Refinishing and reupholstering: The monster tasks

The past few months I've been a busy bee. For the most part, school and work have occupied all of my time, but I have snuck a few DIY projects in!

Number one monster task: First time reupholstery.

I have an ancient desk chair.

It's AT LEAST fifteen years old. The arm rest fell off on one side whilst the other looks as though I took a knife to it in an enraged fit (I definitely didn't). The chair itself is stained and the old blue fabric looks outdated and, quite frankly, hideous.
Since I could not purchase a new chair, I decided to reupholster. First step was to find a fabric that I love. Unfortunately, we are short on decent fabric stores around these parts so I settled for some outdoor fabric from a nationwide chain store. Can you guess which? har

I took apart the chair and fought with my electric staple gun. I nearly broke the back of the chair and questioned by decision to take on such a project in the first place. But I persevered! And earned a snazzy looking "new" chair! (Excuse my foot for sneaking into the before shot).

I also decided to repaint my nightstand. From white, chipped, and blah to blue and beautiful! I love it. It adds so much more personality to my bedroom furniture.  However, in the future I will invest in an electric sander or at least a helpful tool instead of going at it with the sand paper on my lonesome (hello, sore arms!).

The Quickest Cateye in the West!

....Or nearly there.

I have always been aware of the length of time it takes to perfect winged (or cat eye) eyeliner. However, when discussing it with a group of ladies, I was a bit astounded to hear that it took them about five minutes for each eye. Meanwhile, I am saying I just slap it on in under a minute.
"What? How?" Their meticulously lined eyes filled with disbelief.

Maybe it's just practice. But I find it rather easy. The trickiest part is shaping the liner. Filling it in is easy breezy if your hand is steady (ie, don't down a day's worth of lattes prior to applying eyeliner unless you want it to look like the lines on a seismograph).

Here is a step by step of my technique. I used an angled liner brush from Eco Tools and NYX matte black eyeshadow (the name of the particular color rubbed off). I just wet the brush with rosewater or makeup setting spray and dip directly into the shadow pot.

Start with a primed eye

 Add a line for the bottom of the wing.

 Add the outline top of the wing

 Fill 'er in

 Carefully extend the line in

 Keep at it as far as you want it to go

 Now, go back over the whole thing until desired thickness achieved

Finish with mascara and a little inner eye highlighter.
Note: If you want eyeshadow with this look, I recommend doing it before or your lines will get smudged and hidden.

Painted Turtle

I did a little iron on turtle stencil on a shirt and painted over with fabric paint.  Simple and cute.

Chocolately Body Butter!

This recipe is sooo delightful. I got a few 4 oz tubs of cocoa butter to use on my skin, but was really annoyed that I had to heat it every time I wanted to use it. So I decided to try a body butter recipe. Slightly altered from several I found when I googled. It's totally delicious smelling and nourishing. It's the consistency of thick soft butter. It melts on contact with skin so it lasts! Recipe below the pictures!

Recipe for thick and creamy body butter (4 oz):
1/2 cup cocoa butter
1/4 cup coconut oil (solid)
1/4 cup of olive oil (or another liquid oil. almond and jojoba oil were recommended by various people)
optional: essential oil, vitamin e oil

Melt the cocoa butter and coconut oil over a double boiler. Add the olive oil and mix together until well blended. Turn the flame off and once the oil has cooled a little, add any essential oils or vitamin e drops. stick it in the fridge (or freezer if the room you're making it in is hot) for 10-20 minutes until it's a thick goopy sort of texture. Then whip it in a blender until it's light and fluffy. Stick it in the fridge if you are in a hot climate!

Kanye the Shark coming to you in pastel

I wanted to make a humorous post card to send to my friend. So I asked another friend to tell me what to draw, and this is what he suggested. I think it turned out fabulous.

It's on pastel/watercolor safe card stock. Done with water pastels.

Embroidered Bag

I started this tote months ago and finally had time to finish it on summer break.

Embroidery floss is a mix of Sublime Stitching and DMC. The bag and pattern itself is from Sublime Stitching. Go check them out if you are interested in embroidery :)

More posts to come through the week!

Embroidered Tote and Card

So I finally gave my friend her Christmas gift and now can show off what I made!

This tote bag I embroidered with an owl pattern from Sublime Stitching:

And this card, which goes with the others I made (here, click click).