Summer's Here

Texas summer has officially hit in full force. Wake up and feel the heat. Literally. For example, this morning I woke up at 7:00 A.M. and it was already 85 degrees, by 11:00 it was 92, only to rise well into triple digits by noon. It's oppressive, humid, and unrelenting. It makes you sunburned, sweat way more than any average person, aaaaannd smell bad (from the obscene amount of sweat you are producing). But beauty be damned I am choosing this time to start multiple projects and re-do's. Why? I'm either just really excited about them or slightly crazy, the answer being most likely a mixture of both. Texas summer does have it's upsides though. It means lake time and popsicles, late nights and baseball (all in all I would like to think that they even out). 

 Luckily I've grown up with the Texas heat and even chose to go to camp as camper then counselor for 14 years for 2 weeks in August with NO A/C. Shocking, I know but it gives me the confidence that I will NOT melt while attempting my beautification of the old and outdated.

I'll admit I'm trying my hand at some different things, that may or may not turn out perfectly. Photography, reupholstery, refinishing, and building from scratch are all pipe dreams that I have only minorly attempted, if at all. I realize that all of these tasks require lots of time,effort, and trial and error in order to acheive that looks that I want. Again, I may be crazy but gosh darn it I'm gonna try anyway. Before I start those those projects I want to share what I've been up to the last few months. I wrote about my table and lamp re-do but I tried my hand at taking some better photos. I may have looked a bit strange ( more strange than I normally do) down by the Bayou with a lamp, table, and camera in tow but no matter, I did it anyway. I loved the lighting late in the day but I'm still working on getting my manual settings perfect. One more time, I'm just starting to learn how to take better pictures, apetures and shutter speed are still quite confusing but I'm hoping to get better eventually, so I can have better photos! Here are the best of them:

 I also got to work on some special things for my college roommates wedding! I was so excited that Sara asked me to help and I loved getting to hear all her cute ideas for her south Texas outdoor wedding. The wedding was beautiful and I loved getting to spend time with all my college roomies (5girls + 1house= countless/priceless stories)! Sara blogs over at http://www.saraandluke.blogspot.com/, check it out! Anyway, here's a collage of the little things I was able to contribute!

Now about the newbies. I've gotten 3 new pieces lined up to get going on. I found a cute little chest of drawers and coffee table at goodwill that had a really nice bones but they definitely need some work.

I also found 2 lamps that I'm really pumped about!

Hopefully I can start working this weekend (in the heat) and come up with something!

gLAMPing

I know what your thinking by reading the title of this post; Glamping, really? Did she really just say glamping, the term used for the new hobby of glamourous camping? Well i did use the word, but not for that purpose! I found this old lamp in storage that had belonged to my grandma. As you can see from the photo:

It's not that cute. I would dare use the word ugly for this thing. The gold/bronze/speckling effect to my knowledge has never been a big style trend, except on and the set of The Golden Girls. Here's a close up:

 It's one of those lamps that just sat in the corner that nobody noticed. Poor neglected little thing. Well, it's time for this little guy to come out of the shadows and embrace a new style. The lamp itself is actually all metal and really sturdy (aka heavy), which only made the find better. The detail and shape of the lamp is also really interesting but it just wasn't being noticed with the color that it was. I decided to go with black lacquer. It's clean, simple, contemporary and beautiful and I thought it would help show off the shape of the lamp alot better. I bought some black lacquer spray paint at a local hardware store and went to work. I had to do multiple coats to get the black shine that I was looking for but finally after many hours of waiting and paint fumes, TA DA!

Next I had to address the shade. Ooooh the shade. This wonder was not doing any favors for the already unattractive lamp.

I replaced it with a clean white drum shade that I found at Target, I thought that would be the best way to keep it clean and simple. Needless to say I think this lamp looks loads better and now can hitch a ride with Michael J. Fox  back to the future and into the 21st century.

P.s. I'm thinking of getting an oversized white drum shade instead of the current one, thoughts?

Check back soon for new pictures of the lamp and table with a new beautiful, natural backdrop!

Someday

Someday I will have a room used for the sole purpose of storing and making wonderful things. It might be wishful thinking but adding these pictures anyway.

 the one and only martha stewarts craft room

this one is so vintage!

pottery barnesque? I think this one is my fav

I also have found some unusual stuff among various blogs and while surfing the web for other things. Every time this happens I save the picture and say that one day I will put them up on the blog. Well that day has finally come because there are enough of them, they're pretty hard to explain so you'll just have to take a look!

irony

 if the shoes fits

this is actually real, i have to keep reminding myself

modern library in an ancient building

 I would have read way more if my library looked like this

light to read by

i'm not so sure i could make my house a feline funhouse

I hope you enjoyed these lovelies, I'm always on the lookout for more! Happy Monday!

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."

-Dr. Seuss

When is a door not a door, when it's a table...

I’ve been wanting to do this for probably 3 years now and I’ve finally gotten all the pieces to get it started. As a big fan of shabby chic, and vintage a coffee table made out of an old door seems like the perfect use for an unused door. Not only will it look cute but it reuses materials  that would otherwise be thrown away but I find it very fitting to use a door for a coffee table. A door is something that you use to enter a home and an open door is known to be a symbol of being welcome in a place and wear else would you want to be welcomed than your living room with your best friends, resting your oversized coffee mug on your cute vintage door coffee table. Cute vision huh? I obviously haven’t thought about this at ALL. Now that I worked up all expectations, including my own this coffee table now has to be perfect. The saga of the table began with a new back door.  About 2 years ago my dad told me they were getting a new backdoor and wanted to know if I wanted the old one. I immediately told him yes and then spent the next half hour working on what I would do with this door, and not working on whatever project or listening to whatever prof I should have been at the time. Well a year and a half went by and the door was forgotton, mostly because I was in Waco and the door was in Houston and we had quite the dysfunctional long distance relationship. I would think about him occasionally but he never showed his face out of the garage and always waited for me to come to him. But always the patient door, a year and a half after he became mine I found some old wooden bed posts painted teal. Well not only are teal bedposts awesome in any setting but these just seemed perfect for the  coffee table idea and were only about $15 at an antique fair. My dreams were finally becoming a reality! As this table saga continues, this is where the real action starts.

the antique fair find

THE door, post cut in half

Starting the base, look at those tools!

Once all pieces were  in place it was time to get out the power tools. I drew a sketch of the table I wanted to make and with some consulting help from my dad we headed to lowe’s to get some wood for the base. We settled on 1x4 wood pieces and then cut the wood, with a very rusty saw that did not make things easy! After getting to use the nail gun (my favorite part!) the base was ready to assemble. I painted the wood and the legs a blue color so that they would match, i used a stain instead of a paint so that it would be able to see through it just a little bit. I really love this blue, but I mean really who doesn't love blue? Blue is relaxing and pretty and awesome. The door also needed a light paint job and a wooden peg to cover up the doorknob hole. Luckily dad knows more about building than me and he said we needed to add some supports so that the table wouldn't be so wobbly, so we added some holes in the legs and some dowels so that the table was more stable (love the rhyme, don't ya?). Then it was time for assembly! The legs, dowels, and base got attached to the top and done!!! It's always so satisfying when something you've thought about for so long (and maybe too much) finally becomes reality.

Setting up the base again

 sanding the table legs made my hands this lovely shade of green



NAIL GUN & air compressor, i did get to use these, but i didn't take pictures while doing it (that might have been a bad idea)

All the supplies ready to go

she was lots of help making sure we did everything right, well when she wasn't chewing her rawhide bone

The makeshift painting station, we had to hang the legs so we could paint them without them sticking to anything! It's a bit dinky but it works.

More painting, don't worry I know your noticing the paint thinner, we did do this in a well ventilated area

 All primed

With blue stain added

The assembled base without the top

DONE!

The dream of this table definitely changed over the course of this project though. It was meant to be a coffee table but as you can see from the picture it's just a tad taller. I just couldn't bring myself to cut off the legs to make it shorter, I just knew it would take away the character of them. I also did plan on painting them because I loved their color but it was a necessity to make sure they matched and to get rid of some pesky pink paint that had gotten on them. I still love it though and I'm so happy that this table finally came to life! Now just little touches are left to add, including a large piece of glass to cover the top, so that it's an even surface and a few decorations for the top and voila, it's home worthy!