Tea Dye and I

I just tea dyed my Wal-mart curtains. I actually bought the curtains at a thrift store brand new and my friend told me they were from Wal-mart. They were stark white and I don't know why I thought they would be perfect in my front room, which has no white in it. But then I thought, "Hey, can't I just dye them with tea bags?" Well, I looked up how to do it online and was disappointed to find very elaborate instructions that were way over my head (or I just didn't have the patience for). Some of them involved overnight baths, that sort of thing. No thanks. So, as commonly happens with me, I threw caution to the wind and went for it---instructionless. It turns out it could not be simpler.

I boiled about 1.5 to 2 gallons of water in my biggest pot. Once the water was boiling, I popped in 6 bags of decaf tea. Just regular Lipton. No special flavor. I kept the water boiling the whole time, but I took the bags out after about 2 minutes. Then I just dunked one curtain at a time. These are cafe' curtains, so they aren't big. I kept each curtain in for about a minute, since I wanted them to be off-white, not tan, and certainly not brown. This turned out to be the perfect amount of time. Once I rinsed them out with cold water, I put them in the dryer. It was weird how wrinkly they came out since they were a poly/cotton blend, but mostly poly. Anyway, they turned out perfect and I am very happy with the results.

Disclaimer: If you are a pro at tea dying, sorry. I'm sure this process seems silly to you. I really enjoy reinventing the wheel.

An enCOUNTER with Mod Podge

I think I was flying over New Mexico when I had this idea. (That's not relevant to the idea. It was just where it happened.) My counters were part of a kitchen that was added in the 60's. I'm cool with the 60's, but not as much in a house that's 104. So, I decided to decoupage my countertops. I happened to have an extra vintage cookbook, so I was halfway done before I started, in my head. Here's a before pic from before I bought the house this summer:Sorry I don't have a closer shot of the golden marbleized Formica. Maybe if you squint hard, you can picture it in your mind's eye.
Here's one section done:
I added in scrapbook paper too and primed the cabinets and counter edges. Thing that took the longest was deciding which recipes to keep on top. Otherwise, things moved along pretty quickly. I don't have a lot of patience, so most of my projects provide "instant" gratification.

Here's the final product!

I painted two coats of water-based Polyurethane over it too.

Now that I've been using the counters for a few months, I would recommend a couple more coats of Polyurethane. Somehow, sitting water still tends to seep under all the layers of Mod Podge and sealant. It dries pretty quickly, so I never have water stains, but it's obviously not sealed completely. I love how it looks, though, so I don't mind. Form goes way before function in my book. Ha!

An introduction to my kingdom

This is my home. My research tells me she's a Queen Anne Victorian. The nice man down at the town museum tells me she was built in 1903. It's my opinion that owning an older home comes with some responsibility of preservation. However, being that we are in the 2000's, there are some changes that just have to be made. Budget-willing, I plan to make any changes with as artsy of a touch as possible.
In order to catch my new blog up to speed, I will be posting several projects in a row. I may not teach how to do certain things step by step, but my main goal is to inspire.
I also really enjoy taking pictures, so I may include samples from my photography expeditions from time to time.