Cabin Fever Crafting!

I have been snowed in for 3 days now which means a serious case of cabin fever. Don't get me wrong - I love the snow, but I am ready for it to melt so that I can to the store - I am out of ice-cream!  In the meantime - it has been a fun weekend of crafting and blogging. 

Last month, my mom and I went to my favorite Portland home decor/vintage store called Grand Marketplace (http://grandmarketplacepdx.com). We picked up a few things and got the idea to make moss balls for a winter centerpiece. Off to Michaels to get various sizes of syrafoam balls, spanish moss, green moss, and more hot glue gun sticks. 

This was a really fun and fast craft. We also added pieces of lichen from our yards to give it more variety. 

I also found this fun test tube holder at Grand Marketplace. Given my Chemistry background, I could not resist. I added felt feet to the bottom and a few dried flowers, and found it a home on our living room desk.

When we were visiting family in WA for the holidays, we went to a fabulous store called Compass Rose (http://compassroseolympia.com/tacoma) where I got a new purse (always a sign of a good store) and found inspiration for a copy craft. They had these beautiful but expensive wool mountain pillows. I knew I could make one, so I got some wool suiting material at JoAnn's (50% off!) and made myself a pattern. Snowy mountain pillow for a snowy craft day.

Snow - love ya, but I am running out of craft supplies, so you can melt now!

Summer Landscaping

We have really focused our efforts this summer on the backyard landscaping. Our project goals were: adding plants that will fill in, keep weeds out, attract butterflies and hummingbirds, and make our backyard a fun place to hang out.

My mom (garden master) has been a HUGE help giving us tips on plants and helping us with every project. We started with the far back bed where very old heather plants had taken over. 

BEFORE - old heather plants in the back of our yard

Replaced heather in the back with new shrubs, flowers, and grasses

Then we moved onto the terraced beds below our deck. There were lots of spring bulbs, and old lavender bushes,  but not much else. As we started clearing away old plants and vines, we realized that there was a large space below the deck where Luna or other animals could roam. We also found some old concrete half round dividers that we re-purposed in the terraces. Because of the opening beneath the deck, we added lattice and my Aunt Nancy helped with this project when she was in Portland visiting.

BEFORE - terraced area below deck with bulbs and OLD lavender

Terrace in progress...

Terrace Lattice under deck done!

New lavender plants on first tier with one of the re-purposed concrete dividers

New verbena, crawling rosemary, and lupine on second tier

New wooden trellis and ground cover to keep weeds at bay

We have a large landscape bed on the side of our house but it was mostly filled with spring blooming bulbs. In the summer it was barren and ended up full of weeds. My mom had the idea of adding height with a birdhouse and then using spreading shrubs, grasses, and perennial flowers to add life year round. 

Casting the 4x4 post in the ground for the birdhouse

New birdhouse with climbing clematis

New side yard plantings 

I also wanted a path to incorporate a "dry river" in our landscaping and a path in the back to add depth. We found beautiful green rocks and my mom and Aunt built the path using large slate tiles.

Our last project was to add a border between the pebbles and the lawn. Kyle was always shooting rocks when he mowed the lawn, so it was time to separate these two areas. Back to the rock store where we found long green/gray stones that gave the border a natural look. We dug a trench, added sand for leveling, and set the stones.  

It has been a fun summer of outdoor projects!

Front Porch Revival

Our front porch was covered in carpet - yep - grey industrial carpet - and it was time to go! My mom and I removed all of the carpet in 40 min, but after the carpet was off, the fun began. Apparently they wanted the carpet to withstand hurricane force winds, so they  troweled on the glue so that every inch of concrete was covered in brown glue. 

BEFORE - Carpeted Porch

Off to Home Depot to get every tool that looked like it would remove rock hard glue from concrete. Orbital sander, chisel, hand held wire brush, wire brush that attaches to your drill....oh yes - we tried it all. Turns out it takes a bit of everything to get glue off of concrete. 

 Then the big question...what do we want to do with our porch? I did not want to paint it because I hate the look of chipping paint on a front porch so we thought about tiling it. Then we measured it...turns out our porch is an optical allusion with each step sitting at different heights - 6", 7", 8" - and every surface was sloping. Tiling - out. So more browsing all isles of Home Depot until we stumbled upon Rustoleum Restore. It is a synthetic concrete that goes on like paint, but it is the consistency of peanut butter, you can texture it to look like concrete, and they say it lasts for 15 years. Sold!

The night before we were going to paint I was out cleaning everything and realized that I completely forgot to fill in a large crack between one of the steps. So - back to my favorite store to get vinyl concrete patcher. Well - that delayed our project by a day, but luckily my mom was more then willing to help with the painting. 

BEFORE - with brown glue

AFTER

AFTER

BEFORE - Brown Glue Texture

AFTER - Texture like Concrete

I feel like we have a new porch - it is textured like concrete, not slick, supposed to last for 15 years, and it is NOT CARPET!!

Desk Chair Makeover

I love a craft project that transforms something you already have and costs less then $20. My mom and I purchased this chair around 15 years ago from a friend's garage sale and did the original makeover, but it has been well loved and was in need of a fresh coat of paint.

Desk Chair - BEFORE makeover

It is a really good think that I work next to Home Depot because I swear I forget something  and always end up there to pick up one last item. Originally I was not going to use primer, but after doing some Pinterest research, I opted to use it.

First I sanded the chair using my new orbital sander. Love love this tool - it is fast, easy to use, and collects the dust for easy clean-up. Then I used 200 grit sandpaper to smooth the surface, cleaned off the dust with a damp rag, and primed it. Rustoleum is my go-to spray paint, so that is what I used in satin grey for the primer and glossy blue for the finish. I held it about 10 inches from the chair and tried to apply thin coats. I let the primer dry for around 45 minutes and then applied 2 coats of my blue paint- waiting only a few minutes between coats. I would highly recommend rotating your piece throughout the painting process to ensure that you did not miss a spot. 

Orbital sander at the ready!

Sanded and Ready for Paint

My mom is the upholstery makeover queen, so she came over to help me with the seat cover. 

New craft room chair complete!

Pumpkin Pie Front Door

I love our front door. It might even be the original - a solid wood door with three square architectural blocks. I have wanted to paint it but the big question - what color. We decided to go looking at house and door colors in the neighborhood that I grew up in...otherwise known as my dream neighborhood...to see what color combos we liked. I was really surprised when we both liked this house:

The green house color with the brown molding and tangerine door. Well - that was it - we were going to have an orange door. Off to the paint store to get a dozen color swatches and the decision was made - pumpkin pie.

If you decide to paint your door, I would highly recommend Sherwin Williams for paint, supplies, and advice. They set me up with the correct sanding pad, roller, and grey primer. I am really excited with how it turned out. Next project to budget for...house painting!

BEFORE

Pumpkin Pie Door!

When I was at the fabric store last week, I stumbled on this fun wood inspired print and knew that I would find a use for it. Well - I used the Oregon paper template that I made for my string art project (see May post) and made an Oregon Pillow. Kinda cheesy, but it makes me smile.