Day 55: Recent Projects..pillows, dresser, bed, rugs, bench and jars

I haven't really got much to talk about, however I have finished a few projects over the past 2 weeks of so, so I just thought I would share those.

This is a dresser I made for in George & Annebelle's Bedroom

and here is in George & Annebelle's Bed

This daybed bench is on the porch of my shabby chic cottage...which is kinda a halt thanks to shingles I don't have...however I did order them yesterday and in a few days they will arrive at my best friends house in the U.S. and then when I visit NEXT month I can pick them

I went on a fabric printing binge this past week and decided to make pillows.

I've just put them on this couch as it's a good contrast for display.

This little bench was modified from a long brown and red couch I had, it's going in the shabby chic cottage...I should post that project...it really is much better now ;)

This door mat was also part of my fabric printing binge...as were 2 other little rugs I made for inside

Pillows

and more pillows

and finally some tiny jars of Garage odds & ends I made for a swap.

Day 54: My Trunk Project is finished!

I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but I've just finished a project that I started about 2 years ago.  In fact, I haven't even worked on this project for about 8-10 months.  What was my obstacle?  Either my irrational fear of creating bedding, or my missing inspiration for the bedding.  Either way, just like always seems to happen to me, all of a sudden the light bulb came on 2 days ago, actually I all of a sudden had the urge to work on 2 projects that have been on the back burner, the Trunk and George & Annabelle's house, and in the past 2 days, I have made incredible strides in both, but today I'm just going to share the trunk, since it's done!!!!

Here is the trunk the day I purchased it.  

The best part, I decided randomly one day that I wanted to do a project in a trunk, so a few days later I popped into a little store in Minneapolis that I like, I can't recall the name, but it has just the most eclectic random stuff in it, and in the basement was this trunk...best part, it was marked 'sale' and was originally $22, marked down to $10...SCORE!!!

The inside was less than attractive!

So I gutted it!

Then I cut a window opening

Here's the window, obviously pre-painted.

Then I primed the walls, I just felt it needed a better base, and this sealed off any 

thing that was left behind...it also got rid of that old musty trunk smell. 

I then used scrapbook paper to wallpaper the walls and ceiling, 

I trimmed it in ribbons and I cut a floor tile piece for the floor.

I should have mentioned that when I scored this on sale, I decided to make this project a completely "thrift" project, for me this meant I was going to spend VERY little on it. 

The outside complete.

If I hadn't just told you that, would you have known?  :)

Here is the bed which took me the longest to do.  

All of the furniture was made via House of Miniatures kits

that I bought in an ebay lot..I think I paid roughly $5 each

this is important only because it fit the 'budget' :)

Nightstands

This dresser was the 1st kit I ever put together from House of Miniatures.  

I wish I would have tried 1 years ago, because I'm now addicted to them.

All in All, I think I spend under $50 for this project...a 'thrift' in my book :)

Day 53: Furniture for the cottage

Since I'm more or less at a stall with the outside (I need shingles and quite frankly I've decided to wait till my next trip to the states to get them, as I'm just not interested in paying the shipping to get them here.  Also, I'm planning on ordering quite a few supplies on my next trip back, so I'll just get it all then.   

So I've been focusing time on creating some furnishings for the inside.  Being it's a shabby chic palette, I'm either creating using eclectic items and finishes, or I'm re-creating via older items.  Here's what I have soo far:

This was an old couch that I have no idea where I got, but for some reason it has stuck in my stuff.  I guess I just always saw 'something' in it, but never knew what, till now.

It was way to long for the this cottage, so  I removed the red velvet pads, 

took the rest of the already broke arms off (BTW, the 1 arm has been broke for years and the other arm broke while doing this..so I guess their even now)

Update on this project farther down.

Next I wanted a little table for in front of the bench

I had purchased a set of shutters that I was going to use to make a kitchen table, then I was going to use them as the breakfast bar for the center island that I was going to build for the cabin, and since neither of those ideas seem to want to be born, I decided on a coffee size table.

I cut the shutter down to half, and then used some legs I had left over from another kit that I didn't use them on and came up with this.

Then I painted, sanded and rubbed with walnut ink.  

I'm still planning on doing a bottom cushion and possibly a back cushion and some pillows for the little love seat, but I haven't made any firm decisions on fabrics yet, so I want to hold off until I do.

Since I've changed my plans for the inside, I had to come up with a table and chairs, here's how I created the table

I cut some of my trusty pipe to the correct height (FYI, I also figured out the reason I had problems last time I cut pipe was that my pipe cutter tool needed to be tightened up, once I did that, it cut like a dream.  How silly)

Next I cut a table top circle from some Balsa wood.

I like to give the entire piece a coat of wood glue then, it really firms up the wood.

For some 'legs' or decoration on the bottom I went to my bins of things and came up with this

I bent the pages holder things and set them to dry (FYI, I used Loctite Gel Control Super Glue)

Then I attached them to the bottom of my pipe. 

Next I used some fun tape I had picked up at Joann's in the states around the outside edge, then I used a scrap of the wallpaper to add center color (I attached using the dry mount tissue and monocote iron I talked about last month for wallpapering) and then I added a little trim around the edge.  I'm not 100% sure if I like the 2 patterns on top together yet or not, but I'm holding tight until I figure more stuff out...things tend to come together at some point: :)

I didn't have any chairs, so I had to build these from scratch.

Now that I have a basic pattern I like though, I had one of my many "your soo stupid, why didn't you think of that before" moments and started a file for patterns so next time I'm not starting that far back. 

Here is the table and chairs thus far.  I will be adding chair pads, but once again that is on hold awaiting fabric decisions...and I'm guessing that decision hasn't been made because I don't have any fabric here that I just love with this project, so....that hunt will also be on soon :)

I'm SUPER in love with using House of Miniature kits!  I love not having to start from scratch, I can never get 2 pieces of wood to be cut exactly the same, and I don't have the right tools to do any kind of detail work, so I managed to score a couple lots on e-bay last year and now I just pull from that bin when I need to.  This bench seemed soo odd to me, until yesterday, when it became the perfect piece for my porch.  As you can see, I don't finish the kits ANYTHING like they did :)  

Being the outside of my cottage is a different hue (hue?  is hue the correct word?  O'well...my blog :) hue of pink, I was able to choose this amazing fabric to use on the porch, I just love it!

I needed something tall for the inside, so I pulled out this clock.  I'm not 100% in love with how the actual clock up top came out, I wish I would have made better choices, but I'm going to live with it.  

Getting back to my idea to keep patters, stupid me should have kept all the patterns from all the kits I've done before as on each one is a full size pattern of each piece it took to build them...well these 2 are going in my file now.  Better to start late then never start at all I guess.

It seems the more I do like this, the more I love this part of my hobby.  I think I'll start doing some more hunting on line for scream'n deals on kits and odd 'n ends pieces.  I have a great friend in the states that lets me have things shipped to him and then when I come through I pick it all up...so if anyone has any pieces or kits they want to part with, let me know, maybe we can make a deal :)

Day 52: Has anyone seen my Mini-mojo?

                                       O' Please O'Please, have you seen my Mini-Mojo? 

I seem to have misplaced it.  

I had it last week, I know it was here Tuesday and I believe Wednesday, 

I'm fairly certain I didn't use it Thursday, or maybe it was

missing already on Thursday and I didn't even realize it. 

Then, I went to use it Monday this week, and it was no where.

I looked all day yesterday, nothing...no signs of it even.

Now today I wake, and is it here, well.....it doesn't feel like it.

What to do, What to do

I guess I can update a bit on what I did before I lost it.

I did the insides of the walls of the cottage.  I used a wainscoting

for the bottom 4", a wall paper on top, with a chair rail.  I removed the

2nd floor and cut out so it's just got a ridge that will go around, 

I'm considering using it for decorative purposes, and it was going to also

help with the pot rack I was going to do, but now that my

vision for the cottage seems to not be panning out, I may

rethink that part also.

Here is the one of MANY dry fits.  I wish I knew how many times

most people dry fit a project in the works.  I think my average is....

1-4 times a day for every day that I do lots of work on the structure.  

I don't know how I would do it otherwise, but maybe you get good at 

just knowing things the more you do it.

Dry fitting no longer possible...the structure is now permanently together!

View of the other wall

The porch railings have been completed

The porch roof is not permanent yet, my missing mojo is effecting my roofing decisions!

BTW, sorry for the goofy coloring in all the pictures, my lighting in my studio for pictures isn't good.

I need to get some extra work lighting in there, but I've only been to one store in the past few weeks that I could have purchased that at, and I forgot!!!  It's on the list now though.

I would literally kiss someone for a Home Depot, Lowes or Menards about now!!!

And here is where I sit....in complete disarray!

I'm trying to make decisions and get inspiration, but 

every time I sit down, it's like in the cartoons where the ghostly cloud like

puff floats out of the room.