Another Maestro

We are truly blessed to have such talented people working with us. As y'all may know, Mike and I are dreamers...we rarely have found people who can make our dreams into reality, until we moved to Ecuador!

Last year our first encounter with the local welder, Rene was when I wanted to make the driftwood Christmas tree. We met with him, gave him our sketch, and within one day had our wish realized. Again it happened with the grill we asked him to fabricate, little did we know then that it would become Mike's kiln...

Recently our quest for Rene was more Christmas trees, smaller this time....indeed he brought us what we asked for, but also something he made he thought we might like, and we did! 

I will decorate it somehow, needs a topper for sure, and maybe paint, but super cute!

And a sneak peek at the smaller versions of last years tree.

They also will get decorations, and toppers, and be sold at the Art Event coming up in Nov.

BUT the real reason for the post...drum roll!!! We asked Rene for a cart to use on the beach for scavenging. We again, sketched a picture, and he measured the gate for size restrictions, and ....

OMG!! Did he not do the BEST JOB!! Check it out! The handle has a pin that can make it stand, or remove the pin and it pulls. And the recycling of the ironing board is simply genius! We could not be happier with his rendition of our vision, now if the lake would just dry up, so we can get out!

The cart only cost us $50 and was done within a couple days. Rene is truly a maestro, and a pleasure to know, this won't be the last you see of his work. So, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

New life

One of the things we enjoy so much about Ecuador, and I'm sure all of Latin/South America is the simpleness of life. We were both raised to be mindful of money and hunt for bargains, recycle or reuse, and know the difference between a Want and a Need. 

When we went into town the other day we saw something new.

I later saw on Facebook this was done by a team of muralists who are traveling the coast beautifying damaged areas. Yo gusta!

Recently I pulled out the sewing machine and practiced making a small purse, I used recycled denim from an old pair of jeans and scrap fabric.

Upon closer inspection, I need to work on straight lines, but for the difficulty of the two fabrics together, I'm not unimpressed with the outcome. (The one I did a couple days later for Domenica, was lined and had straight lines)

I was given these Men's madras patchwork cargo shorts, they were a little too wild to wear, so I thought I'd cut them up and make a sundress. Because of the cargo pockets, there really wasn't a whole lot of fabric, certainly not enough to make a dress. I decided to first start with...yet another purse. The pockets just begged for it, I mean they were already made! Out came another pair of recycled jeans, and the pant leg worked perfect. I cut off the waist band of the shorts, and used it as the strap, I will add Velcro to the outside pocket flap, and voila! New purse out of cast off clothing.

A chunk of Vecinos house, I'm going to make into a table, and a broken water jug used to plant new cactus.

This from our Canadian friend Glenn, he is a wonderful photographer and captures some great images. This one fits right in, with today's subject...New life.

And new life in Charapoto the other day. 

Another week has drained away, today is Fruit truck, wow! Time really does fly when you're having fun...stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Veronica's new dress out of leftover pillow fabric.

Finished projects

I have had several projects in the works, either started, or just formulated in my mind, and it was high time to get back at it. The rainy season is coming to an end, (you wouldn't know from the downpour last night, but...) and that means I've been outside on the patio. As I look around, I come up with things I'd like to do, I'd made this coconut hanging planter some time ago, but only recently brought it outside and planted in it. The plants were looking good, I just felt it needed a little something, so I painted it.

So when I moved this one, it left an empty spot, so I had to come up with something new...

The yellow pot is an old bleach bottle, and they are planted with discarded pineapple tops, talk about recycling!

We went to town the other morning and found a plant truck, SCORE! We bought several things for inside the house, and some for out. The beautiful bougainvillea was the star of this area, but the black plastic bag it was planted in was not cutting it, what to do until I can repot it? How about cover it up?

I had recently painted these sticks to make a hanging light, but my plan didn't go , well as planned...so I strung them together, and tied them around the black plastic bag, voila!

The last of the ugly faded old plastic pots have their new life.

And a trip by bus to Charapoto and the fabric store Wednesday got me inspired to get the sewing machine out yesterday morning and get new pillowcases made for the outdoor area. I picked up the patterned remnants for $1 and got two from each one. I decided to make the pillows reversible, so I would get more bang for my buck. 

The stars must have been aligned because I got all five large pillowcases plus the two small ones done without much frustration! Woot woot! That makes me happy, because now next time I think about bringing out the sewing machine, it'll be no big deal, I've been successful, not ended in a huff.

I have also been doing some sewing by hand, I remade a tshirt that was too tight into a tank top, and remade a skirt into a sundress. (And now that the sewing machine and I are friends, watch out!)

I also had been wanting to get the bottle koozies we've been using covered. I'd like to make new ones, just have to remember to look up wetsuit material in the translator...these koozies were given to us, and had advertisement on them, this is much better. (Esta mucho mejor!)

Whew! I've been busy! So glad I don't have one of those pesky jobs to take up my time! Today is waiting for the fruit truck, then lunch with friends, ordering beer and water for delivery and walking on the beach, what a perfect life. There's much more to come, so... Stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Our handmade Christmas tree

One of the things I do in the morning with my coffee is peruse Pinterest, what a wealth of great ideas! Some projects are quick and some take time, this is one of those. I've been collecting driftwood all year and recently realized if I was going to make this for THIS year, I'd better find a welder. This picture is the inspiration I've been drooling over all year.

Below, is my version.

I'm not going to tell you how much I spent, because I'd like to offer them for sale, but know this, it was ridiculously cheap, but mucho time consuming. We ordered our "tree" form on Wednesday and Thursday morning it was delivered. I measured the rebar, went to Joffres and bought two drill bits, Mike got started drilling and we layed the pieces out.

We realized we didn't have enough pieces, and had to go out to scavenge more. (Mostly because so many of my sticks were too small to be drilled thru but I can use them for something) A little trial and error, and at times it seemed it was a big puzzle, but in the end I'm extremely happy with it. 

Lights were tricky, my first attempt really made it look like Charlie Browns tree, but then Mike saved the day and redid them, less is more in this instance. I'll be making more ornaments today, as Mike didn't want some of my painted shell ornaments to be outside (we think we'll get to Bahia some time soon and buy a small artificial tree for the inside).

I also need to work on some sort of tree topper, starfish maybe? So stay tuned...the adventure continues!

When all else fails, Paint it!

My plastic planters are looking pretty sad these days, being that they are over a year old and have been in constant brutal sun, so I started painting them. I did a quick not so great primer coat a couple weeks ago, and when the power went out yesterday morning, I gathered my paint and sat outside.

After I got the design painted and dryed, I sprayed with clear coat. They may not last forever, but you know I like to change things up, so I may just be ready for another design when this one fades.

And another one, in progress

And finished...with bonus sunset

Mi gusta! Now another project I'm working on. I took a very tired and dirty kitchen rug, and covered it. Rugs are expensive here, these half moon rugs with plastic backing are $6! (not to mention a trip by bus to the "big city") I was recently given a pair of jeans that were too big for a friend, and thought it might be a good fabric to use. I started with a rug like this one, but with a lot of white in the pattern, and it was not getting clean.

I had some "Elmers" glue, I painted on the old rug, and smoothed the denim over, then hot glued the edges, folding them under as I went. First attempt is never the best, but I'm happy with it. I'd been wanting to play with bleach, seeing some great designs on Pinterest, so I took a piece of scrap and practiced. It wasn't going to be instant design, but it would work. After the bleach did its thing, I added some paint, and that's where I had to stop and let it all dry. 

I'll add some more bleach and paint, and I'll have a new kitchen rug! I know it wouldn't stand up in a washing machine but I don't have to worry about that, since I don't have one. And talk about trash to treasure, because I was certainly getting ready to throw it out! I'll finish it today, and share next time.

Don't know if y'all noticed these hanging on the fence in a previous post, recycled yogurt bottles, prettied up with paint, fabric, macrame and beads. And we've started putting our cameras, cords, chargers and iPhones in Tupperware, last night in front of the TV I made rice bags to go inside the Tupperware. Anything we can do to keep what's nice, nice.

Another day of sun, fun and crafting, my life on the coast of Ecuador does NOT suck. I could do this forever, so...stay tuned, the adventure continues!