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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Guest Posting at Infarrantly Creative Today!

Hey folks!  I'm over at Infarrantly Creative today guest posting about a nature inspired project.  It is such an honor to be a guest at Beckie's place!
I just can't seem to get garlands of flowers off my mind right now.
Come see me at Infarrantly Creative   for a brand new flower garland tutorial!




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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Vintage Crepe Paper Flower Garland

Do the last few weeks of wintry weather always have you yearning for cheery color?  Last night I was keeping vigil by a sick pet, and needed something to occupy my hands in the wee hours, so I decided to create a bright colorful garland to bring some of that cheery color into our home.
I pulled out my stash of vintage crepe paper and a needle and thread and some glue and started to play.

Before I knew it, it was dawn, the pup was feeling a bit better, and I had a little stack of vintage paper florets!

They were strung together with cord created by finger crocheting a length of turquoise crochet thread.

And then the pup and I napped! Finally.

I don't have pictures of the process for these, but they were fairly easy.  Simply take strips of crepe paper (vintage or good quality new paper gives the best results) and gather one long edge using your needle and thread.  Form into circles and glue to secure.  Next, stretch the outside of each circle to ruffle it a bit.  Create several layers, as desired, add a layer or two of book paper for interest, glue it together, and you're done!  No rules, no measurements, just play around till you find a combination you like.

Drape it across your mantle, over a mirror, or across a bit of weathered old fencing.

Layer textures, like an Anthropologie necklace, if you like.  Or keep the styling simple and clean.


Enjoy your bit of cheery color and dream of springtime and Maypoles! 

***to see another of my vintage crepe paper flower garlands come visit me at Infarrantly Creative, where I am guest posting a new tutorial***


Tip Junkie handmade projects



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Monday, March 21, 2011

Wild Pants and a Lamp Get a Make-Over!

A couple of months ago I posted about this lamp and a pair of wild pants from the local Goodwill Outlet.  The lamp had definitely seen better days, and the pants still had the tags on them.  


Here is what the lamp looks like today!



I love how the black glossy finish brings out the cool texture of the lamp.


The lamp was painted with a good quality black craft paint, but it wasn't very glossy.  The solution, I found, was to apply glossy Mod Podge over the painted lamp.


The wild pants were used to cover a GW shade, but it still wasn't wild enough, so I created some stylized flowers from some strips of jute burlap I already had for a flouncy border.  I wanted to keep the project light hearted and fun!

Before recovering the shade, I carefully peeled back the trim from the top and bottom of the shade...


... then reused the pieces after the lamp was covered, securing the trim with a high tack glue.


The flower flounce was inspired by the apple green flowers on the wild pants fabric.


These strips of apple green burlap were left-over from being used as a Christmas tree garland a few years ago.


I simply folded the strips in half, being careful not to crease them, and cut looped fringe into the folded edge.  Each flower consisted of a piece of this folded looped fringe about eight inches long that was gathered in the center (along the uncut edge) and glued to the base of the shade.  I used a needle and thread to gather mine, but you could used hot glue.  The centers, are just bits of turquoise fringe cut from the wild pants lining fabric.


On a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, this project is about a two.


It's a fun, not too serious look.

I like that it looks good with "beachy" finishes, but if I get tired of the wild shade, I can always rip everything off and do something more "serious".


Here's another "before"...


And the after.


Tell me what you think.  Would you use this wild pants lamp shade, with the crazy burlap flower flounce?  Or would you go for something more refined?

This post is being linked to the following lovely places:
Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design How To's Day at The Lettered Cottage
Craft-O-Maniac Mondays
I Heart Naptime Sundae Scoop
Under the Table and Dreaming
No Minimalist Here
Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special
Remodelaholics Anonymous
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up
Air Your Laundry Friday at Freckled Laundry
Favorite Things Friday
Crafty Soiree at Yesterday on Tuesday
Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans
Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple
Tales from Bloggeritaville
Beyond the Picket Fence
Transformation Thursday at Shabby Chic Cottage
Hookin' Up With HoH
A Glimpse Inside Catch a Glimpse
Strut Your Stuff on Saturday Mornings
What's Up Wednesday at Sew Woodsy
Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home
Upcycled Awesome at The T-Shirt Diaries
Someday Crafts Whatever Goes Wednesday
A Little Bird Told Me at Rook No. 17
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Power of Paint Party
All Things Inspired at All Things Heart and Home
Handmade Tuesday at Ladybug Blessings
Vintage Wanna Bee Talent Tuesday
Not JUST a Housewife
Stories of A2Z
Giggles, Glitz, and Glam
Your Sassy Sites T2T Tuesday
Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog
Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff

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Friday, March 18, 2011

The Beach House is on It's New Pony Walls!

Okay, here is one last "beach house raising" post!  I feel like I need to apologize to my crafting peeps for not posting small projects for the last couple of weeks -- I promise I have several things "in the works", but this remodel has consumed the days recently, as things started picking up speed. 

This week the beach house was lowered onto the new pony walls!  If you are new to the House Revivals blog, you can read more about our beach house remodel here.


The picture above shows how the house looked early Tuesday morning.  It took the crew hours to prep for the final positioning of the house.  As you may know, we were raising the house nine feet.  This meant the house needed to go up nine feet three inches,  so my contractor and his crew would have room to build new pony walls.  Once the pony walls were up, the house could then be lowered that last three inches.


We had a mason come in last week to build a new foundation under the chimney and fireplace.  Remember how the fireplace looked last week?  It's so amazing that they were able to lift this chimney!


This is what the three inch "gap" looked like before the house was lowered.


This picture is from the north side of the house where the garage wing meets the house.  The garage was on a slab, while the house was on floor joists, which is why you see a break in the floor line.  The new upstairs floor will hang from the walls and from the new steel I-beam we showed here. 

When the house was finally lowered, it went down slowly and smoothly.  The east (left) side of the house was a fraction of an inch lower than the west side, as you can see in the picture below.  When the east side made contact with the new pony walls, I think I was expecting a huge crash and shaking or something, but it just made the gentlest tap!


They brought the west side of the house down, literally about a sixteenth of an inch a time!


 This control panel was the "nerve center" of the whole operation.


These hydraulic hoses went to the various jacks located under the house.


This process was incredible to watch.  Everyone knew their job, and the whole thing was like a perfectly choreographed ballet.  Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.  One member of the house lifter's crew did make me laugh, as he would grab beams and joists and swing from ladder to scaffold to cribbing, as he worked!


For comparison's sake, here are some images of the beach front of the house, including the "before", the "concept" and the "progress to date".


Just for fun, I added grass and sky to the concept picture:)  So, what do you think?  The concept was not too far off from where reality is shaking out, wouldn't you agree?



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Friday, March 11, 2011

Raising the Beach House

Okay, I know I promised these pictures days ago, where did the week go?   This is what the beach house looked like last week.  It's quite a bit farther along today, and the house raising company is scheduled to come back on Monday to lower the structure three inches to rest on the new pony walls.


Remember what it looked like the previous weekend?


And where it was before the lifting began...


Here are a few more pictures of how the house looked last week.  While it was on cribbing my general contractor came in with his framing crew, his welder, his concrete guys, and his mason.  They worked pretty fast, getting most of the structural work under the house done in about a week in a half.  Of course, during this time, we have had a snowstorm, a wicked wind storm, and now a tsunami advisory!


This is the view as you enter the courtyard.  There will be stairs leading up to the front door, as well as a new deck off the kitchen.


Here's a peak under the living and dining rooms, standing in the world's tallest crawl space.


The back of the house, which is considered the front of the house, since it faces the beach.  This deck went up with the house, as the roof was integral to the structure.


Our house raisers, Dent National, out of Pacific, Washington, have a great reputation for lifting masonry structures, so we knew our brick chimney was in good hands.



The back front of the house.


We've actually made a few design changes since I created this model, which we'll reveal as we go along.  These models were created as "conceptual models" before we even made an offer on the house, to communicate ideas to my husband, our structural engineer, our contractors, and to study the spaces.


Again....


Underneath the chimney.


This is what is looks like where the chimney was "detached".


Remember the conceptual guest bedroom I posted about, here?


There it is, nasty wallpaper and all!  And see the new steel beam under that wall?  It was chained to the structure and lifted with the house.


Remember the courtyard concepts I posted about here?  It's a far cry from that right now!


And just for fun.....


Does anyone else want to chant "Jen-Ga, Jen-Ga, Jen-Ga!"  when looking at all these stacks of cribbing?


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