Craft On Planet Mum

Inspiration Monday: Red

2012-02-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I blogged because I had some renovations done at my house. I was reluctant to dress up, set up a tripod and take a photo in front of so many workers because I felt a bit embarrassed.

We are taking a break and in between phases of renovating the house I saw this picture on Two Birds - and I thought, "Neat! I have most of the pieces!"

It has been a warm winter but this weekend, it finally felt like winter. Coupled with wind chills, temperatures dipped down to 19 deg F or -15 C. We had a chance to go skiing and I took my second class. I am happy to report that I think I have found my skiing legs and it was so fun. I only fell once!

Today was no different in temperatures and this is why I took indoor photos.

My jacket is very old, I have had it since my first year at university. it has seen better days and it is a tad too big for me. It will soon be donated to the thrift store.

The handbag was a Goodwill find for $7 and it was brand new with tags still attached.

Jcrew white shirt (thrifted) $7

Scarf, $17 from a consignment store. (I need to learn new ways to tie a scarf)

Suede Shoes: Mattisse, a Black Friday purchase for $49.00

Linking up here with Two Birds.

Working On James Rizzi

2012-01-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

I volunteer at my boys' school, teaching what little I know about Art. Actually, that would be nothing I know about art but they just want parents to come in during school hours to give children some sort of enrichment. I stuck my hand up for both my boys' classes and it has been an amazing learning curve because I have to research artists who are new to me and I learn so much about them.

Recently, I found out about James Rizzi, who sadly passed away in 26 Dec 2011. His work is so easy for children to relate to and he is well known for his "buildings with faces".

I gained a lot of ideas from this wonderful lady's blog and had an idea to put together all the children's work onto a piece of canvas, and to auction it off during the school's annual Silent Auction Night to raise funds for the school.

Here is a test run of what my boys and I did (I wanted to see how it would work on canvas, it seems to be fine) Some of the buildings were cut out from watercolour boards and some were cut out from foam core. Foam core is difficult to work with. Cutting them needs a very sharp knife and a metal ruler. My oldest, snuck in a Paul Klee inspired bus, can you see it? James Rizzi's work was inspired by the same artist too.

So excited, can't wait to post pictures up once everything is completed!

Copycat Friday: Leather and Red

2012-01-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight, thousands of families across the world get together for a reunion dinner. Basically, it is the last dinner of the year for the Chinese and the sons of families have to return to their parents' homes (daughters go with their husbands' families) to feast. This is probably the most important meal of the year for families and I am sad that I cannot be with mine back in Malaysia.

In the spirit of ushering the Year of The Dragon, which falls on Jan 23, I thought I would wear some red.

I was inspired by this image on Pinterest:

We got up this morning with the first "real" snowfall for this season. Unfortunately, that meant the Chinese New Year Parade we were going to was cancelled. It was freezing outside and my fingers were curled into my sleeve to keep warm. (I did not realise this until afterwards)

I found this DKNY leather jacket (in the right size, yay!) in a consignment store for $56.

I love that it is very fitted around my waist, it has got to be one of my favourite leather pieces I own.

Here is my lovely husband, getting ready to go outside to take my picture. It is about 28 degrees F outside (minus 1 C) so you can see how warm he is staying while I am not layered enough! :)

Happy weekend all, hope you stay warm and cosy!

Jeans: From a flash sale site, purchased after Thanksgiving
Top: Route 66 from KMart
Shoes: Etienne Aigner
Bag: Coach

Linking up to the fun blog, Frills For Thrills!

Fun In The Snow

2012-01-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

My husband and I took my two boys out of school yesterday to go up to Pennsylvania to ski for a day. They have never been skiing before so this was met with a lot of excitement. Especially skipping school for a day, anything was exciting compared to going to school, right?

I had gone skiing once before, in Australia, where I went to this huge mountain area called Falls Creek. I was a newbie - first time experiencing snow, I had jeans on, which quickly became wet but that did not stop me. I hired some ski gear, went up the chair lift to the top and didn't notice the signage. Took a wrong turn and I was going down such a steep incline, then I was faced with a cliff. I flew off the cliff and down this ravine, fortunately, there was lots of snow but I could not get back onto my skis again, I kept sliding down. It was so frustrating and upsetting I had to take my skis off and struggle back up again. I was alone, wet, very cold and I vowed that I would never ski again! It was later that I learned that I went down the black diamond, which is for advanced skiers, whoops.

Fortunately, no one had that sort of experience yesterday and we all took lessons. My 10 year old and hubby took snowboarding lessons while my 8 year old and I took ski lessons.

I found out that people make their own snow here! I have heard of companies doing that, but never in such a large scale that it covers mountains! My husband told me that they spent $20 million on the snow making equipment and they pump water from their dams to turn it into snow. Wow!

When we arrived, this was what we were greeted with. You can see that there are two huge blowers that make the snow. They were all over the mountain. That pod like building is the ski lift up the beginner's slope.

Cameron trying his ski legs for the first time. He surprised all of us by taking to it like a duck to water. We were so amazed because if you know Cameron he has gross motor issues, when he was younger he used to see an occupational therapist to address these issues. He LOVED it so much and was flying down the slopes! I had my mouth halfway open most of the time, I was so impressed!

As for James, I have a video of him snowboarding but somehow only the end bit where he falls over can be loaded on Youtube. He was a bit of a perfectionist, wanting to get it right the first time, so there were tears of frustration and he wanted to quit halfway. I could understand it but I made him go back up again. I am a tough mum, I don't allow my children to quit unless they have tried at least three times. I live by this Japanese mantra, "You fall down seven times and you get up eight times." I was so proud of him at the end when he was snowboarding with better ease.

At the end, we signed up for the whole season so we will be going back there on a weekly basis!

Antique Shopping in Maryland

2012-01-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

My husband has every two Fridays off and we have been looking for a dining table since last October. We ordered and returned tables from various shops because when buying online, you don't really get a sense of the table, how it would look in your dining room. Fortunately for me, in the USA, everything can be returned at a very small fee.

Yesterday we drove up to Hagerstown and ended up in this huge antique warehouse. Not only that, there was another one next to it, equally as huge! The two stores were so amazing, we found our dining table but we also picked up three original artwork.

Here are some images from my trip.

I love these three paintings, just something about the colours that speak to me. I also like the nude form, there is something very mid-century about it. We bought all three of them for just a touch under $150.

Lovely leather butterfly x -wing chair $385

I loved the lines of this settee $685. The slim legs (I love all furniture with dainty legs) and the toile fabric, ooh lovely! It was in perfect condition but I didn't know where it would fit in the scheme of things for our house.

This dresser is one of my favourites. It does not go with the style of my house but there is a name for this type of detailing. This furniture is quite rare and usually quite expensive. It was no surprise it was $1450, which is still a great price. If I could have made it work in my house, I would have bought it as it is in such good condition.

A look up close. It is not just painting on it, but it seems to be engraved and painted over.

Thonet chairs, love them but not sure if the back is comfortable for prolonged sitting periods.

I spotted this wheat sheaf table. I am looking for something like this for my entryway but I wanted it to be more of a butler's table height. This was more of a coffee table height. I would paint the base gold, like the pictures below. This was only $195.

This is a pair in excellent condition, picture from 1stdibs.com for what it will look like touched up, and the seller is L'Enfant from DC. $1,100 for the pair. Beautiful.

I saw a pair of Victorian boots, and I was mildly interested in them because last week, I was playing dress up and pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. These boots would have been so appropriate for that moment. Actually, I bought two vintage skirts and I don't know how to wear them - I love the length and can't bear to cut them!

So here is a picture of me trying to style one of the skirts, hair and all. I know...my husband and kids sometimes take out the popcorn, sit back and just watch me take off when I am in one of my creative moods. This is actually my back yard and I was collecting firewood. The farm behind me is real, and we have cows walking up and down everyday. I think the shoes above would have been great. Not quite Laura Ingalls but I had to make do with what was in my closet. You would not think that it was freezing outside, it was around 0 deg C (31 deg F) that day, hence the pained expression.

I love antique shopping, you can glean so much history from the things that people throw out of their houses.

Copycat: Dots On Dots

2012-01-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

I came across Frills For Thrills' blog and decided to take part in her CopyCats challenge. One learns so much by copying others, just like art, students are encouraged to copy the works of masters.

I am a big big fan of Atlantic Pacific's blog and love how she is so daring with pattern, colour and I love how stylish she is. When I saw her wearing this combination I bought everything except the shoes because they were sold out. However, my favourite piece has got to be the Madewell sweater. I had never heard of them, being new in the USA, but I ended up buying a few other items on that site because it happened to be after Thanksgiving sales. The sweater was so popular that it sold out within days, I was keeping track of it and had to call around stores in DC to find out if they still had it. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of one.

My outfit:

There are many things I do not own such as sunglasses and those two bracelets are the only accessories I own at this stage. Bree from Atlantic Pacific loves over accessorizing with chunky jewellery, a look which I also adore. The sunglasses are my husbands and they are his sports ones. My shoes are making a re-appearance since I blogged about them previously. They are the only strappy heels I own. Handbag is from Frye.

Thank you for letting me take part, Thrills and Frills! Linking up here:

Inspired By Pinterest: Reptile Skirt

2012-01-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

This skirt caught my eye on Pinterest because I have 3 yards of pink snake fabric that was given to me by a friend. I was intending to make them into pillows or decoupage a whole console with that but never got off my behind to do that. Until this skirt came along.

Let me tell you that sewing this skirt was a lot harder than I expected. I had never worked with such stretchy material before so it took me three cuts of the fabric to get it right. The first time, I put an old skirt over the fabric and cut it out. It resulted in a very poorly shaped skirt so I ditched it. The second time, I forgot to add in seam allowances. The third - oh I had to unpick the zip because the lining got caught in it. In the end, I am too tired to fix up any faults because there isn't anymore fabric left! I made the waist too loose so it will be on my agenda to fix.

I wore it with a black top at first and realised black is a difficult colour to photograph in. When I wear this skirt, I would very likely wear it with a black top.

I wanted to highlight the skirt more too so I swapped to a white top.

In the picture, the gathering near the top of my waist is actually caused by my arm against it, but it is hard to tell what you look like when you put your camera on self timer.

My shoes - are new, another splurge during the Black Friday sales. I can't remember what I spent on it.

And just because I enjoy being a goof ball, here is my now customary "freak shot". Here I am a contortionist. I notice that in magazines, models like to pose like this and sometimes it makes them look double-limbed. I quite like that pose, crazy as it might seem.

Materials: free (except for the zip and interfacing)
Shoes: Joan and Circa
Top: Mango (white)

Thank you for reading, I enjoy sharing my projects with you!

Inspiration Monday: Blue and White Polka Dots

2012-01-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am trying to be disciplined about my blogging but very often, life gets in the way. :) I turned 42 on Sunday but was down with a bout of food poisoning from Friday night. My youngest son was also sick, so we were recovering at home.

We had one very cold day where it went to minus 12 degrees Celcius (10 deg F) and it was so awesome to experience it. I had the fire going and the heater too but we might as well have been outside, it was freezing inside the house as well.

This week's inspiration photo is this: (Love Emily Blunt, by the way!) I like how she is so casual, and it looks like something I would wear on a warmer day.

I actually wore this out today to see a friend.

I am not too thrilled how my faux leather pants wrinkle horribly - what does that mean, that it is too large for me? I have been wearing a lot of these pants because they keep me so warm. My jeans alone do not help, I can feel the sting of the cold through them.

Shirt: Ebay $8
Sweater: Old Navy, bought during a sale and with a Groupon coupon $15
Faux Leather Pants: H&M $24
Boots: Ferragamo's, old, thrifted $40

Inspiration Monday: Black, White And Red

2012-01-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

I found out about Inspiration Monday, a fun challenge from Two Birds that a blogger friend of mine who lives in ~~rainy~~ sunny Singapore, mentions in her blog. Check out Mong's blog, I love her style of writing, and her creations are just so inspiring!

I have been too "active" in the shopping malls and one of my new year resolutions is to be more creative with my wardrobe in order to stop spending. I was quite pleased with the outcome in the end because I forgot that I had this faux leather skirt that I bought over 20 years ago in Singapore. I have only ever worn it once or twice because the weather is too hot for heavier materials. The challenge made me think about putting pieces together that I would have never otherwise considered.

Without further ado, this is the picture from last weeks' Inspiration Monday.

And here is my version:

The lighting is difficult indoors but it is so cold outside these days. This was taken in my bathroom! Shooting on a self timer is also not easy because you can't really see how you are standing which is why my eyes are elsewhere! It was below freezing the day I shot this. I like how Ashley Tisdale broke the black and white monochrome with a little pop of red. At first I wanted to wear my red shirt outside but that would mean that red would be the dominant colour of my outfit. I don't know if I would wear this combination again because the shirt inside makes me look boxy and I had to define my waist with a belt.

One of the reasons I held on to this skirt was that it had a longer hemline at the back which I love.

Skirt - old

Top: Gap bought in 2008

Red Shirt: Thrifted $5

Belt: Came with a thrifted skirt

Shoes: The shoes are new, they arrived a day earlier and they are my first pair of black pumps, $24 Eitienne Aigner from 6pm.com. (I also do not own a black handbag - that is on my list of things to acquire this year)

I had fun doing this and I can see it being quite addictive!

Inspired By Pinterest: A Line Wool Skirt

2011-12-29T12:43:00.000-08:00

When I saw this skirt, I was struck by its simplicity. I am a reader of this lady's blog, Blame It On Fashion and I love her style. I went to her link to see if I could order it but she lives in Denmark and the company does not ship internationally. Plus it was a hefty price in Euro dollars. The image stayed in my mind and I decided I would make it.

Fast forward a few days later, I went to the thrift store, and picked up this size 14 skirt - in wool, all for $5.

Here is a picture of me modelling the skirt. :) It was intentional that I got a skirt this size because I make many mistakes and might need extra fabric!

So I started with a pattern - I used one of my old skirts which is a favourite of mine and traced a pattern around it.

Once the pattern was drawn, I unpicked the whole skirt, but I left the hem because that meant that I did not have to hem it later, thus saving me time. I reused every single piece of this skirt, from the lining to the zipper, even using the pockets to make my new pockets. I made several mistakes with the pockets and accidentally threw out one that I had completed.

I had not sewed a skirt for a long time (about 8 years) so this was a test of my memory, especially putting in the zip part. But I had a sense of satisfaction as I went along, remembering why I took lessons. Pity I stopped at drafting patterns for skirts before I left to live in the Middle East.

This is the end product. I took this photo this morning and it started snowing while I did it. The first snow for the winter, hurray!

Front view:

Back:

Me wearing it.

Methinks I made the waist a bit too high. That old skirt I used to draft a pattern with was too tight and it was only after I had sewn the skirt that I remembered that the old skirt used to sit on my hips. As it is now too tight (cough cough, I love my chocolate) I had to hitch it up to my natural waist line. Still, it's not too bad, considering that it was only $5 to make the whole skirt.

The back view:

The chunky gold necklace is a Goodwill find for $5.

There was a lady who saw it first, held on to it but she was on the phone. She left it on the counter top, absent mindedly. I waited, and waited. Eventually she left the store, still talking on the phone so I swooped in and grabbed it before anyone else saw it. And my shoes...oh sigh. Shoes are my nemesis. I love them and cannot resist them. They are the only things I buy new. I have seen these Zara pair on many bloggers and I love how it is so neutral yet contemporary. However, they are 4" in heel height yikes! I have never worn anything so high before because I had a major surgery on my bunions 20 years ago and they are never quite right. I wear them and they hurt a little but beautiful shoes are meant to hurt, right? I heard Louboutins hurt like anything...

And just because I want to vary my poses...here's a goofy one. My sons, who are on a week's semester break thought I looked like a freak. I love them because kids are so honest.

Book Tote and Butterfly Art

2011-12-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

We had an end of year party for our book club and I made some gifts for my girlfriends, some of who are beginning to be very dear friends. They have been my pillars of strength since I arrived in the USA. I made birthday gifts for two of them as I had not seen them for a while.

The first is a book bag I made for my friend Revathi. She is the organiser of our book club, always the initiative one and she holds the group together with her planning. We do not share common interests (I don't even read any of the books in the book club but I go there for the food and company) but since she loves books, I thought a bag to put her books in would be fun to make. I saw this idea on Martha Stewart and downloaded her transfer print. I did not follow her instructions as I thought her tote was too small. I just measured a canvas bag I already had.

I used drop canvas cloth (to protect the floors from messy paint jobs) from Home Depot - it is the most economical and the canvas is sturdy. This is the finished product. I printed the transfer picture on to fabric using freezer paper. One could put snap buttons on the "Books" print and the user of the bag could remove it when the bag needed to be washed but I did not have any buttons at the time. You could also buy special chemicals called Bubble Jet Rinse that you pre-wash the fabric in so that when you print, the ink is permanent on the fabric. But as it was just for one project, I was unlikely to use them again and they are pricey.

I also made some butterfly stamp art - again an inspiration from Pinterest. This is the inspiration from Pinterest:

This is my version. I was giving it to a friend who loves life with such a passion. She is a vet and she rescues animals and advertises to give them a home. I enjoy speaking with her because even after all her children are at college, she is still astounded at what life has to teach her I learn a lot from her. I wanted to give her something that had animals in it, yet had meaning in it. See the butterfly in this photo? I took that in July 2011 before the Sept 11 tragedy occurred. The butterflies represent the lives lost but they are still with us in memories and thoughts. They are never forgotten.

I am really having fun with Pinterest because normally I don't venture very far off with my quilts and painting/furniture crafts. They both said that they liked my gifts. I am glad because I know that there are some who dislike getting hand made gifts, as I recently read in some famous online Design magazine. I always prefer hand made gifts because to me, it shows the effort and thought that went behind it, and hand made gifts are never, never "Oh, what will I do with this?" feeling. I have held on to all the hand made things given to me by my friends from 20 years ago, even hand made cards! What do you think, do you like getting hand made gifts or are they something to be put into the "re-gift to others" category?

Inspired By Pinterest: T-Shirt Scarf

2011-12-20T06:52:00.000-08:00

I was away for a week because our whole family was sick with a stomach flu. And now that we are all well again, we lost connection with the internet after a storm. Happily, I was able to do lots of craft stuff as Christmas gifts for friends - stomach aches and lost internet connections did not stop me!

Remember the ruffle skirt? I was not really happy with the quality of sewing because of the white t-shirt underneath. Tip, choose a base colour that closely matches ruffles. I ended up ripping up the whole thing and turning it into a scarf. I will make another ruffle skirt the next time when the weather turns warmer.

This scarf has been making the rounds on Pinterest so I wanted to have a go at it. You can find the tutorial here.

It is very important that you get a good quality t-shirt that is slightly thicker because as you pull the strips, they tend not to remain curled as the picture above. My t-shirts were from the thrift store and the interlock t-shirts are not as good as the others. They have already unravelled so I have to pull them taut again and again. This is what I ended up with. I had grey in it but it doesn't show up here in the photo. I enjoyed making the scarf but it is more of an accessory than to protect you from the cold. The days have really dropped in temperature and on Sunday, it was hovering around 1 degree C all day. However, I am thankful that it is warmer this winter than the previous two we have experienced here. Now we are just waiting for some snow!

Inspired By Pinterest: Ruffled Skirt

2011-12-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

From Pinterest

or here

I went to the thrift store where they had men's clothing at 50% off. I picked up about 10 XXL t-shirts at $0.75 to $1.50 and just out of curiousity, I stopped by at Joann's, which is a fabric and craft store - t-shirt materials is around $5.00 per yard.

I won't go into the details on how I made it because the other two websites have instructions. It looks really ugly when you first make it, even my husband was a little doubtful about the project. But when I put them on, he really liked them, which is saying a lot as he doesn't always like what I make.

Okay - I am super sorry for the horrid quality of the photos, seriously, you wouldn't believe that I was working as a studio photographer in Singapore at one stage, I have become so sloppy with photo taking. It is so cold now, in the negatives and I took this inside. It also gets dark before 5 pm so I was too lazy to get the tripod out.

I scored big time at the thrift store this weekend, I found a vintage Coach handbag (will post about it later) two pairs of shoes and this is one of them. A pair of black oxfords, making it my third pair of oxfords. (will blog about that later when the sun comes out and I can take better photos)

I lightened the photo a lot more so that I could show you dear readers what a boo boo I made. I used one of my old white t-shirts underneath and as I moved, the upper most ruffle would sometimes move up and reveal the white underneath. I also was lazy about using matching thread. I was just impatient to sew! But I just had to take a photo to say that I made a skirt. Then I took it apart and ripped it all up and made it into another t-shirt scarf! I had made it too tight and as I went to wear it, I could hear the thread rip, as the ruffles gathered the t-shirt material closer and made it tighter.

Cost of fabric - $2.75. I used two t-shirts and I stole my husband's old underwear's elastic for the waist band.
Shoes: Thrifted black oxfords $9
Socks: TJ Maxx a pack of 3 for $6 and top, my own from Target. (old)

Inspired By Pinterest: Recycled Scarf

2011-11-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

I saw this wonderful tutorial on how to make a scarf out of an old T-shirt, I was just itching to have a go at this project. It is better to get the largest t-shirt you can find so that you will have more rings. More rings = longer scarf = more warmth. I apologise for the grainy quality of the pictures here, I am using my old iPhone 3GS in a night time setting. Here is a new with tag shirt I picked up from a thrift store. If it weren't a size M, I would have been tempted to keep it!

I cut it in 1 inch strips.

Laid them all out on the table:

Tied them together and it was a fairly long scarf.

I like to wear my scarf pretty tight because I want to keep warm. Excuse the miserable rag of a dish towel in the background.

Pretty pleased with how quick it is to make this. I will make another two more - this time I will try to do them in tighter circles.

Australian Table At International Night

2011-11-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

The boys school held an International Night on Friday. My husband was the main star of the table because he dressed as Crocodile Hunter. I wanted to make a plush crocodile to drape around his shoulder but time got away from me and we ended up with a wooden crocodile.

This is his outfit. I was in stitches when I saw him. Nevermind that the weather outside was 1 deg C when he wore that!

Matt is a great baker and cook. He made Honey Joys and Anzac biscuits, which are Australian treats.

We had kids running back to our table repeatedly to grab more of our honey joys. They went fairly quickly! Surprisingly, the Vegemite was quite well received. I thought there would be people spitting them out but most were very polite and saying it was nice!

So here is our space, our boys did a great job telling people about Australia. I wanted to do this for my oldest, since he would be at the school for another year and a half and I wanted him to have good memories of participating. We also had an activity area where kids were painting aboriginal art using chopsticks. It got pretty messy but I was so thrilled that they had fun.

Children had to visit each table and get a stamp on their passport but Matt wouldn't stamp on theirs until they said "G'day mate!" It was very funny to hear even the parents attempting this.

There were 25 other nationalities there, from Nepal to Russia to Cambodia. DC is a very diverse area indeed. I was unable to see much because I was looking after the table. Oh yes, I was dressed as a "Bogan" (redneck) with my Australian Ugg Boots and flannel shirt.

Inspired By Pinterest: Leg Warmers

2011-11-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

There is a neat tutorial on Pinterest - see this link here and I got all excited about creating my own leg warmers. So last week, I picked up a couple of sweaters from the thrift store and brought them home. However, I found it really hard to cut away the sleeves just for this project. It just felt like I was "wasting" a perfectly good sweater to put on my legs. In the end, I chose one that I didn't feel so bad about cutting up, because it was too big on me.

Can you see a reflection of my 10 year old in this picture? He is so sweet, taking my photos for me. I wasn't thinking about "styling" my look when I took this photo and my sweater is way too short with a pair of leggings. I was just excited about the end product. I thought it would be fun to choose one that was colourful since everything is so gray and dreary in winter. This picture was taken before it got really cold. It went from top of 17 C on Wednesday to suddenly top of 7 C. We were suddenly facing temperatures of negative 2 C in the mornings. Half our household is sick (myself included) from the weather.

Cost of project: $5 for the sweater. I can use the extra materials to make a sweater skirt later.

Pinterest Inspiration: Bright Blue Jeans

2011-11-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

Went thrift store shopping last week and picked up a number of clothes but the one I am blogging about today is the electric blue jeans I found. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. The tags were still there and it was brand new. It is from Delia's - another store aimed at the teens but that's good for me because it meant that it was small! It was a bit loose around the waist but nothing a belt couldn't hold up and it needs taking up at the hem. $7 ka-ching!

One thing I have learned through taking my own photos and blogging, is that I don't realize how awful I look until I put it on the screen. I have always been a shorts and t-shirt kind of gal, having lived in the tropics for so long, it was just uncomfortable to have anything that was to clingy or that was not cotton. I hated wearing accessories because the sweat would just stick on to your necklaces or bracelets and it would just turn yellow with the stains over time. Ick! When I moved here, I was suddenly confronted with so many choices, fabrics, layers. I have been learning a lot just by looking at Pinterest.

Last week, I wore it out to the mall and realized after that I took this photo the jacket was too short overall. I look short! The flats don't help either.

So I tried another jacket/coat. I have this fabulous Ted Baker trench coat I bought back on a 50% sale when I flew into NY from Singapore for a shopping weekend with my cousin in 2009. He is a splurger, as opposed to me, a thrifter so you can imagine what the outcome was like! I ended up buying something I didn't use.

I am not sure if I like this put together. I changed out my flats to wearing something with a little heel.

I like the inside of the coat because it is lined with the softest of silk and it is like a painting, with streaks of colours!

Hmm...I don't know. It's a work in progress. Which works better? I would like to know if any of you have been inspired by Pinterest like I have, and tried to put clothes together that you never would have tried. Do share your link as I would love to see what you have come up with!

Union Jack Beds

2011-11-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

Finally! I put them up on Craigslist today!

I pulled them into my study, dragged away all my other furniture because I wanted to take it in good lighting. What would have been perfect is that I put mattresses on them and "dress" the bed up but I cannot imagine dragging the heavy mattresses from the boys' rooms and then lugging them up again. I hope it sells! The link is here.

I will be linking this up on Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday!

Pinterest Inspiration: Fur

2011-11-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

I am a major hoarder. I keep so much stuff that I am surprised that there was room for my family when we lived in a little apartment of under 1000 sq feet in Singapore. So when we moved here, my husband thought there would be more room for my junk, but no! Gleefully, I acquired more stuff. Oh well!

But this fall, I am so glad that I hoard because back in the 1990s when I lived in Australia, I took up some sewing lessons and made myself a fur coat out of teddy bear faux fur. I never completed this fur coat and when we moved halfway across the world to the Middle East where temperatures are above 100 F or a constant 40 deg Celcius, I could not bear to throw it away because of all the work I put into it. (Mind you, I even have clothes from my high school days, and I am thankful that my body has not changed much over the years)

Fur has come back this fall with a vengeance! Happily, I was able to dig out my trusty old fur coat, which I have never worn by the way. We have lived in the US for the last 2 years and I never wore it because I never knew what to wear it with! Pinterest is a great way to learn how to put things together, and I spotted this recently.

Image from Frugal-Fashionistas.com - a really neat website, go check it out!

This is my take on it.

The temperatures have certainly dropped over the last 2 weeks. Last night it was close to 5 - 6 deg C when we went out to dinner. We had snow last weekend and the days are getting shorter. The leaves are starting to fall from our trees. Aren't they pretty?

So here is where I have not completed the coat - I have not hemmed up the sleeves nor the length of the coat so when I stick my hands down the pockets, you can see the lining of the pockets sticking out from the bottom of my coat. Ugly!

And there are only three buttons. I have no idea why I stopped at three but I remember that I had to hammer it down pretty hard, using a real hammer, no less.Yes and I kept ALL my notions with me, through the Middle East, Singapore and now here!

This was my second big sewing project, I had a good sewing teacher. For those of you who live in Melbourne, Australia, Dragana Edwards is the lady to go to! She teaches you how to draft your own patterns and you are not a slave to buying patterns!

Time to get to completing this fur coat before I have to wait another 20 years for it to come back in fashion!

My coat made to my specifications: AUD$80 or less for materials, more than 20 years ago!
My Hilfiger jeans: old pair, sale from Macy's $40
Grey long sleeve top: Cherokee, bought from Duty Free Shop in Malaysia for RM20, 3 years ago
Boots: Ann Klein leather, sale from 6pm.com $49 but I had this for over a year now.

International Night

2011-11-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

My sons' school is running an International Night where families volunteer to set up a table to represent a country of their heritage. We are mixture of cultures, and have lived in different countries so we are happy that we have choices but in the end, we chose to represent Australia as all of us, except me, are Aussies. (even though my boys have never lived there)

We went out and bought some display boards so I can put up facts and maps of Australia. My husband will make some Anzac biscuits and Honey Joys. We are also going to make some Vegemite sandwiches but I don't think they will be a hit. Let's just say that they are an acquired taste.

We have a large Australian flag, some soft toys like koalas and kangaroos, a boomerang, and I am painting some aboriginal pictures using chopsticks to make the dots. I still have a long way to go but I used brown paper, tore it up and stuck it on to give it the appearance of painting on bark. Then I used leftover latex paint to do the dots. The boys will start doing some of their own work too.

I called up the Australian Embassy here and got them to send me some flyers and maps. I asked the lady from the public relations department if she knew where I could find an Akubra (not sure of spelling) and she was like, "What is that?" After describing it to her, she exclaimed, "Oh, they are called Outback hats!" and I knew she was definitely not Australian!

We decided to make one as they can be very expensive to buy. Akubras are hats with corks hanging from them to chase away the flies. If you have lived in Australia, the flies settle on your face - not on the food and there are hundreds of them. I only ever find that flies do this in Australia. So the natives came up with a brilliant idea for a hands free fly chasing hat. I used a foam hat with a 50% voucher from Michaels and bought some cork. My son will wear this with his Australian gear. Hmmm..what do Aussies wear typically? I have to think about this one! I am trying to see if my husband will go as Crocodile Dundee and I will get a fake crocodile from somewhere.

My son wearing his home made Akubra.

We are also going to find some aboriginal music to play on a radio plus some old episodes of Skippy The Bush Kangaroo. This is a hilarious TV show that uses a dead stuffed kangaroo that aired in the 70s. In the meantime, Kylie Minogue does a wonderful rendition of Waltzing Matilda:

It is going to be so fun!

Weekend Thrift Finds

2011-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

It is a beautiful fall day, top of 22 deg C and I have the clothes hanging on the line. A great opportunity for photos! Only my camera is playing up and does not seem to focus well, so I have had to do a lot of sharpening in Photoshop. Sorry that my pictures are grainy for this reason.

I have not been to a thrift store for a while because no one enjoys it as much as I do and usually I have to drag the whole family out with me. My boys hate it so they sit in the car, waiting for me while I rush through the store, looking for bargains. On Friday (the boys had a day off school) I stopped by Nami Thrift Store in Rockville - a reader asked me where I shopped. I usually like the thrift stores near Bethesda, Potomac and Rockville because a more affluent demographic lives in these areas. (Kennedy family, diplomats etc..you get the picture) So the donated items are usually pretty good finds.

I found this leather jacket in the store and there was a 10% mark down on it. It was a tad too big for me but I held on to it, thinking that if I didn't wear it, I could sell it. The tag said, 100% leather and the lining 100% polyester.

I am wearing it here today with another thrifted sweater I got from Goodwill in Rockville for $4.98 (yes, it is funny how they price them) You can see even though it is a size S, it is too big for me.

Here I am standing in my back yard. My neigbour, who is a farmer, was out in his tractor and I was hurriedly taking my picture and hoping he would not see me.

I am wearing a pair of jeans I found at the NAMI thrift store and because it was a size 2, I snapped it up at once, as size 0 and 2 are rare finds in thrift stores. It was a bit loose but I thought a belt would be fine. It was only after I took this photo below that I realized how baggy it looks on me. I don't have a lot of jeans, maybe 3 in my closet so I am holding on to these to wear to things like the boys' school and for wearing around the house.

Other things I am wearing:
Pink Sweater: Thrifted $4.98
DKNY jeans: Thrifted $2
Boots: My own, a 70% markdown from Macy's. They have lasted me 2 years.

Nude Drawing

2011-10-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Just practicing some figure drawing. I don't have charcoal so I used pencils.

Red Challenge

2011-10-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

I joined a challenge on Aqua Seventy Six blog and they featured me on their blog.This is the first time I have done anything like this so it was really fun, I had to go into my closet, look through what I owned and tried to match them. I tend to just grab what is tried and tested, wear it over and over again. I am also not very good at accessorizing and lately, I have been reading some fashion blogs just to get a better idea of how to match things.

At first, I put on this red dress, which is new - remember I talked about finding a couple of stores that fit me? This red dress is from Alloy and although it is a site for teens, I thought this would be a nice dress for me to wear on a date night with my husband. I read the reviews and everyone said that it ran small. I am a size XS for their clothes and I decided to order one size up. When it arrived, I tried it out and it was very tight. I did not like the way it stretched over my top and it was so tight that it hitched up everytime I walked. I am returning it and exchanging it for a size M. Fortunately for me - everything is free to return it via mail. This is why shopping can be a trap here if I am not careful. They make it so easy!

Excuse the blurriness of the picture and the mess in my bathroom.

In the next picture, I was trying to see if I could put on a jacket - this was a thrifted Steve Madden that I got for $10 and the belt is vintage, it belonged to my mother. She threw out a whole stack of belts and I grabbed them all. My husband did not like the combination because he said it didn't seem to go together. I kind of agree but I don't have anything right now in my closet that would be suitable for the colder weather. I also lack accessories! However, I am going to take it slow with my acquisitions because I want to be thrifty about it all and not just buy blindly. In the end, I abandoned this idea for the red challenge because the dress was new (the rules are the clothes have to be thrifted or something we already own) so I submitted another one that made it to the Aqua Seventy Six blog.

Red dress: Alloy $36, get it here
Boots: Ann Klein, Zappos $49 (on sale) not sure if you can still get them.
Jacket: Steve Madden, thrifted $10
Belt: Vintage, my mother's.

I have recently started following Aqua Seventy Six, so go check them out and join in their fun challenges!

Doing Dangerous Things

2011-10-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Living in the USA can be very dangerous. Dangerous on my purse, that is. I have only been to retail stores again and again, only to walk away disgusted at how everytime, I can't fit into anything. I am a size 0 here and usually stores do not stock these sizes. I started going to thrift stores and buying clothes on the cheap and sewing them up to make them fit me but sometimes pulling a whole shirt or a coat apart is best left to the professionals. Sometimes I would botch up my alterations but the plus point is that I did not pay a lot for them to begin with.

I started following some blogs written by women who were considered "petite" here in the USA. In Asia, they would be normal sizes, but I read Extra Petite and Really Petite. Through them, I discovered H&M here in the USA. Their prices are unbelievably affordable. I am a size 4 in their store! Eeeks! Forever 21 is also quite reasonably priced. Double eeeks!

Then I discovered online shopping - there are more options online than there are in the retail shops. I discovered a "Junior's" store - I am a bit embarrassed that they are for teenagers but the fit is great. Check out Alloy. Triple eeks. Oh well, you get the idea about the eeks. My husband has not lost his cool yet which is good.

Shopping can be incredibly cheap in the USA. For example, on Monday, I was at Forever 21 and at the back of the shop, there were these tribal sweaters reduced to 50%. The label was "I Love H81" and it must be a label from Forever 21. It was made of cotton but it was quite thick, and would keep me warm for the Fall weather.

Not bad. I tried them on, they were a little loose but I figured I was going to wear layers underneath, so I needed it to be that. I took it to the counter and holy moley, they took off 50% off $18.99, bringing the total to about $9.00. It's almost like stealing!

Here is a picture of me wearing it. Sorry about my stance. I need to work on how to pose, obviously. You can see how they are a little loose on the sides but I put it on outside without looking at the mirror. It is a tie around so I can tuck it in a bit more securely to get it at a better fit.

Boots: Ferragamo $40 (garage sale)
Jeans SG$20 (some HDB shop in Woodlands, Singapore)
White top: MNG RM50 (Mall in Malaysia it roughly translates to about $20)
Sweater: Forever 21 $9.00!!! (I can't find the link to it but you might find it in the shops)

Later I will post about the other "dangerous" stuff I have been ~~doing.~~ purchasing.
.

Designer Love

2011-09-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

I am in a very long process of trying to decorate my house on my own and looking online for inspiration. One designer that caught my eye for her clever use of colour as well as ethnic pieces is Angela Hranowsky. I am so inspired looking at her work and how I wish she was closer to me, I would love to hire her!

Look at this divine living room. I love everything about this room. From the colour on the wall to the beautiful bold Weinrib rug (which I covet), oh and the lighting. The brown couch is perfect for the space.

Here is another room - I love how you can seek a peek of purple on the back of the curtains.

And this dining room leaves me speechless. The only things I can say are "Wow" and "Oh my!" - yep, I am that eloquent when it comes to describing things. I love the fabric (David Hicks?) on the bamboo chairs, contrasting with the lovely wood of the table. I want to have a dining room like this.

Plum colour (look at the pendant light!)

Drool...

Oh Ms Hranowsky, would you please come to MD for a visit??? :)

***All pictures are from her website - please go visit it for a real feast for the eyes.

Union Jack Bed For Boy's Room

2011-09-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

Since I am on a painting blitz, I bought these two maple twin beds at a garage sale in the spring. They sat in my garage for months, waiting to be transformed.

I dismantled the bed, sanded all the parts. Here, I have only taken photos of the headboard, which is where most of the work is done.

I found this really useful website teaching you how to draw a British flag accurately.

I placed it against the bed and marked out the lines.

It is almost finished, I just need to get some super fine brushes to paint in the lines where the bleeding from paint came through. Then I am off to sell it on Craiglist. I hope to do it before next week. Wish me luck.

Finding My Voice

2011-09-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed art as a subject in high school and we had very good teachers. I just never did it very much after high school and that was back in 1987!

With our empty walls, I thought I'd buy some art but I went to several places like West Elm. Nice art work in frames but I was shocked at the prices for merely prints. I decided that I would buy original art work there and then.

How naive I was. I contacted several artists and one whose work I loved but he lived in Australia and did not want the hassle with the shipping and insurance. I could not have afforded his art anyway, he wanted AUD$6,000 for his beautiful piece of work. Which is worth every penny, except that I didn't have those sort of pennies. :)

I thought of reproducing his work. I struggled with this for months because I was not sure of the legal implications so I talked to a lawyer who is also a friend and he said that if I did not pass on the work as the artist's or try to sell it, it was fine. Also, I trawled through websites and found that there were websites selling reproductions from masters of art - and selling them online! What is with that anyway, I cannot understand it. Is it ok to resell art from artists who are dead? If someone explained this to me, I would be grateful.

A few weeks later I bid for a piece of art on Ebay but bidding was fierce and as I was not watching it closely, at the very last moment, the art went to someone else. I was gutted. So I decided to reproduce this one. Not too happy with my version because it is too bright - the artist was Charles Levier and his colours are stark and empty but mine was a bit too pink.

Then I was inspired by Matisse. This took me 2 hours to do and it was completely FUN! It is now hanging in our powder room. Not a great picture, sorry - it is time to upgrade my iPhone!

I put them on my Facebook and I had so many positive comments that I am thinking seriously of finding my own voice so that I don't have to copy other people's work. I am planning on putting aside a time each day to paint, to find my style. Hopefully I won't have to charge so much money so that people can enjoy it and also I can get some happy returns from painting! It is something I totally enjoy, which took me by surprise.

Thanks for looking - I know copying people's work is a sensitive topic and please drop me a comment, I would be interested to hear what others think.

Back In Town!

2011-08-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

We have been back a week, and experienced our second earthquake and facing the impending wrath of Hurricane Irene this weekend. We are gearing ourselves up for power outage, stocking up food, water, batteries and withdrawing cash. After that harrowing tremor on Tuesday, I am a little anxious about this hurricane. Maybe we should have delayed our return by two weeks! :)

We had such a blast with our summer vacation and I will post photos of them online soon. Our family is trying to adjust to the different time frame as we were living in a place which was 12 hours ahead of our time here.

One thing I missed for sure is thrifting. There are not many places in Malaysia where one can thrift and in Australia, the prices, plus the fall of the US dollar against most currencies has made the thrift stores (or Op Shops as they call it locally) too expensive to be considered an "opportunity" at all.

Revisiting Some Book Cases

2011-06-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Remember a month ago, I bought some ratty old laminated book cases? I was tired of building my own so I decided to just buy em and repaint them.

These go down to our basement. I spent nothing on the paint as I already had them on hand.

This might probably be my last post as I will be heading back to Asia and Australia for the whole of summer, unless I go thrifting there...which is very likely! :) Happy holidays, everyone!

New Floors

2011-06-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

I have been out of action for the last month due to the floors being redone. I can't believe that it has taken this long but it has been almost a month since we hired people to come do the floors. As such, we have been living with no furniture in most of the rooms and all our other furniture crammed in the kitchen and family room. It has not been that bad but it has hampered my desire to go out to thrift shop because I would come back with something and pile it into the family room, making it look messier. In short, the messy house put me off thrifting and I started to purge my old stuff!

I am glad to say that finally the floors are finished as of Friday 3 June. Below is the original floor and stairway with the dirty carpets.

Now here they are, darkened and painted. (the stairs were painted by a professional - I helped him because I was learning from him as I went along) Boy, I thought I was a perfectionist, but this man was bad. He kept saying to me, as I taped blue painter's tape on the steps, "No good, re- tape them again!" so many times! The tape would prevent the paint from going onto the floor. I have to order some stair carpets next because they are slippery when we wear socks around the house - something we would do in winter as it gets so freezing cold here. I can see accidents happening if we didn't. It's a shame because I love the wood floor so much and the steps that I don't want to hide them.

I am going to move the chandelier down so there is more lighting but I will post a picture of that when it is done. The baseboards (trim on the bottom of the walls) has been sanded and I have yet to paint them. Going to tackle that this week. I also painted the walls (which is why I have been missing for a few weeks) but I could not reach the top floor so I had to get a friend to help me.

In 2 weeks' time, I am heading back to Malaysia, Singapore and then Australia to see my family and I will be gone for the whole of summer. So excited to see everyone again. What will you all be doing this summer?

Chaos

2011-05-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry, been so busy here. We had our floors refinished and had to stay at a hotel to escape all the dust. Just before the man started on the baseboards, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to paint the walls since all the rooms are devoid of furniture.

All thrifting activity has been postponed while I work on saving more money by painting our house! It's hard work, all that going up and down ladders is sure to make me lose a few kilos! :)

All the furniture put in our family room...this is how we have been living the last 2 weeks.

Very dusty! Cough cough!

Weekend Garage Sale Finds

2011-04-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

This post is almost a week late - we are getting our floorboards re-stained and we had to move all our furniture off the floors. That meant the computer being disconnected for a few days.

I went to a garage sale this weekend and it was close to our house. The lady who lived there had sold her house and was moving out of state.

She had some laminate wood book shelves that were 6 feet tall and was selling them for $50 for both. We have a ton of books that are just sitting in boxes in the basement and even though I had built two bookcases, $25 sure worked out to be cheaper than the materials I would need to make a bookshelf. So I bought them. I have plans to repaint them white as these are rather too dark for my liking.

I also saw this Chinoiserie vase sitting in the corner and I loved the almost-greek key details on it. Mine!

I also bought a bicycle for myself. I was going to get one from K-Mart for about $100 (the cheapest I could find) and another one for my 9 year old son. We live near a national park with lovely bike paths all the way to DC and it seemed such a shame not to be able to use them. I know nothing about bicycles. I looked at the one the lady had and it was bright, aluminum-looking. No signs of rust. The pedals turned. Good enough for me! $35. Bundled it up in the car and went home.

My hubby looked at it and was approving. He said it had 21 gears and it was a Shimano bike, no idea what that means but it was a good deal. That is music to my ears!

Monday Morning Thrift Finds

2011-04-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

I had a sick child at home this week and during the weekend, we had a tornado warning so we stayed home. Sadly, the tornado swept through NC killing 19 people, flooding areas in Alexandria, VA and when it reached us, most of its fury had died down but we had one of the heaviest downpours I had ever seen living in the USA. They remind me of our tropical thunderstorms in Singapore, which we get daily.

I wanted to share something I picked up a year ago from a thrift store - some vintage tennis and badminton racquets (see picture above) It took me a while to find a glass maker and I happened to pass a store one day and decided to drop in to get them to put in the mirror. The man behind the counter was so tickled - obviously he had never heard of the idea before but agreed to do it.

It took more than 6 weeks to get it done and when I went to pick it up another staff served me and I said I was here to pick up the tennis racquets. He gave a laugh and said, "Oh, yes! Those ones!" Those tennis racquets must have given their staff a bit of a laugh. However, the smile died on my lips as I surveyed their work. It was shoddily done, as if someone had been in a great rush to finish it. They had cut the mirror by hand and you could see that it was crookedly cut and the strings were showing from underneath the mirror.

I asked him if he minded re-doing it. He apologised for the "less than perfect" work (I like this about America! If in Asia, the reply would have been - take it or leave it) and it took him another 3 weeks to get it done. When I picked them up, I was happier this time round.

I need to put hooks in the back so that they can go onto the walls. This is just a makeshift string I tied around the back to put them on the wall to see what they would look like. Of course, I would hang them a lot closer together, I was just utilising the hooks that were already in my wall. The wall is going to be painted blue, by the way.

During the week, I had a 20 minute visit to another thrift store and found these vintage wooden shoe forms. I don't know what to do with them yet I bought 2 pairs! I am thinking of using them as decor. If they don't fit into any decor, I can definitely use them for Matt's shoes!

It is the Spring break at school and the boys are at home. I found these flowers growing out of the most unlikely places around the house. It is a big mystery to us - were they planted by someone or do they grow in the wild. I see them everywhere and love them, they are so pretty. I love how plants have multicoloured leaves here.

Look! They are sprouting up under our playground. If it were planted by the previous owner, why would he have put them in such an unlikely place? That made us think that they are grown in the wild.

A shot up close.

White ones are my favourite.

Have a good time spending time with family on your Spring break!

Linking up with Apron Thrift Girl

Ethical Question

2011-04-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about the topic of copying work that one sees in catalogues, websites or even other people's work that you admire - for yourself and not for commercial purposes. Some of the pieces are so far out of reach financially, which is why people take it upon themselves to build or make things that they want. I think it is a very good way to save money and be creative at the same time. I felt no qualms when it came to building a bookcase that looked like one from CB2. However, what if it was another artist's work?

The reason I ask this is because I love an artist's work and I wrote to him, asking him about the price of his beautiful painting, which I saw on a magazine. It was Australian $6,000, which works out to be the same amount in US dollars. That did not include the $200 shipping costs from Australia to here. While I believe his work is worth every penny because it is so beautiful, I cannot justify that right now, perhaps even, never. However, my blank walls are screaming for some art work and I thought to myself, "Can I copy it myself?"

So this is where it bothers me... is it right to do something like that? Can someone point me in the right way? I don't know why I feel so hesitant when it comes to art. It is a bit more personal, the creator of it made it to be something original, it was his idea and my conscience is prickling a little.

Ferum

2011-04-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this picture in a Singaporean magazine and fell in love with the furniture. d-Bodhi specializes in teak furniture and I have had the chance to see some of their beautiful bookcases up front when we lived in Singapore. However, they started a new line of furniture using recycled wood and parts from old ships. This line of furniture is called Ferum.

I don't get anything from mentioning them but I love furniture and recycled pieces so here is some eye candy!

Thrifted clothes

2011-04-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest thrills for me since moving to the USA is being able to buy most things thrifted. We live in an affluent part of Maryland, which means that many clothes that are donated are boutique, high end clothes, and usually find something I like.

I like thrifting because my rationale is - why pay the full price, pay $100 for a nice jacket or coat when you can buy it for $5 to $20?

Now, the added thrill to thrifting is being able to find clothes that are able to be paired nicely and not look like they came from the thrift store. It is normally a challenge to find the smaller sizes so sometimes I go away empty handed. Sometimes I look at a skirt and think about altering it myself, if it is not too much work.

I went shopping this Friday and found a nice Calvin Klein cotton blouse and a H & M wool skirt. At first, looking at the skirt, I thought I would have to do some alterations myself but when I tried it on, it fitted perfectly, with a little room for me to put on weight! I wore it to church today - took this photo against my stair runner (which makes the whole outfit look a lot busier than it is)

The jacket above was also thrifted from a garage sale back in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia - it is a Garfunkle jacket, which you can fork out a tidy sum of money for their clothes. It is very warm and it cost me AUD$5.00. (My mom in law took me to this garage sale, it was so awesome, near the beach.) The H & M skirt cost me US$5.18 with tax. This was not a good photo of me, wearing a plaid skirt against the floral stair runner, makes it look so busy! The skirt is really well made though, good sewing and pure wool.

This jacket was another find. It was a Steve Madden jacket, with a faux animal fur collar, which you can take off if you want to wear it for warmer days. It is a new brand to me. Obviously, I am making more effort with this picture - using my D90 camera vs my iPhone one (picture taken above), picture taken by my cute 7 year old son. He had to take many because the camera was so heavy and he had trouble holding it.

Everything was thrifted from various times but the jacket was found yesterday, the Steve Madden for $18, which I thought was steep for a thrift store, if I waited a day, it would be 50% but then I ran the risk of it being snapped up. The jeans are Calvin Kleins, $2 because they are so small (lucky me - the size 0s and 2s are usually at a discount) and the boots are a garage sale find - Salvatore Ferragamo $40. By the way, my lawn needs to be mowed dontcha think? I'll get to it soon enough. Have a greet week ahead.

Linking this up to Apron Thrift Girl

Spring Is Here

2011-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

We moved into our new home, not realising that our driveway is lined by cherry blossom trees. So to our delight, last week, we saw these lovely cherry blossoms peeking out of their buds. Today, some of them are already in full bloom whilst others are still bare.

The tree on the right has a branch which was badly hacked off. I did not notice this until I took photos today and it is something I must address! Can you see the little "treehouse" on the left?

A view of our yard...hmm...in case you were wondering what that patch of grass is in the middle - it is the septic tank. We dug it up in August last year to do an inspection when we bought the place.

And I just had to enlarge this photo, it is my favourite...oh I love pink!

Beautiful trees, beautiful flowers.

Tsunami

2011-03-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

I have been relatively quiet about the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. It is just difficult to watch such devastation and feeling so helpless, unable to do something to help them, aside from donating money.

Yet in the face of such adversity, the Japanese have my total admiration, and I am sure - the rest of the world's at how they handled the aftermath. Stories are pouring in through twitter about how people are calm and orderly. Shoes are removed at doorways before entering homes. Cars are not beeping at each other at 10 hour traffic jams. People are gracious and giving way, donating food, young teenagers are running around to help those in need. No looting or mayhem. This is a people of true grit, true civilization. You can read more stories that encourage here.

Japan, we are all praying for you.

My First Hardcover Book!

2011-03-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

I met this lady last year and she is from my care group. Beth is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people I know. She has reached out to me in so many ways to get to know me better and I appreciate her friendship very much. Last year, we had a ladies' meeting and we were all talking about journals, where we wrote about our quiet times or private musings with the Lord. It was clear to me that Beth liked hand bound journals and I thought that I would make her one this year for her birthday.

I went to Youtube, such a great resource, to get some lessons on how to bind books. I found one by this Italian man. Even though he spoke no English, it was easy to understand what he did but he only explained how to sew the signatures together.

However, once the book was bound, then what? I had no idea how to put the cover together. So I looked at a few other videos, like this one from a Kiwi lady. Sorry for all the links, I tried to link the videos up here but for some reason, they appear as a blank screen.

There is also a very good tutorial here on Instructables.

My book is a mixture of all the three tutorials shown above. I started with some drawing paper, which is a little bit thicker than ordinary paper.

As there were 40 pieces, I separated them into 8 pieces, making it 16 pages when I folded them in half.

Each of these "booklets" is called a signature. After they were folded, I made a frame out of the scrap MDF I had lying around. I noticed in the Italian language video, the man had a type of tool that held the thread together.

Yeah, this is my dining room. It is also the place where the boys do their homework, I sew, paint (hence the big canvas in the background) Back to the frame, I brad nailed it together.

Then I placed a piece of paper the same length as the signature and poked holes in them. This would form the template of where I would poke the holes through the pages.

I placed a magazine under my signatures so that it would be easier for me to poke the holes through.

Watch the first video to get an idea of how to make this. Then after the pages are put together like below, (My hands look so arthritic!)

I tied them off.

The signatures were clamped together and I put a cheesecloth and glue on the spine. This will help to adhere the signatures to the cover later on. Even my dining chair is the makeshift workspace!

For the cover, I planned to embroider a picture of a bird as Beth loves bird watching. I follow an Australian artist's blog called Chantal Vincent Art and she is so talented. She had a picture of a cardinal on her blog and I wrote to her asking if I could use her image as an embroidery piece. She kindly agreed to do so! Go check out her website and her etsy store. She carves her own stamps and her designs are very adorable!

Getting onto fabric was tough though. I traced it on but could not see the pencil marks so in the end, I decided to use freezer paper to print the image on to fabric.

I liked the image as it was and wished I did not have to embroider but I was worried that the ink would fade. Even after some handling, I could see that the ink was started to smear. I did not have time to look into chemicals that would make the ink permanent as this project was one big learning experience already and that would be too much of an overload.

I started on a satin stitch for the branch and then changed my mind because I did not like the way it looked. In the end, I went for a hybrid stem stitch. (I don't know what I was doing, I was just making it up as I went along!)

I cut the covers using stiff cardboard. I glued the fabric on to the board.

I had to do this step twice because I did not measure the spine correctly and it was way off. I threw away about 2 pieces of fabric before I got this right.

I did not take photos of the next steps because I needed to use both hands! I had to glue the book bundle to the cover! I am not too pleased with how the outline of the cover and cheesecloth is showing here. Maybe the paper I used was too thin. I plan on placing a Bible verse there anyway. See Cameron's little puffle toys?

Close up of the embroidery.

This is the finished book. It was a good project, not too difficult to do. I hope Beth likes it!

I Won!

2011-03-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

My sister Jo-Ann always seems to be winning a lot of contests. I shall name some of them - those I can remember anyway.

She won an Air Asia trip - the first prize - to a U2 concert to London from Malaysia. Free hotel, free flights everything! It was an amazing trip for her as she is such a huge fan of U2.

Then last year in Dec, she flew to Perth, Australia for another U2 concert (told ya she was a crazy fan) and her sister in law submitted a photo of them doing some jumping shots by the beach. They won AUD$300 of free flights with Jetstar.

She has won a digital recorder, and once, she was the first caller to identify a song playing on a radio station and won RM$2000 which went towards fixing her car. She also won a Nokia state of the art cell phone.

I asked her how she got so lucky and she said that she entered everything. I guess it's simple, the odds increase as you enter more competitions. So I heeded her advice and started entering blog giveaways.

I took part in this giveaway with Three Men and a Lady, a blog I love because the lady, Michelle has such an amazing DIY spirt and so talented in designing her own space. She has really inspired me to do a lot more DIY at home. It was a Novica gift card for US$50 and all we had to do was leave my comment. I did so, not expecting much. Yesterday morning, I opened up my Google Reader, coffee in hand and saw she had announced a winner.

"...and the winner is, No 5, "Life On Planet Mum." I jerked, spilling the coffee over my tracksuit pants (fortunately not the keyboard!) and I had to check it twice in case my eyes were deceiving me.

I am elated. It has inspired me to join more giveaways and contests. Thank you Michelle for the giveaway, I cannot wait to spend it and Jo-Ann for your bit of good advice!

Bookcase

2011-03-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

Howdy! Sorry for not posting for a few weeks. I have been busy with the children and the cold weather makes me sluggish and unmotivated to do anything. Fortunately, I did have enough motivation to build a bookcase from scratch from Ana White's website. She's incredible! Someone saw my bookcase that I posted on my Facebook and commented over the phone to me that why didn't I just go to Ikea to buy one? Well, Ikea is far away from where we live, and whenever we go to Ikea, it ends up being a huge time and money waster. That place is dangerous. It has a layout that forces the shopper to go through the whole store before coming to the checkout area. You see so many cute things and boom! Your cart is filled to the brim when you only came for one thing.

Anyway back to the Bookcase. We have so many books but no where to store them! I went down to Home Depot one weekday and got the guy to cut sooo many wood cuts for me. I ended staying there for 1.5 hours! I was feeling a bit uncomfortable by the end of it because I knew it was a lot of wood to cut and the man said to me the next time I go back to the store, I must buy him a coffee.

I primed the MDF with 2 coats of primer and let it dry. Then I painted it white, another 2 coats of paint.

I then used my new Kreg Jig tool, we invested in it because Matt was going to build a closet space in the boys rooms'. The last time, we went the Elfa route, it cost us US$500 for a small space, and that was with a discount. This will cost us less than $100, as the bookcase did, it was $70 all up. I had the primer and paint and the tools on hand.

Here is a picture of the Kreg Jig, it helps you with wood joinery.

The wood below has been pocket screwed by me, and was moved to the basement from the garage because I knew it would be extremely heavy to carry down the stairs once it was built together.

Here it is, completed. It is very strong and very heavy. I learnt that you have to be very accurate with the cuts because, like quilting, every other part is dependent on how accurate you are with its measurements or the next piece will go all wonky. My dividers were cut by the Home Depot man as I said before, and they were over by 1/8th of an inch. I thought, "Who cares? It is only 1/8th" WRONG! After I had nailed the bottom dividers on, I noticed that the bottom shelves were bowed. I realised it was due to the measurements not being accurate enough. It was a lot of work for me to try to pull out the whole shelf and start again so I left it but fixed up the dividers for the other two remaining shelves.

Now that it is complete, I have been unpacking the children's books. Yay! They have been sitting in boxes for 18 months since we moved to the USA and it is nice to be able to re-introduce them to the boys again! I am going to build another one - for my books this time! :)

Thrift Store Find

2011-02-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

We were shopping for a piano yesterday (still haven't decided on one yet) and on a whim, I asked my lovely husband if I could stop by Goodwill. We dropped by and there was nothing there. Things are getting so expensive there! I was shocked - a mirror for $250?? I walked out, disappointed.

On the way back, there was a man standing by the side of the road with a signage that read, "NAMI Thrift Store" My dear husband said, "Wanna stop here?" The boys were in the back seat, reading. They are used to this frequent stops, I love them so much!

I was doubtful but never one to pass off and opportunity to visit any thrift stores, I said yes. Oh. I am so glad I did. They had lovely furniture for REAL thrift store prices. Okay, we live near DC where everything is expensive. I should have taken pictures. There was a pair of cane barrel chairs, just like the one I bought recently but just when I was about to pick them up, the lady at the store said to me, "Have you seen this chair?"

There she was. Lovely lines and curves. She was a lady's chair. Beautiful wood and good frame.She came with a footstool. $25.00. Of course I took her home. She is going to be mine and I am not going to sell her. There is nothing wrong with her, except for scratches and I plan to reupholster her as soon as I decide on the fabric. I think something traditional or plain would suit this chair. I am going to try to refinish the wood and not paint it, it would be a crime.

Pillow Form and Sweater Pillow

2011-02-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

I sometimes browse through online stores and see pillows that I like and I am always amazed at the prices that the stores charge. I am shocked at pillows that cost $100 and above. Anything over $30 is a lot of money because pillows are the easiest things to make! Also, things are a lot cheaper in Asia, I guess because of the conversion of the currency. Once, I went to West Elm and saw a pillow I liked and paid $30 for it. Ka-ching! That was the sound of the cashier's till. Just kidding. I went home, looked at the receipt and saw that I was only paying for the cover of the pillow. The insert, or the actual pillow itself was $15! That made the whole thing $45. Not only that, I had purchased four of them! Note to self: Must check receipt every time before leaving the car park. As West Elm is too far away, in Virginia, I decided to keep them, otherwise, I would have returned them.

Last weekend, I went to a thrift store and saw a huge pile of polyester filling. I decided to take only one because I wanted to experiment with making my own pillow form and creating a sweater pillow. The internet is full of helpful information on how to make them.

This bag was HUGE. I put an A4 paper next to it to show its comparative size. It cost me $1.50. I had lots of scrap fabric at home so I used an off-white cotton. I followed this very helpful tutorial by Today's Fabulous Finds. I only need half a bag to fill the pillow form so there is enough for another pillow. Bonus! I might go back this weekend to pick up more polyfibre fill!

I also bought a couple of sweaters from the thrift store and one of them was this. $3.50. Sorry about the poor lighting, I took this photo a little before midnight.

I washed it (even though the store said it was washed but you never know) and started working. I followed a tutorial by the Brassy Apple.

I will just let the pictures tell their own story.

I am saving the sleeves for a scarf for Matt.

I forgot to take photos of my pillow form - oops! The only picture I have of it is in the background, see how it is pinned, waiting for me to hand stitch the closing shut?

And here is my finished sweater pillow. I do like the texture of it, it was a good experiment. It seems a bit plain to me, I might add some embellishments later - not sure whose room it will go into yet. The boys might reject it if I put a pink flower on it.

Changes

2011-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

You might have noticed the new look on my blog. I changed the look because I wanted a white background, so that my links could be seen. I am totally challenged in the technology area but it was easy peasy, with The Graphics Fairy, she creates free templates and making those changes were not difficult to do. Thank you Graphics Fairy!

Welcome The Year Of The Rabbit

2011-02-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

I am missing my family back in Malaysia - they have had their reunion dinner last night and this morning, even as I type this, they are heading out with the extended family, a tradition we have followed long before I was born (and that was 40 years ago) to have their first meal of the day together.

To all celebrating the Chinese New Year, here is a direct Cantonese translation, which I thought was most apt:

Wishing you all,
Bunny Arrive Work Done,
Step Step High Rise,
Year Year Got Fish - (prosperity message here!)
One Road Smooth Wind,
Out In Flat Safe,
Smile Mouth Long Open,
Hear Think Work Done,
Dragon Horse Sperm God,
Gong Xi Fatt Cai!

Designing Your Own Fabric

2011-02-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

I have started working on my yellow chairs and boy, are those chairs a big mess inside! As I took them apart, the inside had already rotted and all the foam had turned into powder. Cough, cough! It was BAD.

Anyway, I am looking everywhere for a Union Jack fabric but cannot find one which is the right scale and size. I spent a long time online looking overseas as well, thinking that perhaps in the UK, they might sell some Union Jack inspired fabric. But no. All they have are flags, and I can't work with polyesters.

Imagine my happiness and surprise when I found this website, Spoonflower. You can design your own fabric using any sort of drawing software and they will print it for you! They have a selection of fabrics that you can choose, from quilting cottons to thicker ones used for home decor. The prices are quite good as well! I was so thrilled.

You get to see and buy other people's creations online and they get 10% from it. If someone buys your design, you will get a 10% from sales. By the way, I am not getting paid for this - it is just a useful resource for sewers and crafters when they cannot get the fabric they want.

I am off to experiment with this website! Enjoy!

Finding Out The History Of Your Thrift Purchase

2011-01-27T23:31:00.000-08:00

Last year, Apartment Therapy featured a Union Jack dresser on their Craiglist Scavenger List. I saw it and knew I had to have it immediately. Heart pounding, I wrote to the seller and she responded to me very quickly. I cannot remember the rest of the story but we were quick to see it and we bought it on the spot. The lady, Meranda, who sold it to us is a lovely person and we have emailed each other a few times after that. She helped me with achieving the Wisteria-like finish to the Wingback chair I upholstered. I also found that she had moved to Seattle, which was sad. I think I would have liked to get to know her better as not many people I know personally enjoy painting furniture like she does. Meranda also is very generous with her knowledge and goes into great detail on how to achieve a certain look. She has a blog but it does not seem to be active anymore. However, I still go back to it to refer to her painting techniques as they are very detailed and helpful.

I read other people's blogs too (about 120 of them, can you believe?) and there is a very talented lady, Marian from Miss Mustard Seed whose blog I follow. She also lives in Maryland! One day, she painted this lovely Union Jack dresser and a part of me wanted it. Matt was firmly against it, he wanted to know, why do you need two? He's right of course, but I just love the impact of a Union Jack design in a room and I covet them all!

I read the comments of Miss Mustard Seed's followers and one of them linked another post to it, talking about another British dresser. I looked closely and thought, hang on! It was MY British dresser they were talking about, but I did not recognise the website. I discovered Meranda had another blog dedicated to French provincial furniture. There was a link to how she painted my dresser and again, wonderful details of how she achieved the finish. It was so nice to be able to read about the whole process and to know that that dresser is sitting in my boys' room. I was about to put a layer of polycrylic to protect the paint from the boys' rough handling but I did not know if she had used latex or oil paints. There was a warning on the label of the polycrylic - that it would yellow oil based paints. I couldn't email her anymore as I had lost her email and she had moved. Her blog was no longer active. Reading about the dresser helped me to discover that she used oil based paint and I am so glad I did not slap on the polycrylic now!

More On Campaign Furniture

2011-01-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

What timing! Another blogger wrote about his campaign furniture a day after I put my post up. You can read about it here! He is a big time thrifter and I love reading his blog to see what valuables he finds at good prices.

The Campaign That Got Away

2011-01-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, I begged Matt to drive me and the boys to ReHabitat, a place where people dump their unwanted furniture and cabinetry from their kitchens. You name it, they have it. Lighting, sinks, bathtubs, tiles, old tools. The money goes back the charity build homes for the poor all over the USA.

When we were there, I spotted an antique desk which took me all of 10 minutes to snap up and buy it straight away. I knew it was going into the boys' room. I will take a picture of it in the morning.

Anyway, I digress. I had a quick walk through the whole store and saw this beauty.

Yes, it was a knockoff Campaign dresser! It came with a hutch, all for $50! What a rare find! It was a laminate but with some primer and paint, I could transform it and sell it. They are very popular as Campaign furniture was used by the British military in the World War. If you do an Ebay search for Campaign furniture, you see that some of them run in the thousands of dollars.

One of my favourite designers from LA, Vanessa De Vargas of Turquoise repainted her dresser in this eye catching green. Her dresser is so famous that it has made the rounds into so many international decor magazines, all the way to Australia.

Other bloggers have also transformed their campaign furniture. I saw this on another blog and save the picture but I cannot remember where I saw it to give the blogger credit.

So on Tuesday, I went back to the store to see if I could pick it up. I opened all the drawers and one of them was stuck. The bottom part of the drawer that formed the slider was damaged. Could I fix it? It was beyond my current capabilities. Not only that, I have a million other projects to do right now and although painting furniture is quick, fixing a slider requires a contractor to do it and that would raise my costs if I thought of selling it. In the end, I had to let my head rule and walked away from buying it.

I Have Been Busy!

2011-01-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

Firstly, let me say that the spacing and paragraphing in blogger has gone bonkers because I don't know how to control it, and there are big gaps in between photos and paragraphs. I have tried to adjust it as much as possible but to no avail. Please put up with my amateurish attempts at maintaining a good looking blog. :P

I have not been blogging because I have been trying to put the boys' bedroom together and I wish now that I took photos of the process. I did take some but I left out some others. Oh well.

First there were the beds. You have seen them already but just in case, click here. The beds had scratches, and some of the veneer had come off.

I sanded both beds down as much as I could. I used my Dewalt orbital sander as much as I could but the spindles were done by hand. At first, I sanded in the basement but the sawdust went everywhere and we have our freezer in there. So I took it up to the garage but try working in there when the temperatures are below 0 degrees! I have to say that I did not give the bed the sort of attention that I would normally give to my other projects because I wanted to get back into the warmth!

Here is the bed, primed in grey primer. (BTW, is it spelt "grey" or "gray"?) Notice the cute little loveseat it is leaning on? I found it on the side of the road, someone threw it out but the springs are very good, even better than the seat I reupholstered! I am waiting to be inspired, in other words, waiting for the right fabric to get me all excited. So it sits in the garage, holding up our other junk!

The painting part was such a nightmare! I have painted wood many times before but that was in Australia, under different climate conditions, using different paint. I started with spray paint and to my dismay, I noticed around the spindles, it dried with a bubbling texture! I sanded it down and did it again. Still the same! I did this about 5 times, I swear! I did a search on the internet and suspected that it was too cold which was why the paint was not drying properly. There was no way I was going to wait till summer! So, I brought it into the house but our house is quite cold too as the heater does not seem to be working downstairs. Still it was crinkling. Matt said he could not see them unless he got really close. Here they are, drying in our family room, near the fire place.

The perfectionista in me decided to sand it all down again and I chose to use regular satin paint - you know, just paint with a brush. That worked very well! I have learnt an important lesson, spray paint does not work so well in winter!

The beds were all set and then I knocked into the headboard while carrying it somewhere and some paint chipped off. I realised that the boys would likely knock the bed a bit so I thought I'd protect it with a layer of clear Polycrylic. Big mistake.

I have also learnt that with Polycrylic, you need to work in a dust free area. Specks of dust and dirt were showing up as spots all over my bed and the shiny look on it made it look cheap. I thought, okay, maybe it needs a second coat, as the directions said to coat furniture three times. Made no difference.

Back to sanding, and repainting again. Not as good as the first time because by this time, I am so sick of doing this bed! Matt knocks it with his metal watch and paint comes off. I just slap on the area some paint. Who cares already? :)

Okay, brace yourselves for the boys' room. They have a lot of junk! They have both started collecting stuff and I have no idea where to store them. By junk, I mean things like rocks. Hundreds of them. Empty Tic Tac bottles. Bakugans. Empty candy containers. There are others, I don't even know what to describe them. Sometimes when they are at school, I throw out their things because their room is beginning to look like one of the episodes you see in "The Hoarder." Now most of their junk sits in the guest room, waiting for me to sort them out!

They did not have proper beds to sleep on, they used trundle beds, which worked well because they are really into doing forward rolls on their beds right now.

See the purple colour? It was great when two girls used to live in this room. I chose the colour Jubilee No 6248 from Sherwin Williams. I had test painted six other colours on the wall but didn't like them. So when I read this post on Apartment Therapy, I told Matt, "This is the colour!"

Hmm, why is the picture so small?

There is an amazing story I will tell you one day about how they mix paint in stores all over the USA but I was save it for later or this post will never end!

It looks more blue in the photos but when you are in the room, it is actually a shade of gray.

Initially, we put the British Union Jack dresser in between the two beds, as inspired by this picture.

However, the dresser was wider than I thought (because I don't measure!) and one of the bed would come very close to the entrance to the room. When you opened the door, it would hit the foot of the bed. Drat! Plus, it did not look right. So now, I will just leave it where it is, ignore the brown dresser in the room, it will go to the guest room. I am trying to find a little Danish mid century open bookshelf to go between the beds, like the one below. I saw this beautiful piece on Etsy but I don't have the budget for the boys' room. It is also a lot wider than what I had in mind, what would be perfect is just half of that, just perfect for the gap that it is showing in the picture now.

The wood slats you see are in different colours because the original beds only had three planks each and we wanted to give the boys more support, especially when they do their gymnastics on the bed. I got pine wood from Home Depot, came back and cut it on my mitre saw. I let the boys have a go at it too and they were very scared at first but I want them to start young!

I know that I will never make a good interior designer because I did not choose the fabrics/bedding/art to match the paint and now I am stuck with options for curtains/blinds. I will have to work backwards! But I do it with a happy heart because it has been a really enjoyable process. Come along with me and we will see how this room turns out!

My Chair

2011-01-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I worked on the cushion of my chair and my teacher taught me a short cut in making a box cushion. It is a very clever way to do it, and I will try to make a tutorial on how to do it his way. He says it is the way upholsterers use because they do not have time to pin three different layers, with piping etc. However, in doing it his way, my sewing was all crooked and the end result is a very unsatisfactory seat for the chair! I am not a good sewer and no doubt those who are proficient with the sewing machine will find it easy with a short cut method!

Here is the almost finished chair. I still have to do a double cording around the arms, chairs - notice where the brown cardboard is? I am going to hot glue the cords to it when I am done. I also do not like the finish of the wood - it seems too pale and blends in with the colour of the fabric. I think I should have chosen a fabric that was more of a contrast with the wood.

Here it was what it was like before:

This is it now:

What do you think? Should I darken the wood?

Looking For This Desk

2011-01-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

...for the boys' room. I have looked in Craigslist, Ebay and thrift stores. Still looking for something similar and not willing to pay more than $200-$300 for it. Love the wall paper and the cushions!

Image taken from House Beautiful, designed by Daniel Sachs.

Discount Magazines

2011-01-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

I love shopping on the internet, in the US sometimes it is cheaper to buy it online than from the stores. Take our toilets, for instance. We went to the shop that sold Toto toilets and as much as we wanted to support the local business, we were to be charged about $1,500 for three toilets. We ordered everthing online and it was under $1,000 with free shipping. Not only that, it arrived in 4 days' time, whereas the local shop said they had to place a special order in for the toilets.

Anyway, I subscribe to many magazines and I have always wanted to subscribe to the Architecture's Digest magazine. If I subscribed the normal way, which is contacting them directly, or via Amazon or some merchant, it would cost me a yearly fee of $59. There are these discount places that have daily deals going on. I am happy to say that I was able to subscribe to the magazine for $5.99 per year, inclusive of shipping!

This is probably nothing new for most Americans but for me, coming from a place where deep discounts are not the norm, this is like scoring big! So much so that I have to blog about it! :)

Here is the price before discount:

After clicking in a coupon code, the price is $5.99! SWEET!

Thrift Store Finds

2011-01-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

I went to the thrift store with Matt on the same day we went to Michael's. The Goodwill in this area sometimes has some really wonderful antiques but most of the time, I walk away without buying much. However, this time, I spied something so wonderful and rare, I could not resist taking a photo of it.

It is a piano made in the 1800s and it was in pristine condition! I happened to see a similar piano like this during one of the field trips to a historical house where George Washington used to visit but I was astounded that this was just sitting in the thrift store, thrown away by a family!

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary antique dining table with exceptionally thick sides. The little white thing on top of the piano was a sticker which said, "SOLD." Look at it here, the wood still in good condition, hardly any scratches or blemishes on it.

When you open it, voila, there is a "hidden" piano inside! Totally beautiful and so rare! I would not have bought it because it was so chunky but someone had obviously seen its value and bought it for $3500 What a bargain for a beauty!

What lovely legs it had!

There were also other goodies there and all furniture was on 50% off that day. There was a Jenny Lind bed there priced at $23 and after the discount, it would have been about $13 after tax! A good spray paint job would have modernized it like a fellow blogger did below. I did not take a picture because the bed was not assembled, it had been taken apart and leaned against the wall. Here is an example taken from Google.

However, I stopped when I saw a pair of orange chairs. They were so ugly but the architecture of the legs and arms were begging for a reupholstery job. My other chair is on its final stages of finishing, I have stopped because my teacher went back to Australia for a holiday but I started again yesterday. A light went off in my mind as I considered the possibilities. Each of the chairs cost $55.00 and after 50% that would make them both $55.00. However, one of them was very shaky as there was something wrong with the legs so I just took one. The cashier looked asked me if I wanted to take 2 but I told him the problem. He said he would give me a discount and priced the chair at $15. I said I would take it at $10. He said, "SOLD!" I did an inner leap of happiness! I love a good haggle! Both chairs cost me $37 after tax, which brings it down to about $18 each. Still expensive for a thrift find but hey, we live in the DC area and thrift stores are more expensive up here!

So here was my very unusual birthday gift from Matt!

I know...I have a bit of this feeling of, "What were you thinking of!?" but I had a vision of this:

I know, it's not quite the same sort of shape but I will have a lot of fun making up my own fabric (I intend to make it myself as you can't really use the same material as the flag to upholster, it is not strong) and I hope to sell it after I am done with it! Very excited about those chairs!

A great day of interesting bits and pieces!

Visiting Michael's

2011-01-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

There are a couple of large craft shops in the USA and I had to go get some gesso for some art work that I am painting (I will blog about that later) to prime the canvas so Matt took me to Michaels.We did several things on Friday - which will have its own separate post - but I am so lucky to have such a husband who enjoys going to places like these with me and is so patient to drive me everywhere I want to go as I am not a confident driver yet.

Michaels' is HUGE. It looks like a huge warehouse with lots of goodies inside. It would be my idea of heaven!

Rows and rows of things to inspire your creativity! There were cupcake making sections, cake making, decoupage, art supplies, clay making, candle making, punchcrafting, scrapbooking. There were loads of fake plants too which I didn't take any photos of.

Seriously, why would I want to leave the USA? :)

I Love Home Goods

2010-12-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

Home Goods is a must visit if you ever come to the USA. It is a place for home decoration goods - ranging from things in the kitchen, furniture to the garden - anything you could imagine that fits into the home. What is so special about it is that high end shops discard their excess stock and sell it to HG and they sell it to us at deeply discounted prices. There are lots of goodies from Ralph Lauren in sheets, pillows, Tommy Hilfiger, high end stuff at 60% off.

The thing about Home Goods is once you see something you like, buy it immediately because if you let it go, chances are you will never see it again. There is always a 30 day refund if you change your mind but at least, it gives you time to think about your purchase.

I am putting the boys' room together and found something that I think will go well in their room. The letter J. This is made of solid wood and is very heavy. It needs a paint job and a makeover to fit what I have in mind for their room. Now I just need a C. It is so fun finding pieces that will all go into putting a room together!

The other thing I bought was this fun kitchen clock. We do not have a clock in the house because clocks are such boring things. The ones I like are usually too expensive so when I saw this clock, I knew I had to have it. I am thinking of painting the red utensils stainless steel colour to tone it down a little but would need to find if I can find a "steel" colour. It cost me $19.00

There is a delightful story of a mother who decorated her daughters room with a budget of $250. This story was featured on the very popular design blog which I read daily, Apartment Therapy. What I loved about their room were the two sunburst mirrors and the lucite chair.

The mirrors came from Home Goods for $25 each and others asked where they could buy it - the closest match they could find was $500 each! Her story is a real inspiration that you can make a room so gorgeous and not have to break the bank.

Gingerbread Christmas Ornament

2010-12-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

I have not been creating very much these days, as I have so many projects on at the same time that I don't get to complete anything. Ever been through that feeling?

However, there was a quick project that I was able to do and that was Elsie Marley' very cute half eaten gingerbread man. You can see her tutorial here.

I made a few of these to give them to friends from my care group. I had the lighter colour felt and worked with that initially and later went to Joann Fabrics to get the darker browns. I am not sure which one I prefer. My son, Cameron likes the darker one because it reminds him of chocolate!

It was a very fun project to complete and I think they are hilarious! Go to Elsie Marley's blog to check out her other cool tutorials!

Antique Quilt

2010-12-12T12:23:00.001-08:00

During one of Cameron's school field trips, we went to a manor where a rich family used to reside. The house was built in the 1700s and they were personal friends with George Washington.

Everything in the house was retained to be the same as it was in the 1700s and we got to eat and watch how food was cooked over a fireplace.

We also got to see a real log cabin. It reminded me very much of Little House On The Prairie.

However, the one thing that caught my eye was a quilt hanging on the wall of the house.

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I did not have my camera with me that day so I had to settle for my iphone.
Isn't it lovely? I love old quilts and I wonder about the ladies who made them.

James' Bed

2010-12-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

I have been working on the boys' room and want to give them one that is not too "theme related" and something that would only last until their teen years. What I mean by that is that if I had done it like train room or shark room, by the time they hit their teens, it will not be very cool any more. I was looking for something more grown up.

I saw this bed in the Lonny Magazine and was inspired.

I saw these beds on Craiglist advertised for $100 each, I managed to bargain them down to $75. It is solid, made of maple wood veneer but it is ripped up and has marks in several places. I thought about restoring it to its original state but that is beyond me because some of the surfaces has gone below the veneer.

So I sanded them down and primed them over the weekend. However, when I went to paint them, I noticed the paint was wrinkling!!! I had to re-sand and repaint 3 times and thought it was because of the cold that the paint was not sticking. After all, the can did say, "Spray when temperatures are 50 deg F." It was 32 F.

Then, I took the beds inside, lined the floor with a drop sheet and in front of the fireplace, spray painted the bed again. Did not help at all.

This is what the bed looks like, primed with gray primer. I actually like the colour of the primer more than the actual colour itself!

Now, I am beginning to wonder if it is due to the fact that I did not sand the whole bed. I could only sand the flat parts of the bed but found it hard to sand the spindle. I have to sand off the paint and reapply primer again to the bed. I also used latex based primer, which is a change from the oil based primer I used to work with. Oil based primer is an excellent primer for working with wood, you don't even have to sand the furniture to get the paint to stick on it but it is a pain to clean and very toxic.

Wow, this is hard work. I don't like working in the winter. The garage is so cold and what I really need is a well ventilated, heated work space. Hint for Christmas, Matt!

Building A Desk

2010-12-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

I go to Ana White's blog and she is a real inspiration to about a million women. She has inspired me to buy tools and make a desk for my study because at the moment, it is a right mess. We are too cheap to buy a desk so Matt suggested I make one!

We ordered an air compressor and it came with a brad nailer/stapler gun. It was a Black Friday deal, reduced from $199 to $59, free shipping to our house.

So when it got here, I started working. Matt helped with the instructions on how to run the machine. He tried to give it a go but he ended up putting holes in the wrong spots and eventually went inside to help Cameron with the cooking!

It was a lot easier than expected but as I went along, I learnt many things, that we use drywall screws to put MDF wood together, as compared to regular nails for plywood. Ana is a great teacher, she gives such details that you can follow her instructions easily.

Working with wood reminds me of quilting. It has the same sort of precision, measurement, mathematics. Just different tools. When I mentioned this to a group of men in the woodworking class I did last year, they did not seem very impressed and my comment was received with grunts.

It was bloody freezing in the garage that day, below 0 degrees. I tried working with gloves but I found I could not pick up screws with them on, so I took them off. My fingers were numb at the end of it! But oh, it was so rewarding to see the little drawer base completed. I just have to sand it and finish it.The patches of cream is where Matt accidentally drilled holes into and realised they were in the wrong spot. No harm done, everything is fixable with wood filler, a sanding and a coat of paint.

Going To Make These

2010-11-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

I love this Gingerbread Man to hang on the Christmas tree or even as gifts for friends. It is so hilarious!

My Chair

2010-10-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

I have been slow in crafting for a long time. Since moving here, I find that I have less time to myself to do any crafting because I am spending more time cooking and cleaning, and driving my kids to and from school.

However, one indulgence that I have is re-upholstery classes and I never imagined that it would be so much physical work! To read more about the chair see here.

From this wonderful thrift store find, I am converting it to this:

It is still a work in progress but it has taken such a long time. I cannot count the times I have stabbed myself, stapled gun my fingers and tried not to bleed over my chair.

Here are some in between photos - I don't know if I can remember all of the steps but I hope to tackle another chair soon. Well, as soon as I finish painting my walls, repaint some of my furniture and so on and so forth. Think I will ever do another chair? I hope so!

I did not know that people used horse hair or hogs hair to stuff a chair. Apparently the really good quality chairs use horse hair whereas some other places like Asia use coconut husk. I just re-used the horse hair that was already in my chair. I was a tiny bit grossed out by handling old horse hair. It just felt very coarse and reminded me of pubic hair.

Then cotton is placed on top of the horse hair before placing and stapling the fabric onto the chair.

Here is a picture that James took of me using my heavy duty nail gun in the family room.

I hope to finish this chair this weekend!

Pelmets

2010-10-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Through the decorator I went with, I ordered some fabric to go over the pelmets in my family room. At that time she warned me that the fabric was expensive and I thought, "How expensive can they be? $35 per yard?" I was a bit embarrassed to keep asking how much everything was and I like to thrift because I know that there are cheaper alternatives out there. But you don't hire a decorator and turn cheap on her, like my friend Revathi mentioned. She had a point.

Turns out, this fabric is US$115 per yard. I nearly fainted when I saw the invoice but as most of our stuff was selected based on that fabric, there was no turning back. Luckily I only needed 2 yards. It is fabric by Schumacher and it was printed in Thailand! All good things come from Thailand, like Jim Thompson. I love it though.

I thought do the valences myself since there were already valences in the house with a very country-ish fabric on them that suited the previous owner's furniture.

Ignore the mirror sitting on the floor, I still have to figure out how to hang that because it is darn heavy and the last thing I want is for it to come crashing down in the middle of the night.

This is what it was like before. I tore the trimming out and using the nail gun, I nailed the new fabric over it. Easy peasy!

Heart attack moment: I cut the first piece and realized that I had the WRONG measurements! OUCH OUCH OUCH! That was a $76 mistake. Hmm...I hope I can re-use the fabric for cushions. On second thoughts, I hope I have enough fabric for the other valence!

Repainting My Walls

2010-10-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

We hired a decorator from out of state, (as she was the only one whom I knew) and she came to our house and gave us some ideas on how to make our place more relevant to us and one of the things she suggested was to paint the breakfast nook a black and white stripe to make it stand out.

So I got myself some paint and there are soooo many types of paint to choose from. I went with a satin sheen and realised too late that it is probably not very good if the walls are uneven. You can see almost every bump on the wall!

Anyway, I cannot be bothered repainting the whole wall. I just hope that it is not too noticeable when people come to the house.

So this are the before and after pictures. Please note that this is still a work in progress because the lines bled into the tape so I have to do a re-touching up!

Okay, this is not a very glam shot of me but let us focus on the wall eh? This is what the wall looks like after I primed it.

After painting it white, I drew lines across, using a leveller and a ruler.

Then I taped it with painter's tape. I was told to use the Frog tape, which is very good for painting but I thought, "All tapes are the same!" What a mistake I made!

Here, I painted the black on the white.

After two coats of paint, I removed the tape and ta-daa! I am pleased with the effect. However, there is some bleeding and I will need to go back with a fine brush to fix it! Bah!

Next, I got rid of that hideous fan and repainted the wall adjacent to it because it is in some brownish colour. Sorry about the mess, I am in the midst of painting the other wall.

What do you think?

Thrift Store Finds

2010-06-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

We all went down to the thrift store and found some real goodies. I found these beauties for $4 each for the tennis racquets and $2.50 for the badminton racquets. They are the Wilsons brand and surprisingly light. I have had a game of badminton with Cameron already. They remember the countless times Sarmi, our helper, played with them.

I was inspired by this picture to make a project for the boys' room.

I wish I could remember the source of this picture to give it due credit.

Matt also found a game of Scattergories, brand new, the cards were all in their original packaging, unopened for $4! I also found some glass candle holders, which I intend to make a cake stand out of them.

Reupholstery...A Long Journey

2010-06-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have been attempting to re-upholster a chair I picked up from a thrift store for $30. Phew! Now I understand the work behind it, I can appreciate why people charge so much to reupholster furniture! It is darn difficult!

I have not been posting much here but it does not mean that I have not been crafting. On the contrary, I have been working on this chair.

First I took almost everything off, including the jute webbing you see here.

The chair is solidly and beautifully made, with tacks all over it. There was a stamp on it which said it was made in Italy.

I then used a citrus paint stripper which was less toxic to strip down the paint to its raw wood. Then I thought I'd lacquer it back to the same colour as it was all chipped before. I had wanted to sand it down, put some wood filler and fix up flaws.

Man, I had not expected it to be so difficult! I made the mistake of spray painting it outside so lots of pollen stuck on its surface. Matt also banged into it, which left a deep gash in the middle. So I had to strip it back down again but the second time around was so tough because I had not used a primer and it had gone into the wood. It was then when I saw the colour of the wood, I mean, really looked at it when I thought it would be a shame to cover all that lovely grain with dark lacquer.

I saw some chairs from various retailers which I went crazy for. Like this Restoration Hardware chair.

I emailed a blogger, Meranda, who paints furniture as a hobby and I had bought the Union Jack dresser from. She was ever so helpful! She pointed me to a type of finish called Swedish finish. Here are some pictures of furniture using this finish.

This image was taken from the Wisteria website - I love the furniture there.

Another example of Swedish finishing from Wisteria.

As I wanted the wood grain to show through, I did not prime it. It was really difficult to get the paint to stick. Based on Meranda's advice, I used this paint called Fossil by Rustoleum. They only sold the spray at my Home Depot, it would have been easier if I had a can. However, we work with what we have.

First, I sprayed on some paint, then using a rag, would wipe it away. Sometimes I would leave it in longer before wiping it off. However, I found that when I went to spray over it to give it another coat, the first layer of paint would come right off! This took me 6 hours, or perhaps even more! Eventually, I figured out that I had to use thinner to prevent the paint from drying too quickly and I could spread the paint more evenly on the wood.

This is what I ended up with. Meranda suggested getting some dark shoe wax to wipe over it to give it a different patina but I did not like it so I stuck to the original.

The whole process took me 2 weeks. The painting took a lot longer than I thought.

I did not get any fabric because I wanted to match it to the colour of the wood. There is a slight green tinge to the paint so I waited till it dried. I wanted a solid natural cotton colour but decided against it with the boys. One of them is bound to put marks on it. So I went with a pattern. The fabric is on order from Joann Fabrics. What a bargain! I went into the shop on Saturday and it was priced at $19.99 per yard. I needed 8 yards for the chair. Then the lady told me there was a 50% sale on Sunday. Right after church, I went back to the store and it was 60% off! What a happy day! I paid $7.99 per yard for the fabric.

Here is a swatch of it. This is not the true colour, there is a tinge of green on it which you cannot see here.

Now, I am working on the webbing, and taking out all the springs and re-tying it. What a long process!

This is before I painted it, I removed the springs and had to retie them all to give it back the shape as it was already sagging.

More to come next time!

End Of Year Teacher Gifts

2010-06-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

This is not a new idea, I did it last year when James left SAS but it was such an easy project to do that I did not hesitate to do it again this year.

I got the boys to draw a portrait of their teachers, with much cajoling and persuasion. Then, I scanned them and resized them on Photoshop.

I had them originally printed at another company but it was less than satisfactory when I received it. For one thing, it was too small, somehow I always knew it was 4.5 inches by 5.5 inches but when I got it, it was too small. So I designed it myself on Photoshop, using free children's fonts and their pictures of the teachers.

At Fedex, I asked them to photocopy 50 sheets each at 8" by 6" and they put the glue and pad on. It came up to about $6 each.

Then, I had some ribbons which I scored at Joann's on the weekend for 50% off and put them all together.

I used the hot glue gun to stick the ribbon together. In the picture above, the smaller pad is the "mistake" that I made with the sizing but it worked out well to have two pads for the teachers. It has been such a great year for the boys. They have survived a change in culture, country and schooling system. They have made so many friends and we are ever so grateful how easy it has been for them to just settle into life here. I know I will miss aspects of this school but looking forward to the future!

Serving Tray

2010-05-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

While doing my usual look and see trips to thrift stores, I found this picture frame for $9. It is quite huge.

It takes up about half the size of my coffee table, which is also a blanket chest.

I removed the picture and the glass. I went to Home Depot to get plywood, the same size thickness as the glass that I removed. I thought of re-using the glass but it was very heavy and I was afraid it might break if I dropped the tray by accident. I got the very nice man at Home Depot to cut it to the exact measurement I needed.

I lightly sanded the frame and then sprayed it with primer. After that, I sprayed it with Rustoleum's Heirloom White paint. (I realised that I forgot to take photos of this process)

I cut some fabric arond the perimeter of the plywood. I had this fabric from a while back and was wanting to experiment with decoupaging with fabric instead of paper. I used Mod Podge Outdoor, which I had to buy from ebay because it is not that easily available from the major craft stores. They only had the normal ones. The MP Outdoor is said to be waterproof, so I thought it might be the right one to use.

I had to do it in two halfs, first I lifted the first half off and using a paintbrush, I spread the MP on the wood. Then I pasted the fabric down, removing any air bubbles that might have formed. Next, I worked on the other half of the fabric, repeating the same steps.

Then, I coated the top of the fabric with MP. It has a creamy texture but once it dries, it is clear. I followed the instructions to let it dry for 15 to 20 minutes before sealing it with a second coat.

I placed the plywood back into the frame. Note that I had painted the back of the plywood the same colour as the frame.

This is what the finished product looks like. I am not entirely pleased with the surface of the tray because it is sticky, unlike my other decoupage projects wshere I finish it with shellac. The thing with shellac is that it goes yellow with age, so I thought Mod Podge would be the answer to shellac. It is far from satisfactory and I will need to experiment with other finishes like polyurethane.

Ok...I admit it, there is no coffee in the cups.

Wingback Chair

2010-05-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

Found this chair at the local thrift store for $30. Isn't she a beauty? Can't wait to get working on this!

Secretary Revealed

2010-05-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have almost completed my secretary and this is the big reveal! Not if you have been following my Facebook, my step by step photos have been posted up for all to see!

I was inspired by Eddie Ross's secretary makeover here. I really liked how he put mirrors on his secretary but I thought that since this was my first project, I wanted to keep the costs as low as possible. (Ya gotta check out his blog, he has great ideas!)

I was also inspired by Kate from Centsational Girl. I have about 50 blogs that I follow everyday but I don't always have the time to read all of them. However, I always, always make time to read Kate's blog and never skip an entry. I started following her blog when I was still living in Singapore and feeling so envious of all the lovely cheap finds from thrift stores. She has so many great tutorials on her website, and I referred to her site repeatedly during my attempt to paint this secretary.

This is the "before" shot. This is what it looks like today. Click on the photo to see the larger shot.

I had to change the hardware, although some of it was quite difficult to replace, like the lock (it is without a lock at this stage because the one I bought was about 1 to 2 mm off in measurement and the door would not shut. Grr! That lock cost me US$8! I still have yet to put back the desk lid because I banged something against it and put a dent in the paint. It is now drying, after a bit of sanding and repainting.

Here is how I did it.

First, I sanded the whole secretary. Before that, I removed all the hardware, took all the pieces apart. For the harder to reach places, I did the best I could or left it.

Repairing holes and wood gluing back the rickety bits.

Next, I primed the wood with Zinsser Oil Based Primer. At first I thought of using water based primer but heard the results of oil based primer was far superior. However, after I had started with it, I regretted it because it was difficult to clean the primer. Ya just can't wash it off with water - duh! I had to buy paint thinner and eventually brush cleaner but neither of them worked. I had to throw out my very good brushes and rollers after a few coats. Ouch!

Then the fun part began - painting! I used Rustoleum's Heirloom White, which is an off white colour.

As for the inside of the shelf, I painted it a Tiffany blue colour. For the life of me, I don't know what the colour is called, I looked at the can and could only come up with Continental Hotel Abby and I am sure that isn't it!

I changed the hardware, purchased from Lee Valley in Canada. They have the best hardware and woodworking stuff, all presented in a beautiful catalog.

Very happy with the way this turned out, not too bad for a first project in terms of difficulty. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably have covered up the keyhole, and placed a handle or pull on it as antique locks probably don't match up with today's.

Bosch Pocket Driver Giveaway

2010-04-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

I hit a snag with my secretary makeover because I was trying to hammer in some nails to put the parts all back together. The angle of some of these nails make it difficult for me to get the nails all the way in. So I thought that if I had screws instead, it might be better and what I would like is to get a driver to help me drill holes into the wood, it would make things easier.

I went to Home Depot on Friday with Matt and I tell you, we both stood there, not knowing what to get. I was overwhelmed with the choices. However, one thing was obvious, most of the drivers were pretty heavy and the one I liked was cordless and small, about 1.8 pounds. However, it was a lot more than I had planned on spending because, well, I am not a serious carpenter or a DIYer. This is my first project on a $100 secretary and I found it hard to justify spending $79 on a driver. No doubt, I will get plenty of use out of it but I just don't have that in my budget right now.

So today, I found out that A Concord Carpenter is having this great giveaway! It sounds like an absolute dream power tool. Robert does a video review of the product too, which is very handy (no pun intended!) for people like me, who need to see how some of these things work.

Click on the link to enter the giveaway! Although, for selfish reasons, I hope that I win it!

More Furniture Finds

2010-04-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

I saw this photo on Lonny magazine and fell in love with these beds for the kids.

So when I saw these maple beds on craiglist, I just had this light come on in my head. We paid $50 for each of them.

Can you see where I am heading with these beds? They are solid as. I love that man's wingback chairs in the background, I am on the lookout for a pair too! Now that we have a new home to move into, I can start planning what colours to paint our furniture!

Dorothy Draper Find

2010-03-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not blogging in here for a while. I have been very busy house hunting and we have been quite selective about what we want. Our reasoning is that we have lived in rental homes for so long now that we feel we deserve to live in a place that we consider "perfect"! However, as we continue our search, I wonder if there is such a thing as a perfect home within a budget?

Anyway, last Friday, Apartment Therapy featured a pair of Dorothy Draper chest of drawers, for $140. As you may be aware, I have been drooling over these for a while but I can't justify buying them for thousands of dollars.

I called the lady and to my disappointment, she said a gentleman was coming to see it - she lived in Virginia and there was no way we could go see it straight away as it was a weekday, and I was not confident about driving. (My dear hubby takes me to this thrift finds, what a honey!)

So, I was resigned to letting it go but for some reason, the next day, when Matt had a day off work, I called her again to see if they had been sold. She said no!!! It was meant to be mine! I had the same feeling when I spotted the lovely Union Jack dresser - that it had my name written on it.

They both managed to fit into our car and here they are, sitting in my garage, waiting for us to move into our new home. I want to see what sort of furniture I will buy as we move so I haven't decided what colour to paint it yet. In the meantime, aren't they just divine??? There are two of them, the other one is behind it. In the background, you can see I am working on the secretary. It is done but I need to put a glossy coat on it and I have to do some research on how to make furniture look glossy.

Secretary Find

2010-03-01T07:39:00.000-08:00

I spotted a secretary for $100 on Craiglist and I was thrilled because these things cost $600-$700 in Craiglist usually. As we are quite new to the USA, we have not really seen these types of desks before so I was really fascinated by the lines and concept of it.

It had some minor imperfections like hinges not working, sides falling off and cracks. The lock was missing a key but I knew I could replace it on Lee Harvey, Canada's best hardware shop.

So I got to work, removing all the shelves, doors and drawer pulls. Had to buy new ones to modernize the look. I chose a cream white colour but halfway through sanding, I realised that there was a tricky bit that I could not reach with a brush so I had to buy a spray paint. They only come in one colour, not the one I had ordered mixed for me. It was a heirloom white, just slightly off white.

This is the part I am having a tough time with. I cannot remove the little shelves - if I do, I would not know how to put them back together. I sanded as much as I could but still it was not very good. After I spray painted it with primer, I noticed there were streaks of primer dripping down due to gravity, leaving it to dry with these streaks. I sanded it but without success as my fingers cannot reach those narrow areas. I hope that it is not noticeable to others and my only consolation is that it will remain closed so no one will see it that much.

More pictures to come!

Craiglist and Thrift Store Finds

2010-01-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

I love thrift stores here. I know some of my friends and family would shun second hand goods but I love the idea of recycling something, and best of all not paying the full price for it.

I go on Craiglist once a week to check out mainly furniture - I have been so inspired by a lady I met in Virginia who sold us this beautiful dresser which she hand painted herself. She has an inspiring blog called Painted Furniture. I used to think, "I don't have the space, I need the room, etc. before I start working on any of my bigger projects." Well, this lady lives in a smaller place than mine and that did not stop her! If she can do it, why can't I? I have no excuse not to get going! This is what we bought from her and it now sits in James' room. We love how it adds a pop into his room and he gets many comments when people see it. However, it will be there temporarily until we move into a house of our own then we can place it in a more prominent spot.

So anyway, we found this amazing bookstore, Friends of the Library, where there are tons of books donated by the library and general public. In Singapore, we used to wait for the event once every two years to be held at an expo center. Then, we would have to fight with the masses of people, and I mean masses (37,000 people to be exact over 2 days) for books. I am glad we have store here without needing to queue for hours and we get to select our books slowly and with some dignity! :)

So this week, we found these classic books for $3 each.

They are all hardcover and written by Munro Leaf. These are old, old books and have been reprinted. They have the most darling illustrations. Even though James will probably not read them as it is targeted at younger children, Cameron would be able to read them. They are on my keepers list of books but never bought them because they were so expensive to buy in Singapore, like $25 to $30 each due to postage from the USA. And to find four from Munro Leaf in a thrift store is such a bonus!

Christmas Redwork Quilt

2010-01-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! Can you believe that I finally finished this quilt yesterday? That means that I will be ready with all these Christmas decorations for this years's Christmas!

It didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped because I used a wired ribbon, which I cut away leaving a plastic like ribbon to work with for the gold border, and it did not sit flat. I bought it because I could not find a ribbon which was 1 inch in width. They had 1.25 inches and 0.75 inches which was strange. Then I spied a roll of Christmas gold ribbon for wrapping presents and I thought it would work. It was a good but time consuming experiment, because next time, I will use 100% cotton fabrics.

The other thing I learnt while making the redwork was that I have to be so careful to tie up loose ends because they show right through the white muslin from the back! At first I thought my coloured thread was bleeding but it was due to this reason.

See how unevenly it is sitting? Nevermind, I will know for the next time!

Me Likey

2009-12-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

I am looking out for a chest of drawers from Dorothy Draper but they are so expensive (between US$1,400 and $16,000) and I was wondering if there was a way for me to create one on my own. Her pieces are so rare and I feel envious when people write on blog posts how they pick it up at garage sales for $50 or something unbelievable!

This one is available from a cool shop in DC called Sixteen Fifty Nine.

This one is probably more tame in colour but it comes in pink, orange...I love it, love it, want it! Hope I find it at a flea market!

My Christmas Quilt

2009-12-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

I seriously don't know if this will be in time for Christmas because embroidering it has taken me such a long time.

I wanted to do a redwork quilt for some time and had some Christmas fabric leftover so this was what I worked on. The pattern is not mine, it was from an Australian Quilt magazine I bought back in the 1990s (yes I keep all my quilt magazines!) but I changed the redwork pictures because some of them were a little bit strange looking.

More to come later! I am in the process of basting the quilt (I do it the old fashioned way, sticking it to the floor and running large stitches through the sandwiched quilt.)

Hans Olsen Table

2009-12-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

I know this is a Craft blog but in a way, furniture making is a craft in itself and I love furniture, especially when they are not mass produced and hand made. When we first moved from Singapore to the USA, we needed a dining table but I was disappointed by all the MDF and veneered top stuff we were finding in the stores. There is a chap in DC who makes great furniture called Thos Moser and his furniture is like poetry.

Through daily reading of Apartment Therapy, I became influenced and started liking Mid Century Modern furniture, especially those by Danish/Scandinavian furniture makers. We were particularly taken with a table by Hans Olsen and were prepared to buy it - but it would have cost us a lot of moolah as the seller was going to ship it by air. The seller was based in Denmark.

Then one day, while scouting around in ebay, we saw the same table and chairs by Hans Olsen and it was at a ridiculously good price and even though we already bought a teak dining table via Craiglist, I knew we just had to have it. We won the auction and now it is sitting in our basement, away from the children's harmful hands, ha ha ha. When we move into a better place, we will be able to place it in the right room.

Here are photos of it...

The table is round.

It can extend out to seat 6 people. That is not Matt's hand by the way. It is the seller's.

The chairs slide and fit perfectly under the table.

Look at this joinery. What an amazing work. No nails.

The six chairs.

The chair has only three legs.

We love it! It is a keeper! I said it to the boys, that it will be theirs when we get too old and we need to downside. So Cameron asks if he could photocopy it since he knows they won't be able to share it!

This is the one from Denmark that we let go. I prefer ours more because of the three legs!

Lonny Magazine

2009-12-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

Through other blogs, I came across this great online magazine, Lonny Magazine and they just released their second issue. It is such a neat magazine, I had to blog about it in this blog and my other one so that you do not miss it! Here is the link. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I Need A Blog Makeover!

2009-12-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

I am entering into a giveaway - a chance to win a blog makeover here by Bloggy Blog Designz - I hope I win. I am so bad at making my blog look nicer, I am also hopeless when it comes to the simple things like formatting paragraphs and such.

Enter it for a chance to win!

Fleece Blanket.

2009-12-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have been so busy lately, but still found the time to make a fleece blanket for Cameron. James' one is coming up next.

I went to the Black Friday sales - to Joann's the fabric and craft shop, where else, LOL? I spent the whole morning there after church, I skipped lunch and just wanted to buy the right things, not to overspend (if that is possible, me in a fabric shop!)

The quilt fabric was already priced at $3.99 and then there was another $1 off. Notions were all at 50% off and because I started quilting again, I found out that my huge cutting board was warped from the trip from Singapore to here. I bought the biggest one priced at US$49 and got it for $24.50. Ace man, ace!

As I was done, I queued up at the cutting counter when two ladies, a mum and her teenage daughter had bales and bales of fleeced stacked up in their trolley. They had with them a snuggly blanket and it looked so cute. They were talking loudly about how much to price it at to sell to people and she said something like "$30". It was so cute that I wanted to buy it from them but then I stopped short and took a good look at it to see if I could make it myself. Fleece was on sale, slashed from $9.99 to $2.99.

I then thought, there must be an article on the internet that teaches you how to make fleece blankets and I was right!

I bought these and got down to work.

For James as he loves space

For Cameron.

First, I placed the two fabrics, wrong sides together. Then I trim the edges so that they are all the same. I used 2 yards but now I think I should have bought 2.5 yards because my kids are tall.

Then I trim off the corners. I used about 4" for the side against the grain and 5" for along the grain.

Then I cut the fringes an inch apart. They are then tied into double knots to secure them. Repeat all until the very end and voila! Nice and warm blanket. I used it last night as the boys found it too hot.

Top of the blanket.

Reverse side of the blanket. Note, the room is very sparse, like the rest of our house. My reasoning is that we are going to move out in a year and don't really want to hang things up the walls and fix it up after we leave.

Cam pleased with his new blanket. Actually, he was a little cross because I stopped him mid-play to make him take the photo!

Total cost $12. Not bad, eh? Now to start on James' blanket!

Yoga Mat Holder

2009-11-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

It was Reva’s birthday in October and I wanted to make her something practical. When I found out she does yoga, I decided to make her a yoga mat bag. I used Amy Butler’s free pattern and it was really easy to follow. I am not too sure about the fabric though but the pattern called for heavier home decor fabric so my choices were rather limited. What do you think? Should I have gone for something more neutral?

It feels great to start sewing again after a break. I think I will be making a quilt next…

Book Shelf

2009-10-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

Ok here is my first woodworking project. As I mentioned before, it is something so small but I never imagined I had to use so many tools to get it done. I thought it was just a saw some nails and perhaps a drill. Shows how much I know about woodworking.

I love the natural colours of the wood. I did not paint it, it was oak (the lighter one on the outside) and walnut. I just put oil and polyurethane on it to seal it.

Love the grain of the wood. Fine woodworking apparently involves no nails. I wanted to sign up for the furniture making course which was the next event but it starts at night, just before Matt gets back from work and I have no one to help babysit the kids. See the top left hand corner with the faint burn mark?

These pegs and the curved part of the bookshelf were sanded down with a disc sanding machine - not your normal random orbit sander and I had to move fast because when I lingered, it caught fire! It got so hot that the wood just burned. I was also scared to go too fast lest my fingers get caught in the machine and break my fingers! That was why we had so many to make, just in case one did not work out.

So anyway, I bought a single bed, totally raw and unfinished so that I could do my own staining. I appreciated the lesson that I learnt in order to use some of the tools in the right way. I gained enough confidence to buy myself a Dewalt Random Orbit Sander at Home Depot! I got to use it today but the whole place was filled with yucky sawdust.

Autographed Toys

2009-05-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

J came back two days ago with an autographed fish - all the students in his class had one and they were given a fabric marker to sign with. Isn’t that just a fabulous idea? The fish represents the Primary School, gecko represents the Intermediate, etc..

So C is also interested, he wants to write on the fish but big brother says “No! It is for friends who are leaving or people whom I won’t see again - I will still see you!” C then asked me to make one for him as it is also his last week at school. So last night, in a panic, I looked around on the internet for some ideas of cat pictures and saw one which seemed easy to sew. So I drafted up my own pattern and made this in a few hours. I would have liked black buttons for eyes but I didn’t have any. I also did not put in a tail until everyone complained that it seemed like a naked cat so I had to unpick it to sew in a tail. Let’s see what it looks like tomorrow after everyone has written on it!

Recycled Scarf

2009-05-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

As we are clearing out most of our things, Matt had to throw a few of his suits as he could not fit into them. It just seemed like a shame to throw away good quality wool suits but no one wears them here in Singapore as it is too hot.

So I cut up his suits and made them into a scarf, using accent fabrics - batik. I followed Denise Schmidt’s pattern but I could not understand the instructions in her book (my English is not good), so I just followed the idea and did it my own way. I had to put a quilt batting inside because I figured it was too thin for a scarf. Now it is kind of like a pillow…yikes. One thing is for sure, Matt’s neck will be kept warm when we move to Washington DC.

After doing this scarf, I made another one, without the batting.

This is the finished scarf.

I am not too sure if Matt would wear it as it is very different, as in weird.

While I Was Sick...

2009-03-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

This is an Eric Carle Quilt, fabrics from the USA. It is for a friend's son. She loves Eric Carle so when I give the quilt to her, I will present her with the book, "Brown Bear" as well. Will post more photos when the entire quilt is finished.

Elephant Quilt

2009-03-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the time to do a lot of quilting. I have been so bothered by work that all I wanted to do was just wallow in reading other people's creative blogs! Anyway, I have just finished putting the elephant blocks together and now I don't know what border to complete it with. I like the purple mini border but now the final border has to be something bright to bring out the colours of the elephants.

By the way, I made this quilt for C's teacher who is having a baby but I am going to give her something else now. The orange elephant in the quilt is crooked despite me unpicking it and putting it on a new muslin cloth. I will tell them that it is a naughty elephant that doesn't want to do what it's supposed to!

Being Inspired

2009-03-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Eversince I saw Jenny's art piece at the American School Silent Auction, I have been in a sort of frenzy trying to glean as much inspiration as possible from books and magazines. I have been looking at art books, craft books and even how to write creatively. I am just so hungry to create something but the stuff is all stuck inside of me.

Jenny and I met up shortly after that auction and I told her that I was not creative. I could make things using patterns or copying other people's ideas, but never make anything from scratch. She said something that has stuck in my mind, "You say you are not creative because you are afraid to lose control and not allow yourself to make mistakes."

Know what? She was right! I have a huge blank canvas, 40" by 40" in my storage, waiting to be painted upon since we moved into our Woodlands flat almost 2 years ago! I know what I want to do with it but I am afraid of mucking up because I have never attempted to paint on such a large piece of canvas before. Due to that, it remains empty. How ridiculous am I!

Now, I feel ready to explore and Jenny suggested that I go for a walk with Matt, completely blindfolded and trust that Matt will lead me in safety. She promised that it would be a liberating exercise. While I don't think I am going to do that, I think that am ready to start on a smaller scale. I am going to start experimenting with fabrics first as I have so much of it at home! When something comes into fruition, I will post it here.

Chinese Cut Outs

2009-03-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Chinese are just so good with their fine motor skills. Can you believe this is rice paper, painted and cut so perfectly? Lots of projects come to mind!

The Uncommon Quilter

2009-03-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

I borrowed this book from our local library because of the catchy title. The Uncommon Quilter by Jeanne Williamson was a surprise and a big inspiration! She makes quilts out of mixed media such as cardboard, plastic, brochures, ribbons, fabric, and she even paints on them.

I was so inspired by her work that I wrote to her and she replied yesterday! She wrote that she wanted a picture of my quilt when I was done with it. I am making a "travel quilt" of Matt's travels recently. He was in Melbourne last week and he left for London on Sunday. I have asked him to pick up maps, brochures. I am excited of what he will bring back!

Auction Quilt

2009-02-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

On the weekend, my son's school had a fair on and they had several activities in order to raise funds. Many classes had to prepare or donate something. Parents would then make a bid on it. There were many beautiful creations on display, many of them photographs of the children, quilts, paintings, trips with teachers, a car park lot at the school, recipe books compiled by the children with their photos in them. I was particularly taken by my girlfriend's artwork, she graduated from Princeton with a degree in Architecture and later on a Masters in Design from Harvard University. I loved her work so much that I wanted to bid on it; it was mixed media with coconut, recycled paper which she made and it was framed up in a beautifully. What stopped me from bidding was the children from Grade 2 had drawn their self portraits which I thought a parent was going to love buying for their own child.

Then, Matt suggested that I commission her to create something for us and I am very excited about it! Jenny and I will be meeting up sometime soon to talk about how much she is going to charge. This is what struck me: She is very confident in what she produces and is ready to be assertive when someone says, "May I commission you to make ...." whereas, I lose all confidence and do it for free, especially when friends ask me to create something for them. This is where my weakness lies. I know that I can take good photos, can create decent enough quilts but baulk when asked to sell my services.

Back to the auction. One of the things I bid for was a quilt. I liked it because it was quite a generic one, it was not class specific (some of the class quilts had their photos on it) It was a T-Shirt Quilt, with attractions from Singapore. I have always wanted to make myself a T-Shirt quilt with all the places that I have visited. Since there is a possibility of us moving from Singapore, I thought it would be a perfect purchase. I bid $50 and won! I am so happy because this definitely would have cost me more than $50 to make. The contribution was from a kindergarten class. The backing was made with Singapore Airlines trademark Singapore Girl uniform fabric. I love it!

Diorama

2009-02-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

Some of the students at the school I teach at made a diorama of the Twelve Apostles and I thought, "Luckily when I was in school, I never had to do any of this rubbish!" I thought rather smugly.

When I went home that day, my Grade 1 son gave me a sheet from school.

"School Project: Diorama." It read. "You are to work with your child to make an Animal Diorama and a presentation about the habitat of the animal of your child's choice." Super.

We had a week to finish it because J had been ill and absent from school for almost a week. This weekend, we all chipped in and put together this snake diorama. It was really fun. Even the youngest joined in to collect twigs and stones. J and C cut up the bushes and made them into 3-D shapes.