Reclaimed Woodland Art on Etsy!

Something exciting happened yesterday. My second video posted to Youtube last week was shared to Hometalk's Facebook page, and it was viewed 120,000 times in 12 hours! I was so delighted to see something I made reach so many people.

On Fridays, I publish videos to my Youtube channel about my adventures in hand-making. Today, I'm sharing how I turned wood louvers and scrap wood into wall art. If anyone is interested in owning a digital copy of these paintings, I also opened an Etsy shop today. You can find the first 8 woodland paintings, digitized at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Alawa



Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

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Shut the Front Door - A Remodelaholic Feature

I have some exciting news to share on this Good Friday!

1) I've taken the plunge and started a Youtube channel.  I've posted two videos thus far:
Finishing Wood Naturally with Coconut Oil and Egg Carton Paint Palettes
I'll be sharing more about each of these separate projects this month.

2) And, shut the front door, my royal indigo entry door with frosted glass is being featured on Remodelaholic this evening!

I'm so excited to share how possible making your own personally designed door can be, even from scraps.  :) Please be sure to check out all the other amazing door projects and hacks featured on the site this week, too.

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Liters of Light

One of my Facebook friends posted an inspiring video about how one man took a liter soda bottle, a plate of metal roofing, sealant, and a little bleach to make bottle skylights for shanties in Philippine villages.

This invention has spread across the globe. An English version of the website was published as http://aliteroflight.org/

Using an LED bulb and small photovoltaic energy collectors, the "liters of light" also can brighten up dark homes at night, without using electricity.

They took an otherwise discarded material and created an economical and eco-friendly solution to a problem that could be devastating to the growth of healthy families and communities. I'm so pleased to have found another foundation to support!

What do you think of these Liters of Light?

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Redwood Wall Planter

In continuation of the story of the curious woman and solutions for her small kitchen, I built a modern wall planter using a $6 plank of redwood from Hawai'i City Mill's "scrap" and hand tools (backsaw, hammer, brad nails, waterproof wood glue). View other projects in the Kitchen 2014 series: Make-Believe Cabinet Doors Compact Utensil Organizer Keep reading to see how I made the redwood wall planter below

After the curious woman had created cabinet doors from a closet door for her kitchen, she imagined a solution to a strange situation. There was an awkward space where her wall covering ended and her window did.


The curious woman was a school teacher and in her school, she read about a wonderful tree called Redwood. She remembered that she had bought a $6 plank of redwood from the "mill."


Using a drawing tool, she measured the redwood for the awkward space and marked it. She sawed the redwood plank off at the mark and put it aside. She took the leftover plank and sawed it in half lengthwise into two similar and smaller planks. These would be the bottom and front of her planter.


She cut the end of each plank to create sides. She glued and nailed the 2 sides, the front, and the bottom piece together.


To make sure her soil would not fall through any cracks, the curious woman added waterproof wood glue to all seams.


She used a fine grit paper and smoothed the redwood. Then, she nailed the larger plank as the back of her planter box.


She screwed the planter to the wall and wiped the outside with an oil to shine it. She filled the planter with homemade compost and two green onion cuttings she had saved.


How happy she was to have something edible growing in her little kitchen, and how pretty the amazing redwood looked!

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Woodland Animal Stools

Inspired by Brooke of Killer B Designs and the Toddler Animal Stools she built, I sought to create some animal stools for my 'alawa woodland collection. I changed the dimensions slightly, and made my own head and ear templates, then cut everything out with a jigsaw, and the 1x2 legs with a miter saw. I plan to sell them for $20 each within my community. I'm leaving the edges natural and unpainted, to coordinate items within the woodland collection and to show that each stool is made of solid wood. Without further ado, here are the animal friends! :)

Woodland Fox Stool



Woodland Raccoon Stool



Fox and Raccoon are friends


They will soon be joined by Fawn


And lastly, Bunny.


Any suggestions for improvement are welcome!
Want to build your own? Check out Brooke's original post!

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Make-Believe Cabinet Doors

There once was an unfinished kitchen lined with painter's cloth instead of doors.


Until one day, a curious woman spotted an old closet door. The closet door had been lying behind her mother's sofa for several years and the woman thought, "I have had no luck finding reclaimed cabinet doors that fit our openings. My husband desires flat panel doors, but wood so large would be ever so expensive. I wonder if this closet door would do?"


The curious woman measured the door and found it to be just right, so she removed the closet door handle and other metal fittings.


And she sawed the closet door into smaller doors. Remembering her husband's wish, she used very rough paper to bevel the perimeter of the door before smoothing it with finer paper.


Using paint in a can named "Napoleon" in a somewhat-glossy sheen, the woman painted the doors, and the rest of her kitchen cabinets and drawers using a brilliant rolling contraption (not of her invention).


She laid them on her dining chairs, noting how handy it was to have found a solid cored door just the right width for the height of her cabinets, leaving them to dry before hanging.


And now the one closet door is four kitchen cabinet doors in the curious woman's little home.

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Compact Utensil Organizer

It's kitchen month upstairs, and I am so glad to get this bear of a space off my long "do list".

I last posted about our kitchen updates nearly a year ago, in August 2013. I've been gradually layering elements in our kitchen as we've found a need or desire for them. The first thing I added to our kitchen was a place to store our utensils. We were housing them in the dishwasher for a while, but that was too confusing. We stored them in a drawer for some time, but that felt like a waste of prime drawer space. So, I made a countertop option that would take up just a little counter space. Here is the result:

I used a 1/4" poplar project board, about 3 inches wide. I simply cut 4 pieces 4 inches long for the outsides, and cut 2 sections 3-3/4" for the inside dividers. I also cut a piece to width for the bottom.

I used Titebond III waterproof wood glue and simply glued the boards together. I actually glued the outside box first, with the bottom piece flush. Later, I applied glue and inserted the dividers.

To finish the piece, I simply rubbed on an oil and wax mixture used for seasoning cutting boards and salad bowls. The color of the conditioned poplar pairs well with our Chicago Cutlery knife block. It's now my favorite way to store our small utensil collection. :)
I'd love to know what you think, or if you have suggestions for an even more compact utensil organizer! :)

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Sewn Work Apron

This week I have been focusing on "setting up" for my small side business, 'alawa. Setting up with no budget, that is. :) Thanks to plans from Jaime of That's My Letter and Ana-White, I sewed my first work apron and learned a few new things. For the work apron plans, please visit this link.

I was so happy to have actually sewn something with a machine by myself. Here are things I learned how to do:
1. Sew a trim piece by layering the fabric on top of each other, trim right-side down and sew a seam to join.


2. Stitch in the ditch means to sew in an existing seam.

I had to use a search engine for help on that one after seam ripping with a needle for about an hour. Haha! :)

3. Pockets can be easy to sew.


4. Little daughters want a work apron too!

I sewed a 2-pocket work apron for my 4 year old. I resized the apron to fit her and followed the directions for the larger apron, omitting the front 3-pockets. She uses the apron to collect and spread random items around our house, haha. :)

The best thing about machine sewing? Not needing to sand the project after it is assembled! :) Do you have something to share about sewing? I could use all the tips I can get!

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Pour and Flow Painting

Having 7 weeks off from teaching tempted me to fill up my days with woodwork and remodeling, but I decided that I needed to make spending time with my daughter my number one priority for the summer. So, I signed my 4-year-old up for a Vacation Bible School program called "Summer Adventure" for the first 3 weeks of break, which I thankfully get to attend with her. I scheduled creative play time with her at least twice a week after her school activities. Our first 30 minute painting session resulted in an easy and messy marble-effect piece:



Using a 1/4" piece of plywood leftover from building our kitchen cabinets, we literally poured two colors of paint on the board and tried to help navigate the flow of the paint to cover as much of the board as we could.



I talked to my daughter about "flow," that liquids, like paint, flow because they don't have their own shape. We talked about how the paint flows down. We changed the orientation of the board to change the direction of the downward drip. Eventually, the paint starting to mix and fold together to create these sections:





We poured more paint of both colors, in different sections of the board and tilted the paint in every direction my 4-year old could imagine. Once the board was full of paint flowing off the sides, I suspended the board over a sink to catch the last drips in an effort to cover as much of the board as possible. Here's what we ended up with:

After a busy and tiring day, this 30 minute messy project was just what we needed to segue into nap time. :)

Next week, we may be able to invite some friends to join in on more abstract art fun.

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S'mores Camping Tents

Winter has its gingerbread houses, and summer has its S'mores, so why not build a camping scene with S'mores flavor?

My 4 year old daughter and I celebrated the onset of summer vacation with these simple S'mores tents, a nod to cool summer nights, roasting goodies over the fire, and weather that allows for camping with friends and family.


For these treats, we simply used graham crackers, some chocolate spread with graham sticks, and marshmallow fluff. Real roasted marshmallows would be a welcome addition too, of course!

The rest of the build looked like this:




















To make little flames, I cut up a baby carrot from my daughter's afternoon snack, and placed them between the chocolate-attached logs. Crumble graham crackers for a beach camping scene.


Or add crumbled chocolate cereal and other additions for a forest camp site.


Or keep it simple with this variation, with a Captain Crunch camp fire, and floating candle bushes.

Please share a link to your own summer treats or S'mores creations in the comments below! I'd love to see more ideas for some kitchen fun this summer! :)

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