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. 

On garden beds & poppies

 Have I mentioned how much I adore R? Cuz, like, he's amazink. So wonderful, in fact, that I substitute letters in words for emphasis. A-maz-ink. This time, he built me something I've lusted after for quite some time. A garden bed. Insert squeals of joy -here-

He didn't just build me one. I haz TWO. After the first one was built, we decided it looked lonely (okay, I decided it looked lonely).  He made my garden bed a buddy. So, now, I haz TWO. Again, with the awkward spelling. Anwho, I was so giddy with my first bed that I forgot to take photos. The second time around, I did better. I stalked the man around with a camera. There was plenty of grumbling on his part, and I promised to post no face shots if he let me ask silly questions and bother him when writing the tutorial.

Once it's all together the beds are 4' long x 4' wide. All the wood is untreated cedar- rot & weather resistant, repels insects to some extent, and is pretty durable. Since we'll be moving around a bit, I wanted something we could easily take apart, and a size that could fit into a variety of back yards. We also decided to place the beds against the back fence, to prevent neighbor dogs from digging under fence boards, and our dogs charging the gaping holes.  It took several trips to two different home-improvement stores to get the right materials. One had everything we needed, but their saw couldn't cut through the posts. The other didn't carry the cedar boards, but, they had a large enough saw to cut posts. Oy.

We had all the wood cut before buying. It was loads easier to transport, and cleaner than what we would have done at home with a hand saw. Also,the cuts were free. So there's that...
The downside is that they do rough cuts only, so the boards weren't perfectly aligned for assembly. We didn't mind much (just kind of matched up boards as it went along), but if you're a stickler for perfection you'll probably cut the boards at home with a schmancy saw.
 Now, for the good stuff. To the list!

Materials

Hardware:

We settled on screws specifically for wood applications, one box of 3 1/2" screws for the long ways, and on box of  2 1/2"  for the short ways. You'll have plenty of screws leftover if ya buy a box. Also, each box comes with a drill bit.  These Deck Mate screws were on sale for about $6 each. Scwhing.

Wood:

Untreated cedar. On the left we have the rough cut boards, on the right, our posts. Boards were 8' sections of  2 x 6's cut in half. The posts are sections of  2 x 4.  Probably started with a 12' hunk and cut it down to however tall we needed it (17" in this case, which gives you loads extra room). There was lots of arguing discussion about what size of wood we needed. The man likes to overbuild. 

Other junk:

                                                                  Sexy cordless drill.

                              Tape measure, assortment of drill bits, and a few of the 2 1/2" screws ready to go. 

Make it so:

 Grab two posts and one board, like zis: 

Mark where ya want your holes - ours went in about 2" from the side and 1" from the top. Drill pilot holes for the 2 1/2 " screws, then apply ze hardware! Here's what the first should look like: 

Clear as mud? Excellent. Now, repeat until you have both ends of one board screwed into two posts.Then, do it again, til you have one section that looks like this:

Once ya have that finished, make another. 

Go ahead, I'll wait here. I have coffee..... 

Let's put the sides on, shall we? Don't forget to offset the position of the screws. This time around, we're using 3 1/2" screws. 

First board placed, it should look like this: 

 Easy, no? 

                                     Now, just go on and screw in the remaining boards, like dis:

At some point, it was set on it's side to screw in the last board. Why? I dunno. Just felt like showing the photo. 

Once you're done, you'll notice the posts stick out. That's on purpose, really. 

Take that sexy new bed out into the garden, whereabouts you wanna put it. Grab your shovel. 

See those legs? Yeah, they're going in the ground. Mark the area around those posts, and dig baby. Dig. 

And he did. :) 

                               Isn't it gorgeous? For the purposes of blocking invasive neighbor pooches, the back
                              end is a little higher. S'okay. Bust out your level, and tweak to even it on up. Fill in the
                                         holes, and voila! You haz a garden bed, too. Easy, right?

Aw, aren't they cute?  We filled the second bed with hay and the entire contents of our compost bin, mixed, and dumped in three bags of organic soil. Gorgeous. 

That greenish thing in the middle? Potato tower. The bed to the left has five tomatoes, two peppers (Ancho and jalapeño), yellow straight neck squash, garlic, scallions, two types of basil, oregano, and rosemary. Oh, and some marigolds planted around there to attract hover flies.

The second bed  has Alaska peas, zucchini, loads of Texas sweet onions, eggplant, watermelon and dill. I'll probably tuck in some marigold seeds here, once planty goodness establishes a bit more. 

Yeah, I'm rockin' the veggie mojo right now. 

Oh, and one more thing: 

Oriental poppies. Marvelous. 

Recovering!

I just wanted to post a quick update about the recovery process. Went in for my two-week (ish) check up Thursday, and the x-rays look fantastic! The bones seem to be knitting together nicely, no sign of infection, and both the incision sites on my pelvis & shoulder are healing beautifully. Thank goodness I horded a couple of the coco butter massage bars I made a while ago-it's really coming in handy right now!

I'm still pretty limited as what activities I can do, but all in all, I'm rather well. Oh, and I'm cleared for swimming!!
Seven years is far too long to be relegated to a doggy paddle, let me tell you. I'm really, really hoping that being able to swim again will help get my chubby arse in shape. I'm all about loving my curves, not so much the extra flubby jiggle. Besides, swimming being a low-impact exercise, I am seriously less likely to hurt myself. Also, swimming = guilt free scoop of caramel swirl with chocolate sauce.

Or, this:

 

This sweet bowl of heaven is homemade (!!!) Dark Chocolate Truffle Caramel Swirl Ice Cream, from Kristine's Kitchen.   For the love of of your tastebuds, follow that link for the recipe! If only I had an ice cream maker....

Egad!

I know, I know, I should be stoned for not having posted for so long. Or maybe banned from sweet treats...which is worse?

So what's been shaking? In March we went to visit R's fam for a couple of weeks. Of course, I brought my camera and promptly forgot to take pictures for the entire visit. I'm awesome like that.

Something SUPER exciting happened, something that makes me squeal like a girl. I. HAD. SURGERY!

Why is this exciting, you ask ?
Well, for those of you who either don't know me or just don't pay attention, I was broken. All wonky like. Since 2004.
I was the passenger in a rollover car accident. We went down a hill and slammed into a tree. A redwood tree, right where I was sitting. The driver & two other passengers were fine ( a little whip lash, a couple of stitches). I came out with a concussion, broken clavicle, six fractured vertebrae, compressed vertebrae, multiple lacerations and a wound that resembled ground beef more than the back of a shoulder. Yummy, huh? Just be thankful I don't post photos. The bone injuries never healed, and I've been walking around with a broken clavicle and nerve damage since. Awesome, right?

I finally get myself insurance that covers the previous injuries (hooray!!) and find out that one section of the clavicle is pressing on my lung. So, surgery! This is incredibly exciting because, ideally, the bones will heal properly, fixing the nerve issues and back problems. I didn't just slouch, I rolled forward. I looked horribly shrunken, and could barely lift my tubby lil 20lb terrier.

If all goes, I will be able to lift my arms above my head with no problem, lift things, and (glee!) go swimming again. Not to mention have better posture, and oh yeah, no worries about puncturing a lung if I get into a fender bender, or trip over my own damned feet. It's a miracle it hand't happened, honestly.

For now I'm incredibly pampered by the R, well medicated for pain, and have an amazing new laptop (thanks, Babe!) to keep me occupied. Oh, yes, also, I'm looking into starting a business! Can I get a yee-haw?

Sorry, TX is seeping in....
I'm still working on official-like designs & inventory for the shop. When it's all ready, I'll make a fuss.


Enough shameless promotion? I think so.
As always, thanks for reading. I"ll try posting more pics later, when I have a functioning right arm n all.