Train Case Completed!

I finally finished refurbishing the train case today! Here's a quick view:



I absolutely love it. More views are up on my etsy page.

Off to cook dinner for friends now - tomorrow I start on a neat blue train case that a friend sent me. Yay upcycling!

Train Case Update

I let my mind wander over all the possibilities for the grey train case I posted earlier this month and I finally figured out what transformation it was fated to take. I'm only part-way through the process, but it's now a lovely shade of white!

Wine Cork Trivet

UPDATE: This made it into an Etsy treasury!

A fabulous wine store in town, Dedalus Wine, was kind enough to give me a ton of wine corks for my various projects. This is the first one I've used them in:


What fun! Not only do I desperately need a trivet in my kitchen since Josh and I installed a butcher block counter next to our stove, but I also love the texture and color of the corks side by side. A little more practice and I'll have this one down (and a few less burns from my glue gun).

Before & Afters

As I finally went through some of my pictures stored in the recesses of my hard drive, I thought it might be fun to show some of my before and after projects from the last year. Here you go!

Tip of the Day, Month and Year!

My brother is getting married in an hour and 15 minutes. I just finished getting ready, which included pulling a silver ring I made 5 years ago from my make up bag to wear with my dress. What do I find after pulling it from its hibernation? A boat load of tarnish. Poop! In a fit of desperation I tried cleaning it with everything in the hotel room. No luck. But wait, a common product I had tucked in my bag magically took the tarnish off in seconds. What cheap and extremely prevalent product made my day? TOOTHPASTE! Keep it everywhere, friends. I rubbed in on the silver and in seconds it looked like new. I've been making jewelry for years and never new this worked. Yay! Toothpaste saved the day!!!

New Project on the Horizon

As I frequented my favorite thrift store on Tuesday, I was thrilled to find a vintage train case:


Since the finish is pretty rough, I'm going to paint and reface the whole thing. God I love projects like this!

New Bags on Etsy

I've been gleefully sewing all weekend and have two of my bags up for sale on my etsy site:



More to come...

Studio Assistant Down!

Sadly, my trusty studio assistant Oscar is under the weather after surgery last week:

The First Step To Recovery is Admitting You Have a Problem

I admit it, I'm addicted to fabric. It's been a problem of mine for years that has resulted in a giant cedar chest, four large plastic bins, and 5 large cardboard boxes full of fabulous fabric backstock tucked away in my 800 square foot apartment. My boyfriend is, thankfully, very understanding. While sorting through some of the cedar chest contents, I found these old friends:



I think next week will find me making a few purses...

Coming Soon to a Store Near You... or my Etsy Store At Least

One of my very favorite things is to rifle through local thrift stores and yard sales and see what overlooked gems are out there. Last Monday on just such a journey I came up with a couple fantastic copper kitchen molds and vintage wallpaper. The molds are on sale at my etsy store and this is the fabulously 60's wallpaper:


One of my other very favorite things is to refinish furniture that has seen better days. My current project is this sweet little Collignon style folding rocking chair:



I'm not going to give away my vision for her future, but I can divulge that she's already been primed and painted, and the remaining broken cane backing has been removed...

I've entered 2009!

Thanks to peer encouragement and an innate desire to connect with the world while holed up in my workshop, Found Beauty Studio now has a blog! Stay tuned for more info. And if you ever want to buy what you see or read about, check out my etsy site:

http://fbstudiovt.etsy.com/