Moooooooooooving

What does a cow say? ...Mooooooooooooooo(ve)

Saw whaat??

That's right, folksies--I'm moving! When, you ask?

Shopping for free

What? No, I am not kidding. Psh, come on, I don't kid about this stuff. Free shopping is serious business.

While visiting Tess last weekend (as I mentioned in my last post), we struck gold at an estate sale that a local parish was holding after Sunday Mass. Estate sales are usually one of the most wonderfullous events known to mankind. This particular estate sale was even better because it was free!! Granted, it was free because it was just the sale's dregs/bottom-of-the-barrel. None the less, we found some gems.

I've often admired wall hangings that are/mimic architectural salvage pieces. But, as it seems to be my lot in decorating, I never seem to find something that I like OR that I can afford. That all changed last weekend when I found these babies:

Not only are these right up my style-alley, they were right up my price-alley, too (i.e. FREE). When no one else wanted them, I was thrilled to pick them up to bring home with me. I mean it when I say "thrilled." I felt like this inside:

GIFSoup

I was equally pumped to

Featured! {Roadkill Rescue}

Many thanks to Beckie over at Roadkill Rescue for featuring my French Country chair makeover!

Check out the whole feature!

Thanks so much, Beckie and Roadkill Rescue!!

A Long Time in Coming

Do you remember how I told you that I am a garbage person?

Well, I might have some fairy magic in me too. Because lookie how that hot-mess-of-a-chair looks now.

But wait, it gets even better...

               

Ah! I am so glad that I am finished with this project. For those of who have been paying attention to this blog, you'll know that, from start to finish, this was a six-month project for me. Now, in my defense, I was NOT working on this project during the entire six month spread. I didn't touch it for a full and a half months (Thanksgiving through mid-February) because.....well, time just happens.

For those of you new around this blog, here is a quick run through of the past posts on the subject of this chair.

Choosing Fabric

Trying to Prep for Paint

More Decision-making

Sanding, sanding, more sanding

Sneak Peak

After telling you so much about the chair, I am just going to let the pictures do the talking for a while. Anyways, my fingers are a bit tired after pulling out so many staples...

In Progress:

Finish product (and in its new home: The Living Room)



A few imperfections here and there...oh well!



Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures while making the pillow. It is a very simple design, however. I saw a pillow at Walmart. I liked the way it looked and just kind of "winged it" at the sewing machine. Didn't turn out all that bad, eh? The fabric and the *shiny* pin are from Hobby Lobby. Gotta love that store.



So shiny!



Up-close deets

Though it was a lot of work and demanded a lot of patience and perseverance on my part, I am really happy with the outcome! It is really exciting to have accomplished this (it was my first attempt at reupholstering). I wonder what the garbage dump will give me next!

Linking to:

The Girl Creative Today's Creative Blog Tip Junkie Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus Petite Hermine Cherished Bliss Funky Polkadot Giraffe Lady Bug Blessings Bowl Full of Lemons My Girlish Whims Sew Much Ado  Polkadots on Parade Handy Man, Crafty Woman  Someday Crafts Lil'Luna Sugar and Dots Fabric, Bows and More Trendy Treehouse Not Just a Housewife Like Mother, Like Daughter

Clashing of Eras

Remember this?

Notice anything? Here are a few more angles:

 

When I took these pictures, I unintentionally left two hints about the REAL purpose of this table. See the spool of thread on top and the random wire hanging below? That's because this is no ordinary end table

It's a sewing table!!!! I picked it up for about $1.50 at the garage sale I spoke of last week. It is kind of the coolest thing ever. The upside is that the sewing machine still works. The downside is that the power cord has some funny business going on, which mean it doesn't really work RIGHT now.

Black cord going in, brown cord coming out. Hmmmmm.

I am no electrician nor a mechanic so I have not the faintest idea of how to fix this. And, since I am not much of a sewer either, I don't have much need for a sewing machine, broken or unbroken. The decision to get rid of the machine was an easy one. However, this sewing machine clearly has some antique value, so instead of throwing it away I decided to salvage the table itself for myself (ooh, that rhymed) and see if I can find someone interested in a it-can-be-fixed antique (Read: Offer it on Craigslist or eBay).

Before I can do that, first things first: Sewing machine, step awaaay from the table.

Removing the machine (which weighed at least 30 pounds, no joke) was pretty easy, entailing unscrewing just a handful of screws to finish the job. But, not before poking around and snapping a few pictures of the tables innards. 

 

 As I said before, detaching the sewing machine from the table was not a difficult task. However, it definitely required that I use my head the right way. What do I mean? Since all of the screws that I need to removed were located beneath, I started out working by schimmying myself into a position right below the table in order to get right at the screws. This was the view I saw.

After taking out the first two screws, it dawned on me that if I continued in this position then when the last screw came out I would be in the perfect spot to have this 30+ pound machine drop directly on my face. Being the vain person that I am, I didn't think a smashed-in face sounded like any fun, so I changed things upa bit and soon I was working from this angle.

Much better.

Just a few more screws and I had finished the job. But I didn't stop there. Seriously, this was the coolest machine and I had a lot of fun inspecting all its gadgets and props. Here are some close-ups. 

 

 

 

Any takers? :)

Sweat is Fat Crying

Oh my gosh, this is totally how I felt as I worked yesterday at removing the nasty, torn up fabric from my garbage-scored French country armchair yesterday afternoon.

As you may recall from this post, I found a glorious--albeit beat up--chair about a month ago while out running errands. Well, I just finally rolled around yesterday to beginning the process of re-doing it. First step? Removing all of the ragged fabric.

The Before

Unfortunately, the task is proving to be much more time-consuming than I set out expecting, thus the title of this new post. I expected to spend about three to four hours removing all of the fabric, staples, and underlinings of the chair. Fat chance at that dream. Four and a half hours after I started, I had barely removed the seat cushion cover. Not only was my fat crying, but I was near-crying by the end of the afternoon of working on this thing.

Four hours later

Now, I will admit that this is my first attempt at uncovering and recovering a chair of this kind. I knew not to expect it to be as quick of a job as the chair re-do from earlier in the summer. However, neither did I expect this project to tempt me to return the chair to whence it came: El garbagio.

Telling from the copious amount of stapling done to secure the chair's previous covering to its frame, I do believe that the last designer to his/her hands on this chair was determined that it not be recovered again. Take a look for your self:

Is every one of those really necessary??

If you look closely, you will see that the staples are inserted into a recess in the chair's frame. This meant that it was extra hard for my pincers to get a good enough grip on each staple in order to pull it out from the chair and release the fabric. In other words, not only were there one million staples in the chair, the staples were also near-impossible to get out. After trying for about an hour to get out all of the staples in the first section of the chair I was tackling, I threw up my hands and decided that I just am not going to be able to get every staple out if I want to finish this chair before my Social Security checks start rolling in.

My solution to the problem of this threatened-eternity? I pulled out my box-cutter and start slicing away at the fabric and fuzz, cutting as close as possible to the chair's frame, after which I used the pincers to remove what staples were necessary to rip out the rest of the fabric/fluff.

However, the box-cutter soon proved not up for the challenge as it wasn't able to cut through the white fluff as readily as this impatient chicitabanana needed (wanted) it to. Introduce my friend, Mr. Scissors.

He was able to expedite the process in a most pleasing way. Since patience is not my forte (yet..I am working on it), I was grateful for this as was my sanity. Here is a look of the floor around me, the cup catching the staples and the carpet catching all of the fuzzes. And this was not even halfway through!



By the time I finished the seat of the chair, there were gashes all along the aforementioned crevice which held the staples. I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't have avoided at least half of these.

However, I would like to think that I did my best to get the staples out in spite of the chair's seeming insistence to keep all the staples to itself. In the end, I just have to chalk it up to "the price of business." I suppose that I will get some wood putty to mend the gashes before I get to priming and painting the wood.

Speaking of painting and priming, I have decided that I am going to paint the base of the chair white and make it as shiny as possible (in the past, white paint and shiny haven't always worked out for me). As for the cushion fabric, I am still trying to decide. I know, that is terrible isn't it? I admit that I have been kind of distracted with work and such, so it's not as if I have spent the last month and a half agonizing over the decision...though perhaps I am guilty of avoiding the decision :-/ Either way, from the way that the current stripping is going, it looks like I still have plenty of time until I absolutely must make a decision. Perhaps during the hours ahead that I have in removing the rest of the fabric I can pledge my mind to think only about what fabric to replace the old with, and not allow myself to think of anything else until I make a decision! If you have an opinion, look at the choices I am working with and cast your vote!

Pollyanna-ing

My life has been going pretty well lately. I have great friends and a wonderful family. My roommates are pretty sweet. My house is pretty much all settled into (we hosted our first party last week!). I've lost ten pounds. I still have my job (not that I was really ever close to not having it). Autumn weather is setting in (my favorite season!) The Apocalypse is still yet to occur. Yes, I am indeed doing pretty well.

But a girl can still dream, right? You bet!

The imagination is one of the best things about being human (okay, I know that there are some of you out there who will think of all the exceptions to that statement...just go with me for a sec). But, anyways, when used well the imagination is the bomb-diggity. I use my imagination a lot, especially when it comes to decorating a room , scoping out and designing my next project, or trying to MacGyver some thing or other.

Today, I would like to invite you to take a tour with me through my dream house. Cooome alooong with meeee. Our tour starts in

Three.

Two.

One.

Welcome to my dream house! I am so glad that you could stop by today. I can't wait to show you around. Please, come in (yes, I am having an imaginary conversation...don't worry, totally normal).

This would be the foyer. It is done in a "Swedish Country" style. If you would, please, ignore the yellow bench. Because in my dream house, that would be replaced by this lovely bench. Complete with toile and all.

Yea for toile!

Now, we will go around the corner into the living/family room.

This room is oh-so-cozy. Please, imagine yourself sitting on that uber soft sofa, having a conversation with about...home decorating. When we get bored with that, we can walk across the room to the library...

..and look at some decorating books. There also will be other books, don't worry. So you can read about other things like psychology, philosophy, theology, political science, fiction, non-fiction...etc.



Going back in to the foyer and hallway, we will walk back to the kitchen. What do you see? Checkered floors!

The kitchen is in a rustic country style. I love the red accent cabinetry (in my real house, that window trim would not be red). The red with the black-and-white of the floor gives a cozy feel, I think. Perhaps I'd add a little throw rug in case I forget my slippers one morning. Oh, and maybe I would add a bit'o'wood polish to that table, looking a bit too rustic for me as is.

Now, I am always late, so this too would be fixated in my kitchen. With it, I most assuredly will never be late again.

Oh, also on the first floor there would be a dining room. the dining room would d have a wicked awesome chandelier made of Italian Christmas lights, wrapped around a wreath of branches.

Off of the dining room, there would be French doors leading back into the sun room.

Now, I probably would ditch the pallet wood and burlap table. And I would mostly elect to hang the mirror rather than just leaning it up against the wall. Why? Because, in all honesty, as much as I can like the look of a large mirror leaned against the wall, I can't seem to successfully pull off the look (or at least be satisfied with my attempts). So I know that I wouldn't have a mirror leaning against a wall in my dream home because I don't know how to do that. Oh, and please note, too, the Italian-Christmas lights that reappear in this room on the ceiling. Can you say "awesome"?

Down in the basement would be the laundry. My laundry room would be beautiful like this.

Since I clean my clothes when I do laundry, I prefer to do my laundry in a stylish environment to reflect how incredibly stylish of a dresser I am. That is why there would be a mirror (hanging on the wall) in the laundry room, so I can look at myself why I fold my underdrawers.

Across from the would be a little table booth. it would be very colorful--particularly with pink.

Why will this nook be in the basement? I most likely will end up married to a man who hates being overwhelmed with pink, I will relegate all of this glorious pinkness and frilliness to the basement because I will be so in love with him that I don't want him to drive him crazy. (I know, I am such a nice person).

Okay, back up the stairs, let's take a look at the rest of this dream house!

I cannot decide which of these two rooms would be my room and which would be the guestroom (or the children's room...actually I probably would need five children's room for the offensive number of kids I plan to have).


I like both of these rooms so much. the canopy set up of the first room is just dreamy. The bright and fresh colors are so relaxing too. The second room I find to be very cozy. Though there are the black accents, there is so much white (and a little gold) that it is not overwhelming. In fact, I find this room almost cozier than the first room. And those curtains are fabulous...Hmm, I think the second room would be my room. Which might be a good thing, because the black and white would much better match my jewelry box.

Oh, yay! Look at that jewelry box. For those of you who know me, I am sure you get a bit of a chuckle out of that jewelry storage, because you know how much I like my jewelry. (I admit, though, I would be slightly embarrassed if all of my jewelry filled this up. That might signal a problem...).

Last, but certainly not least, There would be an office area.

The office would be on the large side: Large enough for more than one person to work there at once, though only one person could get the desk. There would be the window nook with plenty of room to sit to read, work on a computer, take a nap, stare at whoever is at the desk...possibilities are endless, really. The nook is also large enough for multiple kiddos to occupy it. When they got bored of sitting there and whacking each other with the pillows, then they could practice piano.

Now THAT is a piano worth practicing on!! And I plan to practice upon it as well; there are few things in the world more magnificient than piano music.

Thank you so much for coming along with me on this little dream house tour!

(For links to all of the above pictures, please see my pinterest page. Thank you!)