Another Festive Holiday Potty!

I just couldn't seem to keep myself from taking the dad jokes and potty humor decor of the "new" water closet all the way to Christmas. Luckily, I'm not the only one with a 9 year-old sense of humor*!

The ornaments and figurine/toy were found at chain stores. But this one I made with my Cricut machine out of materials on hand.

In case you don't remember all the gags and jokes from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation or you do and want to watch again: https://youtu.be/4fyS5CLBgyM

* But an adult vocabulary.

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

This year, the bunniest of holidays (Easter) falls on the funniest of holidays (April Fool's Day), so first off... "rabbit rabbit rabbit!" Second, all the critters hanging around our place are getting in on the hijinx!


Rabbit Ramon would not stand for the other household t-rex getting all the giggles, so he insisted on his own set of custom bunny ears.

Looky! Dino scales in the ears! And a more color-accurate photo.

Rabbit Mavis is going for redundant ear-age.

I couldn't let it lie, so amped up the ridiculous with a pink nose and front teeth.

Rabbit Dale... er, uh... where did Dale get off to?

Springtime In The Rockies: Rabbit-based Decorations

jazz hands!

I've been focusing on trying to use up my rather... let's say "thorough"... stash of craft supplies. I've already completed a few rather intense sewing projects (not shown) with my cotton print fabrics, but what I feel compelled to share here are a couple of seasonal decorations I pulled together entirely from various supplies stashes over the St. Patrick's Day weekend.

First, Easter T-rex dares you to hunt Easter eggs.

Second, weird pile of bits arranged in a bleached & dyed bottle brush tree sprouting out of a rabbit head mug.

Third, I repaired this yarn doll rabbit that Betty roughed up once in a fit of separation anxiety... within hours of my finishing making it. Now that Betty has left this mortal coil, I guess it is safe to bring back Mr. E. Rabbit.

Before the "accident":

What was left:

Post surgery:

I added a hat to cover the sprung eyeball situation.

I couldn't face making new polymer clay eggs, then painting them. So one row of felt grass and one large egg from a box of wee bits & bobs I scored at the 50-mile Garage Sale last year.

With the doe rabbit the inspired the project in the first place, made my my grandmother.

Finally, this super cool jackalope ornament that was a birthday gift from one of my besties over at Fizzy Party!

He fits right in with the faux chocolate jackalope I made last year and Dale, our resident jackalope, but he doesn't fit quite right on the cabinet handle. I'm still on the search for just the right spot.

Hey Bookshelf, I Got Yer Back

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the weird, built-in bookshelf in the guest room was sagging under the weight of the books on it. During the project to shore it up, I decided to also spruce it up, because of course I did. Other than reorganizing and redistributing the contents, I also made some shelf backers to kind of balance the visual weight of the various sections as well as the whole thing.

The backers are behind the top, center shelf and the middle, right shelf.

One of the things that is kind of a fundamental way in which I approach most of my decorative house projects is doing what I can to make them un-doable. Obviously that's not always feasible - like with a tile back splash - but if I can use nails instead of construction adhesive with a good result, that's what I'm going to do. And if I can use screws instead of nails, then I'll to that if it'll keep the look right. That is how I approached this project. Someday we'll have our dream library in the next room and just take this less-than-ideal-for-us unit down, so not having weird rectangles of quilting cotton attached the wall is important for the future.

We were lucky that I had most of what was needed to make the backers on hand already:

     THE BASIC MATERIALS
     Bark print quilters cotton fabric
     Fusible interfacing (I had enough for only part of the project)
     Thread
     Polypropylene sheets (you could use thin plywood, masonite, foam core, even strong cardboard)
     Duct tape

     TOOLS
     Measuring tape & ruled straight edge
     Level
     Utility knife
     Rotary cutter & scissors
     Pencil
     Sewing machine
     Calculator
     Small wire nails

     OPTIONAL MATERIALS
     Spray adhesive
     Metal eyelets
     Base shoe or quarter round moulding
     House paint

First steps

1. Measure the back of your shelf in both directions. I sure hope yours is square - as in the angles are all 90 degrees, because everything is level and plumb - because it's hard to cut your backer if it's not. Mine was not and my backers are not quite right because of it. Which means I don't know how exactly to help you get it right, but I would recommend starting with something inexpensive/free and easy to get a hold of like cardboard or paperboard to get it just right before cutting into a more expensive backer material.

Here are the fingerprinted and lint-coated scraps. Pretty impressive photo, eh?

That said, use cardboard if you think it will maintain it's integrity through the process. Just be sure your material is strong enough to hold its shape while being flexible enough to get into place and that you have a way to cut that material.

See how I had to make sure my backer was flexible to get around this? The front opening is smaller than the back surface.

2. One you've got the size just where you want it - whether that is just-right or not - then cut your backer. Go ahead and dry fit it just to be certain it's right.

3. Press and cut your fabric with enough extra to wrap around your backer and at least an inch on the back. I did 1.25 - 2 inches on mine. Cut your interfacing just a bit smaller than your fabric, then follow the directions for that interfacing to fuse it to the back side of your fabric.

For the long backer, I had to sew together a few pieces of fabric to get it wide enough and that is what I used my calculator for. Had my print not been directional, I probably could have gotten it without that. I also had to piece together my polypropylene backing, because my sheets are pre-cut to 24" squares.

Next...

4. Lay your fabric wrong side up on a clean, level work surface that is big enough to fit the whole backer board on it. I used the guest room floor. Then center your backer board on that, back side up. Make sure you have the top of your backer matching the top of your fabric if you have a direction fabric. You can see I wrote on my the backside of my backer just to make it easy to keep this straight.

If you're working with difficult material, large piece, or are just nervous about keeping it all aligned, you might want to use spray adhesive on your backer then lay it on your fabric. Be sure to smooth over the surface so the adhesive makes contact all over. Obviously, test on scraps to be sure it won't bleed through your interfaced fabric, etc. Maybe double-sided tape would work, too, I haven't tried that.

5. Pre-cut/tear several strips of duct tape into 5-6" strips. You may have to do this a few times as you work your way around.

6. At the center top, fold over our fabric and tape it down. You want an nice crease, but you don't want to move the material around. If you have used the spray adhesive this shouldn't be a problem. Then do the opposite side. Then work your way, evenly down the left and right sides, alternating top and bottom.

I did my corners with one of the standard miter methods.

7. For the sides, start in the center and work your way to either end. Because my sides were fairly short, I did one whole side before doing the other. It ain't pretty, but it doesn't show and it's just for us.

Finally...

8. Flip it over and admire your work!

Installing that beautiful beast:

9. Have your hammer and wire nails ready, then put your backer in place. You might be able to use double sided tape for this, too, depending on how heavy your covered backer is. For mine I tacked tiny wire nails into the bookshelf about 1/4-1/3 of the way in, then bend them towards the wall with my thumb. Sort of like those metal tabs in the back of some photo frames. They are really hard to see so it works fine. I was originally going to paint them brown, but didn't have to.

Another option would be to add a small moulding piece. For the backer on the right end of the unit, I ended up using a bit of leftover base shoe from our kitchen island project. This was not so much to hold it in place as it was to cover where I messed up cutting my backer. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES and dry fit, dry fit, dry fit!

I did have the foresight to paint the wall a color closer to the fabric, at least. At least the closest I could come with paint on hand.

And in actuality, that piece is held in place by nails in its own way.

Here is where the optional eyelet came into play. I knew I was going to display these sentimental pieces in there, so cut holes in my backer before covering it with the fabric, then after it was installed gently cut the fabric over the holes, and added the eyelets with a bit of glue. Just to keep the fabric from doing weird things, even though the interfacing would almost assuredly take care of that. It was a craft-geek moment, what can I say? Soooooo, that backer is essentially hung on those nails like an frame or other decoration or art would hang on a wall. The moulding is mostly to cover the gap and I didn't even nail it down... it was stable enough without doing so and this would be easier to undo (see second paragraph).

A little dab of base shoe will do ya'.

We have some things in-progress that will go in here instead of the mine cart and my signed copies, but for now it's like this.

Clockwise from top, left: Expert Typist Award, First Pound Earned, Mine Cart Book Display (with The Trials of Solomon Parker), Chock-a-saw Sagwa Tonic bottle prop, Dr Potter's Medicine Show, Dr. Morrison Hedwith's Basement Laboratory Diorama.

Halloween at the VME

It has been a rather timid Halloween season around the VME, but after taking last year off it feels good to have the decorations up, even if it's less than half of them.

We did a few things differently this time around. Maybe taking a year off gives a fresh eye on things?

Introducing Commodore & Mrs. Boanbotham.

I finally got around to putting most of the holographic portraits into thrift store frames! And one of the reasons that I was eager to install the picture rail moulding was so that I could switch out the decorations on this wall seasonally - especially for Halloween season.

Since last year I finally made my old-timey apothecary, there were fewer jars for the bathroom, but now that we have the doodad shelf so it worked out. I left most of the "chop shop" type decorations packed in their boxes this time.

As far as vermin and critters go, I kept it to just snakes, mice/rats, and a fractions of the spiders.

Oh, hey! What's that craniometer? Why, it's a craniometer I made for another project (coming soon)!

It's a good think Eric likes this, because it's a little too big and delicate to store. [wink]

One Step at a Time: The Bathroom Redo Edition. Volume 6C

YES! I managed to just squeak "all" this cabinetry refinishing in before April ended!*

Let's just get the "action shot" of soap cabinet out of the way at the top of today's program, shall we?

Maybe the late arrival of the hinges will be a happy accident situation, because now that I've come this far, I kind of want to paint the interior of the cabinet purple (Benjamin Moore 2071-50, Amethyst Cream), too! First, because having a pop of color inside cabinets and closets tickles me and second, because it would be lighter and easier to see the contents. While getting this far with a couple of weeks left in April feels like being ahead, the fact that the hinges are keeping me from finishing feels like a green light to paint the interior or at least start.

I remembered to take a photo of the cabinet after I'd emptied it, but before I removed the shelf paper!

In this shot you can see where someone in the past had cut away the back behind the second shelf. This was also done on the second-to-bottom shelf. I presume this was to get at the tub/shower plumbing in the wall behind the cabinet.

I forgot to take a photo of the interior after it had been primed, painted, and had new shelf liner installed, but before I started reloading it.

After reloaded, but before the new hinges were delivered. Sigh. But LOOK HOW TIDY! I purged and reorganized the contents. I wonder how long this level of organization will last...

*Hopefully those hinges will show up very soon so I can get the doors back up... before House Guest Season.

The back of this little unit was in poor shape - so poor it might not make it through stripping or even just sanding, so I replaced it with 1/4" plywood. One nice part of having removed the old backing is that getting inside to sand and paint was that much easier and well lit, and I was able to do something a bit more custom and fun on the back!

I didn't add any moulding to this piece, but I did add the dowel for displaying vintage linens. I am totally enamored with vintage linen, doilies, and handkerchiefs, but they really don't otherwise fit my style. It's a shame for them to be shut up in a box all the time - and I have displayed them in a few places over the years, even using them sometimes - so it will be nice to have a spot to display them. I'll probably also rotate them out occasionally.

In order to get it in there without taking apart the cabinet, I drilled clear through the right side and just a pocket on the left. Then I found a little wood piece at the craft store to use as a keyhole cover.

I have been assembling our aqua, purple, and white things as well as picking some up here and there when something struck my fancy AND was either on sale or at a thrift or vintage shop. I'll also have some seasonal decor to rotate in there.

Yup. The lighting in there is just kind of harsh for now. Halogen bulbs in the vanity fixture, one incandescent bulb in the fan fixture, and a north-ish facing window. You're just going to get shadows AND blurry. Someday I'll get some reflectors.
 (Ahem, Mother's Day is coming, Ms Delia!)

While I was trying to configure which linen pieces to hang on the shelf's new rod, I just couldn't get that one in, but I really wanted to use it now. And then I'd already pressed that middle one AND I'm one of those people who buys in to that whole thing about things looking better in odd numbers. So, I decided to add them to the aqua piece I'm using as a cafe curtain on the window, which suddenly looked a little plain. Still not sure how this window will end up dressed. It's really the only window we have where privacy is much of a consideration at all. There's no reason to cover the top for privacy AND why would we ever want to cover the forest views?

Downstairs Bathroom Redo Master List
1. Walls
   a. remove floral wallpaper & repair damage
   b. prime original wallpaper & skim coat
   c. prime skim coat and paint
   d. veneer plaster & topcoat
2. Ceiling
   a. skim out or remove popcorn texture
   b. remove some of the plant hooks?
   c. prime
   d. fun faux finish
3. Cabinetry
   a. sand & add moulding
   b. pickle - nope! went a different route
   c. replace pulls and knobs
   d. add reclaimed, refinished wall shelves
   e. add wee cabinet by shower
   f. paint interior of large storage cabinet
4. Tub/Shower
   a. remove and replace caulk
   b. add tile "backsplash" above
   c. remove doors
   d. replace shower curtain
5. Move hardware
   a. train rack over toilet
   b. hand towel bar
6. Floor
   Not sure, but must deal with wrecked stuff beneath tub/shower
7. Window covering
   a. tba - might just go with the aqua linen towel that's there, perhaps modify it
8. Decorations
   a. on walls
   b. in shelving unit + linens
   c. on big cabinet

WEIRD FACT: We have way too much storage in our downstairs bathroom after all this. Previously all the collected doodads, what-nots, and knick knacks for the re-purposed shelf had been stored in the vanity. I mean, it's hard to believe in the concept of "too much storage" but there's a lot of stuff that you really don't want to store in your bathroom, you know? This bathroom is oddly/stupidly large, particularly considering how teeny-tiny the adjacent laundry room is, so I decided to put the laundry room "back stock" in the bathroom cabinets: the next jug of laundry soap, the backup vinegar (hard water, anti-industrial-chemical fabric softener), stain treatments, oxygen bleach, etc. Honestly, some of these things are handier to have in here rather than the laundry room, since there isn't a sink in the laundry room.