ocean discovery water table

Ocean finds, water, magnifiers, and a little bit of glitter, liquid watercolor, and hand soap.

things to make after a storm

A couple of weeks ago here in the PNW, the clouds opened up and dumped eight to ten inches of snow on us, for the second time this season. It's simply unheard of in our area to get that amount of snow, and especially to have it last for more than a couple of days.

By midwest standards, I know this is laughable; I think most of us were in on the joke until an ice storm followed the heavy snowfall and started breaking stuff. Branches, limbs, and whole trees fell. Houses and cars were crushed. Streets were closed down. Pipes cracked or burst. Power was out in some areas here for several days. And even so, I know it never got as bad here as it did in, say, Slovenia the same week.

Still, though the temperatures have risen to the mid-50s this past week and we've returned to a rainy winter instead of a snowy one, signs of the storm remain. There are the lingering piles of snow in parking lots plowed in the wake of the storm. There are the rivers and lakes swollen and brown like coffee-with-milk. And there are, everywhere, still fallen branches and limbs and trees that Public Works crews and private tree services haven't gotten to yet. If I called it backlog, would the pun be out of place?

Anyway, I've collected here for you, readers, who may be similarly living in areas where trees have become sidewalk hurdles, a list of things to make and do with fallen timber. There should be no shortage of it for some of us for awhile to come.

* Log Stump Side Tables:
Oh Lovely Day
Ruffles and Truffles
Etsy - Sosikian Furniture

* Log Stump Stools:
Remodelista
Martha Stewart
Shelterness

* Branch Clothing Rack:
Convoluted State of Mind
The Art of Simple
Sugar and Cloth

* Branch Buttons:
Shrimp Salad Circus
Design*Sponge
Etsy - The Hickory Tree

* Tree Branch and Twig Trellises and Arbors:
Tara Dillard
Better Homes and Gardens
Vegetable Gardener

* Doll Furniture
One Inch World
Apartment Therapy
An Every Day Story

* Building Blocks
I Can Teach My Child
Everyday Art
Natural Pod.com

p.s. you can make any of these photos larger by clicking, but maybe you knew that already?

chalkboard coffee / train table

Due to our kiddo's recent interest in jumping off of the couch, it seemed like a good idea to trade out the rectangular coffee/train table's corners for something round. I decided on a pedestal table, and I kept my eye out at thrift stores, estate sales, and yard sales for more than six months before leaping (almost literally) at this one a couple of weeks ago.

It had a mission-style base, little wooden casters, a scabbed-up top with peeling veneer, and someone had let their 24-hour reserve tag on it expire at St. Vinnie's. I paid for it on the spot; it was 50% off yellow tags day, and the table had already been marked down from $49.99 to $34.99. Too good to let it get away.

After running home to clean out my car and grab a screwdriver, the kiddo and I drove over to disassemble and load it up. It all happened so fast that I neglected to get a photo of the fully assembled table, but here it is, back home, after I'd started sanding and puttying the top.

I left the cracked veneer in place, but secured it with wood glue and putty. When the time comes to refinish it, this will hopefully make it easier to remove the chalkboard finish; I'll just have to peel off the veneer and start with the wood underneath. 

The table was dining table height, so after getting it home I had some further disassembling to do before I could cut it down by nine inches to make it coffee table height.

I measured and marked, then used masking tape along the line to help reduce splintering.

 

A circular saw, carefully used, took off the extra base, and after reassembling and a little more sanding, the kiddo and I rolled on two coats of zero VOC primer on the top.

That night, after the kiddo's bedtime, I painted on the chalkboard paint (tinted to the kiddo's specifications) in three coats four hours apart. I kept the windows open, a circular fan pointed towards it, the kitchen and bathroom fans on, and the central air circulating to reduce fumes. It worked really well, and by morning we were ready for the three days of curing time recommended on the label.

It was ready for chalk prep (rubbing with the side of a stick of chalk, then erasing) in time for the kiddo's birthday. Hooray!

We love it so far. The color isn't what I would have picked, but it's classroom-chalkboard-green so it doesn't offend me either. More important are the increased play area, improved traffic flow, and reduced risk of injury. Plus, super cute, in my opinion.

Thanks for taking a peek!

p.s. want to see these photos larger? just click on them.


Linking up to:

Coastal Charm

My Repurposed Life

card catalog coffee table tutorial

I know, I know . . . this is totally out of order. This project did well over at So You Think You're Crafty this week, so I was asked to write up a full tutorial and I'm posting it here. You can check it out over there, too!

Materials you'll need for this project:

one row of card catalog drawers (call your local library if they've recently switched over to a computerized system, or stalk a thrift store or rebuilding store like Habitat for Humanity's ReStore or Bring. The set I used for this project came from Goodwill, and cost $10.)

four vintage wooden mill bobbins (mine came from the Pendleton Woolen Mills store outside of Portland; call them if you don't live nearby, and see if they'll ship to you)

four metal leg attachment plates/corner braces (I found mine at Bring for 50 cents to $1 apiece, and all four match--amazing luck--but you can probably hunt some down at your local hardware store)

one scrap of 3/16 or thicker plexiglass, at least the size of your card catalog (mine was a scrap I used to use for displays at my bookstore a million years ago, but you can buy this new or used at dozens of places)

vintage or new wooden printing blocks (aka moveable wooden type) (I've been a collector for a few years; you can find blocks for sale on eBay or Etsy, or substitute with another type of collection)

thin wood trim (from the ReStore; 25 cents for 3 feet. Unbelievable deal.)

sketch paper (for labels)

piece of heavy tag board or thin wood paneling the same size as your inset space (you probably have something around the house)

flat game pieces like checkers or scrabble tiles

wood screws and nails

Tee Juice dye pen or wood stain

sticky-back felt furniture pads


Tools you'll need

drill

drill bit for metal, just a little wider than your screws

hammer

X-acto knife

ruler

masking tape

typewriter (lacking this, you can also use a typewriter typeface on your computer)


How to Build It

Your bobbins should all be as close to the same length as possible. Drill three holes through each of your metal plates that align with the solid wood edge of your bobbins, and attach with screws.

Turn your drawers upside down and screw the bobbin legs onto the bottom. Add furniture pads to the feet.

Flip your table upright.

My card catalog drawers didn't have a top panel, so there was a built-in inset space once I cut a piece of heavy tag board to sit atop the drawer supports. If your drawers do have a top, you can call your table "done", or you can follow along and add a plexiglass top for a flat collection (see asterisk * below).

Measure twice, cut once. In fact, rather than measuring, you can lay your plexiglass right on top of your table and mark it in place. I marked mine with both tape and permanent marker. That way I could make sure that when I took it to the hardware store to have it cut, it would be as perfect a cut as possible.

You can try to cut the plexi yourself, of course, but it's messy and noisy and sometimes it cracks or splits. Know your strengths.

Fill the inset with wooden type. You can spell words or names or just randomly assemble your collage. I worked the word "Upcycle" into mine to showcase the week's theme.

I used game pieces (and/or old brass house numbers) around the edge to help support the plexiglass. You can use pretty much anything flat and non-perishable that will help the clear top sit and be supported level with your wooden type.

After the plexi was in place, I hunted down the thin, plain wood trim pieces and cut them to size with my X-acto knife. Drill a small finger hold at the back if you want to lift the glass out later to remove the top.

You could use fancier trim, if you wanted to; I kept my trim (and my cuts) simple, and attached the pieces to the card catalog with small wire nails.

To finish, stain to the color of your choice using a Tee Juice dye pen or some wood stain, and print up some paper labels for your drawers.

*If you do have a flat top on your card catalog drawers, you can still add the plexi top and either build up a frame to create an inset, or you can display print ephemera (labels, a poster, library book check-out slips, etc.) under the top for a cool effect.

Thanks a bunch for your votes, everyone! Send photos if you make your own table using these instructions; I'd adore seeing photos.

Linking up to:
Junkin Joe Vintage and Thrifty Finds
The CSI Project

card catalog display coffee table

Click here for a full tutorial and materials list

Let's start at the very beginning. I'm not a hoarder, but I do have a few . . . collections. An art school dilettante, I took classes from every possible area of interest. Printmaking had a hold of me for awhile, and spinning. A couple of courses in letterpress printing inspired my collection of vintage wooden type. The Mister and I even built a little printing press awhile back, but it's been untouched since the birth of my kiddo. But that's not where this project started. The wood block top was an afterthought.

This particular upcycling project (a card catalog coffee table that displays my collection of wooden type in the top) started with a row of card catalog drawers I picked up at Goodwill awhile back. I like Goodwill. Among thrift stores they're organized, clean, and priced right (locally, anyway). And once in awhile, they have things that jump out of nowhere and surprise you, like a row of card catalog drawers hidden among busted wicker furniture.

I spied the antique wooden bobbins (legs) at the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store in Portland. They're retired from the mill and are 80+ years old, their solid wood soaked through with lanolin from the wool. I didn't bring home enough, so I phoned them up a few weeks back and asked them to ship me some for this project, which they were sweet enough to do. The shipping cost almost as much as the bobbins, but it was totally worth it.

The hardware for attaching the legs to the card catalog came from the rebuilding store. Two were still in their ruined packages, missing only the screws; two were dug out of a bin of other hardware bits, used but useable, like everything there. I had to drill into the metal to attach them to the bobbins, which I'd expected (the center of the bobbins being hollow and all). Once those were sturdily attached, I propped the table base upright and started trying to think of what to put on the top.

After considering several possibilities, I decided to use the table to display my collection of vintage wooden type. The exposed drawer supports allowed me to use some leftover tag board to create an inset space I filled with part of my collection. To protect it, I covered the top with a piece of plexiglass that was leftover from a store I ran for awhile. One of the folks at my local builders' supply store cut it down to size for me when I brought it to them measured and marked. Thank you, guy at the cut table!

I used some old game pieces to support the edge and then rounded up some trim pieces at the (other) rebuilding store (it was 25 cents for a 3-foot length of mill seconds) to trim the edge and hold the plexiglass in place. I attached the trim with silver wire nails and then stained it with a Tee Juice pen to match. 

The final step: I typed up some labels for the drawers on my vintage typewriter.

I've seen some furniture made from card catalogs on Pinterest, and I've seen a couple of coffee tables with wooden type collages set in the top. Because I plan to actually use my wooden type for printing, I notched the trim along the back of the table so that the plexiglass top can be removed easily to access the wood blocks. The rest of the time, this lovely stuff isn't locked up in a bin anymore, and we get to enjoy it! Woohoo!

(Bonus: my collection of old house numbers fits around the edge . . . with room to keep adding.) 

This is one of those projects that makes me happy just looking at it. I hope you like it, too!

Click here for the full tutorial and materials list!

Linking up to:
Young Heart, Old Soul

train table rescue!

When we put together the train table for the kiddo back at Christmastime, I planned ahead a bit. After I painted it with acrylics, I sealed it in with a clear latex sealer. And then I bought washable crayons.




But still, these things happen.






I know this is probably old hat for mamas and papas, but believe it or not, this is the first time I've had to deal with crayon marks on any surface but paper . . . And thanks to the washable Crayola crayons and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, everything's back to normal.




Back when I was making recycled crayons for our rupee crayon project, I tried to figure out how to make recycled washable crayons, but aside from using pure soap, I came up empty handed. I think I'm going to have to find some way to test the rupees out with the Magic Eraser. Anybody out there have experience with this? Thanks in advance!


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)