A Lilac Home for Ponies

I've been looking for a home for my collection of My Little Pony toys.  A couple weeks ago, I came across a shelf at the Humane Society thrift store.  It had an interesting shape and was just the right size, but it was in bad condition.  The laminate was peeling badly in several places and there was a chunk of wood missing.  Priced at $15, it was triple what this frugal goth would normally be willing to pay for a shelf in such bad shape.  Only the knowledge that my money would be helping homeless pets convinced me to spend the $15.

I used cardboard to fill the large gap and wood filler to patch the smaller areas.

A coat of primer and two coats of lilac spray paint helped hide the damage.

As pastel ponies don't exactly match my home decor, I put the shelf in my workroom - a tiny ex-bedroom where I keep my tools, craft supplies and work table. 

The ponies fit perfectly in their new home! :)

Do you relegate your collectables to an out-of-the-way spot, or do you integrate them into your decor?

Bats on My Car

In October 2010, I put vinyl decals of black and purple bats on my car.  They lasted about a year before the purple faded to light blue and I wanted to replace them.  I wasn't sure what to expect when trying to peel them off.  They were brittle in the near-freezing garage and snapped into small pieces.  Easy solution - I put my car in the sun to warm up the decals, and they peeled right off! :-)  No damage!

My car was then batless for a while.  Because of the winter snow, the only thing stuck to the car was road grime.  This weekend was gloriously spring-like, finally giving me a chance to wash and re-bat my car.

They're not the same purple and black decals.  They're a set of bats in various shapes, all I could find this past October.  I'm not sure I like the new bats.  I think maybe they're too random.  Or maybe there are too many.  Maybe I just need to get used to them.  Or maybe no bats will ever be as good as the first bats.  What do you think?

original bats - different sizes but all the same shape

new bats - different sizes and shapes

new bats

One Lovely Blog Award

A million thanks to the lovely ladies of Coffin Kitsch and Le Professeur Gothique for presenting me with the One Lovely Blog Award.  I'm truly honored to receive this award not just once, but twice.

I was an internet hermit for a long time.  I'd given up on forums and blogs because too many of them were negative, full of rants and arguments.  When I started GIY, I hoped to give something that a few people might find helpful.  I didn't expect to get anything in return.  To my surprise, there is this wonderful blogger community, from which I get far more than I could ever give.  I feel connected for the first time in years.  Every comment I've received has been positive, and the support really means a lot to me.  Feeling that people are interested in what I have to say is a great boost to my less-than-ideal self-esteem.

The rules of this award are to present it to fifteen bloggers and list seven random things about yourself.  I feel like a cheat, but the blogs I would choose are the same ones listed on Coffin Kitsch and/or Le Professeur Gothique.  At the risk of starting some sort of infinite loop, I will refer back to their lists.

Now for seven random things about myself:
1. I have seen the movie "Clue" about 100 times.
2. My favorite food is pepperoni pizza, but I don't like cheese on anything else.
3. My heliophobia has nothing to do with being goth.  When I was 18, I got a terrible sunburn, then came down with mono and a raging fever while living in an non-air conditioned dorm in summer in Georgia. It was like being on fire inside and out for days.  Now when I'm in the sun, I feel like it's burning me.
4. I love Coke Zero.
5. My favorite number is 12.
6. Bane is my real name.
7. I'm extremely uncomfortable speaking to groups and will avoid it whenever possible.  During my senior year of high school, I let my grades slip so that I would graduate third in my class and avoid having to give a valedictorian or salutatorian speech.

Overhead Expenses

There are many overhead expenses with homeownership, some more literal than others.  Saturday before last, it was very windy here.  When I went outside the following day, I saw a shingle on the ground.  Then I saw another shingle.  And another.  And another…  My roof had suddenly developed wind-pattern baldness.

 

Hear that whimpering?  That’s my savings account preparing to take a hit.  It's possible that my homeowners insurance will cover a new roof (minus my $1,000 deductible, of course).  Or they may deny the claim, and I'll be forking over thousands of dollars.  If it’s the latter scenario, home improvement activities may have to cease for a while.

I have no idea what I’ll do with myself if I can’t work on the house!  Lots of sewing, I guess.  I have a sizable stockpile of fabric on hand. :)

And in tangentially related news, March means weather insanity in Denver.  At 4:00 p.m. today, it was 72 degrees.  Tomorrow night's forecast says 2-4 inches of snow.

March Theme Post: Gray

The March one-day theme on Sophistique Noir is gray.  This is an easy one for me because I am a big fan of gray in both apparel and home decor.  When it comes to my clothing and possessions, if it's not black or purple, it's probably gray (or gray's shiny counterpart, silver). :-)

In home decor, I think gray is sort of the "forgotten neutral."  People wanting a neutral color for their home often think of beige and its many aliases (bisque, ecru, almond, sand, cream, buff, oatmeal, khaki... ).  But gray is a neutral also.  I think a cool gray makes a lovely backdrop for the jewel tones that goths are fond of - ruby red, sapphire blue, emerald green, amethyst purple.  Gray is also a great partner for that most goth of colors, black.  While black and white can be too much of a contrast for large-scale decorating, a black and gray combo provides interest without being too "loud."

black and gray damask wallpaper is a bit easier on the eyes, I think

Black walls can create the ultimate in dark elegance, but let's face it - they're usually not very practical in rooms that you actually use.  Even the gothiest goth needs adequate light to successfully apply complicated makeup.  ;) Gray walls can provide elegance without turning your room into a cave.  An excellent example of this can be found in - of all places - a brochure from Home Depot.  "Boudoir Goth" is from Behr's 2011 Color Trends brochure.

Gray can provide elegance even for rooms that must have light-colored walls.  Damasks are a nice option.

In my own home, I have used gray paint on several pieces of furniture.

chest of drawers

desk

desk

wardrobe

I have also used gray paint on textured wallpaper to revamp a set of canisters.

canisters

Kitchen Renovation, Part 1

There is a fun show on DIY Network called “I Hate My Kitchen.”  I can relate.  My kitchen is absolutely dreadful.  It needs to be completely gutted and renovated – new layout, new plumbing, new electrical, new cabinets, new countertops, new sink… new everything.  Other than replacing the grungy appliances before moving in, I have done very little to the room.  I guess I haven't had the nerve to face it. 

I hate the oppressively low ceiling and the upper cabinets, which make the kitchen feel cramped. 

this is what I see when I enter from the garage

from the living room, the window is blocked by the cabinets

Then there is the utterly useless range hood.  Because of the low ceiling, the hood is absurdly low -- at just the right height to vent the recirculated air directly into my eyes.  I would have pulled the cursed thing down long ago, but the electric hood is hardwired up through the middle cabinet. After my recent success in replacing light switches, I began to wonder if removing the range hood might be within my meager electrical skill set after all.  I investigated the options and found that the wiring could simply be capped off.  Sweet!

While removing the upper cabinets would open up the space, there would be a drawback – more of the ugly kitchen would be visible.  I came up with some cosmetic fixes which will hopefully be relatively inexpensive and easy (and which I hope to feature in future posts as success stories) and decided to go ahead with removing the cabinets.

I began by emptying the cabinets and removing the doors.

Using one of my favorite and most useful tools, the miniature pry bar, I easily removed the paneling and trim from the back of the cabinets.  Then it was simply a matter of removing a few screws, and the side cabinets practically fell off the ceiling.

one side cabinet down

I shut off the electricity at the breaker box before removing the range hood and middle cabinet.  A horrifying quantity of mouse droppings on top of the middle cabinet proved that at some point in the past, the wire from the range hood hadn’t been the only thing coming through the hole in the ceiling.  I've never seen any mice, though; perhaps they were electrocuted while chewing on the wire.

yikes! disgusting!

mice had chewed through to the bare wire  :o

cabinets are gone!

I cut the wire short, peeled back the sheathing to expose the three individual wires, and capped each one separately.

Before poking live wires into my ceiling, I decided to double-check with an informed person.  I snapped a photo and drove to my friendly neighborhood Home Depot.  I showed the photo to the electrical specialist; he confirmed I’d capped the wires properly and suggested I add some electrical tape for extra security.  Reassured that I wouldn’t electrocute myself or burn down my house, I headed home to finish the job.

It’s difficult to properly patch textured walls and ceiling, but luckily, little damage was done when the cabinets came down.  I did my best to fill in the holes and sand the high spots.  I covered the capped wiring with a metal plate and began to paint the ceiling... and hit my first snag.  When wet, the new white paint was exactly the same color as the existing ceiling, so I couldn't tell where I'd painted and where I hadn't.  Not good.  I'd heard of ceiling paint that goes on pink, making it easy to see where you've painted, and decided to give it a try.  My preferred brand, Behr, does not make such a paint (get with the program, Behr!) so I purchased Glidden "EZ Track" ceiling paint.  It didn't cover quite as well as Behr, but overall I was pleased.  Rolling pink paint over white was MUCH easier than white on white.

I never expected to use pink paint anywhere in my house

With a fresh coat of paint, it's hard to tell the cabinets were ever there.

from the living room, I can see out the window now

There is still a lot of ugly to be addressed -- the back of the stove, the cabinets, the countertops -- but I think I'm off to a decent start.  :)

DIY Stripey Bustle-Style Valance

Black and white stripes hold special appeal for many goths.  Add lace and a bustle effect, and you have a look suitable for many goth and goth-friendly styles, including cabaret, steampunk, Victorian, and burlesque.  This project shows how to make a stripey bustle-style valance perfect for your gothic boudoir.

Cost: Varies depending on fabric and lace choices and size of valance(s)
Materials needed:

• sewing machine
• serger (optional)
• fabric (approximately 4 yards for the project shown)
• lace (approximately 7.5 yards of each type for the project shown)
• ribbon (< 3 yards for the project shown)

There are no step-by-step photos because this was a pre-blog project.  Feel free to laugh heartily at my visual aids. :-)

Measure the width of your window to determine how wide your fabric needs to be.  The fabric should be about two or three times the width of your window to allow for plentiful gathers. For my 46” window, I used three pieces of 45” wide fabric stitched together.

Determine how long (top to bottom) you want your valance to be.  I decided on 20”.  Allowing for 5” between layers, I needed a 20” long piece, a 15” long piece and a 10” long piece.

Based on the width of your window and the diameter of your curtain rod, determine the size needed for the rod pocket.  I used a piece 45” wide (cheating slightly) for a 46" wide window and 6” long for a ½” diameter rod.  (If 6" seems too large for a 1/2" rod, keep in mind that the fabric will be folded in half (to 3") and will include the header as well as the pocket itself.)

Measure and cut your fabric.  Stitch pieces together to make the proper width for each layer.

not to scale, of course

Serge or narrow hem the sides and bottom of each layer.  Add lace.  I used 1” black lace over 2” white lace.

lace is represented by yellow lines

Hem the sides of your rod pocket fabric.  Fold in half wrong sides together and stitch two rows to create a pocket for the curtain rod.  I stitched 1” apart to create a 1” header and a 1” pocket for the ½” diameter rod.

Gather the layers.  With a conventional sewing machine, you can zig-zag stitch over heavy thread and use it as a "drawstring" to gather the fabric.  With a serger, you can use the differential feed and a shirring foot to quickly gather each layer.  Setting the differential feed at the highest setting and making two passes through the machine with each layer gave me just the right amount of gathering.  Stitch the gathered layers to the rod pocket one at a time with parallel seams a minute distance apart.  While stitching the top layer, include pieces of ribbon to the front and back of the valance.  These will be used to create the bustle effect.  I used two pairs of 24” ribbons.  Add lace to cover the stitching.

Hang the valance and tie the ribbons to bustle it up.  You could pin on bows at the bustle points for extra sauciness.

striped bustled valance over solid black curtains and striped panel