Stop staring and start sewing!

My New Brown Paper Flooring...pretty cool stuff

I've grown tired of our 8 year old carpet.  We got the builder grade carpet when we were building thinking we would replace it much sooner than this.  Now it's just icky.  Kids + dogs + cats + carpet = disgusting.

Last week I saw this perfect tutorial for brown paper bag flooring on the Lovely Crafty Home blog and said "I think we should do this!" to Joey.  He said "Looks good".  I said "I mean right now!"  So we started hauling furniture out (the worst part really since I've got some heavy, clunky stuff in here).  We ran to Home Depot and got everything on the list.  The only problem we ran into was Michael's doesn't carry the gallon of Elmer's glue.  I quickly googled it on my iPhone and found out Staples has the gallon size (and is across the street from Michael's, yay!).  It's 19.00 at Staples but we only used 1/2 of it so that was fine.  I think I'll order it online for the rest of the upstairs since it's as low as 11.00 at some places.

Here are the before and after pictures.

 

Here is the room after all the furniture was removed.  I had to jam everything into my sewing area and it was very claustrophobic there (but temporary and for a good cause).  This picture doesn't do the carpet justice.  And at one time this was part of our bedroom before we walled it off into an office (pictures of the process here) and for some reason one of the cats really "liked" the corner in here at that time.  It hasn't been smelly (that I've noticed) but when we pulled the carpet up it stirred things up and we could smell it again.  So glad to have it gone (the carpet and the naughty cat).



We removed the baseboards and I put Asher to work pulling the nails out while Skate did his thing.

We has some joint compound putty from our remodel still so we used that to fill in the gaps and level some spots.  Asher did a good job with that too.

We let the bare floor dry overnight and then sanded it down to get it as smooth as possible.  We knew it wasn't going to be perfectly smooth but we're okay with it since we expected a "textured look" anyway. 

Here is what it looked like as we were applying the paper.  This part was easy and sort of fun.  The paper we scrunched up the most ended up having the more natural, crinkly look to it so next time we will be super-scrunchy with it.  The hard part was standing up after being hunched over for a few hours.  I think we may be getting too old for this sort of project.  And I need a hot tub with bubble jets.

Here is the floor after drying all night (with a little fan in the room and the window opened).  This is just the plain paper look.  I've seen some pictures of brown paper flooring without any stain and I think it looks nice but I wanted ours to have a bit of a "glow" to it. 

We used Minwax Honey/Pecan stain and I'm really happy with it.  It went on super fast.  I just used the cheap little chip brush to paint a thin coat allover.  I tried to work fast with the brush so it wouldn't soak in too much.  I didn't wipe it off once it was on (I'm not sure if it's recommended or not but it didn't seem to need it).  At this point I was really loving the leathery look I was starting to see.

We applied one coat of the polyurethane (we used the Rust-Oleum recommended and it's very nice) and let it dry over-night.  The next morning I sanded it again.  Dust everywhere, ugh.  And, at some point, I'm going to have to remove my "built-ins" and do the part of the floor underneath.

Okay, this is my floor after 7 coats of polyurethane.  The only glitch was when I did the 6th coat (which I thought would be my last).  I didn't follow the instructions to stir the polyurethane and just poured it out of the jug as I was going along.  Well the stuff at the bottom turned out to be a lot cloudier (hence the "stir first" instruction) and so instead of moving my furniture back in we were heading out for more polyurethane to go over the milky looking floor.  Home Depot was closed so we ended up getting a quart of the Minwax polyurethane at Walmart and I would highly not recommend it (but their stain was great, so there's that).  The Rust-Oleum brand was so much nicer and went on much smoother.  The Minwax left little bubbles which didn't smooth out as it was drying.  I'm still happy with it but I definitely noticed a difference.

So here it is.  It's stunning and feels really good under our bare feet.  As far as durability goes we got a small gouge in it while moving my pink chair (turns out there were old, sharp nails at the bottom of the feet).  It was only about 1.5 inches across so I put some Elmer's glue under it, smoothed it down and brushed the polyurethane on it after it dried and you can't even see where it was (and fixed the chair too).  We padded the other furniture before moving it in so, other than a few little sliding marks, it all came in fine (I brushed those with polyurethane too).  So far, my rolling chair hasn't left a mark so it seems to be holding up to my use.

So we spent just over $100.00 on this 9 x 13 room (and that's with the extra 18.00 on polyurethane we had to run out for).  We still have enough paper for the rest of the upstairs, lots of stain, and 1/2 gallon of glue to get us started.  We plan on doing the rest of the upstairs like this but aren't completely sold on putting it downstairs on the concrete (much more traffic down there too).

Let me know what you think!  A HUGE thanks to Rachael at Lovely Crafty Home for her impeccable instructions!

My "new" pink armoire

I'm finally sharing my cute pink armoire (I'm not sure if it qualifies as an armoire but I don't know what else to call it) that I fixed up a couple of months ago.  We've had this unit for about 15 years and we bought it unfinished (for around 450.00 which seems kind of steep for 1996 dollars now that I think about it).  We've used it for a number of things over the years including duty as an entertainment unit for our little old tv/vcr combo (remember those?), storage for boxes and boxes of photos, and sometimes as a place to simply shove something in, shut the door, and forget about it.

It's been in our bedroom looking bedraggled for awhile and I had no luck foisting it on any of the kids so I finally decided to have some fun with it.  I gathered all my cans of pink toned oops paints and started mixing them together (except for the can which had turned to a rubbery, gelatenous goop).  I ended up with this beautiful bubblegum/pepto pink color and had just enough to paint it with two coats (except for the top, but who will see it?).

 

Here's what it looked like before.  It's upside down because it was easier to slide it down the hallway and into my sewing room this way.  I just left it that way while painting it because it was easier to paint the feet in this position.

 

I used some Krylon Brushed Nickel spray paint for the hinges, screws and knobs.  I think I had originally wanted gold paint but they were out of it (Walmart) so I settled for this and ended up loving it.  I just poked the screws into cardboard to hold them in place.  Works like a charm every time.

 

When I put the original knobs back on they looks so cheap and trashy that I knew I wouldn't be able to tolerate them.   I found these "rhinestone" knobs at Hobby Lobby for some ridiculously low price (I think they were marked down to around 3.00 each).  They make it look so glamorous!

 

So here it is and I love it more than I can express!  I think the only cost was the spray paint (around 3.50) and the knobs.  It's like having a new (adorable!) piece of furniture for under 20 bucks.  Yay!

It's MY day. Deal with it.

I'm having a Me Day today.  I'm going to make some oven mitts and potholders for ME.  I'm taking MY kids to an obnoxious pizza place where they can stuff their faces and play on immunity building play structures and play games to win tickets to buy stupid, unnecessary toys.  And it will be fun.  I'm not sewing anything for anybody but MYSELF.  And I will be happy.

Back later with pretty pictures of my new oven mitts and nauseated children.

Thanks...I needed that

It was nice to take a break.  I really needed it.  It wasn't as restful as I'd hoped for but it was a break nonetheless.  I was able to get a few projects done and a few projects started.  My new curtains might just be my favorite because I get to enjoy them as I'm walking around the house all day.  I also didn't make them (which is very nice) but just spruced them up a bit.  I got them at IKEA for 25.00 a pair.  I really wanted to make curtains with this fabric but it was sold out (days before Christmas so no shock there).  I just had to shorten them about 8" (I'm going to add tie backs when I'm done sprucing those up too).

I added this cute trim to make them look more finished (and I'm leaning more Scandinavian this year).  I stitched them 3" from the sides and 10" from the bottom.  My first try put the trim 10" from the side and it didn't look right at all.  I was glad I'd put the first one up to look at it "in action" so I didn't have to change all 4 of them after the fact.  As you can see our floors are stripped bare.  We're planning on staining them sometime this year so I'll share that adventure as soon as we work up the nerve to do it (not looking forward to moving all the furniture and appliances).

I knew I was cutting it close with the length of trim I had and, sure enough, I fell about 5" short on the last one.  I decided to not freak out and instead fudged it with some other trim and fancy stitches from my machine.  It's okay but not great.  I'm just glad I've learned to relax and embrace my mistakes (usually).

Besides, I hid the messed up one back in the corner where nobody sees it.  The red doesn't match my brick red couch but honestly, I don't care.  It still looks like somebody cared enough to spruce things up and some days that's all I can hope for.

I've been stuck to my sewing machine making these iPad covers out of my Hipster Haberdasher store.  I'm glad they are popular (they paid for all the Christmas shopping this year!) but my eyes are starting to blur.  On the plus side, I'm completely falling in love with linen and have lots of plans to incorporate it in my decorating this year.

Last year I made my goal (not resolution!) to add lots more color to my home and I really nailed it (pictures coming soon).   I accomplished a major professional goal (working on that now, will share when I can), and got in better shape physically.  This years goal is to add more fabric/patchwork to my decorating and to finally learn more than one crochet stitch (granny squares please!).  I want to finish my floors and paint my kitchen cabinets.  I also want to get better at focusing more on the blessings in my life and less on the chaos going on in the world.  Fingers crossed.  Onward and upward!

Our annual batch of biscotti.....a recipe!

Here's another great recipe we make every Christmas season and it's a huge family hit.  Plus it makes oodles of big cookies (5-6 dozen) so it's great to share.  Although you can use almonds instead of hazelnuts (AKA filberts) I prefer the hazelnuts just because I have so many other recipes with almonds and like a little variety.  Hazelnuts aren't always easy to find but I have had luck at Trader Joe's and in the bulk section of my favorite health food store (which also has the anise seeds in bulk).

 

You can print out the recipe here (on an 8.5 x 10 sheet), or by clicking on the picture below.

Ingredients:

6 eggs at room temperature, separated
2 ¼ cups sugar
1 ½ cups hazelnuts (or almonds)
1 cup butter (melted and cooled)
3 Tbl anise seeds (whole)
Zest of one orange (chopped small)
1 tsp anise extract (or vanilla)
7 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet at 350˚ for 10 minutes, rub briskly in a dish towel to remove peels.

Chop your toasted hazelnuts and zest your orange (I then chop the zest into smaller pieces).

 

Beat egg whites until stiff, fold in 1 cup + 2 Tbl sugar.

Beat egg yolks w/ remaining sugar until thick and pale yellow (5-6 minutes).

Gently stir both egg mixtures together...

...fold in the nuts, butter, seeds, zest, and extract.

In a separate (large) bowl sift your flour, baking soda and salt together.

You're ready to mix everything together now!

Gradually fold in the egg mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is moistened and there are no spots of dry flour.

Turn your mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just enough to make sure everything is evenly mixed and pliable.

Divide into 6 even parts and roll each part up into an 8 inch cylinder, then flatten down so you have an 8” by 2” rectangle (about ¾ inch high).



Place on a baking sheet (lightly oiled or on parchment paper) at least ¾“ apart and bake for 25 minutes at 375˚.

Remove from oven.  Let cool.  Slice at a 45˚ angle (each being about ¾” wide).  I like to use a bread knife for this part.  Lower your oven’s temperature to 325˚ and lay each slice flat on a baking sheet and bake for another 25 minutes.




Enjoy!!  Let me know if you try it (and if your family loves it as much as mine!).