Wedding Window

Recently, my best friend's sister Audrie got married! It was such a beautiful wedding and the most fun I've had in a long time. There were drinks all around and lots of love, two things that I think should be at every wedding.

Before Audrie's wedding, her sister Allie had told me that she wanted to put the seating chart on old windows. I just happened to find an old window at a garage sale in May and snatched it up for her. The window cost me a cool $3. Can't beat that! Audrie's husband's mom also had an old window. So, I volunteered to paint them for her. She bought the paint color she wanted, which was one of her wedding colors and I started painting. Here are some before pictures:

 The window I bought at a garage sale. It was pulled from a historical home that they were renovating in Pendleton!

The window that Audrie's mother-in-law provided.

Since one of the windows was brown and one was already painted white, I primed the brown window with a coat of white paint. White paint is a must-have for redoing furniture, so I always try to have it around. Then, I painted both windows with two coats. I didn't tape off the windows because they were old and I wanted them to look a little hand done. Whenever I got too much paint on the window pane, I would just wipe it away with a paper towel. Another trick you can use after the paint has dried is to use a razor blade on the window. It will scrape the paint right off!

I handed the windows off to Audrie and she wrote the seating chart on them. I also gave her the leftover paint. I thought maybe she could paint something in her home with it and it would always be a reminder of their special day. Here are some pictures of the windows at the reception:

I thought this was a super cute seating chart idea! Props to Audrie for her great taste (throughout the wedding).

I thought the project turned out great and I am glad I could help out Zach and Audrie. Cheers to a life full of love and laughter to the newlyweds!

Teal my heart

I try to make my blog titles as cool as the catchy names that Modcloth makes up for their clothes. Alas, I think I have a ways to go. Today I wanted to share with you a new piece that we have in the booth and that we upcycled.

I bought this side table a long time ago for pretty cheap. It was in my college apartment as wood for a long time and has since been sitting in the garage. So I decided to fix it up and sell it in the booth. I am in love with teal. I don't know why, but I am always drawn to it. We decided this would be the perfect piece to paint teal and add a pop of color to the booth. I had the idea to paint the wheels and the handle white to really set it off.

Here is a picture of me starting the process.

 

For this we ran some sand paper over it quickly just to roughen it up. The reason we didn't completely sand it is because of the paint we use. We always use an oil-based paint. Not only is it really glossy, but it holds up very well and will stick to almost anything. Be careful using this paint because when I say it sticks to anything, I also mean clothes, skin and paint brushes. We buy a big pack of foam brushes and use them once or twice. That way we don't ruin one of our nice brushes.

 

Before we started, we turned the table upside down and spray painted the wheels. We also removed the handle and spray painted that. Then, I went to work and put two coats on it. And that's it! Pretty simple if you ask me :)

And here's the after! You can find it in our booth.

 

Next up this week I have a project to share with you that I did for my friend's wedding. I hope you had a good weekend!

Chanel

Wednesday Pinsday

It's that time again... Wednesday Pinsday!!

Mina's Pins:

Chanel's Pins:

 This teal piano stole my heart

 Lavendar Lemon cookies sound amazing this summer

How to grow your own garlic. Yum.

I have french doors that lead into my bedroom and I'm thinking about this project. Thoughts?

I wonder why I like these ;)

And as always feel free to share some of your Pinspiration in the comments section. You can also follow Chanel and Mina on Pinterest. In the next few days or so we have a new piece (with a before and after) to show you!

Metal Mania

I promised you guys a post about restoring metal, so here it is!

Let's start with brass. If you remember, I restored the brass handles on the Art Deco dresser we upcycled. I did some research and decided that the best way to restore brass was to soak it in vinegar. Vinegar is one of my secret loves. It is a miracle worker, from leaving streak-free windows to restoring brass.

If you have lightly tarnished brass, it should only have to sit for about an hour. However, our brass was really tarnished. So I let it sit for at least a day. One of the tricks to restoring any metal is polishing. I took an old rag that I had and polished the handles at least a couple of time before they were ready. I would take them out, polish them, and put them back in the vinegar until I was happy with the restoration. This project is really cool because you can see the residue in the vinegar. When I was done, there was a brown rim on my bowl from the residue. I left my handles a little aged because I like that look, but you can keep working on them as long as you want!

Now for the silver!

For the silver, I used this trick from Pinterest. It was super easy and it didn't leave my sink a mess becuase of the foil!

However, I made some helpful modifications to the process. Like the brass, my silver was severely tarnished, so it took a little more work. Here is a before picture:

So to make sure that I got most of the tarnish off, I would periodically take the silver out and polish it with an old rag. You could see the tarnish all over the rag, just like the brass. Then, I would soak it longer and repeat the process. I repeated it until the silver was as nice as I wanted it to be. Also, don't forget to plug the sink before you do it or the solution will all drain out (it's easy to forget, trust me).

Here are some during and after pictures:

And voila, that's how you restore brass and silver. If you have any questions about the tutorials or if you want to know how to restore other metals, leave me a comment!

4th of July Parties and Pies

Happy Belated Independence Day! Go America! For the holiday we went to a party at Mina's dad's house. We decided to make some pies to contribute to the party. I thought this would be a great time to share my grandma's amazing strawberry rhubarb pie recipe. Since I was a kid this has been one of my favorite summer pies. It's sour and sweet and always refreshing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream :)

First I start with the pie crust. You can always buy a pie crust at the store and it will still be great. I just enjoy baking so I like to make my own. I like my pie crusts buttery and flaky, so I use this recipe from the Internet. I doubled the recipe so that I could make two pie crusts for the pie.

My grandma is super sweet and she got me this nifty tool to cut the butter into the dough. You can also use a mixer if you'd like.


Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
3 cups rhubarb
2 tablespoons tapioca (you can find this at the store and it makes the pie so moist)
1 cup strawberries
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon butter

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place your pie crust in your pie pan.
2. Combine sugar, rhubarb, tapioca, salt, nutmeg, and orange juice.

3. Place in pie pan and top with strawberries and dot with butter.

The bird you see in the middle is a pie vent that I got for Mina. It helps cook the pie evenly. You just place it in the middle and cut a little whole in the top pie crust for it.

4. Put the other pie crust on top and pinch together edges. Cut slits in the pie crust (we did a star for the 4th) and top with butter, cinnamon and sugar (just sprinkle).

5. Bake for 40-50 mins until golden brown. Cool before serving.

And that's how you make my grandma's pie! We took the pie to a cookout and it was a hit. Here are some pics of us right before the cookout:

I hope you had a great holiday celebrating our country and freedom! This week we have a tutorial for you!

Mina and Chanel

In the clear

I know I'm a little late to the game, but lately I've been swooning over lucite anything. It's actually slowly starting to turn from a serious crush to an overwhelming obsession. Chanel and I have been on the hunt for anything clear and affordable lately and we've came up empty handed.
I'm hoping for a weekend Goodwill/Craigslist miracle soon, my house is dying for a lucite accessory!
It all started with this pair of vintage inspired frames I picked up on vacation this winter...

Then I started spotting more and more lucite items on Pinterst... 

Now I'm seriously inspired...
Got any great photos of lucite in your home? Send them our way for a chance to be featured on the blog
Also, don't forget to check out our booth at Midland Arts and Antiques in Indianapolis!
Happy bargain hunting!