TRANSFORMED: Swing Set

This weekend was BUSY! I've got a few more finishing touches on a LOT of projects that I can't wait to share, but today has got to be my fa-brit (that's how Baby Goats says "favorite").

My mother-in-law brought this ollllld, rustyyy swing set for the girls, but it was not pretty. So, obviously, that had to change.

First thing to do was to check the condition of it. This swing had been sitting in front of my mother-in-law's house, outside on the reservation, for at least 3 years....

Some "cool kids" (as I like to call them) tagged on the top of it..

There was rust all over the place.. But everything still seemed in good condition! Just faded, rusty and marked on.

I saw that the mesh fabric was held on with those bars and screws, so I knew it would be easy to switch out. And the rust wasn't corroding the metal... just ugly... So off to the store we went!

This fabric was from JoAnn's, and is a Waverly outdoor canvas. I couldn't find it online, but ask for the outdoor fabrics, and you'll find it. It was $19.99/yard, but we only needed half a yard. So it wasn't THAT bad.. I took the fabric into Lowe's and found perfectly matching spray paint (seriously?! SCORE!). They're Valspar's Exotic Sea (blue) and Tropical Foliage (green).

Took the ugly beast apart and sanded, sanded, sanded.

And primed, primed, primed...

And painted, painted, painted...

Without taking any pictures.

Because I rock.

In between paint coats, I cut the fabric to the size of the mesh and started working on that. The seats needed notches cut so that we could access the safety belts, so I marked where those were and stitched around it. The cut the inside of it out.

I just slowly sewed the fabric to the mesh, so I wouldn't have to do anything remotely "hard" (uhh, how often do I tell you that I'm a lazy bum? ;-)). I didn't even fold the edges under and hem it. Just put some fabric glue on the edges so that they wouldn't fray.

And put it all back together!

Just put the fabric over the mesh.

And we can use the seat belts! :-)

The baby LOVES it (well.. to be honest, I don't think she could care less, either way!)

Do you have an old, rusty, hopeless looking piece of equipment? Did you do any random transformations?

Paint swatches and crappy mock-ups

I've added a few more colors to my wall. Eventually, this is going to look like a board game made from blue and gray squares. Maybe I should start numbering them. And painting prizes in the squares...

The two newest colors are Valspar's June Morn (bottom of the middle row) and Olympic's Serene Stream (the loner on the left... not the far left... the "middle" left ?). And can I tell you that I love both colors?!

June Morn, the darker of the two, is a good version of the top right color. It's not as murky looking, and it's got a good blue to it (as opposed to the top right, which is very neutral and grayish). And I am quite surprised to say that I'm REAAAALLY leaning towards Serene Stream. I did not think that I would want such a light color, but I think I might be crushing a little....

Maybe it's because it reminds me of my inspiration photo?

I can't really say that THAT'S why I love it (not diggin' the color in that picture), but something is really making me want to paint that wall Serene Stream...

So.. in true Gina fashion.. We get a mock-up of what I'm wanting that wall to look like..

Let's go over a few things...

First, I have some green fabric that i want to recover the chairs in.. It doesn't look puke green, like in my mock-up. But I really want to tie a lot of green into the room, so I'll bring in the green chairs, green accents on throw pillows, and some knick-knacks on the shelf. I think adding the green (and taking the blue from the chairs) will make the blue wall "ok" - and make it so that not EVERYTHING in my main living area is blue.

That lighting fixture is one that I've been leaning towards. It's not "perfect", but it's pretty darned close to what I want (maybe I can find some new shades?). It's from Sea Gull Lighting, and it's about $250. I was hoping to find something for under $200, but I may have to up my budget a tad (I've got a few more choices pinned here).

And these darned pillows! From WAL MART, of all places... I JUST LOVE THEM!!!

I think it was these pillows that made me want to bring green into the room. When I first saw them, I wanted to buy like 10 and put them everywhere. L.O.V.E.

What're your thoughts? Should I just get over the light blue? Maybe pick a different fixture?

Oh, and in regards to yesterday's post... I showed that tramp tamper who's boss ;-)

Evicted!

Ever since my very first woodworking project, I've been working on my back patio. I don't have my own shop, don't really even have my own SPACE, and that just seemed like the best solution at the time.

We had no idea that my little woodworking adventure would turn out so successfully, and that I would keep accumulating tools like some women accumulate expensive handbags. Those have to go somewhere.. And the scraps/leftover wood? Who would have thought that there would BE so much?!

And using the back patio? Yeah, can't happen. 

This is what everyone sees when they look out my back door, too. Embarrassing! 

There are just so many things wrong with that whole set-up.

(not to mention the geckos that snack on the crickets who nest in the gap between the patio and the house - this guy's dead, and he's still there because Mr. Goats thinks it's funny that I'm too big a wuss to touch him to get rid of it is evil.)

But, hey!

We have a decently sized area next to the house, that you can't see unless you walk that way. Which means that, if we ever fix our yard so it's not too embarrassing to have people over, they won't have to look at my miter saw and wood stores. And we could actually use our back patio as, get this.... A BACK PATIO!

So this past weekend, Mr. Goats and I killed all the plants on that side of the house

Moved all the crap away (I'm still gonna have to find something to do with the smoker... crap)...

And cleared most of the rocks.

This was the end of Day 1. I know it's hard to grasp the sheer amount of crushed granite rocks over there, but the previous owners of this house must've gotten a really good deal... because they were 8-12" deep in some areas.

Day 2 was spent marking off the new site, and leveling it out.

Laser levels come in SOOOOOO handy (my step-dad gave me this, and I would have never thought it would help me out so much!)

And by end of Day 2, my 8'x10' work site is all cleared and level!

Now, if I can ever get off my lazy bum, my goal for today is to have a date with a tramp..

Er... Tamper.

;-)

source

Hopefully I'll get the area all flattened and framed out so that we can get some concrete poured!

After I have another cup of coffee :-)

What'd you guys do over the holiday weekend? And major projects? Tramping? Or tamping... whichever...

One, two, TRIO...

The winner of the Dremel Trio iiiiisssssss.... (totally feel like I'm opening an envelope, and taking an annoying amount of time as I count who comment #

TWENTY-SEVEN!

Is Denise!

Congratulations, Denise! Go! Check your email!!!

For everyone else, I felt like my heart sank when I could only announce one winner. But keep checking my site, causing blogger to pay me one tenth of a penny (or something stupid like that), and when it adds up to another Trio, I'll do another giveaway!

Looking back

Can I just have you stare in amazement with me, for a sec?

I was looking through old photos, and found the "before" picture of my kitchen.

Wow.

I'm still in disbelief that there were actually pink countertops at one point. And ORANGE cabinets!

I sent it to Mr. Goats, asking if he could believe that it used to look like that, and he wanted one of it now... So the right side is my kitchen as of about 3 minutes ago (remember, I don't clean for close friends! :-p).

And to think, the biggest part of this transformation was just painting the countertops (which are holding up surprisingly well after nearly 2 years!), and gel staining the cabinets. Not bad for $80!

(There was also the hinge switch, some hardware added, and a lot more procrastinated on...)

Blocked!

I would LOVE to be writing about the Valentine's Day gift I built for my husband, but it was so overcast when we were outside playing with it, that no pictures turned out well. Ahhh well.. Guess that means we get to take it out again to play ;-)

You're gonna love it.

Instead, I want to tell you where I'm getting with the curtains.

Totally stickin' with my swoon-worthy cup inspiration that I talked about here.

I need to repeat the patterns on the curtain panels more times that I'll want to count, I'm sure, so my first thought was to create a stencil.

Um.. that idea was short-lived. If you know how stencils work, you'll see that there was no way all of those details can be replicated in a stencil. I'd have to put a big stencil with the outline, an inner stencil (perfectly spaced) inside most of them, and hope that nothing moved while I worked.

No thanks.

But stamps would do the trick!

I don't happen to have stamps... or a way to make stamps... But I do have plenty of wooden scraps, some Photoshop know-how, and elementary transferring techniques.

Oh, and a Dremel Trio...

The first thing I did was open the image of the cup in Photoshop, and basically make a coloring book-like image of the shapes from the cup. Then I cut scraps into sizes a little bigger than the images. There was no real precision here. Just put a piece of wood next to the shape, and marked about an inch over so I would know where to cut it.

Next, I traced over one of the shapes with a pencil (you can tell by the shiny marks in the photo).

Turned the paper over, placed the shape in the middle of the block, and colored over the outline of the shape (pressing firmly to transfer my pencil marks to the wood).

Ta da!

I marked the spots that were supposed to be removed with an "x", and took the block outside to work. I used my Dremel Trio's cutting bit (it's the one you would use as a jigsaw), and did a rough outline of the shape, and cut out the middle of the flower.

Finally, I used the straight routing bit to remove the rest of the wood, creating my block stencil! I also touched up some of the edges at this point.

Of course you have to test it, too (and if you have kids, THEY'RE gonna want to test it after you).

I just have a couple more to make, and then I can move on to the curtains. Can we say, "EXCITED!"?

If you want to make something like this, head on over to the Dremel Trio giveaway!

Unsponsored and lovin' it

You guys... I've been asked many, many times if I would think about having sponsors on my blog. And, while I LOVE the idea of some extra cash... I can't convince myself to add sponsors. I mean, you see some ads here and there, but I don't have to do an annoying post dedicated to them every month, and you can pretty much ignore them. There aren't any sponsored giveaways, there aren't any "I'm paid to write something about this" posts.. Because I hate when other bloggers do that!

If I never get any income based on this tiny little plot of blogland, I'll be more than fine with that!

So, if you're interested in funding this little lady, but request that I have giveaways and product reviews... I'm going to politely (or, maybe even not-so-politely) say "no, thank you". You can take your money elsewhere.

P.S. To enter my UNSPONSORED-I'm-doing-this-because-i-love-you-guys giveaway, go here :-)

What, what, whatcha want, whatcha want? (Giveaway)

**** THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ****

I bet *I* know what you want!

I have the chance to give one lucky winner a Dremel Trio!

If you follow me on Facebook, you'll see that I was reluctant to have a giveaway. To be honest, I'm kinda "over them". But you know what?

This isn't about me!

This is about YOU! You guys come over and encourage me... you deal with my zig zaggy train of thought... You somehow manage to read my blog! And I'm flattered!

This post is in no way sponsored by Dremel. I just want to do this for you guys (and I wish I could give everyone one!) because I've grown to really, really love my Trio! And I know you will too!!!

So! To enter, I'm not going to have you jump through a million hoops... just two ;-)

For one entry:

LEAVE ME A COMMENT! Just tell me what you'll use your trio for!

Additional entry:

Go to PureBond's Facebook page, scroll down to find my picture and "like" it. Then leave a comment here telling me that you did so.

(here's the picture you're looking for)

Now for the fine print...

This giveaway will close on Friday, February 17, 2012, and the winner will be drawn from random.org. Make sure you use your email in the contact form, or leave your email in the comment so that I can contact you if you win! And I'm sorry, but this can only be shipped in the States and Canada.

Good luck!

(pin this!)

Hang Man

I'm so terrible at suspense, I have to put the "progress" shot! Because... well.. LOOK AT IT!

Obviously, if I were a good blogger, I wouldn't have left the pet food, my purse, the thread, my ever-present coffee and that ugly white trash can lingering in that picture... but... we're friends! And I can't get myself around to putting the groceries away for a true "almost-after" shot... so deal.

Do you remember the curtains that I put in there before?

Gosh, I miss my blue wall :'(

Well, I never was happy with them. They were too country-looking for my tastes, but I dealt... I really had no idea where I wanted to go with the dining room (and I definitely did not know that I'd be knocking down the wall, leading me to repaint my beautiful blue wall, repainting my wall art, and opening the space between these curtains and the living room curtains!).

After I built the bar and repainted the wall, I knew that there was no way the yellow curtains could stay. So I tried and tried and tried to find some curtains that would look good with the curtains in the living room (there's only about 10' between the two sets), and I wanted to incorporate a few other colors into the scheme. Obviously there was no way I would find curtains (or even fabric) that would satisfy my very specific needs... So I went to Ikea and picked up a pair of Lenda curtain panels. The site says they're $30, but I got mine for $20... so I don't know what's up with that. 

In addition to the curtain panels, I bought some acrylic paints, some fabric paint medium, and I had my inspiration piece on-hand.

Go ahead, my child... SWOOON! I still do, and I've had that thing for months!

But after I hung those... ya know what? I think I'm gonna live with the white for a few days... I'm totally lovin' the airy brightness they add to the whole area!

What do you think? Should I just dye them blue to match the ones in the living room? Or stay true to my swoon-worthy cup?

The state of my living room

If you were to come over right now, you would see a raggedy, chocolate faced toddler, and this...

I've trimmed, caulked, and begun priming the no-longer-an-archway to the den!!!

Well, let me back up, so yo can see the mess whole thing...

DO YOU SEE THIS?!?! There are like.. HALLWAYS! and defined entrances! And... dirty clothes next to the bathroom no more arches!!!

Wait, I know we've all already forgotten what it looked like before...

(the only "before" I could find - man, I really need to use laundry baskets! :-p)

I'll make a better attempt for photos after we paint the walls so the white trim stands out more. Trust me... it's awesome.

Oh, speaking of paint...

Here's another wall in my living room, as we speak..

BLUE!!!

Ok, this isn't as gnarly as my widow-maker wall, but let's talk about this for a few..

The two, big squares on either side of the couch are Benjamin Moore's "Aspen Skies". I saw this picture on west elm's website, and almost DIED over this color.

Only to have it look like a little boy's room in my house... Fail.

So the top squares, going left to right, we've got Valspar's "Celebration Blue", Valspar's "Jekyll Club", and Valspar's "Blue Arrow". The color of the wall now is Valspar's "Stony Path", and the wall on the right is Benjamin Moore's "Revere Pewter" (the color that made me want to dry hump my wall... but i do NOT like it on this wall! It looks beige!)

I've already decided against Blue Arrow. It just looks too serious in my house. Jekyll club is really pretty, but it looked close to navy before the sun came up a little more. Celebration blue is a GORGEOUS color, but it kinda looks like blue jeans. Makes me think that I should get my cowgirl boots on and go line dancing.... Not that I think that's a bad thing (I mean, it wouldn't be if I knew HOW to line dance).

Oh, what about the bright green painter's tape, you ask?

Well... Let's just look for a minute...

Can I stroke that photo lovingly?

What makes this gallery wall so special, to me, is the beautiful lighting dedicated to it. I've been on the hunt for track lighting that's long enough to cover the back of the sofa, that doesn't have a crap-ton of lights, and is under $200.

Needless to say, I'm having no luck.

But my goal is to get some sort of lighting up there to dedicate to the gallery wall I'm planning (I was planning on building all of the frames, but Michael's is having a b1g1 free sale next week on frames, so it might just be cheaper to buy them, since I'd have to buy the glass for the one's I built, anyway... we'll see).

And now that I've wasted an hour writing this post, I guess I should probably get back to my living room. And maybe do some laundry...

Maybe..

What's goin' on in your living room right now?