Fun Day!

I was going to write a blog about my great birthday including pictures but I'm tired tonight. Too much Birthday fun! I promise I'll write it tomorrow. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. Goodnight.

A few projects I have been working on.

I know I've been silent for a long time but I haven't felt like blogging for a while. Since I last blogged I moved then moved again but I have worked on some fun projects( let's face it pintrest has inspired me to attempt some things I might not have tried before)

Dresser

For the last five years I have been using a smallish three drawer night stand for a dresser. This would be a problem for most people but I happen to have a clothes obsession. (AKA I love bras and I have too many of them) so I have been needing a real dresser the problem is, the style of dresser I really want is mirrored but if you look at the prices on them they are usually between $750 to $1000and that's on the cheap end.



So I took some inspiration from pintrest and I went to DI and found a nice six drawer dresser for $35



I removed the drawer pulls,cleaned, sanded, and repaired the dresser then I went to the home improvement store and found a really good silver spray paint.



I got Valspar primer in grey and Valspar Billiant Metal in silver. I started with primer first.



then waited overnight for that to dry completely then I started with the silver. It took several coats and several days and I decided to paint the inside of the drawers. I used a purple kyolan color but it didn't cover as well as I would have liked.



when the dresser was painted and everything was dry I went back to the store and picked out some new drawer pulls.



That is the finished project and now my clothes have a happy home.



One thing I have noticed is I have silver "dust" that will rub off of the dresser when I touch it. I think it's because I was working on this in October and the days were getting cold. I don't think the paint could dry properly. I plan to wait for spring and warmer weather and take it back outside and give the dresser one more coat of silver then get a good quality clear spray and give the whole thing a clear coat. I'm also not happy with the coverage of the purple inside the drawers so I will redo that and I might go with a dark charcoal instead of purple.

Monsters

Another fun project I have worked on are some crazy closet monsters. In October I was at the book store and found a fun book about taking old clothes that you would get rid of and turning them into monsters. I love this idea, taking something old and "upcyling" it into a creative project. I immediately thought of making monsters for my nieces and nephew for Christmas. So I found three projects in the book that I thought were cute and again I headed to some thrift stores( I didn't have the specific clothing items I needed) take a look at these pictures.



I forgot to take a picture of the sweatshirt before I cut it up but this first one was made from a teal sweatshirt. I made this one for Ari because I thought he was kind of funky for a young teen girl.




This Monster started out as a pair of zip off leg pants. This guy was for Kai because I thought the Velcro pocket and the texture of the corduroy stripes and the zipper head (yes his head can zip off completely!) would be great for development of a one year old.




And this guy was a green and purple turtle neck sweater. I thought this would be fun for Devyn because the sweater is soft and cuddly, also I thought the monster's personality kinda matched Devyn.








Aren't these guys so funny. I'm very happy to say that they were a pretty big hit with the kids for Christmas.

So That's just a little of what I've been doing to keep the creative juices flowing.

USU Theater: The Three Musketeers

I just saw this video on one of my assistant designers' blog. I thought you might like to see it.

Maiden Voyage

In an effort to get out of my apartment, enjoy the nice weather, and get a little exercise, I decided to get out my bicycle today. I pumped up the tires and went for a short maiden voyage. I haven't been out on my bike since I moved to this apartment, two things I noticed 1)this neighborhood is my more level than my old one and it's nice not to have so many inclines. 2)There is allot more traffic here and the view from a bike isn't quite as pretty. I used to live very close to the island and on my old bike route I would ride right along the road that looks out over the valley. I guess it's a trade off. I think I'll see if I can find a bike route that I can use that isn't on such busy streets maybe a park or something.

Adventures in L.A.

As promised, I am posting pictures from our trip to Los Angeles. When we arrived in LA our host Don showed us around his home and the house where we stayed, then we were still very awake so we walked down to Hollywood Blvd and saw a bit of the walk of stars and the Chinese Theatre. The next day we all stayed at the house most of the day working on our presentations, getting them finished up, but we did go to dinner at a Thai restaurant that evening. The next morning we drove to the Los Angeles Theatre Center to set up our displays and find out when our presentations were. Lindsay, Caroline, and Molly presented the first day then Annie, myself, then Milinda presented on Thursday. Thursday night we went to an Italian restaurant then we decided to explore the art walk that happens in downtown LA once a month. Friday morning We had to load in the set for Do Not Hit Golf Balls Into Mexico. The Show had two performances with a feed back session after the first. then after the second show we had to strike the set and load it out which made for a very long day. On Saturday I slept in a bit then Nate and I walked over to Hollywood Blvd and got lunch and I did a little shopping and bought some new perfume at the Sephora. Then we met up with Annie and Melinda and went to FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) where there was an exhibit of this year's Oscar Nominated Costume Designs. Then we dropped Nate off and we went to the Disney Concert Hall, and after that we drove by what looked like a street festival so we stopped and looked around and decided to stay for dinner. I had the most delicious Mexican meal and we were serenaded by two Mariachi signers. That night was the awards ceremony we got there a little early and played Phase 10. At the awards ceremony Caroline got a Regional award for costume, Molly got National for make-up, Milinda got a Regional for lighting, Annie got a Regional award for Scenic Design, and I got the National ward for Scenic Design. So, way to go Utah State-rs!