The Fabric Floozie

If you follow my blog, you probably already know Ana White. You probably already read Knock-Off Wood, and you probably have either already built something from her site, or are int he process of buying materials for one of her plans.

She’s contagious. Really.

Ana is this gorgeous female carpenter who offers free plans on her website for dozens upon dozens of awesome furniture pieces that you could easily buy in stores…. for a markup that makes me want to cry. I don’t mean like “Wow, I saved 10% by building it myself”. I’m talking more “I spent $110 on this including paint instead of buying it for $3,000 in a designer furniture store”. She’s awesome.

My husband and I are completely addicted to her website and while the big kids picnic table here was our first project by her, we have several more we are ready to tackle after vacation.

I was a bad girl and didn’t take photos while we were making this, but here are some pics of the kids (and dog!) enjoying this table once it was finished.

A few months ago I was flown out to florida to photograph one of my best friends renewing her vows on the beach with her family. On the way to the airport, I noticed that our neighbor had this “pretty” little bench (snapped in half) out with their trash.

I told JR that I wanted him to snag it if it was still out there when he got back from the airport. As usual, he looked at me like i’d lost my mind, and said “sure”.
When I returned about 3 days later, the bench was stacked in the corner of our garage. I was excited and oh-so proud of him for listening, until he confessed. He didn’t pick it up that day. Then the next day, it was still there. And the next day, it was still there. When he walked out the door to go get me from the airport after my return flight, he’d realized it hadn’t been picked up yet, and thought “Crap, now I HAVE to get it, or she’ll be mad”. LOL. So he dragged it into our garage that day and I saw it that night.
But really, it doesn’t matter how it got there, it just matters that it DID get there. And now it’s beautiful.

I started by removing all of the bolts and screws and discarding the busted up and rotted wood panels.
I hit up lowes for what they call “craft boards” in the size I needed. They were pricey, but the right size (no cutting) and a hard, high quality wood.
I also grabbed a can of the “Red Elm” Gel Stain from Lowes. Come to find out, Gel Stain is one of the best things you can use on hard woods b/c it doesn’t need to soak all the way in to get a deep, rich color (soaking in is difficult on very hard, dense boards).
I picked up some Brown colored Spray paint Primer for rusted metal, and some Valspar Brick Red Spray Paint as my top coat.

When I got home, I thoroughly cleaned the metal pieces and started priming them. Once they were primed and painted and dried, I re-assembled the metal and did a dry-fit of the wood to be sure it would work before drilling/staining such $$ wood panels.
Once I knew it would fit, I quickly stained all the pieces and re-assembled the bench using mostly the same hardware that came with it. Some screws were missing or just too rusted, so those were replaced.
And in the end, we have a new Bench… for around $55

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I know I’ve been MIA lately, and this is why.
I’m walking the SGK 3 Day in November. This is my 2nd year. My goal is to raise $5k for breast cancer research and since fundraising is so darn time consuming, my crafting has come to a screeching halt.

That’s right, it’s not that I’m not posting. I’ve literally done nothing since my last post. My sewing machine cries itself to sleep every night. It’s pitiful really.

But YOU can help me reach my $5,000 goal, which will give me back my free-time for crafting!

Today I’m hosting a ONE DAY ONLY blogging event. I’ve got around 60 blogs around the globe helping with it, and I’d love for you to join in too. If you want to find out how, click here

I’m basically trying to round up 3-4 $10 donations from each of these bloggers and their readers in order to hit $2k in donations in one day. It’s a HUGE undertaking, and I’m not sure how close I’ll get. But if I can get in $2k today, I’ll have hit my big goal and I’ll have way more time for sewing, reconing, etc. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
So you can click here to donate a little and help towards a wonderful cause, while also getting me closer to having free time to craft/post/share/etc.