Furniture

We moved into the apartment in October of 2007. There was a fair amount of furniture left here, none of it in fabulous condition, it ranged from just downright icky to I can live with it. Seeing as every single piece of furniture we own is either hand-me-down/garage sale/thrift store most of this stuff fit right in! (I take that back, I do have some brand new items, 4 shelf/basket thingies I bought at Family Dollar and put together, but other than that...) We gave away about half and kept the rest. D and I ended up using the bedroom set (gave away the mattresses... I have a thing about that) the rest of it ended up stashed and I haven't thought of it till about 2 weeks ago. I ended up with:

• 3 kitchen chairs - paint covered, icky
• 1 picture frame (19x23) beat-up stained wood
• bedroom set (2 dressers, mirror, beat-up nightstand)
• filing cabinet
• 2 large dresser mirrors
• organ bench

 The bedroom set we used right away, that was in the best shape. The best of the 3 chairs (dark wood stained, no cushion) we've been using as my desk chair. Everything else got stuffed in either the attic or the girl's closet. So, 2 weeks ago I ventured into my attic,armed with nothing but a flashlight and a whip and pulled down the chairs that I promptly  named Thing 1 and Thing 2. They are very similar to my kitchen chairs so when I got the urge to paint them I decided to guinea pig on Things 1&2. (They came out gorgeous!! But that's another post).

Since pulling all my goodies out of the attic and various other hidey holes it has all been piled in the corner of my middle room. Picture if you will all my sewing/candle making/painting/beading paraphernalia in one scary pile and  it has been driving me CRAZY. Out of the blue I remembered the filing cabinet in the girl's closet and I rejoiced!  In the course of getting the filing cabinet I came across the frame and the mirrors so that turned into getting some of my stuff organized (1 filing cabinet is not enough) and painting the frame black and figuring out where I'm hanging the mirror!

I have been going crazy at http://www.blockposters.com/ and do not have the money to buy as many frames as I now need. Luckily the frame is the perfect size for one of the pictures I printed for the kitchen. So I slapped some black paint on her and here she is:

The picture was lovingly snagged from Dianne Sylvan's Deviant Art. Not only one of my favorite authors but one of my favorite artists!!

I'm thinking the mirror is going to end up in the bathroom, so that'll end up painted blue. I'm thinking of making up a vanity thing for the bathroom and I think that mirror would be perfect.

I am dead sexy in my jammies!! And no, I do not have enough pictures on my fridge!

Trust me, it will end up in my B&A eventually. Maybe I'll even dress up for that picture!

Till then...

B & A #1

Here's the monster that started my furniture painting craze:

Bunk bed ladder scavenged from my Mother's basement.

I was blog-jumping and found this at Apartment Therapy. Since my kitchen is just a tad larger than a bread box and cabinet space is not very accommodating I thought I'd try it.  I wasn't comfortable with hanging it from the ceiling so...

There it is, all shiny and perty, hanging from the door to the basement. Instead of the traditional chain, I braided some hemp string and hung her up. I still haven't gotten to the store to get s-hooks so for right now she's just a very large, very perty towel rack:

No, it's not a Halloween thing, my "theme" is black cats & kitchen witches.

I have absolutely no intention of ever hanging this from the ceiling, so I'm debating on whether or not to get screw in hooks or stick with s-hooks. I flip-flop on this atleast 3 times a day. Whenever I make up my mind I'll get the hooks and finish the project. At this rate, I'll be able to pay for them with my social security check!

The black on the ladder looked so nice and apparently was contagious, it spread to 6 kitchen chairs (complete with recovered seats), 2 shelves, an organ bench (which now resides in my entranceway) and quite possibly will continue to spread to every single piece of  wooden furniture in my apartment. Stencils will follow, I guarantee it. My guinea pig on that will be the trunk in my bedroom.

That'll find it's way to a Before and After sooner or later.

Till then...

Lotus Stencil

I can never find any stencils I really like, and since I can barely draw realistic stick figures, I had to do something about it. I started out easy, not alot of detail, I am (insert impending doom music) working with sharp poky things here. I found a lotus here. (I love this website. I've found at least 42 tattoos that I must get), cut it out of my blank stencil and wound up with this:

I tried it out on some scrap wood, and then did this:

I've had the candy box propped up on a small shelf I have in my room:

Closeup:

Can you tell I'm a pyro? The "wineglass" tea-light holders are from the Dollar Tree(!!!)

I want to paint my bedroom furniture black and stencil this lotus on with a dark blue so it's rather muted. I kinda stole that idea from another blog (Pushing Furniture, the blog responsible for sending me on this home improvement fugue state LOL) I'm going to stagger/alternate that lotus and this stencil:

snagged from google image search.

Since I've stashed the headboard in the attic (which D has not noticed, we're going on day 3, any bets on how long it takes for him to notice?) that leaves 3 dressers, 2 nightstands, 1 shelf and the hand-me-down prefab trunk/box/thingie. That project is a few weekends away.

Till then...

Meditation Spot In A Box

My apartment is tiny. And by tiny I mean if I sit on the couch and stretch, I can wipe off my kitchen table. OK, maybe I exaggerate a little, get to know me, I do that ALOT.

Either way, I have always alway always wanted a designated corner for meditating. In my head I see filmy curtains, enough candles to make the great fire of Chicago look like a campfire, a mountain of cushions, inspiring views of mountain scenery, pretty much just an area that merely by laying eyes on it inspires instant Zen. Needless to say, I don't have that yet. When we eventually buy a house the selling point will be a room all for my very own that will be part craft room of the Gods part meditation heaven.

So, for now, I have this:

Bliss in a box!

I found a nice size piece of wood in the basement, looks like it might have belonged to some sort of entertainment stand at one time. I put obscene amounts of stuffing on it, wrapped the quasi-tie-dye fabric around it and stapled away. I wanted something a little more than just your standard tushy-cushion. I had enough fabric left to make two fire cracker pillows to complement the cushion. Shoved a few jar candles in there (I came across a stash of mason jars and with a little kosher salt, a few pretty glass doodads turned them into some pretty snazzy tea-light holders). Add one average blue fleece blankie, stuff into one wooden vegetable crate (compliments of Mom's summers working at a veggie stand) and voila, you've got this:

When I find the right fabric, that blue fleece is so outta here!

I am on the lookout for a suitable replacement for the blue fleece blanky. Eventually something will jump out at me. I want something trippy, multi-colored, with tassels. Tassels are a must! I'll attach tassels if I have to! And no, I do not do much meditating on the kitchen table.

I need one more thing to make this set complete (as if anything I ever do is complete!). Driving over 18th Street the other day I saw a fireplace screen outside of a thrift store. I am kicking myself in the tukus repeatedly for not buying it. I am now on the lookout for one to convert into a mini privacy screen. In my head it is already painted, the screen is replaced with cut up black sheer curtains (I bought 8 of them at a garage sale 4 years ago for $1.50!) and I am sitting indian style behind it. 

So, it's not quite done yet. I'm on a mission to paint every single thing that doesn't move in my abode black, and that includes this crate. I also made a lotus stencil this morning that I'm going to use on it too. (But that's another post). Hopefully I'll get to that later this weekend!

Till then...

What am I doing??

I did it, finally. I'm attempting to keep a blog. Is that even how I'm supposed to say it. Oh well, whatever. I'm not really sure what is going to end up on here. I know what I like reading, I guess that's one place to start. I guarantee there will be no rhyme or reason to what ends up on here. Links, rants, twisted drops of wisdom that leap from my children's mouths (that's some funny shit) blah, blah, blah.

I've been in a home improvement fugue state for a few weeks now so instead of putting the updates on Facebook, it'll end up here. I've been filling up my camera with before and after pictures, those will end up here too. Partially my incessant need for praise, partially to get my sister's opinions (my sister hereafter shall be referred to as Our Lady of the Color-Coordinated Socks or OLCCS for short). Don't get me wrong, I love her dearly, she's fantastic!!  OLCCS is my younger sister (I'm the oldest, she's the baby, and for good measure, my mother threw in 2 boys between us). She is smart, funny, compassionate and she is the one to point out "You can't wear those socks with that shirt, they don't match" (I believe this is a word for word quotation of something she said to our mother once). Therefore, she is the Right Brain to my Left Brain. I get fantastical ideas, and to make sure they are actually down to earth enough to work, I go to her. Also, her office blocks Facebook, but I'm pretty sure she can get this on her office computer!! LOL What matters the most is how much I respect her opinion.

So, I'm off to paint something, then figure out what to put on here next.

 Till then...