Are You Ready for FOOOOOOOOTBALL?

It's almost that time of year, not pumpkin latte, not apple cinnamon candles, but football season. I have a draft party today and the college sports writers are coming out of their summer relaxation. In preparation for the second most wonderful time of the year, I decided to make a door decoration for my sweet, handsome fellow. I'm more of a college football fan than professional, but I do keep up a bit. My brother is a Panthers fan and my brother-in-law is a Patriots fan so Cam Newton and Tom Brady are household names. I've always admired Aaron Rodgers but little did I know I'd end up dating a Green Bay fan. So we've added yet another team to the family get together conversation. I was going to do a simple wreath but then I got a wild hair to do something "more manly" if a door decoration can be manly. I decided to do a sign instead of a wreath.

 

 

I went to Lowe's and had them cut a small piece of plywood into an even smaller piece. I do have the remnants so maybe I can make an ECU or UNC sign. I had them make the board 16" x 18" with the plan to hang it with the 18" vertical. I had also found a pennant and two football cut outs at Michaels. 

 

 

 

Quite frankly, the most difficult part was getting the yellow right. I'm still not sure I was successful, but thankfully this sign is not officially licensed so if the RGB's are off we'll just squint and hope for the best. I used acrylic paint with plans to use spray shellac to seal it for outdoor use. The door is protected but I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

 

 

Still not sure it's the "right" yellow... You can see the pennant painted with the logo. I went back and neatened up the edges with a black fine tip marker. Then I added a green border that you'll see below. Below, you will also see a happy accident. I originally planned to tape off a small area between the yellow base and green border and then use a black paint marker to define the edge. However, I'd put so many layers of thick yellow paint that a bit of it started coming up. I decided to go with it and I got a really nice natural wood frame. I do love Bob Ross Happy Accidents. 

 

I'm afraid penmanship has never been a strength of mine so don't look closely at the lettering. I used a black paint marker and then neatened it with a fine tip black prisma color marker. I sealed everything with the spray shellac. Then I krazy glued the pennant and footballs. I drilled small holes in the top and attached thick gauge floral wire for the hanger. 

Here is the final product. I added some fun ribbons to the pennant. It ended up better than I expected and I hope he likes it!

Black Rustoleum Is Key

I really hate throwing things away. I'm by no means a hoarder, in fact I'm pretty cutthroat in my closet twice a year. The issue is more that I'd rather fix something that is useful than try to find a replacement. This trait reared it's lovely head a month ago. I have these wonderful urns that I've had for about 6 years. I've used them year round to dress up the entry to three homes and I've even used them in flower arrangements for one wedding and several church events. They are made of some sort of fiberglass and unfortunately they were starting to show their age. A before picture of one is below. You can clearly see the cracks.

 

I like the look of sharp black pots in front of an entry so I decided to go to Lowe's to buy some outdoor rust-oleum spray paint. Below are the two urns drying.

 

 

I added a lovely lavender plant to each and decided to line the walkway instead of the door. For less about $6 I got brand new looking urns and I get to keep my old friends a few years longer.

 

In other fun black-rust-oleum-is-awesome and I-hate-to-add-to-the-land-fill news...two weekends ago I was looking at my beloved shower caddy and noticing the corners were looking decidedly rusted. I love this shower caddy. I got it from Walmart over 10 years ago (that's not a typo). It's the only one that fits my bottles perfectly. I don't know if I have odd sized shampoo, face wash, etc. or if there is a decided dearth of research in the shower caddy market. Anyway, I love this caddy. It just needed a little perking up with rust-oleum. It looks brand new and I'm a fan of the black in the white shower.

 

 

Just further proof that everyone needs a can of black rust-oleum in the old tool chest.

A Year or 60 Later...

So it's been awhile since I've added anything to this blog or my cooking blog. I've definitely been cooking and decorating but I've had a lot of travel and family fun and quite frankly I haven't had much time to document. What better way to renew my literary career (okay I nearly choked myself laughing on that phrase)...as I was saying...what better way to renew the blog than to share a fun modernization my sweet BF helped me with last weekend. My grandmother passed away last summer and one of the heirlooms I have from her is her 1955 singer sewer. It's the sewing machine I learned on. I made an apron for my first project and I've done some curtain panels. Perhaps now I can try to improve my sewing skills, so hopefully there will be a future blog on those projects. But for now back to the machine itself. It's pictured below closed and open. I love that it closes so I can use it as a desk. Multi-functional joy.

Closed and the finished stool. We chose copper finished casters from Lowe's Home Improvement.

Open. I love all the drawers.

The issue that started this project was the lack of mobility of the stool on the carpet. To sit at the table was a process that started with picking up the stool and placing it far enough back to fit under the table but not be too far out. Then I repeated the gymnastic movement to slide off the stool for exit Then I would pick it up to place the stool back under. A second issue was the pleather "fabric" that covered the seat. It stuck to my legs like a leather car seat in July. My idea was to add caster wheels to the base and recover the seat. I knew I could recover the seat pretty simply, but to attach the caster wheels I decided to ask for expert help from my handsome fellow. It was a great team effort and I'm extremely pleased with the end result.

Seat recovery in process.

I forgot to take a true before picture, but above you can see the lovely mustardy avocado pleather on the seat. I had some spare blue-gray cotton fabric on hand that has a far more pleasing texture. I used spray adhesive for the side panels and a staple gun for the top of the seat. Below is one of the side panels before the caster wheels were attached. The seat sits in the brackets and the top can be removed for storage. The base of the seat is beside the panel though a little difficult to see.

One of the side panels and the base of the storage seat.

Here is the finished product. I wish I had taken a before picture but either way, it's a great project and I'm thrilled!

1955 meets 2015.