Union Jack Coffee Table

Here is a coffee table that needed to come out of the 80's and into the year 2012

(the year the Olympics are in London.)

Sanded that orange

 varnish off

just

"not my cup of tea"

and not what I had envisioned for this piece

.  Denied the chevron pattern that wanted to be released.

 (see my chevron side table)

a little dusty....cough.

"crikey"

can't breathe

Taped off the Union Jack.

I was worried that I wouldn't get it right so..... I took my time and looked up here how to do it accurately. 

Such a big help.

stained with vinegar and steel wool 

wanted to leave the natural wood to read as the white on the flag.

Took off the tape and saw all the bleeding under,

oh

 "fiddle sticks"

(wanted to cry)

looked like

"rubbish"

Decided to not give up and taped and painted

 the lines back on all nice and crisp with a colour called

HI HO SILVER. 

(to the rescue)

...really that's name of the paint colour.

( Lone Ranger)

I also primed (KILZ)  and painted the body Smoke Grey (Krylon). 

 I ended up sanding the legs, because they were solid wood and staining them with the
vinegar and steel wool stain. 

 Sealed it all with a poly acrylic.

and.....

Take a "gander" at that

Gorgeous.

or should I say

"cracking"

I loved how it turned out.

  Looks like a "posh" piece from Restoration Hardware.

I wasn't planning to make it for my house, but the colours look so good. 

maybe....

I love the pop of the silver grey lines,

which I don't think I would have gotten if I had left it natural wood.

Life Lesson: 

sometimes things happen for a reason

So,

"Bob's your uncle"

and

"cheerio."

I think I'm going to go and have some "bangers and mash" now.

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Vinegar Stain #2

Call it

 stubborn,

 adamant,

bullheaded, 

determined, 

firm, 

headstrong,

persevering,

persistent,

 relentless,

single-minded,

 steadfast,

or

unshakable.

but I WAS going to get this vinegar stain right.

and I'm proud to say that I did.

A nice dark smokey brown

(almost like a black walnut)

Here was my mistake.

When I did

this side table

I follow the instructions and used

apple cider vinegar,

which if I would have continued reading produces a reddish brown.

Whereas plain vinegar with steel wool will produce

a smokey brown.

YEAH!!!

This is the little side table before transformation.

that price tag says $5.00

(oh yeah)

The top was in really bad condition.

So I sanded it right down to bare wood.

Flipped it upside down to protect the top while I primed and painted the legs.

 Then I flipped it back over and noticed

that it already had a

chevron pattern

 staring at me so I taped it off.

 I did the edges too and then pulled out the middle piece of tape because I'm lazy and didn't want to get out a tape measure and I saw someone else do this.  Thanks someone else, I'd love to give you credit if I could remeber where I saw you.

Primed and painted the exposed wood.  Pulled off the tape and used my vinegar stain over the whole top.  Instantly I knew I had

success.

It really is such a beautiful colour. 

( I'm using it again on my next piece.) 

 I've also tried putting pennies in some vinegar, which is supposed to turn the wood slightly blue.

Wish me luck.

Love this little table.

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Harry Potter Wands

It's summer vacation.

YEAH!!!!

  We were so excited to get out of the house and do some fun things and instead the weather earlier this week was cold and rainy. 

 So being stuck inside, with nothing to do, 

we turned to our glue guns and and made some

Harry Potter wands...just a few.

To make these you'll need:

-chop sticks

-beads

-string

-hot glue

-paint

All you do is drip and dribble the hot glue over the end of the chop stick. 

add some beads to give it some volume.  

(Get lots of glue on and let it make all of those cool knobby bumps.)

If you want a twist, use the string and gob on the glue.

Let it dry.

They will look horrible at this point.

(wish I had a picture)

Paint

and

abracadabra

Or should I say

Avada Kedavra

(oh wait I just killed you all).

The perfect Harry Potter wand.

So fun.
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Liebster Award

A couple of days ago I was reading some of the comments on my chevron side table and one of them said that I had been nominated for a Liebster Award.





What is a Liebster Award well....

Here's what I found:

 The origin of the Liebster Blog award is a bit of a mystery, but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.

I was nominated by Melody at my passion for decor

(who just finished an amazing transformation on another beautiful dresser.)

Part of the nomination is to give 5 random facts about yourself.

So here goes:

1.  I have size 11 feet (that's right SIZE 11) .  Which started out as a size 9 about 10 years ago, but grew 1/2 a size with every pregnancy. 

 (Funny little story.) 

 While in France a couple of years ago and shopping at an open market I asked the owner of a shoe stand if he had my size.  He laughed and shook his head and said, "non, non, non", like I was insane for asking. 

 Don't all those Parisian models have huge feet?

 Aren't big feet a sign of intelligence?

Answer:

YES

Size 11, claiming it.

photo from pinterest

2.  The house I lived in 7 years ago no longer exists because of the fire that ravaged the town of Slave Lake in 2011.

(my thoughts and prayers still go out to all of those families who lost everything, but their lives)

3.  I've always wanted to run in a marathon.

marathon

4.  I love everything to do with  flowers, plants and gardening.

flowers

5.  I'm a mom to 4 beautiful children and have been married to an amazing man for the past 17 years. 

Life could not be better.

OK,

now for the fun part,

 I get to nominate 5 other up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

So here goes.

In no particular order:

1.  createinspireme is a great blog about furniture transformation

2.  lilyfieldfurniture also has many awesome furniture makeovers.

3. createcraftlove has a great zig zag quilt that I want to try and make.

4.newagain has a union jack dresser that I'm so inspired by.

5.lifewelive4 just finished a very cool and unique dresser.

So, if I have nominated you please complete the following 5 steps:

1. Post about your win on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award and Follow their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award button to your blog (you can right-click on the Liebster label from my page, save it to your computer, then save to your blog).

4. Present The Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized.

5. Let them know by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Thanks for the nomination

 Melody, now go check out the awesome blogs I nominated.