This one's not a tutorial, just fun stuff

I'm not sure if anyone else has been invited to a party that had a stipulation that if you came, you'd need to blog about it....but...it is worth it, my friends, IT IS WORTH IT!

My sister-in-law called to tell me that she had received some ponies from this company, Pony Royale, but she needed to get at least 3 other bloggers to attend.  Luckily for me, and my daughter and niece, we were invited!

I was picturing the cute little My Little Ponies (which I like), but when we got there the girls were enraptured by many kinds there were (one for each month of the year - with their own little story and birth stone's to match).  I was excited that they looked like real horses and that their heads move.
Each pony came with it's birthstone on it's forehead and with matching headpieces, tails, manes and saddles.  But even nicer, is that they also came with coordinating colors as well, so that the girls could change out the blue tail (Dewdrop) with a more realistic-looking brown tail and mane.

The girls all loved and squealed with excitement when they chose their ponies.  But you can't see it in the pictures; I guess they were trying to pose nicely so you don't see the enthusiasm until they were caught playing. 

Deciding which one they want the most.

My niece, happy to show me hers.

My daughter, content with her selection.

Another niece showing me her new pony.

Changing out the mane - this is cool folks!

Choosing different tail to put on her brown pony.

See them lining them up?  They sat and played like that for a long time.

Cosco Stool re-do: Cleaning Chrome and Using your Glue Gun to Upholster

Let's talk about how to clean chrome with stuff you have hanging around your house.  AND let's talk about using your glue gun to put fun new fabric on your metal furniture:

My grandparents have a few (or more) of the Cosco stools like this one and even this one but the one with all the great memories for me was this one.  That stool sits in their kitchen near the peninsula.  Every evening that I visited, my grandfather would sit on the stool and say "Wouldn't you like some ice cream before bed?" and he would proceed to scoop great mounds of ice cream into a bowl while sitting in the stool.

 
How could I not want a Cosco stool after so many fun and delicious memories?  So, I've been on the hunt for one for a while.  But those stools are expensive!  I did find one from the 80s at a garage sale, but it wasn't quite right, nor was it as sturdy as the "vintage" ones.  But I found this one:  It isn't as old and wonderful as my grandparents' but it had potential.



















The chrome had paint and black marks all over it.  So, I found some 90% rubbing alcohol and some aluminum foil and gently scrubbed it off - (It came off so easily!!)


 That's it, two items you probably have in your house!  Aluminum Foil and Rubbing Alcohol!

It also had some ugly, ripped white vinyl cover on the seat.  I pulled it off to make way for the new fabric.                                        

I covered the entire chair/stool with paper, tape and an old towel so I could spray paint it. 

Deciding which fabric with sea green and orange will look best.

Tracing the old vinyl.

Craft spray glue to attach the fabric.

And then glue the edges to the metal using your glue gun.  (You can see a video tutorial on another Cosco stool I've done with a glue gun here.)

Maybe someday I'll have one as old and as sturdy as Grandpa Gillis', but in the meantime, I really, really like how this one turned out.

Shabby Chic-style Bed Canopy

At the time that I wrote this, our nearest IKEA was 8 hours away!  Every time I get the chance to visit an IKEA, I love to browse and often end up spending too much on things that will "make my life easier".

But...when I saw a fun bed canopy for $20 I couldn't justify it as a need or as anything that would really make my life easier.  I did love IKEA's idea and started perusing garage sales for anything like it.  Amazingly, I did find a plain white one at a garage sale for just $5!    I've seen that people have also made these out of hula hoops - which is a pretty brilliant idea if you can't find it at a garage sale.

I purchased green and pink fabric to match my daughter's room; just 1/2 yard of one and 1 yard of the other, with coupons, it cost me around $4.50  So, this cost about $9 and the time it took to make (which wasn't very much once my sister-in-law, Mandy suggested that I glue gun the triangles to the hoop; I had been trying to figure out how to sew them together in a circle and loop the hoop into the fabric).  The tulle I got for free from Mandy as well (she seems to have an entire dresser full of it).
True, it was almost $10 in the end, but I kind of like the size and how soft it looks.  And because it is tailor made to match her room, I even like it more than the one I saw at IKEA!
 

This was a left-over triangle from an Easter banner I made which I used as a template.

Tracing the triangle

Getting the triangles in order

Gluing them onto the garage sale hoop.

(Update: IKEA no longer sells the canopy that I was describing, but it was looked a lot like the one above only with a fun circus-y feel and bright primary colors.)

Custom, color coordinated mattes

Sometimes I find mattes at garage sales and can't resist buying them because mattes in the store are kind of pricey.  Usually I find dark green or some other color that I don't have anywhere in my house.  For my daughter's room, which is light green and pink, I purchased scrapbook paper and Mod Podged it onto the ugly colored mattes, tying in her colors.  (There aren't before pics - I did this ages ago before I was concerned about that - and they're a little blurry.)

Family Silhouettes - out of an old waterbed and scrapbook paper

I've always loved family silhouettes on peoples' walls.  When I started to see them on line last year, I decided to make my own rendition.

It looked a little like this - gargantuan and dark.

 When we had been married for about 2 years we acquired the frame to an old 70s or 80s water bed.  As you may remember, they are huge and solid wood - ours was dark brown and too much for our little house, so we painted it white.  Luckily, we were able to find another freebie bed frame later and got rid of that one, but I kept the 4 doors that were from the head board.  I knew they'd come in handy! (9 years later) 

 It looked much like this.

I don't have a before picture or even much of a tutorial.  I just used the same scrapbook paper that I used for my necklace holder and traced each of our profiles.  

Then Mod-Podged them onto some brown scrapbook paper and duct-taped them to the back of the doors.  The doors we had painted white with the rest of the bed to make it seem a little less imposing.  For the frames I thought I wanted them to be wood, but as I sanded them down I liked them just like that.  They don't have any top-coat or anything, just slightly sanded and done!

 

Armoire before and after

 After having one little toddler around and tending another, my husband and I quickly realized that it was a good idea to have the VCR (remember those?) covered.  And dare I admit that we had purchased a book on Feng Shui which had said something about keeping the tv covered?!  Anyway, when I was pregnant with my 2nd, my husband and I went on a search for an armoire to house our tv, vcr and music equipment.
We were told by an antique store that the elderly couple in a house 2 doors away were selling alot of their furniture so we should check there.  They were wonderful and actually did have an armoire (which they were excited to sell to us because "it would be so perfect for a little girl's room".  Obviously we didn't have the heart to tell them that it would not be for her little dresses, but that we would take out the innards and add shelving.
It worked wonderfully for a long time and suited our needs perfectly:  nice isn't it?

BUT my whole house kind of has that cottage - beachy kind of feel to it and the red wood color was just not working for me anymore.  I also wanted to figure out how to have music come through the speakers without having the doors open.
I had seen an episode of Design on a Dime where one of the designers took some plexi-glass and put it in something like this and thought I could also do something like that and drill holes where my speakers were.  Unfortunately, Lowe's failed me and didn't even carry plexi-glass (still not sure where you'd get it - Hobby Lobby?)!  Anyway, a man who worked at Lowe's led me to some metal sheeting and we figured it may work (it was pricey though - about $26 for one piece).  
Luckily the one piece of sheeting was enough for this project.  Warning though: don't leave the sheeting in your car and have someone load a chair you plan to refinish on top of it - it bends easily and it is hard to get it flat again.
Obviously I'm a little chatty today but here's the project:

Flimsy bottom piece

and it's coming apart

facade piece that was wasted space!

Reinforced bottom with 1 x 2

turns out it was REALLY hard to smash out with a hammer!

The inside; finally putting putty on the pieces we added 10 or so years before

.

I took the panels out and got it ready for paint.

Tracing the wood panel with a sharpie onto the sheet metal.

place in the painted wood doors

Cut with tin sips (the cut pieces were very sharp)

Actually this still needs some work - it's a little uneven from where I smashed it with the hammer and I need to take a saw to it.