Felt Flower Bouquets

For my wedding in 2011, I ditched the typical flower arrangements and made my own  brooch bouquet.  I'm going to let you in on a secret: making a brooch bouquet, from vintage and other found brooches, even when you're frugal, is not really that inexpensive.  I probably spent just as much on my brooch bouquets for my sister (my maid of honour) and myself as I would have on fresh cut flowers.

HOWEVER....

Felt & button flower bouquets are adorable, funky and much more affordable!  I made these bouquets for a friend's wedding for much less than we would have paid for fresh cut flowers.

We even made felt & button flowers which played double duty as table centrepieces and wedding favours at the end of the night.  Each flower had a handwritten 'thank you' note attached with the wedding date on the reverse.

I'm not going to say these took no time at all...they were pretty time consuming, but it was fun and affordable - and unique!

And these are my lovely friends on their wedding day (sorry, don't have one of them with the flowers yet!).  

Aren't they gorgeous?!  

Chairs! Chairs! Chairs!

Brace yourself, I've got lots of before & afters coming at you....

Funky, right?  This chair was sponsored by a really eclectic store that sells unique home furnishings and other oddities collected from across Canada & Europe...I guess that inspires antlers?  And sweater-chairs? 

Beautiful butterflies!  There are two of these beauties, refinished by a colleague of mine, and they're stunners. 

These farm stools are pretty awesome - they even spin!  I made it so that the 'stamp' can be customized for whoever wins these.  They can choose their own letters/numbers to personalize it. 

Faux fur throw and Hudson Bay inspired print on the pillow - this chair is sponsored by the New Canadians Centre, obviously! 

Not really much to look at when it's 'full frontal' (in buff beige, no less!), but a peek of colour on the back.  Surprise!  Not so boring after all. 

And I can't remember if I shared this "suit-able" chair before...it's covered in a wool suit fabric salvaged from a charity shop in town.

All the chairs are rescues and salvages, most from my trolling on Kijiji (good times!), and then lovingly refurbished.  They're auctioned off to support the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign - auction is Saturday night.

Can't wait!

So you don't know anything about drafting (and that's OK!)

And you don't have Photoshop or any other cool editing program...

Hey, that's OK!  Neither do I! 

I do all my photo editing using a MS program and created these Farm Table table top designs using MS Word.  Sometimes, you don't need the fancy stuff (although I've heard it's nice....real nice). 

• The first step was to turn on the 'grid' function so that I had what looks like graph paper (you can find that under 'View').  I also had to change the orientation of my page to landscape, and change the paper size to 11x14 to fit it all in.  
• Using the grid lines I went to Insert>Shape and selected a box/rectangle.  Then I counted out the size of my pieces of wood...one square = one inch.  The light grey rectangles vary in length but are 6" wide. 
• I made a bunch of 'wood planks' out of boxes and then I had fun playing around with patterns and designs. 
• Make sure you count out the proper sizes by using the grid as a guide!  The pieces  in option A are 6"x48", 6"x36", 6"x24" the short are 6"x12".  You have to count - otherwise you won't know how long your pieces are, or what to cut when you get to that part. 
• I added 'nails' by creating teeny tiny circles and then using copy & paste a lot.  *Hint*  It's easier if you create a row, then 'group' the individual circles, and then copy & paste the rows.  You can rotate the rows to get them running in the direction you need (ie: horizontally or vertically). 

That's pretty much it! 

So the farm table I made using Ana White's plans has been popular, and I have a request for another. 

This time I'm offering a couple of options for table top 'layout.'  Here they are:




Option A is a little more 'rustic' perhaps, giving the impression of more 'salvaged' wood, while Option B is a bit more 'streamlined.'



They're ready to send off now. 

Easy peasy!

Union Jack Chair - sponsored by the UK Shoppe

Check out this before & after! 

She's a beauty!  This year's YMCA Chairs for Charity event is keeping me extra busy.  I love all the chairs, but gosh, they take a lot of time!  Hug an upholsterer today - they deserve it! 

My Union Jack chair is made from an old shower curtain (the black & blue stripe fabric), an old velvet shirt (red stripe) and some damask print white fabric.  The black fabric is left over from last year's event and is a lovely, thick and heavy, black fabric. 

Hours of sewing at my vintage Singer (oh yeah, I finally got a sewing machine that [mostly] works), lots of staples, and all new foam padding inside. 

Jolly good!

Oh, and the cute little pillow I also made myself using my trusty Mac-Tac paper-and-paint technique. 

Ta-ta for now!

2nd Annual YMCA Chairs for Charity Event

Another excuse reason why my blog posts have been few and far between, recently, is that I've been pouring lots of my time into the YMCA Chairs for Charity event.  Old chairs get new life and are auctioned off in a fun evening event. 

The event raises money for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign which helps to subsidize youth programming for families that need it and kids who want to play! 

I have a couple of 'before and after' photos to post for you, and also think you should check out my post on folding upholstery corners since it's still one of my most popular! 

Local businesses sponsor chairs (to cover the cost of the refurbishing process) and we create chairs that represent the 'feel' or 'theme' of the business. 

For more pictures and sneak peeks into the refurbishing process, visit the Facebook event page. 

DIY: Pine Farm Table

 

After a loooong hiatus (oh, you noticed that, did you?), I'm back!

We moved, in a bit of a whirlwind affair, back in August and I finally found a workshop space in October and got the keys on November 1st!  I'm busy setting up shop now - and getting ready for another custom table order. 

Here's the first table I built from scratch.

I used the plans that Ana White offers on her website.  She calls it a Farmhouse table and the instructions are amazing! I printed mine out and added inches when I needed to - planning is the most important part!  I plotted out all my cuts so I knew what wood I'd need to buy and then I headed to Home Depot to pick up what I needed.  Ana's got a whole list of 'materials' as well as 'tools' and even a 'cut list.'  Could it be any easier?  No, is the answer, in case you were confused.

I assembled the table, filled all the holes, bashed it up with a hammer, and sanded the heck out of it! I stained the top with two different colour stains - Minwax's Espresso and American Walnut.  The final finish for the table top was about 5 coats of Varathane Diamond Floor Finish. 

On a sad note, or biggest little lady, Olive, went missing on October 26th.  She hasn't turned up and we miss her every day.  When we adopted the kittens, 'Miss Thing,' as we sometimes called her, was a fantastic mother.  She had so much love in her little heart, and we hope someone else might be sharing it with her today...if not, we know she lived a life full of love (and lots of cuddles!)

Olive can best be remembered as needing to have everything 'just so,' and demanding to have her belly rubbed with her signature 'stretch and roll' move, at least twice, daily. 

We miss you, Olive-branch.

DIY Subway Art Coffee Table Set

This table set turned out just as I'd imagined!

OK...I'd like to recommend you try this at home, but I've got to say....only try it at home if you have a) loads of free time or b) a Cricut or Silhouette or similar type machine.  I'm not blessed with one of those fancy machines so I do everything by hand.  I use lots of Contact/Mac Tac paper (the kind you can get at the Dollar Store for lining shelves or covering books) and teeny tiny nail scissors (or sewing scissors - even better!)  And I have a really steady hand.  If I'd had higher aspirations, I guess I should have been a surgeon.  In my next life.  You can read about how to create your own stencils when I used them on burlap pillows or my reproduction coffee sack chair. 

I've had a crush on subway art dressers and plaques for a while and wanted to use the style on another piece of furniture, so this little set fit the bill. 

I live in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and decided to make a word map based on our city.  I love it!  At first I wasn't sure if it was worth the effort, but when I sanded and distressed the lettering I knew it would work out as I imagined (trust me, sometimes it doesn't!).

I'd love to sell these tables as a set, but I already have someone interested in the coffee table (seriously, minutes after I posted it for sale!), so I'm happy to sell the separately. 

The two end tables are $65 each, or $120 for both.  Get 'em while you can! 

I'm linking up here: