Projects of 2012

It seems odd that we will be starting a new year in just a few days.  2012 has flown by.  So what did we do this year???  It is nice to look back and see. (click on the photo to go to the actual post)

Sewed some dresses.  All scrap material I had on hand, cost: a few hours of my time. 



I spruced up a couple chairs with paint and roses.  They now reside in front of my sewing table.  Cost: zero, the chairs came with a table I had bought at a thrift store eons ago and I just had them in storage. 



I crocheted a cardigan that I still love out of bamboo cotton yarn.  Cost:  $30



We made our straw bale mini greenhouse garden.  It worked fantastic last Spring and now I need to toss in some lettuce and spinach seeds to get started.  Cost: 6 bales of straw at $7 each.  The lumber was scrap we had on hand and the plastic was too.  Total = $42.00



I bought an incubator to hatch chicks.  My first batch of Swedish Flower hens.  This was so much fun I did it again with Black Copper Maran eggs.  Cost for incubator about $150 (which worked great!), the eggs ran about $50, this is a new breed to the US so the hatching eggs are pricy, but a hen alone if $50 to purchase so the eggs were the way to go. 



We built a faux pew bench from plywood. 



One of the most popular posts this year was this on of the old buckets stacked and planted.  I did enjoy this all summer.  I think I would like to make a real fountain out of buckets this next summer.  



Another highly popular post was this one on How to Paint a vintage saloon sign.



I also shared tons of signs I shipped out to my wonderful customers.   Now I am working hard on a new website, trying to improve and make it easier to navigate.  

I am looking forward to another productive and exciting year!
Have a great day. 

  





 

My Bench into a Banquette?

A quick post tonight.  We did some major cleaning and organizing of the living room and dining areas this past Saturday and we moved my Bench



into the dining room for extra seating and to test out if we would like to make this into a banquette.

This is the table we built with the four chairs around it.



The only trouble is the sliding glass doors get used a lot and you have to shimmy around the table and the chair to get in and out.

So we thought to push the table over closer to the wall.  We also want more seating. Thus our test run. We shoved the bench up under the window (it has the rose quilt tossed on the back) and slid the table up to it. 



The bench is definitely much wider than the table but that actually works in our favor.  It makes it easy to get in and out without having to move the table forward.  Now access to the back deck is a breeze and there is room to actually make a longer table so seating for 6 is more comfy.



We shall use it this way for a while and see how it works for the long haul.  Then if it works we shall make a larger table and a new bench with a higher grade lumber.
 
Gotta run…

Come see what I have been up to in the studio.

 

 Fertilizer Friday

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..