Who Done It: A Mystery!

Welp, I guess that is the end of that puppy bed!

Who looks guilty?  Dang camera phone -- their eyes look CRAZY!

Happy Birthday to ME!

WARNING: WORDS!!! Sorry, but my birthday is kind of a big deal :)


Last year I took an entire week off from work for my birthday.  I decided that I should make this a tradition and do it again this year. The only problem is that last year I had only taken one day of vacation before my ‘birthday week’ and this year I have been playing with friends too much 1 day in Columbia for St. Patrick’s day, 3 days at the beach, 2 days in Miami…..and now I have 3 days of vacation left for the rest of the year.  3 days for FIVE months.  Oh brother…what have I done to myself!

Anyways, I’m going to say at this point in time it was definitely worth it; when I am in a super slump at work and have no vacation days in October I might be mad at myself. 

I had SUCH a great time hanging out with my friends and family.  My birthday was on Monday and my sweet mom took off work to hang out with me.  She made me chocolate chip waffles with homemade strawberry jam – delicious! 

That night a few of my friends and I went to Sky High  in Pineville, NC.  We had a BLAST! I was EXHAUSTED after approximately 3 minutes….originally I wanted to jump for 2 hours, I’m glad Marisa talked me out of that.   We decided that it would be a better idea to eat supper AFTER we bounced rather than before so we went to my house and a few more friends joined me for spaghetti that Mommy made. She makes the BEST food.  After dinner I opened presents and ate birthday cake.  Yes, I had a LEGIT birthday party. (yes I’m aware I’m spoiled loved) 

I did lots of fun things during my birthday week—ate…a LOT…, sewed things, went to see Kaskade, hit the movies, and out with my friends.

Eating:

I’m almost positive that I consumed about a year’s worth of calories during my ‘birthday week’, I’m pretty sure I will not fit into the jeans I worked so hard to fit back into for the past 6 months but as I think about all the wonderful food I ate, I’m somehow okay with this.

Toast at Dilworth – Marisa and I shared an Avacado Omelet and Stuffed French Toast with Cream Cheese and Strawberries…I may or may not have been back later in the week with Casey to get the French Toast again.  It is AMAZING people, AMAZING.  They also have the French Toast with cream cheese, strawberries, and Nutella – how does that sound?  

American Roadside- A new burger place near Piedmont Row/SouthPark.  It was nothing special; I probably wouldn’t go there again. Oh, and they don’t serve liquor – make that definitely not going there again.

RuSans- Not even a question that I would be going to this place.  I gorged myself on sushi with Marisa and Bella. I do have to say I was HIGHLY disappointed because there were NO cream puffs.  Everyone knows that I eat until I can’t breathe  save room for cream puffs.  At least they had their amazing chocolate cake. 

Outback Steakhouse- Marisa and I have a tradition of going to get seared Ahi Tuna (OMG!) and strawberry sangria.  We switched it up a bit with margarita flights and we also got a crab appetizer – it didn’t hold a candle to the tuna! (Anyone seeing a theme – Marisa and I like to go out to eat J )


Playing:
Jump Sky High: I mentioned this earlier but I just wanted to throw out that you can burn 1,000 calories in an hour....yes, 1,000 calories in an hour!!!

Sewing: I came across refashionista.net and decided to do a little revamping of thrift store clothes on my own.  Marisa and I cruised down to Goodwill to find some treasure.  We found 2 skirts we thought would be perfect.

Elastic Waistband Skirt turned Belted Tube Dress.  This one didn’t even require any sewing, just pulled it up and threw a belt on it. TaDa. PS- I'm aware I look homeless. I'm not.

^^ Why in the world does my font have a white background?? How do I fix this?

This one took a little more work – more than I would care to talk about because Marisa and my sewing skills were a bit rusty.  We rekindled a friendship with our ol’ pal the seam ripper.  We sewed the pocket together and made a mess of the outside of the skirt with thread….allegedly.

 

Still looking homeless...and I can't find an after pic! Will have to update later!

I have been collecting fabrics for a while now and finally came up with enough to sew a quilt.  I’m making another zigzag (chevron) quilt and a swastika windmill quilt.  My little brother asked me why I had sewn a swastika quilt...crazy kid. I will write about these later because there are far too many words on this post!  But here is a sneak peak at the fabric strips!

Kaskade: On Wednesday I went to Kaskade with my old roommate Rebekah.  We danced around and acted wild.  It was SO much fun.  It was also SO hot and we were pouring sweat.  Check us out!

Savages: I adore Blake Lively. However, this movie was not my favorite.  I do NOT do blood and nasty stuff like that –this movie was FILLED with it.  I should have gone to see Channing….oh well, next time.

Well, that was a brief recap of my birthday! I'm thinking 24 is going to be a great year!

One last picture with our new friends we met at the show!

Let's Get Crafty: Toile Tufted Bench

I bought 2 benches off Craiglist for $10 each.  Rhiannon was nice enough to pick them up and took them to Matt's garage -- what a sweet boy to let us craft in his garage!  Rhiannon and I were working one night and Matt came to move his Jeep to give us more space....apparently when you drive Monster Jeeps you don't see things low on the ground.  He crashed into both tables, one has now become a tester for different patterns and colors and the other was salvagable. 

The table looks like it was originally light wood, then painted navy, then painted black.  I gave it another coat of oil based black paint with the help of my friend Bailey who was in town.  I had orginally planned on stenciling a design because I bought a bunch of fun Martha Stewart stencils but I decided to do another tufted piece.

I drew out the design and drilled the holes. I tried to make these holes really clean because last time the needle kept getting caught on pieces of wood and it was VERY difficult to push the needle through.

Then, I sprayed the table and foam with adhesive. My mommy was here to help with this :).  I actually used a mattress pad instead of buying the expensive foam, it definitely works but isn't nearly as nice as the expensive foam.  I guess somtimes you have shell out the extra cash for it to be perfect.

I covered the foam with batting and stapled. Then, I placed the toile fabric over the batting.

Now for the tufting! This was so much easier than the first bench we did because of the cleaner holes but it still was a bit irritating.  We threaded the 6 inch embrodiery needle and pushed it up from the bottom of the table.  Then we threaded on the button and pushed the needle back through the table.  Rhiannon tied the knots and then stapled the thread to the bottom of the table.


Got a few done...

Almost there!

On the tufted coffee table I used nailhead trim but I decided to just use a braided rope trim on this one which I picked up from JoAnns.  I just used hot glue and glued it the entire way around.  Next time I will start in the middle so it isn't obvious where there 2 ends meet right on the corner.

Ta Da!

Not MIA, just Lazy...errr BUSY!!!!

Oh goodness, where does the time go?  Where have I been?

I haven’t worked on many projects lately!  Let me try and think of some excuses…It has been too hot to paint outside (yes, I’m a baby).  I couldn’t find enough fabric that I liked/matched my theme for my next quilt (they have been found and progress has been made!).  I’m lazy. I’ve been busy with work.  It was my birthday.  I’m lazy. I’m still waiting for the furniture I’ve painted already to sell. I’m lazy.

In the past few weeks I have found out some things that are LIFE changing! Okay, maybe not that serious but I was pretty excited about both things…at one point there were 3 but by the time I have started writing I have forgotten one.

1-      Boys and girls have buttons on different sides of their shirts. Don’t believe me? Try to button up (not take off – this would be a mirror of your shirt and would unbutton the same way. Whoever came up with this idea was one SMART cookie.) a shirt of the opposite sex, but you will have trouble!

2-      I work in the utility/electricity field and the other day I saw a Disney.com email address on something for work.  I asked my boss about it and he informed me that there is a power plant INSIDE of Disney! I LOVE DISNEY! Mind Blown. They even have cute power pole’s that look like Mickey!

I promise to write more often!  Does anyone even read this?  Leave me some comments J

Caroline

Before and Afters

SOLID Wood Night Stand/ End Table to Robin's Egg Blue with Gold Detailing!

For Sale: $55

Dimensions: W 20 x H 32 x D 27.5

Greek Key-Esque Ottoman Revamp

For Sale: $45

Dimensions: W 22 x H 16 x D 15

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Orange-y to Gray Wood Faux Bamboo End Table

For Sale: $45

Dimensions: W 24 x H 22 x D 14.5

Let's Get Crafty: Tufted Ottoman

I saw a tufted ottoman on Pinterest and thought it was SO cute, I just had to make one.  I started scouring Craiglist for the perfect base.

I looked and looked on Craigslist for the perfect coffee table base that I could add a tufted top to and I couldn't find one that I just LOVED.  I saw this one with the scalloped edges and thought it was too cute.  The top wasn't the perfect size but for $20 I figured it would do.  I went to Lowe's and got some plywood cut to my dimensions. Then I drilled the top onto the base.

Once the top was on I had to do something about the color, much too yellow for my taste.  I slapped on some Miniwax Red Mahogany stain that I had left over from another project.

Here you can see the difference between the stained and non-stained side. SO much better!

Once I had the base done I Google'd for several tutorials to figure out different ways I could do this project.  Some of the sites I visited were: Five Days Five Ways, Little Green Notebook, and Addicted 2 Decorating. The last link has really detailed pictures of each step.

Now, let's get prepped for tufting! 

Materials:

1- Base to tuft on - I used a coffee table

2- Foam- can be purchase at JoAnn's or other sewing stores

     I used 3 inch thick foam, but you can use whatever you think will look best for your project.

3- Adhesive Spray

4- Decorator/Upholstery Needles - the bigger the better

5- Upholstery Thread- this is kind of sticky thread that is wound in a ball, not on a spool.  I picked it up at JoAnns near the pre-made zippers/roman shade cord

6- Buttons - TONS of options. Just get the amount you need for your design.

7- Batting

8- Fabric- I used an old tablecloth for this, double duty since it is water repellent!

9- Optional: Decoration for trim - braided rope or nail heads

First you have you draw out your design, I chose to do a 3 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 3 pattern - 13 tufts....quite a lofty goal for a first timer.  If you are doing this for the first time I would suggest starting with a smaller amount of tufts. It can get QUITE frustrating and you may want to have a bottle of wine  patience handy, as long as you are 21 of course (Hi Mom :D look at me not staying the youth of America down the wrong path).

Now, drill your holes into the wood. Make sure you drill forward and backwards through the wood until you have a smooth hole, tufting is hard enough as it is without splinters getting in the way!

Once you have the holes drilled it is time to attach the foam.  Cover both the wood and your foam with adhesive spray.  Wait a few minutes until the glue is tacky and then press them together firmly.

The foam I bought was nor the right size so I had to cut it into the right shape and then glue each piece down separately.  Does anyone have any idea where to get cheaper foam? That stuff is so pricey.  My mom suggested calling army surplus stores and getting their sleeping mattresses but no one around Raleigh has any in stock.  Let me know if you have any other ideas.

       

Once everything was glued into place I drew lines to make sure my buttons would be in line with the holes.

Did you know you could dye buttons?  I bought white buttons and dyed them taupe...they ended up a bit too gray.

Now onto the hard part!  This will be much easier if you have friend to help you!


Most of the other sites pre-drilled holes in the fabric.  I started to do this and it ripped the foam (EXPENSIVE FOAM!!) so I gave up on that idea and just went with no pre-drilled holes.


Step 1: Thread the needle with the upholstery thread.  Pull it a good ways through so you have enough to double back with.


Step 2: Starting from the BOTTOM of the table push the needle up through the top.


Step 3: Thread the button on. It will have 2 threads across the top if you are using enough


Step 4: Get your wine patience handy.


Step 5: Push the needle back through the fabric, batting, foam and plywood.  Take deep breaths because this isn't the easiest thing in the world but you will feel accomplished each time you get one done! If you really can't seem to find the hole *insert that's what she said joke* you can take one of the other needles in the package and push it up through the hole, this way you have a guide of where you need to be. It's amazing how crooked the needle can go when you push it through the foam.


Step 6: Tie a knot in the thread and staple it to the board in a zig zag fashion. 

Picture taken from Addicted 2 Decorating blog linked earlier.

Step 7: Celebrate your first tuft and keep it moving!

Six buttons in.....

Nine buttons in....

Step 8: Once all your tufts are secured staple your fabric to the base.

Step 9: Get Fancy! This is optional.  I used nail head trim on this project but have used braided rope trim on others. 

- Nail head trim- I used 2 boxes of nail head trim (found near the upholstery thread) and spaced them out 1.5 inches apart. Hammer away. I have seen other people use a rubber mallet for this but I used a regular hammer.

Ta Da!

Top view

Another top view

Side view with Nail Head Trim

Let me know if you do this project :) Send me pictures!