Overwhelmed

Silence on my blog has not at all meant no projects have been going on. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm a little overwhelmed trying to write about massive projects I have done in the past several months, so I am going to start very small. 

I was recently in the market for a new chair for the desk in my bedroom. I would have loved a Jonathan Adler Chippendale chair--or any Chippendale chair really, but something new was just not in the budget.

I headed to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore--they were having a Grand Re-Opening Celebration!! which included 15% off everything. I thought I may have some luck finding a unique chair there, and I was right.

I got this bamboo arm chair for a song- it was marked $10 but as I said before everything was 15% off. So I paid about $8.50 for it plus tax. It has a little damage in the form of discoloration on the back of the chair, but I think it just gives it some character.

The next step was to find some fabric for recovering the seat, and decide what to do with the frame.

For the frame, I thought I had a couple options- 1) paint the frame a bright, fun color, or 2)clean it up and maybe apply some polyurethane but keep it natural.

In the end, I decided to leave the frame natural, although I did give it a thorough cleaning and a coat of clear poly. It still has some color variation but at least now its all shiny!

I originally had bought a purple/grey patterned fabric from Joann's for this chair. I laid it out on the chair and let it hang out that way for a couple days, and then decided this just wasn't the fabric for the project.

I made a trip back to Joanns, and found this awesome fabric called "Hazel" in navy, from KAS/Richloom. 

Getting the seat off the frame took some work. The two screws in the front were easily removed, but the screw holding it on in the back was striped, and it seemed at one point the hole had been filed with woody putty or something, so that now the hole was smaller than the head of the screw. It took a couple hours and a lot of patience to get the screw out finally!

I won't go into details about recovering the seat, but it involved a staple gun and some patience to get things just right without wrinkles. I think all my hard work turned out well-- see below!

Eventually I will get to the point of showing you the desk set up in my bedroom. Until then, this is the chair in my living room. At this point I haven't recovered the back cushion. For one, its a more involved project including my sewing machine and some cover buttons. But also, I don't think its necessary for making the chair comfortable and usable. 

What do you think? Should I recover the back cushion? 

Sunburst Mirror

I don't need to tell you that sunburst mirrors are a hot decor item these days, as you've likely seen them all over blogland and in stores. So I'll just cut to the chase. 

I made my own sunburst mirror, using some bamboo skewers I picked up at the grocery store, silver spray paint, a small mirror from a craft store, some cardboard and hot glue. 

I started by spray painting the skewers silver. I then used my little hand saw to cut the skewers to various lengths. I cut off the pointed ends of the skewers, with the intention of having that end glued to the back of the mirror. 

Once the skewers were cut, I arranged them in somewhat of a pattern around the back of the mirror. I started by using a pencil to draw lines cutting the mirror into 8ths on the back, and put my longest skewers along those lines. I then filled it in by placing a skewer in the middle of each remaining section, while varying the lengths, really by eye. At this point I also giggled about how in theory I would need an infinite number of skewers to fill in my mirror. Perhaps some of you will appreciate this too.:)

Lastly I glued the cardboard circle that I made by tracing my mirror (before gluing on any skewers) over the skewers. I thought this would make it easier to hang.

It looks nice on the wall to the right as you come up the stairs to my apartment. The walls in that area are very large and very empty, so this is a good step towards adding some interest there.

Glittered Heels

For a while, I've been obsessed with glittered shoes. Kitten heels, pumps, open toed pumps...Kate Spade, Jimmy Choo, Mui Mui....

The problem with this is I can't afford to buy a pair of Kate Spade shoes...but even more, I'm unsure how practical they will be for "everyday" wear, which is the test I put all of my clothing and shoes through. 

Glitter Heels by aburlock featuring jimmy choo shoes

Christian Louboutin platform pumps
$895 - bergdorfgoodman.com

Christian Louboutin glitter pumps
$805 - mytheresa.com

Miu Miu glitter pumps
$476 - bluefly.com

Jimmy choo shoes
$495 - shirise.com

Betsey johnson shoes
$119 - betseyjohnson.com

High heel shoes
$120 - topshop.com

Michael Antonio platform heels
$55 - heels.com

JustFabulous glitter pumps
$50 - heels.com

I've seen a couple DIY glittered shoes around the internet, and I decided to try it myself.

I had a pair of shoes I felt were good candidates, but I liked them as is too, so I set out on a hunt for affordable shoes to glitter. I went to the Salvation Army, and as luck would have it, I found an awesome, brand new pair of black opened toe ankle strap pumps. 

I bought them, but by the time I got home, I was already unsure that I wanted to glitter them, as I loved them in their current state. Also, the ankle strap and heel height made them slightly more dressy than I was intending. So, I decided to glitter the original heels and keep the "new" ones I had bought black! The shoes I ended up using are from Target, from a couple years ago. They're comfortable and I actually have them in two colors. 

All you need for this project is a pair of shoes, some glitter, modge podge, a little newspaper and some clear enamel spray paint.

 It was beautiful out that day, so I decided to work outside on my balcony.

Mix some modge podge and glitter- I used Martha Stewart's smokey quartz glitter, bought at Michael's for $3.99. I really just eyeballed it, no exact recipes here.

First Coat 

It took me about 4 coats to achieve the level of uhh...glitteirness that I wanted. As you can see, I also glittered a barrette I had laying around. I find when I have glue and glitter mixed, and even a little bit left over, I get giddy looking around trying to find something else to glitter.

I stuffed some newspaper into the shoes to protect the insides, and then sprayed a coat of clear enamel that I bought at Ace Hardware, also for $3.99.

Voila! The finished project. Prepare yourself, friends. I will be wearing these around town starting tomorrow morning!

Sewing: Simplicity 2258

This might just turn into a sewing blog--sorry guys :)

Well really, I started this blog just as an easy way to show my friends and family what I had been up to, since I live almost 1000 miles away. I like doing all kinds of different projects (sewing, painting, upholstery, crafting) and apparently I go in spurts!

For this project, I decided to step away from my trusty pencil skirt pattern and try something new. I picked this pattern, Simplicity 2258. I liked the tie on the skirt and the pockets, so I decided to give it a try with this pink bottom weight fabric I got (at Joann's, of course).

The pattern was not hard, and I think my version looks a lot like the picture on the envelope. I used the style of version c (the tie, essentially) with the length of version B. I wanted it to be work appropriate, and I was afraid version C would be too short. Unfortunately, I ended up with a skirt that was kind of too big- definitely not as well fitting as the one on the model there. I have worn it to work a few times, but I really need to take it apart and make it smaller, and perhaps a smidge shorter. I'm working on my fitting issues, but its really a work in progress. 

Would I make this again? Absolutely. Maybe when I get brave I will try it with a silky fabric! And I'll try to make it fit properly.

Sewing: Simplicity 2593

Simplicity 2593 is a Cynthia Rowley pattern (that apparently just went out of print--when I bought it about 2 months ago it wasn't out of print but it appears to be now). I am enjoying making skirts and dresses but I wanted to try a new type of garment, and I really liked the twisty neckline on this particular top.

I had picked a fabric that is a little out of character for me, a bright large floral pattern that I got at Jo-Ann's. I thought the pattern was reminiscent of Liberty of London patterns, but without the price tag.

The hardest part about the pattern was getting the collar to sit properly. If/when I make this pattern again I think I would do it differently. Regardless, after I finished, I had a photo shoot on my balcony.

Below you will see my grey cat, Eleanor on the balcony railing. She is my little gymnast, balance beam specialist. Scares the crap out of me sometimes but she's never fallen.

There was some bird poop on the railing. Guess I should clean that up, or hope the rain does it.

 

I look so skeptical in this photo. I don't know why.

Poof! A Pouf!

Poufs. They're expensive. Why? I don't really understand. They start at about $150 and the sky is the limit from there. This doesn't really fit my style or my budget, so I pursued other options, like making my own.

I was inspired by various DIY pouf projects I've seen on Design*Sponge, Apartment Therapy and more. 

Design Sponge

When I saw a post on Welcme to Heardmont about a "Pouf-A-Long" I knew it was time to act. 

I decided I wanted to use this tutorial from Bromeliad.

From Bromeliad

I really dig the metallic poufs I have seen, so I decided to search out metallic fabric options for my pouf. One day in Joanns, I stumbled upon the pleather section, where I found some snake skin textured metallic silver pleather. This fabric is intended for apperal. I can't imagine a situation in which someone would want to wear this fabric....

I bought 2 yards for this project, and at $15 a yard, I think this was actually my most expensive fabric purchase to date! Of course I used a 40% off coupon, so I didn't pay full price.

The pieces I cut looked like this-- I made a pattern based on the directions on Bromeliad, using pieces of paper taped together to be the correct size.

I sewed the pieces together as described in the tutorial, and then was ready to stuff it. I put in a few things while looking around for appropriate filler. My cats really enjoyed the opportunity to explore inside the pouf. Perhaps this is a project in the future for the cats! When they came out of the pouf after napping in there, it was like they were hatching. Pretty hilarious. At one point I didn't realize there was a cat in the pouf and then it started moving and making noise. Freaked me out good for a second, until a furry head popped out!

I originally thought I would use comforters that I could get for "cheap" from the Salvation Army, but I was shocked when I got there to discover that the comforters were like $20 each. I knew I would need 2-3 of them, so that didn't seem like a good option. In the end, I decided to go with a combo: old sheets I had around, some clothing I was intending to donate, and a 20lb box of fiber fill that I bought at Joann's with a coupon (I'm seeing a pattern here). The fiber fill was the only thing I actually bought, and that cost me about $10. I then made a medallion to go on top and attached it with some super fancy hand stitching. 

And Poof! It's a pouf! I intend to eventually have it outside on my balcony, but its kind of late here and also about 100 degrees out right now, so these inside pictures will have to suffice for now!

The kitties approve, even if they can't burrow in anymore.