My Shabby Bench is Done!

I finished this last week but was waiting for the drawings to be done to include with this post.  My husband put the dimensions to paper with a concept for folks who may wish to try their hand at making one.  It is not exactly like the one we built but you can easily make it so.

Here is my inspiration bench..



Here is my finished bench, in all it’s shabby glory.

 

The plans have it made from studier material instead of the 3/4 inch plywood I built it from.  I wanted to do the prototype from a material we had on hand and that is why I used the plywood. I did not know if my idea would pan out thus I had no wish to spend any $$ on it.

I first started with some basic dimensions.  I wanted the seat to be 18 inches from the ground and 18 inches deep.  I used circular items to make the curves.
 


Once the sides were done everything else was fairly straight cuts. We made a frame to support the seat.



We attached the sides to it with screws.  We will use the Kreg Jig for the next one but you could use self tapping screws and fill the holes or screw from the inside rather than thru the outside. 



I made the sides with the little joggle to support the back but a better design is to have the back attach inside the side panels, the drawings reflect that change.  Remember this was the prototype.



The frame will support the seat well enough even though it is plywood.



I painted it with homemade chalk paint, the Calcium Carbonate kind.  I need to distress it some yet.



I can’t decide yet if I want to paint some roses on the side panels yet.



I may add a padded seat..


 

I am working on the Subway art signs and getting them posted on my website.  Soon I think I will feature some on the blog.  Here is a sample of the Lake Rules signs..

Knows My Heart Sign

I am back, safe, sound and I think rested back up.  Phew! Working that food booth can really kick my fanny.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon, set up camp and tracked down some food to eat for dinner.  Thankfully the Pizza vendor made a few pizzas and did they taste good.  Even the plain cheese was excellent, he topped it a bit with feta which was delish.

My photos are ho hum at best.  I am still getting used to using my iPhone camera. 

Our camp kitchen area. 



Our Necessary room.  I can tell you we all found this handy at 3am when you woke with the need to go.  The nearest campground bathroom was further than you want to walk in the dark freezing cold. It was also our shower room, just take out the camp toilet and voila, a shower. But it was way too cold to use it even though we had a water heater. The air was frigid outside.
 


The backside of the bathroom. We had the sheet strung up between my Burb and the screened tent to provide privacy from the other campers.  If the sun was hitting on the bathroom, it put you in silhouette.  Talk about a girlie show.



On Friday and Saturday, it snowed.  Did I mention is was cold??? If it was snowing in the daytime you can just imagine the how cold it got at night. 



Setting up the food booth for breakfast the first day.



The entire food court from left to right going in a circle. These were taken early Thursday morning, some did not even have their name signs up yet.



We are the Mexican food booth, Maria Christina’s. You can see the pizza guys next to us that fed us Wednesday night.  



The BBQ guys did a fabulous tri-top sandwich.  I had that 2 days in a row. I hit one guy up for the marinade recipe, it was that good. They were more than willing to share.



This ice cream/ smoothie booth was awesome.  They had a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream bar that they rolled in nuts, it was the perfect dessert. You can see the main stage behind their booth. That is where the music acts were, we could hear it all quite clearly. Alison Krauss did put on a fab show as did many of the others.  



Continuing on to the right, more food booths.



The center area within the circle of booths is where tables and benches are set up for customers to sit down and eat.  Very convenient and there are umbrellas over the tables to protect them from heat (which we had little of), rain and snow (which we had too much of).



The drink booth, hot coffee, tea, mochas and chai.  A very popular booth in the AM and all thru the day.

Sorry for the lousy photo. 



I should’ve taken some photos of the area while it was bustling with people but by then I was toiling away fixing Mexican food.
Part of our crew. This was Sunday, the only warm day. 



We had a lot of laughs and we did enjoy some good food. See that ramp, I swear I walked up and down it 200 times over 4 days.  You would think I would lose some fat doing that, but the fit of my clothes tell me I did not. Bummer.



Now I am getting back to my daily grind.  I have signs to paint.  I have been getting requests for some Subway art type signs so I am complying.  It is hard for me not to paint a rose on or some other flower but not everyone wants that and I aim to please the customer. 

Here is one of the first of many Subway art signs.  I can do it in many colors, either backgrounds or the Love For You part to customize, or I can make it a bit bigger and add a name and birthdate if desired. 



So I am branching out in my art.  I need to work on my website soon and update it, just not enough hours in the day it seems. That is okay, we shall manage.  Back to work I go…



Until we meet again, ta.