Armchair Redo

Brian's Aunt Julie and Uncle Chris gave us this old armchair. They said they had looked into getting them reupholstered, but it was too expensive and not worth it. It would be cheaper to just get new chairs, so they gave one to me and one to my sister-in-law. While the chair wasn't terribly ugly, it wasn't really what I was looking for, and was kind of dirty. It sat unchanged in our bedroom for several months, but one day I decided it was time to try my hand at some serious upholstering. I didn't have a clue what I was doing...but I dove right in and did what I could.



The first thing I did was to get the back off the chair. From there I could see how the whole thing was put together--where it was sewn and where it was stapled. As I took it off piece by piece, I saved the material to use for a future pattern.



Pulling the staples out took HOURS. The whole chair probably took me two weeks to complete, but the fact that I have seriously sewn nothing but a few pillows, and those in the past couple months, it isn't surprising. I made some big mistakes and had to unpick a bunch of stuff, but I muddled through. It was fun to watch it come together though, and to think that I did it all by myself. It definitely doesn't look professional, but that's ok. I spent $16 total on the project, so if I had to do it again in the future, it wouldn't be a huge loss.

Ta da! I'm not sure where to put it, and don't tell anyone, but I still haven't finished the back. I just got too tired and wanted to get the chair out of the front room, so the back is to the wall in our bedroom right now. Whew....what a job. I wonder what I'll try to tackle next? If anyone has furniture...let me know before you throw it out.

I Chopped My Hair

I finally got so sick of my hair that I chopped it off. Was I sad to see it go? Not at all. After an entire year of pulling it back into a sorry-sight-of-a-bun for school and having it strangle me in the middle of the night, and dreading taking a shower because it took so long to wash and dry I was not sorry at all to see it go. Ahhh.... it feels so much better!

And I can do it curly or straight in about 20 min or less. Much improved from the hour it would take with long hair. So with gladness I say to my hair, "Go, Go. I would not wish you back again."

My Decoupage Table

While I wasn't able to do anything near as cool as the pieces in my last post, I did figure out HOW to do something that cool in the future. It started out with a little writing desk that I got for $10 off of KSL. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the original, but here it is after I had primed it. The desk was fairly unremarkeable, but I liked the thin and curvey legs. Those are some fine legs on that table...(does that sound weird to anyone else?)Here is it after I had painted and put the glaze on, and used Modge Podge for the top and drawer. The glaze was a little darker than I wanted, but I sanded and distresed some parts since this picture and I think I like it better. I also want to get a nice little piece of hardware for the drawer. I am thinking a crystalt knob or something of the sort. All the paper I used was just from a stack of scrapbook paper. I was going to do a music desk, but honestly I just got too impatient to wait to try and find old unused music in Oakley, so I went ahead and used what I had on hand. While it is not my favorite piece of furniture, I did learn a few things on the way, so hopefully I can do something better next time.

Maybe Someday

So if ever I gain the skills, time, and/or accessories, I would love to try either of these projects. I am just amazed at some of the creative and talented stuff I see out there in blog-land. The first project I want to share is from Flea Market Trixie. I fell in love with this desk that she redid. I love traveling and the world, and Brian has always had a strange obsession with maps so this desk would be perfect for us. Just look at the transformation.

I also love this little side table from Miss Mustard Seed. She used the same technique of decoupage as the desk above. This would go nicely in my future dream piano/music room.

Sigh.....someday.

London, Paris, New York, MOAB

Let me tell you a story. This story is about a girl who never does anything physical besides patrol the center aisle in her English classroom, glaring down at students who dare to have the audacity to speak out of turn. This is a story about a girl who used to bike to her friend's house across town, but that was the extent of her biking experience. This is a story about a girl who decided to go with her husband and her friends down to Moab and bike Slickrock--said to be the hardest biking trail in Utah--classified as a black diamond. This is the story of a stupid girl....
Kati, her husband Jeff, Brian, and I all took a break and headed down to Moab for some fun (and some pain, as I will relate to you). The weather was beautiful, the company great, the food amazing (thanks Kati and Jeff for planning, procurring, and preparing our gourmet meals. I mean crepes with fruit and cheese blintz filling for breakfast? Clam sauce spaghetti? Fat juicy brauts? Are we even camping here?) and the scenery breathtaking. The biking, however, while fun, just about did me in.

Here we are on the Poison Spider trail. This trail starts off with a climb up to the top of the plateau. Halfway up the climb I was ready to turn around. With a dramatic and self-sacrificing look on my face I told the others to go on without me....which they did. I sat on a rock and contemplated what a tragic news story it would be when they found me dead of a heart attack. I'm serious. My left arm went numb, my chest felt like it was being squeezed by a vice, and I couldn't get enough air. I finally recovered, walked to the top of the hill and continued my journey. I did finally catchup to everyone else.

After our early morning biking jaunt, we went into arches to do some hiking. This is more up my alley, and despite getting us completely lost in the Fiery Furnace and being incredibly disappointed in myself (Dad--I'm so ashamed) we had a great time.

On Saturday we woke up early to get started on Slickrock. I had no idea what I was in for. I thought I would just do the practice route (about 1.5 miles) but I didn't want to do it alone, so I ended up tagging along with everyone else and doing the 12 mile loop. Bad idea. Slickrock is 90% straight up or straight down big sandstone hills. There was only about 10% that I could actually ride, everything else I had to walk. The uphill was always way too steep for my poor, atrophied legs, and the downhill was way to scary for my faint heart. The views were gorgeous, when I was actually conscious enough to look at them. By the end I was at least half a mile behind everyone else, plodding along--watching the desert tortoises pass me up. Ok, not really, but if there had been any around, I wouldn't have been surprised. I began wondering why in the world I had even brought my bike---it just meant pushing about 30 pounds of extra weight up every hill, and then trying to keep that 30 pounds from pulling me down on my face in the other side. I did make it to the end though, singing in my head "some must push and some must pull" and "pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked and walked......." I was just waiting for the angels to come push me up the last hill. Maybe they did, because for awhile I didn't think I'd make it.

On our last day we hiked up to Delicate Arch in the morning. I was surprisingly not as sore as I had expected. That is always a fun hike, no matter how many times I have done it.

Brian and Kati experimented with some yoga...or something...at Delicate Arch. I think Brian just liked the upside down view.

Brian and I are glad that we have such fun friends to hang out with, and I'm grateful that my friends and my husband make me do hard things. I'm also grateful that they just "go on without me" and don't complain about waiting at the end for me to catch up. Hurray for summer! I can't wait for more adventures!

More Crafts...Can you Believe it?

See the wreathe hanging on the wall in the picture below? I made it. I went out and gathered sticks and wove them together and....just kidding. I bought that part at a craft store. So I guess the proper phrase would be: I beautified that wreathe. It looks small and off-center in the picture, but it actually looks pretty good in real life. I just wanted to show my rarely set table and my recovered and painted chairs.

So it's not the most beautiful thing in the world, but considering I made it out of a dollar store purchase and leftover scraps I don't think it's too bad.

I also spray painted this little table a few weeks ago. I had extra spray paint that I decided not to use for a previous project and that I knew I would never actually take back to the store because that would entail digging around in my Mary Poppins-style wallet for the receit. I forgot to take a before picture but this thing was UGLY. It had been relgated to the far corner of the "junk room" down here in our apartment. After painting and glazing it I don't think it is too bad. Also, on a totally unrelated note, I got pulled over this morning on my way to work. I will admit it and say that I've had this coming to me for a long time. But before those of you who have been just WAITING for me to be pulled over and WAITING to laugh triumphantly and evily in my face actually do so, know that I did manage to scrape by with only a warning. Whew.....

So...My Dad is a Superhero

So I googled my dad the other day to try and find anything on the story of little Hilda, which was part of the inspiration for his future humanitarian work. Surprisingly I came across this article which I had no idea even existed. Apparantly my dad is a superhero.... (but of course I already knew that). Click on the following link to check out the article. I was also impressed at the many glowing comments that followed the article.
http://www.squidoo.com/humanitariandentist