Cabinet project re-make

After moving most everything back into our house from our "almost" move, I realized a few things, well honestly, more than a few things either needed to go, or needed to be refreshed or redone.  One of the things that needed to have a redo was an old set of shelving that we've had since Skylar was born.  I actually bought the shelving to put in Skylar's nursery to allow more places to stash baby goods.  The color of it then was an older brown color and about a year later I repainted it a darker brown and added an accent color of light blue to the top.  Well, I liked the top, but I got to where I hated the brown.

I had taken advantage of the free paint samples that Ace Hardware did one summer a few years ago and got a turquoise as a sample.  I wanted it to match some turquoise confetti I have had for awhile and you can see the color match on the top of the can.  Every so often Lowe's and Home Depot will have paint sample giveaways and all you have to do is show up with the card, or the day of and claim your free sample.

You can see the older brown color here.  Of course it wasn't bad, but needed a redo for sure.

I laid newspaper down on my floor and tested the color against the brown just to make sure it would cover it completely.

Then started painting.

I went ahead and did a light coat on the back as well, just to make everything more uniform in color.  Although I only used one coat on the back, it looks a lot better than blue paint drips.

I finished the back, sides, and top first and let them sit to dry overnight before painting the front.

After the first coat I realized I loved the contrast of the brown selves against the blue color.  I decided to leave them brown and paint the inside shelves blue.

I loved how it looked as I was painting the other side.  I wish the other shelves had gotten a coat of brown paint as well, but I think they will look great blue.

Once the inside and the door dried overnight, I noticed the brown under the door and side panels needed another coat of paint.  But it looks more aged and vintage if I just left them with one coat.  I liked the way it made the side panels and door look as if it was worn.  I had antiquing wax and used some in the corners, but since the brown paint underneath gave it the look I was wanting, I didn't have to use much at all.

You can see some of the antiquing wax here on the side.

After the paint completely dried, I stresses the sides and corners with some fine-grit sand paper to make it look even more antiqued.

And the finished shelves.  It now sits in our laundry room/mud room and stores all of our essentials needed for random occasions.  See our bowl of flashlights? 

The blue on brown really gives it a nice contrast and pop of color.

Hopefully I can tackle the old door sometime this summer and really bring it all together.

Now to find the perfect door pull to really give it some character.

Eco-Tip:  Furniture now days is made with mostly particle or paper board that's been pressed together.  Finding an old piece of solid wood furniture that isn't outrageously priced is rare indeed.  Consider checking out second-hand stores or thrift stores to find an older, well used piece and giving it new life with a coat of paint and/or a good sanding.  You will be pleasantly surprised at how wonder it is to gift new means to an old piece that would have been otherwise forgotten.  For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me:  Go Green.

Make an owl costume

This year for Halloween, The Bean went as an owl.  We have always made it a tradition to make the Halloween costumes and The Bean comes up with some good ones! Even growing up, my own mom made a lot of the costumes that we wore for Halloween night and that tradition seeped over into my adulthood.  Each year, since he was a baby, I have made, sewn, stitched, glued, and sweat over his costume. He has been everything from a jalapeno pepper (when he was a month old), to a cloud (when he was six).  It's sort of "our thing," So this year he decided he wanted to be an owl.

He told me about his costume idea in late August and my mind went to work on how to make it.  I started with an old shawl and worked from there.  From using scrap material that I had on hand, to buying random pieces of material to bring it all together.  The owl transformed slowly and made another Halloween costume go down in our memory books.  Here is a quick, step-by-step on how I created the Halloween owl.

I started the project with two-yards of fabric in a brown, tan-splatter pattern, white fleece from the Max costume last year, black, and a puppy print that had several earth-tone colors in it.

I started cutting 20 long oval pieces from each piece of material.

I tried to use as much as the fabric as I could.

I ended up with a total of 2,500 oval pieces when the cutting ended.

I cut in large, medium, and small pieces to make sure I had enough "feathers" to cover different areas of the costume.

Take about three or four ovals, depending on the thickness of the fabric and fold in half length-wise.

Next, cut diagonal lines through both sides of the fold.

Keep moving up the fold until you reach the top of the material.

Your cuts should look similar to the ones shown.

Unfold the material and you've made a fabric feather.

Your "feathers" should look like this.

Fluff the material to give the "feathers" more fullness.

For the body, I gathered some cotton cloth in white.  I used two-yards of the material and cut a head hole in the top and just plopped it over my son's head.  I left it loose so that way it would blend with the "wings" of the cape.

I hand stitched the neck to make it a bit more gathered around the neck and made it more comfortable to wear.

With the white feathers, I started button stitching each one onto the body.  This is the part that took a bit of time.

Working from the bottom up gave me a chance to use the large feathers and tapper up with the medium and finally the smallest ones.

I started in on the cape once the body was almost finished.

On the cape I used the colored material instead of the white.

I straight stitched one white feather in the middle to mark the spot to stop with one side and start with the other.  I made sure I had the same amount of feathers on each side.

For the mask, I bought a small package of white feather and a small package of brown feathers. 

I used brown foam sheets for the beak.

The feathers can be found in the craft sections of most places.

I used a small plastic Mardi Gras mask for the structure and coated it in Elmer's glue. Then, taking my time, I placed one feather at a time down where I wanted it to go.  I worked across the top, and then around the beak and the sides.  

I left a few feathers going in odd directions.

For the ears, I used a cloth headband, foam sheeting and the white feathers.

I cut a small triangle out of the foam sheet and brought it together and glued it. I then used white glue and placed the feathers around the foam to hide it.

Once everything was dry I cut two small holes on either side of the foam and slide it onto the cloth headband.

The finished owl ears.

I think the mask and the ears came together nicely!

And the Halloween owl is born.