CREATING IN CRAZINESS

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Master Bedroom?

Our  master bedroom is gimungous...Yes that's a word in the Rene' dictionary.... We are lacking a couple bedrooms in this house so my boys are using what the former owners turned into an office as their bedroom and we have divided the master so that we have a study in here.  I have large plans (shh don't tell my husband) for this room but for now the bookcase dividers work nicely...The bookcases, file cabinet, bins and desk are all from IKEA..  I tend to prefer junk but IKEA has some great inexpensive options that work fabulous and... dangerously enough it is now only 8 miles from my house!!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Living room transformation in progress




Ok so when we moved in this house the living room was a very very dark green not horrible but not for me.... I wanted to lighten the room up and even neutralize it so that I'd be able to use whatever colors my mood swings me to. I think the new color is a huge improvement!!!!!  I'm working on more stuff for the living room and I'll be posting that as I get to it.... The cabinet under the tv... was a goodwill redo... the two chairs in the top pic were $19 each at goodwill.. I also have plans for them.  Check back in later to see which project I've decided to get done...




Felt Flower Scarves

Felt Rose Scarves.....




First I cut Circles out of the felt you'll want 3 different sizes and about 15-20 of each size depending on the length of scarf you want to make.  I'd recommend 5" ,4" and 3" circles.  After you cut the circles you may want to cut around them to make them a little wavy to add dimension to your flowers.



I then cut three different sizes of tulle circles.  (4 1/2" and 3 1/2" and 2")
I burned the edges of the tulle with a candle to make the edges curl.

After you have all the circles cut and burned, layer your flower pieces.
Fold the flower in half and sew through the middle.  Do this a few times so that it is very tight and will hold.


























Open up the flower and fold in half again the other way... Repeat the sewing this direction...

Open up the flower and sew some beads into the center to add some sparkle.
Repeat this with all of your flowers .






















After you've completed the flowers cut yourself a 4"wide strip of felt to the length that you would like your scarf to be.
Start tacking the flowers to the felt scarf to get your spacing right...
Now pull the layers of your flower up and sew around the flower very close to the inside to attach it firmly to the scarf.. I then found that it was helpful to kinda pull on the thread so that the flower will pucker... now hold firmly and knot your thread....






Voila... a couple of hours later you will have a beautiful scarf.... Yes it takes a little while to make but the results are beautiful.

My first attempt I used 6 layers of felt on the flowers and that took forever and the flowers didn't gather as well since they were so heavy so I played and camed up with my 3 felt 3 tulle version.  You could also use some poly satin in between the layers but I would also burn the edges to make them curl and keep them from fraying.
Refinish The Cabinets
Ok so as I've mentioned I move every 2-3 years.  So I am recreating my third house in six years.  I felt that my kitchen was too dark.  Dark cabinets, black granite, not much window light.... so..... I decided to refinish the cabinets.  (I have done this before in my last house but this time was much easier, by the time my husband retires from the army I'll be able to refinish cabinets in my sleep!!!)
Rustoleum has come out with a great kit for cabinet refinishing the kit includes everything you need except the brush.. (hey that might be a good thing to add!!!)  The kit is called Cabinet Transformations...


 Step ONE....  degloss your cabinets and doors, the pad and deglosser are included in the kit!!!   Apply deglosser liberaly to the scrubby pad and scrub the doors with lots of elbow grease...I rinse the pad out frequently as it takes on the poly that you are taking off the cabinets.. I tend to do this step while the doors are still up after I've cleaned up from dinner...Make sure you do inside and out.... I prefer to do this a couple of times just to be sure its good and deglossed... I'd hate to do all the work just to have it peel off later because I was to hurried to be thorough...(I've been know to hurry through since I always want it done now!!!)


Step TWO..... I would remove the cabinet doors and take off all hardware.
It is a good idea to label all doors and hardware (don't forget to label inside the cabinet so you'll remember where door #2 goes)


Step THREE... would be to lay all the cabinet doors and drawers out flat with the back side facing up.... Now you can start to paint with the bonding coat... this is your primer and paint all in one.. It really does work!!!  You'll want to apply one thin coat wait for it to dry to touch then apply a second coat...(I used a good quality foam brush for this step)  You can paint the cabinet frames while you wait for the first coat to dry.... well, step three is a little long because after you've applied two coats and let them dry you need to turn the door over and repeat on the front... Don't forget to do the edges of the doors and be careful not to let it drip...

Step FOUR... after all your doors and frames are dry you can now apply the antiquing glaze .... This step is optional.  However, I've found that it looks very nice and tends to help hide and mistakes or brush marks or drips that happened during step three..The kit includes some gauze cloth to use for this step, but I've found I like a simple terry cloth shop towl better... (sorry rustoleum)  You simply brush on the glaze, going heaver in the seams, then rub it off lightly with a dampened cloth.  Repeating until you get the desired look. (don't forget the frames)  I let this step dry much longer to make sure I wouldn't smear it when doing step SIX

Step FIVE... The least fun step... I chose to replace all the hardware and put the cabinet doors back on at this point so I could see the doors up in the kitchen to make sure I had the glazing and paint just how I wanted it.

Step SIX.. After everything has had a few hours to dry you can apply the Protective Top Coat.... I did this step before I went to bed (after getting the kids down so they couldn't touch)  that way it had hours to dry before anyone would be in the kitchen asking for breakfast.. You'll want to make sure that your brush is very clean so that you don't get any gunk on your cabinets.  Apply a very thin careful coat being careful not to go over any spots you've already top coated.  Now go to bed and get some rest....

Step SEVEN... Wake up and enjoy... you may also find that you missed a few spots with the top coat and now that it is dry you can add another thin coat where needed.  (once again I would do this before heading off to sleep)

I love the result....I'll probably keep posting pictures as I get better with camera lighting etc...I'm working on window treatments and then I'll be moving onto the next room... I'll also post pictures of my last kitchen once I find them...(that time I had to research and find all the products myself... I was still happy with the results but I do worry that it didn't adhere as well)  Only time well tell and yes we do still have that house with renters in it as when Army says time to move off we go...

So tune in later for the final result and my last redone kitchen and I finally came up with a solution for the ugly pendants that hang over my island....