Sarah's Hat

As I said in the previous post, Sarah's wedding hat was also mine.  I had kept it in the top of the closet for twenty years.  I loved it the day I got married, but I had no fantasies that my daughters would want it.  Hats had gone out of fashion for weddings almost immediately after I got married.  I think I was riding the last little wave or may have even missed the trend altogether.  To be honest, hats still haven't come back, but when your girl decides on a steampunk wedding theme, you get to ignore current fashion trends with great abandon.

My hat had a veil that went past my knees in the back and a huge, leftover from the 80's bow on back.  The lace trim on the edge is the same lace that was on my dress.  It's easy to do things like that when your mother makes your dress and you trim your own hat.  I started with a blank white hat.  My sister and a family friend helped me wind on all that ribbon and tulle.  We hot glued on the fake flowers including a little bunch on the underside of the brim.  I loved my hat even if the weight of that monstrous bow and veiling tried to pull it off my head all day.

It's obviously dated now and it most definitely wasn't very steampunk, but the basic shape worked beautifully for a Victorian-ish wedding.  It's not perfectly time period appropriate, but steampunk is all about taking that aesthetic and tweaking it to your taste.

Since my daughter spent the summer working full time, I had the fun of retrimming the hat.  I removed the massive mess off the back and the ribbon twist from around the crown. The fake flowers  and lace stayed.

I made an eyebrow veil that covered the whole hat with tails that reached about shoulder blade length.  Over that I added a 20" ostrich plume.  That was interesting.  I had never worked with feathers before so I had to do some research to know how to form the plume so it bent the way I needed it to on the hat and how to attach it to the hat so it wouldn't fall off.  (Steam!)

She adored the hat.  It worked beautifully with her dress and looked very steampunk even if it wasn't a top hat.  The plume was just fantastic.  I ordered it off Amazon and it came pretty quickly and well packaged.  (Well, the packaging was ridiculously over sized, but the plume arrived in perfect condition.)   It's attached to the hat with both thread (at the front) and hot glue (at the back.)

New Year Gifts

So I had a stressful, busy December and I didn't get gifts done for my close friends.  I have just a few I like to do gifts for, but it was still a few too many to fit into the end of the year.   Instead I decided to do "New Year Gifts."   Mostly because I saw an adorable free printable calendar from Skip To My Lou that looked perfect to gift.   At first I just printed out four sets and got them trimmed and cut.  That lovely stack of calendars inspired me to create this:

A stack of calendar hangers!  

You'll need a 1x6 board, small cup hooks, and sawtooth hangers to make your own.

These were really easy to make.  I cut a 1x6 into 12 inch pieces.   I have a miter saw, but it's a narrow board so a circular saw or even a hand saw would work fine.    I sanded, stained, and polyurethaned the boards doing all the proper steps the experts recommend (ok, so I skipped a step or two, but they still came out fine.)  I thought stained wood worked best with this calendar, but paint would be pretty too.

The calendars are hanging from a simple hole I punched with a standard office supply hole punch.  Make sure you don't punch farther than 3/8" from the top edge so they fit in the hook.  It's easiest if you mark and punch the first calendar page and then mark all the others from that one.  Just lay it exactly over the other sheets one at a time and trace the inside of the punched hole.    Punch that pencil circle out on each sheet.  They should all be lined up perfectly.

To place the cup hook, measure down 1" plus the distance the hole is from the top edge of the paper.   Mine was 2.5" over and 1.25" down.   If you have a hard time getting the cup hooks into the wood, you can pre-drill holes with a very fine drill bit.  check your cup hook packaging to find the right size.

To hang them on the wall, I put sawtooth hangers on the back 1" down.

This was a super fun project and it only cost me a few cents for paper and ink because I already had all the supplies for the hanger boards on hand.  Shockingly, I even had the sawtooth hangers.   I would say that cutting, sanding, staining, etc. all together took maybe an hour for all four boards.  It's a super quick project and I can't wait to give them to my friends.

(PS.  I've joined a link party at Remodelaholic to show off my calendars.)

Cameo fun times

So I've spent quite a bit of time playing with my Cameo, but I promise this blog isn't going to become all Cameo all the time.  I did want to show off the present I made for my husband, though.   I cut a 12x24 rectangle out of 1/4" plywood.  Personally, if I had to do it over again, I'd use either 3/8" or 1/2".  The 1/4" is inexpensive, but it just doesn't quite have the heft of the thicker sheets.  1/4" is what my husband brought me home for another project and 1/4" is what I had leftover in the lumber pile.  (What?  You don't have a lumber pile?)

Anyway, for a couple of years now I've been telling my sweetie "You're my favorite."  He often teases me and says "Favorite what?"  So I made him an answer:

Not bad for a budget Valentine's Day gift, huh?  I think he's going to love it.  And just so we don't embarrass any unsuspecting, naive family members, this will be hanging in our bedroom.  Unsuspecting, naive family members shouldn't be looking in there anyway.

In other vinyl news, I needed a wedding present recently for one of our former babysitters.  (I can't believe how old I'm getting.  When I met this girl she wasn't even old enough to babysit yet and now she's married. sigh.)  I totally forgot about it and had to run out at the last minute to pick something up.  I found this picture frame and it was just calling for some custom vinyl.  I wanted something simple and unique without going overboard.  I thought using the infinity symbol was the perfect custom touch without being all cutesy.  BTW, I haven't the slightest clue where to find an infinity symbol, so I just turned an italicized number 8 on it's side and stretched the dimensions until I liked it.  Easy.

So that's part of what I've been up to.  I've also been doing some sewing.  I'll show off that soon, including my daughter's 25 cent skirt.

Chevron Clutch--the prototype

I haven't been posting as much lately because it seems that just when I'm going to finish a project something comes up.  I have about five things I want to post on my blog that I can't post because I haven't managed to do those finishing details yet.   We've found and painted a light for the new sitting room.  We've built a 6' DVD case that holds (almost) everything including Wii games.  We even punched through the wall in our family room to put in a component shelf under the TV so we could finally get rid of (what remained of) the entertainment center.  I love all the projects but we've managed to just live with them 95% done.   That is the fun of having a blog.  It makes me finish things I would otherwise just live with.

Just for fun though, I'm going to show you an in progress project.  I'm working on the pattern for a large clutch.  The prototype looks promising but there's a few things I'll be changing up in the final version.

I like the chevrons.  I like the size, 12"x6".  I even like the button.  I'm not too happy with the fabric, but it was free, so I'm not sweating that.  The thing that bugs me the most is the way the flap does not lay down smoothly on the sides.  That will have to be worked with.

The back side has two more chevron stripes.  I think the stripes are cute and I do like the way the fabric is fraying.  It made it super easy to sew the stripes on, as well, so bonus!


I do love the interior of this clutch.  The great big zipper pocket was easy to put in.  I have just ID/credit/membership card pockets on the other side.  Of course, these days I'm not sure if 9 pockets is enough.   Between the library card, the zoo card, the museum card, the grocery store loyalty cards, the clothing store loyalty cards. . . there may actually not be any space left for my driver's licence or debit card.  hey! This clutch saves money!  Obviously I can't drive anywhere or spend money when using it.   It's the budget clutch!

I'm going to work up a final version of this one soon.  Hopefully I can figure out how to make digital patterns as well.   From the numbers on my blog, an Etsy store with just the ruffle bag patterns in it would do pretty well.  I'd put other stuff in it too, of course.  Two products would just look silly.

Small Camera Bag Hack

I have an SLR camera with a very large bag that holds most of my equipment.  It's a backpack style, which is nice to carry because I can bend over and lean while wearing it without worrying that the bag is going to swing around and whack somebody.  As long as I wear both straps I don't whack people, I mean.  Don't ask me what happens when wearing just one strap.  It's not pretty.

The problem is that it's a very big bag that is very heavy.  This summer was very busy with lots of trips.  The full size bag would be way more equipment than I needed and I knew I couldn't hike 26 miles in it.  I needed a camera bag that would carry just the camera and one lens.  Ideally, I would have had a Crumpler sling bag, but since I didn't want to spend $50, I was out of luck.  

So I made my own.

I started with a $3.99 mini backpack purse from Salvation Army.  It had the right size main compartment and a little zipper pocket on the front for an extra battery, flash cards, and ID.  The heavy duty nylon canvas would put up with the abuse of a hand cart trek, a trip to the beach, and all around travel.  It's not the prettiest, but hey, you can find a prettier one for yours.

The grey block in the picture is the secret to this project:  high density foam.  Regular foam probably isn't going to do it.  You need the the super good stuff.  This is the product they use to protect lots of delicate equipment and my husband just happened to have a little bit in storage.

I sat the bag on the foam and traced around the base with a pen.  This was a little bigger than the foam needed to be, so I cut it just a bit smaller and rounded off the corners.  I made two of these.   Then I traced around the lens that I wanted to use in the bag.  This time I cut the foam out a little larger than what I traced.   In one block, I cut the circle all the way through.  In the second block I cut it only halfway down.  That was a pain, and it's not pretty, but it works.

I made sure the two foam blocks lined up at the lens hole.  Then I shoved them into the bag.  The camera fits in the bag lens down.  Like this:

On the sides, I cut spare blocks to fit around the body of the camera.  It would be best if one were to glue the foam together into the proper shape.  I'm lazy and have no clue what kind of glue to use, so my foam is still in pieces.  Nevertheless, this bag has been perfect.  I took this with me on my 26 mile hand cart trek.  My camera came through with nary a scratch or bump even after a torrential downpour and ridiculous amounts of dust.   It went to the beach with no problems as well.  Not that I went around dropping the bag in the surf, but it did well in the salty, humid air.  

If I were to upgrade this, I would probably try to find a leather bag.  Then I'd actually glue the foam and hopefully cover the whole foam block section in a nice printed fabric for contrast and fun.  Otherwise it's been great.  Today, my camera goes with me to a cross country meet.  I love taking the lighter bag.  My back thanks me too.

Easy Flip Case

As promised, a Flip camera case that's easy to sew.  This one you can make in an hour and there's no zippers.  It's just a simple envelope with boxed corners and a flap.  This one is also padded.  The padding isn't going to save your camera if you drop it.  It's just a little extra protection as it's getting knocked around inside your purse.   I'm not sure I'm keeping the flap I have on this one.  I may swap it out for something an inch longer.  That flap just looks skimpy to me.  I'll give the longer measurements for the flap in the directions.

Start by cutting two rectangles 10.25"x3.75".    Cut two small rectangles 4"x2 5/8".   Set a coffee mug upside down on one end and trace it to get the nice curve.   Cut a piece of interfacing for the flap and fuse it to the lining.

Sew the flap together leaving the straight end open.   Clip the curve.

Turn the flap right side out and press.

Fold the large rectangles in half the long way and sew up both sides. 


Fold the outside piece so the seam meets in the center and the bottom makes two points.   Measure one inch across each point and mark that with a pencil.  Notice how the half inch is on the seam and the edge of the measuring tape lines up with the edge of the fabric at zero and 1.  This is how you know the line is straight.   Sew across that line.  Repeat for other point and for the lining piece. 

Now you have two little boxes.  Aren't they cute?   Press them along the sewn point and along the other edges of the box if you wish.  Leave the lining inside out and turn the outside right side out to press.

Turn the lining right side out.   Sew the flap down so the lining faces down and the outside faces up.  It needs to be centered along one side of the top edge. 

Now cut out your foam.  It will be 9.5" long and 3" wide.   You need notches in the center of the long side.  They are 1" long and 1/2" deep and should line up with the bottom of the camera.   Measure and mark carefully.

Now turn the lining inside out again and slip it over the camera.  Fold the foam around the camera and hold the sides together.  Slip the outside, right side out, over the whole assembly.   It will be a snug fit.   Fold down the top edges of the fabric 1/4" on both the lining and the outside.   Hand sew the the outside to the lining.   Attach a snap or button or some sort of closure to the flap and case. 

You're done.  The hand sewing on the top edge is because the foam isn't sewn down anywhere which makes it impossible to keep it in place and turn the case inside out or anything like that.  I constructed it this way to keep from having extra bulky seams.  Since that top edge is barely more than 6" around, I figured it wouldn't be a big deal.  It's not.  It's five minutes of hand sewing.  Easy peasy. 

And that is a camera case a beginner can sew.  Have fun.

Keeping Kids Entertained On a Rainy Day

We're all getting a bit stir crazy around here these days.  We don't live in the Great White North, just the North Enough To Be Cold and Snowy and Boring From December to March.   My kids have also had a four and a half day weekend. 

When things get desperate around here and sending them outside isn't an option, I fall back on my favorite craft site for kids:  The Toymaker.   Marilyn Scott-Waters designs 3-D paper craft printables for kids.   The projects are simple  to do with beautiful artwork.  She has paper dolls, race cars, mice that roll, and tiny puppet theaters, and little books to read.   My kids love her stuff. You can also check out her book on Amazon.com, The Toymaker's Christmas.  Her first book, The Toymaker, is not in stock new from Amazon but you may be able to find it somewhere else.

If you've got an older child you need to keep busy, you can also check out Canon Creative Park.  They have lots of more complicated projects and right now have quite a bit of Valentine's Day crafts. 

For simple 3-D paper crafts usually a glue stick is fine.  I do find that over time glue stick joints will break.  If you are doing a big project (like a castle) you may want to use white glue applied with a small paint brush.  It will hold forever.  Be sure to have good sharp scissors with a nice point for the detail cuts.  

Have fun and I hope you have full ink cartridges. ;)

Collapsible Chessboard

 It's a bag.  You can put your chess pieces in it.

 Why would you want to put chess pieces in a bag like this?

Because it's really a chessboard.

We invented this because my oldest daughters thought her buddies at school needed a new chess board.  The one they were using is currently being held together with a bungee cord.    She thought they needed a board that would fit easily in a backpack and be portable for a bunch of teenage boys. 
It doesn't quite collapse quite as much as I had hoped, but it's still fun.   It opens back up again quite well and it's great for playing on potentially uneven surfaces.  Each square may not line up perfectly, but they will be more stable than a plain fabric board.   And it's cooler than a plain fabric board.  

To make your own you need 64 little blocks all exactly the same size.  We used half inch plywood cut 1.5"x1.5".   We found that thinner wood did collapse together better.  My husband set up a jig on his miter saw to make it go a little faster when cutting the blocks.   Next you need to stain half of them dark and half of them light.    Fit them together, and depending on how well you cut the blocks this may take some time to get them lined up well.   Then you get to flip it over (unless you are a much more graceful person than I, you may want to flip these over one piece at a time in order to avoid sending chessboard squares flying around your living room.  We did find the one that went under the couch eventually.)  Let it sit while you prepare the bag.

Cut a 24" circle out of heavyweight fabric, of course, if you do smaller blocks you may want a smaller bag.  Bigger blocks will need a bigger bag.   Find the exact center and make a grid identical to your blocks on the backside centered over the center of the board.   You might want to use a quilting marker that fades over time.   I also used my quilting ruler to draw the lines.  It made it very easy to draw perfectly parallel lines 1.5" away from each other.    Make a drawstring pocket around the edge.   I put in button holes to draw the cord through.

Now go back to your blocks.  They should all be upside down and pushed together tightly.   Put a drop of E6000 glue on the back of each and every block.    Gently set your fabric down over the blocks, lining up the grid with the edge of each block.   Make sure that's as perfect as you can make it, because it's your guide for the next step.   Now you need to put one 1/2" screw through the center of each and every grid square.  If you lined that up correctly you will have the screw in the center of each block. 

That's it.  A bit time consuming and fiddly when cutting and staining the blocks, but overall a pretty easy project.  It's also something that no one else will have, which should totally give you an extra pawn that acts like queen just because your board is cooler than theirs.

chip bead jewelry

I love working with chip beads because I'm a snobby scrooge.  The lower price of the chip bead makes me scroogy side not complain about the price and the true semi-precious stone part makes my snobby heart happy.

The problem with them is they can be harder to work with.  They don't work with others quite as well as regularly formed beads do.  Their irregular shape tends to visually fight with other beads and can look cluttered if not done right.

I do have a favorite way to use chip beads though. 

I love to alternate sections of chip beads with freshwater pearls.  The little pearls are a great contrast to the chips and since they're white they match everything.    This little choker has 1.5 inches of chip beads and then a pearl alternating around.

What do you like to do with chip beads?  I'd love to see what you've done with them, especially earings.  I'm still working on making chip beads look good in earings.

Felt and Ribbon Garland

 This project took me a bit longer than I like my midweek projects to take, but I'm happy with the results.  I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations, so I decided it was time to make something for my home.   Something quick and easy that I could make without a pattern or a lot of effort.  A felt and ribbon garland:

 decorating my antique Victorian piano (it's not really worth that much, but it's pretty, don't you think?)

I started with three 9x12 pieces of felt and 2 yards of ribbon.   I used red, green, and white, because I do traditional colors with my decorations.  The fun part about making decorations yourself is that you can customize them to fit your home.

As always, I started with a sketch.  In this case the sketch also turned out to be my pattern. I went with a candy cane, a tree, and a present for my shapes.  You can do anything you like:  Santa heads, ornaments, snow flakes, bells.  Look around at the decorations you already have and incorporate those themes into your garland.

If you have a plotter cutter machine, like a Cricut or a Silhouette, this will be even easier for you.  Let the machine cut all your pieces and parts.   (If you do have one, I'm jealous.  Those machines are so handy for crafting.)

I sketched them out on my cutting mat so I could have the grid as a reference.  The present is 2x2" and the others are about 2x2.5".    After getting my shape patterns settled, I folded the felt in half and cut out the candy cane and tree each five times (so 10 of each) and the present 6 times (12 presents.)   Then you have to cut out the accents.  You'll notice I tried to do a bow thing on the present.  Yeah.  It was ugly so I got rid of it later.  For the presents, I just needed two narrow green strips per present.  Don't worry about making them the right length, at this point it's easiest to have them a little long.   For the tree I cut three white circles for each one.  And the candy canes got three stripes each.  Those are just strips I cut long on purpose.  

Next, I used fusible webbing to fuse each of the decorations in place.  This was the process that took the longest for me.  You need to trim the webbing down smaller than the decorative strip.   Follow the manufacturers directions to fuse it down, but keep in mind felt is pretty thick stuff.  You may need to turn your iron up and keep it on longer than the package recommends.  Experiment on a scrap to see what works for your stuff.   Also, don't forget the press cloth.  You need to sandwich the felt pieces between two pieces of fabric to protect your iron and ironing board.  I'm also using the ugliest towel in my linen cupboard as an extra precaution.  That fusible webbing loves to get stuck in your ironing board and then melt right onto your favorite top the next time you iron it.

So you've got everything fused down.  Now turn them over and trim off the long pieces using the backside as a guide for the cut.

See?  All neatly trimmed down and ready to place on the ribbon.

First you need to prep the ribbon.  Trim the ends and then melt them.   If you've never melted a ribbon end before, you've been missing out.  I've never found a better way to halt fraying.  I put too much time into this garland to have the ribbon go ugly on me.   Just hold the edges of the ribbon close, but not in, a candle flame.  The heat will melt the polyester ribbon, fusing the threads together so they don't fray out.  If you are using a cotton or silk ribbon, you'll have to use another method to fix the ends.  (I hope you are also using nice wool felt, because otherwise, save the nice ribbon for something else.)

Now it's time to place your felt pieces.   I put mine about three inches apart.  I allowed for a little bit of overlap and did 3" from the center of each shape.   I put mine pretty much centered on the ribbon.  They are kind of overbalancing as it hangs though, so you might want to place yours so the ribbon is nearer the top of your felt shapes. 

Once all the shapes are pinned on, sew around each one with a zig zag stitch, leaving a gap in one end for stuffing.  It's best to work on all the shapes of the same color at once so you aren't switching thread quite so much.

I found that cute little wooden stick in the package of stuffing the other day.  It's been very helpful in filling small shapes like these.  Using a stuffing stick, or a knitting needle, or a chop stick or other small instrument, lightly stuff each piece.

With the candy cane, you need to leave the top of the hook open so you can get all the way down both sides of the cane with the stuffing.

Once you've stuffed, sew the gap closed.  Finish the rest of the felt shapes,  and you're done. 

Isn't it cute?

Home Made Christmas: Letter Blocks

Every year about this time I begin the process of truly driving myself crazy. I start choosing my Christmas projects, one for each child. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have five kids. That's at least five projects. Most years I end up doing two, pajama pants plus another home crafted gift. They can be anything as long as the materials are inexpensive and I think I'll like the end result. I sew, I paint, I build. Some things come out perfect, like my middle daughter's bed quilt, somethings not so much, like my son's Game Boy case.

This is one of those projects that came out perfectly:

They look a little rough because they've been loved for a few years now. My youngest son decided he loved spelling when he was five. He would spell words just for fun and appropriated his sister's alphabet Peek-a-blocks, which only had one block of each letter, most inadequate for a spelling fiend like my son. So for Christmas, I made him his own set of letter blocks. I made three or four of each letter with a lower case on one side and an upper case on the facing side.

The best part about these blocks is that they are so easy to make and I had quite a bit of the stuff to make them already in my house.

Materials Needed:
1 8' length of 2x2 pine lumber
sand paper and an electric hand sander
assorted letter stickers or rub-on transfers
assorted paint colors, spray, house, acrylic, whatever you've got is fine
sealant of some sort like spray fixative or polyurethane. This is optional.

1. Cut the 2x2 into cubes 1.5" x 1.5" x 1.5". You may not know this but lumber isn't exactly the size it's name would suggest. Because of the method of production a 2x2 stick will actually measure half an inch smaller on each side. To cut the cubes you can use a hand saw, but if you have a miter saw or a table saw with a fence the job will be a lot easier. I used a miter saw with the blade set at 90 degrees. Of course, you can always ask a man to do it for you, but where's the fun in that?

2. You need to sand the blocks thoroughly. These will be played with by children so you don't want any chance of them getting a splinter. Make sure you sand down each edge so it feels smooth and slightly rounded. Sand the faces of the block as well so the paint will go on smoothly. You can do this by hand, but I never do something by hand if a power tool will do it better. (I have a thing for power tools. Not Tim Allen level. Really.)

3. Wipe off the blocks with a slightly damp cloth or a tack cloth. You just need to get the saw dust off or the paint wont stick.

4. Paint. or don't. Your choice. If you are using these as decorative blocks, you can distress the edges or whatever. Make the blocks pretty. I also like the look of the bare wood. Doing a mix of colors and natural blocks makes a fun set to play with. Kids can play with creating patterns as well as spelling words.

5. When the paint has dried, apply the stickers or rub-ons to the center of two faces of each block. Make sure you have at least two if not three of each letter. You want enough that the child can make longer words and words with double letters with ease. Yet again, a mix can be fun. I just went through my scrapbook stash to find letters, full sets of the same typeface really aren't necessary.

6. Apply fixative or sealant of some kind if you are worried about how well the stickers or rub-ons will stay on the blocks. Mine have stood up well, but a few stickers have peeled off and the rub-ons flaked a bit (they are Heidi Swapp rub-ons though so that may have something to do with it.) If this or the rough look of the rub-ons would bother you, go ahead and do a fixative over the letters. It won't add that much time.

See? Easy. I spent more time waiting for paint to dry and digging through my scrapbook stash for stickers than I did actually putting the letters on the blocks. The only teadious part is sanding, but if the gift is for nieces or nephews you can enlist your own kids as helpers in the process. It's also easy to do while watching tv.

Kids love these blocks and they are super cheap. The lumber costs very little, and you probably already have paint, sand paper, and stickers somewhere in the house. Why not make a set?

Step by Step: Spray painted salt and pepper set

A while back I stumbled across a post on a favorite blog that gave a how to I just had to try: spray painted salt and pepper mill. My only salt and pepper shaker is a set from my parents. They got them as a wedding gift several decades ago. The finish had become that grungy mess that old wood finish acquires around too much oil and kitchen grease. They were neither stylish nor kitschy. That blog post inspired me though. I decided that a bit of elbow grease and a little paint and I'd have a set I'd be proud to display on the table.

1. I cleaned the grime off with a terry cloth and straight white vinegar. I did not water that stuff down, it went on full blast and dissolved the dirt with no real problems at all. Then I lightly sanded them down, just to get a good surface for the paint. I didn't fill in the old dents and dings. Partly because I was feeling lazy and wanted this to be a quick project and partly because I wanted a little of the history of the set to show when i was done.

2. I taped off the sections of the salt and pepper that I did not want to be painted. You really have to be careful at this stage because you don't want the paint near your food. Make sure you also stuff something in the holes in the top of the lids. cotton, rolls of tape, whatever you can find that you are sure you can get out again. .
3. Start spraying. Follow the instructions on the paint can, meaning, do lots of light coats not just a couple of thick ones. Keep the pace steady and the distance even. You might want to also use an old cardboard box on it's side as a spray box to keep the paint contained. I also like to spray paint out on the lawn. Anything that gets out of the box is mowed off in a week or so. Oh and be careful when doing the tops. Mine aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

For paint I used Krylon Enamel in Chinese Red. It came out perfectly. Gloriously bright with lovely blue undertones in the gloss.
I love them! I'm really happy with this project. If you don't have a set of turned wood salt and pepper shakers around the house, look around at flea markets and thrift stores. They should be cheap but you can make them look like you bought them at a high end specialty shop.