Posts with the label How To's & DIY's
Showing posts with label How To's & DIY's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How To's & DIY's. Show all posts
Jun 3, 2019
Do-It-Yourself Renaissance Faire on a Dime
For my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary we wanted to do something special.
But we kind of forgot to do something special, and then time passed really fast and suddenly it was just a couple of weeks away and we were like "Oh no! We ran out of time! Let's just give up and take them to dinner!"
Luckily my sister Faralee said that just dinner was unnacceptable. That, by golly, it was their 50th Wedding Anniversary, and we were going to do something special for them or die trying. (Faralee is SO DRAMATIC sometimes.)
So we threw together an impromptu, surprise, Renaissance Faire (with an E), and had it in my backyard.
For the first time ever my back "yard" full of dirt and weeds was landscape appropriate!
STEP 1: Collect as many Pop-Up Canopies as you could (I guess for us that was a total of 3. More would have been better, but we needed to spend as little money as possible. So 3 was our magical number.)
STEP 2: Dress up the canopies. Everyone donated all the old fabric and sheets they could spare. (It is times like this that it is handy to have so many siblings.) Faralee cut the sheets into these fancy scallop shapes using pinking shears--I'm sure this shape has a name, but I don't know what it is-- and then embellished them with stamps or simple lines.
As you can see from the picture we didn't have time for straight lines, and we just pinned the fabric right on to the canopies and you know what? It looked fine. It even looked kind of awesome. So being a perfectionist doesn't always pay off in the long run.
Then we took other fabric and pinned it too the back of the canopies to make them feel a little more like booths.
We had a tent for the King and Queen (my parents)
A tent for crafts
and a big tent for food.
The bunting along the back there is just made out of paper. Cheap and Easy-Peasy. Well, easy for me. Fae spent hours cutting and assembling bunting, because she is a champ.
STEP 3: Make Some Signs.
Here is a shot of the "entrance" to the backyard. You can never have too much bunting. I know the truck sort of ruins the effect, but what are you gonna do?
Here is a close up of the sign I made:
I bought the banner art, and then filled it in with words and had it printed at a local print shop. Then I taped it to a big piece of felt because that is what I had. It DID NOT work well. Paper and fabric are not great friends when you stick them in the wind together. Faralee also spent some time making some rag bunting, which had a very nice effect, but I don't have a decent picture of it.
Then there is this, cuz why not? Cardstock glued to cardboard, just like in ye olden times.
Why did I write some of the words in all caps and some not? I couldn't tell you.
We also needed a sign on the food tent. I found images of blank wooden signs and added the words. They are just printed on card stock (two pieces that I taped together so they were sturdier and could be read from both sides.)
STEP 4: Make Lots and Lots and Lots of Food.
As you can see we served Meat on a Stick (Brats stuck on a skewer), Chicken Legs, Cobbler, homemade icecream and my sister Faemarie's phenomenal peach pie. We also had corn on the cob, grapes, cheese and crackers and probably some other stuff that I can't remember. I really wish I had a picture, but we ate it too fast.
The chicken was way too much work. It shouldn't have been, but it took forever to cook, and lots of us spent the first half of the party in the kitchen. So figure out something more crowd friendly when you have your own Ren Faire.
STEP 5: Make and Set up Games. Ie.
Nine Men's Morris
I haven't the slightest idea how to play this. Faralee made this too, so I just don't know what to tell you.
We also set up some logs for the kids to stand on and hit each other with sticks.
Whoever stays on longest wins!
And then we had face painting which some of the nieces were more than happy to oversee.
STEP 9 (I lost count. What number are we on?): Invite a Whole Bunch of People!
When my whole family gets together there are about 40 of us, so we're a decent group all on our own. But we also made sure to invite all of my parents siblings who live close enough to come, and some of my parent's good friends.
We told people to dress up if they wanted to.
Some did, some didn't. Harrison put on some church clothes and Colin put on his SWAT costume and it was all fine, and fun and wonderful.
STEP 10: Don't forget to invite the Guests of Honor. Otherwise all your effort will be wasted.
STEP 11: Let the magic happen!
At some point, you must sit back, and let your hasty and inexpensive efforts come to fruition. So you can just enjoy being together. We were fortunate enough that a bunch of nieces and nephews wrote and performed a play, all without any prompting from the adults.
One of the little girls kept calling out from the stage "I'm doing a great job, Mom!"
We all did a great job. In fact, all in all we had so much fun that we talked about doing it again. Maybe every single year.
That was two years ago, and we haven't done it since, but my parents 52nd anniversary is coming up in July. Will this be the year we have another Renaissance Faire? Or will we decide once again that laying around eating Popsicle is a better use of our time? Who knows? Join us in two more years to find out!
But we kind of forgot to do something special, and then time passed really fast and suddenly it was just a couple of weeks away and we were like "Oh no! We ran out of time! Let's just give up and take them to dinner!"
Luckily my sister Faralee said that just dinner was unnacceptable. That, by golly, it was their 50th Wedding Anniversary, and we were going to do something special for them or die trying. (Faralee is SO DRAMATIC sometimes.)
So we threw together an impromptu, surprise, Renaissance Faire (with an E), and had it in my backyard.
For the first time ever my back "yard" full of dirt and weeds was landscape appropriate!
STEP 1: Collect as many Pop-Up Canopies as you could (I guess for us that was a total of 3. More would have been better, but we needed to spend as little money as possible. So 3 was our magical number.)
STEP 2: Dress up the canopies. Everyone donated all the old fabric and sheets they could spare. (It is times like this that it is handy to have so many siblings.) Faralee cut the sheets into these fancy scallop shapes using pinking shears--I'm sure this shape has a name, but I don't know what it is-- and then embellished them with stamps or simple lines.
As you can see from the picture we didn't have time for straight lines, and we just pinned the fabric right on to the canopies and you know what? It looked fine. It even looked kind of awesome. So being a perfectionist doesn't always pay off in the long run.
Then we took other fabric and pinned it too the back of the canopies to make them feel a little more like booths.
We had a tent for the King and Queen (my parents)
A tent for crafts
and a big tent for food.
The bunting along the back there is just made out of paper. Cheap and Easy-Peasy. Well, easy for me. Fae spent hours cutting and assembling bunting, because she is a champ.
STEP 3: Make Some Signs.
Here is a shot of the "entrance" to the backyard. You can never have too much bunting. I know the truck sort of ruins the effect, but what are you gonna do?
Here is a close up of the sign I made:
I bought the banner art, and then filled it in with words and had it printed at a local print shop. Then I taped it to a big piece of felt because that is what I had. It DID NOT work well. Paper and fabric are not great friends when you stick them in the wind together. Faralee also spent some time making some rag bunting, which had a very nice effect, but I don't have a decent picture of it.
Then there is this, cuz why not? Cardstock glued to cardboard, just like in ye olden times.
Why did I write some of the words in all caps and some not? I couldn't tell you.
We also needed a sign on the food tent. I found images of blank wooden signs and added the words. They are just printed on card stock (two pieces that I taped together so they were sturdier and could be read from both sides.)
STEP 4: Make Lots and Lots and Lots of Food.
As you can see we served Meat on a Stick (Brats stuck on a skewer), Chicken Legs, Cobbler, homemade icecream and my sister Faemarie's phenomenal peach pie. We also had corn on the cob, grapes, cheese and crackers and probably some other stuff that I can't remember. I really wish I had a picture, but we ate it too fast.
The chicken was way too much work. It shouldn't have been, but it took forever to cook, and lots of us spent the first half of the party in the kitchen. So figure out something more crowd friendly when you have your own Ren Faire.
STEP 5: Make and Set up Games. Ie.
Nine Men's Morris
I haven't the slightest idea how to play this. Faralee made this too, so I just don't know what to tell you.
We also set up some logs for the kids to stand on and hit each other with sticks.
Whoever stays on longest wins!
And then we had face painting which some of the nieces were more than happy to oversee.
STEP 9 (I lost count. What number are we on?): Invite a Whole Bunch of People!
When my whole family gets together there are about 40 of us, so we're a decent group all on our own. But we also made sure to invite all of my parents siblings who live close enough to come, and some of my parent's good friends.
We told people to dress up if they wanted to.
Some did, some didn't. Harrison put on some church clothes and Colin put on his SWAT costume and it was all fine, and fun and wonderful.
STEP 10: Don't forget to invite the Guests of Honor. Otherwise all your effort will be wasted.
STEP 11: Let the magic happen!
At some point, you must sit back, and let your hasty and inexpensive efforts come to fruition. So you can just enjoy being together. We were fortunate enough that a bunch of nieces and nephews wrote and performed a play, all without any prompting from the adults.
We all did a great job. In fact, all in all we had so much fun that we talked about doing it again. Maybe every single year.
That was two years ago, and we haven't done it since, but my parents 52nd anniversary is coming up in July. Will this be the year we have another Renaissance Faire? Or will we decide once again that laying around eating Popsicle is a better use of our time? Who knows? Join us in two more years to find out!
Apr 16, 2019
Finishing Up the Travel Trailer - and a Tip for Sewing Cushion Covers
Our 1968 Kit Companion is still technically not finished. Shocker. But it is 100% USABLE, and use it we have. Which is why they say "Done is better than Perfect." (or something. I usually tune out when they start talking.)
Here are a few more things we had to do before we could start hauling this bad boy around:
We put the siding back on.
My, isn't it stunning? First we cleaned it off. A wire brush stuck in a cordless drill worked best. Then we cleaned off the J-Trim and put that on too. Don't forget to put the putty underneath!
Here are a few more things we had to do before we could start hauling this bad boy around:
We put the siding back on.
My, isn't it stunning? First we cleaned it off. A wire brush stuck in a cordless drill worked best. Then we cleaned off the J-Trim and put that on too. Don't forget to put the putty underneath!
Is it a goopy mess? Then you know you've done your job!
We got all the lights working. Here is one with an LED bulb installed.
Before we put the windows in, they needed to be cleaned. Exhibit A:
That's Better!
I replaced the lining in all of the drawers. And since I found $0.03 cents while I was at it, I'd say that was time well spent!
I also painted the entire interior of the trailer. But since I assume you are probably familiar with how painting works, I shan't be going into detail.
Last of all was upholstering the dinette benches. I got a bunch of color samples from DIYUpholsterySupply.com (I can't find their website anymore, so maybe they went out of business?) and picked some fabric that exactly matched the fridge and stove.
I wanted blue cushions with white piping and I watched a lot of videos online so that I could do it myself. But with the piping I was essentially trying to sew 4 layers of vinyl, and double that on the seams. And I broke my sewing machine. I loved that sewing machine. But I killed it dead.
So I found some local upholsterer and paid him to upholster the cushions. But here was the problem: though we had measured and cut the cushions to size, once they were upholstered they no longer fit in the dinette. They were too big to lay flat as a bed. That was really, really annoying, but I also wasn't impressed with the upholstery job the guy had done. The fabric was kind of baggy. The sewing was nothing to write home about.
So I unstitched everything and did it over. We trimmed the cushions again, leaving plenty of extra room for padding and upholstery. I got a new sewing machine. And by giving up on the white piping, there were few enough layers of fabric that I was able to sew it myself.
I wanted my cushions to be wrapped in batting before being upholstered. Batting gives them the nice, rounded, full look I like.
TIP: Remember to take your cushion measurements BEFORE wrapping them in batting.
This way the fabric is still nice and tight and the batting fills in any gaps inside just like ice cream does in a full stomach.
And that's all I've got for now. Tune in next time and I'll show you the "finished" travel trailer!
Dec 1, 2017
Christmas Decor
It's that time once again. Time to pull out your buffalo plaid, wear leggings instead of pants, and be subjected to horrible Christmas Music wherever you go! Ack! I mean, Hurray!
So allow me to share with you my Christmas Decorations from last year. I'd like to show you this year's, but that would require having the house decorated, clean, and me still having enough energy to take pictures and then write about it. Nice try, Christmas. Maybe next year.
Let me shuffle through my box of Christmas photos and see what I can find.
A tree on the front porch = FUN! Someone I knew had an old tree they were getting rid of, and no one else seemed to want it so she gave it to me. The stand was missing and the lights didn't work, but we have enough old Christmas stuff sitting around that we put something together.
Pillows! Did you know you can get REALLY CHEAP pillow covers on Amazon? Like, under $5.00? If that doesn't sound cheap to you, then I don't know how to help you.
I made some of these covers, but in the end they probably cost me more than the ones from Amazon (which I think came from China.)
Uh, what else? Christmas Tree: BOOM
So allow me to share with you my Christmas Decorations from last year. I'd like to show you this year's, but that would require having the house decorated, clean, and me still having enough energy to take pictures and then write about it. Nice try, Christmas. Maybe next year.
Let me shuffle through my box of Christmas photos and see what I can find.
A tree on the front porch = FUN! Someone I knew had an old tree they were getting rid of, and no one else seemed to want it so she gave it to me. The stand was missing and the lights didn't work, but we have enough old Christmas stuff sitting around that we put something together.
Pillows! Did you know you can get REALLY CHEAP pillow covers on Amazon? Like, under $5.00? If that doesn't sound cheap to you, then I don't know how to help you.
I made some of these covers, but in the end they probably cost me more than the ones from Amazon (which I think came from China.)
Uh, what else? Christmas Tree: BOOM
Guess what? The presents under the tree in this picture are fake. We never put the presents out until the kids go to bed on Christmas eve. But presents under the tree are cute. So I wrapped some empty boxes. And the kids loved it. If they were actually presents I would have to keep telling the kids to leave them alone, but since these were fake, the kids could play with them all they wanted.
I love our tree. Its just a hodge podge of stuff the kids have made, silly things I have made, and lots of things that look like toys. But it makes me happy.
Here are a few of my favorite ornaments:
That one of Khan is my favorite. I bought that on Etsy to give to Richard. I actually paid money for it. The fact that the wreath is hanging upside down just cracks me up.
Here are some that I made. Whenever December comes around I start itching to make stuff out of felt.
While I made these I watched Christmas romances on TV. They are all very cheesy, and every single one ended with a proposal. Because that is what Christmas is all about, I guess.
And here we have the Mantle! With stuff on it!
Where are the stockings? I don't know!
You may have thought we were done but that is never going to happen. You are going to be here forever! Because now I will show you my Nativities! Only a few. I have more than I currently have room to display. Here they are! Look at them now!
I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm yelling. Christmas makes me do that. Especially at my kids.
This one came from the Philippines
This one came from Bolivia
And this one came from Ebay:
And here is our Advent Calendar. I feel like I have posted it before, but who knows? My sister has one very much like this. I liked it, so I shamelessly copied it. Thanks Fae!
That is probably enough for the moment. Thanks for stopping by! And a Merry Christmas to you and your leggings!
Jul 26, 2016
Star Wars: the costume awakens
So. Costumes. I like making them. The trick is finding a time and place to wear them, which I'm guessing is the reason people get so excited about Comic-Con. We are all just looking for an excuse to dress up.
The most recent excuse was the premier of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (I am only 8 months late posting this). Me and my sisters all decided to dress up in different outfits of Princess Leia's. You can do fun things like that when you have roughly a million sisters.
Just to clarify, one of the people in that picture is my brother, and a few are nieces. Not everyone conformed to our Leia Manifesto. Demi even went so far as to dress up as Rey. She is such a rebel.
In case you are a giant nerd I should tell you that, Yes, I know I am wearing it on the wrong shoulder. I looked at the picture and figured out what shoulder to put it on and carefully set it up so it would go on the correct shoulder, but maybe I am a little dyslexic because I clearly got it wrong. Tragic!
I made it by cutting some squares out of craft foam and then I went digging in the junk drawer. I used hot glue to attach beads, wire, legos, brads, and more pieces of craft foam. Then I spray painted it black and then brushed on some silver craft paint. Those little dowels were made out of one long dowel, cut into pieces and painted silver. Real technical like.
Richard's costume came to me one night just as I was drifting off to sleep. Or, at least the basic idea did. Since I was dressing as Leia in her Boushh disguise, it only made sense for Richard to dress as Chewie. But how to do it? We considered him wearing a Chewie robe, Chewie pajamas, or a Chewie hoodie, but that night, in the hazy realm between sleep and wakfulness, it suddenly struck me that he should dress the way Chewbacca would dress if he were Human. But it wasn't till I told Richard my epiphany in the morning that he said, "If Chewie were human, he would be a trucker." And the costume just fell into place.
I apologize if you are here to look at pictures and attempt to exactly replicate the 70's Chewie Trucker costume, because these are the best pictures I have. Richard was nice enough to wear this for me once but I don't know if I can get him to put it on again. You might be able to see the lack of enthusiasm in the above picture. But it was a pretty simple costume. I made a vest out of the only fur material I could find at Joann's. He got a kicky little bag made out of the leftover faux leather from my vest, and more craft foam spray painted silver. His awesome mustache is more of the same fur, just trimmed a bit, and glued to his face with some cosmetic adhesive.
The hat, however, was a bit of a disappointment. I spent a ridiculously long time making this stencil to paint on the blank hat I had bought online.
But then the vinyl wouldn't stick to the hat long enough for me to paint anything on it. I eventually painted the stencil on some cotton fabric I had and then used spray adhesive to stick the cotton onto the hat, but that wouldn't stick either, and it fell off after a couple of hours. What I needed to do was some sort of embroidery, but that was outside of my wheelhouse. Maybe next year. Maybe without the mustache I MIGHT be able to convince him to wear it again. Maybe even just the bag and hat. (In the following picture, the rebel pilot is my brother in law with his son, Little Han.)
The secret to cosplay, I think, is to act like you DON'T feel at all foolish, when in reality, you probably do. But you don't show it. You strut your stuff like it makes you feel awesome. And it is just possible that half of the people who see you sorta wish that they had gotten dressed up too. You're an inspiration. And you look fantastic!
The most recent excuse was the premier of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (I am only 8 months late posting this). Me and my sisters all decided to dress up in different outfits of Princess Leia's. You can do fun things like that when you have roughly a million sisters.
I wanted to go as Leia when she is wearing her Boushh disguise. Here is a shot from the movie for reference:
It is awesome. But I didn't feel the need to be totally authentic. I think the fun is seeing what I can change to make it work for me, and what I can put together based on stuff I already have. She is wearing a waist band and those shoulder things, but instead I just made a vest. I made a tunic type shirt and some gauntlet sort of arm bands and then I just had to make her bandoleer. That was my favorite part.
Richard's costume came to me one night just as I was drifting off to sleep. Or, at least the basic idea did. Since I was dressing as Leia in her Boushh disguise, it only made sense for Richard to dress as Chewie. But how to do it? We considered him wearing a Chewie robe, Chewie pajamas, or a Chewie hoodie, but that night, in the hazy realm between sleep and wakfulness, it suddenly struck me that he should dress the way Chewbacca would dress if he were Human. But it wasn't till I told Richard my epiphany in the morning that he said, "If Chewie were human, he would be a trucker." And the costume just fell into place.
I apologize if you are here to look at pictures and attempt to exactly replicate the 70's Chewie Trucker costume, because these are the best pictures I have. Richard was nice enough to wear this for me once but I don't know if I can get him to put it on again. You might be able to see the lack of enthusiasm in the above picture. But it was a pretty simple costume. I made a vest out of the only fur material I could find at Joann's. He got a kicky little bag made out of the leftover faux leather from my vest, and more craft foam spray painted silver. His awesome mustache is more of the same fur, just trimmed a bit, and glued to his face with some cosmetic adhesive.
The hat, however, was a bit of a disappointment. I spent a ridiculously long time making this stencil to paint on the blank hat I had bought online.
The secret to cosplay, I think, is to act like you DON'T feel at all foolish, when in reality, you probably do. But you don't show it. You strut your stuff like it makes you feel awesome. And it is just possible that half of the people who see you sorta wish that they had gotten dressed up too. You're an inspiration. And you look fantastic!
Mar 22, 2016
PROJECT DARKSTONE: Day 414
I'm not dead yet. I'm still kicking around over here. And we will not be able to close the book on Project Darkstone until the city has done their final inspection and declared our house COMPLETED.
Not much has happened since we last checked in with you, so here is what we have:
A New Shelf in the Laundry Room
It started like this.
Purely functional. Shelves like these are really easy to build. All I had to do was find the studs, choose my height and then make sure I screwed the support boards up level before screwing the plywood on top.
And then all it took was a board screwed to the front to give it a more finished look.
Heck, I may even go so far as to fill the screw holes and then paint or stain it. I just might!
Moving on to the master bathroom:
Shelves like these are all over pinterest and I had to get in on the action.
All it takes is some black pipe, a cap and a flange screwed together to make your supports, screwed into the wall using drywall anchors.
Then I got a board from my back yard, cut it to length, and set it on top. I think this wood was one of the original floor joists from my house.
I didn't sand it, or stain it or anything. That is the fun of reclaimed wood. Its fine just as it is.
I also made this using black pipe:
But I used the wood from the vanity for the little shelf. It turns out it is really handy to have somewhere to set your cell phone while you are on the toilet. You can buy these for around $40.00 on etsy, but it was really easy to make. Black pipe isn't cheap though, and it still cost me about $18.00, just for the parts.
Last of all, we have the stair rail.
I could have cleaned the tools off the stairs before I took this picture I suppose. But why?
Lani the Builder also finished off the newel posts with all the necessary trim pieces and it looks beautiful!
Oh, I also pulled up the rest of the paper that was laid down to protect the floors during painting. And as quick as I could pull out my camera to take a picture, my kids had left some toys in the middle of it.
Not much has happened since we last checked in with you, so here is what we have:
A New Shelf in the Laundry Room
It started like this.
Purely functional. Shelves like these are really easy to build. All I had to do was find the studs, choose my height and then make sure I screwed the support boards up level before screwing the plywood on top.
And then all it took was a board screwed to the front to give it a more finished look.
Heck, I may even go so far as to fill the screw holes and then paint or stain it. I just might!
Moving on to the master bathroom:
Shelves like these are all over pinterest and I had to get in on the action.
All it takes is some black pipe, a cap and a flange screwed together to make your supports, screwed into the wall using drywall anchors.
Then I got a board from my back yard, cut it to length, and set it on top. I think this wood was one of the original floor joists from my house.
I also made this using black pipe:
But I used the wood from the vanity for the little shelf. It turns out it is really handy to have somewhere to set your cell phone while you are on the toilet. You can buy these for around $40.00 on etsy, but it was really easy to make. Black pipe isn't cheap though, and it still cost me about $18.00, just for the parts.
Last of all, we have the stair rail.
I could have cleaned the tools off the stairs before I took this picture I suppose. But why?
Lani the Builder also finished off the newel posts with all the necessary trim pieces and it looks beautiful!
Oh, I also pulled up the rest of the paper that was laid down to protect the floors during painting. And as quick as I could pull out my camera to take a picture, my kids had left some toys in the middle of it.
But gosh it is pretty, isn't it?
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