I AM SO SORRY PEOPLE!

Look, I've been doing creative stuff but it isn't original stuff it's other people's stuff and then you add in real life stuff and suddenly I find myself on the phone with a friend who is reminding me that I HAVE NOT POSTED ON MY BLOG IN TWO WEEKS or asked in a return FB email why I haven't posted since this blog amuses my cousin.

It's nice to be missed.  :)

Alright, so here is something I didn't design but comes from Meg McElwee's book Sew Liberated: 20 stylish projects for the modern sewist.  And...you know what?  I'm not even going to explain it.  Let's just say if you don't find it cute you may be dead inside.

Oh?  Not cute enough for you?  Check out the chef's hat.

Yeah I'm about to make your frozen heart melt.  Apron.  Hat.  Together.  C-C-C-Combo Breaker!

Lookit.  I cannot wait to see this ensemble on the little girl for which it is intended.  She who likes helping her grandma cook in the kitchen.  I hope you're getting nostalgic for your childhood or, if you have a youngster, dragging him or her into the kitchen and breaking out something they can help make.  My grandma made perfect omelets.  Well, she didn't put any cheese or vegetables in them but the eggs weren't scrambled and she taught me how to do the same.  I still make them the same way and think of her every time.  Also I can't wait to give this apron and chef's hat to the intended and then practice our Julia Child impressions together.  Too.  Much.  Fun.  When I finish her sister's ensemble, complete with mustache, I will post it as well.  With that one we get to practice throwing a temper tantrum in French.

What do you mean bad influence?!?!

The Vanity Project: I've Had All I Can Stand, and I Can't Stand No More

White flag!  I am waving the white flag here!   This project became an obsession in perfection.  Finding the perfect shade of white.  Perfect gloss.  Perfect chair.  Perfect stool.  Perfect new hardware (which I'm fond of if I do say so myself.  And I do.)

Those two drawer handles?  I spent half an hour picking out.  I am ashamed to admit that.

So then I started actually USING the vanity.  You know, setting pretty things on it.  Picture frames.  Vases.  Dusting it every day.  What?  You do that too, right?  I noticed after about a week that the PAINT WAS SCUFFING from the moving of said objects.  I was peeved.  Grabbed a foam brush and painstakingly painted the top of the vanity.  Oh, I should also mention that I used a razor blade to remove the paint drips, sanded them down, then touched up the spots.  And the unsightly spot left by my childhood sticker obsession?  Gone in five seconds thanks to the razor blade.  Those things are cool.  I mean, they come in handy.

Now everything on the vanity has felt pads on the bottom to protect the paint.  I also have a pretty eyelet runner I made across it. and a matching one on the cheap stool I found at Target that's perfect.  Coupons and sales, yo.

So yes!  I was very, very happy.  I cleaned the mirrors again and then noticed that the middle mirror, the largest one, was foggy.  No matter how much I cleaned it the fogginess wouldn't go away,.  Wha?  I was perplexed.  I researched cleaning products only to discover WOE IS ME IT'S THE RESULT OF AGE!  The mirror is permanently foggy.  :(  So sad.

I researched options online then headed to the local big chain home improvement stores where, much to my dismay, I was told that I wouldn't find a piece of glass that size there.  It's definitely a weird size.  13.5 inches wide by 19.5 inches high.  With beveled edges.  The suggested I call the local glass company since it would be a custom order and their estimate blew.  my.  mind.

Conundrum.

Lookit.  On one hand there was the perfection obsession.  On the other?  I am dirt poor.  I had to come up with an alternative.  I settled for buying a cheap mirror at Walmart and leaning it up against the middle mirror of the vanity.  It serves the purpose.  Down the road, if I am ever fortunate enough to be, what's a step up from dirt poor?  Grass poor?  Maybe I'll look into getting the mirror replaced.  But that would be a professional job for a glass cutter and someone who has mad skills with fragile furniture.  It is definitely a piece that would be awesome in a little girl's room.  And I saw some really cute pink handles that would be fab.  For a little girl.  Yeah.

Still, I am irked a bit.  Look:

See it?  No?  Oh very well.  Look CLOSER.

The back of the leaning mirror!  It reflects in the glass of the vanity!  I SEE IT EVERY NIGHT WHEN I GET INTO BED.  I can't deal.  I have to paint it.  But I won't torture you any more with it.  It's time to move on.

I've worked on a few small projects that I'll post before getting to another biggie.  No progress photos of them, just final results.  A chair I covered so I could sit on the porch with the other neighborhood porch people and a dress I made.  And then.  AND THEN!  The Ottoman Project:  Take Two!  You just got shivers of excitement, didn't you?