Pura Vida Spa...ahh!: October 2013

So, as the owner and creative director of Pura Vida Spa..ahh! I have always kept this blog about Pura Vida. But today, I am going to personalize it a bit, and maybe even have re occurring Caroline’s Crafty Corner posts. I am going to tell you about a project that I recently did. Feel free to comment (or not) on what you think about it. So I have this coffee table which I don’t really love, but it does the job of doing what a coffee table should do. I recently got this toy for my son who is 14 months that has a suction cup on the bottom of it, so that you can spin this wheel thingy. I suction cupped it to my coffee table, and lo and behold one day he pulled it off. Well, the faux marble came off and now the table has a piece of faux marble missing from it making it look very ghetto. Furthermore, my son just whacked his face off one of the corners of this table and two days later, looks like he has a black eye, but that’s another story. I decided to turn this ugly looking coffee table into an ottoman.

This project cost me all of ten bucks – partly because I already had most of the material from another crafty project (made my own headboard). So what you need for this crafty project is:

· a staple gun (the kind you plug in – borrowed from my dad so again, no cost)

· Foam padding (bought this at Walmart, supposed to be the foam pad for a twin bed. You can buy from Fabricland or any other fabric store, but it was more expensive, and this does the trick!)

· Batting (this I did buy from Fabricland)

· Fabric Adhesive (I have Elmer’s Multipurpose Spray Adhesive because you can use it with fabrics, metal, wood , cork – a whole slew of items)

· Your fabric of choice (make sure you measure enough to cover the table and be stretched over to the underside so that you can staple it)

Ok, so I cut the foam to the size of the table. As I used leftovers from my headboard, this was not one solid piece but rather different lengths cut and put together to cover the table. (you would have thought I would have taken a picture, but, I forgot!). You spray the adhesive on the table and then stick the foam on. The adhesive is kind of stinky, so open a window up and don’t have your fourteen month old in there inhaling this stuff for a while. Cut batting so that it covers the foam and table completely but can also be stretched to the underside of the table where you will staple it. Staple it making sure to pull the batting taut. Do the same for the fabric. Stretch it over the batting and pull it taut to the underside and staple it. Watch your fingers! The corners were a little bit tricky, I ended up carefully folding in and pulling it tight to the underside. The underside, let me tell you, is a hot mess. Good thing you don’t see it. Finally, I got my dear husband to cut the legs down to size so it is more of an ottoman where we can rest our feet. Voila! Photos below…good idea? Well, now….where do I put my coffee and beer??? I am going to look for a tray tonight that can be placed on the ottoman for just that purpose! Let me know what you think!

Back at the market today! We have a new t-shirt vendor sharing our space. I bought a very cool ‘THE HAMMER” shirt from him. We are now getting ready for the Christmas season and Pura Vida has just finished making two new batches of soap – one a new scent and one a top seller (Spiced Mandarin, made with French green clay and oatmeal – great for your face). Both of them smell like Christmas! We will be putting together a stocking stuffer package of EXCELLENT value: the two Christmas smelling soaps plus a sample size hempseed lavender hand and body lotion for $10.00. What a bargain – it’s like getting the hand and body lotion for free!

Pura Vida has also just finished making another batch of soap made with sake kasu/lees from the Ontario Spring Water Sake company. This is our third year in business with the sake company and we are proud to be their supplier of sake soap. Check out some of the pictures.