It's CARNIVAL!!!!

One of my favorite times of the year is when Caribbean Carnival rolls around. There's nothing like jumping in the streets with large trucks playing Soca music. If you've never participated or witnessed it before, you're definitely missing out. It's always an amazing time. I've been going to carnivals since I was a younglin back in Boston. However, it wasn't until recent years that I began to play Mas. Here's a few photos from carnivals past. 

Sometimes we're in costumes and sometimes in t-shirts, but either way we always have a ball. This year there must have been something in the water because carnival costumes sold out in hours. It was crazy. So rather than frown, folks decided to go with t-shirts, but get fancy and fun with it. Just because you can't wear a costume doesn't mean you can't be in feathers and bling. Let's call it a costume-shirt hybrid. I've never made a costume before, but it looks like fun and right up my alley. I was pretty excited about the whole thing.

I had a few ideas about how this was going to go, but mentally prepared myself to improvise if necessary. First task at hand was to make a feather collar. I looked at pictures from Trinidad and Jamaica's carnivals, and realized that I definitely wanted that to be a part of my hybrid situation. So I checked out a few tutorials. However, I found the best one by the very talented Ms. Angela Panama. She is a Carnival Expert, and participates in them all over the continent. Luckily for me she not only had a written tutorial, but a YouTube video as well. Double score! 

First you start with a semi-circle made of cardboard. This will essentially be the base of the collar. I used an old collar I had on hand for reference. 

Then I hot glued heavy duty wire to the inside. This will help keep the structure.

Next, I wrapped black fabric around the back to cover the cardboard. This probably should have been more fancy, but I was trying to use things I had on hand already. Unlike the picture I did not use e6000. I started, but it wasn't creating a good hold with the fabric. So I went with white Tacky Glue. After letting the fabric and glue dry I added gold ribbon around the bottom edge. This is so that I can tie it around my back.

Now for the fun part, the feathers. Being that I am a total procrastinator and I should have started weeks ago, I missed the window to get inexpensive wholesale supplies online. Feathers are not the cheapest, especially not the amount that I was going to need. So the goal was to reuse and recycle as much as possible of what I had from carnivals past.

I had plenty of yellow feathers from a costume I wore 2 years ago, so that would be the main color. Luckily the t-shirt had yellow in it, so it worked out. I plucked the headpiece and collar of all of the yellow feathers.

Since they were all loose feathers, I had to hot glue each one individually. Quite time consuming, but it came out nice. 

Next I added blue feathers. I had these from one of the headpieces. I pulled those off and added them on top of the yellow. They were actually sewn together so it took me a lot less time to add them.

The next layer I went with black feathers. The t-shirt had black in it, so I wanted to tie in the color somehow. I bought a pack and combined that with some leftover feathers I had from my Black Swan Halloween costume. The only problem was that they were all small and loose. I looked for a string-o-feathers, but couldn't find anything. Gluing them individually would have taken forever. So, I came up with an alternative solution. I made my own string-o-feathers. I grabbed black duct tape, and laid down a long piece sticky side up. Then I placed the feathers down  on the sticky surface one by one until I had covered the entire length of the tape. 

When the whole strip was covered, I folded the bottom half of the tape over. Thus creating a feather trim. *Snaps for me*

I hot glued my trim around the bottom portion of the collar. Then I covered it with black ribbon to conceal the industrial appearance.

To finish it off, I added some gold trim to the bottom edge. This not only covered the edge, but also added a little extra flare.

Then I added a second piece of trim on top of that.

For the final touch, I wanted to add a little sparkle. One of the headpieces had long orange feathers in it. I cut those out. 

Then I spray painted them gold, and sprinkled them with gold glitter.

I spread them out and stuck them in the collar.

What do you think? I'm pretty impressed with my first feather collar. It came out better than I thought. Just think what I could have come up with if I had actually gotten my life together and planned earlier. Maybe next year.

So at this point I kind of got into the costume making. I had extra feathers and left over trim, so I decided to create decorations for my boots. I wore my black boots, so I couldn't do anything permanent. 

I hot glued clips to the back so they stayed on the boots, and taped gold ribbon around the top. 

To polish the whole thing off I made earrings. I haven't made earrings in a while, but I wanted something extra to represent Barbados. I grabbed 2 wooden circles from my stash, and painted a flag on each one. 

Now to put the whole thing together.

I cut my t-shirt into a halter top and wore high-waisted black shorts. What do you think? I am very excited about the way it came together. No time for rest though because I wasn't done. I somehow ended up with an extra project. My lovely friend Naisha wanted a bra top with her flag on it, and because I am such a good friend I agreed to help. She represents Panama. So at the last hour I was bedazzling. I put the bra on my mannequin and marked off a straight line. Can't have lopsided looking boobs.

Per her request I used rhinestones to make the flag. I purchased bling on a string. I found the red roll at Michaels' and the blue at Hobby Lobby. Originally I attempted to just place the entire piece down. However, because of the shape of the bra the rhinestones were not lining up the way I wanted. So I decided to cut each piece into individual strips. Definitely a lot more time consuming, but the perfectionist in me was surely a lot happier.

Once I got the main sections down I added the stars. Once again my sense of perfection kicked in. I played with a way that would allow me to leave them attached, but nothing was looking the way I wanted. So I cut them off. That's right, I cut each rhinestone off the string and placed each one individually. 30 stones for each star. 

I glued each stone on and let everything dry for 24 hours. It looked beautiful! The only thing left to do was put it to the test. I had to make sure it would hold up and withstand lots of jumping and winding. I shook it up and down, swung it around, and picked at the rhinestones to make sure everything stayed secure. When I was done this was the final product.

Here is Naisha in her new accessory. She loved it! 

So that's it for costume making. It's time to hit the road.

What a fun day! Well other than the sun burn on my nose. Not so pleasant, but I'll live. Can't wait to do it all again next year. The whole weekend/carnival experience was AMAZING! Nothing but good vibes, good tunes, good people, and most of all GOOD TIMES! 

Until then... it's on to the next project. 

Always Measure Twice, and Cut Once

It's been quite hectic around these parts lately. I looked up one day and realized I was working on about 8 things at the same time. Needless to say I was feeling the burnout. Hard to believe considering that making things is something that I love to do. Though it was not all my fault. Usually my rule is to stick to one project at a time. However, this project got the best of me. Talk about trying my patience. Many expletives were said during the course of this creation.What is it you wonder? A pullout drawer. I wanted to add another level to my closet island.

My original thoughts were that this should be a fairly easy and quick project considering all it consisted of was a box and a sliding mechanism. First, I cut all the pieces. I definitely measured twice and cut once on this one. To get it to work, everything had to be pretty precise.

The front piece was cut longer so it could cover the drawer slides from the front. I used Wood Glue to hold all of the pieces together. Then I added nails to the sides for extra reinforcement. 

I definitely did a terrible job picking out wood because the pieces I grabbed were not completely straight. They were curved a little length wise, and one of the pieces had a warped section at the end. Shame on me! Usually I pick the nice Pine Select wood for certain projects, but they didn't have the length I needed. Both pieces required a helluva fill in job. I used wood filler to patch up the gaps. Which let me tell you were all over. Good thing only one side of this will be seen.

After 2 rounds of filling, patching, and sanding I was ready to proceed. I needed to add the bottom. I didn't have a spare piece on hand, so I had to pick up a piece of plywood from Home Depot. I laid the drawer sides on top of the wood piece and traced the inside dimensions.

Then I used my handy dandy new power tool, the Dremel Saw-Max, to cut the piece out. It's a hand held rotary saw (Just what I've always wanted). I have been wanting one of these for awhile, and finally decided to buy one.

I placed the cut piece inside. The goal was for it to fit perfectly snug. That didn't quite happen though. First it was too big, and then it was too small...SMH. So more patching and filling it was. 

Now that I had a perfect box it needed paint. I did give it a coat of primer first. Usually I don't prime projects unless I'm painting a special surface, or from a darker to lighter color. However, with all of the filling and sanding I did, I felt it needed a good primer coat before actual paint.

I gave the box 2 coats of a semi gloss white paint. 

I let it dry a full 24 hours before preceding. The next step was to install the drawer. I bought these drawer slides off of Amazon. They didn't come with instructions, but I watched quite a few YouTube tutorials. It seemed easy enough, so I went for it.

I lined up the slide where I wanted it to go. Very hard to do with only one pair of hands. I rested it on some scrap pieces of wood to keep it steady. Once I got the placement, I marked the screw spots with my pencil, and drilled the outside pieces of the slide securely into the side of the island.

Then I screwed the inside pieces to the sides of the drawer. 

I grabbed the drawer with 2 hands, slid it onto the track and.......It didn't fit! AWWWWHHHHH! *#&@*%!!!* *expletive* *expletive* *expletive*.

Okay, now that I've taken a breathe and collected myself, I will tell you what happened. SO apparently it looks like, when I cut the back piece I cut it 1/4" too short. So now the back won't slide on the track.

It's the worst! I sulked for a little bit. What do I do now? This is when a project turns into damage control. Dreadful, just dreadful. I went into think mode. What were my options. Well there is the obvious take it apart, but that seemed crazy. I could try and build out just the sides to compensate, but that seemed difficult too. Then it hit me. Just angle the slide. That was the only part that really need to touch the track. Friggin EUREKA! Being that the difference is 1/4",  I added an 1/8" piece to the back of each side, and screwed the inner slide back on.

I was proud of myself. What a great plan. I slid it onto the track....and.....it didn't fit. I was so sure this would work. UGH! This is why you're supposed to measure twice and cut once. So you can avoid these type of issues, and thus the frustration.

I went back to the drawing board. One of the big things about this is getting my measurements right. So I remeasured everything. The width of the space was about 34 6/8". I measured the 2 slides and they were 3/8" a piece. That left 34", so that needed to be the width of the drawer. 

Good thing I paid attention in math class. You really do use it in real life. I decided to add pieces to the sides that would compensate for the lack of width. I glued them down with  E6000.

Then I screwed the slide back down on top of the added width. Hard to see, but its there.

I went back upstairs and held my breathe. I slid it in, crossed my fingers...and it still didn't fit. It was a little wide, but only a little. Not the worst thing in the world. I sanded down the added piece until I got the right width. I picked up the drawer again, slid it onto the track....and it fit. FINALLY! YES! YES! YES! YES!!!!! 

I can not tell you how excited I was at this point. 

 I have never in all of my life had so much trouble with one project. Honestly, I'm just glad to see it be done. This definitely makes me understand the motto, measure twice and cut once. Ugh! I was so tired I didn't even clean up or move the island back. I just gave a sigh of relief and walked out.

After a day of rest and getting my mind right, I added hardware. For the drawer I had an extra pull in my project supply stash. I also replaced the knobs on the pullout trays. The ones that were there before were nice to look at, but difficult to grab. I bought 2 knobs from Home Depot, and spray painted everything pink.

In the drawer I put my bandeau and tube tops. 

So that's it. A pullout drawer that was suppose to take me a couple of days, that ended up taking me a couple of weeks. I have never been so glad to be done with a project in my life. I am exhausted, just exhausted. It is still rewarding though. I think the shelf adds a a little something extra. What do you think? 

You know, with this completion I think I am almost done in this fancy closet of mine. One more project to go, and in my head it should be pretty simple. Should being the key word, but you know how that goes. (Knock on something.) Until then...it's on to the next project!

Dresser With A Little Bling

I bought my dresser when I first moved out of college, so that should tell you how old it is. I got it from Walmart, and honestly it has held up quite well with no complaints.  If you've been following my blog since the beginning then you know I gave my dresser a face lift a few years ago. However, now I am ready for something a little more sophisticated. I needed something that matched the level of amazing that my bedroom is turning into. I didn't dislike it, and in another room it would have definitely worked. Just not feeling it in this room. I looked into buying a new one entirely. However, since I haven't bought a dresser in several years, I was totally oblivious to what really nice dressers cost in this world. I don't think I saw anything that I liked that was less than $300-$400. So a DIY it was. Besides, this would be my chance to embark on the fancy knob section at Hobby Lobby. Here is the before.

Being that this was going to take some ingenuity and I didn't want my clothes all over the place, I took my time and started with only one drawer. Also I have had so many ideas about this design, I wanted to leave room in case I changed my mind again. First step was to remove the existing design from the front. I originally used textured scrapbook paper, so I needed to carefully scrape all of that off.

Then I gave the dresser a good sanding, and covered the 2 drawer pull holes with wood filler. In the new design I am moving the holes to accommodate 2 knobs instead of one pull.

Now that I had a blank canvas, it was time to make something of this drawer. I was going for something a little more decorative this go round, and decided to add molding to the front edges. I actually found the pieces I wanted on a trip to Lowes. I measured carefully, and used my miter saw to cut them to size. 

I used wood glue to adhere all of the pieces to the front of the drawer. Then I used clamps to firmly hold them in place while it dried. 

Once the glue set completely, I painted the drawer black. I went for a matte finish on this project. I gave the drawer 2 full coats to the front and sides.

In between coats of paint I tackled the other pieces. My biggest issue with the dresser before was that the shape was looking a little boxy and basic. So, I decided to add some fancy legs. I bought 4 prefab legs from Lowes, and painted them black too. 

While the legs dried, I painted the dresser base. It was originally a glossy black. I sanded it down, and gave it a coat of matte black. Yes, I did paint in my bedroom. Not the greatest idea, but carrying the piece down 2 flights of stairs to the garage just didn't seem practical. 

To attach the legs, I flipped the dresser upside down. Well more like slowly rolled, while trying to avoid little person injury. I measured where I wanted them to go, and drilled a pilot hole. Then I slowly screwed the leg in until it was nice and secure. 

I repeated the process and added in the other 3. 

Then once again while still avoiding little person injury, slowly flipped it right side up.

Now to return to my drawers. The only thing left to do was add new knobs. I measured how far apart I wanted them, and then drilled new holes. The knobs had really long posts so I secured them with a washer and a nut on the inside. I must have tried out 10 different knob scenarios. A few of which consisted of me making my own. (I know, shocking) I ended up with these fancy ones from Hobby Lobby. I like that they had a little bit of bling. I got them for 50% off so I only paid $35 for all 10 of them. 

I was totally satisfied with my test drawer. Once I was sure, and I mean completely sure I repeated the process on the remaining 4. I pulled off the hardware, scraped the texture off of the drawer fronts, sanded them down, added the trim, painted them, and finally added the new knobs.

Before 

After

So once all of the drawers were done, I went one step further. I added liners. I wanted to do something a little fancy inside. I debated a few things, but in the end went with fabric. It seemed the most practical and cost effective for the project. In my head I was imaging polka dots. While in Hobby Lobby though I came across this chevron print. Definitely a lot bolder than I had originally imagined but for some reason it called out to me. When I got to the cutting counter and there wasn't enough of the polka dot print, I knew it was a sign. I went with the chevron.

I cut the fabric to fit the entire inside of the drawer. Then I used spray glue and double sided tape to secure it to the inside. 

Isn't it beautiful! I am definitely loving my print choice. Feels like a party when I pick out my socks. It took me a little long to complete all of the drawers, but I have to look at them everyday so I wanted perfection. Once I was done I brought all of the drawers upstairs and put the whole thing together.

I modified the inside of the base. I was going to add new drawer slides, as the ones the dresser came with aren't of the best quality. However, I couldn't find ones to fit the size of the dresser. The drawers go all the way to the sides so there is no clearance. So, I just worked with what I had. To add stability I reset the slides a couple of inches forward, and shifted them up. Then I added a piece to the bottom to help keep the bottom drawer level. 

 I held my breathe as I put all of the drawers back in.

They fit! *phew* Isn't it FANCY! I love it.

..and still loving my inside print choice.

I know it's not as interesting as the other one, but I was going for a simpler design as I knew I wanted oh so exciting knobs. I didn't want too much going on. I love it though. There are a few other details I am thinking of adding, but for right now I'm going to leave it. You know, I think my room is pretty much done. *Happy Dance* Well, for now that is. Until then...it's on to the next project.