Sunset Coast

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

'QuilTuesday'--Sharing Sewing Class Projects

Hello!!! Before I share all the sewing projects. I wanted to let you know that one of my projects was featured on another blog. I made this precious painted toy chest using an old headboard.

If you didn't see it before,you can see it here. Kathy at A Delightsome Life was kind enough to choose my project this week. Hope you'll check out her blog here! She has a weekly Home and Garden Thursday with lots of great ideas from the blog world.

Onto the sensational sewing shares--

It was another busy,productive day in the sewing circle class. There were a lot of sewing projects and quilts to show off! First of all, Diane finished her scrappy batik quilt and it's got binding and everything. Gorgeous!

Sharon has been sewing up a storm and finished this darling Heart patch quilt top. Love the sweet fabrics in this one!

Danielle has made a few of these patchwork bags in bright whimsical fabrics. She's varied the patch size to get different bag sizes. Fantastic colors and patterns in her work!

I've made a couple of these bags from the same pattern. The large bag is perfect for quilt class. It holds a ton of fabric, a large quilt or supplies. It even works great for the beach or a weekend bag.

Mimi has started a quilt using the 'Dresden Plate' pattern.She's got some pretty fabrics and bright color combinations for this project! Mimi likes to call them 'flowers', you can see why...

Linda has been making these cozy blankets. They're large pieces of fleece fabric. 2 pieces are fringe cut, then tied together. Great argyle fabric choice for this one!

Diane finished the batik quilt above, then started on these butterfly patches. They're made using freezer paper to cut out the many little parts. Then they are pieced together. What an ambitious project!

Diane also shared this cute, cute, cute bird painted on window screen! She's going to sew it onto a denim tote bag. I need to get this painting pattern!

Not to be outdone by all the quilts and projects done in class, I thought I would share this quilt I finished a while ago.(Hey, it's my blog!) It's in my guest room and the quilt has a braid pattern. I loved finding all the fabrics, grading them from light to dark. In my guest room, I made the pillow case, the patched bolster, the covered headboard, the painted chair.... I'll be sharing lots of these projects in future posts.

Pumpkin says Hi!

Thanks for checking out the latest from the Tuesday sewing circle...
I hope you'll follow my blog and sign up for emails if you want.

Have a Delightful Day!

Cindy

Sharing my blog here...

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Sunset Coasting Sunday Sunset Beach!

Sand Dunes leading to the Beach at Sunset Beach

How is your spring coming along? It's pretty soggy here today, a deep marine layer. Or as we call it, 'gloomy'. Anyways, I thought I would share a little walk I had in Sunset Beach. It's a narrow section of land, settled between the Huntington Beach harbor and the Pacific Ocean. A couple miles of highway featuring restaurants, kayak rentals, tattoo shops, bars and of course, the 'Psychic'. You know this type of strip, a couple miles of odd places. Actually, there are some good restaurants and the famous "Mother's"-- the local biker bar. Wow, I've made it sound so seedy. But off the highway are gorgeous expensive beach homes and a nice greenbelt for walking the dogs, Tinker and Pumpkin. Coming from the north on the Pacific Coast Highway, you know you're in Sunset Beach when you see the water tower.

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The giant water tower was converted to a home in the 1970's. You might have seen it featured on HGTV. It's been sold quite a few times, used as a rental beach house and I don't know what it is now. Just a cool landmark!

Sandra Bullock and Jesse James owned this water front home until a couple years ago.

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In the middle of the greenbelt is this cute friendship garden. I think it is such a cute idea! People add momentos like painted rocks, seashells, little toys, crosses and flags along with flowers and plants. Anything goes and people seem to respect the garden and leave the things there.Some things are left in memory of a loved one. Others just paint a rock in remembrance of their vacation in Sunset Beach. I might add, this is a very public walk and very busy in the summer months because of the beach access. I think it would be fun to do this where I live, but then people might think I'm crazy. Okay, maybe they already think that.

Isn't the garden the sweetest little thing?

I couldn't leave my Sunset Beach mini tour without some sunset pictures! In the background is the Long Beach skyline, an oil platform and a freight ship, waiting to go into the Long Beach Harbor... all common sites along this coastline.

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Now tell me, do you have signs like this in the city you live in? We have them in several places. We also hear the testing of the alarm sirens once a month.

Or maybe a sign like this....

Thanks for visiting the Sunset Coast today! I hope you'll follow this site and have posts emailed to you if you wish...

Have a Happy Day!

Cindy

Sharing here... The Brambleberry Cottage

Friday, April 12, 2013

My Blog was Featured on Cozy Little House!

Surprise! I was featured on the Cozy Little House blog. Every Friday she does a Welcome Wagon Friday and shows off new bloggers. Thanks Brenda at Cozy Little House! Please click here to see her beautiful blog about living in a cozy house with her lovely pets. She has some fantastic photography and writing skills. Hope you take a minute to visit her!

Have a beautiful Sunset Coast evening!

Cindy

Quilt Share!

Tuesday was another day with the sewing circle. We were working furiously on our quilts and sewing projects. Sharon had 3 new quilts to share. She has been a busy lady!!!

She made this pretty 9 patch quilt above and this cool pattern below. Love the intertwined designs!

Sharon also completed a quilt to donate to charity. I took it outside to photo...

Bobbie has another quilt---

ready to add the binding. Such pretty soft colors and lovely design. Note the machine quilting, again by Ginny!

The quilting class was busy with lots of talented ladies. I hope to feature their work every week here. (Gals, don't let me forget to take a picture of your quilts and projects! )
Until next week... Have a Grateful Day!

My Garden is in Full Bloom!

Cindy

The New Mattress Saga

Good day! It's absolutely gorgeous here in Huntington Beach, California. The sun is out, it's the perfect temperature, the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming and there's a light ocean breeze. But this isn't about that. It's about my new mattress.

My old mattress was probably about 18 years old. It was getting kind of lumpy. It would be fine when I flipped it, but after a few days it developed sort of a hole where I slept. I would wake up with a sore back. Anyways, it was time for a new mattress.

I don't know about you, but I find it very hard to choose a new mattress. Sitting on a showroom mattress for a minute doesn't give me any idea how it will be sleeping on it. And mattresses, as you know, can be a big expense.

Well, I thought my problem was solved. I spent the night at a friend's house a while ago, and loved the mattress. She loved it too and had even purchased a second, larger king sized mattress for her master bedroom. Great. This is the mattress for me and the price was right. Even though she got it from a store in San Diego, they delivered it to her about 90 miles away.

So I got the info and ordered the same mattress for myself and they agreed to deliver it. It came, they set it up, they asked if I was satisfied. It felt great. Except for one thing I noticed later...It had a terrible chemical odor.

You see, I suffer from chemical sensitivities. Some things just make me sick. Test driving new cars makes me nauseated. Shoe stores full of cheap shoes.. ick. New carpet is just about the worst. I get dizzy, headaches, nausea and feel awful. Just sniffing this mattress made me swoon.

Okay, I thought, I'll just let it air out overnight. I slept downstairs and left the window open with the mattress. It still was stinky the next morning. Alright, I thought, I'll buy a zip up mattress cover, seal it in! I jumped onto Amazon and found a bedbug proof mattress protector with good reviews and also ordered a new mattress cover while I was at it.

And I slept downstairs, letting it air out until the items came a week later. Still stinky!

The protector came, I put it on with the mattress cover, the sheets, the comforter.. it still made my head spin.

What was I going to do? Stick it in another room for a year and let it air out? I decided to bite the bullet and call the company that sold me the mattress. Miracle of miracles, they were very nice about it and agreed to swap it out with another mattress and deliver it for no extra charge. I had to wait a few days until they were delivering something up this way, but today the mattress arrived! It doesn't smell like chemicals. It's comfortable! It's awesome!

That should be the end of the story but it's not. When I ordered the first mattress, I got the smaller size box spring because the new mattress was deeper and I didn't want my bed too high. Well, the mattress I got today is thinner and it looked ridiculously low. I wasn't going to let it stay that way. I had another box spring in the thin size in another room, that wasn't being used. I hefted it out of there, got it under the mattress and it looks like a normal bed now! Whew!!!

Except that now I have a king size headboard with a queen size mattress.. Oh well, a project for another day. 'How to turn a king size headboard into a queen size'....

Have a comfortable day!

Cindy

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Painting Plastic Patio Furniture--a trash to treasure makeover

This is a true story of trash to treasure. It was trash day and as I was out walking Tinker and Pumpkin, I saw this lovely chair next to the trash cans across the street. Now, in our city, they won't take anything that isn't in the trashcan itself. So it was fate! This patio chair was meant for me! I've painted lots of furniture, but this was a bit of an experiment to see if I could paint Plastic, PVC. So I dragged it home and decided to use paints I already had and see what happened. I'll let you know how it holds up!

Treasure After

Trashy Before

This is the patio chair after I scrubbed it with cleanser and a scrub brush. My before picture doesn't show all the grunge that was on it.I figured the paint would stick because the surface was so rough from years of being in the sun. Don't a lot of us have those pvc patio chairs? They don't look so great after a few years, but they're still usable and they won't break down in a landfill for a zillion years.

The seat part was especially rough, but that's what allowed it to hold the paint well.

Next, I got out the supplies. I already had this orange exterior paint in a semi-gloss finish. It was made from a Ralph Lauren paint chip called 'Bitter Orange'. I love the shade of this! Do they even have Ralph Lauren paint anymore? Anyways, I set up and started painting.

Painting chairs is deceptive! All those evil slats and pieces have four surfaces to paint. Also, you constantly have to watch for and clean up drips. I added a smaller brush to reach some of the parts better. I was a mess...

Here is it after the first coat of latex paint. Not bad, but it needed another coat after it dried overnight. I left it outside and hoped that it wouldn't be too damp that night. Where I live gets pretty soggy since it's so close to the ocean.

It survived overnight. So, on with the second coat!

Second verse same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse. (Where did that come from? )

Just seeing if you're paying attention! See how rough that seat is? That's where the paint grabs on the best!

When it was dry again, I gave it a spray with Krylon Crystal Clear. I concentrated on the arms, the seat back and some of the more slick surfaces. I think it came out really nice!!!

Pumpkin likes it too!

I'll have to see how it holds up outside. I guess if it chips, I'll just call it shabby chic, or chippy or vintage. It looks great in the backyard, giving a refreshing pop of color.

Have you tried painting plastic patio and lawn furniture?

Do you have a favorite trash to treasure story?

Have a Delightful Day!

Cindy

Find me sharing at these blogs....

The Winthrop Chronicles

Cedar Hill Ranch

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

The Old Red Barn

Dwellings The heart of your home

Hollys Stamping Addiction

Flamingo Toes

NiftyThrifty Things

That Diy Party

Between Naps On The Porch

a stroll thru life

Domestically-Speaking

Under the Table and Dreaming
Not Just A Housewife ReDoux

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Child's Toy Chest and Bench made with a Headboard

Just a quick little share and a couple pictures of this toy chest I made for my great niece, Kitana, last year when she turned 2 years old. This is about the 'cutesiest' thing I ever painted!

I had previously painted the vintage headboard with the leafy, jungle look. I just needed to paint the pink molding on top and the side posts.
My brother was really helpful and made the toy chest part with a hinged lid. He also cut down the headboard height to fit better.

For my part, I added pre-cut wood dragonflies, ladybugs, bees and flowers from Michael's. The wood pieces were already painted except for the flowers.

After priming the toy chest part with latex primer, I painted it with white semi-gloss paint.I then painted the flowers and butterflies and polka dots using acrylic craft paint. I added the black dash lines to give the bugs movement. I just did a fun, whimsical design. Simple flowers and leaves were painted across the front of the toy box. You can see where I added the pre-cut flowers to the big flower centers..

I had a couple of old funky handles and added them to the sides, making them look like dragonfly wings by painting a body.

To make the cushioned bench top, I used 2 inch foam cut to size. Then I just covered it with the insect fabric, wrapping it underneath the top and stapling.

The wood bugs were glued on and nailed with tiny brad nails. The toybox was attached with screws.

When it was all done, polyurethane coated and assembled, I added some small white wheels to the bottom so it could be mobile. It's pretty heavy with that old headboard attached. Now it can be easily moved about her room.
I almost forgot something important! I added a safety toy box hinge inside. It prevents the lid from falling on the kids' hands! I used something like this. It holds the toy box lid open until you push it down to close it. It won't fall and it worked great!

I think the toy chest/bench is just darling! It's so fun to make something that a child can use and enjoy for years to come.

How's that for a quick explanation for a complicated project? Have you done any cute projects for kid's?

Have a Playful Day!

Cindy