Monday, April 8, 2019

Lights, TARDIS, Big Hair Action!

It feels like I haven't done much the last couple weeks, but when I went back to check my photos I realized I've just been doing a lot of little things. Here, I'll speed run you through it:

 First, I tried some more melted crayon art, this time with a TARDIS:

 I flicked some white paint onto the glass first, hoping it would look like stars. Then I added a TARDIS decal cut with my Cricut.

From there I melted a whole mess of galaxy-colored crayons on top:


Here's the fun part, though: I used blue and purple glitter crayons, too, and they turned out so sparkly!


Here's a video so you can see some of the crazy sparkle effect; there's both blue and copper glitter in there!


(If you missed it before check out my melted crayon tutorial. I used all the same materials and techniques for this one.)

*****

With John's help I made my first ever Cricut card for my parents' anniversary. They're currently riding around the U.S. on their Harley, so I found the perfect silhouette to cut:

 

Plus it only took me and John about 4.5 hours to make it! YAY NEW TECHNOLOGY.

::mad laughter that turns to sobs::

(That's for those of you who were wondering why I'm not doing any Cricut tutorials. I still have no idea what I'm doing. Plus Cricut is a sneaky Woozle for including all the pay fonts in with the free ones, so after 2 hours of painstaking design you finally go to cut and it tries to charge you $10. Then you have to strangle an inanimate object, and John has to intervene, and it's a whole thing, you know?

Quick Cute Break:


SO SQUISHABLE.

And Suki's cute, too.

(heyooooooo)

Friday, April 5, 2019

New Project Reveal! Our High-Tech Headboard

Back when I was young and naive, I decorated my house like a person who DOESN'T own cats. I used loose-weave fabrics and cushy floor rugs and velvet-backed frames with abandon, y'all. ABANDON. (Seriously, what monster decided black velvet was good on frames?!)

Now that I am older and wiser, though, pretty much every design choice in our house has the following criteria:

- How much cat hair will stick to it?
- How easy is it to remove said cat hair?

Aaaand that's about it. 

Now, for our latest project, let's step into my bedroom, if you please.  ::WINK::

Nearly six years ago John and I completely remodeled our bedroom to look like this:


I'mma spoil this for you right now: it still looks like this.  

Here's a photo I took yesterday:
 
I don't like a lot of change. What.

What you're not seeing, though, is how our headboard just got a huge upgrade. And I'm so excited about it, there is major Kermit flailage going on. Major.

 First let me explain the problems with the old headboard:

PROBLEM 1: (Brace yourself)


The headboard fabric was basically Velcro for cat hair. And of course - OF COURSE - both of our new girls love sitting up there. This was both super gross and making our allergies go nuts.


PROBLEM #2: This is what my bedside floor has looked like for the past few years:



Wires EVERYWHERE. Believe it or not, that's all for my phone; there's an extension cord, a headphone adapter, and a pillow speaker I need for my sleep app. (The speaker was then forever falling on the floor.)

John also had a cord and headphones on his side of the bed. We both kept our phones on our nightstands, so the cords fell on the floor during the day (where they turned into dust traps) and tangled around our arms and torsos at night. I can't tell you how frustrating it was just trying to roll over; I'd invariably snag my speaker wire with my arm, which would yank the phone off the nightstand, which would clatter to the floor like a gunshot, which would wake up John. Worst game of Mouse Trap ever.

Plus it looked terrible, white wires covered in dust all over the dark wood floor. Vacuuming was a perpetual game of Chicken.

Ahh, but I had a dream, my friends. A dream... OF A HIGH-TECH HEADBOARD.

First we ripped off the old fabric:
 
 And burned it.

(I kid.)

We kept the foam to re-use, though.

Next we added a laminated shelf top ($12 at Home Depot) and John cut a square into the face of the headboard frame:


This is hard to describe, but next we essentially created a new cushion piece - using the old foam on a new piece of wood - to stick ON this frame. So only the very front of the headboard is padded.

Here we're lining up the new vinyl fabric: