Dale's DIY Sandbags

Yet another thing I forgot to blog about!

Dale LOVES a project. And as winter dragged on in January, Dale decided to make his own sand bags. He didn't want to pay the $25-$35 each (click on prices to see the styles he modeled his after) at the camera store for a bag of sand--he just couldn't justify the price. He made a total of 10 and he said they cost him about $6.50 each to make, using the same materials as the commercial equivalents!

He borrowed a bag from our friend Pat and then reverse-engineered the bags to make his own. He's even had photographers on message boards offer to buy the bags (empty, of course)!

The bags started out as a simple piece of fabric, of course.

He had to add handles...

And without sand, it's just an empty bag. He put the sand in plastic bags to reduce leakage.

Finally! A bag with sand in it. Each bag has 15 pounds of sand--perfect to create leverage for his light stands!

Here's a link to his photo gallery, showing step-by-step how he did it. And here's a link to a PDF Dale created to give to other photographers with a do-it-yourself nature!

And here's a picture of two of them in action--against our still bare orange wall!

Repurposed Speaker Cabinet!

Dale's dad found a new purpose for Dale's old speaker cabinet! We have one that's currently being used as a plant stand but this takes it to another level! He calls it his "Urei Cat House" and the email he sent to Dale explaining the amazing transformation is below...

From Wayne: "Done!!! Painted the inside "Hunter Green", made a shelf, got some scrap carpet from Sam [a neighbor) but had to buy a 12' length of transition strip to hold the carpet in place. I tried carpet tape but the carpet was too stiff and kept pulling loose. I would think the cats will think they have died and gone to heaven, we'll see. I know this, the cats won't knock the thing over. It must weigh in at 30+ pounds."

Dale and I think it's pretty nifty; we're tempted to make one for our kitties!

Dale’s Speaker Project

A post from Dale:

I have had the below set of speakers for about 16 years and though these 20+ year old speakers are not exactly attractive, I absolutely love the sound and it would cost an absurd amount of money to replace them. Why? Because I am NUTS!

So, like most men, I prefer function over style so the big ugly boxes did not bother me much until Rebecca noted they were an obvious eyesore. She reminded me of this OFTEN – and I realized I had to do something about them.

I launched a scheme to wrap the original black boxes in new wood in an effort to make them more attractive. It did not take long for my nutty mind to decide I needed to build brand new cabinets out of walnut and take what was supposed to be an easy project and create a major endeavor over the Christmas holiday.

I managed to get Dad to agree to all of this – I think he just might be a little nuttier than I am; thankfully it did not take a whole lot of convincing, honestly. He is a pretty easy mark, sometimes.

View below exhibit A, the 24-year-old ugly black box:

Following are a few shots of Dear Ol' Dad working his hide off on yet another one of my projects. Thankfully he has not charged me for glue and fasteners over the years or I would be in the poor house.

Think we have enough clamps on it? Honestly I think we could have used a few more of them but we made do.

Here is 50% of the finished project – sans the finish. The other one was in the confines of about 10 clamps allowing the glue to dry. Pretty darn hot looking if you ask me.

Yeah, about the finish; Dear Ol' Dad left me to fend for myself in that regard – I must be losing my touch with him. Actually, he is smarter than I give him credit for because finishing these SOB's was a lot more work than I had originally imagined they would be, which is usually the case.

Here they are on the dining room table – note the subtle orange wall in the background – waiting for the walnut banding to cover the plywood edge.

Test fitting the banding before permanently attaching it.

Now here they are really coming together, each cabinet has a couple coats of Danish Oil to really bring out walnut figuring. This is what I had in mind when I selected this wood – great looking grain and a deep warm color. It is just a shame that I will be covering the front of these with fabric.

After getting three coats of hand rub polyurethane on them it was time to take them for a test drive; I am pleased they sound and look better than ever.

Here they are completed with vintage fabric fronts. As mentioned above, my goal was to get these to better fit with our mid-century modern style and I think I have successfully done so. In fact, a coworker saw this picture on my computer and asked, "What's with those old speakers?"

I honestly think this past Christmas has been one of the best; I got to spend a ton of time with my dad doing something we both love – working with wood - and I will be able to see and use these speakers everyday for years to come. Nothing beats the pride of accomplishment.

Of course, working on speakers was not the only thing I did over the holiday; I also managed to whip my mother in a few games of scrabble, which rarely happens. No doubt she is chomping at the bit to reestablish her dominance on the scrabble table.

Nothing beats doing what you love with people you love.

Now I wonder what project I can sucker my dad into next year...

Isadora Ink featured on The Daily Obsession

Exciting news! My craft website was featured today on a cute blog about shopping.

Check it out here!

Moulin Rouge Bedroom

Dale and I started cleaning up my vanity--it was my great-grandmother's and I've had it since I was a little girl. It's been pretty beat up. In addition to having about 100 years of use, it's been moved multiple times (and sustained a broken leg), has evidence of having been refinished in the 1950s (you can see the power sanding marks in some places), and been kept in smoking homes up through the early 90s. It was dark, dank, grimey. So we started cleaning and couldn't stop ourselves. Above is how it looked after we cleaned the crap out of it. Dale convinced me to let him fix it so I sat biting my nails and waiting for the results. And they were amazing:

How beautiful does that wood look now? WOW! He was just starting to add a layer of shellac to it.

This is the other side, which wasn't in quite as bad of shape. Pretty! This will be part of the Moulin Rouge Theme Bedroom I'm working on. Should be finishing in 2015 at the rate I'm going!

World's Tackiest Headboard

So, Dale woke me up one night two weeks ago and let me know that the World's Tackiest Headboard happened to be right outside our bedroom window--waiting to go into the trash.

I was thrilled and we immediately scurried down the stairs and scooped it up. Of course, nothing can be simple! My goal was just to spray paint it a fabu gold and blue and use it as a free and easy piece in my dream Moulin Rouge-themed bedroom! I want to live inside the elephant in Moulin Rouge! So I started cleaning it tonight and it's filthy, of course. But worse yet, the paint--both layers of it--is coming off on my cleaning rag. And it's lovely hand-carved wood underneath! Gah! Now I am going to have to strip it in order to paint it because if I paint it, it will just flake off! *sigh*

Anyway, you can follow the progress of the World's Tackiest Headboard here, including the newly uncovered wood beneath the tacky paint.

While Dale's Away...

Dale is driving with his good friend Chase this weekend--all the way to Arizona! I'll be sure to share pictures of his trip when he gets back! Chase is moving to the Phoenix area and we wish him well! We will surely miss him. He's been our most frequent guest since moving to Illinois!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, you'd think I didn't know how to shower without Dale telling me! Ha! Anyway, I spent a good portion of the day getting crafty! How happy this had made me! Of course, I completely lost track of the day but I have some proof I did something with it:

I made these pairs of earrings from a kit, sadly. I didn't want to learn on expensive pieces or on the antique beads I plan to work with. I was lucky to have a lot of jewelry from family members and while much of it is not my style (four heavy strands of beads for one necklace is too much for me) the colors are pretty. So I want to make some contemporary jewelry with my antique pieces. This is my first attempt to make jewelry and boy was it challenging--but totally fun!

I like the bottom middle ones best, I think. Though the top left ones are also a favorite! Cheapies, but still cute!

Wedding Memories & Other Thoughts

While most Chicagoans are busy prepping for the Big Game, we're being crafty and going to dinner! As you can see above, I finally got around to putting some of our wedding goodies in a cute display case. Dale and I both worked on it (he's quite crafty--and certainly opinionated) and we are very pleased with the results. The shadowbox includes our wedding invitation, program, CD favor, photo, hand-stamped cocktail napkin, bubbles (with custom name & date), a couple of silk leaves that served as part of table centerpieces, and little pieces of sprig from my bouquet. It makes me happy that we have such a keepsake. And thanks to Target for having frames on clearance thsi week! We're going to hang it in the living room.

What else is going on? We went to Benihana with our friends Rebecca & Pat tonight. It was tasty and it reminded us of all the fun we've had at Japanese Steakhouses with friends back in Detroit. We love Chicago--and very much enjoyed our dinner with R&P--but we certainly miss hanging with friends back in D-town!

What's up with Rebecca?

Rebecca took a bookbinding class this weekend.

From 10-5 I learned how to create a book from scrach! Very cool process and it was a neat class at Paper Source! Wheee!

Knobs

BEFORE!
AFTER!

I'm doing a revamp of my antique vanity. It belonged to my great-grandmother and it's in desperately in need of cleaning and a fresh shellac. So, I used brasso on the door pulls and it's like amazing! What a fab product! I'm not exactly stripping and refinishing it; just repairing/cleaning and using denatured alcohol to get the grime off it. I'll be putting a fresh coat of shellac on it once I get all the grime off. Holy cow is that thing filthy!