hair and more stuff but the sticky kind. I almost cried. It had potential so it came home with me anyway. The things that caught me was the details; the scalloping on the top and bottom, plus the lady said it was solid wood.

After weeks of looking at it and trying to decide what to do and my husband hounding me about why I bought it. My man went out of town and I got to work. First I sanded it and primed it with 3 coats of primer and then I painted it with white paint, about 4 coats. I added the bead board on the back and painted one more coat and it was white! Too white. So when the man came home he suggested I do a glaze.

I googled glazing and came upon this over at Vintage Revivals (I wish I could be as brave in my home decor as Mandy.) I decided to do the clean version of the glazing. I headed over to the Depot and bought the glaze, which I should have had mixed there, but I had read somewhere that you could just add stain to it. It did work fine but I think it would have been more smooth if it had been mixed at the Depot. Glazing was super time consuming but it turned out so nice, not professional mind you but good enough for my rustic-y house and for my first go. Love it.

Hope you'll be able to find your daimond in the rough and make it your own.

Rapunzel v. Hiccup and Toothless

Each year I try to do a Halloween theme with my kids costumes. This year didn't work out, I could not talk my daughter into being Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon. So I ended up with a mix, which was still cute, but not quite as fun as the theme. Anyway I looked around for a pattern for the How to Train Your Dragon characters and couldn't find one. I resorted to what I've done the years I have made my kids costumes; I winged it.

HICCUP:



I don't have a step by step for this costume. It might actually be embarrassing to show you the steps on this. I went to Hancock Fabric and searched their scrap/discount fabric for the right color and wha-la, probably $5 for the shirt and the pants. The downside to being so cheap is that neither of the fabrics I used had any stretch, which would have been more comfortable for him, however he seemed happy enough. I used his favorite shirt as a template and just laid it on a sheet of painter's paper and drew the outline. (I did the same for the sleeves.) The pants I was not at home and ended up just using a pair of his pants and a Sharpie marker and traced them. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this technique but it was what it was. I ended up having to insert more fabric in the crotch area because I cut it narrow and the pants fit but there was basically a space in the middle. I used scrap fabric and snaps for a waist band and eyelets for the strings around the neck. I used the same basic principal for the vest, I used a shirt for the template and then cut and sewed it until I was happy with the result. The boots idea was adapted from Make it and Love it's Mary Poppins accessory tutorials.

TOOTHLESS:


This costume was super easy. Honestly, I took a couple of looks at the 'real' toothless and decided on buying a hoodie and sweatpants from Walmart and some felt and I 'winged it.' (You know because Toothless has wings. Ha, ha.) I cut the felt in the shapes I wanted it, wings tail etc, all very easy and for someone like myself who is not much of an artist I was pleased with the outcome. I un-stitched the seam along the front and middle of the hood so I could sew the spikes into the hood. Did some magic with the other stuff and he was done. (I have better pictures somewhere but can't find them at this juncture.)

RAPUNZEL:



My dear daughter changed her mind about a million times on who she wanted to be, she finally rested on Rapunzel. I knew I would have a hard time replicating the costume on my own so I splurged and bought the Simplicity Disney Tangeled Pattern. Oh Simplicity how I loath you. Honestly, it turned out beautiful and she is over the moon happy about the costume, but it was a PAIN. I bought all the supplies according to the pattern, satin, organza, lace, etc. After I started cutting the pattern out and reading the instructions I knew I was in trouble, the wording was so odd to me. I automatically called my go to lady, my Mom, and she agreed to help me sew. All would have been lost if not for that cute lady. She helped me sew and figure out the wording. My first mistake was buying satin and organza, both of these fabrics are super hard to sew on, I'm not sure what would have been a better choice, probably anything. Everything went downhill from there. Because of my choice in fabric the eyelets keep slipping out and fraying the satin. A kid spills anything and it stains the stuff. But it is beautiful.

VS. The showdown.
WINNER:
My opinion based on my skill level (which is minimal) is figure it out on your own rather than a pattern.
The Toothless and Hiccup costumes turned out great and I got it all from my head. Now because my head makes sense to me I did not have to call someone for advice or to translate it just did. Also I could make adjustments (like the one above on Hiccup's pants) and not worry too much both because the fabric was cheaper and because I knew I could figure it out.
All in all the pattern was super complicated and I spent three times the money and five times the time on Rapunzel than I did on Hiccup or Toothless. My stress levels though minimal now were skyrocketing thinking that I would never figure Rapunzel out and that my daughter would be disappointed this Halloween.

Hoping your Halloween was as fun and stressful as mine was. Maybe next year I'll be normal and buy costumes.

Blogging

I have been blogging for about 4 years, mostly about my kids and my life in general. I quit my History teaching job of 6 years in May to be home with my munchkins. I realized that I am blog hopping and pinning enough stuff that I could do the same as so many others and try my hand at adding a little extra cash to our flow by working it as a craft blog. So this is my attempt.

My first official post will be the halloween costume extravaganza. Making your own pattern costumes and a simplicity pattern costume. The versus.