2012 February » Radcrafter

Goodwill Goodies

Feb 282012

Our new home is in desperate need of lighting in a couple of rooms, the master bedroom and my work room. Absolutely no overhead lighting in either room…nada, zilch. So this past weekend I did a little thrift store shopping in search of lighting and discovered my two local Goodwill stores. And, I have to say I was in love with both of them almost immediately. I know love is a strong word to use in reference to a thrift store, but it’s true for a couple of reasons. First, they offer 50% discounts on certain color tags. Yippee! For some of you this may be old news, but the GW stores in Austin do not offer any discounts. Ever. Second, the prices were reasonable…like thrift store prices, not retail. Austin GW stores priced items waaay too high and when you add that to the lack of any type of discount it really wasn’t worth the effort. But, not anymore.

My new goodies. I found the two great drum lamp shades at my first stop. Brand new with the plastic still on them, originally available from Target. No love for the ugly brown pattern on the burlap, but I have plans to cover that with some fabric paint. A project that can be tackled indoors, so no excuses not to get on it.

The two lamp bases were found at the second stop and I’m really happy with both of them. The trick was finding bases large enough to handle those lamp shades and both of these fit the bill. I plan to spray paint the candlestick base (maybe ORB), but haven’t completely decided on what to do with the other one. I don’t love the finish around the bottom, but the body is actually this cool crackled glass finish. Have to put my thinking cap on before tackling that one…

I like that the bases aren’t identical and can’t wait to see what they look like with some updating. And, most importantly, they already provide much needed light in our master bedroom. Total price tag for both lamps (including shades) … $25. Sweet.

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10 Before and After Furniture Makeovers

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Feb 272012

My coffee table is still patiently waiting for it’s makeover along with my cutting table, my son’s dresser, my dresser and my dining room table. And, I now have a brand new excuse as to why I can’t seem to tackle any of those projects. Wait for it…it’s too cold outside. Ah, the perks of frigid Northern Colorado winters. Even though I am procrastinating on my own projects that doesn’t keep me from finding inspiration through the work of others.

Like this great wicker chest makeover from The Jay Street Project. The amazing transformation abilities of spray paint…

And, this metal storage bin makeover from Mud Pie Studio is a great find. I’d love one of these for all my bits and pieces in the garage.

This little stool makeover from villabarnes is awesome. I love the way she re-purposed the grain sack.

Storage. I’m always looking for new storage ideas and this little cubbie makeover would create some great storage in any craft room. Homeroad really transformed her free find.

And, this little student desk makeover reminded me of two projects I left off my to-do list. I picked up a great little desk for my daughter at an auction for $5 and it along with my son’s desk are both in need of makeovers. Saved by Suzy created a unique, one-of-a-kind desk for her daughter.

These zebra stripes are just perfect on this console table makeover. Salvage Savvy has great step by step instructions on how to create this look. My daughter would love something like this on her desk.

I love the personalized art work on this side table makeover from Art is Beauty. Makes me wish I had even an inkling of talent in the hand painting department.

I love mid-century modern furniture and this is a great transformation from House Vintage. She doesn’t share many details (like any haha!) from what I could find, but I love the finished product.

This glider makeover from Project 365 is fabulous. It brought back to life a piece of her family history.

Loving the teal color of this dresser makeover from My Old Country House and she does some great detective work to learn the history of her great furniture find.

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Say Bye-Bye to Google Friend Connect

Uncategorized 1 Response »

Feb 262012

As I’m sure many of you have already heard, Google is phasing out several of their services, including Google Friend Connect for non-blogger hosted blogs. Boo to that I say. If you currently follow RadCrafter through GFC (THANKS!), please consider signing up through any of the options available over there on the right sidebar. The options include Facebook (I almost always share posts there, Twitter (posts are shared there too), RSS feed (your choice of reader) or Google + (the reason Google is eliminating GFC).

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Thingamajig Thursday #14

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Feb 222012

We are slowly settling in at the new casa. It’s been an interesting transition for us because we had to rent this house site unseen. The leasing agent did a good job of sending me lots of photos and even sent me a long email describing the floor plan…except for a few of the “oddities” in the plan missing from the photos. It is an older house and being a rental you don’t really expect things to be kept up quite as well as they would be in someone’s real home, but the bathrooms in this one are a doozie. At some point some self declared DIYer decided to remodel the upstairs bathroom and add a giant whirlpool tub…great, right? Not so much. The tiling that surrounds the tub was done poorly, there is a 2nd cabinet that should hold a sink (but doesn’t and the plumbing is MIA) and the exterior window was replaced with those glass bricks, which makes the front of the house look a little odd (not sure how I missed that in the photos). The downstairs 3/4 bath was just as poorly done and will most likely be used by the kiddos because the shower is teeny tiny. But, most importantly all the toilets function properly and having two toilets was a must. Which leads me to another thought…why do so many older homes only have one bathroom? There are only four of us and we regularly run into more than one person in need of the facilities at the same time. I feel sorry for any larger families sharing one lone bathroom. Eeeek.

Of course, we just look at our current bathroom situation as motivation to save money towards a home of our own. The plan was to rent a less expensive home, so that there would still be funds to save towards purchasing something in the future. And, I guess pretty bathrooms were part of the sacrifice. But, man, the builder in me is itching to tear those suckers apart. I’m sure in another month the blinders will go up and I won’t even notice them, right?? Boy, oh boy, I hope so.

But, enough about my lovely bathrooms. Let me see what you all have been up to….

Lovin’ this makeover by Turnstyle Vogue Design & Styling:

And, these super cute upcycled sweater skirts from So Here’s My Life:

Please feel free share any recent projects whether it be crafting, sewing, painting, redecorating, cooking or even woodworking.

Party Rules:

I’d love a linkback. Not required, but very much appreciated. You can grab a button (located over on the sidebar) or just include a regular ol’ linkback.
Follow me and I’ll Follow you. Google Friend Connect widget is located on the far right over there.
Post your latest project whatever it may be. I love to see new ideas and creations of all kinds, so almost anything goes. All I ask is that you don’t add direct links to shops or giveaways, please.
Be sure you linkback to your actual post, not your homepage.
Please be kind and visit at least one other link to see what others have created.

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Sewing Table Happiness and my IKEA nightmare

Sewing 2 Responses »

Feb 202012

Now that we are in our new space I have an actual sewing room. My previous space was a corner in our master bedroom, with bits and pieces stored in other areas of the house. Needless to say it made running a small sewing business that much more difficult with absolutely no room to spread out when necessary. Sewing requires space and to say the lack there of stressed me out is a huge understatement. So with the knowledge that a whole room would be dedicated to my hobby, as everyone jokingly refers to it, I was crazy excited and had all these DIY craft table ideas pop into my head.

Something similar to this, but modified more specifically to suite sewing …

Image courtesy of Being Brook

Unfortunately, the reality is I won’t have access to any of my tools for at least a month. The garage is full of boxes still waiting to be emptied and now that we live so much further north winter weather actually plays a factor too. Soooo DIY really isn’t an option at the moment.

I decided to keep my current table to use specifically for cutting (it used to serve double duty as cutting & sewing table) and hunt for a new table or desk to hold my machine. After A LOT of online browsing and reading about what others have made work for them, I discovered this table on IKEA’s website…

It’s part of the EXPEDIT series, so as you can with most IKEA furniture it can be mixed and matched with other pieces. Perfect. Except for the fact that the closest IKEA is a little over an hour away. And, the funniest thing is that I lived less than 10 minutes from IKEA for over 4 years and never, ever went in the store. Little did I know what an ~~adventure~~ nightmare this little road trip would be. It all began in the parking garage as the kids and I, along with a huge mass of people, worked our way into the store. The store is setup to be navigated easily, but W.O.W. there were a lot of people. Those of you who regularly frequent IKEA may be used to the craziness, but it took well over 2 hours to navigate through the store, check out the table and shelf in person (just to be sure) and then work our way down stairs to pull the boxes and checkout. Seriously. Now this is the only store in Colorado to my knowledge, so maybe some of the craziness is due to that fact. But 2 hours…really? The kids and I were worn out after our trek through the showplace and briefly considered a trip to the Cafe for a lunch break, but that idea was squashed as soon as I saw the mile long line. Wowza. Needless to say, we finished up our business as quickly as allowed and high tailed it out of there.

In the end, I’m very happy with the purchase and think it was worth all the effort. I went with the two tower shelf vs the four tower you see above. Everything went together really smoothly and I think it will work perfectly as a sewing table until I get the opportunity to build my dream setup.

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