Alright, I need to crack down on finishing this chair and I’m finally getting closer. I hemmed and hawed about the Indian Sari idea for the past couple of months. I even had a few saris in the ebay queue and came oh-so-close to hitting “buy now”, but there was that little voice in the back of my head saying this was a bad, bad idea. Finally I turned off the right side of the brain and turned back on the left (booo) and decided to switch course.

Sari fabric is generally a thin cotton, not exactly upholstery material. And seeing how it could easily rip or get damaged, and I would be upset about that, it goes against my “Nothing precious” mantra for home decor. And it was just generally a bad idea. So it was back to the drawing board.

The drawing board process kind of goes like this… I put a series of fabrics on Fabric.com’s design board and show A. He tells me which ones he doesn’t like (it’s more of a veto process than an approval process). I get rid of those (well… most of those) and then find more. This goes on for awhile until we have a winner. In this case we had two winners…

A. prefers the Suzani print (top) and I prefer the floral (bottom), but the Suzani won due to one huge factor…. The Suzani is $7.98 per yard and the floral is $22.98. Kind of made the choice easy. But the good news is that I don’t want the two chairs to match so if I’m actually able to recover this piece in any sort of decent way then I may just splurge on the floral  for the second one.

I do realize that I have little idea what I’m doing (when I first bought the chair to recover I actually thought you sewed it all together the way you do a slip cover… in case you’re staring inquisitively at the screen right now… you don’t.) So per the recommendation of this lovely fabric.com tutorial I took the Complete Step-by-Step Upholstery by David Sowle and Ruth Dye out of the library. It looks like it’s going to make this project oodles easier. I wish I had borrowed it prior to tearing the chair apart… apparently there’s actually tools for that, not just needle nose pliers and anything I could find to jam under staples.

So I’m hoping the combination of that book + the Suzani fabric + this chair = wonderful amazingness for this room:

I think the floral will work better in here to give some extra color, but the grey and yellow, pardon me… “Summerland and Natural” should be pretty as well.

I’m sitting in that striped chair right now and one thing I love about is that not only does it rock but… wait for it… it spins. That’s right. It’s the best $40 garage sale I’ve ever picked up. I love being able to spin it, put my feet up on the shelves and look out the window so I’ll miss that with the new chair, but that’s okay…. thinking about it I might just need to recover this one too….. I will never run out of projects!

What I’m…

Listening To: Rain on the windows… a sound I love, but in January?!

Obsessing over: Some new fabric surface design techniques I’m trying out and can’t wait to share with you.

Reading in Print: A Paris Wife still. I’m liking it, just haven’t given myself a lot of “sit down and read” time this week.

Reading online: A new-to-me quilting blog Blue Elephant Stitches. I can’t wait to try out the Granny Square tutorial… just have about 3 quilts in the queue before that!

Filed under: Making a Home | No Comments »

I showed you all a photo of my attic studio back in the spring. I was oh-so-happy to have a little office space and a printing space with my sewing/crafting studio downstairs. Well… that’s kind of a pain, so now I wanted to turn the sewing studio back to a bedroom and move everything upstairs.

But come on… is this room really inspiring?

I don’t know if it’s the wood paneling or the acoustic drop ceiling. Perhaps it’s the defective track light or one of my many layers of linoleum floor… either way, the creative juices weren’t really bubbling with this set up.

So I thought it would be a good idea if I just *peeked* under the wood paneling to see what possibilities there may be. Luckily for me the paneling was bowing in so many spots it would be easy… what I didn’t anticipate was the paneling cracking in half. I wish I had a photo of it for you. This stuff broke into pieces like nothing (it was incredibly satisfying).

I pulled the broken panel out and read the warnings on the back. This isn’t verbatim, but the first one went a little something like this:

“Do not use in damp places such as garages, outdoor porches, and basements.”

And the second one said:

“Contains urea formaldehyde and may off-gas. Do not use in enclosed spaces such as mobile homes.”

Urea Formaldehyde? Off gas? That was all that I needed to hear and started ripping down the paneling. Wellll… turns out the ceiling was put on after the paneling so that had to come down too. Annndddd….. it turned out that the bright yellow fiber board that was underneath the paneling had huge holes in it. So I broke up the panels and used a staple gun to cover the holes.

Then A. came home. I showed him my handywork. He looked at me and said “Who’s painting this?”

Oh yeah. I forgot that I had developed this crazy sensitivity to paint so I couldn’t do it. Whoops.

A. painted it with the help of his brother who was living with us for a bitt. I help out in small bursts. I have the best husband ever.

So now it looks like this:

Someday the entire attic will be amazing with a bathroom and carpeting and sheetrock… today I’ll settle for some exposed rough hardwoods and a coat of paint… and a new light fixture… and all of my office and studio stuff in one fabulous area! plus under the eaves there is wonderful storage.

Of course my cable converter recently quit for no reason on me but I suppose I should be listening to more music and watching less Law and Order anyways. And the electrical seems to be a bit screwy. I can use the space heater and the iron at the same time or the space heater and the floor lamp and sewing machine, but not all 4 together. It makes it a little tricky when it gets dark because, as you see, I haven’t changed out the overhead spots (of which only one works) so it’s a bit dark. Law and Order did always provide a nice little glow…

But all in all I love my new space!

What I’m…

Listening to: The Etta James Pandora station: “I shall be released” by Nina Simone…. lovvving it

Obsessing on: oh the house projects I have to run by you all!

Reading in Print: The Paris Wife (I know Nina Simone was released in the late 60s, and the book is set in the 20s but they seem to kind of fit together)

Reading Online: Just rediscovered all the wonderful blogs I have in my reader (check out my blog roll)

Filed under: Making a Home | No Comments »

Here it is Sunday morning and I’m perusing the photos at Project Nursery for some kiddo party inspiration. I was particularly drawn to this strawberry inspired pattern and found myself staring at the photo (by Maggie Russo) of the hostess… gee that apron looked so familiar.

I no longer have it offered in my store though it is available by custom order, but that’s the Bridget with the strawberry print. After lots of exclaiming, jumping around, and very confused looks by my in-law I settled down enough to share it on here. It’s the little things that can make me so excited!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Filed under: Lovely Things | No Comments »

Do you remember back in May I scored these chairs from a local thrift store for $7 each?

Well, A moved them down into the basement for me and I proceeded to tear one of them to pieces… only to come to a complete halt. I can’t find a fabric that I want to use! I want them to be bright and colorful and funky. They don’t need to match, actually I don’t want them to match. I’ve been looking for ikats and suzani fabrics but just haven’t found the right one yet.

First off… I was excited to see this chair on Oh Joy because it’s nearly the exact same shape as my beauties once you take off the awful back pad. I was worried the shape of the chairs was going to be too dated, but I love them in a bright fabric (though I don’t love this fabric).

Secondly… I found this chair on Apartment Therapy when searching for inspiration and FELL. IN. LOVE.

I love the warm bold colors, the mix matched look of it, the lines… everything. So how to reproduce it? I haven’t been able to find any commercial fabric that I love quite as much so I started thinking about some other styles I like. I’ve been thinking about this since May..

And then today it hit me. Vintage Indian Saris.

As someone generally obsessed with fabrics I have been staring longingly at these on ebay for years. I have lots of plans but have hesitated pulling the trigger. This fabric has so much going for it. One, there’s LOTS of it and relatively inexpensive. Most of the saris are about 45″ wide and 5 yds long. If I get one off ebay for $10 that’s about $2/yd (this would be for a cotton one, silk is more expensive). Secondly, the colors and prints are just beautiful! Ok, kind of a poor description. Just look below…

My first dream is to make some quilts, or lap throws, out of them like these:

But then I thought that using them to upholster these chairs, kind of like these ottomans, could be fantastic. They could look different from each other but still have a common look to them.

And with my scraps I can make a Christmas garland!

I’m a little concerned that they would be too thin, but these chairs won’t get a TON of use, so maybe it’s okay? What do you think?

Filed under: Sewing Lovelies | 2 Comments »

The other day A and I (and a whole slew of family members) were taking a casual stroll around Ikea, taking in it’s wonderfulness. I started thinking to myself how when I bought Ikea furniture right out of college I thought of it as a certain phase of my life and how when I “grew up” I would buy “real” stuff. Now of course our couch is from Ikea, our kitchen island is from Ikea, the desk in our study is from Ikea, my studio shelving and work table is from… Ikea. And I love it.

So while perusing the loveliness that Ikea offers I amended my thought “Now that I’m grown up I won’t buy Ikea furniture like the lackside table and malm dressers”. For the record, we currently use 2 malm dressers, but I have dreams of trading those in for something vintage and funky in the near future. I was ready to write off the most inexpensive and simple furniture Ikea offers as part of my “broke-out-of-college” life.

Then the amazing creativity of the blog world came crashing down and now I’m rethinking it all. Enter: O’verlay. Holy Genius-ness. Now my love of fretwork is no secret so you can just imagine when I saw this pretty picture…

Why that has a strong resemblance to my Malm dresser…. I clicked on the link and lo and behold I CAN BUY THE FRETWORK! As you can imagine I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out if I could make it myself (because why would I ever take the easy route when I can spend twice as much money and oodles more time to do it myself) and decided I absolutely couldn’t.

And do you see this little guy?

That’s right… Lackside table! See why I can’t write off these inexpensive Ikea purchases anymore? Sure, they are still made of fiberboard, and I have first hand knowledge that when thrown from a catwalk of a black box theater stage they smash into a million pieces (Side note: I didn’t throw it and I’m sure most furniture would disintegrate with that treatment), but that little beauty would go for hundreds of dollars in a Jonathan Adler store.

I love anything that makes inexpensive look expensive. I love anything with fretwork. I love anything that lets me do a craft project. I love anything that is specifically made to make Ikea look better (though there are a million other uses).

Aren’t I lucky that I’m meeting my mother-in-law at Ikea tonight for some shopping and can imagine all the fantastic uses of this product (and get some mac n cheese and $1 frozen yogurt to boot!)?

Filed under: Lovely Things | 1 Comment »

You may remember my post about our dining room chair makeover from last September. Our plan was never to have 4 chairs that matched (with the exception of the fabric of course), but a whole collection of styles of chairs that could be changed out at our whim.

In February I picked up these bad boys from my Dad’s barn:

The red paint (leftover from the kitchen in my first apartment) was the first to go in favor of a grey that matches the other chairs. Then they sat in my basement.. and sat… and sat…. and sat…

Until last Friday. I decided the time had come. As you can see though, there was one little problem. They didn’t have any seats (sounds like a good excuse to buy another tool to me!).

First up: I made a template for the plywood seat. Underneath that piece of newspaper (in my oh-so-lovely basement) is nada, so it was a bit difficult to “trace” a pattern, but it didn’t need to be exact.

Second: Collect the seat supplies. For me that included 3/4″ plywood, a coping saw, a sharpie, 2 clamps and my template

Third: Trace your template. BUT DON’T DO IT LIKE THIS! I thought I was being so smart putting the template in the corner of plywood so that I could save the remaining wood for another project, but it was a bad idea. My coping saw is only 6″ deep so I had to make a ton of cuts to actually finish the cut.

Third- Try 2: Instead, lay out your template and make sure that the distance between the template and edge of the board is no deeper than the coping saw. It makes things SO much easier!

Ta-Da! They have seats! I wasn’t too concerned with cutting the wood evenly since it will be covered with layers of foam, batting and fabric so you won’t even notice.

Fourth: Get together your supplies for the next phase: cotton batting, 1/2 – 3/4″ batting (I don’t remember what mine is), sharp scissors, upholstery fabric and, not shown but the most important, a staple gun. I’ve tried doing this with a hand staple gun and it’s SO frustrating. I invested awhile ago in a small air compressor nail/staple gun and have used it a million times. It makes everything go very quickly.

Five: Layout your foam and staple around the plywood, keeping the foam taut. Trim excess.

Six: Do the same with the cotton batting, covering the foam by an inch or so to secure it. Remember to staple as much as necessary to keep it nice and tight.

Seven: Do the same with the fabric. For your first time it may be helpful to have someone assisting you because now, more than ever, you want to make sure the fabric is tight but not stretched so much it skews.

At this point you can staple a piece of muslin fabric or thick paper (like a posterboard) over the exposed wood so that it covers the raw edges of the fabric and batting. I chose not to… too much work!

Eight: Screw the new seat onto the chair and you’re done! I need to get more staples for the other chair, but at least I finally (8 months later) have this cutie done!

Filed under: Making a Home | No Comments »

Do you remember this photo from last October (holy mackerel, a year ago?!?!?!) This is what the little room off our living room looked like when we moved in (with all of our junk). It was by far the most dated room in the house.

By February we had updated it a little bit. The wood paneling was painted over and linoleum covered with carpet. It was no longer an eyesore, but basically it was only a more attractive room to store all of our junk. In case you are wondering why I have a random iron next to a vacuum cleaner… only days before I had set up a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner for A and proceeded to melt candle wax all over our brand new carpet. Whoops.

And it stayed like that until June, but I had big big plans! Every since I saw these shelves back in June of 2010 I knew that it was perfect for this room. Kind of vintage, kind of industrial, very airy, and VERY do-it-yourself do-able!

So I made plans. And then I made more plans. I had A look at the plans and then I made more plans. All in all I think I made about a dozen drawings of my shelves. At first look this shouldn’t be so hard, plus they spell it out for you on the website! But, of course, to do it exactly as they did would not work for me. I can’t do anything the simple way (have you figured that out yet?). I need to take things above and beyond and as such I decided I was covering 3 out of the 4 walls in these shelves.

The process was slow going (of course) but we finally finished over the summer. And, I’d like to point out, with the exception of the first section on the right hand wall, I put the entire dang thing up by myself. A helped me with the first section and instructed me not to attempt the rest until that weekend when he had more time. It was understandable… it’s pretty heavy, really tall and this could be a disaster. But I’m impatient so I didn’t listen.

So without further ado…

Still need to clean up the desk area a bit. It’s pretty over run with wires and stuff right now, but eventually we plan on getting some cupboards or filing cabinets on either side of the desk to hide some of the clutter.

And obviously this chair needs to go in favor of something a little nicer, but as this chair rocks and swivels (and only cost $40 at a yard sale) I kind of secretly love it. This summer it was great to spin around, put my feet up on the shelf and read a book while enjoying the view of my backyard.

I couldn’t believe it when we put it up, but all of our measurements were dead on — save one. If you look under the top shelf on the window side you’ll see two little blocks to extend the pipe. There’s also one on the desk side of the wall. I measured and re-measured and finally realized that it wasn’t necessarily my measurements that were wrong, but that our floor drops an inch by the time you get to the other wall. Ahhhh the joys of an old house that has “settled”.

Putting this room together was one of the biggest reliefs of all of our home fixins but it’s not done yet. Besides the chair and the filing cabinets I want a new ceiling light fixture, a floor lamp and small end table, a nice throw rug and a better office chair, but it’s a good start.

How about we finish up with a little before and after comparison….

Filed under: Making a Home | No Comments »

So to say it’s been awhile would have been a bit of an understatement. My last post was… Memorial Day?!!? I guess you could say I took the summer off. Truth be told, sometimes I just run out of inspiration and keeping a blog updated seems more like drudgery than fun.

It’s been a fun, and super busy summer. I spent a good part of my time working on my wedding planning firm (I’ve put a couple of the summer’s weddings up on that blog). The rest of the time was spent working on house stuff, making plans (that are known to some and will someday be shared with all!), and enjoying all that summer has to offer.

But then just yesterday I saw something online and thought “That would be perfect to blog about!” so I figure it’s time to start it back up again.

So I’m back at it. Posts may be a little more random because (as my husband will attest) my interests/obsessions change on a daily if not weekly basis. Right now it’s fabric and quilting… next week it may be tackling a new project in the house… then soon enough it will be holiday baking!

I missed you all and I’m glad to be back!

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Can you believe that Memorial Day is this weekend? Well, this Monday. The start of summer already? Wasn’t it just snowing!? A. and I are hosting our first real party in our new house (yeah, we moved in a year and a half ago but we’ve been busy!). We’ve had family gatherings before, but this will be the first big one and I’m super excited!

I’ve never been much for all out patriotic party themes– the red, white, and blue can make my head spin a little. Instead I prefer a little star spangled pops here and there. And of course Etsy is a fabulous resource for those little extras!

Refresh My Heart

Lilys Laundry

Felt Affair

Thats a Wrap 2

Pan De Oro

These chips aren’t on Etsy (but they are on Ebay!) but I had to include them. A. and I bought a case of them for our party because not only are they red, white and blue (all naturally colored) and delicious but it’s my neighbor’s family company. I highly suggest you stock up on them for all your summer parties!

Wave of Life

Okay, so that last one isn’t red, white, and blue, but it IS a bottle opener/ring. Your guests are pretty much guaranteed to think you’re amazing if you pop open the bottle using your ring!

Now I’m off to prepare for my tv spot on a local news station today on “How to Host a Summer Party”… I’ve done this once before but I’m still getting ridiculously nervous!

Filed under: Lovely Things | No Comments »

Good Morning Lovelies!

I know it should be “Monday” Eye Candy and I know I should have posted yesterday but A and I were driving back home for most of the day yesterday (and napping on the couch for the rest). We spent the weekend in Ithaca celebrating his little sister’s college graduation (Congrats!). In a twist of unfortunate-ness his younger sister and brother (twins) graduated from college on the same day in two different states. Luckily they have a big family so half of us went to Ithaca, NY and the other half to PA.

Here’s a round up of things that caught my eye (and my appetite) this past week!

Sisujewelry

I think it’s almost time for me to put together my Favorites list for this year and I’m about 99% sure that these will end up on it! I love love love the color and the stone. So summery.

Key Lime Champagne Cocktail

I love champagne and I love key lime… so I’m pretty sure I would LOVE this drink from Sugar and Charm found on Project Wedding.

So you’re probably thinking “Yeah, chocolate ice cream is awesome… but is it really THAT awesome?” Um, for me, yes. This isn’t just ANY chocolate ice cream this is chocolate coconut milk ice cream from The Nourishing Gourmet. Still not understanding my admiration? Here’s the deal… at the moment I am on the most restrictive diet I can imagine (I’m sure there are more restrictive ones out there, but this is my current culinary hell). I have severe eczema and my whole team of doctors can’t really figure out why. The current “treatment” is a total elimination diet to see if there is a reaction to food. Which means no refined sugar, no wheat, no dairy, no yeast, no mold (you’d be surprised how much mold there is in food– this includes condiments, vinegar, deli meat, pickled, fermented, alcohol, fruit juice, melon/berries, peanuts/peanut butter, any tomato products beyond fresh tomatoes, etc). So basically most of what I eat has to be made from scratch and very simple. On a whole this hasn’t been a huge problem but there are drawbacks. Eating out while gone this week was depressing and near impossible. I ate a lot of dry salads (can’t eat the vinegar in dressings) and potato chips. But the biggest thing for me is not being able to eat sweets and more specifically ice cream. I LOVE ice cream. I’ve been craving ice cream.

So to find The Nourishing Gourmet website was a godsend. Not only was I able to set up my meal plan for the week but I found this coconut milk ice cream recipe which I’m dying to try. How delicious does that look?! I’m hopefully making it tomorrow and I’ll let you know how it comes out!

A Year Ago Today: Laugh!

Filed under: Friday Link Love | No Comments »