What We're Making: A Bench You Can't Sit On

Earlier this month, we completed the gallery wall project we had slated for our recently renovated master bedroom. But pretty much as soon as we hung the final frame on the wall, I started thinking the room looked unbalanced. #neversatisfied Though the wall looked sharp, we pretty much had a bowling lane running down the east side of the room. If I didn't find a way to break up the space and balance the heavy bed and couch on the west side of the room, I was going to have to start wearing an eye patch every time I walked in the room so I'd only see one side at a time. And nobody wanted that.

I decided a bench on the gallery wall would solve the problem, so I spent many an evening researching options on All Modern, Overstock, Crate & Barrel, Wayfair, Dot and Bo....and on and on. (Follow me on Pinterest and you can track the madness.) Unfortunately, nothing I found was the dimension I was seeking—I needed something long and shallow. And on top of that, the stuff I really liked was pricey. So I did what any self-sufficient DIYer would do: I asked Mr. W for help. 

I set him to task, cutting me a nice long bench base from one of our discarded closet doors, then I ordered some cool mid-century-esque bench legs from Home Depot. I had some foam left over from a previous bench project we'd done in the guest room, so all I needed was some nice fabric and a few coverable buttons. Easy peasy. Right.

I hit Joann Fabrics over the weekend and found some awesome, toothy navy blue upholstery fabric and went to work Sunday afternoon thinking I could bang out the project in a couple hours. Instead, it took five. Here's a time lapse of the first few steps before I got burnt out and was cussing too much to stop and take pictures:

Staining the legs with walnut stain.

Piecing together some old and new pieces of foam for the cushion.

Covering the whole thing with batting. And yes, I got a blister from using the staple gun so much.

My little helper. Not really helping.

Covering in my snazzy fabric. Pardon all the cat hair...

After this, the wheels sort of fell off. Covering the buttons was harder than I thought it would be and actually installing the buttons was super hard because I'm not sure I had the right kind of needle. It's a good thing we don't have kids and a curse jar at our house because that thing would have been filled with dollar bills.

Once I got the buttons placed, I hot glued fabric to the bottom and installed the legs. I was quite proud of how it looked when I was finished. However, when I tried to sit on it lightly, the wood began to bow. It is possible to sit on the corner where the legs add strength, but trying to rest on the middle of it would likely snap it in half.

So it becomes another piece of art on the gallery wall. Fashion before function, my friends.

I know, I know. The corners need some work.

One more peek at the before:

And the after:

The room is so much more balanced now, don't you think?!

What We're Making: A Wall-Mounted Jewelry Holder

A couple weeks ago I posted a little DIY project to Instagram and when my pal Meg from A Daily Dose of Balance asked for a tutorial, I knew a step-by-step post was in order.

Besides, it's been awhile since I shared a "What We're Making" story.

After seeing a bagillion cute jewelry holding solutions on Pinterest, I was jonesing to make one for our new closet. And in my stash of random things longing to become craft projects, I had a wooden box that used to hold kids' puzzles. I nabbed it at the Goodwill probably 4 years ago and hung onto it all this time. My little Cinderella just waiting for her ball.

The first step was finding some sort of dowels to use as earring holders. I grabbed a handful of shish-kabob skewers to see if they would work and it turns out they're the perfect size. Bam.

Next I gave the skewers and the casing a good spray with some high gloss white Rustoleum.

After they were dry enough (I probably should have let them dry overnight but I had decorating ants in my pants...), I brought them in and drafted a template for the holes we needed to drill to insert the skewers. I love graph paper so much. When I was little, I used to steal it from my dad and sketch up elaborate floor plans of the houses I planned to own one day...when I had 2 kids and 2 dogs and unlimited finances at age 24. Ah, the ignorance of youth.

Mr. W stepped in to help with the drilling (Not that I couldn't do it. I own my own drill, ya know. His was just warmed up already).

Once we had the holes in there, we trimmed the spiked ends off the skewers and slid them into the holes. Fit like a glove. I attached picture hangers to the back and it was ready to go up on the wall.

Makes me smile every time I walk in the closet and see it. And so far, it's held together like a champ. My Cinderella skewers aren't just great for teryaki chicken, they hold hoops and chandeliers like nobody's business.

What We're Making: Sconces from Leftover Pendant Lights

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about our half bath half remodel—which features a new pair of DIYed sconces. When we first started making plans for this bathroom, we thought we'd go with a more conventional over-mirror light.

And then we remembered the two leftover pendants we had from the kitchen remodel.

Which would cost us $0 to use in the bathroom.

We were sold.

But we didn't want to be matchy-matchy with the lights in the kitchen. That may be fine for couples who go to Disneyland together dressed in twin Hawaiian shirts, but not for us.

So I got the brainy idea to try to turn them into sconces kind of like these:

Source

Source

Source

Mr. W loves a good challenge, so he assessed the situation and decided we could run some sort of metal tubing from the base plate thingee (technical term) to the dome part. So off to Home Depot we went in search of the perfect metal tube. We found some copper pipes we thought would work and then, while wandering past one of the plumbing aisles, I found these perfect hollow rods with cute little finished capped ends.

Here's the thing no DIYer ever wants to admit: I have NO idea what the rods are for.

I looked through (literally) 30 pages of plumbing products on the Home Depot website and I can't find them. Could they be fancy float rods or toilet risers? No clue. (And I have no idea what either of those items are, either. Good thing we weren't actually searching for plumbing parts.)

Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matters is that they worked perfectly for our pendants-to-sconces project.

Mr. W rigged them all up and figured out the wiring. Then I tried to spray paint them glossy black...and failed. But Mr. W swooped in and gave them a sanding and tried again and now they're great. Why he has to be better than me at everything other than organizing closets, I'll never know.

I'm pretty darn happy with how the lights turned out.

Mr. W doesn't love them because he thinks they look DIYed, but I think they add just the right element of character to our "new" bathroom—like shiny black earrings dangling over the mirror. And anyway, perfection is overrated...

What We're Making: Peach Butter...and I Have a Bad Attitude About It...

It's no secret around these parts that Mr. Wonderful is a mad scientist. He loves to cook, he owns way too much kitchen and garage gear, and he lives to disassemble things when they break. Whether he's mixing mortar or sourdough starter, anything that feels scientific gets him all dreamy-eyed and twitterpated.

So it wasn't a big surprise when he informed me he was going to take a bunch of our ripe peaches and make peach butter.

He's made jelly before, and of course there was the wine-making madness back in Hollywood. But fruit butter was a new undertaking and, being the devoted wife I am, I offered to help. For the record, there is no butter in fruit butter. I have no idea why they call it that. It's really just fruit and sugar. They should just call it Peach Tooth Rot.

Anyway...

I couldn't help but make about a thousand dirty jokes while I was helping. Mr. W: "I'm going to make some peach butter tonight." Me: "I got your peach butter right here, baby." And so on and so forth.

We began by cutting x's in the bottoms of the peaches and blanching them in boiling water. Then they were given a little ice bath and we divided them up to peel.

There might not be anything more disgusting than a de-skinned peach. I imagine holding one is similar to holding a freshly harvested kidney or gall bladder. However gross they felt, it didn't stop me from carrying on with the dirty jokes. Mr. W: "These peaches are so slippery!" Me: "I'll show ya a slippery peach..." Sorry, Mom.

Once all of the peaches were peeled, we added them (4lbs worth) to about 1/2 cup of water and 3 1/2 cups of sugar and let it simmer until the peaches were soft.

Then Mr. W busted out one of his favorite pieces of lab equipment—the hand mixer—and pulverized them until they were smooth. They continued to cook until the mixture was thickened.

This is about where I remembered that I don't like to cook.

I was in charge of sterilizing the jelly jars in a pot of boiling water and all of the sudden I felt this overwhelming hatred for the kitchen. Why would I be using every pot in the joint to make something I could go buy at the store? My attitude became bad very quickly.... And Mr. W told me I should go sit in my flower room (AKA our guest room that has all my girly stuff in it). Instead I sat nearby and calmed myself with Pinterest.

After about forty minutes—or four days, I can't remember—the peaches were reduced enough for Mr. W to spoon them into the jars.

He then sealed up each one, boiled it again and then did an overnight test without the screw portion of the lid on so we could make sure all the seals held.

We ate some of his butter on some steamed bao pork buns today and it was pretty delicious.

That said, next time he decides to do a big experiment in the kitchen, I probably will plan to have something really important to take care of in my flower bedroom...

What We're Making: The Realities of a Lamp Revamp

Over the last few years, I've developed a sort of addiction to DIY and home decor blogs. And HGTV... And magazine articles about home stuff... And fire sale sites like Joss & Main and One Kings Lane...

Addict that I am, it was no surprise that I found myself wanting to try out some of my decorating DIY skills when we got the new house. And after a visit to Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Pasadena, I found a worthy candidate to be my guinea pig. She was only $10 and I thought her cute pineappley middle would look quirky and fun in one of our bedrooms.

I bought her back in September, long before we painted the bathroom tile around the Santa Ynez guest bath shower. So, folks, this was the first time in my life I had ever used spray paint. Crazy, right? 

I am officially a fan. In fact, I've since sprayed the $35 IKEA bed frame I bought on Craigslist (you can see the edge of it in the very top picture of this post), along with the mirror frame above, and a few knickknacks. And I'm not planning to stop there. I find myself continually spying new things I could aim a nozzle at. 

My big lamp plans became a bit foiled when I purchased a lampshade at Home Goods, and it got squished by the bed frame in the back of my Prius. Yes, I put an entire bed frame in my tiny hatchback. And yes, it was totally the previous owner's fault it smooshed my lampshade because he wasn't exactly gentle when he loaded the frame into the car. You get what you pay for, I guess...

Very sad little crinkled lampshade... Thankfully, the crinkles were fairly well hidden by the fabric I glued around the drum.

Now, I've seen lamp redos on sites like my beloved Young House Love, and I think even on Pinterest. And they always look so easy. Like all you need is a glue gun and a good attitude and you'll end up with a professional-looking end product.

Mine may look okay from a distance, but the interior seams are totally uneven and frankly a little ghetto. If lampshades can be ghetto. 

And lookie there, you can see one of the dimples in the shade up on the left. Argh. 

The other funny thing about this whole endeavor—between the lamp itself, the shade, the paint and the fabric, I think this ended up costing me about $36. So really, I probably could have just purchased a brand new lamp that had a perfectly covered shade. 

Live and learn, lamp DIYers, live and learn. 

What We're Making: Graduation Time Capsules

This past weekend, my family had a special dinner planned to celebrate the high school graduation of one niece, junior high graduation of another and 6th grade graduation of another. It's crazy grad times around these parts.

Anyway, rather than just giving the girls money (which I did) I wanted to give them something fun and creative and memorable. At first, I thought about scrapbooks but then I got the idea to make time capsules that they could fill, give to me and receive back in a decade. How fun it will be for them to read their little youngster handwriting when they're 22, 24 and 27!

To create the capsules, I upcycled empty protein powder containers and covered them in paper I bought at Michael's Craft Store (using spray adhesive).

Then I printed each girl's initial onto cardstock, cut them and spray-glued them to the lids.

Inside, I included sheets for the girls to complete that included facts about themselves, their favorite stuff, their favorite memories from the year, and where they see themselves in the future. Then I added "Dear Me" stationery so that each of them could write themselves a letter that will get sealed in an envelope until I return the capsules in 2022.

I can't be totally sure, but I think they liked the gifts. And I liked them so much, I'm tempted to create one for Mr. W and me! There's nothing better than looking back and seeing how far you've come!

Gurgle and Hiss

Last night Mr. W went out to a fancy dinner with one of the vendors from his recent film and as I was dozing on the couch in his absence, I heard a peculiar sound. It was sort of like a hissing, gurgling noise.

At first I assumed it was the cats snoring. I ignored it and continued to nap on our lovely new sectional.

But then I went to get some water in the kitchen and heard the strange sound again.

I flipped on the patio light to see if there was some sort of rabid creature outside the back door. Then I turned the faucet on and off to flush the pipes in case it was some strange plumbing issue.

But the mysterious sound continued.

Finally I noticed a large bubble coming from the side of Mr. W's jar of bread dough. It had bubbled up and was eeking out the closed lid. Although I opened it and poured some down the drain, by this morning it looked like this:

Which is very coincidental because Mr. W also overflowed last night. Right into the Porcelain God, thanks to too much expensive wine with his friends.

I just love it when parallels pop up in life. Especially when I'm not responsible for either of them!

Hopefully both culprits are done spewing for the day.

What We're Making: WINE, Baby!

Last year for Mr. W's birthday, I bought him a guide to wine-making and promised that once he had chosen the best kit, I'd pay for part of it and/or the grape juice so he could finally give home wine-making a whirl. For my birthday, he bought me a toilet. But that's another story.

He finally got around to ordering the kit this past fall, and in October began the process of making 30 bottles of home-brewed Merlot. We chose Merlot because we thought it might be easier than a bigger red or pretty much any white. Here's what the kit looked like after we unpacked it:

 

Basic contents are: A bucket to mix the grape juice with various additives. A glass jug that holds the wine for aging - and bottle brush for cleaning it. Some sort of siphoning squirty thing for transferring wine from "barrel" (jug) to bottle. A corking tool and a bunch of corks.

After sterilizing everything with a special solution, Mr. W set off on his Mad Scientist adventure.

Grape juice was added to the bucket:

And a hydrometer was used to test its gravity. No idea why. Maybe so when we drank it, we wouldn't float away like that one burping scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Clearly, Mr. W should be writing this post...

Once gravitational pull (I just made that up) was established, the wine was poured back into the bucket where it was mixed with additives and yeast to help mimic the flavor and chemical reactions that occur when wine is in a barrel. As usual, the cat was extremely helpful during this entire process.

For about 8 days after this step, that bucket sat in Mr. W's bathtub doing its thing. He had to retest the gravity (which I just found out measures alcohol content) and temperature several times to determine when fermentation had stopped. At that point, the wine was ready to get "racked"—i.e. put into the glass jug to age.

In this jug, nestled among the remote-controlled helicopters, dust bunnies, and landscaping books in our guest room, the wine aged until this past Sunday.

Then it was time to be bottled.

We carefully sterilized 36 bottles in the sink, 32 of which we ended up filling with wine.

Can you tell Mr. W just got a haircut the day before? I'll tell him you said you liked it.

Once the bottles were sterilized, the siphony sucker thing was used to transfer wine from the jug into each bottle.

I'll be honest: part of me was totally jonesing to cut those bottles up and turn them into candle hurricanes for my Etsy store. But we have to reuse them when we do this again, so I will refrain...

After all the bottles were filled, it was time to cork. We realized after doing a few on the countertop that it was about a hundred times easier to force the corks in while kneeling on the floor.

We left one bottle uncorked and drank part of it with our dinner. I have to say, it was pretty good considering it was our first time. And all this only cost about $13 a bottle, which isn't horrible—especially since we can use the equipment again.

For the next batch, we think we'll try making chardonnay. I'm hoping this is just the beginning of a long career of wine making together.