Pretty. Quirky. » Projects

Oh. Ma. Ga.

Lara Jo — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:30:23 +0000

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. And because they're frickin' huge. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Y’all. Have you seen these candlesticks from Anthropologie?

SO FUN TO MAKE, right? If I could figure out how to drill through ceramic successfully. Although, I guess I did that with the plate stands I was making. Huh. Might be worth a try.

They’re selling them for $399. To whom, I can’t help but wonder? It seems like the kind of person who has that kind of dough for a CANDLESTICK wouldn’t particularly care for this style.

Fun with Souvenir Plates.

Lara Jo — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:02:48 +0000

I really love souvenir plates. I have some of them hanging in our apartment but there are only so many you can display before things start getting out of hand. So I decided to try and find some other way to use them that would allow me to display them in all of their kitschy glory.

(See the white paint to the right of the project? That’s a result of me not putting paper underneath a painting project like my husband instructed me to — this was years ago. I learned an important lesson in physics that day: it doesn’t matter how fast you run down the stairs, you cannot beat white paint. It dripped down to the second AND the first floors of our apartment, the first floor being where my landlord lived. That wasn’t a happy day for me.)

I used the instructions from this blog, with a few changes. She seems to have no problems finding brass candlesticks that are completely hollow, allowing you to insert your own threaded rod. The only ones I could find were hollow to the base, but then the stick part of the candlestick had its own thread on it, allowing it to screw into the base. So that’s where the bottom plate goes. But because you can’t put a threaded rod all the way through the piece, securing it with a nut at the bottom, I had to glue the threaded rod in the body of the candlestick with epoxy — I used a plumbers epoxy, which is kind of like glue in putty form. I mixed it up, made it into kind of a skinny snake shape, and fed it into the body of the candlestick, then inserted the threaded rod directly into it. After it had cured for 24 hours, the top plate could be screwed on with a vintage doorknob at the very top. I have no idea if any of that makes any sense!

I must say, I think I like the way they came out.

Pretty, pretty plates.

Lara Jo — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:54:26 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve added to my plate collection.

I’ve given myself free reign to buy plates since I’ve got several projects in mind for them: wall clocks, tiered cake plates, and those plain old single cake plates I made earlier. Of course, there is a difference between planning to do something and actually doing something. I’m working on a project list that I will post online to try and keep me honest and on task.

Wrapping Paper Goodness.

Lara Jo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:17:16 +0000

More buys from that estate sale on Sunday…in the basement (usually my FAVORITE part of an estate sale) there was a trunk FULL of vintage wrapping paper. You could tell that some of it had been used — tape very carefully removed and paper smoothed out to save for later. As wrapping paper is one of my many obsessions, I could relate. I grabbed a whole bunch of it, and I’m sitting here wondering if I found all of the good stuff — I hope I didn’t move on too quickly! I do that when I get excited at an estate sale — even though what’s in front of me is AWESOME, I can’t stop thinking of what else may be around the corner. OCD, people, I’m telling you.

There’s just a sheet of most of it, two sheets at the most. Of course, I have no idea what to do with it. I’m tossing around the idea of ephemera packs for Etsy. I sold 15 or 20 of these on eBay a couple of years ago — it’s just kind of a lot of trouble, parceling out all the stuff. But I have SO MUCH great paper stuff — more than I could ever possibly use, even if I magically start crafting more than once or twice a year.

Throw out the flotation device, I’ve gone overboard.

Lara Jo — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:44:27 +0000

Can’t. Stop. Decal-ing. Glass. Jars.

Good Lord. Now that it’s so big I can see a cat hair under the vinyl. CLASSY.

Bling!

Lara Jo — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:17:21 +0000

One of my fellow vendors at All My Treasures in Fayetteville had these AMAZING vintage sewing appliques for sale in her booth while I was home.

I think they must have come off of 1950s beaded sweaters and fancy dresses. I’m not sure where the rhinestone trim would have come from but it’s AWESOME and there’s so much of it. And I bought ALL of this for $8! $8! $8! Thank you, fellow All My Treasures vendor!

Finally.

Lara Jo — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:44:29 +0000

My latest before and after.

I bought a pair of end tables (bedside tables, maybe?) from the Brown Elephant on Clark about a month ago. I feel like I worked on these for three years. In reality, it’s been about two-and-a-half weeks. You know, an hour here, an hour there, not 24-hours-a-day. I decided I was going to take this nice and slow and be patient. Old method: hurriedly slap a coat of primer on a piece of furniture, barely let it dry before putting the first coat of paint on, then, MAYBE if I was feeling particularly generous with my time, a second coat of paint. But with these, I was determined to do a better job. I started by actually sanding them. You know what’s NOT fun? Sanding on your back porch in Chicago when it’s eight degrees outside. But it had to be done — check out what the tops looked like:

On the right is my new friend: my Bosch Orbital Sander. Great Galloping Ghosts, that sucker sands. Seriously sands, people. Of course, the size means you can use it on fairly large surfaces, so I still need my Mouse Sander (thanks again, Dad!) for the smaller areas like the doors. Once I sanded the whole thing down, I primed it with THREE COATS of Glidden Gripper Primer. I had to use three coats because, despite the priming, the old varnish (or whatever they use on that weird fake wood finish) kept seeping through in places…so I kept priming until that stopped happening. Then I used three coats of paint — Sherwin Williams in Queen Anne’s Lace for the basic color and Celery for the insets. The Queen Anne’s Lace is so lightly tinted green that, in some lights, it looks more cream than green. I used a Satin finish in their Duration line, the most expensive which, I hope translates into the most tough. I’m thinking about finishing up with a coat of paste wax for further protection.

Here’s my favorite part:

The knob! I used a pair of glass door knobs that I’ve had forever, just sitting around in a drawer. I had the hardest time deciding whether or not to use it, because I was afraid that they would look weird and out-sized on the drawers — plus, I had to drill what seemed like a massive hole in the drawer to screw them in, and I wasn’t sure what I could have done had they not worked out in the end. But I ended up LOVING them, and I have two more pairs of door knobs stashed away that I can’t wait to use.

[Quick side trip: Here's one thing that helped me be more patient with this: my biggest problem is that I get bored, and want to hurry the process along. Last year, I started listening to audio books on my iPod while exercising; now I've started listening to them while I'm doing EVERYTHING -- any chore of any kind. Right now I'm listening to Under the Dome (Stephen King) and have Game Change all ready to go when I get through that one (political gossip -- MY FAVORITE). I have a subscription to Audible -- I think I pay somewhere around $23/month for three downloads a month. Your library may also have downloads available online -- Chicago Public Libraries has a pretty huge selection that I use, too. I highly recommend it -- sometimes, it can even make me exercise when I might not have otherwise.]

So. On to the next project. Time is ticking…the Vintage Bazaar is right around the corner!

One last look…

Preview.

Lara Jo — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:54:24 +0000

I have been working on a project for over a week now! It’s almost ready to have its picture taken so I can brag on my amazing talent. But not quite. Here’s a little preview of what’s to come later this week.

Craft Room Clean-Up!

Lara Jo — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:11:28 +0000

At Casa Pretty. Quirky., my husband and I are lucky enough to each have our own little hobby rooms. We dubbed his room The Media Center because the vast majority of North America’s electronic equipment is located in there. If you ever experience a power lull in your home, it is probably because my husband has turned on yet another of his electronic devices. Mine is called The Craft Room, which is hilarious, because I’ve never actually done any crafts in there. Instead, it’s where I throw all of my crap and where I keep my steadily increasing collections of craft materials — which I apparently never plan on using on actual craft projects. Instead, it’s a dumping ground. Before I went back to school after the holidays I tackled the job because I knew there was stuff in there that could be in the booth that I had forgotten about.

I stitched these together in a Frankenstein-like manner in Photoshop, so excuse the weird look to them. I almost didn’t post these, because the after still looks SUPER cluttered! Those lampshades in the corner are supposed to be completed for the Vintage Bazaar but with the weather as it is, I can’t spray adhesive outside, so that’s on hold. At least you can see the floor in the after photo!

I have so much ribbon that I rigged up this little hanging system — they’re just curtain rods mounted to the wall.

This summer, I got into the habit of buying every 1950s-1960s multi-strand necklace I saw. I WANT to be the kind of girl who wears little vintage, knee-length sun dresses with spaghetti straps that would look so cute with these necklaces…but I will never be that girl. And if I was, the dress would be covered in paint within 30 minutes of putting it on. The cream-colored necklace would be so lovely with a wedding dress, I think. Right now, they’re decorating my jars with yet more ribbon in them.

So far, you can still see the floor in the room. I can’t make any promises as to how long that will be the case, however.

My Mom is a sewing genius.

Lara Jo — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:46:29 +0000

My Mom is in the process of sewing her little fingers to the bone on projects for the booth. She’s our go-to woman for projects utilizing the tons of great vintage textiles I’ve found over the years.

These two sets were made completely of thrifted and/or yard saled materials. These, and, depending on how many more I can crack the whip and make her finish, will be for sale at THE most exciting event of the season: The Vintage Bazaar!

I will have a booth there and am both excited and terrified. I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to paint all the stuff I’m planning on selling when it’s nine degrees outside.