DIY soap dish results. Plus stocking up.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Right, so then this happened.

oooop's.....
Yeah, heh.  Rats!

On Sunday, I popped the little bugger out of the form, flipped it over to look at it, then flipped it back when sploosh.  It shattered into a slew of pieces, just fell apart in my hand.  Ooop's.  Ah well.

Thankfully I had a tiny smidge of the vinyl concrete patch left so I poured another one.  This time, ah ha, I let it sit in the form until last night, Wednesday.  But, after popping it out I'm thinking I need to use real concrete, not patch.  This stuff doesn't seem to be sturdy or strong enough for a delicate operation such as a thin soap dish pour, despite what the packaging says about higher strength.

Why?  Because, and even though the second one is not completely set and hardened yet, a chunk cracked off super easily.


Though, and most likely, it could be that my ratio of mix to water was bad since I had so little mix left.  Too much water.

But, I do think the whole thing, generally blanket-ly speaking, is pretty successful in a learning-experiment-for-future-pours kind of way.  The first one, before it decided to return to its original powder state, was way better.  The brim edge was much smoother and more even.  It looked really good; even Mike was impressed.

Again, it is handmade and terribly imperfect, adding to the cool factor.  Right?  Sure.  Or, as I said last time, if it's too imperfect, try harder.


So, I'll head back to Menards (aw too bad, so sad....), pick up a different concrete mix, then try harder.  One of the zip ties dislodged but after a good clean up of all the parts, I should be able to reattach it just fine.

I did find something interesting on the Menards website while perusing concrete options:  concrete counter mix.  Cool.  I'll have to give it the once over as a concrete counter is what I want for the master bathroom vanity that I have all drawn up.  Someday.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.  It's intimidating, thinking about building that vanity as a person who lacks good carpentry skills.  But it reaaalllllyyy needs to be done.  And there's this.  Plus I mean, c'mon, there's this!  No, I didn't pay that much.  Please.

In the mean time.....

I've been slowly stocking up on materials for future projects, fun fun!  Aw yeah, a little internet shopping retail therapy, *fist pump.*  Never as fun as shopping in person, but sometimes having the delivery driver just bring it to me is ah, sigh, way nicer than battling Chicago traffic on a Saturday.

I purchased a very large remnant of fabric from Chicago Canvas & Supply, a local theatrical fabric supplier, for a very large curtain project I have had steeping in my brain for the master bedroom.  Heh:  theatrical fabric remnant  normal fabric store remnant.  Like, at all.  +!

If you look on the right side of the eye-searing photo in this older post, if you can stand to look without gagging, you'll see one of the two deep-silled windows we have in the room.  If the end product results according to the vague notion in my head, it should be stupid neat, silly dramatic.  I still have some figuring and planning and scheming to do though.

Also interwebs purchased:  new cushions and fabric for our outdoor chairs.  The ones that came with the chairs got ridiculously moldy disgusting in oh, two days.

I couldn't decide between fabrics,* two on batty sale, so I got them both.  The patterns, wow, massively larger in person than as depicted in the sample images on screen.  Lesson here!  Get a swatch first.  I still like them regardless, but resist the urge to purchase a large quantity of fabric online without seeing and touching it first, unless you absolutely up and down back and forth know what it is.  (Yes, I had a swatch of the Chicago Canvas fabric.)

Along with the fabric and cushions order, I got some floral stems to make a version of these little pom pom guys to go in vases my dad bought for me at Habitat (damn cool store) when we were all in London together about ten or so years ago.

Yarn was purchased for the DIY library rug but when I was floating through the Joann Fabrics website yesterday, I came across a better deal and quite possibly a more interesting yarn.  I'll have to see in person though.  Which is probably the only way one should ever shop for yarn, in person.

Since I got that spiffy miter saw, I can start planning and making the headboard for our bedroom.  I need to talk to Mike, see how big he was envisioning it, compare our ideas, then math and plan.  Then chopity chop!  Yay!

A new Floor & Decor store opened up in a much much more convenient location, so I'll be swinging by there sometime soon to stock up on a bit more tile for the master bathroom since the plan changed (repeat link).  Mike and his (good) ideas.... Hopefully I won't go nuts and buy more tile that matches the future first floor bathroom floor for the whole kitchen.......because this tile would totally go with our wood floor.....and make the transition between rooms sooo much less visually jarring.  Especially once the cabinets are painted.  Or ripped out and redone.....

Or....maybe I'll exchange the main floor tile stuff and get more master bath stuff for the main bath too because I like it better.  It would look better with the vanity I assembled.  Though the vanity base might disappear against it.  Hmmm.....Decisions decisions.

What I really really need to do is pick a stairway paint and figure out how to get that done.  That's driving me nutso, cuckoo, berserk.  But it's a sizeable project due to the double height walls, inaccessible-by-hand areas, and well, the steps themselves.

Oy I am sooo getting ahead of myself!  Jeez louise, calm down Becky.

Ahem.  Ok.  Anyway.

So.

I thought I stocked up in a minor abundance but in having typed this all out, I clearly need to keep a-shoppin'.  Ah poor me, alas, more shopping.  Sorry Mike, xoxo!

*The Joann links for outdoor fabric are affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!

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