I'm Sew Very Happy

The attic in our house is my craft room. I have been enjoying creating projects in there for the last three years. It has also taken me that long to turn it into a space that feels like me. I finally got some inspiration in May when my mom gave me this tea towel.

I also found a few old sewing patterns at Urban Mining and Habitat Restore.

This summer I found a great cross stitch pattern on Etsy and tweaked it a bit to fit my color scheme.

My handy husband helped me out by building custom frames for my tea towel and sewing patterns. Then he helped me hang my little sewing gallery.

I was also inspired to make some pennant banners for my attic windows. My sister-in-law hooked me up with some coordinating fabric and my mom helped me pick the perfect order for each pennant.

We have found several great pieces for my sewing room. We found the sewing table at Good Juju and the sewing table chair and the blue cart while estate sale shopping.

I'd love to get some new flooring. Until then, it's Christmas year round in the attic!

Frozen February 2014

We've had about a week of snow and frigid temperatures and four snow days. To prevent cabin fever, we've been working on a few projects.

Royals t-shirt scarf sewn by Jen

Nook cover sewn by Jen

Flag holder made by Ian

Scrabble tile made by Ian and painted by Jen

Heart Art inspired by Pinterest. Frame and mesh made by Ian and heart by Jen

And for the grand finale, we completed a little home makeover project. When we moved into our house about three years ago, this mural was painted on the wall in the entrance to our kitchen.

Last Sunday, I painted over the mural.

I found an idea for a wood plank wall on Pinterest. Ian headed to Home Depot with our brother-in-law to pick up the supplies we would need before the snow arrived. So on Snow Day #1, Ian cut the boards and I primed and painted them. On Snow Day #2, the boards went up on the wall and on Snow Day #3, the shelf and edging went up.

On Snow Day #4, we drove to Anthropologie on the Plaza to pick out hooks.

Christmas 2013

Casa de Carle went a little bit vintage this year when decorating for the holidays. Ian and I spent a wonderful afternoon at Brown's Emporium Antiques in Independence as well as a little antique shop on the Independence Square and found a cute selection of vintage Christmas ornaments. We put them all in a little bowl passed down to us from Ian's aunt and uncle.

 

We also searched every nook and cranny at Brown's Emporium to find the perfect vintage cookie cutters to place on our little tree in the kitchen. We had a blast picking and choosing just the right ones!

I saved the best for last. I found a cute wooden Christmas tree on Pinterest that I really liked. 

I showed it to Ian, and voila!

A Place to Sit: Restoring a Park Bench

Jen and I make a habit of going to the West Bottoms on the first full weekend of every month to look at the shops that are only open then.  Usually it is vintage, antique or re-purposed stuff.  We found the two sides of an old park bench made out of cast iron.  I thought it was a waste that they were selling them for garden art separately.  I wanted to save them and Jen said go for it.

One of the sides before the magic happens.

 The two sides had a lot of rust showing and the hardware was rusted.

Rusted

The first step I took was to take off the rust with a wire brush at the end of my drill.  It took about two hours to get all the nooks and crannies.  Then sand it down with two different grits of sand paper and wipe off all the rust particles left.
 

Safety first eyes and ears. 

A hard part was to remove the bolts that had rusted.

I used a little bit of this, but wasn't getting anywhere so...

I moved on to using this.

Next it was to give it a good coat of paint to prevent it from rusting again.

Primer:

Finish coat:

After I prepared the sides it was time to cut the slats.  I decided to use cypress for the slats.  It is naturally weather resistant and I like the chestnut color of the wood. 

Cypress

(Next few sentences below are boring but important steps.  Feel free to skip.)
I needed 12 slats.  Nine of those slats were going to be the same size and since I had nothing to go off, figuring out the width was a bit of trial and error.  I decided on making them 2.5 inches wide and 48 inches long.

The other three slats had to be a different size because two were fitting around the front curve and the last one was on the back curve.  They ended up being 1.75 inches wide and 48 inches long.

After cutting them it was time to drill the holes.  I made 1/4 inch holes 3/4 inches in on either side.

 I needed to round the edges of the boards to ensure comfort for the tooshie.  I used a hand plane that has a 1/4 inch round over on each of the slats.

(Next sentence is another boring part, but yet again important to avoid splinters in unwanted places.)
Then it was time to sand and if you know me and sanding there is no love for it.  I used 80 grit, 120 grit and 220 grit to finish it off.

Finally it was time to put it together.  After doing research I noticed that most benches have a middle bracket.  It holds the slats from moving too much and then a metal bar going from one side to the other to keep it up right and not slanting one way or another.

I had no idea what I was going to do for this at first, but it came to me thinking back about when I was helping Dad  make a bunk bed for my niece and nephew.  Dad had used a piece of sturdy aluminum, but yet we could still drill through it.  That was what I needed except not as thick because it needed to be molded to the form of the slats.  I went down to True Value (I go there for most of my workshop needs mainly because they have great customer service and the price is right) with my dilemma and Michael set me on the right path.  I was able to buy an aluminum metal bar, shape it to the form of the slats, and drilled holes through the aluminum using drill screws.  I attached the slats to the sides, fastened the center metal bracket, and  screwed the metal bar from one side to the other with help from Jen.

Center bracket

Bracket reaching from one side to the other.

At this point there is no plan to put a finish on the cypress.  It is supposed to age to a gray that is supposed to be nice.  If it does and we don't like it I can always sand it down (yippee) and apply a clear finish at that time.

Here is how it turned out.

Finished

Preparing for maiden voyage.

A great place to ponder greater things in life.

Not such a great place to take a nap.

Summer Staycation 2013

Last Monday our house looked like this.

By Wednesday, it looked like this.

On Friday, I had to literally STAY in the house because all of the doors and windows were covered in plastic.  I could hear the painters moving ladders and could see the paint spray on the plastic.  It was not until late afternoon that I was able to get a sneak peek of the new color.

By Monday, this was what our house looked like.

Nine Is So Fine

Ian and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary on June19.  The day started with a delicious breakfast at The Big Biscuit.  With our bellies full, we headed to Paint, Glaze, and Fire Ceramics and Coffeehouse in Leawood, Kansas.  The traditional wedding anniversary gift for nine years is pottery.  We had reserved a table at Paint, Glaze, and Fire and came with a design in mind.  We sat amongst the mothers, grandmothers, babysitters, and young children and got right to work.

Ian applying the first base coat.

Ian carefully sketching.

Getting ready to write n-i-n-e in cursive.

The sketching was the easy part.  When it came to tracing over our sketch with the paint, that's when the project got tricky.  It took us three tries to get it just right.

Happy Ninth Anniversary

After our pottery adventure, we grabbed a bite to eat at Houlihan's.  Our meal was on the house since it took them over 20 minutes to bring us our food.  It actually took them 20 min and 58 sec.  We weren't going to be too picky, but the waitress came right up with our food and said it was on them!

Later in the evening, we headed to The Independence Square and sat on the terrace at Cafe Verona and enjoyed a delicious dinner, half-price wine, and a complimentary dessert.  It was a wonderful day!

Cheers to nine years!