A Vintage Christmas...

A New Throne For Our Cat, Trouble....

Well, I freely admit it didn't start out with the cat being the recipient. I bought this little settee for a friend (for her birthday) so she'd have something for her grandchildren, out by her pool.

Unfortunately, after I was finished making the cushion, Trouble Cat suddenly decided it was hers and began napping on it frequently. She basically covered it in cat hair (as she always does) and my friend is allergic to cats.

So, I ventured back to the charming shop I'd purchased the wrought iron settee from and found a lovely little chaise lounge that I decided would do just as nicely.

For the picture, I added a little pillow because I'm still working on the pads for the chaise lounge. I still had lots of the original material, so I'm making them from the fabric I used on the first one.

That's all for now..... Liz

Vintage Cats....

The Perfect Halloween Wreath...

Living in West Texas means everything outside gets dirty and if you try to keep outdoor things clean, you'll simply drive yourself batty, so to speak. I had made a wonderful coffee filter wreath earlier this year and no matter how many times I put the vacuum to it, it just got dirty again. It was also beginning to house all manner of spiders and bugs. While that can be pretty scary, it was really just ugly.

After all the glue gun blisters and time spent making the wreath, I wasn't about to toss it in the dumpster.

So, like every good crafter, I sought out my trusty can of black gloss spray paint. Within minutes, I had a totally new wreath and killed/covered all the creepy crawlies in one fell swoop.

I didn't want passers by to think we were mourning the death of someone, so I decided to add a little mini pumpkin. Necessity truly being the mother of invention, I finally decided to attach said pumpkin with 2 long wooden skewers. Once the skewers were securely in the styrofoam, I clipped them off with garden shears. And, because I'm OCD this way, I then colored the ends of the skewers with an orange marker. Yes, I did. Don't judge.

Lastly, I added some orange glittered ribbon to hang the wreath with. I really love the way it looks, don't you?

The big black feathery thing is my new witch's hat, which I adore, plus a little Halloween vingette just inside the front door. See if you can locate the the creepy fingers.......

Hello Beautiful!

So, it's only taken me 3 years to decide what I actually wanted to do with this blog (like I really need a third blog). I think the readers on my regular blog are getting totally bored with my obsession for spray painting everything I can get my hands on and all of my little *projects*, so this shall be the venue for my crafting, painting, etc. So, here we go! 

Honestly, I have to thank all the wonderful DIY bloggers for doing what they do. They gave me their *fever* and taught me how to handle it. They are my new best friends and they don't even know it!

Almost a month ago I found this *ugly Betty* TV cabinet at a local consignment store for $10.00. Actually, it was priced at $50.00 (how crazy is that?) but I talked the man down to $10.00 after pointing out all the problems with the piece. Besides, being that it's my first piece of furniture to re-do, I wasn't about to spend any more, just in case I totally ruined it, right?

When I got the cabinet home, I thought my dear hubby was going to have a stroke. He told me it was a piece of junk and to get it out of the house. He claimed it was the ugliest piece of furniture he'd ever laid eyes on, which isn't true because his parents had the absolute worst furniture ever. His attitude toward my new soon-to-be-a-treasure cabinet just made me that much more determined to prove him wrong. You'd think after 34 years of marriage he would have learned by now.

At first, I was afraid that I might have bitten off more than I could chew, but I decided to just dive in and get her done. As daunting as it was to remove all the hardware, I did learn about using the right size screwdriver for the job. I stripped all the screw heads and hubby was not happy that he had to finish getting them all out for me and I wasn't happy that I had to run up to the hardware store to buy new screws. But, lesson learned.

Also, the cabinet had no back so I bought some plyboard and had it cut to my specifications, then came home and nailed it on. Once painted, no one would ever know my little secret.

I was impatient to get this finished but forced myself to do the primer first, which is probably the most important step, next to sanding.

Next, I learned that I will eventually need to buy a paint sprayer for future projects of this size. My forefinger is still numb from all the spraying. Duh.

And still, I ended up brush painting it for the second coat because it just looked better.

I spray painted all the hardware and once everything was pretty much dry, I went through learning yet another lesson. It's a good idea to label the hardware and where it goes. Otherwise you'll feel like you're trying to solve a Rubik's Cube when trying to put it all back on. Let me just say that it took me a few tries before I got them back where they belonged. Duh. Again.

Anyway, I knew it was going to be my *learning piece*, but I still think it turned out wonderful. Oh, and guess who absolutely loves this piece now? That's right. The hubby. By the way, my real life name is Liz......