The Creative Imperative

Monday, October 15, 2012

Halloween House Tour!

Here are a few snippets from our house this October.

The drop-down spider made an appearance in the new house. Mr. Creative Imperative came up with the great idea of using a tack in the top part of the front door. So much better than using tape and then waiting for the tape to give out!

Here is the rest of the front entryway

...looks like some little hands got into the candy corn!

Some bats

A raven

And here's our fireplace

I love how the spiderwebs stick to the stone. It made it so easy to decorate.

Those mercury glass pumpkins on the mantel... they light up and flicker! I didn't even realize it until I got them home from the store. Bonus!

I made the "EEK"/"BOO" sign out of some blocks I found at Marshalls.

$0.30 for three blocks??? Yes please! Have you seen how much blocks cost at craft stores? It's crazy.

I cut the letters out of Contact paper on my Silhouette... it's metallic!

I know it's hard to see in the photo, but I love the way the metallic letters look.

And I just received this beautiful, gigantic acorn ornament from my in-laws for my birthday.

I love it! It's one of those great decor items that you can put out in September and leave out through December.

And last, but not least, we have the pumpkin under glass. It's a painted pumpkin from the dollar store.

Hope you're having a great fall!

Blessings,

Jamie

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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Refinished Mid Century Modern Dresser/Credenza

I have no idea what this piece of furniture is called... I've heard so many different names. A dresser? A credenza? A sideboard? I think sideboards have cabinets so it's probably not that. I'm using it in my bedroom so we'll call it a dresser. Whatever it is, I'm in love with it.

Here is how I found it

$50 at the Salvation Army store. Not bad, right? Well, the finish is bad. It's in pretty rough shape. Not to mention the color reminds me a little of Snooki.

I decided I would restain and poly it rather than painting it. I had done a little research on MCM furniture and decided all the collectors might be onto something with maintaining the natural wood finish. This is after I painted an $18 Broyhill Brasilia headboard I had found. Turns out they're worth some money if they're in good condition. Live and learn. I do love that headboard in white, though.

I used Citristrip to take the finish off.

One word: messy!!! A few more words: a lot of hard work!!! A neighbor saw me working and said, "it will be worth it though". I wasn't so sure. Here are the drawers after being stripped

Then I sanded it. Oh my gosh, the wood. I don't know if you can tell just how beautiful it is in this picture after being sanded.

I just kind of rolled my eyes about the MCM furniture purists, but after seeing the quality of wood and craftsmanship that went into this piece, I'm a believer!

I used a dark walnut stain, trying to keep it close to the original finish (just a tad darker and a tad less Snooki).

I was really nervous doing this and thought for sure I was going to end up destroying the piece. It turns out I'm really happy with the final results!

And then I sealed it with this

I really liked the product. It cleaned up with water and I think the finish is beautiful. I can't believe I didn't mess it up!!!

So here is the dresser in our bedroom.

up close

and from the top

I'm so proud of myself. I'm allowed to say that, right? Well, it's my birthday today so maybe just today I can say that. I just didn't think I'd ever be capable of something like this.

Here's the process I used, in case you're curious
wash the dresser down
apply Citristrip
wait overnight then scrape with plastic scrapers
wash off remaining stripper
have husband get into crevices of dresser to remove stuff I'm too lazy to get to

sand with 100 grit
wipe down
sand with 220 grit
wipe down
let dry overnight
wipe down with tack cloth
brush on stain
after 15 minutes wipe off stain with cloth
wait overnight
3 coats poly, sanding with 400 grit and wiping down in between coats

Thanks so much for stopping by!

How do you feel about painted furniture vs stained furniture? Do you say paint it all no matter the history of the piece? Do you like all painted wood in a room or a mix? Is it a sin I painted that headboard in my room? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Blessings,

Jamie

Friday, October 05, 2012

Lego Party in the Hooooouuuuuse!

One of my favorite things about the new house: Having enough space to throw a party here! The kids' birthdays are only a day apart so they get lumped together into one big party. The theme this year was "Legos"

Here are a few details from the party

The Lego Ninjago cake

and here are a couple shots from while I was building the cake

I used the 6" pan on the bottom to prop the cake up a little higher

I layered the marshmallow fondant to make the "fabric".

Here is my daughter's cake

It doesn't look like anything Lego-related, you say? It was supposed to be a Lego Friends cake but she changed her mind the week of the party! So this princess crashed the Lego party. I made the bottom with the Pampered Chef batter bowl and stuck one of those doll tops from the baking section of Hobby Lobby on top of it.

Here are the favor bags

and the gift tags for the bags

The girls received heart necklaces made out of two Lego bricks snapped together

and the boys got key chains

I found the bricks with the hole in them in a Lego grab bag I bought from the Lego store

Each kid received a bar of Lego soap too!

I found the mold online. The big tag is meant to deter kids from thinking it was an edible treat!

I also made a banner for the party

I downloaded the Legothick font online. It took a little doctoring, but I was able to make it look like the Lego logo by outlining the letters in yellow and filling the insides with white in Photoshop

Each of the letters were adhered to a square of red cardstock. The squares were sewn together across the top to hold the banner together.

I built a utensil holder out of megablocks... we didn't have enough Legos to make one. Not to mention, it would have taken much longer had I made it out of little Legos!

We only ended up playing one game at the party... "guess the number of Legos in the jar". I had other games planned but the kids were having fun just running around and playing with the toys we had out. I wasn't going to mess with that!

And here are some of the boys doing what they love to do!

You can see the shirt I made for my son in this shot too. I made one for my daughter in pink that said "three" in the Lego font.

So, I might have gone a little over the top, but I was excited about our first big house party! Let me know what you think in the comments... Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Jamie