Spring Wildflowers

It's spring and it's beautiful in Birmingham.  It has been so sunny and warm and we've had plenty of chances to get outside.  There are wildflowers popping up everywhere and I've taken advantage of this to create fresh wildflower bouquets to lighten up my home!!

This is a wildflower bouquet that I gathered at Moss Park in Hoover.  Love it!!!

Here's the wildflower bouquet in a vase at home.





This admittedly is not a flower I picked - I bought this big, beautiful flower from a wild, homeless man in 5 Points in downtown Birmingham. I was out to dinner with a friend and he was selling these for a dollar! He was a hilarious, sweet man and this awesome flower lasted a week and a half in my living room.

New Orleans Inspirations

I went to New Orleans the week before Mardi Gras during all the parades. My friend and I had a great time walking around the French Quarter, buying art and seeing the mayhem of pre-Mardi Gras.  These are a couple of things I saw there that I loved.

This was an amazing door for an empty building.  This is seriously one of the most beautiful and intricate doors I have ever seen - I was really tempted to rip it right off that building.

This was a spray painted stencil on Chartres St. 

Perfect symmetry and very stereotypical New Orleans (at least for a tourist!). Art on Jackson Square with a horse-drawn carriage and a New Orleans police bus.  

Gator heads and claw back scratchers in the French Market...

Sloss Furnace

Sloss Furnace is an awesome, ominous, industrial landmark in Birmingham.  Photos of Sloss and it's blast furnaces, water tower and buildings are totally iconic in Birmingham.  It's an old blast furnace that was a big part of Birmingham's steel industry.  You are able to walk around freely and check everything out. It's apparently one of the most haunted places in the United States and they have events all throughout Halloween.  It's super creepy, and yet beautifully amazing, all at the same time.  Here are my shots of Sloss.

Entering Sloss.

Blast furnace.

Beer Bottle Label

My mom asked me to try designing a beer bottle label for her boyfriend's son who is getting married in May.  They were going to the couple's wedding party and wanted to give them a 6-pack with personalized labels on them.  They wanted to include a picture of the couple as well as their dog, Trigger, a lab/Australian Sheppard mix, who in an integral part of the family now!! My brother works at Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron, where they all live, and bought a 6-pack of Labrador Lager, which ended up matching perfectly in both theme and color.
  My mom peeled off the labels from the Lager, printed out my labels on a label paper with a good printer, and placed these on over top. Their name ended up looking like a legitimate beer name!

On the back I added a solo picture of Trigger along with their names, wedding date and some other little details.  I put a recycle symbol, weight and bar code to make it a bit more realistic looking.  They are both in the Air Force so I used that logo, and it blends well with the other details.  

Here are pictures my brother took with a camera on his phone of the end result. Gives you a little taste of what they ended up looking like as actual labels.

You can see how well the front label matches the Labrador Lager sticker up top - and not even on purpose!!! 

Distressed Guitar

Here are pictures of the finished product from the  guitar that my brother gave to me to redo for him. 

Check out the process below!



**ORIGINAL POST**January 10, 2011**

In the December 2010 issue of Guitarist magazine my brother, Adam, spotted something he liked. He ripped out two pages and handed them to me and said, "Do this" (you have to know my brother). A while ago, he had given me a Harmony electric guitar he had gotten from a friend years ago. All the hardware was missing or broken and he had carved his and Eric Clapton's initials all over the guitar (once again, you have to know Adam). He had asked me to paint it, design it, do whatever I wanted to it. I put it in my craft area and left it untouched for over a year now - every once in a while I'd pick it up waiting for inspiration... and nothing. I didn't want to do anything too tacky or young. I wanted it to be something he could keep his whole life and it would never lose it's relevance. In other words, I wanted to do something timeless, and I think this idea of "relic-ing" the guitar is perfect for him.  Of course, Guitarist was displaying '60s Fenders and I'm working with a 1992 (?) Harmony. It's still turning out well so far...

This is one of the guitars featured in Guitarist magazine. This is the one my brother really liked, without the "extreme relic" on the back, so this is about what I'm going for.

First thing's first, gotta take the old one apart.  You can see the E C carving in the front and an A in the top left.  There were also some scratches and initials in the pickguard (the black part). I unscrewed it all to sand and paint. 

This is the beginning stages of sanding. I'm using a round power sander with 40-grit sand paper. I loved this half-way look - I was tempted to keep it like this.  I have to sand the pickguard a little bit with fine grit sandpaper so the spray paint sticks.  I'll then spray the paint on evenly for about 4 or 5 coats. 

I put the guitar together just to check it out.

Here's the guitar sanded down bare.  The pickguard is painted white - only 3 coats at this point.  I'll do another 2 coats probably.  Once again, I love this version. I really want to keep it bare with the white and silver accents.  I love the bare light wood. 

I put the pickguard on to really see the white with the bare wood.  I love this!! Next step is priming and painting though. Then I have to distress it a bit to give it the worn look. 

This project will take some time and be delayed a little bit because of the weather.  I don't have a heated space to spray paint so I have to wait until the weather warms up a bit in order to start priming and painting the body.  I've been working slowly at getting the pick guard painted.


Progress to come!!!

**March 19, 2011**

I started working on the guitar again and began with the painting stage. I got both white and blue paint (even though the blue paint had a primer in it) because I wanted to have the base of white so when I sanded down the blue layer the white would show through. 

This is the plain white on the back. The front and sides have already been painted. 

This is the finished blue guitar before any distressing. 

I put the pickguard on to check out how it looked. I love the contrast, and once I peeled the tape off the knobs I think the black is another great contrast. 

I screwed the neck back on because I wanted to be able to hold the guitar and see where the most wear and tear would happen naturally as the guitar would be held and played.  I wanted to make it look like this guitar had been on tour, or heavily used, for years. 

I started relic-ing, or distressing, the guitar by basically beating it up.  I smacked it with just about anything I could find, but mostly screwdrivers, wrenches, and a chain.  I started on the front. I began sanding down heavily rubbed areas (where the right forearm goes across to strum) with a fine-grit sandpaper, steel wool, and a wire brush. 

I then moved on to the back of the guitar.  I focused on the spots where the chest and hip rub against the back.  I used the same technique as I did on the front. I basically used anything I could find to start distressing and create nicks.  Then I followed up with wearing the areas down with sandpaper, steel wool and a wire brush.   

I did all the same things around the sides and edges.

And again, here are shots of the final product - front and back.

I love the guitar and my brother is very happy with it.  He's going to work on the hardware and electronics and get it back functioning.  I'm definitely on the look out to do another one in the future!

Pickle Me Tink

Ok, I know the title is a bit cheeky, but I couldn't help myself. I refinished an awesome corner table by pickling it. Now I love the word "pickling" and can't stop saying it....
  I was helping my friend Eric paint his new room one day and he was going to be getting rid of this unique corner table his dad had had since he was young.  I had to snag it before it was too late - I'd never seen a table like it before.  It has a cute, little front drawer for some small storage.  Stamped on the bottom was 1956.  I asked my dad's wife, Debbie, who does tons of amazing things with furniture and is my go-to-expert on refinishing furniture (among many other things), and got some great advice and direction from her on both how to prep the wood for finishing, and refinishing the table.  She has a great knowledge of what to be on the look out for and how to prepare for your project - although she's no stranger to making a mistake and moving on from it!

Check out Debbie's complete "Wood Refinishing Tips" on my Guest Blog Posts page!

 Here are Before and Afters of how it turned out. I'm very happy with it and I think it looks so clean and much better than before! It's very "cabin chic", or something like that, and I like it! **iPhone photos for now, agh!**

Here is a top view of the table.  The rings and state of the table are really shown in the "Before" photo.  

This is how the space turned out. I have to add the knobs and the accessories but I like how it's turning out and it's making me like my place a bit more, because I was starting to give up.

 These are Debbie's Steps for Refinishing Wood Furniture:

   Step One: Assessment  - 

We need to talk about what is going on with the piece right now.   What is it covered with... polyurethane, tung oil, wax, shellac, lacquer, etc?  It seems to have some stains on it... are they old water stains or burns?  Are there lots of nicks and scraps on the top or the legs?  Does the drawer slide well?  Is it dovetailed or just nailed together?  Is the top attached to the base firmly?  Are the legs loose?  How is it built underneath?  
  This is a great list of questions to keep in mind when choosing a piece and/or figuring out how to refinish one.  This is how to assess a piece and figure out how to maneuver around its issues.  The largest problem with my table was the large stains on the top - there were a couple round, presumably water stains that were pretty sizable. 

   Step Two: Preparation -

After you assess it, you need to wash it down with some Murphy's Wood Soap or very mild (Ivory) liquid soap and a soft t-shirt cloth.  Then you can see what was dirt and what is a stain or abrasion.  If you can describe the coating on the piece then you can figure out how to get it off so that you can either stain or paint it. Old paint or coating either needs to come off or significantly roughed up before you can do anything.  

  Once cleaned I realized I had a pretty clean piece of wood to work with, just some stains to try to minimize. She had an amazing reference for removing stains and water rings from wood.  Everything from toothpaste to baking soda with water to mayonnaise is on the list.  (List is in Guest Blogs).  

  Step Three: Removing Stains - 

Wood furniture takes special care. That’s why so many of us use covers and coasters and take other means to protect our wood pieces. When accidents do happen, a white water stain or ring is left behind. This doesn’t have to be the end of your furniture, however. There are steps you can take to rectify the damage, and hopefully, save your wooden piece from the dumpster. (Not Debbie's words! (For those of you MLA/citation nerds)).

  So, I lightened the stains on my table and moved on to lightly sanding it.

  Step Four: Sanding - 

Go for the light sanding with 150 grit sandpaper and a palm sander for the top and sides.  Just use your hand and strips of sandpaper that make it all the way around the legs. 

  I had to be pretty careful when sanding because the wood was relatively delicate on top. I didn't use a power-sander at all and just stuck with hand sanding.  I had decided to do a white wash/pickling look with my table.  I thought it was already such a cute, shabby chic little table and white would go so well on it. Debbie made a good point of pickling the wood, instead of a darker stain or paint, because pickling really allows the stain to show. 

  Step Five: Staining/Painting - 

I think that if you like a white color, it would be great to put a white water-based stain on so that the grain shows through since it really has a pretty grain.  Though you have to decide whether that would be "shabby chic" enough for you.  I like the White washed Pickling Stain http://www.minwax.com/products/color-guide/ but there are other color options that may be interesting.  

I still have to add knobs and I am thinking of getting silver knobs kind of like these:

  

I compiled this list from Google images because I thought these were a great reference point for what I can look for.  I'll take anything from a sleek, simple knob, to a more vintage one. I like an ornate design or a classy, chic knob.