Creative Stuff – Page 2

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014

The Great UK Road Trip

As I said in my last post, we didn’t want to bother Annelies while she was working, so we took a “little” road trip up to the UK.

I am the family travel planner. Because Hubby is such a good sport about letting me decide where to go, what to see, and how to get there, I usually try to avoid stuff I know he will HATE and include stuff I think he will enjoy.

I wanted to see the Cotswolds in England.

Are you wondering about this “Cotswolds” thing?

It’s actually a region in England known for its beautiful setting and honey-colored limestone villages. And sheep or, more accurately, wool. Which, of course, comes from sheep. My friend, Janet, had visited there last year, and the pictures she shared of the villages enchanted me. I’m a sucker for cute and colorful villages.

The area is pretty rich in history, too. And Hubby loves old stuff. Plus there’s tons of castles, manor houses, and cathedrals, so I knew we’d find something that he would enjoy.

1_map — Zaffelare, Belgium to Bourton-on-the-Water, in England

Google maps said this route was about six and a half hours and a little over 300 miles. After studying the map and seeing that we would be going past Oxford, I got an idea. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Initially, I thought we’d take the Channel Tunnel over to the UK, but I didn’t want to buy the tickets in advance in case the weather turned crappy and we nixed the trip. Then, the night before we were to leave, we discovered that a Chunnel ticket (you drive your car onto a train which carries you through the tunnel) would cost about 139 Euros ONE WAY. That’s about $175. Yikes!

Then Annelies started looking into ferries and discovered we could get a round-trip ticket for about 50 Euros or $64. The ferry took longer, but that was a pretty big price difference. Plus, I love ferries and am slightly creeped-out by long-ass tunnels. So the ferry it was.

We had to drive into France to reach the ferry terminal. My, what a busy place.

GB 007 — Hi, ho, hi, ho, a ferrying we go.

The ferry was HUGE. I’d been impressed by the Washington State ferries. These were far bigger.

I love boats, so I couldn’t stay below deck while we sailed. Unfortunately, it go foggy pretty quickly, so I didn’t get to see much.

At one point, I noticed something odd peeking through the fog on the horizon.

My first thought, honestly, was, “Is that a glacier?”

Not that I really thought that would even be possible, but that’s what it looked like through the haze.

It was the famed white cliffs of Dover. Now, if I’d done more reading about the ferry crossing, I would have expected that. Anyway…

Canterbury, which was our first stop, was only about a 20-30-minute drive. (I covered that visit in yesterday’s post.)

We spent much longer than we’d expected admiring the cathedral, so we had to hurry a bit to reach our next stop before the business day ended. And that meant we didn’t have time for a proper meal, so we just grabbed some road snacks.

GB 167 — Chocolate-stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies for Hubby

GB 168 — Caramello-looking Cookies and a Flapjack (like a soft oat cake) for Me

Oxford was our next stop. Since we were going to be in the neighborhood, I thought it would be fun to visit a certain little paint shop.

It was quite a lively little neighborhood.

As for the paint shop… you know the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® I prattle on about? Well, her shop is in Oxford. I thought it might be fun to stop in

Plus I knew it would make Janet’s day. It have been even more fun if Annie had been there, but she wasn’t. It was still really cool to see her shop. It’s where that magic paint began.

ASCP collage — ToadMama at Annie Sloan’s shop.

It’s a tiny little shop, so we weren’t there for long. Besides, by then, we were starving. Since we’d already paid for the car park (aka parking lot), we decided to grab dinner in Oxford. We actually found an adorable little cafe right down the street from The Annie Sloan Shop.

GB 183 — The Tick Tock Cafe got two thumbs up from us.

It had a colorful, fun, funky interior, which you know I loved.

It also had really good paninis.

We still had a couple hours worth of driving to do, so we didn’t linger long. Getting out of Oxford during rush hour was a bit trying, but we made it. And, soon enough, we were in the Cotswold countryside.

It was just as lovely as the pictures I’d seen made it appear.

The narrow roads with unusually high speed limits were interesting, to say the least, but Hubby did a great job with the driving.

We managed to reach Bourton-on-the-Water, our final destination, JUST before dark. We hadn’t made reservations in advance (I didn’t want to be slave to any real agenda). I was getting a bit worried after all three of the hotels we’d tried didn’t have a room for us. Luckily, The Dial House had a vacancy.

GB 204 — Tea Supplies (instant coffee, too)

After unwinding for a bit, we went for a night-time stroll along the river that runs through town, hence the name Bourton-on-the-Water.

What better way to end a LONG, hectic day that with a couple of pints, enjoyed at an outdoor, riverside pub?

Ah, England…

July 27, 2014July 31, 2014

Mint-Green Monstrosity… Gone

I’ve had an ugly-ass pie safe sitting in my dining room for a while. I did a post about the pie safe shortly after I bought the piece.

I never did like the color. The more I looked at it, the more I hated it.

This is not a valuable antique. (My Dad thinks anything old is valuable.)

I probably paid too much for the thing. But that’s okay. I wanted it. It spoke to me. The piece had character. And that’s exactly what sucked me in.

The old, rusty, original, stamped tins. The knot-holes. The wonky doors.

It’s not a very-well-constructed item. In fact, I think either a kid built the thing or some poor pioneer/farmer.

Not only was it clumsily made, upon close inspection I realized it had been built of scrap wood.

It wasn’t exactly square. And the joinery was some of the more amateurish work I’ve seen.

Adding insult to injury, someone removed the original hinges and replaced them with very basic, brass, surface-mounted hinges. If you click on the image and zoom in, you’ll see what I mean about the hinges.

So why did I buy the thing? I knew I’d give it new life one day.

It sat in my dining room for a little more than two years. I wanted to paint it, really. But it’s a big piece — at least five feet tall and about three feet wide — and I knew it would take a decent chunk of time. Large, uninterrupted chunks of time are a rare commodity around here.

Still, I can’t believe I left that thing sitting there looking ugly for so long!

Finally, I decided to get that thing done. With Hubby’s help, of course.

Step one was to empty-out the piece.

Where to put all of the stuff that we’d crammed in there? On the dining room table, of course.

1_IMG_8213 — What a cluttered, claustrophobia-inducing mess!

Hubby and I carried the thing to the basement, where he removed and repaired the doors so he could install new, more-appropriate hinges. He actually had to cut a chunk of the old wood away and replace it with new wood to make the hinges work.

I painted the cabinet before he replaced the doors. Remember, I liked the character of the piece. I wasn’t trying to make it look new. Just better. So I covered that minty (or sea-foam green) green paint with a single, not-so-neatly-applied layer of Old Ochre chalk paint. In some places, I used two layers. But not many.

Once the entire piece was covered, I realized it needed something else. Some sort of oomph. Something to make it “pop.”

So I added some color to the interior.

There’s nothing symmetrical about this piece of furniture, so I applied the red (Primer Red) and blue (Napoleonic Blue) in an uneven pattern. I didn’t even use tape, I just eyeballed it. Tape would have made it too straight. Too perfect.

This is not a perfect-type piece.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to use dark wax on the piece, but that stuff really highlights imperfections. And since this pie safe is full of imperfections, I used both clear and dark wax.

I just love the way the dark wax settles into all the nooks and crannies.

Then it was time for Hubby to hang the repaired doors.

Here’s another clear wax-only vs clear and dark wax comparison.

6_IMG_8200 — The door on the left is Old Ochre with clear wax.

Some of you may hate this rustic look. I like it.

I decided to make the drawer face red.

One day, my kids will either be fighting over this piece or happily lugging it to the dump.

Sorry for the grainy pics. I used the phone camera.

I’m not crazy about those too-white knobs, so they’ll be replaced one day.

10_IMG_8221 — Old stuff (no priceless antiques here).

It’s great to have our dining room back.

11_IMG_8215 — You can see the table again!

Here’s a reminder of what it looked like before.

Mint-green cabinet, stuffy crystal chandelier, and unpainted chairs.

It’s SOOOO nice to have our dining room back. I am not a neat freak, but all of that clutter made us both feel as if the walls were closing in on us.

Not only does the pie safe look better, it actually matches the table and chairs.

So, do you hate the old, rustic look? If that’s just not your style, I hope you can at least appreciate the new life I have given these old pieces of junk. 🙂

May 31, 2014May 30, 2014

Plasticene Horror to Cute Accent Piece

About a year ago, I bought an old end table for $12. It was in decent shape, but it wasn’t solid wood. I liked the detail on the front and thought it would be a fun experiment.

It sat in my basement since the day I brought it home.

While at our WV Place recently, we realized we needed a table about that size for the living room. So I figured I’d give it a quick makeover.

QUICK is the key word here.

Including dusting, painting, and waxing, I don’t think I spent more than an hour on this piece. It required very little paint (single coats of each color dry-brushed on) and only one quick coat of clear wax.

I love the end result.

new-to-me-table — Click on the image to see a larger version.

When I showed Hubby the table in its “before” state, he looked a bit skeptical and asked, with all the bias of a woodworker, what kind of wood it was. I told him parts were plasticene, and the rest was something else. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to burn it, just have something cute to look at for a bit.

Even he was shocked at the end result.

This Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® consistently amazes me.

No sanding was required. I removed the old handles (didn’t even need a screwdriver) and then added a very thin coat of Graphite on the top and Old White on the base. I covered the painted areas with a quick coat of clear wax. Finally, I added new knobs I’d purchased on clearance for $1.36 each.

Not a bad table for under $15 (not including the teeny bit of paint and wax I used) and an hour of my time. Do you agree?

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Cows Need Love, Too

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that cows intrigue me. They always have. Maybe I was a farmer in another life.

The thing about cows that I find most interesting is how they always look at you when you stop to say hello. Whether you actually speak or not. They’re curious critters.

Here’s further proof of their inquisitive nature. This video has to be one of the coolest I’ve seen for a while.

According to the PetFlow.com blog, which is where I saw this,

An American jazz brass band touring in France pulls over next to a pasture and puts on a performance for the cows. Literally. For the cows.

I find the video inspiring. I always thought it was cool to stop and talk to cows. Next time, I’ll have to sing.

What genre do you think they’d like most. Country, pop, or rock?

March 30, 2014March 30, 2014

On a Creative Streak

I’m quite happy to report that I’ve been busy creating stuff again. For the longest time, my creative efforts were hampered by the mess in my craft area. The image below shows a bit of that. It got worse, however, shortly after that picture was taken as all of the boxes and other stuff that were in our storage area were moved into my crafting space after we had a water leak.

While I am still working on clearing out some stuff, I did manage to organize the space enough that I could start using the space again.

There are quite a few projects in my furniture-painting queue. But I had some sewing projects to tackle, too. The sewing projects were a bit more time-sensitive. A co-worker recently had a baby and a friend’s daughter is about to have a baby.

I could have just bought gifts, but I wanted to make something for both of them.

I was torn, though, because not everyone likes home-made items. The younger set, in particular, seems to be more choosy when it comes to stuff like that. And that’s fine. We all have different tastes, right? But I’ve always treasured items that were made for me. Because I know lots of thought and love goes into creating stuff, whether it’s a painting or baked goods, textile crafts, etc. And I figured I’d enjoy making the gifts even if the recipients ended up not really liking them. So I decided to make utilitarian baby play mats. Those things you put on the floor for immobile infants.

The first one was for my co-worker, who had a baby boy.

I went the more-traditional route with the frog-themed play may. I alternated some nine-patch blocks with blocks of frog fabric. The backing is flannel. I made and used a binding strip for the edges and did some simple machine quilting around the edges of each block. Once it was finished, I popped it into the mail.

I got an e-mail from her recently that made my day. It said…

I absolutely love the quilt you made for Ryder! Hand made gifts are the absolute best. Thank you so much for taking the time to quilt so much love in one blanket!

Wasn’t that a sweet message?

I really struggled, mentally, over the other play mat. I know for a fact the Mom-to-be isn’t a traditional girl. A baby-colored mat in pale pinks, blues, and yellows may have made her vomit. And I didn’t think she’d like traditional quilt blocks either. So I opted to use a free-form approach, randomly placing subway tile-shaped blocks in rows. As for colors, I thought back to her wedding. The invitation, attendant dresses, and reception decor used a very vivid color palette. I figured she wouldn’t have chosen those colors for the wedding if she didn’t like them.

The pink floral fabric is the girly touch I added, knowing the baby is a girl.

I used red flannel as a backing and self-binding (folded the backing material over and sewed it to the quilt top). I was quite pleased with the end result.

When I showed it to Hubby, he even commented that the colors were awesome, just like the colors on her invitation, which he really loved.

Here’s a shot of the wedding dresses. I got all but the dark blue color. The reception was full of greens, not shown here.

Having no clue what else to get, I asked my friend Ashley, a young Mom, what would be a good shower gift. She gave me a whole list of essential supplies. She also said I should put them in a reusable basket or something.

Her basket suggestion made me laugh, as I’d already decided to decorate an old tin for that exact purpose.

Painted tin with decoupaged angel and red flannel trim.

I painted the tin with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Of course. I added the angel using decoupage. The flannel trim is attached with glue.

Image decoupaged onto the floor of the tin.

I used decoupage to affix the images (above and below) to the interior base and bottom of the tin.

I thought the quote to be appropriate. Especially since the Mom-to-be is a teacher.

Turned out pretty cute, right? I couldn’t resist adding the frog wash mitt. LOL.

The Mom’s reaction when she saw the play mat was priceless. She actually gasped and said, “Where did you find this?!?” She was shocked when I told her I’d made it and immediately ran off with it to show her Mom.

I think she likes it. 🙂

There was so much going on, I never got to ask if she recognized the wedding colors. Not that it really matters. I’m just happy that she likes it.

March 21, 2014March 20, 2014

Hit Me With Your Best Shot — 21-MAR-2014

I may sound whiny, but the truth is, we’ve had some CRAZY weather this year. Snow, snow, ice, and more snow. Interspersed with a teaser nice day here and there.

Last Saturday (March 15), it was sunny and pleasant with temps in the upper 60s. Sunday, a snowstorm hit. By mid-morning on Monday there were 10 inches of snow on the ground.

Temperatures today are supposed to be in the 60s, and we may even hit 70 on Saturday. But there’s a winter storm headed our way. Tuesday we might see more snow. Can you believe it?

Anyway… I haven’t been out much, but I did have a more interesting week than usual. My friend, Brad, visited for the weekend. We actually did a hike and picnic in Shenandoah National Park. I introduced Brad to some local Longhorns. I gave him a town tour, too. All in all it was a lovely weekend, during which I captured my shots to share for this week’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot challenge.

The first one is my favorite. I’m a sucker for blue skies.

Genetic Mutant or Unfortunate Camera Angle?

Funny, I didn’t notice the four-horned steer when I shot that picture. I didn’t even notice it when I looked at the on-screen image for the first time.

Those two never took their eyes off of us. Maybe they were on guard duty?

This amazing carpet of crocus, which has to be VERY old, amazes me every year. These images were captured on Sunday, before the snow hit. Much of the snow has melted and, I’m happy to say, a lot of the tough little flowers survived.

I can’t help but wonder just how old those flowers are. I mean, I know crocus spread, but they don’t spread that fast. And they are a bit unusual, too, which makes me think it’s an heirloom variety. I’d love to know when they were planted. The entire yard is covered. The flowers are also spreading into a neighboring yard and back behind the houses.

Locals, you can see this for yourself on the lot between 162 and 178 Main Street, across from the Mosby Museum.

That’s it for this week. Happy Spring!