Monthly Archives: October 2013

a happy chair

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I bought this old chair at a flea market for 25.00, thinking it wasn’t that much money to spend if I really messed it up. I took an upholstery class years ago, and I remembered a few things – at least, I hoped, enough to take on this little chair.

100_1586Here she is in all of her ugly glory. All the cat hair? That’s not even from my own cat. Yuck!

100_1585However, the tufting is pretty, and the shape of elegant and feminine. The gold, of course, had to go. Now I have to admit that I am a complete novice at home dec, so I took the chair outside and spray painted it with Krylon spray paint. It worked beautifully. I don’t think Krylon intended for me to use it that way, but it has held up exceptionally well, and it took the distressing perfectly.

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I don’t have a tutorial because I wouldn’t even know how to begin to make one, and I certainly don’t have the skill to advise anyone. But I did remember that you start by taking out all of the staples. All ten thousand staples. Oh, yeah, and you save the fabric, cat hair and all.

100_1587See all of those holes? Yikes! But the good thing about a chair like this is that it is rather forgiving, and all of those holes will disappear.

100_1591I saved the fabric and laid it on top of the fabric I used and cut around it generously. Being generous is good because you have extra to pull if you need it. You can always cut it after you have stapled.

red chair reupholstered 3When I was done, I ended up with this chair. I think it is such a happy little chair. Right now it is in my office at work, but I think I’m going to bring it home for my closet. It’s rather delicate, so I don’t think I want to take a chance that anyone would topple over in it.

I used fabric and trim from JoAnn’s that I had purchased for sofa pillows. It is thin but still upholstery grade, so it’s just fine for a chair that isn’t used constantly.

Here are some closeup pictures. I love, love, love the back of this chair. It is an adorable mix of patterns, I think. (I have to say I adore JoAnn’s for their fabric patterns and colors!)

red chair reupholstered back sidered chair reupholstered 1red chair distress 2red chair reupholstered 3For the record, I was not compensated by Krylon or JoAnn’s or the crazy cool flea market where I bought the chair. I would happily recommend any of them to you if you were in the market for a cute little chair that is easy to salvage.

I am linking to Start at Home for her awesome furniture and paint linky party. She’s very sweet to newbies like me, so go check her out. You’ll swoon over her pink dresser.

I am also linking to Miss Mustard Seed because she is an awesome and creative inspiration for so many of us. She’s the person who made me think that somebody somewhere might want to see something I’ve done. ❤

I am linking to AtoZ Home Stories. I love her blog, and she is one of the kindest bloggers I’ve followed. She always has something nice to say.

Have a happy day!

Shannon

cushions, curtains, and pillows for my closet

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A few weeks ago, I finally finished making the curtains and cushion for my window seat in my closet, and I decided to go ahead and make a few pillows. This window is an outside window that faces the highway, so it really needed curtains.

I found the fabric at JoAnn’s and found a tutorial online that showed how to make the corners and use only two pieces of fabric.

You’ll have to excuse the imperfect sewing. I had never made a cushion before, and the next one I did used a different technique because I cannot sew a straight seam. I really can’t.

I think I was the only girl in seventh grade that had to sew my first bag three times before it passed. Then I made this sun dress . . . well, if Al Gore had invented the internet in 1977, that dress would have been pinned all over the place as the perfect craft fail.

But, I’m a pretty good problem solver, so I usually find a way to fix my own flaws, and I’m thinking of attaching ribbon around the seam to cover it, but that is for another day. In the meantime, here’s a look at my updated closet.

346This is the window seat, and it is a great place to put on shoes. That little bird bath to the right is to hold my watch and pearls. I have a habit of losing them. I just haven’t actually developed the bird-bath habit yet.

347I really love this fabric. It is one of the home decor fabrics (Waverly, I think) at JoAnn’s, and they put these on sale frequently. I used five yards with some left over. The other pillows are made from scrap pieces. I bought inserts at IKEA for just a couple of dollars each, and it was nice to have them already sized and stuffed.

348These two pillows are made from fat quarters that I got at JoAnn’s. I love the little bird’s nest. Honestly, I don’t have a thing for birds, but these seemed like such happy patterns. I think your closet should be a happy place. It’s where you start your working day and where you should feel good about yourself.

Have a happy day!

Shannon

a great idea for Christmas balls

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I have cats. Cats who like balls. Cats who like to make balls out of anything that will roll.

I wanted some of those beautiful Christmas balls that are wrapped in dictionary pages or music pages, and I wanted some covered in glitter. But I didn’t want to pay for the glass balls, and I didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night and step on one that the cats had left for me.

Then I found a really good solution.

bouncy ballsI got a package of these bouncy balls from Walmart. (These are not from Walmart because Walmart won’t let you save one of their pictures.) They were less than 20.00 for 100 balls. That made them cheaper than even the Christmas balls at the Dollar Tree.

I made a whole bunch of these:

328The glitter has come off of the ball in front because it’s the one the cats can reach, but it will be easy to fix. I just tore paper strips and used Mod Podge for the ones with music paper, and I used Mod Podge to glue glitter onto the glittered balls. The red balls are ping pong balls I put a sticker on then spray painted red and removed the sticker. I made those back when I first discovered blog land, so I really didn’t know about all of the cool stencils and pens people use.

It’s a very inexpensive solution. I don’t have any hangers on mine, but I did make one with some fishing line that I glued under the paper to make it easy to hang.

Thanks for stopping by, and if you make ornaments from these bouncy balls, please send me a link so I can check it out!

Have a great day!

on turning 50 and feeling good about it

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Friday was my fiftieth birthday, and I made it! I said I would do it, and I did it! The people in my office gave me a party with a strawberry cake and pink roses. I love them!

Yikes! I'm 50!

Yikes! I’m 50!

Last February, we had a big blizzard in Texas, and I was out of town. I was in Florida. At Disneyland. And I wanted to be home. I wanted to be sewing and drinking hot chocolate and checking on my collection of cats. I wanted to be with my husband and smell baking bread and brown sugar. I wanted to put on my snuggy and watch movies all day. And I couldn’t get home. I was traveling with a co-worker (the one who forced me to go to see Mickey, and it really is magical, but I just wanted to be home), and we spent hours trying to figure out how to fly home. We couldn’t get to Dallas or Oklahoma City or Houston or Albuquerque.

And I realized something that was kind of important: I was going to have a stroke if I didn’t do something. I don’t handle stress, I don’t like stress, but I have stress. A. Whole. Lot. Of. Stress. And I realized I was almost fifty and miserable. Then I decided I didn’t have to be. I made a vow to myself that, on my 50th birthday, I would swim a mile.

The pool where I swim

The pool where I swim – notice how dark it is at 5:00 in the morning.

So I started swimming. Every morning. At 5:30. And I hate mornings. I can’t tell you how much I hate mornings. But I kept going. I started out at 8 laps, and then it was 10, then 16, then 24. Over the summer, I reached a mile. It took me an hour and a half, so when the fall semester started back, I started getting up at 4:45 so that I could swim my mile and still run home to get ready. And on Friday, I turned 50, and I got up at 4:45 and swam my mile. That’s 32 laps. That’s up and back 64 times. That’s pretty good for someone who hates mornings.

My lane!

My lane!

Next week, I am going to start biking and lifting weights twice a week. I want to bike 25 miles on my 51st birthday. I’ll let you know how that goes!

bathroom accessories

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This is my last post about our master bath. I wanted to share some of the accessories I used to try to pull everything together. The whole reno was under 300.00, including fabric, paint, ceiling planks, and the accessories. Most of them I already had, so like the rest of you, I shopped the house to find them. I did buy the three-tiered basket and the cart, but both of them were more than 50% off.

105I saw a similar basket at The Lettered Cottage, and I loved how she staged it. I thought I should make it practical, so I put things I actually use in it. The glass jar on the bottom shelf is full of a baby-lotion-vitamin-e-cream-coconut-oil recipe I got off of Pinterest. It is as good as they claim!

sea spongecurtainsmonogrammed spoonI got this cart from World Market, and it fits perfectly in its little spot. I need something close to the sink but narrow enough to tuck against the wall. It holds things I don’t want to put into the closet but need close by.

carttop shelf of cart229egg soap 2soap jar (1)soap jartoothbrush 2nail polishI love those toothbrushes, again inspired by Layla at The Lettered Cottage. She has incredible style, by the way, and I love her blog.

silversilver closeupscrubbiessoap dishtoilet papermirrorantrho hookI got this hook from Anthropology in Oklahoma City when I went shopping with my daughter. I wrote the numbers 1 and 2 on the hooks, but I will likely go back and do something different. In any case, I love the little bit of blue it adds to the neutral colors.

I also ordered a monogram from an Etsy store. It was very affordable–less than 30.00 including shipping, and it just came in. I’m going to paint it a light blue and hang it over the windows.

Did I mention that I have the best husband? In the history of ever. Ever. He did all of this for me with no complaints and no head shaking when he saw all the ruffles.  I’m the luckiest person I know!

my master bath is finished

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Every summer we take on a new project, and this summer, we redid our two bathrooms. My son got married in Colorado, and I had two classes and an internship to complete, so the bathrooms were quicker projects since they had been done once before.

    Master Suite BathThis is the master bath. I made the shower curtain, and it took much longer than I thought it would. All of the ruffles are hemmed top and bottom to prevent fraying, and getting them aligned in a way that was at least presentable took about three days. I used my vacay to make the shower curtain and the window curtains. Totally worth it!

ceiling peakIn between the wedding and the beginning of the school year, my husband put in a plank ceiling. Since this is a converted attic space, we had lots of fun peaks to work with.

Well, they are fun for me. Not so much for him. But he did a great job. I showed him Miss Mustard Seed’s bedroom and Layla’s dining room from The Lettered Cottage.

When we started putting them up, and by we, I mean he, we decided that we wanted to preserve the natural wood. I am so glad we did. It has made a huge difference in the room and looks very high end. I think they actually planked together tighter than the examples we looked at because they weren’t painted. But he’s also an expert and tongue and groove after doing floors and walls.

ceiling 4The ceiling cost right at 100.00 using the wood planks from Lowe’s, but it was a great investment. Covering up the popcorn ceiling was a huge improvement.

ceiling windowsOur master suite is a converted attic, and one of the good things the people did that we bought our house from was to put in these big windows.

The bathroom ceiling went straight across at the place where it begins to angle, so it was impossible for anyone to use the bathroom without ducking except for me. When we redid it the first time, my husband took the ceiling out and aligned to the roof line. I love the angles, and now anyone can walk into it.

In the interest of time and money, we left the popcorn on the upper part of the walls but gave it a fresh coat of paint. The bottom of the walls was paneled, and we painted it with Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore. Their paint is magical.

Bathroom from door 2I’m going to do a couple of other posts that focus on the accessories and the fabrics, but for now, this is a good look at my new bathroom. I am glad my white knight was born with a hammer and saw in his hands. He saves us a ton of money all the time, and everything in my house is custom.

my bathroom fabrics

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I was able to choose anything I wanted to do in our master suite bathroom, and I scoured Pinterest for months trying to figure out what I wanted. I am addicted to pink. Pink and I are soul mates. Long lost sisters. Fused at the hip.

But . . . I wanted something a little more elegant and luxurious. I wanted something that wouldn’t make my husband throw up in his mouth a little. I kept pink to a minimum. I found some look alike linen fabric at JoAnn’s for 9.99 a yard, and with a 50% coupon, I got 10 yards for under 50.00. The shower curtain took more than 9 yards, so it was a good measurement on my part, especially for eyeballing the curtain. Because that’s how I roll!

shower curtain 2Master Suite BathThe shower curtain is really heavy. Really, really heavy. So I knew a standard rod wouldn’t be sturdy enough. Besides, the sides of the tub inset don’t go all the way to the ceiling. This was never meant to be a shower. However, it was meant to be a real cool super-jiving 1970’s avocado bathtub, and I thought it would be nice to cover it up.

In order to hold the shower curtain from a ceiling mount, by husband mounted the elbow joints to a piece of wood and screwed it into the studs. He’s so awesomely smart. ❤

curtain rod and ceilingcurtain hangersBecause I wanted a lighter, airier look for the window treatments, these side panels fit perfectly to marry the linen and cotton together. It also protects the shower curtain since I am not pulling on it to open and close the curtain. The panels are completely washable, but I’m trying to wash the curtain only in spring and fall cleaning sprees and only by hand to avoid shrinking.

I needed to do something to shore up the top of the panel since I was going to use button hole stitching for the hangers, so I added some interfacing and a ribbon to cover the seam. That made the top sturdy enough to hang the hooks on without tearing.

top of shower curtain 3top of shower curtainThe window curtains were made from a simple cotton that I bought at Walmart for 1.97 a yard. The ruffles are different than on the shower curtain, but I hemmed top and bottom to try to avoid fraying. I am a novice sewer, so I had to work hard to get them ruffled just right and pinned straight. I have a ruffler foot, but I did all of the ruffles for the bathroom the old fashioned way. It’s the best way for me to get them even.

ruffle on curtainscurtainsI saw some linen hand towels that I fell in love with, so I made a couple for the bathroom. Since we use the sink frequently and are chronic handwashers, the linen isn’t very practical, but I love how they turned out, so I put them on a hook.

handtowel and benchhandtowel ruffleFinally, I had an ottoman that I was no longer using and fit perfectly under my chippy little vanity. I made a slipcover for it out of the same look-alike linen and monogrammed the corner of it. I think it is about four or five yards of fabric because I gathered it as tightly as I could. I made this skirt twice because it just wouldn’t lay right. The second time, I added piping. If you have never sewn piping, it is difficult to work with and is as intimidating as putting in a zipper. In many places, it isn’t perfect, but it is, as The Fly Lady says, good enough.

vanityvanity bench113We have a garden bench in a nook in the corner. The vent is on the corner wall, so we need to make sure it doesn’t get covered up. I love the bench, but it needed something. I made a cushion with fabric from JoAnn’s that I adore. I think it was about 40.00 a yard, but I got it half off then used my teacher discount to get another 15% off. The cushion took about a yard, and I had purchased the fabric for my craft room closet, so I had just enough left. In fact, I think I have enough to make a couple of pillows.

benchbench cushion script 2Even though the bath mat is not a fabric, I think it adds some texture and interest to the room. We did not change out the tile, but I plan to put down a penny floor next summer, so I’m just working with the tile we have. It’s not horrible by any means, but I do need a mat by the tub, and I had this one in my craft room where it didn’t work nearly as well as it does here.

bath matI’ll have one more post to discuss the accessories I used, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! Feel free to share, pin, or whatever else you want to do, but please, please link back to my site if you do!

Wishing you a great day!

Shannon

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