Welcome to the most boring 100 days of your life. ha! I have a goal. Probably THE most ambitious goal I've ever embarked upon. I plan to spend at least 20 minutes on the treadmill and list at least five things on Etsy, eBay or Craigslist every single day for the next 100 days. College degree, p'shaw! THIS is going to be tough!
Day 1, today, April 14th, 2009... 40 minutes on the treadmill, a couple of miles and about 300 calories. I had the program set on the lowest possible setting and I about died. Hooray!
You see, my body currently hates me. I have been sick for over two months now. My dad's death seriously knocked the wind out of me, and then the CPSIA kicked me while I was down. After getting back from a wonderful weekend at the beach last month I vowed to start giving my body sleep. I thought it would like that. I went from 4-6 hour nights promptly up to full 8 hour nights. Still sick. Then, I thought, fine, you can have vitamins.... one women's daily, one beta carotene(because my eyes hate me too) and at least one Emergen-C pack. Still sick. So this is the final straw. I'm exercising (and possibly eating a vegetable or two). If this doesn't work, then it can go ahead and piss off. I'll go back to drinking excessively and eating bon bons for breakfast.
Let's see what happens, shall we?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
MARCHing on... Dewalt Compound Miter Saw
So what if it's April. P'shaw! I MARCH to my own beat, thank you very much!
Hello sweet power tool friend of mine,
Everyone, this is my Dewalt Compound Miter Saw. DCMS, this is everyone. Please excuse the disaster of a garage around him. Keep in mind, I'm still working on my COMPLETE LIQUIDATION of Kung Fu Bambini that will be happening this month and our house is plastered with tubs of chenille bedspreads, vintage linens, trims, fabric, light fixtures from the warehouse/studio AND the store, mannequins, ay ya ya ya ya! It's hard to breathe in here.
Justin and I purchased this handy power tool many years ago when we bought our first house. It was one of our first power tool aquisitions. At the time we invested in this bad boy to help us put in all new floor and crown molding in our house and to cut all the snap together flooring that we installed in our great room. The Dewalt has seen many projects. Most, not as artsy crafty as this one I suppose...
Our Dewalt is a "compound" miter saw. This means that it can make compound cuts. In the first pic you can see a dial along the front of the saw. This dial allows you to change your flat angle. It physically pivots the blade and base slot where the saw blade cuts into the wood on a horizontal pivot. You can see me cutting a straight cut through my shims here:
What makes it "compound" is that there is another lever on the left hand side (out of frame, sorry!) that allows the blade to tilt from right to left on a vertical access. Tilt your head from left to right... now imagine your blade tilting from left to right. This allows you to make a compound cut. You might be cutting a 30 degree horizontal cut and a 30 degree tilt... this is how you get exact cuts for joining crown molding.
For this project I only had to make very simple straight cuts to get the shims to the height that I wanted. Whalah! Shims cut to about 12".
Hello sweet power tool friend of mine,
Everyone, this is my Dewalt Compound Miter Saw. DCMS, this is everyone. Please excuse the disaster of a garage around him. Keep in mind, I'm still working on my COMPLETE LIQUIDATION of Kung Fu Bambini that will be happening this month and our house is plastered with tubs of chenille bedspreads, vintage linens, trims, fabric, light fixtures from the warehouse/studio AND the store, mannequins, ay ya ya ya ya! It's hard to breathe in here.
Justin and I purchased this handy power tool many years ago when we bought our first house. It was one of our first power tool aquisitions. At the time we invested in this bad boy to help us put in all new floor and crown molding in our house and to cut all the snap together flooring that we installed in our great room. The Dewalt has seen many projects. Most, not as artsy crafty as this one I suppose...
Our Dewalt is a "compound" miter saw. This means that it can make compound cuts. In the first pic you can see a dial along the front of the saw. This dial allows you to change your flat angle. It physically pivots the blade and base slot where the saw blade cuts into the wood on a horizontal pivot. You can see me cutting a straight cut through my shims here:
What makes it "compound" is that there is another lever on the left hand side (out of frame, sorry!) that allows the blade to tilt from right to left on a vertical access. Tilt your head from left to right... now imagine your blade tilting from left to right. This allows you to make a compound cut. You might be cutting a 30 degree horizontal cut and a 30 degree tilt... this is how you get exact cuts for joining crown molding.
For this project I only had to make very simple straight cuts to get the shims to the height that I wanted. Whalah! Shims cut to about 12".
Art How To: Shim Canvas and Applique Flowers
Now let's get detailed...
This art project was a very simple undertaking and I love how it turned out. It is exactly what I pictured and I can't wait to make the second piece in the series for the larger wall above the *commode*.
First, gather some materials... I actually had wanted to use some scrap 1" x 4" boards, but when I went to scrounge the garage and the Mr.'s tool bench area I found they were, well, nowhere to be found. I vaguely remember said scraps being used somewhere... and quite possibly burned in the fireplace this winter. Whoops!
So, being resourceful AND determined to make this from scraps and NOT have to leave the house, I rummaged around looking for anything made of wood that I could either use as was, or destroy :) Destruction = good craft-therapy as well. I found shims. If you've ever had to actually purchase shims, you know that you have to buy an whole freakin' package of them. Granted it's like three bucks, but still.
Next, I gathered an old container of stain (I was looking for a dark jacobean stain and only found honey... I found the jacobean yesterday, too late, but I ended up liking the honey pecan color better anyway!), some gloves, a piece of steel wool, sandpaper, my handy friend Welder, a 3M velcro Command strip, some coordinating solid color jersey fabric backed with Wonder Under, a pair of scissors and an iron.
First off I cut the strips to the length that I wanted. I varied them ever so slightly as I wanted a natural edge on the top and bottom once they were assembled. I very lightly sanded off any big splinters. Again, I wanted the natural texture. I stained the shim pieces using the steel wool as a 'brush'. I let these dry to the touch and then assembled them together using, you guessed it, WELDER! See, isn't he so handy?
Next I cutout some really simple leaf shapes. They're very similar to some embroidery appliques that I've done in the Kung Fu Bambini collection. I just started placing and playing until I found two that I liked together. I painted on two stems and then ironed on the leaves. Now, DON'T DO THIS with your good iron. This is my been-through-hell-and-back craft iron. I wanted it to actually sizzle the stain which still wasn't completely set. It did! And it put a little bit of texture onto a couple of the leaves as well.
Since the shims are very light and I was attaching to a tile wall, I place a 3M velcro Command strip on the back and hung it up! Whalah! Art! Mia reminded me that I need to sign my art. I think she might be right.
Now, you know what to do... GO CRAFT!
This art project was a very simple undertaking and I love how it turned out. It is exactly what I pictured and I can't wait to make the second piece in the series for the larger wall above the *commode*.
First, gather some materials... I actually had wanted to use some scrap 1" x 4" boards, but when I went to scrounge the garage and the Mr.'s tool bench area I found they were, well, nowhere to be found. I vaguely remember said scraps being used somewhere... and quite possibly burned in the fireplace this winter. Whoops!
So, being resourceful AND determined to make this from scraps and NOT have to leave the house, I rummaged around looking for anything made of wood that I could either use as was, or destroy :) Destruction = good craft-therapy as well. I found shims. If you've ever had to actually purchase shims, you know that you have to buy an whole freakin' package of them. Granted it's like three bucks, but still.
Next, I gathered an old container of stain (I was looking for a dark jacobean stain and only found honey... I found the jacobean yesterday, too late, but I ended up liking the honey pecan color better anyway!), some gloves, a piece of steel wool, sandpaper, my handy friend Welder, a 3M velcro Command strip, some coordinating solid color jersey fabric backed with Wonder Under, a pair of scissors and an iron.
First off I cut the strips to the length that I wanted. I varied them ever so slightly as I wanted a natural edge on the top and bottom once they were assembled. I very lightly sanded off any big splinters. Again, I wanted the natural texture. I stained the shim pieces using the steel wool as a 'brush'. I let these dry to the touch and then assembled them together using, you guessed it, WELDER! See, isn't he so handy?
Next I cutout some really simple leaf shapes. They're very similar to some embroidery appliques that I've done in the Kung Fu Bambini collection. I just started placing and playing until I found two that I liked together. I painted on two stems and then ironed on the leaves. Now, DON'T DO THIS with your good iron. This is my been-through-hell-and-back craft iron. I wanted it to actually sizzle the stain which still wasn't completely set. It did! And it put a little bit of texture onto a couple of the leaves as well.
Since the shims are very light and I was attaching to a tile wall, I place a 3M velcro Command strip on the back and hung it up! Whalah! Art! Mia reminded me that I need to sign my art. I think she might be right.
Now, you know what to do... GO CRAFT!
Bathroom Reveal!
Hola!
Last week during Spring Break crazy time I was in need of some serious craft-therapy. I did this project in one day and no, I wasn't plastered to my sewing machine! Our bathroom is in two parts. First, the Jack & Jill style main bath with all white tile walls and white tile floors. It was BORING. I've known for a long time that I needed to find a way to get color in here. As I've mentioned a bazillion times, I'm working on a Heather Bailey Freshcut quilt/duvet for our bedroom and wanted to bring those colors into the bath as well.
We don't have a bathtub in this room, but I decided to cover our extremely ugly shower doors with a shower curtain and create some art for the tile walls. The shower curtain is made from three prints, Heather Bailey Freshcut Crest fabric, Amy Butler Ginger Bliss Paisley in lime, and HB Freshcut Graphic Mum. I found the guava berry bath accessories, towels and rugs at Target awhile ago with the idea that I'd finally make these other pieces to bring it all together.
For the artwork, I wanted to bring something earthy into the room to give it some warmth and character with all of that white tile suffocating the life out it.
Extending off of the main bathroom is a vanity that is between the bathroom and our bedroom. The wall color in here extends into the bedroom. For this space I wanted more neutral towels and wanted to tie the warmer fabrics from the collection into the towels:
And last, but certainly not least I made an earring organizer out of a really cool old frame that I found at the Goodwill Bins.
Now, go and craft!
Last week during Spring Break crazy time I was in need of some serious craft-therapy. I did this project in one day and no, I wasn't plastered to my sewing machine! Our bathroom is in two parts. First, the Jack & Jill style main bath with all white tile walls and white tile floors. It was BORING. I've known for a long time that I needed to find a way to get color in here. As I've mentioned a bazillion times, I'm working on a Heather Bailey Freshcut quilt/duvet for our bedroom and wanted to bring those colors into the bath as well.
We don't have a bathtub in this room, but I decided to cover our extremely ugly shower doors with a shower curtain and create some art for the tile walls. The shower curtain is made from three prints, Heather Bailey Freshcut Crest fabric, Amy Butler Ginger Bliss Paisley in lime, and HB Freshcut Graphic Mum. I found the guava berry bath accessories, towels and rugs at Target awhile ago with the idea that I'd finally make these other pieces to bring it all together.
For the artwork, I wanted to bring something earthy into the room to give it some warmth and character with all of that white tile suffocating the life out it.
Extending off of the main bathroom is a vanity that is between the bathroom and our bedroom. The wall color in here extends into the bedroom. For this space I wanted more neutral towels and wanted to tie the warmer fabrics from the collection into the towels:
And last, but certainly not least I made an earring organizer out of a really cool old frame that I found at the Goodwill Bins.
Now, go and craft!
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