kitchen chair before and after.

Okay  so a few years ago I did my first refurb... It was my kitchen chairs which were from a old hotel in faribault mn.  They had remains of ripped green vinyl on them that we removed and they looked like this after

 I covered them in a cotton fabric and the very slightest batting. I then treated them with waterproofer to help with stains.  I can tell they were my first ever project of this sort when I took them apart lol.  I must have ran out of batting and used some hello kitty fleece on a few ha.

 

better then before but certainly not enough cushion on needed better fabric.  I recovered them yesterday and added padding.  I wanted double cushion so I bought a twin mattress pad and cut it up and used two layers on each chair (making sure to put them bumpy sides together in the middle.  Then batting and fabric my hubby chose this one.  I messed up and typical to me I decided to go with it.  I did every other chair different so I have two with vertical stripes and two with horizontal.

  

 Then for the chairs that sit at the ends of the table which are left over from our first hand me down table I chose the fabric (if you couldn't tell lol)

 

I still need to repaint them in off white.  but it has been soo hot I can't stand the thought of painting 6 chairs in the yard in the heat lol.  I will save that for another day.

Well here is the finished product.  Much more durable and very cute and funky.  I love it!  Even my hubby liked it (even though I took the liberties to mix up the stripes lol something that goes against his anal sensibilities)  Well people I am off to find some lunch and dig through my recipes for something decent to throw in my crock pot so I don't have to cook in this heat :)

knit picks love

 So last week I was up knitting my Belatrix socks and in the middle of a row this happened!!! Those are my favorite needles I always rave about my knit picks needles.  I have had them a few years and I have knit many a pair of socks on those.

 Eek I slowly moved over my stitches to my addis and picked up all the dropped stitches on the way.  Then I emailed knit picks.  I just said I don't know what your policy is on this but my needles broke.  Then went to bed.  I woke up to a email saying this:

Thank you for your email.  I am so sorry to hear that your needle came apart.  We guarantee all of our products, so I will be happy to send a replacement.  I see that you have ordered a 32" and a 40" in the size one.  Which length was it that came apart?  I just want to make sure I send you the correct item.

That was on the 20th and a week later my lovely new needles are here!!

So not only are tier needles cheaper better sharper and have great loose cables but they are guaranteed!!   And their customer service is great!  Just had to share such a great experience!  Now I am off to break in my needles on calvins birthday socks.

Jaylahs desk

 Okay So a friend of mine bought her daughter Jaylah this desk and approached me about fixing it up.  Here are the before pics she sent me.

 It was in rough shape for sure.

 She wanted bright and girlie.  Here is what I came up with.  I spray painted the metal then I sanded primed and painted the wood

I added the damask embellishment then lined the inside with some pretty damask liner that is easy clean up :) 

 

I hope she gets lots of use out of this and loves it. What little girl wouldn't love to color at this cute little desk?

Before and after kitchen table

Okay so I know I showed you this already but lets back track and let me show you the before pic again.  Notice the worn spots and the there is also a hole and a spot where someone carved what I can only assume are rumors about a man named john in the one corner.   So here is where we were at...

and this my friends is where we have ended up.  I am so in love with this table.  It makes me smile when ever I look at it. :)  Soooo Glad my friend Pat gave me second thoughts about heading back to the gw for this 5$ beauty.  Who would have thunk huh.(ps please ignore my hideous linoleum we rent so was not my choice!)

I will be redoing my chairs in off white to match and also reupholstering them.  (they were my first projects so clearly I know how to do things better now).

I am thrilled with the way this turned out and know it will keep a smile on my face for quiet some time.   So now that I am done gushing over my lovely new table I have something else to share.  I wrote a post over 2 years ago about my birthday and receiving this...

Well at long last I have seen the movie!!!  It was good but I would say very little that was in the movie was in the book.  I would compare it to true blood and the southern vampire book series.  The main theory is the same but pretty much everything else is different.    Both are great I do think I enjoyed the historical part of the book better but the movie was filmed beautifully and I enjoyed it very much too.  Well I need to head to bed so I can have time to snuggle my hubby before he is off to work :) Gotta love the over night shift!  On the plus side he is back home not to long after I wake up and I get to spend most of the day with him :)

My new kitchen table refurb in all her glory

 Okay so last week when I was at gw there was a table there that me and Pat both thought had potential we went home laying in bed regretting not getting it. Then both mentioned it the next day.  So I said I would go back and if it was there it was meant to be.  Well it was so I paid for it yesterday then went straight to Menards to pick out paint!!

Here she is in all her 5$ glory!!!  Not much to look at right.  Think that is bad check this out...

No I didn't carve that in there!!!  I don't know who john is and I don't care what his sexual preference is lol. little extra sanding over that area lol.

Okay so this is where my inspiration came from..

The paint colors I picked were lake superior (again), vanilla custard, and bulldog!!  Here she is in her glory

I sanded a bit just to rough it up so the paint would adhere better.  They primed painted and boom.

I am in love I can't wait for my hubby to help me drag her in tomorrow.

The more furniture I do the more I realize me and my hubby do NOT have the same taste.  He says "It doesn't even match".   Ha good thing I am the one who makes these decisions.

Here are her legs.  It took me like 2 hours to get done sweating it out in the garage.  I love it soo much.  Now I just need to decide what to do with the old table.

Great day at gw.

Yesterday was my girlfriend Traecys birthday and I had been looking for a great little chair for a while to redo.  She pinned one a long time ago and said someone should make this for my birthday... Well I hope she was serious.  This is one of those times when I wish I had the for thought to take before pics because the transformation is incredible.  It was a very ugly old 70s office type chair with a rough beige ttype fabric.  I painted it kyrlon watermelon then.  and recovered the cushion in this great zebra print.  Then a few months ago I had found some great vinyl damask wall decor at shopco on clearance.  (same as I used on my dresser.  I will show you that in a minute) .  But I put one of those on the back and boom super cute amazing girlie chair to throw in what ever room. 

I had also bought a dresser and when me and my girlfriend Pat went to pick that up we saw one of these plain little tables that I see at my gw all the time.  It struck me boom bistro table for my patio.  I came home threw some of my outdoor primer and left over paint from my Adirondack bench on it and another vinyl wall decor I found on clearance under the glass and super cute bistro table for my patio.  I think I am going back today for the other one they had I will saw the legs down and make it a coffee table size one for bye the pallet sectional. 

Here it is with my chairs from the flee market and my tv cart turned drink cart.  I also made a outdoor rug with some canvas from walmart and painted it with stripes of my primer and paint.  I wanted burlap but alas walmart fails me again

I grabbed two owl figurines and threw a coat of paint on them and there is currently a war going on in the house hold as to who gets these cuties

that wasent all I found for the day though my dresser I bought (very inexpensively) was this gem...

I painted the base of the dresser the same grey as mine them the drawer fronts white and threw a coat of black over the hardware (until I can buy new)  This bad boy is going to replace my hubbies dresser.   And even though I didn't find my dresser on this particular trip to gw I have to share the finished product with you guys

I finally finished it!!  Those are the decals I was talking about.  I used the decals to cover the holes for the second set of knobs and on the other side I had some inexpensive knobs I bought a while back I painted them black and filled the second hole with putty and painted over it boom perfect dresser.  Now I just need to have my hubby get home and help me heft in the body of his new dresser and help me heft his old one out for a make over ;)

Until them I am going to enjoy this great morning out on my Adirondack bench with a cup of coffee.

Pallet Adirondack Bench/life lessons learned from deadliest catch :)

So Here is is my beautiful lake superior blue pallet Adirondack bench.  My hubby built it for me a few weeks ago.

 My girl friend /neighbor Pat said she saw him sweating away in the garage working on it on that hot day and thought "He must really love her!"  I informed her it was more of a bribe to get me to stay at my mother in laws lol.  But what ever works I got the pallet bench I have been begging for since last summer. 

 

I sanded it last week.  Today me ans monkey butt went to good old manerds and got some outdoor primer and had them mix me up a beautiful batch of outdoor semi gloss lake superior blue. I love it.  the cute little dragon fly is from Pat it is made out of silverware :)  I also put little solar powered lights out around the back too.  Now after a long day of cleaning organizing swimming and painting I am curled up knitting and watching deadliest catch (my fav).  

Since you all know my love of deadliest catch and rough and tumble crab fishing men I had to share this.  My hubby's finger got smashed by a truck door today and he had to use something learned from good ole Keith.  Like when Moi smashed his finger and Keith heat up a needle and stabbed it through the nail to release the pressure my hubby did the same !!!  (he used a drill bit though).  Just another lovely life lesson we learned from deadliest catch.  

When we took the kids to the pool while I swam my laps for my lazy mans triathlon with out fail anyone who got with in a foot of him hit his poor finger!  )Poor guy.  But it Moi can crab fish he can swim at the ymca lol.  I did get in 9 laps today!!  Some of them were even swam with out hanging off the side of the pool panting like a half drowned rat ,before I could make it back across, like every single time last try lol.  I actually made 2 entire laps in a row before that had to happen lol.  Now I am beat and have to go to bed.  Fyi my triathlon tallies at this point is : swam 16/86 laps, ran 2.77/26.2 miles, bike 9/95 miles

monkey butts owlie socks

So being sorta lost now that I am not pumping things out for the shop I sorta feel in limbo.  I have been reading but my knitting mojo was missing for a few days.  Me and monkey butt sat down one night and picked a pattern she wanted.  She chose owlie socks.   Then we went down stair dug through my stash in the girl cave and picked out yarn.  It is kertzer bambo I believe.  Which was super soft and good to work with. 

 The bead size isn't exactly what it called for but it is what I had on hand.

Also if you look I messed up on the first owls horns and did the cables backwards each.  Oops lol I figure oh well I wasn't going to rip back for it. 

I am a process knitting not a project knitter.  I love the process and I don't think that every things needs to be perfect that isn't realistic lol.  Now I am trying to decide what to knit next.  Do you guys have anyway you decide what your next project will be?  I hate the feeling of not knowing what to work on now and I get stumped. I would love for you guys to share :)

diy eyelet jean shorts

Okay so I saw this pic on pinterest and got a brilliant idea for all my girls jeans that either were high waters or had worn holes in the knees. 

I went to walmart (we don't have much in my small town for supplies) and they have a few different cute eyelet laces and I bought a yard of two different kinds (not bad at roughly 1.27 a yard) then I cut there jeans roughly 2'' from the in seam.  I folded the jeans twice to make a cuff then I pinned it all the way around while pinning the lace to the inside and I sewed two different seams one close to the right edge with my needle to the right while lining the bottom of the cuff up with the right side of my pressure foot then one more with the needle to the left with the cuff lining up with my foot on the left side.

 

  I love the way these turned out and I am sure the girls are going to get lots of wear out of these cute little shorts.

 They both tossed them on and I am pretty sure I am going to have to make more or risk fighting to get them off them long enough to throw them into the wash.

 This is about as much cooperation I have got out of fire monster all day (which clearly is none)  Meh oh well off to try to do a few chores before the ever convenient trip to meet the ex for his visitation with monkey butt.  

diy shirt redo/ diy dress,

So Monkey butt and I were messing around on pinterest before bed (never a good idea lol) and next thing you know we are up sewing away half the night trying tutorials.  First one that we did was this one that made a t you weren't maybe in love with into a cute tank. 

 I took this feed my starving children t that I love and monkey butt never wears and we altered it.  She chose to make it tie on both shoulders and we added some bright beads for a fun summery touch :)

 Then messing around this morning I found this great tutorial by mimi g.  I whipped up this great little dress/skirt and it is super basic since I am very novice at sewing.  I love it though.  super comfy.

 

 It hits just below my knees as a dress and ankle  length for a skirt.  

I think this will be one I will wear quiet a bit this summer.  :)  Thanks Mimi G

I also made a few of my shirts into tanks like I did monkey butts.  Like a t from the autism 5 k, the t from the roller derby, and a shirt I got and never wear.  Maybe I will share those in another post when I have less of a handful hanging around my house lol.  I also want to do a tutorial on how I have been curling my hair heat free.  I love it and have been doing it and it alone for over a month now!  but more on that another day.  I have to clean up lunch and pack a bag for the pool.  (today is swimming day for the triathlon)  My hubby will be watching all the kiddos in the pool and me and my gf/neighbor Sam will be attempting to swim laps near by in the lap pool.  We will see how this goes.

randomness...

Well I am back to being a stay at home mom.  I am being bought out of the store and stepping down to be a vendor.  I have been kept busy that is for sure because I have my nephew calvin for two weeks and it has been a rough one.  I am no stranger to autism or being around it on a daily basis but like most kids I certainly see some unsavory behaviors he has picked up during the school year.  but I love the guy and we will all get through not everything is cupcakes and roses eh?  

I have been enjoying having time to do things I love that always get pushed to the sidelines.  I have been reading (and not just audio books while I multitask) but real books with pages.  I have a clean house with all my laundry clean!  I have been doing some things that I keep putting on the back burner like my sweet and lovely hubby made me this great adarondak pallet bench that I sanded yesterday and will be priming and painting soon.

I have a big batch of cold press coffee straining on the counter for a treat when the hubby gets home in a few hours(my recipe I use for that which I got working very well known cofffee chain is here ).  I took a pic to show you guys the way I have found it is easiest to strain.  I use my ice tea jug and put my reusable coffee filter in the top.  (its a perfect fit) 

I also joined a lazy (should be called busy) moms triathlon with some lovely mommies here in town.  The goal is to swim 2.4 miles run/ walk /whatever 26.2 miles and bike 112 miles.  I am jumping the gun a few days and started today by running (part of my running will actually be on the elliptical or my planters faciatis  will kill me) 2.1 miles and biked 8 miles.   So I have got it started :) 

Other then that my crafting mojo is at a low for the moment. I did start some socks for monkey butt last night.  I am enjoying knitting for the sheer joy of it and not having it be a job project.  :)  I am thinking I might even get to make it to a knit group!!! I even watched a entire movie (water for elephants) with out knitting!!!!  I know wth!!  I love the movie and mooched the book on book mooch.  If you haven't heard bookmooch it is a site where you list your books you are done with and ready to part with people can request them. You then mail them the books you earn points for doing both the inventory and mailing and you use those points to mooch books from people.  I have got a few books this way.  Not always the best but free books wth.  You can also put books on your wish list and they alert you when someone puts them up for dibs.  Anyway I am off to hit the shower before my hubby gets home so I can enjoy a nice cold press with him when he gets home.  sorry for random post had lots of random things to fit in lol.

grandmas suitcases

 Hey I had to share one of my new projects.  I love vintage suitcases and I have refurbished a few when we were on the crazy trip before we went down the rabbit hole that is my mils house we visited grandma skeels.  She gave me 5 vintage suit cases.  So I am thinking I may be putting some of my other ones up for dibs and keeping these sentimental family ones.  I love this one it is itty bitty and perfect for a kids size but it does have some stains inside.  It also has gmas address in permanent marker lol

 These aren't entirely dry yet but I had to take some pics to share

 

Here is the great little train case she handed down!!!  I love it. The girls used it to hold all their stuff to play with in the car on the road trip :)

 

 It is still wet all the white stuff will be clear when it is done :)  I love it I have another one drying that is going to the shop too :)  well off to bed tomorrow is back to work for me :)

a treat for 50 Shades fanatics!!

I have to admit that my guilty pleasure lately has been the controversial 50 shades series (mommy porn lol).  Yeah it isn't going to go down in history as a classic but it sure as heck is fun to read.  I down loaded the audio books and I only let my self listen when I go to the guy.  So if you see me at the ymca on the elliptical and I won't look you in the eye you know why lol.  My husband said the other day"I wonder how many men have gone to bed with their wives and wondered what the hell is going on since these books came out"  lol.  I thought that was funny

Anyway I had to share this with you other fans.  I ran across this post on one of my fav blogs hi sugarplum and I had to share.  It shows what the famous penthouse in Escala looks like.   Enjoy all 50 shades fans.