Bob: Repairs & Updates

This is Bob:

Before & After

They're both Bob, actually.  Bob 1 and Bob 2.  You know how you have to have a name or something for a project when you're planning it out, or making lists of projects?


The shelf on the left got to be Bob the first time I fixed it up.  My father built it when I was like a year old (his name wasn't Bob), and eventually it got pretty rickety, and the style was weird - strange peaks jutting out from the top, and an angled crossbar from top to bottom across the back.  I took it apart and rebuilt it, and fixed up the stain job, back in...2006? 2005?  I don't remember.


A couple of years later I thought it would be pretty cool if I had a pair of them, so I built another one: Bob 2.


Bob 2 was getting a bit wobbledy recently, too (an accident last time I moved it stripped out some of the nails/screws on the bottom), so last night I took them both out to the garage, cleaned them up, painted just the front edges black, and then painted some fake gold "campaign furniture" hardware on the front at the joints.   I really love the way they came out!

After-After

It's subtle, but it's that little touch that these shelves really needed.

And this very small makeover was exactly what I needed this week,.  Kress is moving into his own place this week, and you know how moving can be.

Especially if you're as OCD about packing and stacking as I am, and you're not in charge of the packing and stacking, and are basically sitting still while moving is happening all around you, hehe.
                         ZOMG CHAOS.  

So anyway: shelf makeover! Ta-da!




That's Joe, my Gretsch 5125, in the corner.  I'm fostering it for a friend.  I'm going to have to get myself a practice amp so I can keep playing it after Kress moves all his PA stuff out.  








P.S. - I painted that desk lamp again, too.  Turns out I hated the way I did it the other week, after the first day.  This is boring, but at least it goes with my stuff.

If You Guessed "More Lighting" You Win A Prize!

Not really. Sorry.

So back to that bug- and cobweb-covered porch light from the other day.  The one I took down:

On the other side of that door were two mismatched hallway ceiling lights.   Kinda like this:

I painted the yellow gold brass collar black years ago, don't worry. 

And this:

this one I ...um...moving on. 

Yeah. Not so much.  Two different kinds of light bulbs. Two different qualities of light. Two different shapes, sizes, and sets of shadow.  The hex light wanted to be repainted like the fluted fixture was, but it's metal is actually fused somehow directly onto the glass and I can't get it apart.  I have yet to feel the need to undertake the ridiculous amounts of taping-off it would require to paint this bastard.

Anyway, so I put the fluted bowl up on the back porch for the time being, until I figure out what I really want to do out there.  I disassembled both porch fixtures (first pic, both identical), sprayed them both with a fresh coat of Rustoleum's "hammered" black metal finish, and put them up in the hall:

NO, not THAT kind of black metal...

Sorry for the EPIC FREAKING SUNLIGHT coming through the front door there - this hallway is a freaking cave, and you couldn't see anything when I actually turned the lights ON to photograph them.  Derp.   I suck at this.

But the little porch lights are cute!  I'd rather have pendants in here, something artsy and neat, but for now, at least I have two fixtures that match!

Moving on ...


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My Bug Collection. Let Me Show You It

Say it with me now:

Ewwwww.  

That's the light fixture on my front porch.  Gross, huh?  Also tiny, boring, and dim (mostly because of the bugs).

However, I found this baby at the thrift shop the other day for nine dollars:

I know, it's all blurry.  That's why it was nine dollars.

BFF, when I posted this pic on Facebook:  "I've always wanted a
light fixture that would make me coffee."   Womp womp. 

Man, do you guys KNOW how many parts are in a freaking fixture like this?  I didn't even take it completely apart.  The insert where the bulbs go I left assembled, and just taped over the wiring and the bulb holders, because I didn't feel like undoing all that wiring.

Today's spray paint of choice is Rustoleum's  hammered metal finish, in black.  I've used the silver on some of my doorknobs, and to be honest, I haven't been impressed - but the black came out beautifully!

new chain.  hell if I was going to try to spray paint a chain

This took me an evening - far less drying time than I'd expected, actually.  After that, all I had to do was put it up the next day:

Isn't that awesome?  I've always wanted a pendant like this on my front porch.  Heart!  Also, I'm hoping that since it's open on the bottom, it won't get full of bugs like the little box thing that was there before.

Pretty shadows, too. 

So what about the little box light that was there before?  I'm glad you asked.  That question boggled me for exactly two hours before it spawned like eighty five new projects.  I'll be getting to that.  Between the fans in the bedroom and kitchen, the garage light, this porch light, the things it inspired, and that blue ginger jar lamp from the thrifty store, it looks like this is officially The Summer of Lights.

More soon.


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While We're On the Subject Of Lighting...

...which won't last forever, I promise...

Let's talk about the new ginger jar lamp from the thrift store.  

The blue one is the new one.  The pink one is the one I talked about back in March when I stripped the paint out of the inside and painted it white.  It currently resides on my living room sofa table: 

Sweet Pea acting innocent after bumping the shade askew

They're the exact same lamp.  Literally the same lamp, same maker, just in two different colors.  I put the blue one on my bedside table for the time being; and I've been wondering what color to paint it (that blue is pretty, but, nuh-uh).   Then it dawned on me that I have a pair of matching lamps.  

Now I'm wondering: 

• Do I strip both and finish them to match, and use them in the living room as actual, proper, matched set? 
• If I do, what color do I paint them? What shades? 
• Since I'm going to be moving the sofa table to another room soon, if I make them a matched pair, then where will I put them? 
• Or should I leave the blue one in the bedroom and refinish it to go with that room?  (No, because it's too tall to reach the switch when I'm lying down)

Meanwhile, I've been testing out different colors on the inside of some scrap glass jars (jelly, mayo, etc.), and different finishes.  Lately I've been playing with a mercury glass effect with silver spray paint and water/vinegar.  

Pottery Barn

So there's this idea.

Lowe's

 ....Mercury glass with a fun blue shade?  Maybe a burlap, like in the top picture, but a teal burlap? 

Lowe's

Or teal lamps (I actually have spray paint this color), either with white shades (paper, linen?) or with the cute embroidered  Ikea shades like I have on the white ginger jar lamp right now?











Hm.


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Still In Lighting Mode

Not that this is a great photograph or anything, but here's that fluorescent fixture that used to be in the kitchen, now in the garage:

Seriously NOT a great photo.  But there it is, all huge and extremely bright.  I can see what I'm working on now!!!  And it's all the more apparent that no, I never finished priming the garage, because I ran out of primer, hehe (I have a ton now, though, so it's back on my list).



In Other Lighting News...

Guess what I found at the thrift store yesterday?

On the left is another ginger jar lamp, just like the pink one I picked up (also at a thrift store) a while back.  This one's blue, and, lacking any better ideas, I'm leaving it as is for a while.  I'll update when I get a shade situation worked out. :)

On the right is a lovely and brand-new silver/nickel finish pendant fixture that I picked up for NINE DOLLARS.  I am not even kidding.  As much as I actually love the silver, I plan to disassemble this, paint it black, and hang it on my front porch.  More on that as I work on it.  :D

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An Aside

I have an update for you on the whole light fixtures thing, which will be coming later this week; but in the meantime, I finally attacked my mending pile in the sewing room over the weekend, and wanted to show you a bit of that.   I altered the neckline and sleeves on several shirts, and took in two pair of jeans that were gapping in some very odd places.  I still have lots of mending and alterations to do; but I'm pleased that I got that far!

This was one of the shirts I had on the pile:

(well, almost this shirt - mine has a round lower hem)

I *love* Holy Clothing's stuff.  It's all viscose and rayon, beautifully hand-embroidered, and soooo comfy to wear.  I bought this blouse at the renaissance festival a few years ago, and I've always loved it, but I haven't gotten to wear it much, because of the neckline.

These pics are from HC's website.  The second pic shows my problem:  on me (being a bit, ahem, thicker than the model shown), the neckline was quite a bit higher, and I'm REALLY weird about things on my neck.  I can NOT stand shirts touching my neck at all - I cut the neck off of every t-shirt I buy, before I ever wear them, and I never wear shirts with collars.  I have a standing order that every turtleneck that enters my kingdom  be executed on sight.  (That said, I love cowl-neck things and scarves, because they're soft and drapey, and not restricting at all).

So over the weekend I enlarged the neckline - I zig-zag stitched along the pink dotted line in the third picture above, cut along that line, folded it over, and stitched it down.  Easy peasy. Five minutes.

MUCH better.  *sigh of relief*  I can breathe now.  And that took like NO effort.  Yay!

And now back to your irregularly-scheduled Housey Stuff...


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Bullet: Bitten

You know that decorating axiom, "It's only paint"?  If you don't like it, you can just paint it again?  That doesn't fly when you're talking about painting over wood for the first time.  Stripping, sanding, restoring, staining, sealing - not the same as just a coat of paint in a slightly different color.

 Granted, the kitchen cabinets were technically already painted.  They were an orange f'oak (fake oak) when I bought the house, and I promptly gave them a brush-down with some flat black paint on a wet chip brush - a step in faux bois painting - in order to preserve the wood grain look but darken the color.  It worked really well, and I've loved them ever since.


But then the jones for painted kitchen cabinetry that's been eating at me for years finally took hold.  I fought it for months before giving in; and then I spent weeks on end dithering over when to start.

There's no going back from this, I thought.  I'd better just dive in and get it over with.

TA-DA!!!  


Omg I love these.


I think the brown on the bottom is a bit out of place now,  but I'm not entirely sure just yet.  I'll take some living with.

The brown ceiling fan on the ceiling (asopposed to the one on the fridge) is balanced out by the brown cabinets on the bottom of the room, though, and it's not "all that brown" anymore, the way it was in the before picture.

Wow, I really LOVE this white.  Yup, it's Behr's "White Clay", .just like the ceilings.

It really brightens up the whole room.  It feels so *light* now, moving around in this very full kitchen.





<   isn't that an adorable little clock?  There aren't any batteries in it.

These are the same smokey-quartz colored glass knobs that were in the guest bathroom.

No, I mean these ARE those knobs.  I took them out to use them in here, because it turns out that I love them so much with the white cabinetry that I wanted to see them every day.   (There are dinky little silver ones in the guest bath now, until I find something else cool to put in there).










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Light Fixtures Sliding Tile Game: BEGIN

Bedroom:

• ceiling fan:  good
• too powerful/large for room:  cold, too bright

Kitchen:

• plain builders' fluorescent "shop light" type fixture. Bright, but cold, and not adjustable. 
• terrible air flow (stove vent is bullshit) 

Garage/Workshop:

• Teeny tiny globe fixture with single bulb:  BWAHAHAHA

Solution, Step 1: 

  

Old fan from bedroom:  matches the one in the living room, which is visible to the kitchen and vice versa.  Great for the living room, but too windy and cold for the bedroom at night. 

Cute little plain white fan from the thrift store, purchased for $15 dollars, and in perfectly working condition.  Smaller, slower; just the right amount of cooling, air flow, and light for this room.  

Yay! 

Solution, Step 2: 

Old kitchen light. 

Bleh. 

Bedroom fan now in kitchen! Yay!  

Oops, no bulb sconces in the pic yet.  :) 

Solution, Step 3...   is coming, as soon as I can get some help putting that fluorescent fixture in the garage.  I can get it down by myself, but I can't get it up by myself!   

Stay tuned...

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Hello, House

By the way, Gypsycat is just fine.  WHEW.

Meanwhile, I've been doing all sorts of stuff around the house that I'm dying to show you;  I haven't quite got all the photos ready, but for the time being, here's a little quickie:

Hand painted backwards: stylin'.  LOL.  I keep seeing these (and the bathtubs/showers that say "get naked) all over the internet, and I thought it was really cute.  I figured I'd try it.  I meant to paint it less wonkily (that's a word now, I just decided), but this is the way it came out, and I kinda like it wonky.

I'd also figured that this would just be something cute for visitors; but coming home with Gypsy from the vet's last week, and then coming home this past Sunday night after a weekend trip to west Texas, that little "hello" made me so happy, and so relieved to be at my own house again.  Hello, House.

It stays. :)

And Now For Something Completely Different...

You guys remember the tacky cat statue, right?

November

Over the weekend, my cat Gypsy went into the hospital with a urinary tract blockage.  It's his second one, and although this case wasn't as advanced, it was harder for the vets to deal with due to scarring from the last time.  He's been through a bit more, and I've been uber-stressed about both him and the financial situation this whole thing is putting me into (not that I begrudge it, there's not a thing I wouldn't do for my animals).

I did a LOT of big, serious projects this weekend to keep myself busy and keep my mind off of things.  I'll be sharing all of it with you this week, but first I want to show you how this cats statue came out.  I can't fix Gypsy, but I can at least fix THIS cat.

I want you to know, I don't DO stuff that looks like this.  Seriously, it's pink and gold, and just...tacky as hell.  But this was one of those times when the art, the paint speaks to you, you know?  I cleaned and prepped and painted this cat with Gypsy on my mind, using it as a focus to send him love and healing - and I had every intention of painting this thing blue, mind you - but for some reason it just needed to be pink.  And gold.  With dots and stuff.  I have no idea, y'all, it just happened.

We'll call this "whimsy." 

Hell, for all I know?  Maybe pink is Gypsy's favorite color.  (Just in case anyone cares, the pink is Valspar's "Summer Night", purchased on clearance for $1 /8oz sample can; and the gold is just all my gold metallic acrylic craft paints mixed together so I'd have enough gold).

Ridiculous. Cute. Girly. Mostly ridiculous.  

Heehee.  Come home, Gyps-a-lator.  Mama and your brother Rabi miss the hell out of you. 

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