Making the Ride Worthwhile: 2009

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Have a seat...

I found this Louis-style chair at The Rink a couple months ago. I bought it knowing it could be amazing after a little bit of work was put into it.

This project took me a lot longer than expected. The actual work was pretty uncomplicated, but since I had never worked with a chair like this, I psyched myself out every time I looked at it!

I removed the old ugly fabric within the first few days of bringing it home. That didn't take too long - just a lot of muscle. I made sure when I was removing the old fabric, that I was careful to keep all the pieces in tact and that I remembered how it was attached in the first place. This is probably the most important step in reupholstering furniture. The old fabric serves as a template for the new fabric.

I was super lucky that the batting was in great shape and that I didn't have to replace it. This was my first time working with a chair of this type - The only tutorial I could find online was this one at PoeticHome and just looking at the photos for replacing the stuffing made me want to vomit!

I had considered painting the wood a bright fun color like Jenny did over at Little Green Notebook, but I decided to go with my gut and stain it instead.

After having sat in my office for forever, naked (the chair, not me), I moved the it to the garage, where it sat. And sat. And who knows how much more time passed before I stopped procrastinating and actually started working on it again. My biggest issue was not so much procrastination, but the fact that I REALLY like the chair and I didn't want to screw it up!

Stripping the old paint took a few days... those little grooves are no fun to get paint out of!

I stained the wood and finished with a coat of polyurethane.

I finally found a print that I liked, so I cut pieces of fabric using the old fabric as templates, adding a couple inches around the edges so the print with line up the way I liked. Stapling the new fabric on was one of the easiest steps of the entire project. There was a little edge of wood where the wood trim met the batting - this is where the staples went. The staples were then hidden by hot glueing the piping around the edge.

I love how the chair turned out!

What do you think?

Have you had any projects that are WAY easier than you thought they would be?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

#27 - Day 365 - Crossing it off my List!

Welp, a year has gone by and I've got a photo a day to show it!

Now that #27 is done, this means I've actually got to start writing on here... haha

#27 - Day 364

Brayden's baby dedication.

#27 - Day 363

P-p-p-poker face. P-p-Poker face!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

#27 - Day 362

#27 - Day 361

I love it when you are pumping gas and the pump automatically stops on a round number!

#27 - Day 360

Dry erase markers are a wonderful invention.

#27 - Day 359 - Antique Shopping Find of the Day

Where: The Rink Gallery, Bethany, OK

When I saw this, the first thing I thought was that I could see this on a really really mean girl's wall who had a hermaphrodite as a sibling and it was her way of rubbing it in...

#27 - Day 358

Another great antique store find/DIY project.

I'm striping the paint (all 3 layers of it) and then I am going to stain it and put new knobs on it.

#27 - Day 357

DIY paper snowflakes.

Tutorial here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake

#27 - Day 356

#27 - Day 354

Found this awesome vintage sled at The Rink - Love it!

#27 - Day 353

I love decorating for Christmas!

#27 - Day 352

Happy Thanksgiving!

#27 - Day 351

#27 - Day 350

Nutella makes everything taste good!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

#27 - Day 349

love. this. kid!

#27 - Day 348

This is what happens to your face after taking a shot of sake.

#27 - Day 347

Origami cranes!

#27 - Day 346

I'm all about parents displaying their children's artwork, but you have to draw the line sometime. Perhaps when their art looks like a creepy forensic sketch...

#27 - Day 345

A home in Edgemere Park.

Maybe one of these day's I'll live in one of these houses instead of just climbing on the roofs for work.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

#27 - Day 344

#27 - Day 343

#27 - Day 342

tights. as. pants.

#27 - Day 341

#27 - Day 340

work.

2 layers of gross vinyl flooring.

#27 - Day 339

Say hi to Mr. Origami Swan.

#27 - Day 338

Stagg Acoustic Guitar 205 Series.

#23 - Learn How to Play the Guitar

When I was really little, my tape recorder was my favorite thing to play with. I would record radio shows, read books, sing, or just spout off random babble into the microphone. Often I would do this when my sister was practicing playing piano. You could even hear her playing in the background on some of the tapes. I remember thinking how lucky I was that I got to play while she had boring practice. Little did I know that it wouldn't be very long until I would start to play as well.

I was never really excited about the piano. I never liked practicing and I HATED recitals. I endured this from grade school until the beginning of high school. I finally convinced my mom to let me quit.

In high school a little part of me wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I ignored those feelings because I knew my mom and I knew what she would say - "You wouldn't practice piano, how do I know you will practice the guitar? Why should I pay for lessons and a guitar when you are just going to end up letting it collect dust?"

Why do mom's have to be so logical?

Well I have continued to want to play the guitar, so I finally took the plunge and purchased one a few weeks ago. We'll see how this goes!

P.S. The guys at Lone Wolf Guitars are awesome. I definitely felt a lot more comfortable going in there than I would have been walking into Guitar Center. Guitar Center is way too big and intimidating for a clueless beginner. You gotta gradually work up to that place!

#27 - Day 337 - Antique Shopping Find of the Day

Where: Apple Tree Antiques - Bethany, OK

What: 'N Sync bobbleheads

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here are some real gems. Lance Bass and JC Chasez bobbleheads still in the box! Don't know why the original owner decided to take Chris "No one really cares about this guy" Kirkpatrick out of the box. - Oh wait... Probably because they knew he wouldn't be worth anything IN the box. As you can see, Timberlake and Joey Fatone are missing. I can think of 2 reasons why: 1. The original owner though they would be more valuable in the future and therefore decided to keep them or 2. Someone bought them before I could (totally kidding).

I started to write about why I thought it was logical that JC, Lance and Chris were left, followed by my ranking of each NSync member. Then I realized I have spent more time thinking about NSync in the past 15 minutes than I ever did in middle school. I had to get out of the Nsync vortex while I still could. First it started with Googling Chris to find out his last name (if he didn't have those weird dreadlocks in 1996, no one would know he existed), then I went to Lance Bass' wikipedia page... if I didn't get out when I did, who knows what would have happened... I could have ended up purchasing all their music on iTunes and canceling my plans to night to have a one-person dance party - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Dang you Internet! You and your addictive stream of useless information!