Vintage table fix

This table was purchased by my MIL 30+ years ago, it was actually the first item she ever bought after getting married. She gave it to us 17 years ago, we used it daily and when we made the trek to CA it unfortunately stayed behind. The matching chairs are long gone and the table itself was so damaged due to the unpredictable climate changes of a MI basement storage area.
We used our IKEA table for a re-purpose project in the basement (another day, another post) and needed something to eat on in the dining room so I asked for it back.
MIL gladly let me have it with the promise that we would fix it and use it :) No Problem!

So here it is start to finish...
What isnt pictured is the lifting leaf was cracked from underneath, I removed the piece, pulled off the cracked part, glued it reset it on the table, glued and sanded the whole top. Set in 2 layers of under-lay-ment and a piece of oak veneer (that Lonewolf had happened upon years ago at a garage sale)

The veneer was a slight touch too big so Lonewolf needed to shave it down just a touch, we used the clamps and straight edge to hold it in place.

As you can see the old veneer was lifting and cracked.

The original top had this fabulous stencil work on it, that happens to match the legs, you can't tell from the damage on the top but the stencil actually had a 4 tone fade to it. (you might know what I mean when I get to the end pics) Not wanting to lose the charming effect, I make a copy of the stencil by tracing it on velum.

After a few tests with the stencil...

 
I decided that wasn't going to work...

After some debating and internet searching... I happened upon a Martha Stewart video about stenciling. She was using contact adhesive to adhere the stencils to her project and said "contact paper" after she sprayed the glue on. Light bulb moment! Shelf paper, luckily I had some stashed!
So using the velum trace I retraced the stencil, this time I doubled over the paper to get 2 at the same time, as I knew the contact paper would be a one shot deal and I couldn't replace it for each end.

I used 4 different colors of paint, to get the blended effect like the legs. And what came out is beautiful!

A little rub on Poly ( I did end up adding several coats of this type of poly and not getting the desired finish and eventually busted out the good old water based poly satin finish) Much, much hardier and I can never be too careful with the artists in this house.

There it is! Hope this is of some value.

Thrift Store finds!

I love a day when good shopping Karma is on my side!
Score, score, score!
2 new pairs of shoes, never worn! $4 each and a killer new dress, cant wait to be able to wear this one for the burlesque show! Only $9!!! Needs a little alteration, couple of inches along each side seam and maybe a little more bling! Cant you see it... opera gloves and a killer feathered head piece singing the blues, I can!

I did it!

Third place in the Valentine Vodka Pin Up Grand Rapids Competition!
Ok so maybe most people wouldn't be so excited about placing 3rd. But this girl is!!

This being my first pin up contest and the many years it actually took to have the confidence to enter. I am very pleased and can't wait for the next opportunity to compete. Tonight sexy pin up photo shoot with Lonewolf, who do you think is more excited?

Pinwheel Lights

First day of actually using this blog! It only took 5 years after setting it up to get started, and I am not a procrastinator! I guess it just had to become important enough and I needed to feel as if I have enough to say.

After much prodding I finally got my daughter, ZZ La Rue, to commit to entering her crafty and art projects in a blog and decided that I should put my money where my mouth is.

So here is the plan...
Mr. Lonewolf and I often undertake lofty projects for our home. the outcomes vary but after trial and error we typically use the best of both of our minds to come up with something post worthy. The plan is to post what we do and share, when possible the process.

Things I am looking forward to sharing - new entertainment center for the basement, couch re-upholstery, Valentine Vodka pin up contest finales! and the dress I have created for that. Pinwheel lights, sorry wont be a tutorial, I am working on developing them for Etsy sales but I am really excited about them.

As for the lights, I will share a bit about the come about of them. As we were making our Christmas lists this year I mentioned that youngest son, Stinker, needed a light to replace the glowing skeleton strand that was left hanging in his room after Halloween. He likes to hoard things and this time it was a green glowing strand of lights with, mostly broken, dangling skeletons. He haphazardly "tossed" them over the curtain rod in his room and called it good. Sometime after Thanksgiving the lights gave out, don't know why or how, don't really care, I am just thankful they didn't catch anything on fire, this time. (another story for another time)

So as Lonewolf and I were searching for a light for his room and not finding anything that suited our standards.

I said, "I really want something like they had in Sleepy Hollow, it was this metal cut out spinney thing that projected images on the wall." After some minor internet research we found an image. The lamp was made of cut and punctured tin. Looked easy enough, we started to research possible ways to build such a thing and thus the project began...

3 very sleepless nights and days later, a week before Christmas mind you, we had something. After our fruitful trip to Salvation Army turned up some "Christmas tins", an ugly old lamp, and some basement rummaging for spray paint, nuts and bolts and various other usable items we began what would become a long process of failure. Apparently, the metal of the tins was too heavy to withstand the delicate balance required for the spinning effect to work, not to mention unsafe for Stinkers room, never know what he will get into. We moved on to recycled soda bottles and really thought we had hit on something. We tried many variations and failed many times. Finally at 3 am we had something that would spin, feeling tired yet somehow fulfilled we wandered off to bed, knowing that it needed refinement but truly satisfied that we accomplished something!

I awoke at 7 am with recollections of a high school geometry lesson swimming frantically through my thoughts, I waited until 10 before rousing the wolf. He was excited by my energy for the project. We spent the day working on it. I drafted something in Illustrator that would give us a pinwheel effect, much like a spinning vent you see on chimneys. Needless to say it was a long day of research, trips to the thrift store, art store and hardware store. Many different variations happened before we finally landed on what worked.

We opted for an image of a fire breathing dragon, the spinning effect of the back light gives movement to the dragon picture. Stinker is a huge LOTR fan, actually on our afternoon "date" to see the Hobbit he wouldn't sit still or stop talking. He narrated the entire 3 hour film on what would happen next and in which LOTR movie different songs, locations and characters appeared. In the end we created a "Smog" lamp. And the results are truly charming. 

The saga continues, we moved on from a simple light for a child's room to ideas that may be usable for commerce. As we create new lights they will be offered on Etsy. We plan to do a MI waterways series (with a portion of the profits being donated to preserving MI water sources), a pin up girl series and a steampunk series. Keep an eye out for the new pinwheel lights!