A Chair Re-Do

Good Afternoon! Another lovely day here in Logan, Utah. 

How is it where you are? 

I hope just as fabulous!

My bestie, Hollie, has this cute little salon in her home.  And she also had children.  Somewhere along the line, one of those darling children got a hold of a pair of scissor and had a run in with her salon chair...

Hollie was telling me how she dreaded having to pay someone to re-cover her chair or even having to buy a new one.  I told her that there would be none of that... We would re-cover it ourselves.  

Hollie was a little apprehensive.

But then the other day she says that she had taken the cover off and was at the local Joanns to try and get something to replace it with.  But that she was nervous. 

SO, I popped over and she had already cut her pieces out and we sewed them back together.

Ahh, the miracles of faux leather! 

Then we stretched and stapled...

 

Then, we had to put the chair back together...

It was a true puzzle!

Yes, and at one point we needed Hollie's husband Brian because we needed a sixth hand...

And in the end, we conquered the reclining salon chair! Yay!

It looks SO much better!

(Even in mobile phone pics :) )

Refreshening things

So, in Cindy's back yard, she has had these two chairs that had gotten to the point that you could not even sit in them because they would leave nice chalky stripes on your clothes.  And there was this wrought iron tables and chairs set that the center areas were starting to get a little worn and even show signs of rusting.  How, in this dry Logan air, this is possible -makes no sense to me... But anyway, we grabbed some "sticks to plastic" spray paint and gave the chairs a couple of coats of paint and the tables a quick spray. 

They went from this:

With one coat:

And finally finished:

Now you can sit in them again.  Yay!

We also did the arms of the chairs for this set:

We didn't do the arms of the chairs on this set and after looking at the whole thing together,

they really look like they could use the same freshening up.

But since it is so easy, no big deal, right?

Nature or Nurture - Is your mom crafty too?

So, is it nature or nurture?

I ask because people ask me how/why I am crafty.

My mother, Lisa, has always been pretty crafty.

Growing up, Lisa had a business making specialty window coverings, bedding, and general decor.  She was always sewing on these fabulous, just the right height and width tables.

BTW, mom- where are those tables?? Because I think I would like them.

Anyways, she had gorgeous fabrics and sergers and sewing machines all in a dedicated large room.  It was fabulous.  She even had found this old sewing machine with a treadle that you operated with your feet.  That machine was fun.  I learned a lot on that 1921 beast!  When I was really really little she would let us make barbie doll clothes out of tissue on that old machine... Now, having my own machines, I understand why she let us do it on that one. Then as we got older, we figured out what was truly scraps and we would make our doll dresses out of the extras.

When I was about 8 I ask my mom to make a new dress for me. 

She took me to the store and we picked out a pattern, fabric and notions. 

I can't believe, now, that I chose a knit fabric...

We got home and I was ready to "help" her.  She handed me the pattern and said, you know how to read, follow the instructions. If you need help, I will help you figure it out. 

And that was the first dress I did on my own.  I wish I had it.  It was purple and teal color-blocked.

I am SO thankful she had the foresight to see that I could do it on my own!

Well, several months ago, I was in serious need of a sewing machine that functioned properly.  We got to talking about what a disaster the current, now previous, machine had turned out.  And it was supposed to be top of the line.  Yeah... Anyways, I always loved how her machine worked. It was a dream.  She told me she was always happy with her Pfaffs.  I was surprised her say Pfaffs -plural.  I didn't remember multiples. She related a few stories of how she would come home from school, sorry mom -in the 50's, and a couch or chair would be stripped of its fabric and her father would be reupholstering it [professionally] with his Pfaff!

I NEVER in a million years would have imagined her father and a sewing machine!

He was an engineer, not a sewer!

I was stunned. 

But I guess that is the reason both my mother and my aunt Shelley are avid sewers and crafters!

So, I think, at the moment, I have to say craftiness is nature. 

But at the same time, being around people who do all of this crafting, how could one not be crafty??

So, it could very well be nurture.

Lets split the difference and call it both.

So, my mom emailed me some photos of a handbag she made yesterday.

Excellent job, mom! Can't wait to see it in person!

Even if the downstairs looks like a fabric factory exploded.

Featured

Hey friends! I want to tell you about another of my favorite sites. 

Rachelle runs this phenomenal blog called Fingerprints On The Fridge.

Rachelle runs a Link party on Fridays called Feature Yourself Friday

Push the button to visit:

This week Rachelle featured my Summer Top from her last weeks Feature Yourself Friday party.

And she has tons of other inspiring projects on her site.  Lots of DIY home decor that does not look DIY. Fun family friendly projects and much much more!

So hop on over and say Hello for me!

Bird Feeders from Aunt Shelley

While we are visiting away from home,

my Aunt Shelley sent me some photos of some bird feeders she made. 

They are pretty ingenious really. 

And they cost pennies!

She made a bag with black tulle. 

Added some flowers from an old silk lei.

Then filled them with Thistle seed.

Almost too easy!

Works so well, the birds come and the lovely Crystal kitty can watch birds all day!

And she even happened to catch a shot of a hummingbird at the hummingbird feeder!

WooHoo! Shelley!

Pretty cool!

Thanks Shelley for the cool pics!

Wordless Wednesday

Featured

Yesterday I opened my email to a nice surprise from the good people at Mad In Crafts!

Miss Hill holds a Linky Party every week on Monday called Mad Skills Link Party

Miss Hill is featuring my Wine Bottle Bird Feeder this week as part of her favorites from her last Link party!

Some of the craftiest inspiration can be found here!  So, head on over and take a look. 

Leave her a quick note and say hi! for me!

Also, I have a new signature for my posts!  How do y'all like it?

Cubbies

When living in the Chicago area, there are distinguishing choices one will make.

City or suburbs...

Deep dish pizza or the other...

What to put on your hot-dog...

And which baseball team. Chicago Cubs or the Whitesocks.

It is actually quite interesting how this one choice distinguishes and "separates" you as a north-sider or southie -even when you live in the suburbs.

 

Well, in our family, we are big Cubs fans!

We prefer to sit at Wrigley field and watch a good old fashioned game with the ivy.

So, when Ashley and the little brother Jason said they wanted to make shirts to go to the game,

 I was tickled.  Little brother wants to craft?! Yay!

And guess what? He did the work for his and his girlfriends shirt! Go JJ!

First he cut out the shapes in the Heat 'n Bond (we could not live without this stuff at our house),

 then ironed them onto the fabric swatches.

Then cut out the shapes around the Heat 'n bond.  Then ironed them all onto the shirts.

Then, to give the shirts a little "pop" I stitched with white thread around the edges.

These two shirts took all of a half hour to make, and a fraction of the cost of shirts purchased.

And I think they are darn cute, too!

Sprinkle and Press Magic Bars

This is Cindy.

Cindy is another one of those Wonder-Woman types.  But she is the queen on the Wonder-Women.

When we are in Logan, my friend Cindy, teaches me T H E   B E S T recipes.

Cindy has a few criteria for good [everyday] cooking:

Easy

Flavorful

Can't look anything like a casserole

Healthy (excluding some deserts :) )

A lot of the recipes are good ole' Louisiana home cooking. And BOY are they amazing!

Last night we made Sprinkle and Press Magic bars. The recipe calls for Pecans, and since some of us can not have Pecans, we split the recipe up and did half with Pecans and half  with Macadamia nuts. They turned out AMAZING.  So, I think I may have to change the name to Magic Dream bars.

Basically, the way the recipe works is, after sprinkling each ingredient, you press it down. Then bake! You can actually do this in 1 dish! So, NO mess!

Here is the full recipe (remember, we split ours into two dishes but it can be done in 1):

2cups melted butter

2cups crushed graham crackers

1 package Chocolate Chips

1package Butterscotch Chips

2cups Shredded Coconut

1.5cups Chopped Nuts

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes - until golden and bubbly.

Wait until it is cooled t cut and devour.

This is what our confections ended up looking like:

With Macadamia Nuts

With Pecans:

Yum.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

We sure do LOVE you!

I found some oldies but goodies that make me smile:

Where in the world...

So, my bestie and her girls and AuBrynne and myself loaded ourselves up into the car and headed west!

 It was an interesting trip! 

We crossed the Mississippi River and entered what seemed like an alternate reality.  The sky was a completely green color and the winds were so high that the trees were side-wase!  The winds hit us like a brick wall and nearly knocked us off the road.  So, we quickly pulled into a rest-stop to wait it out.  Luckilly that only took about 20 minutes.

Apparently this same storm wreaked havoc on our neighborhood and even knocked out power and windows in the Sears Tower, in downtown Chicago!

We decide that we would try to make the trip seem as short for the kids as we possibly could, by driving through the night; alternating sleeping and driving between the two of us.  My recommendation on this: Unless you have a Reba McIntyre sized bus with seperate beds, opt for the hotel.  They were troopers about it! And in the morning, they actually had smiles!

Little Lainey slept longer in the morning, she was still pretty tuckered out from the ride. 

But, we made it safely to Logan, UT by 10am.  Considering we left Chicago at 11am yesterday and had to take more potty stops than we planned on, I think we did REALLY well!

After a nice nap, we decided to take a stroll through SummerFest.  My-Oh-My! It has gotten very large!

There were artisans from all over the country! We saw some really neat things!  I took a few photos, but this fun lady's glass beads caught my eye and I wanted to share this fun photo.

This fun lady's name is Bonny Waters, and she makes her own glass beads and pendants!  They are so beautiful!  And in the sunlight, they glistened!

You should check out her sight http://www.beadsbybonny.com/

You can see lots of her fun beads andeven leave her a message!

For the next couple of weeks, I will be trying to keep up the crafty posts with all the fun crafty things we make while we are here in Logan. 

Plus a few things I have prepared recently to share with you all loyal readers! 

So, bear with me as I may be off schedule in posting.