Dining Set Redo

Since we got married we've been using a mismatched table and chairs - we have never had a proper dining set. The table is the same one Casey had in his post-college apartment and the chairs were a hand-me-down to me that I used in my first apartment. This never really bothered me - they were perfectly functional and to be honest we rarely eat at our dining table anyway. But as I've become more focused on making our house into a home and making it feel a bit more polished the mismatched set became the perfect opportunity for improvement. Here is what our table and chairs have looked like for the last several years:

It's fine, nothing wrong with it, just a little ho-hum. So after perusing tons of pictures online and convincing Casey that this really was a good idea I got to work. It took a lot more time than I thought it would and I'm pretty sure the friendly folks at our neighborhood Ace think we're now BFF's, but I got it done.

And now, without further ado, here is our "new" dining set:

I really love the overall look, but I'm not happy with the way the finish on the table came out. In fact, that's the part that gave me more grief than anything. I initially used a spray on polyurethane but I just couldn't get it to look even. So I then bought regular polyurethane and tried both brushing and rolling it on, but there were terrible brush and roller marks. So at the suggestion of my awesome father-in-law I sanded it one last time and wiped on the final layer of poly. This looked better than the rolling, but still is not perfect. But I can live with imperfect. Or maybe I'll just have to get busy sewing up several table runners ;-)

I really love the transformation the chairs underwent:

When I first got these chairs my mom and grandma came over to my apartment and helped me recover the awful upholstery with some fun striped fabric. It's been cheery and bright the last few years but I really like this new upgrade:

I'm also glad I decided to use two different fabrics on the chairs. It's a little unexpected and I like that :-)

So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed your peek into our new and improved dining room!

Dining Room Preview

Well, after lots of sweat and a few tears, the dining room set has officially been made over. I don't have time to post it all right now, so I'll leave you with a little preview for now...

Before & After pics to come later today or tomorrow!

From Drab to Fab: Sewing Chair Makeover

Okay, cheesy title I know, but I couldn't resist. This chair was so drab and sad when I found it and now I absolutely love it! I've been looking for a new chair for the sewing/guest room for the last couple of weeks because I'm tired of only having three chairs at our dining room table. It's not usually a big deal because there are only two of us and we don't normally eat at the table anyway, but it bugged me that one chair was missing. And I need to sit in a beautiful chair to sew beautiful things, right? Plus I love a good project :-)

So I picked up this baby at Goodwill. I fell in love with the curvy lines yet simple silhouette. It didn't have a price sticker so I took it up to the checkout counter thinking to myself that a fair price would be about $10. If they charged me more than that it wasn't the chair for me and I would take it back. The manager gave it a good wiggle, sat down in it and said "I'll charge you $9.99." Sweet! So this weekend I dug out the black paint I had left from this project and got to work. I bought some fabric last week for this project too, even before I had the chair. (Who can resist 50% off fabric?)

Here are the sad, droopy, falling apart, ho-hum before shots:

Isn't that fabric just lovely? Almost as lovely as the white vinyl someone covered up with it...

And here is the beautiful, sophisticated, and much loved after:

I'm so happy with the result! And I love that it cost me almost 1/20th of the cost of this.

(I like mine better - so there Pottery Barn.)

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I know I need to update you all about the quilt I made in Colorado in April, what I made with my fabulous spring fabric, our incredible anniversary celebration, and what a great time we had with Casey's parents this weekend, but I was just so excited about this chair I had to share. Hopefully I'll do all that updating later this week. (Oh, and I'm going to try to be better about actually following through on things I tell you I'm going to post about *sheepish grin*)

Transformation

When I got my first apartment I was seriously lacking in the furniture department. One of the items I purchased for that place was a sturdy little coffee table from a second hand store. It wasn't hideous but definitely lacked style. It was fabulously functional, though. That little table then moved with me when I got married and moved in with Casey. It took up residence in the garage holding the recycle bins. (I told you it was functional!) It then made the move to Arizona with us in 2007. Again, it stayed in the garage for a while until I decided it would be very functional to have at the end of our bed. So I dusted the table off and into the master bedroom she went. I liked the idea of the table there to 1) take up visual space (our room is huge!) 2) sit on to get dressed/put on shoes 3) put bags and suitcases on for packing and unpacking. But the light wood didn't really blend very well with our dark bed and it wasn't the most comfortable surface to sit on. So I wracked my brain and the internet for ideas and decided to turn the table into an upholstered ottoman. A little paint, some foam & batting, and a few yards of fabric later and the table had been transformed. It's nothing fancy but I like it! The fabric looks really white in the picture, but it's actually a really pretty cream and chocolate. I had fun with this project and hope I still like this table for years to come!

Inspiration

So I've been surfin' the net over these last few days and have come across so many amazing blogs. Some are just about the daily happenings of family life, some are about sewing and crafting, but all of them are fun to read and explore. These have inspired me to be a better blogger - not only to keep you posted on what's new with us, but also as a sort of journal to look back on. I'm going to attempt to post pictures of my latest projects and highlights from our oh-so-exciting life on a much more regular basis. On that note, here is what's been going on that I have not yet posted...

1. My grandma came to visit for a week! I love her so much and we had so much fun together :-) 2. Just because (and in anticipation of #1) I have done some updating in the guest room. 3. Casey and I took an overnight get away trip to Lake Havasu last month and had lots of fun.

and the biggest, most exciting news....drumroll...

4. My mom and The Todd got engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~~~~~ Best Grandma Ever ~~~~~

I love my grandma - she is so amazing. We always have the best time together so I was so excited when she decided to come visit for a whole week! The first night she was here we stayed up until almost 2am just laughing and talking :-) While she was here we went out to eat, visited the Desert Museum outside of Tuscon, visited some extended family and family friends in the area, she taught me how to knit, we saw Coraline (Which I could write an entire post about - what a creative movie!), and just generally enjoyed each other's company. I know we did more things, but I can't think of them at the moment. If you're reading this grandma and want to add a comment about something I missed go for it!

At the Desert Museum

Enjoying the sunshine (it was snowing in Boise this day)

Pretty desert flowers

This was a cool hummingbird exhibit at the museum. See the little guy?

Oh, and we found this dish in a little shop - look like anyone we're related to? We sure thought so...

Obviously we had a marvelous time together (as always).

As you know you're welcome back down here any time - I love you Grandma!

~~~~~ Guest Room ~~~~~

I'm big on making a house feel like a home. Sometimes that's hard, like when you're renting and don't have large piles of cash sitting around to spend on super adorable fabric and wonderful furniture you find at Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn (like this, or this). Anywho, I've been wanting to make the guest room /sewing room a more inviting place to be - for guests as well as for me when I'm sewing. Lucky for me Linens & Things was going out of business a few months back and we scored an awesome bed in a bag set for a million percent off. I also found some great frames on clearance at Target and put some elegant printed paper in them for some instant wall art. Oh, and I fell in love with a lamp that I just had to buy. My favorite addition to the guest room, though is a great little nightstand I found at the Goodwill in Fountain Hills. It was in pretty sad shape when I bought it so I gave it a new coat of paint, added some hardware and some cute printed paper to the drawer. Add all of this together and viola - a more welcoming guest room! It's far from perfect but it looks a thousand times better :-)

My Goodwill nightstand makeover:

Come on down for a visit and check it out for yourself - we'd love to have you!

~~~~~ Lake Havasu ~~~~~

Last month Casey had just finished finals and I had the weekend off so we decided to take advantage of this rare no-homework-no-hospital weekend and explore Arizona. We settled on Lake Havasu, filled up our gas tank and hit the road. The drive was nice and the weather perfect. We saw London Bridge (Wondering why it's in LH? More info here.), enjoyed a little Marti Gras festival with tasty food and a ferris wheel ride, ate some mediocre seafood, and took a boat tour of Copper Canyon. It was a great little overnight getaway.

London Bridge behind us

I loved all the flags - so official!

A red phone booth - it was almost like we were on a European vacation!

We attempted to take a self portrait from the top of the ferris wheel.

We were not very successful.

A cleverly named vessel...

Copper Canyon (on the California side of the lake)

~~~ The Happy Couple ~~~

My mom and The Todd are getting married! I am so thrilled for both of them. I always hoped my mom would find someone who would make her this happy and Todd has done just that. They are so cute together and compliment one another so well. He is such a sweet guy - he even asked for permission from Ben and me before proposing! I love you both so much - CONGRATULATIONS!

The Mega Update

Alrighty folks here it is: the mega update, a chronicle of what we've been up to the last several several weeks. This is going to be a super long post - so don't say I didn't warn you!

Before I get started with all the major events, I just wanted to give a shout out to my awesome husband. Casey is a fabulous scorpion wrangler. Last night we found one of these most unpleasant creatures in our house and was a manly man and took care of it while I played the girly girl and stood on the couch and squealed. Hey - they're scary little buggers! Just another reason I love you so much Case! So the two big things that have happened since the last post are my trip to visit Nicki in California and Casey and I going to Riggins, Idaho for Preston and Jodi's wedding. Oh and one little project I did in my spare time. The little project was redoing an old dresser that I've had for years. It actually belonged to my great grandma and had been in my grandma's basement for who knows how long. I thought I'd give it a new life so I sanded it down, painted it black and added new hardware. I think it came out pretty good! It now resides in the sewing/guest room and looks great :D

~before~ ~after~

Californ-i-a

Back in October I went to visit Nicki in California. We had such a great time having all sorts of fun adventures and just hanging out. We went to a great little area called Apple Hill outside of Sacramento where we saw beautiful orchards and vineyards and ate all sorts of tasty homemade treats. It was INCREDIBLE to see all of the wonderful fall colors. We had an absolutely delightful afternoon in Apple Hill!

One of my favorite adventures with Nicki was visiting the Jelly Belly factory. What a fun, fun place! Everything is decked out in bright colors and all things jelly bean, and because it was close to Halloween all of the employees were dressed up. Even the giant jelly bean out front had on a witch's hat. So festive! We took the tour, got our free samples, and enjoyed ourselves to the max. During the tour there were these two little old ladies in front of us. They were so cute and Nicki and I were joking that that would be us in 50 years!

Nicki happens to live only 30 minutes from Napa Valley so one afternoon we headed over there to visit a vineyard and do some wine tasting. First of all, Napa is BEAUTIFUL in the fall. There were so many vineyards and all of the fall colors were so vibrant. We did some wine tasting and walked around the grounds at V. Sattui Winery. Sipping wine, sharing stories, enjoying beautiful scenery - what's not to love? Our splendid afternoon was followed by a scrumptious dinner in Napa. Ah, good times.

Sprinkled in between these fabulous outings were the enjoyable things of everyday life that Nicki and I don't get to do together very often. We made french toast and ate it in our jammies, we vegged out and watched TV, we went to Starbucks. I feel like this post doesn't even begin to describe the awesome-ness of our weekend. Oh, Miss Nicki you are such an incredible friend and I miss you so so very much!

Wedding Bells

Last weekend we had the privilege of witnessing Preston and Jodi get married! Jodi is from Riggins (Idaho) and so all of the wedding festivities took place up there. Autumn in Riggins is pretty, but boy is it chilly! Okay, it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, but keep in mind it's still been in the 80's and 90's down here! Preston and Jodi are such a great couple - they both looked so genuinely happy together and thrilled that this day had finally arrived. The wedding itself was a memorable one - I've never laughed and cried so much at one event! Casey looked so handsome in his tux and he did a stand up job as the Best Man. He was a little nervous about giving the toast but his delivery was great and he got all of the laughs he was hoping for.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend. It was so nice to be home - to see each of our families and lots of our friends. We're really looking forward to moving back home and spending more time with everyone.

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Okay, if you made it this far you are amazing, you should get a prize or something. Thanks for reading and being interested in our lives :D

Life...

Life has been fairly uneventful around the Babendure household lately. Casey has been busy with homework and I'm still at the same hospital. The kitties have a new trick... They have for some unknown reason taken a liking to knocking over their water container which spills a half gallon of water all over the floor! Not fun to clean up. We've tried to reprimand them into behaving like civilized little kitties, but so far it's not working. Casey's latest method is to use the offending cat to mop up some of the water. Even if it doesn't stop them from continuing to knock over their water, it's at least kinda funny to watch! I haven't been doing much sewing lately, but I have been trying to spruce up the house a bit and make it feel a little more like home. I framed some wedding pictures and hung them up in the living room and arranged all of our dishes in the hutch so that they weren't all just helter skelter in there. (I know those seem like little things, but they made such a difference.)

Oh, I did sew some linings for these cute storage baskets we got at Ikea in the fall. I have a few more sewing projects on my to do list, though. I would tell you what they are, but some are gifts and if you are lucky enough to be a recipient I don't want to ruin the surprise! Casey's parents (and hopefully sister - HINT HINT KASS) are coming for a visit this weekend. We don't have anything too exciting planned, but it will be good to see them :D Alrighty, I think that's all for now... Oh, to any of our Hodia family that is reading this entry, have fun at Ski Camp this weekend!!!