April 2015 Activity -- DIY Caulking Workshop

Caulk It workshop provided by Moss Building and Design

Dominion Electric Supply Co., Lighting Showroom

14605 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy Chantilly, VA 20151

Thursday, April 23, 2015: 5:30-7:30pm

Cost: Free

Honing our caulk handling skills.

This workshop was one in a series of women's workshops that Moss offers to teach women DIY home improvement skills. In addition to teaching proper caulking techniques and answering questions, Moss and Dominion provided hors d'oeuvres, wine, goody bags and raffles. And if we learned anything, it's that whenever we do home improvement projects in the future, we're going to insist upon having hors d'oeuvres, wine, goody bags and raffles. 

It's possible we missed the point. 

My friend from high school, Karen, joined me for this activity. Because when I think of someone who has handled her fair share of caulk...it's Karen. 

After mingling and enjoying some great food (some of which actually made it into my mouth after spilling most on my shirt and the floor), we took our seats for the demonstration and Q&A. And there were a lot of Q&A. It's like some of these women had never seen caulk before. Though to be fair, even those of us who were familiar learned a few new things. To wit:

• It's relatively simple once you know how to handle caulk properly
• The more you handle caulk, the more comfortable you'll be
• It is important that you have a good quality caulk
• You can cut the tip off the caulk to make it wider if you need to fill bigger spaces
• When caulking, you may have some shrinkage...it all depends upon the size of your gap.
• When working with caulk, work at a slow and consistent speed. This will make it smoother and make the job much easier
• For most jobs, you do not want a caulk with a glossy finish

The Instructor shows us his caulk.

After the instruction, two women came up front to show off what they learned and compete in a little hands-on caulk competition. 

You're looking at about 70 new caulk experts.

No need for activity recap over food and drink as it was provided during the activity. (And besides, we could not wait to get home and show off our new caulk-handling skills.)

January 2015 Activity -- Furniture Painting Class

Friday, January 23, 2015

7pm-9pm

The Front Porch Furniture Rescue

817 West Broad Street, Falls Church, VA  22046
www.frontporchfurniturerescue.com
Cost: $50 

Assortment of items we could select to paint.

We found this activity on Craigslist -- an activity that promised we could listen to music, sip wine and paint a fun project. We could either choose among frames, vases, wood plates and bowls or bring a small piece of furniture from home. All supplies were included.

This would be awesome if it was yellow.
Like buttah.

In preparation, I found this table in our basement and thought it would be perfect to funkify (well it should be a word). However, after wrangling it into the car and dealing with the wintry mix conditions on the way over, the thought of re-wrangling it up a narrow staircase at the Front Porch didn't seem like a great idea. And after participating in this class, I realized there was no way I would have finished painting this in the two-hour time frame. So...this will be a project for another day. (Reality check: this will never happen).

Just like buttah.

We found out earlier in the day that the class was going to be just the three of us (me, my next-door neighbor, Liz, and her sister-in-law, Amy) being led by Front Porch owner, Joni.

It was actually a great sized class as we got to learn a lot about chalk paint and painting techniques to make our pieces look aged. All while enjoying wine, cheese and fruit. (And sparkling cider...for the DD.)

Amy liked the orange paint so much, she decided
to paint her phone, too. After asking WWJD? 
(In this case, What Would Jed Do?)

With our creations.
(And Amy's shirt does say, "I'm not bi-polar, I'm bi-WINNING!"
You read that right.)

Liz's vase at home on her kitchen table.