what if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?

home..

2012-07-11T12:10:00.000-05:00

I sure do love my ma and pa!

I was home this past 4th of July and got some solid time with the family.... the time included
-leff lucky town visit
-summer shandy
-pool time
-making up a new pool game
-getting bruises from said pool game
- life chats
-tie dying t-shirts!!!!!!(get em while their hot)!
-gossiping with girlfriends

and many many more memories!

It was splendid.

congratulations to joe and hilary!

2012-07-06T01:30:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to our friends who got married this past weekend!

the had their cake.

and ate it too!

And you'll never guess what they used to eat it with.... Forks! I thought it would be fun to put my new metal stamping equipment to work for a special wedding day present for them!

I got out my trusty anvil (who doesn't want a 9 lb anvil for their 24th birthday).

Then my armadillo bank used the anvil as a magic carpet.

Tomas helped me clean up my supplies!

I found some trusty forks at an antique store.

AND I gave them a bath in this homemade cleaning solution.

recipe for jewelry cleaner found here: CLEAN!

I stamped away...

happy birthday, big brother!

2012-07-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

the happiest of birthday wishes to my favorite big brother!

Keep on Smiling!

"support your local drive in theatre"

2012-07-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Good Old Drive in Movie Theatre!!!We went the Friday before last to one out in Tomball it was GREAT! We saw Brave AND Avengers.

check it out!

old movie projector

the ants go marching.

big wheels keep on (wood) turning.

2012-07-01T02:00:00.000-05:00

That is a wrap on all those weekend DIY adventures.

And now for something completely different

AND

incredibly awesome.

A few weeks ago I took a wood turning class.

To learn more (Wikipedia) about wood turning click here.

The class was 9 hours (yikes). but don't worry the teacher took a lot of smoke breaks.

We state with a block of huckberry wood. I didn't take starting picture BUT it basically was a stump of wood, bark and all.

We affixed it to the lathe (gotta love using a drill) and got turning. The first goal was to make it a more even cylinder by taking off all the bark etc.

This is it when I had made some progress.

This is a lathe.

After a lot of turning, flipping the bowl and turning the inside, we had a finished product!

I just loved the whole experience. And I am trying to figure out how/if I can continue this potential hobby!

if you give kate a garden you will have to...

2012-06-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

Add lawn furniture. So I have been REALLY craving some sort of bistro set for the outdoor area BUT everything seemed really expensive. Until I rolled into this... ONLY $29 for the chair and $8 for the table

This was one of my weekend projects and I was SO proud when I assembled it myself.

Looks comfy, eh?

Perfection.

So here are some before shots of our back rectangle.

view to the right (if looking out from my door)

garden that isn't really growing.

view to the left of our back rectangle.

And some AFTER shots!

Don't you just want to hang out!

Who wants to come and be the first person to sit and have a life chat with me?

my garden...

2012-06-30T00:30:00.000-05:00

So with my new back yard (or what I like to refer to as our back rectangle) I was really excited at the potential of a garden.

OK to be honest the idea only came to me when I saw this "as seen on TV" item (Ive NEVER seen it on TV).

Roll it out?!!?

Looks very strange.

Add Gnome. (Not a required step)

It's been "growing" for about two weeks now... and nothing is happening but I am still excited about it!

caution: dan @ work.

2012-06-29T01:30:00.000-05:00

Dan came over and saved my life following a latex paint emergency (I didn't have an mineral spirits to clean so I had green hands)!

And he got to work!

He stained our kitchen chairs! They previous looked something like this

ikea.com

Dan at work!

And now they look MUCH darker.

I think this chair staining was my FAVORITE project. Since in the end there were no SNAFUs!

refinishing the coffee table..

2012-06-28T01:30:00.000-05:00

This was actually the project that started it all...I wanted to rework this table a little bit since it had seen some better days.

It is totally real wood so that made the finishing a bit harder but still exciting.

table before... see the wear and tear.

lots of splotches.

My dad gave me the four step process:

#1: Sand (200 or 300 grit).

#2: Use a tack rag (I had never heard of one but now I LOVE it

#3: Stain... I used Minwax Early American... you just take a rag and wipe it on, let sit for 15 minutes and wipe off anything that hasn't absorbed.

#4: Finish it... I used Minwax wipe on poly!

So in the end, it isn't perfect but I was able to minimize the splotches... or at least try and match the finishes a bit more that it was.

after.


fter.

the bookshelf project

2012-06-27T02:00:00.000-05:00

This project was quiet the headache. At first I simply wanted to re-do some Ikea furniture. So I went where everyone should go... blog land research!

I got some tips from:

The Purple Pea

and

Apartment Therapy

and a lot of help from my dad!

And I got to work. Sadly, this project became very stressful and success is still pending.

It all started with a wonky primer.

this is what primer should NOT do.

stupid primer.

The people at Home Dept were SHOCKED at the bad primer. So this resulted in me having to acetone/scrape off the bad primer and start over with new primer ($$).

In the end I got the primer on and dry... Day two I started to paint (I even experimented with my air compressor).

That was an adventure.

And in the end I completed two book shelves. They are still curing so I won't use them until Friday.

The first one probably looked something like this in it's former life (see below).

courtesy of flickr

Only mine was a tan wood color.

And now it looks something like this:

oh. ah.

This navy blue one was a real pain in the but. The rollers weren't working. The paint was really sick. And I was ready to throw in the towel (don't judge... I didn't even purchase this bookshelf it was passed along to me).

But hopefully it will be fine by Friday and ready to hold my cards and goodies in my room.

The bigger project was the overhaul on something that probably originally looked like this:

ikea.com

But we wanted it to match our bulletin board...

bulletin board (duh).

So this is the new bookshelf!

Again, now I am just waiting for these suckers to dry/"cure" and hopefully they will be back in action holding our movies and book collection!

Summary in numbers:

Quarts of primer purchased: 3 (when only 1 should have been needed)
Shelves total: 5
Rrollers: 3 (should have bought more)
Blisters trying to open acetone container: 3
Times I called home: 11
Times I cried: 6

if you saw a big button would you push it?

2012-06-26T20:30:00.000-05:00

before I adventured to my DIY weekend... Dan, Tomás and I went on our own adventure.

We had hear about this mysterious button in downtown Houston.

If you saw a strange button would you push it!

Well, we found it! and we did!

button.


big burp.

To read more about the big burp... click here.

We ended our adventure by riding the Ferris wheel at the downtown aquarium AND checking out all the neat things going on (latin beats)!

And would you look at who is sliding down the stairs.... this little fellow was won by Tomas and Dan (in one of those silly carnival games)!

busy bee this weekend

2012-06-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

my smallest of weekend projects.

Gee Wiz, I was a busy bee this past weekend. I did an assortment of projects (some are still drying) that I will updated you on through the week!

These projects included:
painting an ikea bookshelf
painting a smaller ikea bookshelf
staining our dining room chairs
refininishing our coffee table
making two Adirondack chairs and a table for the outdoor area!

and

this mini project up above... awhile back Tomas and Dan and I worked on this crazy puzzle. I loved the image so much that I framed it! And I plan on putting it in my office/workspace once things settle down in the school (we are having a lot of construction).

2012-06-22T04:00:00.000-05:00

photo dump!

my first ever etsy purchase... i shipped it off! (sold one hour after opening the store)

empty bowls. Mackenzie and I went!

Mackenzie's fake birthday celebration (not for another month or so).

A ceiling tile I worked on!

art final.

2012-06-20T02:00:00.000-05:00

finally finals!

the kids produced some AWESOME work throughout the year. and their finals were just as impressive.

the assignment was to make something and present on an artist. for their project they had to make a recreation of a famous work from their artist using different tools than the artist OR create an original piece using the same style and materials as the artist (think paint a drawing OR paint a landscape in the style of monet).

here are some sample works.

Acrylic Painting, 28x 36, Inspired by Roy Lichtenstein

Acrylic Painting, 11x14, Inspired by Van Gough

Acrylic Painting, 24 x 24, Inspired by Walt Disney (Fantasia)

Wood Burning and Wood Stain, 30 x30, Inspired by Pablo Picasso

Jelly Beans on wood, 12 x12, Inspired by Van Gough

Colored Pencil, 14 x 22, Inspired by Alex Grey

Make up! 12 x 16, Inspired by Judith Geher

happy father's day!

2012-06-18T15:39:00.005-05:00

happy belated father's day (didn't get on my blog yesterday).

to the greatest dad.

who lets me climb up our chimney
dares me to keep dreaming bigger
and taught me how to be an artist!

you are the best!

this little piggy went to the court house.

2012-06-18T02:00:00.000-05:00

i made this pig for Tomás' mom. it was inspired by a pig she had seen made for her daughter, a nurse...

the task was to create a "court" or "judge" related piggy bank.

face!

I tried to make the name look like the court building.

butt (he he he)

Side.

insert money here!

free press summer fest

2012-06-16T01:00:00.000-05:00

fpsf.

for one of my birthday presents Tomas got us tickets to Free Press Summer Fest (not as cool as SummerFest in MKE) but still pretty dang cool.

two days.
lots of music.
oodles of hipsters.
a fantastic weekend!

2012-06-14T10:46:00.002-05:00

birthday celebrations...

beautiful cake at work

opening my present from my parents at front porch pub.

cake!!!

i am alive!

2012-06-13T08:04:00.001-05:00

life got crazy. from my birthday. to the end of the school year/final art presentations for my students. to houston free press summerfest. to finding that they are tearing our apartment down and ending our lease early. to apartment searching. to signing a lease. to moving.

i am alive!

i will post pictures etc once i catch my breath!

open for business!

2012-05-31T10:51:00.000-05:00

alright friends.

here it is live!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/niemer

I am MOST excited about my custom made items!

please pass along any feedback. thoughts. ideas etc.

Anyone have suggestions on a name... currently I wrote "kniemer knick knacks" but I am not sure if I like it.

and I don't like the banner... but it is up for now.

shop away!

so here goes being 24!

2012-05-31T03:00:00.000-05:00

so here is the summary..

~~1. Read Nick Hornby's book, Juliet, Naked~~

~~2. Plan/Orchestrate a dinner OR craft party~~

~~3. Wardrobe Purge (get rid of a bunch of old stuff)~~

~~4. Read the Hunger Games~~

~~5. Revamp my blog~~

~~6. Find a new fun eye shadow~~

~~7. Make a SHORT stop motion picture animation film~~

8. Go to one new restaurant (this appears four times on the list ) (1/4)
9. Read Catching Fire

10. Scrapbook (specifically get started on Senior Year of College)

11. Read Mocking Jay
12. Explore watercolors
13. Go to one new restaurant (2/4)
14. Go to Hot Yoga for one week straight!
15. Go to one new restaurant (3/4)
16. Run 5 miles

~~17. Explore Gouache painting~~

~~18. Go to one new restaurant (4/4)~~

This rest are all for my big goal (#24)

~~19. Organize Linoleum prints~~

~~20. Make ipod hoodies..~~

~~21. Organize Cake Topper Description~~

~~22. Make Wreaths~~

~~23. Make Bracelets~~

~~24. Open up my own ETSY shop~~

comments on a few...

#10... sadly the scrapbooking really took the back burner and didn't get completed... there is always next year.
#20... i had some ethical issues about this... so instead created a painting for the shop
#23... still in beta on this so i substituted in some linocut prints i had done in recent times (matted, ready to be framed)

as for the shop... well it is to be released later today! (i gotta keep you on your toes a bit).

No body likes you when you are 23...

2012-05-30T18:12:00.000-05:00

well... almost done be 23. and almost ready to update you on my progress... so here goes.

my first ever

pathetic attempt

at stop motion animation...

i really wasn't feeling or getting any good ideas. so i decided to showcase my collection....

the password to view is 24x24

gouache painting

2012-05-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

another thing off the list.

~~17. Explore Gouache painting~~

Click ME for more (wikipedized) information.

At first I HATED working with this new material... probably because it was, well, new and different. But in the end I liked it...

Some thoughts

I love how vibrant the colors are
I enjoyed having flexibility in it's transparency.
It dries really quick.
I need some new paint brushes.

And for this painting I was inspired by the incredible LORAX!

Gouache Paint on Multimedia board.

A bit whimsical, eh?

ceramics!

2012-05-24T01:00:00.000-05:00

Our bowls came back from the kiln! Hurray!

I am so excited about them!

It was certainly a learning experience (like white glaze needs more than three coats) BUT we had a ton of fun... I wish my dad could see the LIVE final products! But for now the pictures will have to suffice.

bowls. bowls. bols.

more bowls.

nice glaze!

armadillo cooler

2012-05-23T01:30:00.000-05:00

I didn't want to go to the art car parade empty handed....

I brainstormed.

I googled.

and I got to work....

blank canvas!

I love new tools... this is my riveter!

And this was the final product... my armadillo cooler.... who wants to name it!