DIY - Pop of Red / Coral Pillow

Taking the color pallet for the front room from the area rug, I decided that my pop of color would be red. According to HGTV, the best way to add that pop was by accessorizing.

As I mentioned here, I sewed a bunch of couch pillows and they turned out great, but I was still missing that POP of color.

While we were flying home I was browsing thru the fly mall magazine. I saw something like this pillow

and thought HEY! I could make that in red!

I didn't have a craft store and teach a ga-zillion classes for over a decade for nothing!  Made myself a mental note of what I would need to make my POP.

I choose a rough cotton as the base. Thought it would be nice and sturdy and would hold up well. I also bought fabric dye and zippers - I was in business!

Quickly I prewashed the fabric and sewed two simple pillows - here are my instructions for that.

I used a trouser hanger to hold the pillow in the dye.

I was discouraged.

The fabric was NOT sucking up the dye the way it should. I tried all kinds of things and it just wasn't happening. I even tried wetting the fabric and it hardly took on the water!

I thought I'll try some salt where the dye did take, to get this effect.

Interesting tidbit: Salt will absorb the dye (in this case silk paint), leaving an interesting pattern behind.

Didn't work either. Considering our humidity here, I'm guessing my salt was too "wet" to do any kind of absorbing.

While I was taking the 2nd pillow out of the dye it dropped in and ruined it. 

Crud...

Not wanting to cry over spilled milk, I went ahead and just dyed them both all red. Since parts of both pillows were in the dye longer, they turned out two toned.

I then thought - WAIT A MINUTE - Fabric paint! I could paint a coral pillow. Coral would go well with the beach-ie theme I have going on. Added bonus is that I could create such a pillow at a much better price than what a finished, fancy pansy, designer pillow would cost. 

S0 that's what I did. I went to Ben Franklins and bought a textile medium and a slightly off white paint.

Using a vanishing maker I drew my vision of a coral branch

I covered a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and put it inside the pillow

To make it a bit taunt, I stretched the fabric across the cardboard and taped it in the back.

According to the instructions on the textile medium you need 2 parts acrylic paint and 1 part of the medium. Easiest way to do it is to make three same size dots of paint and then mix them together.

I had to paint two coats because the red kept bleeding thru.

Red loves to do that you know....bleed thru....

All done! Now I have to wait a few days to let it set, then it could be washed.

And here it is, my finished pillow and I like it!! Now all I have to do is figure out what I would like to paint on the other pillow case.

Shared this post on the following blogs:

Coastal Charm

Under the Table and Dreaming

Sugar Bee Crafts

Get out of my head {Please}

Aloha a Hui Hou!

The Light Room

I don't know why I call it the light room, because it wasn't really was't light. Maybe because it is lighter than the wood room?

Maybe....

West facing wall

The dark green paint on the one wall made my painting hand shake with fear. 

I know I was going to have to prime that sucker to DEATH, and that's exactly what happened. To prime this small room I needed a whole gallon of primer...yes, a WHOLE gallon. I was so frustrated and tense that my right hand started to hurt and I had to beef up the handle of the paint roller to ease the grip of death. 

Then I thought a bigger roller might make a difference, but it didn't it just sucked up and held more paint, didn't cover any better.

In the upper most corner above the doorway there was one spot of blue, that even after 2 coats and several more dabs of primer, just kept bleeding through.

I ended up taping a very thin layer of masking tape and  painting over that. THAT finally did the trick.

The closet, keep the doors? New doors? Keep the doors? New doors?

I did have the carpenter come take a look at them and see if they could be saved and he said he could do what I wanted, but I don't think that it would look any better. It would still be the tired door, frame and trim, just with a bit of routing done to it. 

I have to face the music and will reface the closet and have new doors and drawer fronts made. Some time down the line. 

I'll keep you posted.

Promise...

It took me a whole day to paint this room and NOW you can call it the Light Room.

It's light and airy and I really love how the wood floors pop!

We didn't move the bed over till the last day we were there, so we haven't slept in there yet. I wonder if we will sleep as cozy and warm as we did in the wood room...

There are some things I did come to realize though:

1. This room is either a foot or so narrower than the wood room or the window is bigger because there is very little space on the side of the bed in the corner (thought they measured the same, go figure). 
2. I won't be able to get the night stand lights that I had been dreaming of
3. I'm glad we didn't do the reclaimed wood on the headboard wall. It would have very over powering and would have crushed the size of the room. I went online and found there is wall paper that looks like reclaimed wood. That might be an option. Or I'll get the birch tree stencil I was looking into in this entry.
4. Oh and we DO need a feather bed - which we bought when we went shopping at IKEA
5. I'm going to have to shop/sew some kind of curtain. I'm thinking something airy, gauze like, swept to one side.

PS: Since this picture was taken we have had white blinds installed.

That's all for now.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

From Drawings to Reality

OK, last entry about the kitchen...for now...I promise.

When we were at the house last year I sketched, on scrap paper, what I envisioned the kitchen should look like.

While sorting thru some papers, I was happy to find that the contractor had saved them. Yay David and Lisa!

So cool to see that the kitchen turned out almost EXACTLY the way I sketched it (will get to that below).

Down to the lamp, just the way I hoped it would look like.

Closing those shelves make the place look so much tidier. 

Great looking wall of cabs - amazing amount of storage!

Here is where we made a slight change. I skipped the plate rack and opted for a spice cabinet.

Amazing what can happen when you get the right team together. Thank you again Lisa and David and the rest of the crew!!

Aloha a Hui Hou

Biology Lesson

When walking on the beach as often as I do, you notice things. Things that change. Something is different.

On this day I noticed a dark wavy line, stretching across the beach.

Looking more closely I noticed that it was much courser sand, pieces of shell, little bits of vegetation, sea glass (haven't found glass in a long, long time). This was all tone in tone, browns, beiges and creams.

As I walk along I start seeing tiny spots of purple and wonder what the heck is that? 

I bend down and see that it's little purple shells and they were all over a small stretch of the beach. Hundreds of them.

So tiny and yet so much detail!

Love the warm glow of the morning sun.

Now wait a minute,  here was something different. This one seemed to have a float, just like a Portuguese Man of War jellyfish.

Let me blow this up for you

Got me thinking of an acquaintance of mine, John Hoover. 

John wrote "The Books" on Hawaii sea life.  Tirelessly gathering information on fish and invertebrates. So I dropped John a quick note, with photos, asking what this might be. Here is his response. 

"The purple shells are called "Violet Snails" - Janthina janthina and they eat Portuguese Man of War jellyfish." 

And just as I thought, he goes on to say that if the wind changes they get swept on shore.

Now that I had a name I researched a bit more and found this here:

The violet snail is a marine gastropod that spends its whole life drifting on the ocean surface in warm seas, floating on a bubble raft of its own making. It feeds on jellyfish, such as the By-the-wind-sailor, Velalla velalla, or the Portuguese man-o-war, Physalia physalis. It starts life as a male and becomes female over time. The violet snail, Janthina janthina, also known as the violet shell snail and purple bubble raft snail, is holopelagic, meaning it spends its entire life cycle on the open sea. It secrets mucus from its foot which binds bubbles together in a raft, on which it floats freely on the ocean, in equatorial and temperate waters. Its shell is 3-4 cm in size, light and fragile, and is a dark purple at the widest part, fading to a light purple at the narrow top. Its body ranges from dark purple to black. Violet snails are protandric hermaphrodites, meaning they are born male and develop into females over time. Fertilization is internal, but males lack a penis, so there is no direct mating. Instead, the males release their sperm into a case that drifts to a female, where the sperm fertilizes the eggs. The eggs develop internally and are born live, with the tiny purple snails immediately able to build their own rafts. They use their feet to agitate the water, creating bubbles, which they bind together with mucus. If the bubble raft ever breaks apart, the snail will sink into the ocean and die."

Lastly, I took a pic of one of the shells next to a pin. Just so you get a feel for the size.

And that, was your biology lesson of the day!

Aloha a Hui Hou! 

DIY - Simple Pillow

While thinking about what I want to use, to bring color into the front room, pillows are one of the first things that popped into my mind.

I went shopping and have you looked what couch pillows cost lately? OMG!

Well at least the ones that I liked were pricey. They cost more than a steak dinner for two!

My alternative was to sew my own. I could get fabric for about 4 to 8 dollars a yard, a zipper, some thread and my time...easy enough.

While we were still in Idaho I took a paint sample to the local Joann's store and went fabric hunting. I found a nice assortment of fabrics that would fit nicely.

The ocean colors and my pop of red.

While some of you might be avid sewers, others might not be. So here is my quick way to make a simple couch pillow.

For my simple pillow I used 1/2 yard of fabric, 14" zipper and matching thread.

1) Fold the fabric, right sides together, woven edges matching. 

2) Fold the zipper in half and the fabric in half the long way. Using a piece of tailors chalk mark the middle.of each. 

3) Pin it together

4) Line up the middle mark on the zipper up with the middle mark on the fabric (as in pic above).

5) Using the zipper as a guideline now mark the space that will be the opening. I make the opening a touch smaller than the zipper

6) Now it's time to pull out the machine. I sew a 2.5cm (1") seam and start with a 2.5 stitch

Oh and yes, my sewing machine is sewing much better now, thank  you very much.

7) When I reach the first chalk mark I back stitch a few stitches (I do this to secure my seam so  that when I open the middle part for the zipper, the rest of my seam will stay closed. More about that below).

8) From this point on I lengthen my stitch to 6 (which is basically a basting stitch). When I reach the last chalk mark I back stitch again and finish off  the seam with a 2.5 stitch. Now that part is done! Bravo!

9) This is where I cut my fabric to size. By folding my fabric to a triangle and cutting away what is standing over at the top, I get a perfect 18"x18" square.

10) Next I iron the seam open. When I pull the fabric apart a bit you can see the difference in stitches.

11) Place the zipper face down so that the chalk marks line up and that teeth of the zipper line up with the seam.

12) Switch out your pressure foot for the zipper foot. I set my machine that the needle will stay down when you stop - makes turning easier.
Start sewing just behind the chalk mark, this is the start end of the zipper.  Notice I have the zipper open a bit. The reason being, the pull is so chunky and it pushes the zipper foot off to the side and it makes me sew a wavy line.
Once I'm past it I lift my zipper foot and I close the zipper. Repeat this when I pass it on the way back up.
Next I sew till I reach the bottom of the zipper where have another chalk line. Lift the pressure foot, make a quarter turn and sew across the zipper and then repeat to sew back up the other side of the zipper. Finished it off with a few back stitches when I reached my starting point.

14) Using a seam ripper I opened the part that I sewed with the long stitches.

15) Open the zipper - I forgot to do this once and basically had a closed square piece of fabric. Had to fart around with it a bit, to get the zipper open so I could turn the pillow. 

See? A nice, hidden zipper!

16) This is where I sewed all the way around - 1" seam. After that I trim off about half of the seam allowance and cut the corners on a diagonal (so that when you turn your pillow out side out you have nice pointy corners and not lumps of fabric).

17) I like to zigzag the edge so it doesn't fray easily.

18) Turn, press if needed and stuff the stuffing in there and your pillow is done!

So far I've made almost 20 pillow cases....don't know which I will wind up using, but I sure am having fun!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Forth of July

Happy 4th of July everyone and Happy Birthday America! Thank you to all, past and present, that have given so much for our country.

Aloha a Hui Hou

Mantle Clock

So I finally got to put my little hands on it. The mantle clock I discovered on Craigslist and mentioned a few months ago.

The wood needs some TLC, I need to replace one of the feet in the front and the glass is scratched up a bit - but over all a real treasure.

On this trip I wanted to do so much more, but all I could do for the clock was put in a new quartz movement.

It was easy enough to take apart and put in a new movement, especially if you have been putting quartz clocks together for as long as I have.

The tapered shaft of the new movement had a different shape so I was not able to reuse the original hands of the clock. The ones that were included with the movement were gold, don't dig that too much - But the clock works!  As far as the hands go, I'll paint them next time, maybe even swap them out.

All in all, knowing that I can keep the existing face plate and just have to clean up the wood makes me very happy.

I placed it on the mantel for now, hoping to put it on top of the hutch once we have that in place.

Can't wait to get my hands on it again!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Wingback Chairs Part III

And here we are,  back to the chairs. I knew this would be one thing that I would like to get while we were at the house because it's not fun to have no other place to sit than on the bed.
Before we left I was hunting Craigslist and I did write to two folks on that were each offering a pair of wingback chairs that also reclined. One set was tan color (which would have been my first choice), the others were blue with brown slipcovers.

Neither responded.

I wrote them off.

To my surprise, just as we got there the one selling the blue chairs wrote that they had been out of town and had put the chairs up for sale at a consignment store in Eagle.

We decided to go take a look

With the help of the Garmin lady we found our way to the store and the chairs looked pretty good and were reasonably comfortable - so we bought them.

Yay! More seating options!

Yay! More seating options! (Sorry, I didn't take a picture of them - but you can see a bit in this clip)

ANYway, while I was unpacking boxes I came across some fabric I purchased some time ago that I thought I might want to use as curtains - it just might work great as fabric for the chairs. I just would need to go back and see if they still have some because I don't think I have enough for 2.

In review, although the fabric is pretty cool, it just might be toooooo busy. I'll have to think a bit more.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

The Artist

On our trip we found a little more out about the lady that used to own our house. As I posted before, she was a metal artist and made beautiful things. She even made something for the town of Caldwell:

It is a pedestrian bridge in the heart of Caldwell. If you look, just beyond the bridge you'll see a pavilion. Is is in this area they hold the weekly farmers market.

Couldn't resist putting a bit of blue sky in there. It was actually a pretty rainy day.

Looks like water scene with ducks, swans and herons

She achieved contrast by polishing some surfaces and flaming others.

Relt right at home when I saw the gecko.

This part depicts the salmon run. I was amazed to learn that the salmon actually swim all the way upstream into Idaho to spawn.

We were told the eagles, that I posted here, were ordered by Canada for the Olympics. They ordered 3 and then only took 2. Which was a great financial loss for her. She also made a mountain lion for some nearby town. Next time we will have to take a tour, looking for her other art pieces.

So sad to think that she has carpel tunnel so bad that she can no longer create such beautiful things.  Lastly we heard that she no longer lives in Idaho.

Aloha a Hui Hou.