Feather Print Valet Chair

These are the kinds of pieces I love. When they come about in an almost serendipitous way. 

I threw this piece in the back of my jeep on our first Saturday back on Kauai in August. Since I normally work Saturdays, my garage saling time is limited to the few Saturdays I get off throughout the year. The carved flowers and lime green seat made it difficult for me to picture this piece in any color other than 70s orange. But I'm not crazy, so I let it sit until I could think realistically. 

About 4 months later I went downstairs and my husband had given this piece a good sanding. I convinced him to paint it in a Martha Stewart metallic glaze color called coffee. He wanted to prime it, I wouldn't let him. 

Well after 2 coats of metallic glaze, it was looking pretty bling-a-licious. I went down the next day and he had sanded it almost all off, save all of the crevices. It looked awesome! 

It was about 4:00pm and a package of fabric had just come from fabric.com. I was bummed cause it was all canvas/upholstery grade, when I thought I had ordered 100% cotton for my headbands. My disappointment was short lived when I realized the feather print was perfect for this chair! 

We put on the new fabric and a few coats of wax and this piece was done. 

I'm so glad it's not retro orange. 

I absolutely love valets and don't think people understand how useful they really are. They have one spot to hold your keys, phone, jewelry, watch, etc., and then a spot to hang your jacket or to throw a pair of pants over it. This one has a seat, perfect for sitting down to tie your shoes or set down your purse. If everyone had one of these next to their beds, the bedroom would be 100% more orderly. My husband actually has one and he loves it. 

This one is for sale for $125. Local Kauai pick up only. Email me if you're interested, or go straight to the Etsy listing here. 

Aloha, Rebecca

Read more ...

Valentine's Day Past...

I shared some fun V-Day projects in 2012, and since I'm not motivated to make more V-Day projects this year, I'll re-share them. After all, how much valentine's bunting can someone have? 2 sets are good enough for me :)

#1- DATES TO REMEMBER:

Using a $6 canvas, my current "it" fabric, (which I've used on the no-sew tin and the pillow cover), some Modge Podge, scrapbook paper and a great new font, I made this for my husband, Kit, last year. It has been pinned over and over since last year, so I'm kind of stoked on that!

This is where Kit decided it should live:

It's on a shiloh-colored shelf (which matches the desk and mirror in this post), next to Kit's side of the bed. That's his grandfather's watch in front of it. He passed away in August 2010. Our friend from Slovenia took those pics of Ivy last April and he and his girlfriend had them framed for us. (The one on the right ended up in a Slovenian catalog!!) The ceramic dog is one of Kit's high school art projects.

I like the shine of the Modge Podge. And you can see the brush strokes.

to see the original post, click here

#2- V-DAY BUNTING:

I made a full size version of this heart bunting, and then a mini version.

Aloha means love!

to see the original post, click here

#3- HEART GARLAND:

To get in the Valentine's Day spirit last year, I decided to make some Heart Garlands. I first started making garlands when I came across this post from www.danamadeit.com last Fall. MADE is the first blog I ever followed! Search "garland" on her blog and a ton of posts will come up. 

I bought a $0.26 sheet of red felt and a mistake pink felt the other day at Walmart, then dug out the white felt from Christmas. Then I started cutting out hearts. 

 For the edges of the garland, (to tie it to something), I used this vintage ribbon that has adorable little hearts and flowers on it. 

 It's so simple to make... you just sew across the felt.

 Then I hung it in Ivy's room, in front of one of her windows.

It's right behind her butterfly mobile that used to be above her crib, and is now above her big girl bed.

I liked it so much, I wanted to make a head wreath for Ivy... a.k.a. a haku lei here in Hawaii... out of felt hearts. Hahahaha. I figured, she's 2 years old, I can get her to wear it at this age. 

 I twisted the angles of the hearts to go sideways.

She loved it. And wore it all night at dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. ALL NIGHT.

to see the original post, click here

And that's it for my past V-Day posts.

Happy Valentine's Day!

--Becca

Read more ...

What I made for Kit for Valentine's Day...

I know. I know. Valentine's Day is over. But I couldn't post it before/on V-Day because I didn't want Kit to see it. So, here it is now. I can't remember exactly which blog(s) I saw it on, but this is an idea floating around blog-world. Plus, my husband doesn't read blogs, so it's new to him!

To start, I went out and bought a $6 canvas. Was trying to find some other hard surface that I could upcycle and potentially hang on a wall, but gave in and spent the $6.

Then I chose my current "it" fabric, (which I've used on the no-sew tin and the pillow cover), and cut it so I could fold it over the back. Don't worry, there's not much more of this brown/cream foliage fabric, so you'll probably only have to endure a few more posts that include it...

I've recently (as of last Monday, yes, the day before V-Day) begun to use Modge Podge for the first time ever. So, I covered the canvas with the Podge, then placed it front-side down, and then folded the edges over and "modged" those.

A few days earlier I had downloaded a ton of new fonts, figured out our "important dates" and printed it out onto a sage-colored scrapbook paper cut to size.

After another layer of Modge Podge dried on the outside of the fabric, I placed the paper on the fabric and put another layer of the Podge on it.

Now this is where Kit decided his gift should live:

It's on a shiloh-colored shelf (which matches the desk and mirror in this post), next to Kit's side of the bed. That's his grandfather's watch in front of it. He passed away in August 2010. Our friend from Slovenia took those pics of Ivy last April and he and his girlfriend had them framed for us. (The one on the right ended up in a Slovenian catalog!!) They just had a daughter and I sent them the baby bunting in this post a few weeks back. The ceramic dog is one of Kit's high school art projects.

I like the shine of the Modge Podge. And you can see the brush strokes.

Aloha,
--Becca

Read more ...