Czechs Mix

I know that lately I've been doing a lot of things to the outsides of furniture, but this post is about just the opposite. It all started when Mom came to stay last October and we were trying to find something that guests can put their suitcases on for the guest room. We knew that it needed to fit in a little nook by the door, so we took our measurements and kept our eyes open.

We ended up at the Peddlers Mall, which is on New Circle here in Lexington.

Neither of us had ever been, but places that sell used, antique, or just odd furniture are really fun, so we gave it a try. What we didn't account for how just how huge this place was. It is massive. It's the TARDIS of secondhand. The front looks like an old storage facility, but the building has so many added on spaces off the back that it feels like you are walking for miles and miles by time you make it through it. Did I mention that it's two stories?

The photo is from an adorable blog called The Ringers where they talk you through their experience there. If you really want to get a sense for the place, it's a great read.

They really do sell everything there. Furniture, clothing, Justin Beiber beach towels (ugh), but there are also hidden treasures if you're willing to take your time and go through some of the more interesting booths. That's how we found a whole stack of old military trunks. These things were big. We're talking 47Lx22Wx15D. They were made of wood that had seen better days and hadn't been cleaned out, but each one only cost $20. We had found our solution!

It inspired images like this to run through our minds.

I figured I would give it a nice coat of a fun paint color and it would be good as new, so we loaded it up and dragged it into the house. First we put it where it would eventually end up so that we could see how it fit.

It was a little wide, but not by enough to be too much of an issue. This was followed by the next task: cleaning it out. There was a lot of old paper held in my rusty staples and some broken glass in there.

I pulled out all of the staples I could, hammered in the ones that I couldn't, then took out the paper and trashed it. Finally, I took the little vacuum and ran it through the entire inside so that I could get all the glass out without using my hands. One cool thing I found was a manifest for the items that were in it. We are thinking that the language is Czech, but we aren't completely sure. Maybe Russian? How cool is that?

 

We had picked out a fun fabric for the inside that we would use to line the bottom. This would allow Scott and I to store blankets and other cloth items in it without getting hung up on rough edges. Like many things, though, this project was put off while we finished the other plethora of things we had going on in the house. During that shuffle, we decided that we actually didn't want it in the guest room because we liked using it in the living room as blanket storage much better.

I had taken my mouse sander to it to get off the paint that was chipping, but in doing so, I found that I really liked the distressed look. Rather than painting it, I ended up just cleaning it up a bit and leaving it in it's 'original' state. Mom finished the interior liner and I was able to put it in, too.

She essentially made a box out of fabric that would sit inside of the trunk. It fit really well, so it was really easy to 'install'. I just used my staple gun and stapled along the edges at the top. I would have cared more about people seeing the staples, but the chevron pattern is busy enough to distract from them.

Ignoring how lumpy our blankets look, you can see just how much this thing holds. The best part is we can close it and not have to see all of our non-matching, lumpy blankets all the time. Yay for covering eye sores!

There is even enough space for us to store pillows we aren't currently using or that we use as extras for the room. The trunk is the perfect height, so they don't get smooshed.

I think the only thing I might want to do to it down the line is either clean up it's current hardware or add some new cleaner looking hardware and maybe stain the areas of exposed wood a darker color. I just think it'll make the weathered look appear more on purpose and finished. Short legs are also a possibility, but those will depend on how it does through some use. Otherwise, this project is done! It's nice to have things be simple every once in a while.

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone!

Some Timey Wimey Costumey Stuff

Hi, my name is Caitlin. I am a Whovian.

If you aren't familiar with the term, allow me to explain.

Scott and I are both huge fans of Doctor Who. Though I enjoy the older ones, the newer episodes are really where my heart lies. We thought that the 9th Doctor was 'Fantastic', the 10th made us say 'Allons-y!', and Matt Smith as the current Doctor made us take a leap of faith with 'Geronimo!'

We enjoy the goofy timey wimey time travel stuff, the different companions, and the possibility of owning a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space).

We are Whovians. Hear us geek.

When the time came this year for us to pick costumes, we knew what direction we wanted to go. Scott threw around a couple of ideas, but he ended up on wanting to be Matt Smith's incarnation of the Doctor. When that was decided, I knew my only move was to be River Song, his walking talking spoiler alert (LOOOOONG story...).

Matt Smith's costume was pretty straight forward.

Tweed jacket, sonic screwdriver, red bow tie. Not to bad considering the fact that Scott already had a white shirt and khakis.

We headed to the Goodwill and searched through many a sport jacket till we found a couple we liked. The entire process took about 30 minutes because the one we found that had the right look also happened to be the correct size for the hubby, so we threw it in the cart. $5.99 later, one piece of his costume was complete.

I then headed to Handcock Fabrics and took a hot minute searching through the remnants bin until I found a quarter of a yard of red fabric for a quarter. That's right. I was making Scott a 25 cent bow tie.

I cut my shape and sewed it together, but for a much easier tutorial on how to create a quick bow tie, check out this link. When I had finished, I just put a backing pin on it like you'd use for a broach and pinned it directly to his shirt. So far, we were lookin' pretty good.

I started getting really excited even with it just hanging up together! It was all coming together!

Next, though, was the sonic screwdriver. This is the device the Doctor carries to solve pretty much all of his problems (except for wood....it doesn't work on wood).

It is pretty much the Doctor Who equivalent of a lightsaber, so it involved making something unique. I started by raiding the Home Depot for small copper pipe parts. My base was 1/4 in. diameter, and that seems to be a good size to fit in your pocket and not be too clunky. I had originally looked at some 3/8 pieces, but together they created what I would refer to as 'the Fisher Price version of a Sonic Screwdriver".

Once I had fit them together in a cool, kind of random way, I took them apart again and taped off all of the threads. This would keep off the paint and allow them to thread back together for final assembly. I then hung all of the pieces I wanted to be silver on a ribbon between two stools to paint. I did the same with the rest of the pieces so that I could paint them black (sorry I didn't get any pictures of this process). Hanging them made sure I could get them from all angles and that they would dry really well. Be sure to use spray paint that sticks to metal when doing this step.

Then, I just waited for them all to dry and put it back together.

Done! Sonic screwdriver completed. The funny part was that there are instructions on how to make it light up online, but I didn't have time to put that together. We ended up snaking a glow stick through the piping and it worked great through the whole party! It really helps finish the costume, even on the hook.

And Scott looked great in it!

The River Song costume on the other hand had more gadgets to fabricate.

There was her gun belt, blaster, and time jumping bracelet. I actually wore brown jeggings (the shame!) for the pants, a long sweater for the top, and got a wide brown belt from Target to hold it all together.

The vortex manipulator (time bracelet) was made with pleather, a couple of swipes with the sewing machine, some hot glue, some cog parts, and two wooden circles (from Michaels). I even used some magnet clasps to hold it shut when I wanted the flap closed.

To make the blaster, I ended up with this gun from the dollar store that I modified.

I painted the entire thing white, then went back in with different amounts of watered down black paint to add some detail and blaster marks. I finished it off by adding in just a little watered down brown paint to really give it some grit. I think it really makes it feel like it has some weight behind it.

Next, for the holster, I cut out a long swatch from my pleather and made two rungs for my belt at the top of it. I cut a piece of pleather to go around my leg to hold the holster itself in place. I then used the glue gun to make a separate pouch for the gun to fit inside of, added a strap at the top of it to keep the gun in place, then glued the whole thing to the holster itself.

Casey also put my hair up in some curlers to get the signature crazy River hair. I feel like it all came together really well!

 Thanks for the picture, Katrina!

All in all, I'd say our Halloween was pretty Who-tastic. I'd say what really punctuated our accidental theme was when two of our friends showed up as Who characters as well! Not even planned! Between The Doctor, River Song, Captain Jack Harkness, and Rose Tyler, we were truly stylin' and time profilin'. Of course Scott won an award for Geekiest Costume, too, but that's just because...

Hope all of your costumes are coming together!