Phone Table...a what?

Have you ever heard of a phone table?  I hadn't!  I mean I did grow up in a time where our phones were attached to the wall.  I mean we are talking old school yellow plastic phones.  No snazzy silver cordless phones, not even cell phones were in possession yet.  When rotary phones were in play, they used to put them on these tables.  The phone book went in the little cubby.  My sister picked up this antique for me at a local garage sale.  Which in my opinion is the best place to find furniture that are waiting for make-overs.  It's cheap and usually people are desperate to not bring the item back in their house.

I don't know why I am failing so bad at the before pictures, just think of a yellowish brown 70's colored wood.  It was actually way uglier than the top color that has been sanded down here.  But I put back the seat so you could see the lovely color it was before.  It almost matches my blog...hmmm, note to self maybe change blog design.

It was a pretty easy project.  First I unscrewed the seat and put it aside.  Then, I just sanded down the top because I knew I wanted to stain it.  Taped it off.  I cleaned it with a baby wipe because I was out of tack cloths (ideal).  Got out my HVLP Graco paint sprayer which you can find at your local Lowes.  Although this project could have easily been done with a plain old paint brush.  I painted it with a $5 a gallon oops paint which has actually become quite handy for me because it is a white premium paint and primer combo.  Just takes out a step for me.  Loving that!

A sprayed with 2 coats of white. I distressed it lightly with my electric sander because its quick, but you can use a sanding block.  I like the 3M medium 100 grit.  I then chose my stain for the top.  I went with Minwax Rosewood.  Again clean off with a tack cloth before you stain.  I find applying stain with a foam brush works best.  You can really control where it goes.  Always have a rag nearby for wiping.  I let it dry for about 24 hours before sealing it. 

Then put a seal on the whole thing.  Sometimes I spray on poly, not this time.  I stained the top so I chose a wipe on poly for that and then I used a water based poly for the top.  Anything painted white should be sealed with a water based poly.  Otherwise it might yellow.  I prefer Minwax Water-Based Polycrylic.  The blue can :)  I painted on two coats. The top with the wipe on, three coats.

Let it dry, read the can but usually a few hours, longer before it is actually used.  I then recovered the seat with a damask gold upholstery fabric.  I am not in love with the fabric, I think I might change it to a light aqua.  But this is it for now.  When re-covering something a good rule of thumb is to take off the existing fabric, in my case, pleather and trace the new fabric with the same pattern.  I was lazy and just eyeballed it.  But it turned out pretty good, don't cha think?

I changed the seat fabric, I just wasn't feeling the
gold damask with the cherry top. Cuter now!

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Hard to sell Bassinet...

I found this baby at goodwill and snatch it up so fast.  I think it is my favorite find ever!  And I have found some pretty cool things.  My husband said sell it, even though I wanted to keep it for our next baby (sometime in the future).  I guess the vagueness of keeping this in our garage for who knows how long did not attract him.  But it is finished now and I am swept away with how pretty it turned out.  So sorry I don't have any before pictures.  Just think plain old brown smelly wicker.  Nothing special, but I saw the potential.

See....

Sprayed white paint and primer combo.

Memory foam pad that I had left over.  Cover with invisible zipper so you can take off and wash.

I want.

DIY craft...Halloween Wreath

This is a super easy craft I wanted to share in case you have some spare time on your hands.  Here is what you need:

(2) Yards of black or orange tulle
(1) Embroidery hoop (I think mine is 9 inch)
(1-2) Yards of black or orange ribbon
Scissors or rotary cutter

Cut your tulle in 3inch foot long strips.  I folded the tulle and then cut it into strips.
Then just start tying!  Super easy to do while your watching a movie or your favorite TV show. 
If you get enough ribbon you can just loop it and hang on your door.  I tied a bow and then glued it on.  I also had a glitter boo, I looped onto the bow.

I think it took me maybe an hour and look how cute.

Happy Crafting!

~Christie

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Craft Night ..Fabric for the pumpkins

We have craft night coming up on Friday September 23rd.  Come anytime after 6:00p.  Some people like to come early and some a little later, does not matter, we will be here crafting the night away!

Just wanted to post the fabric I got for those of you wanting to make the fabric pumpkins.  Bring any embellishments you may want, buttons, dollies, raffia??? 
If you have your own fabric, just drop it off to me ahead of time, so I can cut and sew it to get you started. 

Orange Crinkle and Fall Leaves

This is dark brown (not black)

Orange Pinstripe

Each of you will get to make 3 pumpkins, but if there is extra (probably will be) then you can make more for $3 each.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanksgiving ideas and Super Saturday...

Next month we have something call Super Saturday in our Church.  It is a day that the women of our church get together and craft!!!  I think it is one of my favorite days during the year.  It is Saturday, October 15th from 9am to 1pm.  Lunch is included.  The crafts that we are doing will be posted here soon. If you are interested in coming, please let me know soon.  I think the deadline is October 1st.

So I am in search of some super cute Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts.  I am thinking our craft night next month will be around October 21st if that works for everyone.
This is a project I just found (from Maria over at You Craft Me Up) and am absolutely in love with it.  But maybe it is just me?

Porch Pumpkins $TBD

Is it too Halloweeny? 

I also found this Garland, it could be done as a wreath as well. 

Thanksgiving Garland $TBD

I love this Burlap Banner.  This one is suppose to say Happy Halloween.  But we could do a Give Thanks or Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Banner $TBD

And I just found these super cute kits from the Wood Connection.

Turkey Door Hanger (or can put on a block) $TBD

Pilgrims $TBD

Cast your votes now...or send me some ideas!

Bye for now,

Christie

September Crafts...Sept 23rd

Hi Ladies!

Welcome to my new blog, Portobello Road! 
http://portobelloroadnw.blogspot.com/

I thought it might be a little easier to organize things on here. You can see who is coming, what crafts were doing and the costs.  You can also easily forward the link to your friends, and then they can comment just like everyone else. 

In the future, I will have you comment here on if you want to attend and what craft you would like to do.  If I don't already have your information for September, please comment now.  The deadline is September 16th.

This month we will be crafting the following...

Boo Blocks $12.00
(includes: cut wood, paper, wooden letters, ribbon, paint & all supplies)

Fabric Pumpkins $12.00 for 3 or $4.00 per pumpkin
(includes: prepared autumn fabric, yarn, stuffing & all supplies) 

Orange Wood Pumpkins $12.00
(will be same cuts as boo blocks, includes all supplies)

I also still have supplies for our cute yarn wreaths...

Yarn Wreaths $10.00 (includes wreath, yarn, felt, ribbon & all supplies)

Here is the list of who I have coming:

Kim-Boo
Sarah-Boo
Cheryl (Sarah's friend)-Boo
Cheryl L.-Boo
Stephanie-Boo
Jessica-Boo

Karie-Wreath
Kaitlyn-Wreath

Amy-Fabric Pumpkins
Michah-Fabric Pumpkins
Claudia-Fabric Pumpkins
Adrianne-Fabric Pumpkins
Ellen-Fabric Pumpkins

I know I am missing someone?

Coming soon...Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts!  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Happily ever after... (Death by dresser, part 2)

So here it is, the happily ever after... If you have not read Death by Dresser part 1, read here.
The first part of this post is not happy yet, actually quite sad for me.  Remember the sunny morning that ended in disaster.  Here it is, they last thing you want to happen to your wet paint...RAIN!!!!  Living in Portland, Oregon this does happen.



 It ended okay though, I just had to sand everything down and basically start over.  I put waaaaaaaaaay too much time into this piece.  But it was for a good friend so it was worth it.  So the next problemo was this bump...do you see it, a really big bubble right on the top of this beautiful dresser.  I think I was thinking it was go away.  But nope it was just as big as when I started.  I also think, I did not know how to deal with it.

Here is how I dealt with it...I got my exacto knife and just carved that bubble right out.  It was veneer on top so it came out pretty easy.  Just sanded it all down to be flat and then painted for the what...the 5th time.  Boo!

I am not even going to tell you what happened next, because you know what this post is, a new chapter in the series of the unfortunate events.  It always gets worse before it gets better.  Let's turn this around and talk about my favorite step when refinishing furniture...the tape.

 Let me elaborate on that a little.  I love when it is time to peel off the blue tape when painting.  I am not sure why.  Maybe that clean fresh line or the fact that it means you are almost done.  Probably a little of both.  I then needed some lining for my drawers.  I was going to use felt because I can't stand contact paper.  But when I got to the fabric store, I spotted this oh so cute more appropriate for a kitchen, but will work great reusable grocery bag fabric.  I love the way it turned out!

Here it is, I love the glass knobs my friend chose.

And after a 3 hour trip from Portland to Seattle, here she is living happily ever after in her home.

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