Peeved

The past couple of weeks, I've been in a mood. A grumpy-all-day, irritated for no specific reason, I-just-wanna-snarl-at-everyone kind of mood.
But, I'm not allowed to be grumpy. The dogs won't let me. Cuz, if I fall asleep, I wake up to this:

Or, if I hand out treats to keep them occupied, the little one decides that sticking his butt in the air is the appropriate way to enjoy his snack:

Or, they use each other's butts for pillows:

Finally, there's the "sleeping against a wall with a tongue sticking out" pose:

That one gets me every time.

Cranky-pants 0, Followers 1gazillion points!

So I was all geared up to bitch n moan about how there are so many rude/nonreciprocating people involved in my life lately; you know, the "friends" that only call you up for favors, the odd acquaintance that hits you up for money (despite the fact the last time you two spoke she accused you of being a "f'ing snob,") or the fact that you end up following a bazillion blogs as per a team-challenge thing and instead of getting "followed" back there's just this insane list of posts you don't have the patience to read through..?
Yeah, I'm in a mood, I know.

BUT! Then, I was checkin' out my dashboard, and some of you awesome folks left a bunch of lovely comments that I had somehow missed before. Lemme tell you, that totally made my day! So thanks for making me less cranky-pants :)
Just so's you know, I'm totally interwebz stalking your blogs if you're all nice n stuff. Cuz I adore you!

Dresser Success

Sometimes I get a wild hair up my ass about a project, and spend an inordinate amount of time researching, planning, and eventually making it happen. The most recent (finished) project was a dresser! 

Short back story to this- I sold/gave away all but three pieces of furniture when I moved  in with/ to Texas with my darlin R. A lot of it was hand-me down crap, stuff I was tired of having, or given to a friend cuz I couldn't fit it in my car...my gorgeous kitchen island being the only thing I regret not bringing with me (other than my plants) *sniff* Besides, his stuff was better. 

Anyway, the lovely buffet/sideboard that I was using as a dresser is now in our kitchen being used as what is was meant to be, leaving us with no dresser. Generous his n hers closets, and some rubbermaid bins have been doing the job, but, I longed for a dresser. A spiffy one. Something with curves. Something with pizzazz. Something that would hold up with several moves better than something from Ikea (I still lub you, Ikea). 

I wanted to balance out the more contemporary straight lines of the bed frame and a hand me down, beat-to-hell  bookcase in our room with something curvy. Something with sexy legs, a little pomp, but not so much foof.  Being cheap thrifty, I started hunting down DIY ideas on the interwebz, and stalking craigslist. I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted, and probably drove R crazy with all the emails an how many times I changed my mind. Anyway, after weeks of checking craigslist, the perfect dresser popped up for $75.Well, it had a funky finish, but it had great bones.  I called the guy right away, checked it out the following morning, and made a date to come back with some muscle to pick it up (totally would have fit in my car!). Probably could have haggled him down to a lower price, but, I really suck at that. Besides, the gentlemen selling it was incredibly nice, and he rustled up a friend on his end to help him deliver it.That's right, I got it delivered, for free. Awwwwesome. 

So, the real work begins. Ignore the crap on top, it's the craigslist ad photo. All my before pics of the whole thing were even funkier. The top, laminate. So fugly, that sanding it barely roughed up the surface. Ugh. 

I started by taking off the handles, which were all sorts of awesome sauce. Lurve those leafy curve. 

Then I set into sanding all the drawers by hand. There's no electric sander around (other than a dremel) and those lovely inset bits on the drawer fronts require a delicate touch. Let's keep in mind the temp here has been triple digits. So, that was fun. Whatever kind of paint is on these things was a pain and a half to get off, especially by hand. And it was hot. And I'm a big time wimp. So I attacked the drawers with super grippy spray primer instead. Thank, you, Krylon. 

 Pile o' drawers, weeee! 

Then came the paining. And the sanding. And more painting, sanding, touch ups, chasing off birds. I used a crap ton of wood glue to fill hairline cracks and divots. At one point some of the local gangster birds knocked over a drawer and the whole front popped off. I was livid! Thankfully we had some clamps around so I was able to glue the heck out of it and clamp it all down to stick. Then touch up. Oy ve. But it was lookin sooo good! 

The dark coat (Behr's "Gray Timber Wolf) turned out a lot lighter than I expected, but as still fantastic. That went on the outer part of the drawers, with Behr's "Manhattan Mist" on those lovely inset bits. One drawer needed to have those ridges painted on, since at some point it looked like it had sanded off. Can we say hand cramp? Still, the hardest part (other than the profuse sweating) was keeping the dog fluff away from wet paint.  

The handles I attacked with the same white primer I used on the drawers:

Once they dried I went after them with some "aluminum" spray paint, but they came out too shiny for what I had in mind. Some old metallic craft paint and a couple light brush strokes dulled it out nicely, and the handles went back home to their drawers. 

The dresser frame was a breeze, surprisingly enough. I lightly sanded down the whole thing, and prepped it using Glidden Gripper in gray. It's great for painted surfaces, cuz there wasn't a chance I would be tackling that laminate by hand. I am not that motivated. It took me two coats of paint with some light sanding in between to smooth out the bumps, and man, stick a fork in me I was D.O.N.E. 

This thing's been over a month on the works, and buckets of sweat. Thanks to a lovely neighbor, I got this baby moved into the bedroom this afternoon. It looks amaaaaaazing!

I'm stoked with the final product. I'm thinking about taking some metallic paint around the edges to bump up the manly 'tude, but for now I'm calling it done! Still needs a little oil rub-down on the inside, and some purty accessories.Now, if only I could find a couple matching nightstands....

A game of kings

So I'm in a bind and could use some help from the wonderful webz. I want to get R a chess set, something unique but not cheap looking. So plastics, resin, and poly mixes are out. I'm thinking a themed set, along the lines of Ancient Greece (mythology based pieces), Egypt (again, mythology pieces), or Japan (Samurai vs Ninja kind of thing).

Or, a really lovely "standard" ish chess set made from carved stone or wood. But, kind of ...different. Ornate? If that makes sense?

The closest to the myth sets I've found would be here, which has about the right sculpted detail & quality, but I can't find much info on it. There's a set here that's pretty neat, but seems a bit on the "meh" side as far as the pieces go. I can't even find anything close to a non-resin Samurai set.

As for the other options of wood or stone, oy ve. There are so many to choose from, my head is still spinning from it. I can't even begin to narrow down the choices because I'm not familiar with the differences between  a marble piece vs an obsidian piece vs a rosewood piece is. Or, you know, whatever the choices may be. Have any input? Advice? Links?!?

It's Official

Since those close friends that occasionally read this wee blog have finally been informed, I can put the word out in cyber-space: I'm gettin' hitched! (insert flying pigs here?)

 Since R is deployed, it happened over the phone. Still, awesome! We won't be making any definite plans until he's safely home, whenever that happens. 'Til then I get to plot all on my own. A lot of the excitement just isn't there, though, since I don't know anyone in the freakin' state to celebrate.

Oh well, more time for jewelry, right? Hop on over to my other blog, or better yet, check out my etsy store! I need to pay for a wedding here. I am not above shameless self-promotion.

The majority of May was spent squeezing in as much time as possible with my man before he shipped out. Since then, my time has been divided between putting together ridiculous care packages, pouting, visiting with some AMAZING friends that flew out here for a week for some Texas sized shenanigans, and making things.

More specifically, making jewelry. It's been a process getting all the right materials in line to finish the pieces I had originally started, then in drafting up designs and making lists for all the other ideas that come floating into my head. Inspiration's a pain in the ass. It's everywhere, and in sketching out one idea, a dozen others come to mind. It's exhausting. Seriously. Also, there's a lot of pouting going on over here (not me, the dogs) so there's that to deal with. No, really, the dogs pout. It's not me, I swear.

See? Major league pouting. It's hard to get anything when a ball of fluff this large takes your spot on the couch and gives you 'sad face' for the rest of the night. 

It's amazing I get anything done, really. There's entirely too much cute runnin' around here. 

As for the jewelry-I managed to pull myself away from the fuzzballs just long enough to get all artsy with my camera, take some photos, and launch an etsy shop. Wooohoo! Round of applause, please? 

Thank you, thank you. 

Check out the blog for news, new products, discounts, and all sorts of good stuff::http://bluedartdesigns.blogspot.com/ ,and don't forget to check out the store, while you're at it: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueDartDesigns 

Custom orders are always welcome, and remember-every purchase you make helps support the above mentioned ball of fluff. Don't make me post any more sad puppy faces. Really, don't.