Jason’s Headboard Bench-Done at Last

Were you wondering if I would ever finish the headboard bench my daughter’s friend Jason asked me to make?

It’s done! 

Really and truly.

I just need to deliver it.

Heck, even I was wondering if I would ever finish it! 

You see, in case you hadn’t noticed, I have this awful habit of setting a project aside once I hit a snag with it.  

And sure enough, with Jason’s headboard bench I hit a few many more snags.

Let me refresh your memory, I had first used a poly shades stain and poly in one, with very bad results.  I then had to completely sand the entire bench again to get rid of the ugly botched finish. 

The second stain came out great! 

That was the last time I wrote about it.

That’s when I started hitting the snags. This time with the polyurethane finish.

After putting the bench in time out for a while (it festered in the far reaches of the garage for many weeks) I finally mustered up the energy to get back to it and finish.

I’ll spare you all the gory details, (hint, they involved even more sanding and re-staining!)

Somewhere along the way I managed to cover the seat cushion with the really beautiful, super heavy upholstery fabric Jason had bought for this piece.

I must say, I was pretty intimidated by the quality of this stuff! (and we all know I can’t sew for beans!)

Here’s a photo of the fabric taken in daylight.  The colors are so beautiful.

Jason decided throw pillows in the same fabric would complete the bench, so I picked up a couple pillow forms and sewed a basic cover for each. 

Nothing fancy here.  My sewing machine didn’t much like going through the heavy material.

Sorry about the glare, I had to do a photo shoot in the living room with some floodlights added.

The house has just been so dark lately and I didn’t want to drag this outside and risk scratching it.

The fabric colors look totally different in this light!

    

This is how the bed looked originally.

And here she is today.

   

I don’t think I’ll tackle another refinishing project soon. 

This one totally kicked my butt.

I sure do hope he likes it!

Linking up to these fun parties:

Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed’s

Saturday Night Special At Funky Junk Interiors

Taking Trashpicking to a New Extreme

I need help. 

Seriously.

Mike is ready to have me committed.

It’s bad.

To my credit, I’ve been a good girl lately; I haven’t curbshopped in ages….

and I even got Mike’s side of the garage all cleaned out so he can park in there yet again.

(this has become an annual ritual, I’m afraid)

So I didn’t think he’d be upset when I came home with a 300 400 pound trash can the other day.

Oh boy, was I ever wrong!

I kinda had to ask for help getting it out of the van so I HAD to tell him about it.

He totally flipped a gasket over this one.

(and maybe got a hernia too)

 

It’s just a run-of-the-mill concrete trash receptacle; they were very popular in the 70’s and 80’s at chain restaurants because they couldn’t be stolen or even blow away for that matter.

And it’s soooo heavy. I don’t know what it actually weighs, but I’m betting I’m not too far off the mark when I say 300 to 400 pounds!

They were going to throw it away at work.

That is, until I said I want it! 

It took 2 strong guys to slide it into the back of the van.

I can totally see this as a table base with a concrete top on it out next to our outdoor kitchen (which incidentally is sporting a new poured concrete top these days.) 

I know, I know, I haven’t blogged about that makeover yet….I’ve been holding out on you. 

Here’re a couple sneak peek pictures to give you an idea how it looks.

I thought since I already know how to work with concrete it’d be a no-brainer to make a form and pour the tabletop, maybe stain the base to match the brown base of the outdoor kitchen.

Somehow Mike just doesn’t see it.

Sigh

What about you?

Can YOU see it?

Would YOU have brought this home?

I need some support here.

Help me get out of the doghouse, pretty please?

Linking up to Junker Newbie’s “Would you Buy it Wednesday” party.

Can’t forget to link up to Linda’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday party over at Coastal Charm.  After all, what’s thriftier than FREE, right?

While you’re there, don’t forget to enter her Southern Lady Subscription giveaway!

UPrinting Postcard Winner!

We have a winner of the 100 postcards from UPrinting.com.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest, I wish all of you could have won!

But since I had to pick just one comment I ran them through the number generator and it chose number 3.

 

Linda, from A La Carte is the winner!

 

Looks like Christmas postcards with Tiger on them will be in the works.

Don’t forget to send me one too Linda! ;)

I’ll send your info in so you can claim your prize!

Have a great day,

UPrinting Postcard Giveaway!

Did you know that postcards are a great way to send invitations, announcements, or holiday greetings to your family, friends, or shop mailing list?  You can save money on postage by sending postcards those times an e-mail blast just will not do!

Online printing through UPrinting .com is a great way for you to create and design your own easily. 

Why, Uprinting.com offers just 2 business days print turnaround time.

That’s pretty quick.

And guess what?

Uprinting.com has offered to give 100 postcards to 1 lucky winner right here on my blog!

Here’s the prize details:

The winner of this giveaway (sorry, only 1 winner) will receive 100 5x7 postcards made with 14pt cardstock gloss.

The prize includes standard postcards printed on the front only. (Folded cards not included.) 

There’s a 2 business day print turnaround time and free shipping.

Entries limited to US residents 18 years old and above only. 

Having a big holiday open house?  These postcards would be just the thing to use as invitations. 

Or how about an engagement announcement?

There’re so many different ways to use these! 

As for me, I think a picture of our 3 dogs all decked out in their best Santa hat (Sandy) and Reindeer antlers (Katy and Yoshi) would make the cutest Christmas postcard to send to friends and family this year.

I’m curious, what would you use them for?

How to enter:

Simply leave a comment on this post telling me what you would use the postcards for if you win!(Be sure to include an email address in your comment if it isn’t on your profile page. )

One entry per person.

That’s it!

Entries will close at 10pm EDT, on Monday, Sept 26.  The winner will be announced on Tuesday. 

Sorry, but persons who have won a UPrinting giveaway within the last 6 months are not eligible to win.

*FTC Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given and I will receive 100 postcards of my own for hosting. (thinking of those Christmas postcards!)

Good Luck,

Plant Stand from Jason gets a New Look

It’s not that I haven’t done any projects lately, it’s more the picture taking that’s getting in my way.

I’ve got several things I’ve finished recently, but not a decent photo of anything. 

I really hate the fact that summer is coming to an end, why, it’s still dark at 6:30 am here!

And forget about doing anything after work, daylight is gone by 7pm.

Not exactly great conditions for taking project photos, know what I mean?

This little makeover was a quickie, done before I even knew it.

Remember the haul I got from my daughter’s friend, Jason?  The one who wanted the headboard bench made in return for the goodies?

(the bench which, btw, is still here, waiting for pillows to be made before I deliver it back to him)

In that assortment was this old plant stand. 

He had picked it up from the curb with all intentions of fixing it up. 

The top was broken off, if you look at the photo above the round top is on the chair. For the before photos I just balanced the top on the base to take the pictures.

T

The finish was in real rough shape.

 

Of course I forgot to take pictures of the fixing; basically I secured the top back on by replacing the broken part with a new piece of wood and gluing it all together.

The base was then painted with Glidden “True Turquoise” in satin finish.

I got a free quart back a couple months ago when Glidden had an online promotion, you could pick any color you wanted.

I really just slapped one coat on, then sanded it back along all the edges to show some of the wood tone. I thought I would have to rub some stain on it too, to tone it down, but the sanding did the trick. 

A coat of wipe on poly over the paint to give it a sheen and it was done!

The top got sanded down really well and then stained with a Mahogany gel stain.

Several coats of wipe on poly were added to protect the finish.

After I painted the piece I noticed the base was very wobbly as the pillar part was very loose. 

It  pulled apart easily.

See all the old glue residue? 

It’s important to sand that all away before adding more glue.

I used Gorilla wood glue to reattach the base. 

Clamping it and letting it dry overnight did the trick, no more wobbles.

  

Here it is as a clock stand.

(Nosy Katy decided to get in on my photo shoot.)

 

Let’s try it now with a plant….

OK, so it’s a fake plant, that’s all I can grow!

Here’s a side by side Before and After:

    

I’m really not sure what I’ll use it for yet.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

;)

Have a great day!

 

Linking up to Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life

Check it out!

Joining Stephanie Lynn’s Sunday Showcase party too!

Momma, I’m a Dirty Girl! (blush)

My mom reads my blog, so I’m making this little confession right here.  Something I haven’t been able to tell her in person. 

Something I still can’t quite believe myself.

Saturday, September 10th, I became a Dirty Girl by participating in the Dirty Girl Mud run held just south of Buffalo, NY.

Yea, me, running.  I’m sooooo not a runner, or a walker, or any kind of fitness buff.

But I stepped outside my comfort zone and signed on to do this 5k race with a group of friends from golf. 

(I may or may not have had a drink or 2 the night I agreed to do it; just saying)

The name of our team was “See you at the Finish Wine”. 

We had a riot getting together to decorate our tee shirts to wear for the race.

My Silhouette cutter came in handy for cutting out the wine glasses and bottles to iron on to the shirts. (thanks to Gail for helping me get it figured out)

This is a team photo of all of us before the race started.  (I’m the one on the far right)

 

The Dirty Girl race is an event for women only, of all ages.  It raises money for breast cancer research, awareness and education.

So, just 4 weeks ago I started training for this run in the early mornings. 

Have I mentioned I’m not a runner?

OMG, running is so hard! I started with the couch to 5k program but had to accelerate it since I didn’t have 12 weeks to train.

The 5k course also had 11 obstacles to overcome, the most famous being the mud pit that must be crawled through to get to the finish line.

Yup, a mud pit.  (hence the Dirty Girl name)

There's also a cargo net to climb over, tires to high step through, hay bales to climb, tunnels to crawl through, a mud hill to slide down, all in all  a bunch of challenges all along the way.

 

It was fun! 

I actually surprised myself by being able to run most of the course with just a couple stretches of walking.

By the end of the race we were all pretty dirty! 

Here’s our team “after” photo.

 

Here’s me before the race……all nice and clean.

And here I am after…..sliding down the mud hill on my belly was a riot!

 

We spent the night at a hotel in Buffalo and had a fun filled night out.  On the way back home we made a pit stop at the Outlet Mall for some bargain hunting. 

All in all, it was a great adventure!

Oh, and I almost forgot, somewhere along the way I agreed to run a race in October, and November, and December too. 

Not quite sure how that happened……

;)

Letters- would you have taken these?

Recently I happened to come across some contractors working on remodeling a convenience store. 

They were taking down some letters off the  top of a wall. 

I asked what they were going to do with the letters.

Throw them away, was the answer!

I couldn’t believe my ears.

Of course I then asked if I could have them instead.  ;)

And that’s how I got all these large letters.

This is what they originally said.

Would you have asked for them too?

Now of course, the question is, “What should I do with them?”

What would YOU do?

They’re currently all jumbled up in a box.

Are they doomed to gather dust in a corner for the next couple years?

Help me out here folks, I need to use these.

The red ones are my favorite,  they are about 4 inches high.

Naturally the first thing I could see was my name.

The medium letters are about 6 inches high.  

The largest letter is about 12 inches high.  I have 2 sets of Coffee.

I’m not seeing any other good words hidden in these letters. 

Do you see any?

What on earth should I do with them?

I’m going to link this up to Junker Newbie’s “Would you buy it Wednesday” party. 

I’m hoping for some help here!