Part 2: Grandma's Washstand!

Last time I took off all of the hardware off the washstand and gave it a good wipe-down.  Today, we are cleaning the hardware! 

Now my pictures only encompass the door knobs, but I did the same thing for all the pieces.

The started looking like this....

  

Yuck.  YEARS of grime, tarnish, oils from hands, etc. had made their mark on the hardware.

First I soaked them in a vinegar water.  There's probably a 'safe' proportion, but I just guessed.... warm water and vinegar.  Then I started scrubbing a bit with a toothbrush.  

Better....

 I realized I needed something a little bit abrasive to really do the trick, so I took everything out of the vinegar, and while still wet I sprinkled them with table salt.  Then I scrubbed some more, periodically wetting my brush in the water or adding more salt.

 Much better!

(you can see one of the drawer handles in the background, covered in salt)

Now some of them still look, meh, because the finish was just plain worn off... still not sure what I'm going to do there.  I'm torn between restoring and a complete makeover.  Lucky for me, I don't have to decide yet! 

I have two color schemes that I like right now.  One is to paint the whole thing a bright white, and replace the hardware as is.  I don't know what the wood looks like yet, or how it was originally, but that is how I always knew it to be at Grandma's house.

The second is to paint it all a bright white but to paint the recessed areas a bright white-mixed with a titch of yellow.  Hardware either original, painted to look new, or painted a whatever color matches best.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Opinions?

Go Back to Part 1

Furniture Makeover! Grandma's Washstand

My sweet Great-Grandma passed away this spring, and when we went out to visit family this summer my Grandma mentioned that this washstand needed so TLC and it could be beautiful again.  I took one look at it and fell in love!  I casually mentioned that it would be something I was interested in and hoped she had noticed!  Later that same day she said that I could have it!  So we shoved all our luggage and this washstand into the back of our car for the 10hr trek home!

The left door is broken, as you can see.  It actually looks like it has been fixed before, but the side panel of wood has separated from the rest of the door.  My plan is to strip everything first and then see what I'm really up against later before I figure out how to fix it.

Now all I need to do is strip the LAYERS of paint!  You really can't tell from most of these pictures, but the paint is really.... gunky?  You know that look when someone has painted a piece of furniture... and painted it.... and painted it!  I am interested to see what I come up with once the paint is removed!

First things first!  Take it apart and remove all the hardware!  The drawer pulls and door knobs came off no problem!  The hinges.... well... first, who puts hinges on with nails??? Who?? (screws people, screws.)

Second, who's idea was the two and half inch nail?????  Seriously?  I tell ya, I've pulled a few nails out of wood in my day, but this was almost more than I could manage.  The nature of the project and the size/surface area I had to work with mad pulling these buggers out nearly impossible!

Got 'em!

More to come!  Any ideas on how to paint it/finish it when I'm done?  Comment below!

Swimsuit Alteration

It was time for a new swimsuit this year... the last time I bought myself a suit was... 4... years ago.  When we got married... So it was starting to stretch in funny ways and was just not working anymore! 

Swimsuit shopping: yuck!  I'm fairly confident in my body, but hey, I want to wear more than three triangles of fabric!  For the last several years I have gone tankini, but this time I decided on this awesome suit:

It's fully lined!  What?! (seriously, why don't people line EVERY suit??)  Bonus: it was 50% off!  Sweet!  My only problem was that the v-neck was pretty deep on me...  So, time to make some adjustments!

First I put it on and figured out where I wanted the neckline to be.

Next, I cut a rectangle of black, swimsuit material, big enough to span the gap with room to spare.

Next, I turned one edge under a half inch and used my snazzy double needle to hem it.

Tip: ALWAYS sew on the TOP with a double needle, the bottom will be a zig-zag.

(because one bobbin serves two needles, the bobbin thread zig-zags between the two sides)

In an effort to keep this fabric from sagging (thus defeating the purpose) I threaded a quarter-inch elastic through the hem and pulled it just a little bit taunt.

Next, I pinned the black piece to the suit and top-stitched down the existing stitching to hide the seam and attach the added piece.

View from the inside... not perfect, but it worked!  Once it was attached I trimmed away the extra fabric and tried it on!

All done and ready for a trip to the pool!

Backpack Fix-up!

I switched to a small-ish backpack for my purse lately and love it!  It is super nice to be completely hands-free with two kiddos and plenty of space for my stuff and their stuff! (and way too much extra junk if I'm not careful!)  The bag has one big pocket and three small pockets with flaps that snap shut... Unfortunately I have broken two (almost three) of the snaps already, I really need them to stay shut though or stuff falls out when I toss it in the car.  Soooo I added a magnetic snap... the problem here is that it is, well, ugly...

So I went to the craft store and found some flowers that matched the bag...  

I cut the stem off as absolutely-positively short as I could!

I glued the flower back together (when you cut that much stem off, the flower just comes apart)

Then attached them to my bag over the ugly side of the new snap.

All done!  No more diapers, receipts, wallet, or anything else falling out of my purse!  Bonus: It's cute!

Two New Shirts - Color Blocking!

So I had these two shirts... I never loved the fit or the blah-ness of them, so I decided it was time to change things up a bit!

 

First!  I cut both shirts at the exact same place (they were identical shirts, different colors), a half inch below the sleeve seem

Then, just switcheroo the tops!

Add a strip of stretchy lace and pin the pieces back together!

A quick zig-zag to sew them together.

Then I top-stitched the lace down at the side seams.

Volia!  Two brand-new color-blocked shirts that I love!

(Finished product pics to come... oops!)

DIY Sunflower Seeds

We planted Sunflowers in our garden this year in hopes of shading some of the other plants.  In the long run they died before we were done with them, but they were beautiful while they lasted! We have some serious need of fertilizer all the way around! We just put our garden in and figured we would see what happened!  So far it's working out better than it could, but with room for improvement.

Did you know you can make your own sunflower seeds??  They are pretty tasty, let me tell you!  First you have to grow your sunflowers!  The bigger they get, the better!  Our seeds are pretty small because they stopped growing prematurely, but they are still tasty, just small.

'Pick' your sunflowers!  Basically just take a knife or what I call nippers (the tool you use to trim small tree branches or bush branches) and cut the flower off the stem an inch or two from the head... you really just want the head, extra stem just gets in the way!

Next, you have to separate the seeds from the rest of the head... which is a bit tedious, but with lots of good help and company (my husband and sweet boys!) it can be a fun family project!

Getting there....

Empty flower heads, a pile of seeds!  Next, rinse the seeds then let them soak overnight in salt water, like super salty!  Next morning, drain the water and dry them off (I used paper towels)  Spread them out on a cookie sheet, SINGLE LAYER, you really don't want them stacked at all.

Spray them with an oil-based spray or toss in olive oil and bake at 300 degrees (F) for 30-40 minutes, stir occasionally.  They are done when the shells start to brown and get crispy.  Let cool and enjoy!!!

Patriotic Wreath!

July 4th is coming up and I'm excited!  There are lots of reasons to be excited, family gatherings is definitely one of them!  We have a lot of family coming into town because my husband's brother is coming home from his church mission a few days later!  (More on that to come)  So this last year we moved into a house from an apartment, so I finally have room to decorate for the seasons!  So here is my patriotic-4th of July wreath!

First, oh how I would love to paint my door a fun color!  Like Teal or Purple or Red or Yellow!  But Alas, HOA rules say probably not happening...

Anyway, first I needed a wreath form of the foam variety.  However, getting to the craft store to get one is sometimes a struggle with Mr. A and Mr. C so I improvised and it actually worked quite well!

Enter lime-green pool noodle!  This is just a plain ol' dollar store pool noodle and a little bit of duct tape!

UPDATE: The pool noodle is actually not a great option... turns out it sags from the weight of the felt, and alas, by the end of July I had an oval wreath instead of a circle wreath...  Take the time and $5 bucks and go buy one!  (so I don't really know exactly how much it will cost, but I do know they have them at Hobby Lobby and I do know that you can get a %40 coupon online or on their app always so that is a great place to start!)

Next, a quarter yard of Red and White felt and about 3/4 a yard of Blue.  

Cut the felt into 2-ish inch squares.  Really it doesn't need to be exact, but I do suggest making all of them pretty close to the same size, otherwise you will have high and low points on your wreath.

You will also need a box of the cheap, flat head, pins.  They run about $3 a box and I used most of a box.

I divided my wreath form into 12 even sections, 7 for red and white stripes and the other 5 for blue.  

Choose a color to start from and fold a square of felt in half diagonally,

Then in half diagonally again.  It doesn't have to be perfect by any means, in fact most of mine weren't because I liked the variety it added to the wreath!

Then put a pin through the point of the triangle and stick it on your wreath form!

Now do it again, and again, and again....  I worked on it for several evenings while my husband was doing homework after the boys had gone to bed.  This is one of those couple-of-movies kind of project.

 

As you go along fluff and separate the felt, if you don't you will end up needing a lot more felt to cover your wreath!

Once you are all done with the felt use some silver wire and wrap it around a marker to make the spring for the stars.  My stars are felt with glitter glue and hot glue to make them a little more stiff.  You could also use glitter felt or cardstock to make the stars.  Glue or otherwise attach the stars to the wire springs and stick them into the blue portion of the wreath.  I used five stars, but you can use however many you want.  I do suggest an odd number of stars.

In all this wreath cost me about $7-$8!  Not bad if you ask me!

In the end you get this!

Happy Independence Day!!!

Patriotic Bunting!

You probably remember the Summer Bunting I made recently

and you probably remember the red and blue stars and wondered, where is that bunting?  Well here it is! 

I also added the blue-striped ribbon between the flags and took off one of the flags (seven instead of eight), but really it depends on how far you are hoping to go with your bunting!

 

 Go HERE to see how to make this awesome bunting!!

 Happy Holidays!!!