Thursday, April 24, 2014

A Post Dormer Post!


 This is gonna be a photo heavy post.   

Added a door knob.



It all worked out in the end, a doorknob got installed.


Bought some curtain rods from Ikea.  I had some bargain finials in my stash, but the wrong color.
 Hello Sharpie!

Installed the new light.
What do you think? 

Hemmed and hung some curtains.  Clearly my iron is broken.

The whole wall.
 The actual "Dormer"..... Hung but didn't hem some curtains. 

A custom closet door needed to be built to follow the angle of the roof.  

Even screwed on some outlet covers!  

Awkward panorama shot.


This is the most complete room in our old farmhouse.

And Now....  
 Crepes topped with homemade Saskatoon filling, topped with whipped cream. 
 Thanks Mr F.T.



Cheers!
Linking Up With

katherines corner

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Heather and The Beating Hearth Goes Feral

A trip to the big city was supposed to prove a wild ride, but it couldn't hold a candle to my trip to the mailbox.  My good friend Heather from The Beating Hearth decided to get all artsy and make an AMAZING, ARTIFIC pillow!   This girl is one talented Sewing Queen!! 
 The Feral Turtle, (that's me), has a slight obsession for these crazy beaded spiders that first popped up on her blog.  She put the two together and created the most amazing pillow that will ever grace my furniture...


On top of all this, she sent a beautiful hand written card with such wonderful words, that it truly touched my heart.

  And if this just wasn't enough, she packed up a box of Girl Guide cookies that are gone???? 
 WTH.
  I'm sure the girl on the box ate them all...... She just looks guilty.

 I know the post office lady was gleaming with envy as I carted my huge, girly pink box out of the post office....or perhaps it was my goofy smile that she envied.....no it was definitely the box!

I really have no words for her kindness, but I can say that if you ever need a personalized pillow, she is your Sewing Queen.  I heard through the grapevine that she may be opening an Etsy shop and selling her gorgeous creations. 
  I think she will be selling her own original patterns too, which you can get a sneak peek of, Here and  Here!

I can't imagine all the work she put into my special pillow, but I can say it will be greatly treasured!
Thank you Heather!
  You are a very thoughtful friend!

P.S.  Watch my sidebar for a link to her Etsy shop!

Cheers!

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Dormer Reveal. The End Is Near.

I really wanted to wait and show you the room all staged and magazine worthy but that will never happen as old furniture and exercising equipment aren't all that glamorous.    I figured another post on building your own storage boxes or Ukrainian Easter eggs, and you might see through my stalling tactics. 
 So here she is, all messy, dusty and incomplete...... again. 


A door got stained using Minwax ebony.  Two coats of satin water based clear coat were used to protect the door.
And then the door got installed.

Another door was built.

 painted


Windows got all tricked out!



Baseboard was made up of three layers.  It's a whopping 8 inches tall!

  As soon as the dust settles, and one tedious trip to town for the missing piece  molding is conquered, the painting will begin.
  I am hoping to hang the curtains very soon and
 by the looks of those pictures, buy some outlet covers.
Did you hear??......

Cheers!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Handmade Storage Boxes

A break from the
 but that's a post for later this week.
My fingernails are filthy from this project 
so a wee break was needed.  
My daughter showed me this fantastic post on
 making boxes!   You can see it here
 They have a step by step tutorial which was very easy to
 follow and her fingernails were all shiny red and clean
The website is called Design Sponge.
The only thing we did different was cut 3/8 to 1/2 an inch from
 two sides of one of the two pieces of  paper to make a
 smaller base box.  It made for less of a struggle to
 separate the top from the bottom.


With a few pieces of scrapbook paper, you can create some gorgeous boxes,
 or make your own with painted paper like on the blog. 
And a new obsession begins, but not like my spider obsession! 



My daughter went one step further and created larger, heavier boxes
 with  poster board that she hand painted from the dollar store. 
 This is her craft room




Check out her fancy polka dot chairs she scored
 at a garage sale and did a complete 360 on them!

Oh how I love her craft room.   

Back to dirty fingernail land....
I had a few trinkets lying around and thought they would make great little toppers for the boxes.
  
These boxes were supposed to look like they travelled from Paris, but no matter
 how I tried to dress up the picture, they just looked dumb.

These are cool spiders though and yes, I will probably put spiders in them.


I definitely like the spiders more.  They look like they travelled
from" Spiderman-land"  and we all know Spider Man's hot!
Cheers!
Linking up with
Pursuit of Functional Home

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Dormer Continues...

Back in the day, before Aliens integrated the human race, people were of a manageable size.  Doorways were built to accommodate such.   Since Aliens flooded the population, people like hubby are too darn tall.  Building suppliers had to make doors bigger to accommodate these taller beings. 
 Old houses like ours were built before Aliens landed, therefore, installing doors in older homes can be quite challenging!   
 Proof is in the picture below. 

Thankfully they still make solid doors for such applications.  
If you read the labels on these doors, it says BA....meaning Before Aliens,
 which also means that it can be trimmed.   
 A sneak peek at the door before trimming.

  Everything went too easy.   We were able to get the door jamb fabricated and installed plumb and square with only a few slivers!    

The window molding is in the process of coming together.



A solid piece of oak was attached to the inside part of the trim.  It will make for a strong  ledge.  Paint will hide the two different woods. 
That's all I've got today.
 We'll be able to start on the molding again later this week.  
And if you are Canadian, we are looking forward to +1 soon!  Even if you aren't, I think you can appreciate this video!


Cheers!