Best Engagement Gift

December 13, 2011

Best Engagement Gift

Hubby and I celebrate our third wedding anniversary in ONE week, so I wanted to blog about the best (I think only) engagement gift we received. My mom bought us the beautiful photograph below, but here's the "awwwww" part:

More than 10 years ago, Hubby & I met working summers at Fort William Historical Park, a recreation of a trading post. We would dress up in 1800's attire, be in skits, work in "historic" ways and generally entertain tourists. The idea was "living history". Hubby was in Trades (no surprise), working in the Carpenter's Shop, while I toiled in the "Family Life" department, spending my days sweating over a brick oven (I bake a mean loaf of bread) or crafting in the blistering heat. Basically, we were the 1815 version of us. Well, us as teens anyway. The photograph my mom gave us is a photo looking out from the Carpenter's Shop window, where Hubby & I would chat. Cute, right?

The photo hangs in the entry to our bedroom:

I've never explained this, but the photo is why I pulled bright spring green accents into the bedroom (nothing new here, just pretty sunlight filtering in and I knew I had to snap some new photos).

What's the best, or most sentimental, gift you've ever received?

DIY Framed Skeleton Keys

I had started a collection of vintage skeleton keys a few years ago, but stored them in a drawer. I really love skeleton keys because the 1950s home I grew up in had keys like this, although most of them were fazed out for newer, safer keys when we moved in (but one of these may or may not be the key we still need to open the shed). For a long time, I was stumped because what do you do with skeleton keys? One day, it dawned on me: frame them!

Supplies:

Shadow box
Silk ribbon (I used silk because the sheen is a nice contrast against the patina of the keys)
Skeleton keys (I used 5 - I like odd numbers)
Straight pins (5)

How to display vintage skeleton keys:

Tie a ribbon around each key, at various lengths, securing the ribbon with a bow
Slide a straight pin through the back of the bow (to hide it)
Push the pin into the shadow box
Fuss a little to arrange the bow so it looks nice
Re-insert the glass and call it a day!

Use bows to display and hang vintage objects

. . . are a-okay!

For now, my collection of vintage skeleton keys is displayed Hubby's new DIY desk. Because my shadow box has room for a photo, I added a picture taken in Budapest Hungary that features some ironwork because the colour and texture really complement my arrangement of keys.

Four Doses of Exciting News!

First and foremost: Barbara, from the fabulous hodge:podge, interviewed me for her So Canadian Eh? series!! Re-reading my responses, I sound like such a nerd but I want you to check it out anyway. I am so flattered by the kind things Barbara said about me. Thanks for having me on your blog, Barbara!

Second bit of juicy news: my Artful Ikea Expedit Hack (with my DIY'd paintings) was featured on Ikea Hackers! I'm so excited to see what Ikea Hacker readers have to say.

Next tidbit: thanks to an invite from Beatrice, of The Crafty Bee, I'm now on Pinterest (click on the Pinterest logo to the right). I got an email reply telling me I am officially the last person in the world. I'm slowly starting to follow my favorite bloggers, but speed up the process for me: are you on Pinterest? Will someone please follow me - I look like such a sad sack with 0 followers - it's the early days of blogging all over again!!

I hope this isn't true:

Source

Hmmm, I'm new at this but I know this one's pretty spot-on:

Source

I even created a Twitter account, just to be on Pinterest! I don't know if I'll really get into Twitter (I don't get it) but I have an account now - I'm townhouse_tanya (and, like Pinterest, zip friends!)

That's my news! How was your weekend?

DIY Inspiration: Gold Dipped Bowl

I caught this project on Curbly: a "gold" dipped bowl, made from air dry clay & then painted. Even though I mooned over gold when I came home from Hungary, I still haven't actually added any . . . but maybe a little bowl like this might look cute on Hubby's new DIY'd desk? Or to add a bit of sparkle to my newly styled (and hacked) Expedit?

Stolen from Curbly

Or maybe I'll give up on gold and try neon (or turquoise!):

Stolen from Curbly

You have to check out the gorgeous tutorial - it is simple, effective and made me giggle (it's supposed to).

DIY Welded Desk . . . Complete!

I teased you with the post about how we stained and varnished the surface and how Hubby welded the base so, without further ado, here is the desk put together . . .

With the new lamps turned on (blogged about here and purchased here):

These lamps have a dimmer, which is a nice touch.

The chair, blogged about here, was purchased from this local shop that does online orders as well. The lamps and chair were pricey, but both were bought locally (although Living Lighting is actually a chain) and I always feel good about supporting Canadian stores. Plus, Hubby loves the chair (it really is comfy) and I am obsessed with the lamps (for good reason). The DIY desk really offset the price of the other items (less than $100 for all supplies).

I did the painting 10 years ago for an art class. Hubby (although he wasn't my Hubby, yet) was handy back then too, and made my canvas stretchers and framed the finished pieces. I sold one painting from the series, gave away others and painted over one but I gave this to him as a gift to say, "hey, thanks. p.s. I love you".

The painting is DIY, too!

In terms of designing the desk, we pretty much stole the design. I'm not gonna lie. I opted for white legs and a creamy white, glossy top so the desk wouldn't compete with everything else in the office. We chose square metal tubing the same size as the thickness of the surface because I think that looks good. If you try this yourself, you can use larger/smaller tubing and a different surface thickness:

Now some shots of the glossiness that took me days to achieve:

Apologies for the wait, but I wanted to let the varnish thoroughly cure, especially because I doubled the "recommended" number of coats. I didn't want any lamp-shaped indentations! But waiting was excruciating for me.

I'm still thinking about whether to put anything else on the desk. With the newly modified Ikea Expedit behind the desk and the silhouette wall behind my desk (more office pics soon), I think that simple might be the way to go.

But one question for you all:

Don't have a welder or handy hubby? Read on:

I know this project won't be especially affordable for people who don't have the equipment already. I have the equipment because my grandpa was a welder and he bought me the tools so he could weld my headboard and so, eventually, I'd learn to weld (I'm working on that!) If you love the idea of this simple desk, but can't reproduce it, chat with local high school students and college students in welding courses. A friend in high school welded her entire bedroom set (for credit!!) and I'm sure she would have welded something for someone else, for a little coin. Remember, $20 is a lot to a student . . .

Or, you could make a similar style desk made entirely of wood!

Build an Easy Welded Desk Base

This post is brought to you (with little interjections from me) by my wonderful Handy Hubby. It was a little long, so I broke the "reveal" and "welding how-to" into two posts. Check back tomorrow to see the desk surface and welded base together, forever.

This was a fairly basic weld job but we aren't going to get fully into how to weld, as that skill is a little more in depth than what a blog post can cover. It's just plain dangerous to pick up a welder for the first time with only these written instructions. If you are interested in learning, check out your local college. Many of them offer night classes as well as regular curriculum courses.

Supplies:

Flux core wire feed welder (ours was a gift from Tanya's grandpa)

Grinder (ours was $20 - on sale at Canadian Tire)

0.75" square metal tubing (2 eight foot lengths)

Welding mask (the welder came with a cheap-y one, but Hubby had his own)

Work gloves/protective clothing (something safer than what Hubby donned, please)

A workbench helps, but something else can be jury-rigged

Tape measure

Square

Chalk

Workshop/garage (this is messy!)

Metal primer

Paint & brushes

A note about the welder:

For this job the machine we used was a Lincoln Weld-Pak 100. It is a basic flux core wire feed welder that is great for home and hobby use and can plug into your standard 15A 110V outlet. This exact machine is no longer produced, but there are many similar ones at the Lincoln Electric website and available at many retailers.

(Tanya's note) You might also need one of these:

Preparation:

First we measured the height Hubby wanted for his desk. Already knowing the design we wanted to copy, we quickly determined how many lengths of tubing we would need (two, 8 foot lengths were enough and could fit into our Versa hatchback).

We purchased the metal from a metal supply shop. Turns out, we could have had them do all the cuts there.

We packed some old sheets, to keep our Versa clean from the grime, and Hubby even fashioned little cardboard "ends" to keep the dash from getting scratched. My heart melted when he pulled them out of the hatch at the metal shop. What a cutie.

How-to:

This part was written by Handy Hubby . . .

I measured and marked my cuts with chalk. I used a 4.5” angle grinder with cut off disks to cut the lengths I needed and ground the ends smooth (freshly cut metal can be razor sharp) with a grinding disk. Remember not to use cutting disks for grinding because cutting disks are not designed for it and it can be very dangerous.

Using a framing square, I laid out the pieces on the garage floor and used the welder to tack them in place. Start with small tack welds, as it allows you to check for square as you work. Also, as a welder heats up the metal, it can distort the shape. The tack welds hold everything in place as you complete all the welding.

Once the welding was complete, I used the grinding disk to smooth out the welded areas, remove any welding spatter, and level out any welds that were less than perfect. I can weld, but I am not a pro.

Then I slapped on a coat of metal primer and a few coats of white paint (leftover from painting the walls). If we had waited until summer, we could have used spray paint for a smoother finish.

In order to fix the top to the legs, I used 1.25” wood screws. The top is 0.75” and the tubing is 0.75”, so a 1.25” screw can go through the legs and into the top with 0.25” to spare. Drill holes in the tubing that are just large enough for the screw threads to pass through. Pre-drill a smaller hole in the table top from the bottom (ensuring you don’t go all the way through!) to provide a path for the screw and eliminate the chance of cracking the wood. I used four screws per base piece and it seems to be sufficient, but I can add more later if needed.

To protect the floor we simply attached stick-on felt feet to the bottom bar.

As a side safety note, read all tool instructions and when using a grinder always wear safety glasses with your face shield. You do not want to see a cutting disk come apart at 11000rpm.

Thanks Hubby!

Apologies for crummy photos, we were project-crazy so too tired for pretty pics, plus we were worried that photos of the actual welding could ruin the lens. But check back tomorrow to see the desk 100% COMPLETE (the varnish has cured - woo-hoo).

DIY Christmas Spider Inspiration

Have you tried my DIY Christmas Spider tutorial? If so, send me photos because I'd love to see! Because I sell them, I have been making dozens of these one-of-a-kind sparklers, so if you haven't given my tutorial a whirl yet, I have plenty of inspiration for you:

The Charlies
(Lime green, like our DIY'd car):