Short & Sweet: Organization Idea

Hello everyone! I have been unbelievably busy preparing to move out of state with my little family (2 cats & my handsome man) so I have been very behind on getting posts up. All of my furniture & crafts have been already moved to Washington (which by the way makes me miserable) so I thought I would post a little somethin' pertaining to organization.

I have many, many ribbons. Pink ribbons, white ribbons, small ribbons, large ribbons, you name it! This is one amazing way to organize and keep your ribbons from tangling. I myself have been frustrated on numerous occasions trying to find a piece of scotch tape to hold the ribbon on it's roll, then having to peel it off for the next use. Or even worse, messing with rubber bands. Argh, hate that. Anyway, this method gives easy access, with compact storage.

I originally found a photo of this on pinterest, and immediately jumped up and ran around the house like a chicken with my head cut off because I knew I had the same basket...but didn't quite remember where. That's pretty typical of me, since I'm almost always misplacing my car keys & cell phone. :) Fortunately, I found it after minimal searching. *insert sigh of relief*

Since my crafting supplies are over a thousand miles away from me, I didn't have many ribbons on hand to display for the photo. I stuck my zippers for sewing behind the ribbons to hold the rolls tight. Once I'm re united with my crafts, I'll be able to put ribbons on the other side as well. :)

Hope this short & sweet post will inspire you to organize your crafting supplies, or heck, organize other parts of your house!

....yeah, right. That can wait. ;)

Washington bound in 12 days,

Sierra

Telephone "Gossip" Table Revamp

Gah! Finally! I have been so antsy to get this post up, & I am so proud of my work. :) I have wanted a "gossip"telephone table since I dunno...forever?! So I was rummaging through craigslist, and found this 1940's gem. She was in pretty bad shape, and was desperate for a makeover. The bottom strip around the drum had gaps, the back of the chair's detail was on the verge of breaking in half, the seat was stained and rock solid, and the desk surface...well, you'll see a little later on. 

PSA: This is a very photo heavy post, but I promise I won't bore you to death. (hopefully)

Before

After!

Supplies: 

- Wood filler

-Primer

-Paint color of your choice

-Sand paper

-Foam brushes & clean lint free rags

-Translucent Glaze

-Wipe on poly

-Fabric for the seat

-Polyester stuffing

-Staple gun & staples

I purchased this wood filler at Lowe's for about 3 bones. It says to apply with a putty knife, but my finger worked far better in the tiny cracks and crevices. I especially needed this for the chair's back, since the detail was almost broken in half. I filled, waited for it to dry, then sanded it down to shape with 250 grit sandpaper. I also filled in the bottom band around the drum, since it had some pretty significant gaps.

This photo is before I sanded the filler down to shape.

Primer. I finally used my spray can adapter so I wouldn't cry my way through priming this time! It is amazing, if you use spray paint often go buy one! I got mine at Orchard supply. 

I sprayed that baby down with two coats, giving each coat plenty of time to dry. Like i've said previously, I'm a night owl so I do a lot of this work at night, so letting things dry over night is convenient.

So...yeah. Lets just take a step back here: That's definitely contact paper on the desk surface. I was a little freaked out to discover what lied beneath. 

I used a putty knife to peel back the paper, which was quite stubborn and didn't want to come off in one swoop.

This is the damage. A million tiny dings and a few deep scratches. I had my work cut out for me! I used my sandblaster handheld sanding block with many grits of sandpaper, working my way from low grit to high, in attempt to work those dings & scratches out. 

Which was eventually a success. Back to the priming...

After primer

And this is after the 2nd and final coat of paint. I used Valspar's "grey gull."

A view in the sunshine of the final coat of paint, so you can get a better look at what the true color looked like.

I let my paint dry for around 4-5 days, and then took my 300 grit sand paper and began distressing. I sanded edges that would normally produce wear over the years. On the edges, I sanded down to the wood, but on the desk surface and on random parts of the legs & chair I only sanded down to the primer. 

Then, I whipped out the big guns; Valspar translucent glaze. The shade is brown mocha. 

This was my first time working with glaze, and I am now a huge fan. It's such a beautifully simple way to give any piece some character and definition. Anyway, I poured some of the glaze into a cup, and took a clean foam brush to use for application. This is when you also need the lint free rags. I purchased a big bag of them at Lowe's but you can also just use an old t-shirt. Paint one section at a time, then wipe it off before moving onto the next section. Each piece you glaze on will be unique depending on how much glaze you paint on, how long you let it sit, and how much you wipe off. 

I painted a small section, wiped off directly after, and used light pressure when wiping. My goal here was to darken the grey slightly, and of course give it an antique weathered look. :) 

Helpful tip: When using that foam brush, really work the glaze into any creases/crevices to give it more definition. Don't worry so much about wiping it out, you want those areas to look darker.

(Please excuse my heinous manicure...working on furniture makes it impossible to keep up my nails)

Some prefer to wear gloves during this process, but I don't mind getting a little dirty, so I skipped the gloves. It washes off very easily with soap and water anyway.

I took this photo promptly after I finished glazing. I didn't get a chance to take a photo showing where I distressed the piece, so you can kind of see now where I did it. :)

The original seat had some sort of hideous pleather on it, and the nails were rusted. Those suckers were not coming out! So I said to myself,

"eh, screw it."

I then decided to just re upholster over it. I used burlap fabric that I got on sale at Walmart in the remnants section for $1.50! If you're ever going to be working with burlap, go to Lowe's or Home Depot and purchase it by the roll there because fabric stores rip you off! Jerks.

I used my Dad's staple gun and some polyester pillow stuffing I had lying around to give it some comfort & definition. The previous upholstery job was just the fabric & a board, not comfortable at all. Looking back, I wish I would have been a little more diligent with the upholstery, but none the less I'm still happy with the result. :)

So here it is! More pictures of the end result. I am so proud of this piece, & so happy I didn't completely screw it up like I usually do. 

Go me! 

Here's a little close up of the distressing  I did exposing primer and also wood on the edges

Wait a week in between glazing and using your wipe on poly. Don't ask me why, that's just what the glaze packaging says, so I listened. ;)

So there she is! Hopefully I inspired you to start experimenting with re finishing furniture as well. It's such a therapeutic process for me, and on top of that a lot of fun! Hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed creating this purdy lil' thing.

One proud Mama,

-Sierra

Black Bean Brownie Experiment

It was a rainy day in usually sunny California, & I was bored. I was in between coats on a piece of furniture I'm re finishing (trust me, there's a post on that to come) & I didn't know what to do with myself! Yes there are many things to do on a rainy day, but all I felt like doing was baking. So I took a look into my pantry, & there wasn't much. I saw some coca powder, & then I saw...

Black beans.

I remembered I had seen a recipe a while back for black bean brownies, so I thought I would play around with that. I followed a bunch of different recipes I found online, and tweaked them & made it my own. I'm still going to play around & test some ingredients in the future, but this batch turned out great! They had a deep chocolate taste, & had a very moist and fudgy consistency. This batch made around 12-14 servings.

The recipe calls for:

-1 can of black beans

-3 large eggs

-3 tablespoons of canola oil

-3/4 cup splenda (you can substitute with sugar if you like)

-1/2 cup coca powder (unsweetened is what I used)

-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, pure is best! :)

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

First step which I seem to always forget is to preheat the oven to 375. So if you're following my recipe, go do that. Now!

Once I got my oven preheating, I grabbed my can of black beans, which was 15 oz. Some recipes called for a can of low sodium black beans, but I just had a regular can and thoroughly rinsed them in a strainer to remove the sodium. I then put them in my mini food processor, along with the eggs and pulsed until they were a smoother consistency. They won't get completely creamy, I could still see lots of bean skins, so don't worry about that. Just make sure majority of the chunks were gone.

Following the pulsing, I poured the beans into a large mixing bowl, but left a few large spoonfuls in the food processor. I did this for easier mixing of the dry ingredients.

I then added the canola oil, splenda, coca powder, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, and the chocolate chips and pulsed a few times until mixed. The chocolate chips didn't really break up, but it gave a more fudgy consistency for the end result. 

Once incorporated, I combined it all into my bowl with the black beans, and mixed together. I then poured it into a nonstick baking pan that was given a spritz of non stick spray, like Pam. 

If you're like me, you may get a little freaked out when you realize how watery the batter is. Don't fret my dears, it's going to be okay. Take a spatula and flatten out the batter in your baking pan, and then sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on top. 

Pop that puppy in the oven and let it bake for around 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, it will be ready when the edges pull away from the pan. Let that chocolately goodness cool completely before cutting into single servings. This was the hardest part because by now, everyone in you household will be gravitating to the kitchen wondering what that amazing smell is! 

So after waiting a good 20 minutes or so, I cut them into single servings, and then ate about 5 of them because they were SO delicious! That's the reason I don't have any pictures of the pan before I divided them, I was too excited to get my paws on em. I handed one to my boyfriend, and his exact words were, 

"wow, that legitimately tastes like a regular brownie."

Music to my ears! Success. :)

These wonderful morsels are healthy for you too! The beans add some protein, so if you've got some finicky eaters in your household, give them one of these. They won't even know that they've got some good stuff hidden inside. ;) 

Hope you enjoy my take on "healthy" brownies. Well, as healthy as I can get them for now. These taste very similar to the Vita Tops that I buy at health food stores, which are packed with vitamins and fiber, so I'm going to experiment with adding more healthy goodies to this recipe in the future.

Lil' Susie homemaker, over & out!

-Sierra

Metal Shelf Makeover

As you may have read in one of my earlier posts, my Mom has a ton of furniture that she's been keeping in storage for me. She moved it all from her storage unit to her garage to save some money, so I've been able to get a much better look at it. This weekend my boy and I put a holding deposit down on a 3 bedroom town home in Issaquah, Washington, so I will now have enough room to show off all of this charming furniture! Most of the pieces look pretty outdated, so I decided to embark on a journey to refinish, repaint, and re-stain many of the pieces, which let me tell you is an enormous job. But before I get ahead of myself, I wanted to focus today's post on my first piece that needed some TLC. 

So there I was, gazing into my Moms Garage.  I became overwhelmed with ideas and nostalgia. The furniture she saved for me after so many years, was at one time in my grandparents house, or in my house as a child. She even kept my little toy trunk that my sister and I used to store our toys in (which was usually a failure, kids are messy of course!) 

But then I suddenly got overwhelmed in more of a...stressed out way. All of these pieces have sentimental value, and I someday want to hand them down to my children as well, so I didn't want to get into this and mess anything up.

 "Start small," I kept telling myself. 

So I grabbed a dusty old wire rack of shelves that used to hold all of my art projects & creations as a child in my Mom's kitchen. Taking on a small wire rack of shelves should be quick and painless; no sanding, just priming and painting, or so I thought.

I went out and purchased Rustoleum spray paint from Orchard Supply, but you can pretty much get it at any hardware store. I just find that my local OSH has the best color selection. I chose a slate blue color, and also bought some primer. 

Once I got my work surface covered with a drop cloth, I set my wire rack out and started dusting. This was extremely tedious. All of the curved lines and little nooks and crannies this rack had made dusting quite a task. I tried using damp paper towels and an old rag. Neither seemed to do a better job than the other, so I just kept dusting away

....nearly 45 minutes later...

Finally, done with dusting! After sneezing and whining my way through it, I was finally ready to apply the primer. Here's the shelf after it was cleaned, and before the primer.

Although one can was enough primer, I wish I would have purchased two. As you may know by now, I am extremely impatient, so I didn't want to fuss with waiting to buy another can.  So, after the allotted drying time, I then applied the slate blue. At this point, my fingers and fore arms were exceedingly sore and tired from pressing down on that evil little spray can button! I'm thinking I may need to start lifting weights,  being sore for the following two days was ridiculous. 

Don't judge me.

Side note: I recently purchased an adapter for spray cans at OSH, that makes spray painting a breeze. I'm overjoyed that I found a solution that didn't require a gym.

I waited 24 hours before I brought my newly gorgeous wire rack into the house, to allow it to completely set and dry. One thing I still need to do is seal it, but again I was impatient to get it inside and see how it looked. I'll get to it soon, promise!

Anyone who does this for a living, or does this even for fun I commend you! I'm already onto my first wood piece, so I now understand what kind of work goes into sanding, priming, painting, more sanding, and finishing. Geez! Gets me fatigued just talking about it. 

Anyway, there will be more furniture make overs to come, so don't you worry! Baby steps, people! :)

The noob,

-Sierra

Weekly Attempt: Boxy Cosmetic Bag

Hello cuties! Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend. I spent the first part of my Halloween night sitting around waiting for trick or treaters, and after I realized there weren't going to be any, I had a choice:

Facebook stalk, or use my spare time wisely and get a project done.
...Obviously I decided the latter!

 So, this weeks attempt was to make a "boxy" cosmetic bag. I've only had experience with making a very basic bag with 3 straight sides & a zipper, but this week I wanted to see if I could get a little more advanced, which spooked me a little, but I grew some cajones & began my research for patterns. Being a tutorial junkie, I found one that was perfect for my current skill level at ThreeBears. It seemed like something I could tackle in one evening, so I hopped to.

If you're going to try this project as well, here are some of the fixin's you'll need:

-Two contrasting fabrics, or one (whichever you prefer)

-Iron

-Sewing machine & zipper foot

-Rotary cutter & mat

-Zipper (I used 12")

-Clear ruler (as you can see mine is definitely not clear, which is just fine, but it can help with producing accurate/straight cuts)

-Fabric & pinking shears

Alert: The lighting in these photos is wretched, so I apologize in advance. 

Now before I show you more pictures of the finished product, let me take a moment to go off on a tangent here; I have a newfound love for my zipper foot. I was far too intimidated to even take my presser foot off, so I've previously avoided using my zipper foot all together. Now that I've become a sewing warrior (or at least working towards it) I realize how much easier it is to sew on a zipper, and how close it gets to the actual "teeth." So if you're like me, google how to change your feet, and give er' a go! You won't regret it. :)

I cut my two contrasting fabrics to 9" by 7" with my rotary cutter, you can choose any measurements your heart desires! Fold a half inch seam along the long side, then press with your iron so it will give a clean edge & stay put. Make sure you're folding as the picture shows below, with your right side of the fabrics being folded inward.

 Following the heat, pin those long folded edges to each side of the zipper, getting the folded edge as close to the teeth without covering them, & stitch with your lovely zipper foot. 

Once the fabrics are attached to the zipper, sew along the opposite 9" edge, stitching all four of the pieces together. Your result will show both sides open, so place the bottom seam directly on top of the center of the zipper.  Make sure you open that zippy about halfway, don't miss this step or you won't be able to turn your bag right side out! Being cognizant to make sure they match up perfectly, you can then sew along the remaining two sides, making sure to backstitch and go over where the zipper is an extra time for durability. This will be where the zipper begins & ends for your bag, so just cut off the excess leaving about 1/2".

This is where it got a wee bit tricky for me...

pinch the corners in, and find a good measurement (depending on how tall you want your bag to be) and pin. After you've achieved even corner measurements, stitch across that corner, and follow up with pinking shears to get rid of the excess and prevent shedding.

This should be your end result, hopefully even more fabulous than mine!

I used a paisley fabric, and I now realize I probably should have matched the print up where the sides meet at the zipper. 

I'm workin' on it...ok? ;)

Something I may add next time, is a little handle, or "flap," into the seam where the end of the zipper is located. I've seen this in other cosmetic bag photos and tutorials, and it adds a nice touch.

The most challenging step for this bag had to be sewing across the corners to create that boxy effect. I mean, I guess its not that difficult, but the OCD perfectionist in me thinks I could have gotten those measurements muuuuch more accurate.

The one step I added to the ThreeBears tutorial was that I added a liner (as seen above.) I used a poly/cotton blend, which is thin, and I also wanted to add some extra pizzaz to it. 

Next time I make this bag, I will use a vinyl lining so it's easy to clean out. I don't know about you ladies out there, but I use Bare Minerals makeup, and no matter how hard I try, it eventually gets everywhere in my current makeup bag. With vinyl, all you'll need to do is turn the bag inside out, wipe down the fabric with a damp cloth, and BOOM! All clean. :)

I discovered today that you can purchase fusible vinyl interfacing at Beverly's, Hancock's, or Joann's, which is music to my ears knowing that I don't have to search for the right vinyl or laminate fabric, I can just make it from any old fabric around the house. I seem to forget that stores don't stay open for night owls like me, so I will be going out to purchase this tomorrow :) 

Stay tuned for an update on how that interfacing works out...

I'm so pleasantly surprised with how simple this was, and how little time it took me to complete. Usually I have to mess one up beyond repair, and then make an entirely new one, but this time it was different! I think I'm getting better with reading directions carefully, and not rushing as much. :)

In closing, I know I've been awful with taking pictures as I go through each step myself, so from here forward, I will be working towards improving that. In the interim, take a lil' peep at the tutorial I hyperlinked for assistance! 

It's time for me to hit the hay, hope you come read again soon! If you have any tips, feedback, or comments don't hesitate to submit them below! 

One tired chick,

-Sierra

A Wonderful Smelling Home

Salutations! I Just wanted to briefly share a homemade air freshener I stumbled across on The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. Its super easy, and I have a huge mason jar obsession, so this has been a way to put some of my collection to good use. :) Otherwise, this is a great way to recycle a pickle jar, or really any jar you have lying around the house. If you wanna get crafty, paint the lid a cute color with some Rustoleum spray paint, or do what I did and add a ribbon for embellishment.

What you'll need:
-Baking soda
-Essential oil (lavender is my fave, so that's what I used.)
-Any jar with a lid
-Hammer & Nail

All you do is fill your jar a little less than halfway with your baking soda, add 6-8 drops of essential oil (I add a few more, because I can't resist lavender) and then put the lid on your jar. Take the hammer & nail, and poke holes in the lid. I did the same thing as the tutorial I found, and poked mine in the shape of a heart. Presto! You're done! So much better than a glade plug in, right?! Right.


Tip: When it's not giving off that wonderful scent anymore, give it a little shake and that should do the trick. They last quite a long time!

The first one I made for my Mom's bathroom

My second one that is now in my bathroom. 

The tutorial was found here

Best believe there will be many more mason jar inspired crafts in the near future.

Happy crafting!

-Sierra

Weekly Attempt: Makeup Brush Roll

As I was gearing up to leave for my short trip to Seattle, I found quite a few inspiring home made travel accouterments online, so I thought I would make something simple, and take a crack at creating a makeup brush roll.

I found so many tutorials online. I seemed to take on my own method and combine tutorials I found on youtube & various blogs. Some I found were a little too advanced for me, and we all know I'm horrible at following specific directions (something I must work on if I am going to eventually follow patterns etc.)

This actually didn't turn out half bad! The only issue is sewing in straight lines. Seems SO simple, but its not. Well, maybe it's just me, but I'm hoping other novice sewists out there have had the same issue.

I think the most difficult task was measuring and cutting the fabric. This in part was because I was stubborn, and thought I didn't need the rotary cutter & mat or a quilters ruler. Ummmm I was definitely wrong. With not being able to sew in perfect straight lines, on top of being helpless when it became to cutting accurately, I got an oddly ascending edge on my roll. It elevated as it ran right to left, which ended up having a weird lip in the fold as it rolled up. It wasn't too obvious, so I'm actually still happy with the end result, given my abilities thus far. :)

Confession: I actually made a tiny practice brush roll, and I highly reccomend any noobies out there give this method a try. It gave me a chance to experiement with some different placements and measurements, as well as a chance to mess some things up and learn from my mistakes!

On the inside of my roll, when I layed down the stitching for the brush slots, I again didn't follow directions well and kind of winged it, which left me with some slots that didn't fit my brushes so well. So word of the "wise." if you have your own specific set of brushes, make sure and measure them. If you're making it as a gift, take a look at what grip sizes brushes normally are, and try to follow that as best as you can.

As you see in this picture, I stitched the ribbon towards the back center of my first roll, which I ended up not being happy with. It looked unfinished to me, and just not right for some reason. 

On to my second brush...

This time around was much better, despite the uneven edge at the top, and a few other small hiccups. 

To make this I chose a solid & print fabric, and cut my fabric to the measurements of my brushes. I made sure to measure my tallest brush, and give it a few inches extra so I would be able to fold the fabric over. I also cut another print fabric piece to where the brushes would easily slide into them, and not fall out during traveling. I then ironed my fabrics, and pinned the small contrasting strip to the solid fabric, and took down my measurements of all of my brushes. I also decided to leave a gap pocket in case I want to stitch in extra brush slots later.

After I pinned/marked down my brush slot measurements, I stitched away! The reason I initially sew the slots into the solid fabric is so the stitching won't be seen on the outside of the roll in the end. 

Following this step, I then sewed the two large pieces of fabric "inside to inside" so that I could leave a 3" gap, and turn it right side out after stitching. I then stitched up that gap, which was my next mistake. I'm limited on thread colors currently, and I also stitched wayyyyy to far down, which ended up not looking as pretty as I had hoped. 

Then, I ironed, and sewed on my ribbon! As I said earlier, I tried a different ribbon placement, and this one was folded in half (not quite half, I left the side that would wrap around the roll larger so the end result would look even) and stitched it on the inside of the roll, about half way down. 

Reflecting back on my first weekly attempt, I learned to watch my stitching & cutting, and to really take my time with every step. I tend to rush through things sometimes, which then causes some not so wonderful results. I'm thrilled that sewing has been teaching me patience and precision, because those are two attributes I lack personally. 

Voila! My attempt!

See that top edge? Oh boy...

The extra pocket

And, the top edge when I roll...

Off to purchase a rotary cutter & mat,

-Sierra