Cool as a Cuke

July 20, 2017July 20, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

It’s Summer. It’s hot and some of my favorite vegetables are in season: okra, shishito peppers, and tomatoes. Watermelon (yes, I realize this is a fruit) and cucumbers are runners up and with cucumbers means PICKLES!

I’ve been waiting since January, when I finished my last jar of bread and butter pickles, for cucumbers to make their come back. I made sure to get some at the HOPE Farmer’s Market from Johnson’s Backyard Garden this weekend.

I spent Sunday afternoon slicing, packing, and brining these crisp cucumbers. I still use the recipe Grandmother, Nettie, gave me. It’s still on the same piece of paper she typed it up on her typewriter eight years ago. My Grandmother passed away a few years ago and my family is delighted that her recipe was passed on.

That being said…

Austinites! I will be selling these pints of pickles at the HOPE Farmer’s Market this Sunday. Swing by and get you some! They’re just like Nettie used to make!

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Before & After, furniture, Uncategorized

Ready, Set…. Desk!

July 17, 2017July 17, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

What a month! From mid-June to today, I have had the most amount of custom work I have ever had! I love it. Nothing makes me happier. I hope the custom orders just keep on coming. So tell all your friends! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

That being said, I wanted to share with you a couple of the pieces of furniture that I have just wrapped up. These pieces consisted of a desk and chair to match.

I was gifted this great little desk from someones garage and the chair was a curb side find. I stripped them of their finish, sanded, sanded, and applied a white paint with my favorite walnut stain over it to give it that aged look. It’s the perfect finish for the farmhouse that they will be calling home!

Not only are the desk and chair creating a fabulous new office space but the bookshelf from my previous post (Furniture for the Fight: May) also made it’s way into the mix. Check it out!

Desk Before

Desk after (not the best photo)

Desk & Bookshelf in new Home

Chair Before (left)

Chair After

Chair After Detail

If you are in the Austin area and are interested in having a piece of furniture that you already own refinished, please feel free to message me at lauralee@madebylauralee.com

Before & After, furniture

Furniture for the Fight: May

June 26, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

Okay! I am, admittedly, a little behind on my blogging. The hustle continues though: crafting, creating, custom orders, playing music, Kickstarter stuff, etc. I have not given up on my Furniture for the Fight project! I may have fallen a little behind, but this project is so important to me. I had the month of May carved out in honor of Immigrant Asian American Month and a percentage of the proceeds will go to National Immigration Forum.

A little back story…

I found this handmade bookshelf at the side of the road. It had a lot of texture and personality. It was solid, for sure. I pulled over, put her in the back of the truck, and brought her straight to the studio.

After stripping off the drab brown paint, I got her a good sanding. I applied a creamy white paint with my go to walnut stain. The grooves in the wood held the stain nicely to accentuate the unique texture of the wood. My favorite part of this piece is the vibrant Japanese paper applied to the back of the shelves. The red and the gold really give this simple bookshelf a lot of personality.

If interested, go ahead and contact me. Again, a percentage of the proceeds will go to National Immigration Forum. Email me if you are interested (lauralee@madebylauralee.com)

Brand, Uncategorized

Out of My Comfort Zone

May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

What have you done to get out of your comfort zone? Going out on a Friday night (when you much rather be at home in your pjs eating pizza and drinking wine by yourself)? Making the first move? Skydiving?

Well, for me…. it’s something pretty crazy: Asking for help.

Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

This is absolutely soul crushing for me. I’ve always been able to take on anything: folding laundry, doing dishes, vacuuming for an entire household all at age twelve, doing the jobs of three different positions throughout my career while only getting paid for one, working 60 hours a week with a debilitating illness. Now at thirty years old, I’m getting over it. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone and I am asking for help. It is absolutely terrifying.

What’s all the build up? What am I asking for? Short answer: your money. Long answer: I would like your help in helping me grow made by laura lee not just as a blog but as a brand and as a business. Help me be the next Martha Stewart, minus the felony. Check out the Kickstarter video! It’s beautiful and I am so proud. I hope you will be just as proud as me to be apart of it.

HELP MADE BY LAURA LEE GROW!

furniture, Uncategorized

Furniture for the Fight: April

April 12, 2017April 17, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

Furniture for the Fight! Yea! With every month that passes I am more and more excited about this project. The entire month of April in this little project has been carved out for Earth Day. The environment and our planet is so precious. It’s the only one we’ve got. So that being said, I have the following transformation below dedicated to Earth Justice.

A little backstory….

I went to the giant garage sale held at the Palmer Event’s Center here in Austin. It was hosted by a local church and was overwhelmingly large. It took me thirty minutes alone just to go through the furniture section of the sale. I spotted this beauty right away. I flagged down there nearest attendant and settled up. I felt like she had so much personality that was just being masked by the plain wood finish. She got loaded up in my truck and got taken to the studio.

I gave her a light sanding and applied a moss green milk paint, distressed the paint, and applied a clear wax finish. My favorite part was replacing the old hardware with the beautiful pink knobs from Anthropologie.

Seriously, I want to keep this piece, which is how I feel more and more as I keep refinishing pieces. Please, my 650 sp. ft. apartment is starting to look more and more like a furniture and home decor store! Again, a percentage of the proceeds will go to Earth Justice! Email me if you are interested (lauralee@madebylauralee.com)

Embroidery, furniture

Spring is in Full Bloom

April 12, 2017April 12, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

With Spring comes glorious blue skies, the occasional rainstorms, blossoming flowers, bustling farmers markets, and of course, allergies, like woah. I’ve spent the last few days laid up in bed wishing I had the slightest urge to, at the very least, to work on some embroidery, but with a few attempts, I found it not possible. I’m starting to come around thanks to truckloads of Zyrtec.

Ok, now that my “wah” fest is over, I wanted to share some new items that I’ve completed since the last blog post. Most have been shared on instagram, but I’ve got a few that haven’t been yet. I’ve got new Easter themed embroidered wall art that I’m particularly pumped about. I haven’t done anything for Easter since my Grandmother passed away. She always had these gorgeous Easter baskets for us, we had egg hunts, and dying eggs! I guess I have been feeling slightly reminiscent. Below that, I’ve got a new veggie embroidered towel, a refinished chair, and my personal favorite, “I will resist.” wall art.

Stay crafty, ya’ll!

Uncategorized

Furniture for the Fight: March

March 13, 2017 lauraleeimhoff

March is Women’s History Month. It wasn’t always a whole month. It started off as a day (March 8th), it then turned to a week, and then, thanks to Jimmy Carter in ’87, we got a month. Way to go, ladies! After the recent election, I think some of us were thinking a lot more about women’s rights and equality. (Side note: it’s hard not to get a little political on this, I apologize.) I think Hilary Clinton opened our eyes to what we are able to accomplish. If it wasn’t what she has done, there was something that resounded in me within her concession speech. More on that in a moment. Another thing I was particularly drawn to was her consistent attire color choice. Ok, ok, I know it sounds crazy, but she always was selective on the color of her pantsuit. Colors have meaning. White and purple are the colors of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Pair that with this quote from her concession speech,

“And to all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”

This quote gets me every time. It got me thinking. I know what I go through every day regarding self-doubt, fear of not achieving my goals, etc. We cannot pass this on to future generations. So, my contribution for Furniture for the Fight this month is this dresser. A percentage of the proceeds will go to Running Start. An organization that helps young girls to become leaders.

A little back story:

This dresser was donated to me by a super rad lady friend. She is always the first to stand up and be vocal on behalf of all women and minorities, call her representatives, and, overall, just a bad ass babe. That being said, I knew this piece already had some good juju. In order to get to the core of that juju though, I had to use a little elbow grease and sand down the already peeling finish. This piece had a little structual work that needed to be done so I made sure get the joints strong again, fill in some wholes, put in some extra braces. After, I painted her, in honor of women’s suffrage, antique white. I applied walnut wax finish and buffed it off to give it an antique finish. I applied Danish oil to the inside of the drawers to give the wood a natural golden glow. I then replaced the traditional drawer pulls with mercury gold knobs and line the drawer with white and gold paper. And vioala!