Bye Bye Birdie

There's this amazing antique shop in Fells Point Baltimore called The Antique Man.  It's only open for a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays, but this place is a fascinating treasure.  It's more like a museum of oddities than a true antique shop.  I mean, they've even got a two-headed mummy in there... how cool is that??

Anyways, about a year and a half ago, when I first moved to Baltimore, I brought my darling cat Willow with me.  Willow seemed lonely without a friend, but I wasn't sure I was ready for the commitment of another cat.  In retrospect, how ridiculous was that thought process?!  Now Willow has sister and partner and crime Ivy to carry out their adorableness.   I could probably start a blog to just talk about the cats and the crazy things they do.  And lots of people would read it because they're as cat crazy as I am.  Ah, that's the dream.

But back on topic.  So, as I was pondering over the dilemma of Willow's loneliness, I was exploring the vast treasures of The Antique Man and I came across this amazing birdcage.

Now initially I was thinking "Perfect - I can get Willow a bird to keep her company when I'm not home!"  Although a foolproof plan, I ended up getting Ivy shortly after and loved the birdcage and its antique-eyness too much to put an actual bird in it.   

By itself, it is a beautiful accent decorative piece.  Dress it up with some white lights around the holidays and it's an elegant semi-festive decoration.

A Welcoming Workspace

This project comes from a wooden desk that was left behind from previous tenants.  I believe the source was another IKEA put together yourself furniture.  When I moved in, I figured I could use this desk as I left behind my last desk a few years back when I graduated from college.  This desk was probably one of my biggest neglects.  You couldn't see the ground underneath the desk as I stored boxes full of seasonal decorations, cords and cables, odds and ends.  The top of the desk became a place where I'd put my laptop to charge and "important" papers that I figured I should keep.

Unfortunately I didn't capture a before shot with all the junk surrounding the desk, so use your imagination when looking at this pic:

I've been obsessed with the color palette of grey and yellow, and thought grey would be perfect for this desk.  Plus, I scored a brass lamp with a funky shape at goodwill a few months ago that I spray painted yellow and added a grey lampshade that I thought would complete a grey desk perfectly.

Materials - Paint in a color of your choice, paint roller/paint brush, sandpaper, primer

Step One:
Sand the desk and clean thoroughly!  I always use traditional soap and water to clean pieces.  It's always shocking to me how dirty things like this get.  After using the soft side of a sponge to soap up, I dried with a paper towel, and that thing was black.  How gross.


Step Two:
Prime!  I'm all one for shortcuts because I get so impatient (I hate waiting for paint to dry!) but this is one that you can't skip.

Step Three:
Paint!  I was able to use only one coat, plus a second in some spots for touch up areas.

Step Four:
I wanted some new knobs, preferably yellow ones that went with the lamp.  I got these beauties for $8 each at Anthropologie.  They have got the best selection of knobs.  Unfortunately not the best price, particularly for the reinventing goal of this blog, but I had gotten a coupon in the mail for 15% off your total purchase for your birthday month, so I decided to treat myself (treat yo self from Parks and Rec anyone?? You tube it, and then treat yo self!).

I also got this awesome book called The New York Times 36 Hours:  150 Weekends in the USA & Canada.  After perusing through a few cities, it is a very precise scheduled weekend that highlights more local and off the beaten path activities so I'm really excited to try some of these out.  I'll keep ya updated after trying one out.

Finished Product:
Painting furniture is easy and really adds an instant upgrade.  The only thing it takes is patience, which unfortunately I have a short supply of... but I am really excited about this desk!  Even typing up this post I'm sitting at my new desk, which rarely got used previously.  Hopefully the non-clutter looks stays!

    

Bottle Cap Coasters

I've been saving my bottle caps for awhile with the intention of doing a bottle cap project.  Initially, I was thinking a bottle cap table, but, alas, now that I'm old enough to not be in the glory of college days, I had a gut instinct to take a different route. 

Sadly, I've never owned coasters of my own before.  I'm a total coaster moocher.  I figured coasters would be super easy to make, and a nice way to display some beer bottle caps.

Materials:
Bottle Caps, Hot Glue Gun, Coasters, Scissors/Box Cutter, Cork

Step One:
Save your bottle caps!  Or if you're really excited for this project you could go out and buy a case of beer, and then you get the value of drinking a case of beer and making a set of coasters for the price of one!  The coasters that I made consist of 7 bottle caps per coaster (I know, a shame that I couldn't convert a 6-pack into one).

Step Two:
Arrange bottle caps on cork and hot glue into place.  

Step Three:

Cut out the cork around the bottle caps.  I used a combination of scissors and a box cutter.  The cork is used to keep the bottom of the caps from scratching your table (kind of worse than glass rings you'd get without coasters..).  You could also use felt or foam or a similar material.  I chose cork because I kind of like that classic coaster feel.



Step Four:
Repeat til you get the desired number of coasters.  I chose to do this set as each coaster with a single beer type, but I'll probably experiment with mixing and matching.  I personally think these are great gifts.  Someone loves Victory beers?  Make them a set of Victory coasters.  Plus, you get to drink a lot of beer while looking thoughtful and considerate.  Win-win.

An Olympic Skeeball Halloween

After moving to Baltimore, I formed a Skeeball team with a group of friends after seeing a flyer in a bar.  Yes, Skeeball, that arcade game found at Chuckie Cheese where you roll wooden balls up a ramp to get into tiered point rings.  It gets pretty competitive, and I am proud to say that Team Skeepin It Real is the undefeated Fells Point Champion.  My team became good friends with another team, 3 Skeets to the Wind shout out! and it just so happened that we would be playing each other in Skeeball on Halloween night.

We wanted to have some kind of competitive themed costumes, and ended up with Summer Olympics versus Winter Olympics (props to Kelly!).  Each person dressed up as a different Olympic event in either summer sports or winter sports.  It was awesome because it was relatively easy to pull together and you could put as much or as little creativity into it. 

As an obviously expert crafter (uh huh..), I volunteered to put a few props together:  Olympic Torch, Olympic Rings Mask, and Gold Medals.  And they were all so easy to make and really pulled our two Skeeball teams into a cohesive unit - USA!  Plus, it's always so fun to go as a group costume.  This would also be a great themed party during the Olympic Season.

Olympic Torch:  
 Materials:  Brown Construction Paper, Hot Glue Gun, Tissue Paper
Shape the construction paper into a cone, and glue.  Insert in tissue paper to look like fire and fluff.

Olympic Ring Mask:
Materials:  Pipe Cleaners, Hot Glue Gun

Step One:
Cut the pipe cleaners in half.  Then, shape all pieces into linking circles, using a google image as a guide to the Olympic Rings layout, and wrap the ends so the shape will stay.  

  

Step Two:
Hot glue the circles into the Olympic Rings set up.  This was the most painful step as I burned my fingers a million times!  If you do ever get hot glue on your skin DO NOT try to get it off immediately.  Let it dry and then you can peel it off painlessly.  

Step Three:
Hot glue a pipe cleaner to the side, and you have an Olympic Masquerade!

Gold Medals:
Materials:  Ribbon, Construction Paper, Aluminum Foil, Hot Glue Gun, Gold Spray Paint (optional if you're not and winner and "going for the gold")

 Step One:
Cut construction paper into circles.  I folded each paper twice, so you get four circles per sheet.

Step Two:
Cover the circles with aluminum foil.  I added just a touch of hot glue to make sure it stayed.   

Step Three:
Spray paint both sides of the aluminum foil gold.  Let dry for about an hour total. 


Step Four:
Cut ribbons in a color of your choice.  Hot glue the ribbon to the medal, put around neck, and now you're a gold medalist!

The Finished Product:
Although it may be a bit difficult to see the props in the below pictures, it was so fun to make these and see them bring displayed at this Halloween's Skeeball Olympics!  Happy Halloween!