• Blog

    A second look: Recycled Clothing Ragtime quilt

    April 2, 2015 - By 

    SecondlookSince it is April and we’ll be honoring Earth Day as well as Elizabeth’s birthday on the 22nd, I thought it was fitting to take a second look at one of my favorite recycling projects.

    The original post was from September 18, 2008. Incidentally, this quilt is still in use on the boy’s bed even though all 5’10” of him no longer fits underneath it.

    Lets take a second look at the post…

    eyes

    I finished sewing the quilt yesterday morning. I would have been done on Tuesday night but first I put the bobbin in wrong then broke a needle and then put the new needle in backwards so it kept breaking the thread. It was very frustrating. I knew then that it was just time to be done for the day.

    After the sewing, I had to clip each seam allowance every half inch then wash it so it would fray after washing. The nylon stocking that serves as my filter on my washing machine outlet had a large fist size ball of frayed denim and flannel in it. Then the dryer lint trap was even more full of fluff. I would have taken it to a laundry mat but we don’t have any around here anymore. It’s a 20 min drive to the closest one.

    There are several things I love about this quilt:

    1. All the flannel is from my maternity tops and my boy’s flannels from when he was very small.
    2. The denim is from both mine and my hubby’s old jeans. Together we’ve lost about 50lbs!!
    3. The “batting” I used was scraps of polar fleece that I got for free from someone’s “project gone wrong”
    4. This blanket is fairly heavy! This provides good sensory comfort for my boy. He needs/loves heavy blankets to help him sleep through the night.
  • Blog

    A second look: Fridge facelift

    March 2, 2015 - By 

    SecondlookToday for the 2nd edition of Second on the 2nd I’d like to share with you a transformation that makes me happy each and everyday.

    eyes

    Original post from January 21, 2012 slightly tweaked to include updates:

    20120118_11345 copy

     So we have this old 20+ yr old fridge that just keeps humming along mechanically but cosmetically it was getting really nasty looking.20120118_11346

    I used to keep papers, magnets and comics on it to cover as much as possible.
    It was rusting from underneath the finish on the doors. I’m guessing that it was a manufacturing issue since the rest of it isn’t rusting at all.

    I sanded all the rust and painted over it with Rustoleum paint.
    I decided on dictionary pages to cover the fridge. My thought was…it’s got to be better than the way it looked before.20120120_11368 copy

    And in my opinion, it totally is!!  I still need to put a couple coats of sealer on top so I can wipe it down as needed. I picked up the Golden polymer medium I used as glue in the recycle center reuse room for FREE!!  Just two cheap foam brushes were purchased for this facelift.

    Yes, I know we’ll eventually have to replace this beast but until then it’s definitely a conversation piece in my kitchen!!

    In addition, I covered our recycling cabinet in the same manner. 20120130_11463All I have left is a pantry cupboard on the other side of the kitchen to give the same treatment.

    Fast, fun and frugal…nothing but good F words for this project.

  • Blog - Creativity

    A second look: CitraSolv

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    SecondlookToday for Second on the 2nd, I’m going to share with you today a post from 4 yrs ago about a technique that I simply love.

    Without further ado here is the post from December 2010…

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     I am totally hooked on this “new to me”  technique. I’ve seen it in a magazine, You Tube, blogs etc. Trust me…this technique has been around the block a time or two. Of course, I am super late in actually trying it but I had said I wouldn’t buy any new art supplies. Well…technically I didn’t buy a new art supply, I bought a concentrated cleaner. That counts right!?!? Anyway…Since not everyone on the planet has read about it I’ll tell you what I did. It is so simple and has such cool results.  A word of caution…this will be messy…protect your surfaces, hands and clothing.20101209_4757

    First you take the CitroSolv concentrate full strength and pour a bit into a small container. I used a foam brush to apply it directly to the front and back of the National Geographic pages I wanted to use.  The more ink on the  pages the better. After slathering on the CitroSolv to as many pages as you’d like…close the magazine and walk away for about 20 mins or so. When you come back…put on a glove and start opening the pages…they will likely fall right from the magazine as the CitroSolv seems to un-glue the binding as well.20101209_4755

    I hung my pages to dry with clothes pins overnight. I painted a few pages with CitroSolv before going to bed to see if the effect would be any different. The effect seemed a little more “muddy” to me rather than having the cool bubble effect. Still totally usable papers…just different. 20101209_4747These are some of my favorites but as you can see below…I ended up with a bunch of fun papers to play with.  20101209_4754