It Really Is That Easy

Pinterest is full of DIY instructions for making simple rings out of jewelry wire.  Like this one, or any of these.  My BFF ribs me about how often I say, in various circumstances, "I could make that in like an hour!" or "I'm not paying that price when I could make this in a better color for like ten bucks!"   Mostly it's because I never actually follow through.

But this time:

Tada!  So easy a caveman could do it!  I used a silver-colored memory wire, like I used for the beaded hoop earrings I made last month.  It was already round, and already mostly finger-sized - I just had to wind it around the cap of a nail polish bottle to tighten it to fit.  (I really wish I had a ring sizer, though).

I have to say, it's been a long time since I had a ring I could wear on my first two fingers.  I have BIG fingers, you guys.  My hands are short and broad, like everyone in my family;  add to that all the work that I do with my hands that has made them strong and muscular, and the bit of extra weight I'm carrying - my index finger is like a size 12, I think.  I'll definitely be making more rings in the future!

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Master Bedroom Vanity Cabinet

Drumroll, please!

*drdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdr*

Okay, okay, wait.  

Before: 

White and very dirty $9 thrift store medicine cabinet about which I
posted on Monday.  

Vanity table with round dresser mirror and jewelry on
the wall - which I loved, but the various jewelry boxes
(more on two other surfaces in the room!) were a bit
ridiculous.  Too much walking around to find stuff.  

*drdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdr*

After:

Yay!  Plain ol' black paint - in fact, it's the same off-black that I used on the table beneath the cabinet, so they match perfectly. It took more than paint, though.  I scrubbed the entire cabinet inside and out, did some very minor repairs to small stains and water damage spots, primed the entire thing, and gave it three coats of the off-black paint. 

But wait - there's more! 

Yes, I'm a total nail polish junkie.  

Necklaces hung on rings on a tension rod at the top, a whole row of nail polish bottles (I can see them all now!!), and...well, to be honest, a bunch of other random stuff crammed in just for the photo, because I'm nowhere near decided on what will end up going where, and it'll take me weeks to get the new system to where it's comfortable to use. :)

Same with the arrangement on the table top - it's going to take work.  I'd like to have everything for my morning routine all here in the same space, but, we'll see how it goes.  :) 

This was just for fun, and because I had a tiny bit of black chalkboard paint that was getting too thick to work with, and I wanted to use up as much as I could before trashing the rest.  The face makes me giggle every time I see it, so, I guess this is working, morning-cheer-wise.  ^_^

I'm also a total lip gloss junkie.  

*

So, I have no idea what I'll do with the round mirror that was here before.  And I have plans for the dresser in the room as well; but that's going to have to wait a week or two while I turn my attention to the 12th century side-laced pendant-sleeved gown that I haven't even started working on, that I need to wear on the 7th.  OOPS.  

Back soon! 

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Look What I Found!

Ladies and germs, I give you:  one 36x40x4" bathroom medicine cabinet, with three hinged and mirrored doors, two interior shelves, and all mounting hardware included.

For nine dollars.

NINE DOLLARS.

The thrift gods have smiled down upon me.  I had a thing to do Tuesday night, halfway between work and home, so, rather than waste gas running back and forth, I dawdled, and decided to check out a Goodwill I hadn't been into before.  I scored a couple of pretty sweet finds, but this was the best.  

Mind you, it was freaking FILTHY.   

One of the things I find the most entertaining about thrifted furniture is the forensic exploration portion of the job.  For instance, in the process of cleaning the heinous nastiness from this piece (seriously, these people must never have cleaned their house. Ever), I discovered not only lots of globs of toothpaste, some of which were in places that wouldn't have happened accidentally, but also glitter lip gloss smears, tiny fingerprints, and the dust-and-crud-encrusted rings of small bathroom glasses, along with impressions in the gunge of small toothbrushes, and some water damage.  This hung in a child's bathroom.  More than one child, likelier than not.

Thankfully, the water damage was minor, and easily repaired.  This cabinet is MDF through and through, which means all I had to do was slice and patch.  Another wee blessing:  the gook came off this thing with very little effort, revealing a factory paint finish in surprisingly good shape for how vile it looked from the outside.

Nearly all the work on this piece happened yesterday, : disassembly, cleaning, repair, priming, and painting.  I haven't hung it in its new home, but I'll be doing that this week*  and showing you the results as soon as I can.

Here's a hint:

via Pinterest, from efurniturehouse.com

* tonight? Maybe.   Stay tuned. 


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Please Excuse Laura From Life, She Has A Fail.

My Pinterest boards are basically a collection of shit I'll never get around to doing.
Ditto my various to-do lists.


But I got a new cat:

His name is Rory.  He's big, but he's young.  He's basically a gigantic kitten.  His tail is only about 2/3 as long as most cats' tails.  His eyes are a pale mint green. His meow is very quiet and kind of ruffly, unless he wants food, in which case it's an emergency siren.  He's getting along with Rabi famously. He's alright with Raven and Shelly, but Daisy's been hounding him mercilessly, wanting to play with her new playfellow. Gypsy's scared shitless of him, and I have no idea why.  Rory showed up at a friend's house and wouldn't leave, and his owner never surfaced, and so he came to live with me.

Rory spent his first 2.5 days hiding under the couch unless the dogs were in the backyard;  this picture is part of his current project of learning to traverse the house without touching the ground, where the dogs are.  He's learning to sneak around behind them on the floor, too.

This weekend I'm taking him to get his vaccinations and to have his testicleez removed.

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Sort of An Update?

Still working on both the art room and the sewing room.  I don't have any cool new pics of the rooms themselves to show you, but WOW was the art studio a good idea.  I've got most of my supplies organized, and it's turning out to be a GREAT workspace!

working on a painted box top for an SCA project

*zooms off to go paint more things* 




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