Just Say "NO" to Blah Black

I know I haven't posted much on my blog or Facebook this week but I have been busy catching up after my week of vacation.  I have been super productive, really busy and a little crazy.  Just 2 minutes ago I tried to turn down the fan with the TV remote!  Bahaha!  I promise I haven't completely lost it.

Anyways, I have had an old headboard/footboard with frame laying around for a while.  Ok, 6 months, which is a long time for my shop.  I usually try to get things in and out ASAP but I was lacking inspiration on this bed.  It came with a package deal that included Lady in Red and the Waterfront Vanity.  Well, after months of neglect and collecting dust, I finally decided what I wanted to do with it!  Light bulb moment!

I decided to do upholstery work on them and include nailhead trim.  I wanted to do something different than just painting.  When I first went to fabric store I decided on this black and cream fabric.

Blah Black Fabric

Although the blah black fabric is pretty, the entire time I was at Joann Fabric another pattern was really my first choice.  It was bright, full of color and had a great pattern.  I bought the blah black because it was the safe choice.  I got home and started working on the project and I couldn't stop thinking about the other fabric.  The next morning I went to the store and bought the bright fabric!  In my heart I knew I would regret not using it.  The end product is bold and unusual and I LOVE it!  I am so glad I went with it instead of the safe, blah black.  The nailhead trim adds an extra touch of special that just makes this set perfection.  If I had room for it, I would probably keep it.  But I don't so it is available for purchase.  This is the final product.

I can just imagine this bed with some ivory bedding, coordinating pillows and some blue accent furniture to bring it all together.  There are coordinating fabrics at Joann Fabric that would make great pillows, curtains, and bedding accents.

Troubles

 I have put the patterns into the tutorial again, there are 4 "pictures" you will have to left click on now.  When they were all on one page Paint would not let you enlarge unless you let it use more paper.  I have also tried my best to explain how to save your patterns in Paint and re-size them.  I hope this helps you.  I am a miniaturist, not a computer specialist so I hope I made it clear.
I did make this pattern twice from the patterns, you should be successful if you follow the instructions.

 Chris has had some problems with the pattern.  You say you needed 5 pieces of foam core for the seat base, you didn't mention that you used any mat board. Did you use 2 pieces of mat board with your  seat base?  Did you glue the front and back to the 2 11/16" sides of the seat base?  The front and back should NOT be glued to the 2 1/4" sides.

I have to say I considered this tutorial for a long time before actually publishing it for this reason. I have to make changes with my patterns often, and I cut my foam core with a saw so there shouldn't be too much difference between pieces.  Miniature upholstering isn't for everybody, there is a lot of making it fit, trimming and retrying.  I would like more feed back on the pattern.
Kris

Our Vacation

Hi everybody!  I know this is not about furniture but I thought I would tell y'all a little about our vacation.  BLittle and I love traveling in the Caribbean.  We have only been to one "touristy" spot in the islands.  We went to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos in 2007 and although we LOVED it and Grace Bay is one of the prettiest beaches we have ever seen, it was missing something for us.  Now we have only been vacationing in the Out Islands of The Bahamas.  These islands are not well developed and have this untainted, adventure quality that you can not get on other islands.  They usually require a small airplane ride and amenities are limited but who cares!  You are in The Bahamas!

This time we went to Long Island, The Bahamas which is a southern island in The Bahamas chain.  We stayed at Chez Pierre.  It consists of 6 basic stilted, wood cabins on a very quiet bay and a main lodge where Pierre, a trained chef, prepares breakfast and dinner everyday.  Long Island is long, hence the name, and last week we drove the whole 81 miles of the only main road of the island and saw so many beautiful things.  It doesn't matter how many times we go, it never gets old seeing those gorgeous water colors and beaches.  It was an amazing week and I think we will be visiting this island again.  Here are a few pics from the week.

Yes, we had to get on a prop plane.  Not the first time but I still don't like it.
The quality of plane down there is a little different than here.
It can be a little scary when you see Duct Tape on the walls inside a plane :/

Our chairs in front of the cabin.  My front yard for the week.

Sunset at Chez Pierre in front of our cabin.

Our Cabin

View of Millers Bay from the bed in our cabin.  Amazing to wake up to this view every morning.

Beautiful beach we had all to ourselves.

Columbus Monument

Caption on the Columbus Monument

I love this boat.  No one was on this beach but us and this super white boat was
there looking lonely so I decided to take pictures of it.  I love them all.
I am going to put them on canvas and hang them in our home.  

Another beautiful beach we had all to ourselves.

Dean's Blue Hole - this is the deepest blue hole in the world.  Free divers were there everyday practicing.  It was really neat but kind of eerie.

Dean's Blue Hole

View from the Cape Santa Maria Resort deck at lunch. 

Cape Santa Maria Resort.  The beach here was calm and powder blue.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We hired a fishing guide for the day.  It was by far my favorite guide experience.  We had a blast.

Lunch on the boat.

We saw a 6-legged star fish for the first time.

I caught my first bonefish but a shark got him before I could reel it in all the way.  I had several other bites and break offs but never got one all the way in.  Guess I will have to go back and try again.  :)

Calmest day we have ever seen on the water in the Caribbean.  It was amazing.

I have TONS more pictures but you get the idea...it was gorgeous!  Now it is back to work and reality!  I have several pieces ready to purchase and in stock for custom refinish.  Contact me if you are looking for a certain piece.  Have a great week y'all.

Restoring a Rusty Fire Pit

I realize I should probably be embarrassed by the condition of my backyard ‘property’ … but … sadly, I’m really not.

I’ve come to realize that it’s just sort of ‘life’. If you own a home, chances are you have rusty eye sores sitting in your backyard.

The more fortunate homeowners either replace their ‘backyard property’ on a somewhat regular basis, or they spend top dollar for things that don’t rust.

Since our budge doesn’t really allow for replacements or top dollar anything … we restore things when they start looking like dumpster diamonds.

Here is our fire pit:



We like to roast marshmallows for s’mores … or roast weenies on a weekend when I’m feeling too lazy to make dinner. Over time … little by little … it rusted away until it became this:



Yikes. It never really bothered me that the pit had gotten rusty … because we just fill it with charcoal and light the thing on fire anyway. But, since Superman was already restoring the grill/smoker, I figured I’d have him do this at the same time.



So, he hit it with a little of our favorite thing (spray paint) in the Rust-Oleum High Heat Spray Paint form …



… Boom. Good as new! (He didn’t spray paint the rack … *** never use spray paint on something that you might cook directly on)



Totally worth every penny of the maybe 50 cents it cost to ‘restore’ this. Y’all go get some Rustoleum. You hear me?

Restoring an ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING BBQ Grill or Smoker

I know you love the title to this post. ;) I tried hard to come up with a better name. But any other title would not suffice.

So.

Here we go, people.

It’s almost spring time … which means it’s almost summer time … which means it’s almost backyard barbeque time … which means … it’s almost time for you to hang your head in embarrassment because your bbq grill or smoker is “shot”, but raise you hand if you want to fork out ANOTHER $150, $250, $350+ to buy yet ANOTHER bbq grill.

I know, right?

I swear.

Owning a home means … owning a disgusting bbq grill. It’s our rite of passage. And when you own a bbq grill, it DOES become disgusting. And you DO have to replace it. Regularly.

It’s a vicious cycle.

Well. Not anymore, my friends. Not. Any. More.

I’m going to show you how to make ANY disgusting bbq grill or smoker look brand new, like this:



Would you believe we found that pristine BRAND NEW smoker on Craigslist for just $20?!
Yeah.

Me either.

We did, however, find this disgusting looking smoker on Craigslist for just $20:



Straight up.



I think poor Superman thought he was being punk’d when I sent him to pick it up after his shift one morning. Either that, or he thought I was in.sane.

Anyway.

You know what happens when you set a bonfire inside a bbq grill/smoker? No?

I’ll tell you: all of the paint (and disgusting greasy goo) melts off leaving clean steel behind. I tell no lies. Here, take a look:



Check. That. Out.

Bare buck naked steel.

**** DISCLAIMER: Remove anything from the grill/smoker that is rubber, plastic, electrical, etc. Otherwise, those components will also burn up in the high heat inferno. Superman removed the handles, thermometer, temperature control panel, and heat element from inside the smoker before lighting it on fire. PLEASE don’t just set fire to your smoker without removing those key pieces that make it work. K, thanks. :D

Setting a bonfire doesn’t make it shine like that … Superman is a serious over achiever, so he got out his random orbital [electric] sander and lightly sanded all the edges.



So … he sanded … lightly … and sanded some more … lightly. Then he sprayed them with the hose and dried them off.



And then he set all the pieces out on buckets and broomsticks so that he could get to work … wait for it …

… SPRAY PAINTING THEM …

… with Rust-Oleum High Heat Spray Paint.
 

This. stuff. is. awesome. It withstands heat up to 1,200 degrees. Fan.flipping.tastic.

And, it dries in 2 hours. That, my friends, is what you call: WINNING.

So, he SPRAY PAINTED all the pieces. Y’all try not to fall over dead from shock that we spray painted something, okay? Thanks.

And.

Here it is now:



I'm not gonna lie, I thought it should have been free … but the previous owners were getting ready to have a baby and I wasn’t gonna cheat them out of $20 worth of diapers. Plus, the guy was articulate. And seemed to have achieved an education well beyond 8th grade, which was worth every penny of that $20. (Have you ever dealt through Craigslist? Nothing like Craigslist to make you realize just how, um, ‘educationally challenged’ the general public is.)



Do you SEE that thermometer?! Do you?! That is the same original thermometer, people. It used to look like this:



But with just a little bon fire … and a lot of TLC … it came back to us. :D



Superman even sanded the steel on the handles … and restained the wood dowels using some of the stain from when he refinished our kitchen table.



Seriously.

Isn’t is A-MAZ-ING what you can do with a little spray paint?

Amazing. Rustoleum should be paying me for this stuff. Don’t you think? ;)



PS – It only took 1 can of Rust-Oleum High Heat Spray Paint! (Well, not even a whole can. Maybe half.)

THINGS TO DO, THINGS TO SEE

Miniaturists, look to the left.  I have many things listed that I refer to in the tutorials.  This chair tutorial refers to the piping tutorial, "How to make piping for a pillow".  The pictures at the end of the chair tutorial show where I glued the piping onto the chair.
I hope that helps you out, Kris

It's a revelation.

Please keep the comments coming, I enjoy them so much.  Is that too conceited?  It's so much fun hearing how excited you are.
Seeing it is a revelation, isn't it?  I know that's how I felt when I saw it for the first time.  So much can come of this, have fun!!!
Thanks,
Kris