Today's the Day

My mom is flying in tonight to visit this weekend - wahoo! I'm so excited to see her and hang out. I haven't seen her since January and that is just too long. Looking forward to some good times in the coming days...

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*)

Hilarious

So I have about a million things to update you all about on this blog, and I promise I will soon, but I have to interrupt my regularly scheduled blogging to share this with you. As you know, my mom is getting married this fall and I've been surfin' the net looking for some ideas to help her plan. I decided to jump on Craigslist to see if I could find any awesome deals. I wasn't looking for dresses but decided to click on the link titled "Wedding Dress Beautiful" anyway. Check out the images that assaulted me once I clicked:

Yikes! Now I'm sure this dress was gorgeous and trendy in oh, say, 1989, but it's 2009 people. Perhaps with some creative alterations she could be restored to her former beauty. But until then, the only thing I see when I look at the pictures are the SLEEVES! They are ginormous! Since I have no more words to express my feelings about this frock, I will leave you with the words of Napoleon Dynamite:

"I like your sleeves. They're real big."

My BFF is famous!

http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/episodes/?vid=1103901#vid=1103901 She's the cute blond in the green top during the Man vs. Machine segment. Isn't she wonderful and adorable and poised and fabulous? I sure think so! Yay Nicki :-) And congrats Donny on graduating!!!

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!