Make-do Monday - T-shirt Tote Bags

For a change, a project I didn't knit or crochet.

I love my chest freezer.  It's awesomesauce.  I can go to Sam's and the commissary once a month (with varying side trips to the grocery in between for the stuff that is just bound and determined to run out at off times), stick everything in my freezer and pantry, then crawl back under my rock for another month.  I actually like living under a rock.  Too much interaction with too many people makes me very cranky.  I get cranky enough all on my own without having the additional help.

Maybe some of you out there are more disciplined than I am, but when I get home from a shopping trip and am divvying up goodies for the freezer, fridge, and pantry, the goal is to get it done and get on with something else. I usually try to at least keep plant matter on one side of the freezer and protein on the other, but it doesn't always work out that way.  Then, when I am rummaging through looking for something in particular for a meal, or hunting for that leftover baggie of spaghetti sauce that I just *know* is in there, stuff gets all shuffled around, jumbled up, and becomes a right mess of frozen edibles all piled haphazardly with no semblance of order.   No, there are no pictures.  I didn't want a record of my slovenly freezer floating around.

I was over reading Dee's blog post about organizing her freezer, and it looked like a no-brainer.  Duh... I'm supposed to be pretty intelligent, so why didn't I think to do this before?  But, all of my baskets are wicker.  I have too many baskets according to some, but I just keep finding things to use them for.  I have a few smaller cardboard boxes floating around from packages and moving, but I could see that becoming a problem eventually, because none of them are that waxed cardboard.

Reading through the comments, I saw that one person uses those cloth shopping totes.  I have fabric.  I can do that!

But, I'm also not feeling motivated to make half a dozen tote bags.

But I have t-shirts and tank tops!

No... I really don't throw out nearly as much as I should.  And this is a perfect example of WHY!

I have a pile of plain white and black t-shirts from my time at the sheriff's office.  I still wear them, occasionally.  I mean, who doesn't ever have a really scrungy job to do and they don't want to mess up any of their good t-shirts by accident, or when I dye my hair, or sometimes as a cleaning rag.  But in all honesty I have too many.  I don't need a dozen white t-shirts.  And the tank tops... well, they haven't fit in quite some time.  I keep saying one day I am going to drop enough weight to finally get into them, but the truth is, I was the smallest I've ever been (high school size) the month I moved to TX.  If they didn't fit then, they're just never going to fit.  And, what's a tank top but a tote bag with an unfinished bottom?

All I did for the tanks was sew the bottom hem together, and the straps became instant handles.  Fabulous!  Took all of a minute, and that included threading the sewing machine.

The t-shirts took a little more time.  I cut the sleeves off, and then enlarged the neck to make a wider mouth for the bag.

Yes, I used black thread on the white t-shirts.  It's ok, my frozen foods won't care.

All the bags wad up nice and small, so I can cram them inside each other when (LOL as if) they're not in use in the freezer.  They can become shopping bags at Sam's, or wherever, and I can chuck them in the washing machine if something happens to leak, bust, or otherwise get messy.  It's not quite as orderly as nice stackable baskets, but this was no additional cost to me.  I had everything I needed right here at the house, and the only thing that I actually paid for at one time or another was the t-shirt itself.  Since said t-shirt is five years old, and had holes worn in it, I'd say that I've already gotten more than my money's worth of wear out of it.  :-)

While it may not *look* all neat and pretty, I can reach in and grab my chicken, veggies, leftovers, pork, fruit, boiling meat, etc. in one grab.  The smaller odds and ends are still just in the baskets that came with the freezer, but they don't ever get any more plentiful than that.  There's also a handy shelf in there that holds my beef, since I try not to cook with too much red meat for B.  My freezer is so much easier to navigate now, and I didn't have to go shopping to get it that way :-)  Happy day!

Now.... how long will this last?

A backlog of Thrifty Thursdays and Make-do Mondays

Even though I've been off the internet for the past two weeks and the housework has slid while we were on our staycation, I couldn't just completely sit still.

I think I have figured out my Gramma's fried apple pie recipe.  The magic is the filling.  The crusts are just biscuit dough, but I have a few kinks to work out before I post that recipe.

I made two rugs for the bathrooms.

I got 80 lbs of this olefin yarn for around $80 after shipping and handling.  Included in the box were also a few random spools of much higher quality yarn.  I got a 10 lb spool of merino lace ($10 for 10 lbs where normally I would pay $20 or so for less than a lb), there was a baby cake of white flannel, and another spool of sea green lace weight yarn that I don't know the fiber type.  It was a helluva deal.  The problem was I couldn't knit with most of it.  Olefin is the stuff carpet is made of.  It's a double thread with tufts of stuff between and twisted.  Knitting with it caused all kinds of bunching, breaks, and other pains in the rear that made it worthless as far as I was concerned.  I was not happy since the mystery box had been billed as a knitting selection.  The spools of lace yarn more than made up for the price, but I didn't have any idea what to do with these spools of crap.  I refused to throw them away.  

One day I decided to try crocheting with them, and viola!  It worked!  

They were both done similar to granny squares.  I am not an accomplished crocheter by any stretch, so they are asymmetrical and a bit lumpy around the edges, but for tromping on, they work just fine.  

B's birthday is coming up, and he likes to fish.  The problem is he doesn't like toting his backpack when he goes fishing, because he has to take it off to get to his tackle.  A regular tackle box would still have to be set down and picked up constantly, because he likes to walk the shore instead of picking a spot and sticking to it.    He mentioned he was going to go buy a satchel.  I jokingly refer to it as a man-purse.  I offered to make him one.  

I think it turned out pretty good.  It's got two lined interior compartments.  I used remnants of skeins I already had here at the house, so I didn't have to buy yarn.  I used scraps for the lining, and the strap is an old belt that the buckle was broken on.  :-)   I carved the fish toggle out of a scrap of cedar that was left over from when B made my desk. 

And yesterday while I was stomping around the kitchen in a horrible mood, I dropped an egg in the box of my Gramma's cast iron cookware.  I was planning to save the refinishing of the cast iron for summer, because I figured the super dry Texas heat would be almost as good as an oven for expanding the iron and allowing grease to soak in.  There wasn't enough room in my oven for all the pieces.  

But.... the egg changed my mind. 

Before scrubbing

The iron was really rusty.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to save it or not.  It had been in storage for untold years, and Georgia is so damp everything rusts or rots eventually.  It was also super dusty.  The dust had stuck to the seasoned skillets, meaning I had to strip the top of the seasoning off at the very least.

I used straight vinegar and steel wool.  I could've used a solution of vinegar and water, then let them soak in it overnight.  But where was I going to soak them?  And that would've stripped off all the seasoning making me start from scratch on them.  That is not a prospect I was keen on.  I've tried to season fresh cast iron before, and it just sucked.

Before Scrubbing. 

After scrubbing

After Scrubbing

When they were completely dry, I rubbed them with crisco all over.  (inside, outside, bottoms, handles, everything)  Then I put them in the oven at 250 for three hours or so.  After that, I turned the oven off and let them cool slowly as the oven cooled.  

I think they made an amazing recovery.  I haven't cooked with them, yet, so I don't know how they'll taste or if the seasoning is thick enough.  I  may need to do a few more layers before they're as good as Gramma used to keep them, but I am so tickled that they are going to be usable again.  I was worried that they would be delegated to a nail on the wall and a sad tale of how Gramma used to cook in them.  

I made a teddy bear had for Fin's coming arrival.  He's got all kinds of silly cute clothes, but I wanted to give her something for the new baby, and the yarn was just sitting there staring out at me between the slats of my basket begging to be a teddy bear hat.  

And I thought that I would commemorate the amazing organization of my spice cabinet (temporary though it will assuredly be).  Top right = refills in back, bakings/sweets spices up front as well as baking needs (yeast, baking soda, baking powder).  Middle right = all my savory spices, and bottom is breakfast munchies (granola bars, poptart crisps), and the waffle iron that I was absolutely stoked to get off the counter.  Left top has some baking goodies overflow, and the rest of the left side is dedicated to warm drinks (coffee, tea, cocoa) and their fixin's.  I completely reorganized my pantry, too.  I didn't take pictures of that, but it is equally orderly and segmented.  I know this won't last past the end of January, but at least for a while I can find absolutely everything with ease and precision.  

An Update: Make Your Own Laundry Soap

So, I finally ran out of the laundry detergent that was given to us when our neighbors down the way moved out.  The same ones that gave us the couches and a grill.  I may not run out of dryer sheets until the middle of next year.

I rinsed out the cap from the empty bottle of detergent and decided to use that as my scoop for my homemade detergent.  I wrestled with the lid of the bucket, trying really hard not to accidentally tip the darn thing over.  Why do they make those lids so flippin tight?  I needn't have bothered.  When I finally got the lid off my bucket, I was looking at dry bubbles.  You know, like you see in the top of your pancakes when it's time to flip them?  Dry.  Dry??  My liquid detergent had turned into something solid.  I was dumbfounded.  Immediately, I sent a text over to my friend Rey asking if that was supposed to happen.  She says it happens to hers all the time, but seems to be worst when it's chilly out.  Just stir it.

So I stirred, and I stirred, and I was up to my wrists in the stuff because it had solidified all the way to the bottom of the bucket.  Kind of like magic, water seemed to return to the bucket.  I never got all the lumps out of it, but it returned to something resembling a sort of oozy liquid.  So, if anyone out there is thinking of giving it a go and you open your bucket to find jello where detergent once was, it's ok.  Just stir.... a LOT.

Now, I need to go out in the yard and finder a stronger stick, because the one I have is apparently just not going to hack it much longer.  On the bright side, I had my hand in that soap for quite a while, and the worst I can say is my skin is a bit dry feeling.  No itching, no burning, so strange slimy residue that refuses to come off no matter how long I rinsed.  Pretty awesome :-)  And Rey usually breaks out from laundry soap, but she's been using this stuff for months now (she's on her second batch), and no one in her sensitive skinned family has had any issues with it.

Make your own: Laundry Soap

I snagged this from Rey at The Peasant and the Pea.  So, it's been tried out by someone I personally know and trust.  She got the recipe originally from Tip Nut, I believe.  Anyways, all the  materials cost about $8 (give or take depending on where you shop and what you buy.)  

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

2 quarts of water

4 cups grated bar soap  

4 cups Borax

4 cups Washing Soda *washing NOT baking*

4 gallons of water

A clean 5 gallon bucket with a lid.

That does not say four bars of grated soap.  It says four cups of grated bar soap.  There is a fundamental difference.  It only took me  two and a half bars of Ivory to get my four cups of grated soap.  I grated it with a very fine cheese grater.  

My first question to Rey was:  What the hell is washing soda and where the hell do you find it?  Wal-mart apparently, and possibly the drug store, or you might have to check online.  Wal-mart had it where I live in Central Texas, but they only had Arm & Hammer.  I would've rather had an off label, but such is life.  Borax is also something that you don't always encounter, but at least I knew what that was from my Gramma.  I was also able to find it at Wal-mart.  You usually find both of these ingredients near the Oxy-Clean or other laundry boosters.  

I still have a good portion of each box left, though I am not sure if I have quite enough for a full second batch.  I would say you can get at least one and a half batches out of each box, thus reducing the actual total cost of each batch.  

Heat your 2 quarts of water to a simmer, and slowly --- very slowly --- add in your grated soap.  I was using a rubber spatula to stir, and I used the rubber spatula to scoop up some soap and stir it in.  Once all the first scoop of soap was dissolved, then I got another scoop.  Rey discovered the hard way that if you dump all the soap in at once it melts into a lump, and you have to stir forever to melt it down.  I think the total scoop/stir/melt process only took about 20 minutes.  If that.  

Dump your hot soapy water into your bucket, and add the Borax and Soda.  Stir until it is as dissolved as it is going to get.  The 4 gallons of water I added in 2 quart batches.  The water needs to be hot-ish in order to dissolve everything, so I used my sauce pot and heated it up on the stove while I stirred what was already in the bucket.  Not to boiling, just hotter than tap water.  Stir, stir, stir.  Everything will eventually get mostly dissolved.  Clap the lid on it and put it by your washer.  Use 1/4 c per load.  Stir before each time you use it, because even though we stirred it well, solids will settle.  

I got a stick from the yard for a stirrer after the water got too deep for my spatula, that way I wouldn't have to dedicate a kitchen utensil to the laundry.  

Five gallons of laundry soap for less than $8.  It lasted Rey (who has a family of four) for several months.  She crunched the numbers over on her blog, and the results were about half as much as buying Sun laundry detergent, which is one of the cheapest ones.  You can make it smell prettier by adding essential oils or soap scents (purchasable from most hobby and craft shops) if you like.  

You can use the same recipe, only without the water, for a powdered detergent, but I like liquid for rinsing cleaner.  

Coffee Can Cannisters

I haven't been able to focus on much the past few days, because my head's been so fogged up with this fall cold.  But that doesn't mean I've been completely lazy.

I save things.  Random things, useless things, odd things... I'm a packrat, but I am not in need of reform.

Ok... maybe I am in need of a little reform.  I do save some ridiculous stuff for a ridiculously long time, but I just never really know if it won't come in handy one day!  Like trash  I save trash.

Let me just put in a small advertisement that I sincerely wish they were paying me for.  Cafe Bustelo is awesomesauce.  It's only a few dollars more than regular coffee (i.e. Folgers, Maxwell House) for the 36 oz cans, but it's espresso ground, dark roast coffee with a really rich smooth taste.  It's way cheaper than gourmet coffees, too.  Gourmet flavor, much lower price.  I'm in love.

These can's are sadly empty, but that makes them more useful.

A can of spray paint, some fabric, some string, and I think I can make these coffee cans pretty.  I have lots of them.  Did I mention I'm a packrat?

Today, I only did the big cans.  I want to do the little cans in a different color.  I also have this handy thingy-ma-jig called a Crop-a-dile.

It punches holes, does grommets, snaps, and other stuff I haven't quite figured out, yet.  I bought it a long time ago because I had tons of grommets and snaps left over in my Gramma's goody boxes, but nothing to put them on with.  I haven't used it in ages, but it turned up in a box the other day, and I got an idea. 

Yes, this is the same burgundy fabric as above, but the light in my kitchen washed it out something fierce in the picture. 

I've put grommets all around the edges, and cut an X into the center of a circle of fabric.  The circle is roughly twice the diameter of the cans.  I used my pressure cooker lid to trace the circles out.  The lines of the X need to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the cans.  

I slid the cans through the X bottom first, and slid the fabric up nearly the the rim of the can.   Then I folded the fabric over, threaded some braided hemp twine through, cinched it up, and tied a bow.  

They don't look quite as I anticipated.  Originally, I was going to have the cans sitting in sacks, cinched up around under the lids, but the circles I cut out weren't big enough to come up as high as I liked.  They're dressed up some at least, and it's really easy to change if I decide I don't like it as well as I thought I did.  I'll label the tops once I figure out what I'm going to put in them.  

I think I'm going to use the smaller cans for mine and B's hot teas.  These big ones *might* be big enough for flour, iced tea bags, and rice.  

The Road to Hell...

It's paved with good intentions, or so I've heard.  I must be over halfway there after the last couple days.

I sat down at my computer and created a spreadsheet to represent a pay period, then sifted through my recipes, and searched recipes online for stuff to try, tried and trues, and some random experiments.  I plugged in the titles on their respective dates, complete with sides and trimmings, compiled a shopping list, printed out recipes, and created a do-dad to hang on my wall to help keep me on track.

We'll see how long this lasts.  Who knows, I might stick with it!  I know, I know!  I've already deviated by not sticking with my plan, but hey!  I'm actually sticking to the recipes on the list!  That's something, right?  Right!?

I sewed three pieces of card stock together with embroidery thread to make two staggered pockets to hang on the wall.  The top pocket had recipes to come, the bottom pocket has my menu schedule and recipes I've tried.  At the bottom of the recipes we've never had before, I write whether or not they're B approved.  So far I'm using it, although it won't necessarily be in the exact order I planned it on the schedule.  I wasn't able to get everything I needed from Sam's, so I'll need to make a trip to either the store between now and next pay day.  I spent roughly an entire month's grocery budget in the single trip, BUT I was able to get large quantities of dry staples that I won't have to replace again for more than a month.  And the savings on said bulk dry goods was enough to make it worthwhile.

For example, these two ENORMOUS bags of pasta.  The egg noodles are 5 lbs for $6.40, and the veggie noodles are 6 lbs. for $5.40.  1 lb of Muellers egg noodles is $3.50, so for all intents and purposes, I've saved 50%.  *grins*  And I'll be using these bags of pasta for a *while*.

Those are my toes.  I wear a size 8.5, so I don 't have little bitty midget feet.  Now, I need a bucket LOL.

Pride

I know I've been a complete blogger slacker lately.  The thing is, I haven't had anything much to show and tell, and any interesting thoughts that might be worth blogging go flying out of my ears as soon as I actually sit down in front of the computer.  I should start toting around a notepad during the day, because I've had some really good conversations with myself.

I actually have gotten something done I've been wanting to do for a long time, though.  I'm still missing some important people that I'm very proud of, but I can always add to it later.

The sign was a collaborative effort between myself and Pup.  I have a wood burning pen that I bought close to 13 years ago on a lark.  I used it twice, then got frustrated because I couldn't make pretty burned pictures like I'd seen at arts and crafts sales and tossed it in a box.  Naturally, I quickly forgot about it with the ease of youth.  I found it in said box while I was trying very hard to bring some more order to my chaos, and while glaring at a pile of B's wood scraps as if I could incinerate them with a thought or magically make them produce something useful, got an idea.  So I spent a few hours burning letters into a scrap end of a 2x4.  I was very unhappy with the result.  It looked naked, and sloppy, and not at all the pretty sign I'd imagined.

Pup to the rescue.  I was grousing about how I didn't like it, it's sloppy, it's bald, it's boring... He took it from me, went into our little storage shed to get out of the wind, and proceeded to scorch the entire face of the sign.  It was covered with a thin layer of dark soot, and looked way better.  All my little mess ups were happily hidden under black powder.  Black powder that dusted off on everything!  So, I started rubbing the powder in, and tada!  Happiness.  We started talking about borders, and he trotted next door to Fin's and borrowed her hot glue gun.  He spent forever twisting some hemp string into ropes and tacking them around the edges with the hot glue.

I need one of Pup's pictures, and I'd love a picture of Mrs. Terri's Sam.  I need to find a frame for my great-granddad's picture.  There are lots of other people in my family whose pictures I'd like to hang on here as well, but I can always put more pictures up :-)

starting at the top and going clockwise - B; my brother; B's Brother; my cousin; my daddy; my uncle; my granddad's retirement declaration; my granddad, gramma, and dad; and the little circle is another cousin.

The picture on the left by itself if my granddad kneeling in front of one of the last flying B-17's, which is what he flew on in WWII as a belly ball gunner.

I'm very proud of all the heroes in my life, and they have earned the right to be proud of themselves.


One other project I finished:

I saw a sign similar to this (only much more neatly executed) on one of those military pride home decor sites.  They wanted $16 for it, and I'm thinking there's a stack of unused wood scraps sitting in the back yard, some paint a guy gave us when he PCS-ed, and a ball of hemp twine I've had forever.

B retired his old PC, and I asked him if he had to turn it in or anything.  He said no, so I asked if I could have it.  I'm going to cut it up and make a ACU digital border for this so it's a little less desert drab lol.  It's hanging on the door to the basement.  I generally just throw laundry down the stairs and wash it when the pile is large enough for a load or two.  Not exactly neat, but at least it's consolidated and out of sight :-P

You little sew and sew... go sit on it and weave!

Ok, yeah... that's a cheesy ass title.  I can't help it!

 Bryan made me a sewing desk :-D  He isn't too thrilled with it, but it turned out exactly how I hoped it would.  I'm hoping that he will have enough odd scraps of wood eventually to make me some old style vegetable crates to use as drawers.  <3!!  It's got a huge work surface, which is truly awesome when I've got a curtain sized pile of fabric I'm trying to keep straight for sewing.

And an old hutch I was using as a book case has taken a place as a hutch again, which is why he suggested he build me a desk in the first place.  And because I'd hijacked the dining table as my sewing table, because there wasn't anywhere else with a work surface big enough for my projects.

I've got a super-amazing-awesome husband!

I've gotten several projects done since he set it up for me the other day, too.

Remember those polyester scraps of slacks I mentioned that used to be in the trunk turned coffee table?

 I took some of them and ripped the seams out for a crazy quilt pillow.

I've decided that crazy quilting is kind of a pain in the butt, because trying to get all those odd shaped pieces to fit together into the size and shape you want them to eventually be is challenging.  But I love the way it turned out!  Katie helped me lay out the colors, and it is Pup tested and nap approved.

I also sewed a curtain for the window over the stairs.  We hung it up with staples, because it was scary enough with the Pup balancing on the banister to try to reach just for that.  Having someone balancing up there with a power drill and multiple sharp pointy objects to try to hang a curtain rod was just not something I really wanted to contemplate.

They're not really purple and yellow.  That's just the result of the flash.  It's more a country blue and sunshine.  They don't block all the light, so you can still see to go up and down the stairs, but it still blocks some light and cools off the upstairs hall and stairwell a lot.  Katie helped me with this one, too, because I just wasn't sure about combining blue and yellow.  I like it, in spite of the ruffles.  The blue ruffled bit was a round table cloth that I cut in half, then only sewed half the cut edge to the top edge of the sheer yellow fabric.  The other half of the half circle I hemmed and let hang.  I was going to get all fancy, and cut the table cloth into quarters, then try to sew the quarters together into something like a scalloped panel, but I decided that would be more work than necessary and would make the curtains way too long for the small window.

Another staple gun curtain project.  This was a very sheer knit in a sunshiney yellow.  It actually almost perfectly matches a tablecloth I gave Ms. Terri this past summer.  If I had seen this when I gave her the table cloth, I would've given this to her, too, because I'm really not a big fan of pastel or bright colors.  But, it ended up working out great for the bathroom.  It shades, without cutting out all the light.  And when it's cool enough to open the windows, it lets a breeze through, without billowing around and showing you showering to the neighborhood ;-)  It also makes the bathroom a pretty warm sunlight color, even when it's cloudy out.

That's it for my projects so far.  I'm still not done, yet.  B made me a lap loom that I just have to try out with the spools of run yarn I scored.  80 lbs of yarn for under $80.  When you consider that a normal skein costs around $3, and it's usually only a few ounces, you're talking about a MAJOR price score.  I just can't knit with it, because it all wound up being rug yarn.

If you look at the second picture of the desk, up on top of the hutch, you'll see some of the spools of yarn.  Most of them are big, fluffy thick yarns, with lots of loft in various shades of earthy browns and greens.  I've got some that I think are a little obnoxious (mustard yellow with orange flecks???), and some bright gem tones like a cerulean blue, garnet red, and a deep purple that I really love.  I can't complain about the yarn, though.  Included in all that (until now) useless rug yarn were two HUGE skeins of merino lace weight yarn in a really nice spring/mossy green.  *That* in the amounts I have it in, is worth way more than $80.  You're talking about 1200 ft per lb, and each spool weighs several lbs.  I have some lace patterns I've been dying to try out, I just have to find the time!

Maybe I'll be unpacked all the way, one day LOL.  I'd probably make more progress if I quit playing with the sewing machine, huh?

Travel Trunk Table

While I was visiting with Ms. Terri from over at In the Blue House on the Hill, we were talking about crafty things, and I mentioned a foot locker that I have absolutely full of vintage polyester.  Yes... I really do save anything.  These are scraps left over from my step-gramma's clothes-making.  She used to make her own clothes to wear to work, because she had to dress nice, but couldn't afford to go buy expensive clothes.  I was trying out idea for what to do with all that 1970's scariness (because boy some of those patterns and color combinations are *wild*, and polyester really isn't a pleasant feeling fabric.  Kind of scratchy, and plasticy.).

Ms. Terri by-passed the fabric and went straight at the trunk with her train of thought.

It's a pretty awesome trunk.  I love old stuff, because it always has more personality than new stuff.  There are scratches, and dents, and tarnished places that make it more individual than just going to the store and buying something that is just like what everyone else already has.  Old stuff has stories, too.  Even if I can't use it in its current incarnation, I save old stuff until I can figure out a way to give it a new purpose as something else or part of something else.  Trunks are always handy, though.  They're storage with attitude.  You can leave a trunk stuffed full of junk anywhere in the house, and it looks like decoration.  Try that with a cardboard box some time.  It just doesn't have the same appeal.

Anyway... sorry about that.  I kinda got sidetracked.  So where was I?  Visiting Terri... right.

She suggested I turn the trunk into a coffee table.  She even gave me finials for feets!

But you can't have a  cool, banged up old travel trunk with raw feets.  The feets need some character, too.  (these were happily dinged and scratched already, so I didn't feel the need to beat them up).

But they did need staining.

The curtain hangers were stained with the exact same stain.  The finials just seemed to take the stain way better.  I like it!

Then, I got to thinking about the water rings left by cold drinks, the leather-ish (probably vinyl) material covering the trunk, and the particle board underneath.  Some form of water protection would probably be a good idea.  I don't want my table getting all mushy and the top falling in.

So out comes the polyurethane.

In heavy doses!  I must've put 1/4 inch on there.  It drooled down the sides and back some, so I went ahead and polyurethaned the whole lid.. you know, just to keep it from looking too sloppy.  

 I drilled some pilot holes a little smaller than the screws coming out of the finials and screwed them into place.

Then, I got some of the scraps from B's curtain hangers to screw onto the tips of the screws so I won't accidentally cut myself on the tips when I reach into the trunk for something.

And there we go.  A coffee table/trunk :-)  It's awesome!

Please ignore the clutter.  I am still unpacking and organizing, but it's the perfect height for setting drinks and controllers on, and the inside has just enough room for the blankets I had folded on the backs of the couch and love seat, and the two travel pillows that the Pup and B use when they nap in the afternoons.