The Calm Before The Storm

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Mid July already? Where does the time go? We're getting nudged for holiday orders, ads for "back to school" stuff is popping up and our wedding planning is coming to a close as the main event nears. Perhaps I feel this way because every spare moment we get my entire family has been playing Pokemon Go together. I kid, but I do openly admit that I packed my car up with my family at 10:30 the other night and drove around to Pokestops. We are enjoying it quite a lot. The summer has been flying by though and the onslaught of jammed packed life that begins in the fall is on the horizon.

Off cuts serendipitously placed.

Off cuts serendipitously placed.

We're finishing up a handful on new products for the holiday season. I hate talking about the holidays this early. I am so sorry. But its the way the "buying season works". It makes sense really. Buyers have to plan ahead to make sure they have the things they need to thrive when people are buying. That's a soft nudge to remember to support the small brick and mortar stores in your neighborhoods. We need those small shops to thrive and keep the character of our places.  

I've been working on our new products, packaging design and applying to shows for the next upcoming months. Along with the fun diversion of our little "Home Tour" series. I'll have a new post about that on Friday. 

Today, I leave you with a picture I took of some sleeping ducks at a near by lake. Completely adorable and totally not relevant to anything. I just thought they were the cutest. 

Sleeping ducks

Lasers and love - Thea

Wedding and garden planning!

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While our "plates" have been quite full lately, and we've been managing pretty well! We're so excited to have some new wholesale accounts! A few of them are brand new stores! So exciting!!! What would be typically a slow time during the year has been a busy one for us thanks to that support.

Late night gluing magnets together party!

Wine bottle openers, paint brushes, spoons and a shot glass = evidence from working late at night.

We also have the added bonus of preparing for our own wedding later this year. Being creative people, we of course can't just settle for readymade anything. We created our own save the dates. We are currently designing our own wedding invitations and programs. We're trying to enlist as many of our fellow makers and small business owners for the things we need for the wedding. I'm very excited to be doing it this way. I will admit that I did buy a store bought dress. I had the crazy idea to make my own. But I came to my senses and realized that I wouldn't have time to actually do it. Nice thought though! 

We made our own save the dates! This is a shot of our envelopes laser cut out of weighted cardstock from French Paper Co.. This is our go-to for simple envelope design.

We also have domestic family stuff too. I've been a long time avid gardener (I only grow food well!) So like I do every time around this year I plan out our garden and start seeds. We've had quite the boost with the early warm weather already hitting us here in the PNW.

Wildflower seeds gifted to us by Native Ideals for Montana. 

Wildflower seeds gifted to us by Native Ideals for Montana. 

I typically only focus on growing food. I do have flowering trees & shrubs and flowers for pollinators around the yard. But we were so kindly gifted some wild flower seeds from Native Ideals (their based out of Montana) I have to plan on including them in the garden this year! Their artwork on their seed packets are simply amazing! 

That pretty much catches you all up to date with us. At least for the next 24 hours! We are headed to Central Washington this weekend for some domestic stuff but I'll still post any interesting or ridiculous things we encounter on our Instagram. 

Lasers and love - Thea

A year (plus) restoring a mid-century modern chair.

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First, let me state that we're not particularly into the mid century century modern style. I know there are many devotees to that style and feverishly collect pieces from that era. John and I just purchase stuff we like. Nothing matches and I indulge my love for a lot of color. I've also been known to paint unusual murals on the wall.

In December 2014 we were introduced to our local Buy Nothing Group. A friend told me about the great stuff they were getting through the group. I immediately loved the idea. It reminded me a bit of the military family support groups that I grew up around - trading, giving to someone who can use it. My children are big and I have so many little kid things that I needed to pass on. Or just random household items that were useful still, just not to me.  The very first thing I put my name in for in the group, I got. They were a set of chairs that needed some TLC. 

Nacho cheese chairs.

Nacho cheese yellow, unholstered and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to restore them but I was going to try. I had purchased a chair that I really liked from a thrift store and these weren't exactly the same but in similar style. I was hopefully that beautiful walnut wood was underneath that thick nacho cheese yellow paint. 

The inspiration chair!

I wasn't able to immediately jump into restoring these chairs. It wouldn't be until the summer of 2015 until I tried stripping the paint off of them.  I did use a paint stripper. The safest one I could find. It worked pretty well considering just how insanely thick the paint and primer was on those poor chairs. 

I was completely ecstatic when I saw the wood that was beneath of that! This was a "me" project but I did recruit my eldest son to help with getting all of the paint off both of the chairs. It was a lot of work.

Removing the old varnish.

I took a long break from working on these. We got busy with work and family stuff. You know how it goes. Once I picked it back up, it was a lot of sanding. Near the end of the completing one of the chairs John came in to help me out. 

PRETTY!!!!

We got it!

Since the inception of 6 by 6, I've gained a whole new appreciate for wood in general. It's natural grain, color and overall beauty. I really wanted to choose a stain that really showed off how awesome the walnut is. So I went with a natural dark walnut and gave it a good rub down of oil to seal it all up and protect it. Oooh la la! 

I posted this on our Instagram late at night because I was so excited to finish one!

I've only finished one. The other still needs to have the final sanding to smooth out the wood to be ready for stain. I chose a dark brown and black pinstripe print upholstery fabric for the cushion. The cushion type is a staple to the bottom rather than sewing a full piece.   

Complete! Now it's not only my desk chair but a photoshoot prop. 

It was a lot of work but I really love how it turned out. 

Lasers and love - Thea

A little late night rambling.

in

Over the weekend I, (Thea) vending at Seattle's premier craft show - Urban Craft Uprising. It's one of my favorite weekends in the year. Lots and lots of work, but equally as much fun. John tagged along to help me out all weekend. We also celebrated our eldest son Calvin, 19th birthday. He'll be flying the coop soon heading out to college. I made the "traditional" worms in dirt birthday pie.

We've shifted gears as we both plan to take 6 by 6 down to Portland for Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Holiday Sale!

We're super excited! We'll be there for the First Pick Pre Show too! We're coming stocked with all of our Lifer goods, chalkboards, Pop-Up Villages and signs! We'll have boatloads of the small "We Hate Everything Together" signs since Crafty Wonderland included a photo of it in their newsletter recently. We've been getting so much love from that. (Thank you!)

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I'll hopefully squeeze in one more post before we head down Friday. We do have a couple new products that we've been waiting to introduce! Things have been so wonderfully busy that I'm a bit behind on the posting. We hope everyone is making it through this holiday season as best as you can possible. 

Lasers and love - Thea