Nanny's Chair

I did it!  Even though the heat was atrocious, I just couldn't wait any longer to finish my chair.  A few posts back I asked for help deciding on which fabric to use on the chair seat.  No one picked Option D, but that is the fabric I chose.  Mostly because I decided that I wanted to paint the chair red and the fabric matched perfectly.  I have to say, this project went so much quicker than I thought it would.  I had primered the chair yesterday so all I had to do was add the red paint today.  Its not a perfect paint job, but I absolutely love the way it turned out.  I was going to distress it after painting, but the fabric is so modern looking, I thought that distressing would take away from it.

The funny thing is, that when I finally removed the old fabric, I found that my Nanny had recovered the chair as well.  I thought she had bought it with the ugly green home dec fabric, but apparently, she bought it with some kind of funky animal print fabric and recovered it.  It was so degraded and gross I couldn't even take pictures of it.  It actually fell apart as I removed it.  I was hoping to reuse the padding, but that wasn't going to happen, so I used quilt batting and went to work.  I hit a slight snag when the staples for the new staple gun I bought didn't fit, but I was able to reuse the small upholstery tacks that were used on the original piece and it turned out just fine.  Now the seat is much cushier than before and it brightens up my studio.

What do you think?

Please check out other Monday eye candy at Between Naps On the Porch! I'm also participating in my first PoPP on Domestically Speaking, the transformations there are amazing!

Always,

Kelly

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Nine Out of Ten Ain't Bad!

So the 10 days are up and I've completed 9 out of the 10 tasks I assigned myself!  I have to say, I'm quite proud that I did that much.  I tend to procrastinate...a lot!  But I was determined and am happy with what I accomplished. 

I really like how my apothocary jar turned out.  I was inspired by Stephie over at Made By Stephie on this one!  I changed it up a bit, using a smaller jar, gray paint instead of silver (I hate silvery paint for some reason) and making my own finial for the top.  I did buy a finial for my jar, but just didn't like the look of it.  Because I used a smaller jar, the finial was too big.  I'm happy with how it turned out with the changes and think it looks cute filled with colorful gumballs!

Although not one of my tasks, I also wanted to make a luminary like I saw on The Idea Attic so after picking up a canning jar for .25 at a recent yard sale and buying glass frosting paint at Home Depot, I made this. The star stickers were a bit of a challenge to remove after painting, but well worth the effort it took to peel them off and use a bit of Undo to get the sticker residue off. 

For another "off the list" project,I made a fun sign for my studio.  I broke rule number one of spray painting and did not primer the board first so it took almost an entire can of paint for the board.  (I seem to have to relearn this lesson every summer as I begin my outside painting.)  This whole project took much longer than normal due to the primer issue and the fact that it took me 6 hours, yes 6 hours, to cut the letters out.  Why?  Because although I knew right where my Cricut was, where the cartridge I wanted was, even where the cord was...I had no idea where the cutting mat was.  I put it in that super secret place where cutting mats go and promptly forget about it.  But isn't that the point of super secret hiding places anyway?  Anyway, instead of just tearing through boxes, drawers and totes, I decided to do more organizing and labeling and finally gave up looking for the mat, resolved to put off the cutting of the letters until Sunday when I could run to the store for a replacement.  Then I found it in the last box I looked in.  I should have known! 

By the way, the "e" is crooked on purpose.  That was my "thing" when I scrapbooked a lot.  I don't know how it started, but whenever I used an "e" in a title, I always made it a bit crooked and it kind of became my signature.

I think the pinwheel may be overkill.  I may remove it and add flowers or something else fun.  What do you think?  If no pinwheel, what would you put there? 

I did also get this chair, mentioned in my post last week, primered (see, I learned my lesson!) but it was way too hot to start painting it.  I guess it will have to hold off until next weekend because it isn't expected to be below 100 degrees here until next Friday.

So how did you do on your 10 tasks?  If you didn't play, but want to see all the super cool projects completed by others on the challenge, visit Gina at The Shabby Chic Cottage and check out the linky's.

Happy Independence Day all!

Always,

Kelly

Painting The Town

I was so excited to get started on some of the projects I came across yesterday that I couldn't sleep last night. Literally. All of these ideas kept running through my head and I kept grabbing my iPhone to add things to the shopping list I had started.

I finally turned off the TV and went to "sleep" at 1:45 am. At 2:30am I gave up. I was just way too hyped to sleep. So instead of tossing and turning and keeping J up, I got up and went down into my studio. I was even nice enough to take the dog so she didn't wake up J.

I was going to leave Jovi in her crate in the living room because she was sleeping very peacefully, but Blair (our bed dog) had to go over and wake her up, so both dogs came down to keep me company. I say that tongue in cheek because both of them promptly jumped on the couch in my studio and fell asleep.

I turned on some tunes and got to work. I wanted to take an inventory of what I had and what I needed to buy. I actually made some progress organizing as well. I should organize more often because while I was looking for the box I know I have of mason jar lids (to make those hanging pincushions I shared the link for in my last post) I found some fabric I had "forgotten" about. Seriously, it was about $50 worth of fabric from my trip to Lancaster with my sister last fall. Oops.

So 4 hours later I had my shopping list ready and just had to pass the time until the stores opened. I ended up taking a short nap on the couch thank goodness.

I headed out to AC Moore and Home Depot. It was so stinkin' hot there was no way I was going to Walmart as well. I was able to get everything I needed.

I started painting as soon as I got home and I feel like I accomplished more than I actually did. I think it's because I only completed two painted things. But I have 3 other projects in-process. I can't get to the painting part until the glue dries.

My first project was to repaint a mirror. I've had this mirror for at least 10 years, maybe more. It's been on a time out in my studio until I either found a place to hang it or got rid of it. But I didn't like it anymore. That border that I really liked in the 90s is tacky to me now:

The painting did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Maybe I'm out of practice. I had one problem after another though. First the primer didn't want to spray right. Then the lovely brown paper that I took the time to fit perfectly was blown off by the wind. I replaced the paper and the new paper blew partially off and stuck to an area I had just painted. It was a nightmare, but finally, I now have a shabby chic mirror. I think I need to distress it a little more though, I don't know. This is my first time distressing and I didn't want to take too much off:
My next project went much smoother, mostly because it was smaller. My mailbox was a disgrace. It was rusted and dirty. I really really wanted to paint it bright pink and paint flowers on it. Unfortunately, since we rent our house, it's not really my mailbox, so I just repainted it black. I'm not sure if you can really tell by the picture, but it looks a thousand times better!

That's all I got done painting-wise. Next weekend I am going to concentrate on redoing the bedroom. Since we got the new HUGE bed we can't fit as much in the bedroom as we use to. I'm going to do some more blog-stalking during the week this week and come up with a plan.

I think I'm going shabby chic. Wouldn't some distressed white furniture look great with these awesome curtains I found at a Nearly New Sale?

I love these curtains and since I spend a lot of time in the bedroom I want to make it a comfy place to be. Right now it's functional, but not comfy since we had to move out at least half, if not more, of my furniture.

Last but not least, here is a sneak peak into another project I'm working on. Below are all the ingredients to complete it. If you read my last post and followed some of the links, you might know what it is. Let me just say that so far, I am absolutely in love with the half-finished product.

That's it for now. I will post the finished product this weekend once it's done. But check back again this week because I'm taking a motivation challenge and I will need some encouragement from my readers...both of you! (LOL)

Always,

Kelly