"Projects"

I'm a "project" person.  Franz teases me about this all the time.  We've had many laughs over my projects.  Anyways, I thought I would show you a couple of "projects" that I have in the works right now. 

This mid-century Danish modern rocking chair was $20 on Craigslist.  I've researched the re-roping aspect and it's something I can do myself without too much difficulty (just time).  I also plan on refinishing it. 

Next up is a piece of furniture from Franz's childhood.  Right now, it currently lives on the other side of the country.  After many emails, I think we've finally got it figured out and it should be getting ready to make its way here sometime in the next few weeks.  But here is the best part- I have no idea what this piece of furniture actually looks like!  Franz seems to remember it being something along the lines of this:

Except instead of the wooden base, it has four wooden tapered legs.  He remembers the fabric being really soft and a little more avocado green.  This piece has great sentimental value, so I will post more about that later.  In the meantime, I can't wait to see what this chaise really looks like once it gets here- should be a great surprise!

Remember these chairs:

Well, I took them apart, cleaned the aluminum frames, removed the existing fabric and foam, replaced with new foam, stripped and re-stained the chair backs a darker finish (although they don't really look that much different), and now I'm at the point of putting them back together.  Here's one completed chair:

But guess what?  After sitting in this chair for one meal, it got pushed aside and the original green chair was brought back.  I love the look of the chairs with the table, it makes the whole dining nook feel more open and less heavy.  However, we sit at the table a lot.  And our green chairs are really comfortable for sitting in long periods of time.  And believe me, they've seen better days...in an ideal world, I would have them re-upholstered in a deep turquoise/aqua crypton antiqued velvet.  However, I can't seem to find such a thing, and I'm not sure it's the kind of monetary investment we want to make right now with two young children or for this house.     

So, here's a question for you all.  Please comment and let me know your thoughts.  I'm not completely thrilled with the look of the new chairs.   I love the teal fabric on the seat, but not with the wood back.  I'm thinking of painting the backs white, and then trying to sell them on Craigslist.  I know this style of chair isn't for everyone, but maybe if I've already put the work into re-doing them, someone may want them.  Would you leave them as they are, or would you paint the back white?  Or maybe leave the frame wood and paint the caning white?  Or leave them as is and just try to unload them?

Poor Zoe

Zoe turned one this past Saturday!  We cannot believe how fast this year has gone by compared to Avery's first year.  Is it normal to compare them? 
With my dad's passing a couple weeks ago, and all the traveling back and forth for his services, Zoe and I ended up with colds.  We weren't planning on having a big party for her anyways, but we were hoping to at least have a few presents, some pictures and of course the requisite eating of her first cake.

We were both still too sick to really enjoy celebrating on Saturday, so we opted for Sunday instead.  I managed to get out on Saturday afternoon for a few last minute gifts.

Sunday morning, still in our pajamas, the four of us gathered on the floor in the living room to open her presents.  I grabbed my camera only to find that the battery needed charging.  Since the presents were already out and on display, we had no choice but to move forward.

During her nap, I baked some cupcakes for later.  Not realizing I accidentally grabbed jumbo sized cupcake liners for my regular sized baking pan, and refusing to go without them because I hate, absolutely hate cleaning cupcake pans, I figured it wouldn't be a problem to use the jumbo liners anyways.  Wrong.  It would have been okay if I had only filled the liners halfway, but of course I didn't do that.

Later that afternoon we took a drive and poor Zoe ended up throwing up all over herself when we got there.  It was gross.  I do not do well with throw up.  I'm still traumatized from last year when Avery had the flu and threw up for five days straight. 

Needless to say, it wasn't a great first birthday for poor little Zoe.  She loves her new toys (a talking play phone, her very own baby doll and stroller just like her big sisters, and a pop-up floor activity thing).  She's feeling better now, but it hasn't been a very fun past couple of weeks. 

Oh yeah, the camera battery did end up charging just in time for me to take a picture of the cupcakes before they went into the trash:

Yes, I realize I could have probably tried to salvage them, especially since one year olds usually demolish cake pretty fast, but these ended up half still mushy and uncooked, and half so cooked that they disintegrated at the slightest touch.  Weird.

Happy Birthday Zoe, we love you very much and can't wait to see what surprises you bring us this next year!

Before/After

I've been wanting a much larger clock for the wall in our living room.  This one, just wasn't cutting it, and it stopped working one day.

Um, I don't think so

One night I happened upon this $7.00 beauty in the clearance section of Homegoods:

Whoa.  You should have seen the look on the check-out girls face as she was ringing me up.

That's a whole lotta gold, no wonder it was only $7.00.  I figured no matter what I did to it, it couldn't get much worse.  Franz teased me so much the next couple of weeks about my granny clock.  I took it apart, sprayed the frame navy blue and broke the clock mechanism in the process.  Youtube provided me with the information I needed to learn how to replace that little motorized box that comes on the back of most clocks.  In the meantime, I found a pretty piece of decorative paper, cut it to size, adhered it, and waited until my new mechanism and hands arrived in the mail. 

And now we have a much larger modern granny clock:

Love the navy and teal color combo

  Much better.

Getting ready for Christmas

I've decided to "do" Christmas this year.  What I mean is that usually we skip the decorating, getting a tree, putting up lights, etc. because of some excuse- pregnant, toddler, pregnant, toddler seems to be the past years excuses- in that order.  But Avery is totally aware of the approaching holiday because of various decorations and displays already up around town.  And it's because of this, that I am starting to anticipate Christmas and the excitement it brings from a childs perspective.
Yep, we have a crawling, almost walking, almost one year old- and that doesn't excite me when it comes to putting up a tree.  But, we will see what happens. 

In the meantime, I figured I better get to work on some decorations.  Our supply of Christmas decorations is severely lacking.  I think we may own a tree skirt, a couple of glitter wreaths, a few boxes of ornaments, some white lights, and a few random other things.  That's it. 

We need four stockings.  Okay, the price of store bought stockings is ridiculous.  A few google searches later, and I found this tutorial.  I went to my fabric stash and pulled a bunch of fabrics.  Using only what I had (okay fine, I had to buy one fat quarter), I ended up with four really cute stockings.  My only disappointment is that the finished size of the stockings is a little smaller than I was hoping.  If I were to make these again, I would enlarge the pattern just a tiny bit.

All four stockings are made with a neutral linen, and I've quilted them with contrasting thread.  If I had a huge stash of quilting weight fabrics, I probably wouldn't have chosen the linen, but it's what I had the most of on hand. 

They were really fun to make and came together quickly.  I think I made them over a few days during the kids naps. 

Okay, funny story to wrap things up.  A couple weekends ago, I was staring at our cherry blossom tree outside.  It definitely needed a little pruning and I was eyeing a particular branch- thinking ahead about how we will hang our stockings without a fireplace mantle.  Franz quickly came outside, cut the branch down and as he handed it to me he said, "happy anniversary!"  We had been joking around all week about what gifts we were going to give each other for our five years together, since traditionally the gift for five years is wood. 

Want to see the clock in the first picture in its "Before" state?  I'll write that post up next.         

       

What's the next step?

photo taken by

So I think I can safely say Avery has mastered the hang of potty training during her waking hours!  We've been practicing going on longer errands the past few days and she's been really good. 

But, what about naptime and at night?  I've tried letting her go without a diaper during naptime (with undies), but it ended up being a big mess.  We've reduced her fluids starting around 3pm, so she's not really drinking that much right before bed.  So what's the next step?  

Want to see more Before/After photos?

Go read this.  Wow.  I've never seen side by side comparisons like this before.  It really opened my eyes.