MacGyver ottoman

So, this Saturday, I finished an ottoman that was the ultimate test of my MacGyver crafting skills. I started it on Victoria Day thinking, "Alright, so I need to cut some wood, stain it, upholster the top half, screw it all together, it'll be a sinch!" (Who says sinch anymore but me?!)
Well, the process was quite the opposite. First off, I used an old cedar fence post for the legs. I thought the sanding would be the hard part, but no, it was the fact that my mitre saw doesn't fit a 4" post, so it had to be cut by hand. Hello, carpal tunnel syndrome.
So, the rest of the woodworking went pretty smoothly. Here's a shot of the posts post-finishing (yup, I only finished the part that was going to show), I thought the transformation was pretty cool.


Then came the upholstery. I started it Friday after work, and the first part went following to plan. I did find a new way to cut 4" foam that works waaay better than an exacto knife, and that's with a hand saw. Much easier to cut through 4" foam than 4" cedar.
So Saturday morning I got up thinking, "Alright, just the buttons, then put it all together!" I was sooo wrong. First off, you're not supposed to use a thick material like velvet for those "cover it yourself" buttons. Thank goodness I bought 6 of them, even though I only needed 4. When I screwed up 2, I got to the last one knowing it was my last chance. Luckily it worked, and "all" I had to do was thread the cords through the upholstery.
Well, I had a 4" needle thinking that would get through 4" foam. Nope. I tried pushing the cord through with a knitting needle. Nope. Taping the cord to the end of a bamboo skewer and pulling it through. Nope (there is now a wad of electrical tape somewhere in the middle of my ottoman). I thought, if only there was a way to make the skewer into a giant long needle. Well, there is! I decided to try drilling a tiny hole in the skewer with my Dremel. I really didn't think for a second I would have a steady enough hand to pull it off, but somehow it worked! Here's my ingenious new invention:

I then made use of the CSI gunshot-trajectory-method to find the hole in the underside of the top section, and used giant nails as toggles to keep the cord from sliding back through. Yeah, the underside of this thing is not pretty.
It's now 2 hours later, and sure enough, all I have to do is screw it all together, and this part really was a sinch, although it took almost an entire carton of screws.
I would like to welcome you to the newest addition to my family, the MacGyver Ottoman:

Isn't it precious?

crisp curtains

Well, these pictures are cross-posted from the house blog, because I couldn't decide between the two...house/crafts/house/crafts...why not both!

I made these new curtains for the bedroom and theatre room. I'm calling them my 2-metre/2-hour curtains. Here's how to make them: Buy 2 metres of fabric. Cut said fabric in half. Hem all edges. Cut holes for grommets along one side. Snap grommets into place. Hang new curtains!

The bedroom (this is some pretty rigid upholstery fabric that kind of looks like cordoroy):


The home theatre room (these are chocolate brown cordoroy...mmm, chocolate!):


Then I ran out of grommets, but I really could have kept going! I've got some big plans on the way for some new furniture, stay tuned!

New Orleans - part 5

Well, I woke up Monday and headed over to the hotel to start sewing. Nope, just dreamed it. Yup, I dreamed that I was still sewing. It took me a few minutes to get over it, then I was able to wake up stress free!

We took a walk down to the (newly discovered) pancake house, where I had the best blueberry pancakes I've ever had. They didn't have blueberries cooked right in, but were folded in half with kind of a blueberry jam in the middle. YUM! The restaurant was called Betsy's Pancake House on Canal St., just so you know :)

Brian and Julia had to leave for the airport in a few hours, so the four of us took the streetcar down to the waterfront to check out Riverwalk. We saw some cool boats, one of which had a helicopter landing pad on it!

Then they left to take the streetcar back to the guest house to check out, and Chris and I headed to the Mom's hotel to hang out by the pool for a bit.

Bye, Julia & Brian!:


Then Chris, the Mom and I did some sightseeing. I was very glad to have an extra day after the wedding to kind of decompress, and we saw a lot of the French Quarter that we hadn't been to yet.




Then Monday evening, the Mom, Dad, Kathleen, Dorice, Chris and I went out for dinner to celebrate his birthday, which was the previous Monday. We ate at the Red Fish Grill, and most definitely the best part of the meal was their signature dessert, chocolate bread pudding...mmmmmm.

We didn't really have any plans for the night, so Mom, Kathleen, Dorice, Chris and I decided to do the New Orleans Ghost Tour. Our tour guide was Scary Mary, a wonderful little old lady who reminded me a lot of Maude from Harold and Maude. We got lots of little tidbits of history as well, and again saw some sights we hadn't yet seen.




After the ghost tour, we went for a drink in the lounge at the Royal Sonesta, which (other than the girl in the silver bikini outside the front door) was so classy I couldn't believe we were on Bourbon St :)

The next morning, there wasn't much time to do anything before heading to the airport, so it was back to the gas station for more muffins and milk. We took a cab to the airport, and the cabbie took us off the highway and through the Lakeview neighbourhood to see some of Katrina's devistation. I kind of felt weird taking pictures of this part, but here's one of the water line on a house:


It's incredible that if you only went to the French Quarter, you might not even know that there are still areas that are nowhere near back to normal. The guest house had about 4 feet of water, but they were able to recover fairly soon after the hurricane since they're on the second floor. We saw so many homes that were abandoned, still with broken windows and trees down. Our cab driver had a nice story, even though he is still living in a trailer on his lawn. He went to stay with his daughter in Minnesota for 3 months after the hurricane, and her church got together and donated a van for him to use for his cab so he could go back and start working again.

So, that was our trip to New Orleans! The hospitality we received was amazing, from the guest house owners to the (numerous!) cab drivers, to just friendly people who say "hi" when you're walking down the street. The sprit of the city is amazing, and it was such a suitable place for Gill and Grant to get married. It was so much fun, and so wonderful that I still can't stop thinking about things that happened there! I swear, I look at my pictures every day:)
Here's the link again, and there are lots more photos than I've posted here:
photos

I also want to give a HUGE thanks to my Mom (THE Mom), who helped me sooo much finishing off the bridesmaids dresses. This was, by far, the biggest project I've taken on, and even though I thought I was all set before I left, there were so many unexpected changes to be made. If it wasn't for the Mom, Jen B's strap would have been all twisty, Mairead's bust would have been too loose, and Jen H's dress might have fallen right off :) You took out so much of your time in New Orleans to help me out, thank you so so so much.
Also, thank you to Nicole in Toronto for seriously coming through on very short notice to do Julia's alterations. She did such a great job, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Well, I think that's it! If you notice any spelling errors, PLEASE let me know, I'd hate to look stupid on the internet :)
Thanks for reading!
m.

Oh yeah, and now that I'm back I can't wait to get going on some projects for me! But first I've got to catch up on all the birthday, wedding and Mother's Day gifts that I've missed/will-miss-if-I-don't-send-out-today!

New Orleans - part 4 - wedding

So, we were all waiting up in the suite for the call. We got it - 2 minutes. For some reason I was the one wearing a watch (which I hardly ever do anymore!), so I timed us down to the second. We all filed out and into the elevator, and met the groomsmen in the lobby. We all lined up, and then it started!
Maybe it was because Mairead was right in front of me and she was having a hard time holding it together :), but I started to tear up walking down the aisle. Then I got up to the fountain and got in line, and felt fine, until the band started playing Oh Canada when Dad was walking Gill down the aisle. Oh Canada makes me cry every time I hear it (I know I can't be the only one)! You should see me at hockey games!
Once she got up to the front, the ceremony started, which was great. They had a friend of theirs do the ceremony, and he had just the right amount of official wedding type stuff and personal stuff. I think at one point he compared them to 2 monkeys or something, but it was great:)


At the end of the ceremony, he explained a tradition, of which I really don't remember all the details, but it involved everyone waving a hankerchief in the air:

The hankerchiefs came in handy for what came next: the Second Line! I guess this is a tradition that is done at weddings and at funerals to send the person/people into the next phase of life. The whole wedding party and all the guests file out into the street and, accompanied by a brass band, parade through the streets of the French Quarter. There were police escorts to block the traffic and everything! It felt like something from a movie...people were coming out of houses and restaurants, people were taking our pictures, we kind of felt like celebrities! (the first two pictures are from Brian Sherman - gotta give credit!)




When we got back to the hotel for the reception, everyone was parched (dancing through the streets will do that!), so there was a long line up for the bar :)
After a bit of mingling, the happy couple was announced by Julia, and out they came dressed in swim suits and Grant in a life jacket. The proceeded to get in the pool and do a sychronized swimming routine! Yup, a synchronized swimming routine...it was a bit dark by then, so of course none of my pictures came out :(
The meal was great, and the reception was really relaxed. The courtyard was such a nice setting, there were tables right beside the pool, and the weather was perfect.
The toasts started with the Moms, who both had very nice speeches. Then the Dad enlightened the Americans with some French translations (beau-frere = good looking brother for me!). The best man, Greg Lee, then gave his HI-larious toast, which included a spot-on imitation of Grant on the phone with Gill :) There was a "surprise" from 2 of the groomsmen, which was a very touching rendition of a-song-I-can't-remember-the-name-of :) Mairead then gave her very emotional toast, which brought back some memories of visiting her and Gill in residence at Queens.
I was supposed to give a toast as well, but after Mairead's there really wasn't time. I was just going to talk about the Picnic Cart, the Comical Head, Smedley and the Pussycats and "I'm not Sipowicz", and tell Grant that since he doesn't have any siblings, he's welcome to torture me, especially since he can learn from the best! Oh, and of course welcome him to the family and all that ;)

Some cute pictures from the reception:


Then there was cake, champagne, lots of photo ops, and another cockroach (this one on my shoulder!), then the couple left and the crowd dwindled. I guess it all had to be over by 11, since there were rooms that had windows out onto the courtyard noise was a factor. The Mom and I went up to the suite to get our stuff and tidy up the room (man those bridesmaids made a mess...mostly just underwear and clothes everywhere, including mine:)).
Julia, Brian, Chris and I left to get a bite to eat, then took a cab back to the guest house for some much needed sleep.

Almost done! Part 5 coming up..

New Orleans - part 4

It's Gill's wedding day! It was raining when I got up, but the sun came out and it was a beautiful day!
I decided to splurge on breakfast, and got Subway. Finally, a huge cup of coffee!
We got to work as soon as I got to Mom's room. She had done the fitting for the last dress the night before, and had just finished up the alterations on that dress. We had 2 to go, so I did one and she did the other. Kathleen and Dorice were finishing the sequins on Gill's dress. It was down to the wire!
Gill called the room at one point, and croaked "I need a bandaid." She sounded dead! I said, "Happy Wedding Day!" They were checking out and leaving for the Maison Dupuy, everything was on!
I left to get showered at 12:30, and the Mom was still finishing the last dress. I owe her, HUGE! I was supposed to be at the hair and makeup appointment at 1:00, but Gill had told Julia and I we could be late, they can only do one at a time, right?
So, Julia and I left the guest house at 2:00, and I really didn't want to walk the whole way this time. With the most half-assed cab flagging EVER, we got a cab and got to the hotel.
Of course, there were still lots of girls left to get their hair done, so Julia and I went to the bar to get lunch. The kitchen came back to the bartender to make sure that I really did want a BLT without the B, which I did, so we got our order and took it back to the hair and makeup room. It was very low key, lots of nail-polishing, salad and fries eating and a few drinks going around :) At one point, a cockroach came crawling out from under one of the tables. I thought it was funny that the first cockroach I saw was in probably the nicest hotel we'd been to!
We were definitely running late. I got my makeup finished at the same time we were supposed to be starting the photos, so I headed right up to the room where there was frantic steaming and ironing of the dresses, finishing makeup and lots of ribbon knotting and flower pinning.
Finally, my huge project for the last 6 months was finished. As soon as the girls had on the dresses, it seemed like they weren't even the same pieces I had been toiling away at in my sewing room. They were just out there in the world, on these girls, fitting great. They all looked beautiful. (Sorry, I know that was cheesy, but after over 100 hours of work, I think I deserve a little cheese, and not just toasted American cheese sandwiches:))


We made it to the photo shoot at 6:15, right when all the guests were arriving. There goes the suprise! We took our photos and went back up to the suite to take a load off our feet. This was definitely when most of us discovered how uncomfortable our shoes really were:)



I'm going to make the wedding and reception its own post, just because I think it deserves a page all to itself :)

New Orleans - part 3

So, Saturday started much like Friday, cheese sandwich, walk to the Mom's hotel, fittings. Mom and I got to work doing as much of the alterations we could handle before heading to the Jazz Festival. We were joined by my aunt Rosalind and cousin Audrey, who helped with some stich ripping. Rosalind was finishing Audrey's hem, and Dana was adding some extra lining to her dress, so we had a veritable bridesmaid's dress sweatshop going on. Finally we stopped working around 12 noon, and headed off to the festival. I had really wanted to get all the sewing done by Saturday, just in case anything went horribly wrong Sunday morning, but oh well.
Saturday was super hot and muggy, and incredibly windy. The first thing Chris and I did when we got to the festival was get some food, but it was so windy it was hard to eat. I'm so smart, I got a plate of hummus, which ended up all over my arm. The tent we were eating in started to blow away, and later in the day we saw that they had taken the tents down altogether. We met two super nice men from Florida who told us all about all the different stages and suggested which acts we should see.
We walked around for a bit and found where the Jazz and Gospel tents were, then we headed to the main stage for Galactic. It was way too crowded where we were, right beside the path, so people kept bumping us walking by. Finally we threw in the towel, it was just really hard to enjoy the show. We headed over to the Jazz Tent for some shade, and found 2 empty seats! Yay! Then I looked over and saw the Mom with Kathleen and Dorice, so when the act ended, we got seats beside them and held onto them for the next few hours. Mom, Kathleen and Dorice kept us well fueled with iced coffee, beignets and Dove bars, yum! We knew it would be super packed for Herbie Hancock, which was the one act we really wanted to see that day, so we stayed in the seats through the next act, which was awesome. It was a tribute to Nina Simone by a vocalist named Jhelisa, and she was amazing. It was nice to cool off and get out of the wind, which was blowing all the dirt around. Then was Herbie Hancock, who was wonderful, as always. I got a couple of pictures, but they are incredibly blurry. Boo.
After Herbie Hancock, I thought we'd check out Dave Matthews Band, but the sound was really bad at the back due to the wind. So we just left and got in the cab line early to get back and cleaned up for the rehersal dinner.
Julia and I ended up walking to the rehersal. I made a great entrance in my cute black dress, new necklace and hair up, sporting my backpack and flipflops :) It's so hard to clean me up! The rehersal was noisy and confusing (21 people in the wedding, most of whom enjoy attention!), but we got it down and left for the dinner at Acme. Acme is an oyster house, so not a lot of vegetarian stuff, but they had some good pasta which I filled up on.





Larry had prepared a great slideshow, with lots of embarrasing pictures of Grant, and not so many of Gill (he should have asked me for some!).
We left right after the slideshow to go get changed for the Umphrey's McGee show. We got "the best cab driver" :) who waited for us while we got changed, then took us on a shortcut to the bar. At this point, it had started raining hard, and there was a tornado warning. It was still crazy windy, which prompted Julia and I to break out a rendition of "It was a hard night last night" on the drive.

It was a hard night last night
It was a hard night last night
The fence blew down in a storm
The windows on the house broke off
The door blew off the wall
And I have this horrible cough
It was a hard night last night

We got to the bar and found that we had only missed a couple of songs. I'd never really heard much of Umphrey's before, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. We met up with a few more wedding people and hung out with them for most of the second set. Julia and I decided to leave right before the end, and we got a cab right outside the bar. It was the first time we were overcharged for a cab though, he told us right off the bat it would be $15, which was way more than the meter would have been. Oh well, it was still raining and we just wanted to get back.
So speaking of things that could have gone horribly wrong...The power had gone out at the guest house while we were out, and it went out again about 15 minutes after I went to bed. Thank goodness for the trusty alarm clock on my phone, but really, with the tornado warning, what if Mom's hotel lost power and we had to sew everything by hand! Yup, I'm dramatic...it was fine :)
Part 4 - the wedding day - coming up!

New Orleans - part 2

So after waking up Friday morning, I headed down to the gas station a couple of blocks down Canal St. and bought bread, cheese, muffins and milk. Yup, we ate a lot of bread, cheese, muffins and milk for breakfast during our trip. Had I walked down 2 more blocks, I would have found Betsy's Pancake House, which had the best blueberry pancakes I've ever had. But, we didn't find it until Monday, so toasted cheese sandwiches it was.

I then walked down to the Mom's hotel to do some fittings and alterations (and a swim!). 5 of the girls had a fitting, and all but 1 of those needed alterations of some sort. So, of course I procrastinated, thinking that I had lots of time after the Jazz Festival that night to get down to business. I went back to the hotel and met Chris, Brian and Julia and we got a cab ride to the festival from a cabbie who lives in the guest house! He gave us a great deal :)

The festival was great. The weather was hot, but not too hot, and the only lineup that was long was for drinks.





We saw Keb Mo and Bob Dylan on the main stage, but by far the highlight of Friday for me was absolutely Ani Difranco. Her setlist was GREAT!!!:

Shy
Manhole
Studying Stones
Two Little Girls
As Is
Sunday Morning
Untouchable Face
Names And Dates And Times
Spoken Word: IQ
Swim
Red Letter Year
Fuel
Gravel
78% Water
Swandive
Recoil
Shameless
Little Plastic Castle
Evolve

So, we went back to the hotel and I got cleaned up to go sew all night. I started walking to the hotel (the buses and streetcars were free, but never seemed to come when I needed them!), then a cab pulled over and gave me a free cab ride since it was on his way! He wouldn't even take a tip when I got out.

So, I had Mom's key from earlier in the day, but apparently this hotel had serious problems with keys deactivating, so I couldn't get into the room. So I waited in the lobby for a bit, tried calling everyone's cellphones, then waited a bit more. Finally, Gill and Grant got to the hotel, but they didn't know where Mom or Dad were. So, I waited in their room for a bit, then they were leaving, so I went back to the lobby just as Mom was arriving back with everyone else. It was now almost 10 PM, and I just plain don't do a good job working after 10. I start to make mistakes, and have to redo things over again, so it's just not a good idea. I started working on the dress that needed the most work, but Dad came up to the room to go to bed, so I figured I'd be better off waiting until the next morning. Nobody's fault (except maybe the hotel's faulty keying system ;) ), it just sucked that I barely got anything done the one night when I had no other plans!

Part 3 coming up!

The ultimate crafty adventure in New Orleans - part 1

Well, I'm back from New Orleans, and, sewing aside, what an adventure in itself! The city was wonderful, and I can't believe the hospitality we received. Although the city isn't fully back up and running, everyone we came in contact with made such a huge effort to make our stay memorable, and it most definitely was. From the JazzFest to our guesthouse to the wedding, everything was perfect, and we couldn't have asked for a better vacation.
If you don't feel like reading my entire entry (warning - it'll be long!), here's a link to my photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueandyou/sets/72057594127445012/

So, why is this a crafty adventure, you may ask? Well, with 10 bridesmaids, none of who live within 1400 kms of me, most of who live over 6000 kms away, there were bound to be some last minute alterations. And, man, were there alterations!

Our arrival in New Orleans was greeted with a band playing in the airport! Unfortunately, I didn't pull out my camera, but, I promise, that was the only time during the trip that I didn't take a picture when I wanted to :)

We arrived at the Canal Street Guesthouse, and were greeted by Cathey, one of the owners. She gave us the tour, which included showing us where Julia and Brian's room was, and sure enough, there they were, playing Scrabble on the balcony! The guest house was awesome, it had everything we needed (plus wireless internet in our room!), and it was so comfortable we felt like we were staying with family. Here are some pictures of our room, the "Cowboy Room".







The other owner, Mr. Sam, came over while we were on the balcony and told us some VERY colourful stories about the guest house's former life. Apparently, there was a bar downstairs that attracted all kinds of junkies and hookers, and the guest house was a rooming house that was in cahoots with the bar. Needless to say, it was pretty shady. Luckily, this was 10 years ago, before Cathey and Sam bought it, and the bar is now closed, and the guest house is now AWESOME. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone going to New Orleans.

So after checking in, the Mom called me to bring over my sewing machine. So, I brought it to her hotel, where her and Dad had a suite, and set up what was to be sewing central for the next 3 days.

Friday night was pretty tame for me...Chris and I went out to dinner, then met up for drinks with Julia and Brian at a courtyard pub that had a flaming fountain in the center. Yup, a fountain with running water and flames coming up from the top. Cool. Then I went back to the guest house to go to bed (we'd been up since 4:30 in the morning!), and Chris, Julia and Brian went to see Galactic.

Stay tuned for part two!