The Eighth Daughter: books

Monday, January 2, 2017

Shelves

Hey there, I made some shelves.

These were inspired by this bookshelf from Target.

I had really wanted to have my books in my room. Rather than hidden in my office. But, alas, no bookshelves. So, on to Pinterest I go and I find an easy DIY Method.

I found this tutorial on Adventures of a DIY Mom.

It's a great step by step process.

I didn't use her measurements, I wanted a larger size. But the rest of the instructions are very clear. I bought (8) 1"x12"x6' top choice pine board. At Lowes.

My final dimensions for this project was 4' tall, x 12" deep x 20" wide. I only had enough room for 20" so I wouldn't crowd the space, or knock my shoulders on them.

I had gotten a better quality top board pine for this project. It has less knots and holes, and is less warped. I mean, it's still warped some. So you have to check out each board carefully to see how straight they are. I was sanding a lot to get a smoother surface. I had cut all the pieces and was starting to assemble them, but while a circular saw is great for rip cuts. It wasn't that great for precision. So everything would come out a/ 1/8" off. Even with a straight edge clamp!!! I had already screwed them all together and then pulled them apart after I realized so wobbly they were. So, I begged my brother for the use of his mitre saw.

Ah yes. It's glorious. Reminds me of making canvas frames in College. Ah, that weird day where our Professor Wally Connelly taught us how to buy wood, (check for straightness) how to use a miter saw, and how to staple your canvas and then use Gesso.

I also used a kreg jig to get pocket holes. That way the screws aren't visible.

I used some old bead-board for the backing. The picture above shows

how off balance my shelves were.

So, I re-sawed all the wood to measure as exact as I could. I had to re-drill

a few pocket holes. But in the end, it worked out.

Yay!!!!

I had wanted a pop of color. So I chose an washed aqua stain.

Now, it came out much more intense than I expected. You can

barely see the wood grain. So, I should have done only one coat. Or mixed it with paint thinner. But when I had done a test coat, the one coat wasn't enough.

So, after doing two coats on the shelves, I noticed, wow, that is not at all like my test strips. Even after wiping the stain between coats. Go figure. I followed up

with a coat of clear poly in satin finish.

Before my shelves.

Yay, Book Shelves.

With actual books!!!!

It came out to $120 for materials. (not included the borrowed miter saw, and my kreg jig) The original was $118 a shelf. I made mine for $60 a shelf. Granted, I'm not including my labor. But that's the fun of DIY right?

Till next time, Ruth

Monday, August 5, 2013

Skirt a Day Sewing

So a few years ago I was slurping on a mint chocolate chip blizzard at a Dairy Queen in Salado on my way to pick up my son from his Grandparents. Then I got a call from my bestie/college roommate Nikki.

Let me add some history to this.

Nikki and I met in our Design 1 class in the School of Visual Arts in at the University of North Texas in Denton back in 2000. We bonded over the awful projects with construction paper, and the fact that our T.A. had a tendency to wear jeans with a hole in the crotch, and no underwear. One day, as he was sitting in-between us during a a critique I looked over at her. While I glanced over I noticed that our T.A. (who was sitting on the table) had a huge hole in the crotch of his jeans.

And pushing thru that hole in said crotch hole was his pink hairy scrotum.

Immediately I started laughing in shock and terror. I was contorting my face in a battle to cover my shock and laughter and Nikki looked over and saw. I'm not sure if she saw the T.A.'s testicles or just me having what must have looked like a facial spasm but she started laughing.

We immediately became best friends that day.

Experiences of that kind tend to bond people.

We were both fashion design majors and then became roommates after both our dorm/apartment roommates went all weird on us. The next four years were a daze of college and crazy, sewing, fabric, and the sweat shop that was our dining room. We had other roommates, Drunk Donna, Cute Mary, Drunk Rachel and a houseful of the strangest weirdest creepiest stuff two strange art major girls could collect.

Well, after four years, she went off to New York to work for Teen People and then Seventeen and I stayed in Dallas/Denton to intern for a manufacturer. Fast forward 6 years, I'm married with a one year old and I'm a stay at home Mom in central Texas. She's writing a book, the third of hers I think. It's all about pattern making, just like we learned in our patterning making 1 class. (Annie would be so proud)

She had almost finished writing a book. I know, a BOOK! All I had done since college was work in some jobs as a designer, and she had done something more substantial than rework a back pocket embroidery on a pair of jeans, or design 20 skorts for a department store.

She needed a favor. Could I do the re-sketch the illustrations she had already drawn?

(I did a LOT of sketching in my former design jobs. Adobe Illustrator and I were practically married. Flat sketches, technical sketches, illustrations. You name it I did it.)

So I said yes. She even offered to PAY ME!!!

I was so excited. So when I got home from Dairy Queen, son in tow; I came back to an email and a hundred or so sketches to re-sketch in illustrator. Within two weeks I had done, hmnnnn 70-100 or so. There were some updates and reworking after the bulk were done. And it took quite a while until I heard but it's finally published!!! And I have my name as the illustrator!!!! I even got paid!!!!

I feel so........distinguished.

So here's the book that I worked on with Super Star Author Nicole (Nikki) Smith.

You can buy it here.....and also visit the publishers website here.

Or you can see Nikki's blog here.

Here are some badly taken pictures of my illustrations.