More Pretties

Here are my first official photos of the curtains that I made for the Big Wave. They are made from a Tommy Bahama raffia fabric called Wave Runner. I backed them with a white, textured fabric that I found at Walmart on deeeeep discount.

Each curtain panel has pockets at the top and bottom for the curtain rod. I also sewed in a tie-back that closes with a snap. I'm so happy with how they came out.

I also used the same fabric in orange (thanks, Michelle!) to make some potholders for the galley - and 2 for a friend.

And look what we have here! Last weekend Jeremy and I went to a never-ending antique mall in Bridgeville, DE and found some more enamelware pieces for our kitchen. I don't think we could possibly fit one more thing in there so hopefully we'll be stopping soon. But they are just the little pops of color that we've been looking for. Good score!

Stay tuned for photos and stories from our Tear Jerkers Shenandoah gathering!

Another cross stitch...

... is finished!

This weekend I put the final stitches in my second cross stitch contribution to the teardrop. Check out my progress on the piece in my Flickr set.

What do you think? I think it will go great with the fabric we picked for the curtains and some other kitchen accents.

You've gotta love progress!

The Collections Grows...

I am just in love with this picture. Well, it's not so much the picture but the subject matter :) This is the collection for our galley so far. Jeremy had a good collection of enamelware to begin with but we've been on the lookout for a few more select things.

We went thrifting this weekend and found the yellow napkin holder, the mint green mixing bowl, and the Skotch Kooler with the 50 nifty united states. It says "Happy Motoring" on it :)

I would say we're almost finished. We just need a few large plates - dinner size, some small bowls for cereal, two more mugs, and maybe a few Tupperware containers for dry goods. I love the way it's shaping up!

They Call it Finishing, but We Just Started

We have been really busy applying a coat of finish each day for over a week. I had to get in the paint post before we are off to a Tearjerkers event this weekend at Elk Neck State Park. Woo hoo! Lots of design ideas up close.

We were trying to achieve a pickled finish, but nobody really pickles anything anymore, they just use a white stain. We chose Cabot because they had the most vibrant colors available in a transparent finish. The problem we encountered was the stain would run underneath the taped edge.

To overcome the wicking I first used an exacto knife and scribed as deep a line as I could manage along the edge of the design. The first line we tried, we cut the line, taped over it, and then tried to run the knife in the same line to cut the tape. We realized pretty quick that this was not working and ended up with more than one line. You can still see the mistakes through the varnish, but luckily it didn't ruin the side.

First we taped off the wave and stained the field white, and then sealed it with sanding sealer.

Then we reversed the masking and stained the blue. Beautiful! The sanding sealer bled a little under the tape and I had to sand it out leaving some shallow gouges along the blue edges. On the other side we stain both colors first and then seal.

We were a little afraid that the white was going to be over powering, but it came out exactly as I had envisioned. So well that we decided to use the same white on the interior surfaces.

Next comes 7 coats of Spar Varnish, lightly sanding between each coat. After this we will set the side to the side and finish the door and the trim ring. Then we flip this side and finish the interior surface.

Can you say labor of love???

A Little Bit of Shopping Never Hurts

Hello All! It's been a little while and we've been making progress. Jeremy will have to tell you all about it later. Since I don't want to steal his thunder I'll talk about... shopping!

Over Labor Day weekend we visited family in Orwigsburg, PA (near Pottsville, home of Yuengling beer). They also live close to the big Cabela's store in Hamburg so we made a pit stop there to see if they had anything we could use in our teardrop build.

We found this great camp oven made by Camp Chef. It has two burners on top and a large oven underneath powered by propane. Camp Chef also makes a red camp oven that, along with one burner and the oven, also has a grill plate.

We didn't buy the oven but we might end up building a spot for it in the galley. We shall see.

We also found our Tommy Bahama curtain fabric at Jo-Ann Fabric! We bought 4 yards of it for curtains and maybe pot holders or something for the galley. It's a pretty bold fabric so I don't want to go overboard. (Pardon the picture, the color looks really bleached out.)

And speaking of bold patterns...

I have been eyeing these beauties on Etsy for months now. Same brand. Same pattern. Different Etsy shops(!). When you're presented with something like this it's pretty much a no-brainer. And then when the shirt goes on sale for $10? Fuggedaboutit :)

I'm still waiting for them in the mail but I can see them making an appearance at a teardrop gathering, or twelve.

Stay tuned for a construction update from Jeremy in the days to come!

First Things First

Last night I finished my first contribution to our teardrop build! This lovely little cross stitch by Sunset, Our Roaming Home. Once the tear is built, this beaut' will go in the cabin in a frame handmade by Jeremy, or so he promises :) I'm so excited I can hardly wait to start on the next thing! Hmmmm, what will it be?

You can buy the kit here if you're interested. It's a relatively old design but ask at a needlecraft shop and they might just have it! Click here for a list of shops near you.