To cane or not to cane…

I have an old (not really old, just not taken care of) beautiful teak and cane chair. It used to be in a friend’s house until his girlfriend moved in. She didn’t like it, so it went outside – in the rain, and scorching sun of the Central Valley. After a year or so, I noticed the poor thing and asked for it. She immediately said yes, they were just going to take it to the dump. However, I had just started school, so the poor thing lived on my patio for the past three years. At least it was protected from the elements, but still…

My friend Andi came over the other day and said she would just use fabric….of course, her idea was a little more involved including leather straps and rivets, but it got me thinking about using fabric that I already had. Here was my dilemma – would just fabric hold using staples? I don’t know the long-term answer. I think stronger, thicker fabric would be better, but this was the fabric I had and so here is my fabulous new chair! And even if I have to replace the fabric in a year or two, it was free and really easy.

And, the whole thing including sanding and staining only took a couple of hours, if I had known that I would have done it years ago.

Reuphupolstering

I have been doing a lot of reupholstering lately, and not all of it has been furniture for me! My friend, Amy is in the process of setting up her new office and finding a garage sale chair and ottoman as well as an old chair in her own house has really helped keep down her budget. Some spray paint and some sweat have transformed these chairs into something fun and funky to work with Jr. High kids! Of course, in the mean time, my old couch is staring at my forlornly….

Before:

After:

I forgot to take an after picture of the ottoman, but I recovered it in the squiggly fabric on the back of the chair.

Projects

Since the heat is relegating me to inside projects, I am trying to get a few things done. I really need to tackle my house room by room and do a massive purge. Three years of graduate school with toddlers and my sister and her family moving in have created clutter and confusion (I was trying to think of a nice way to say disaster).

What I have done instead is decide to re-cover my dining room chairs in clearance fabric I picked up for $7. I got all three boys in one this one. They were so excited to get to take things apart and not get in trouble for it and bonus for me it took a few hours! I was too busy supervising three boys with scissors, screwdrivers and a staple gun to actually get a pic with any of them doing work...

Paint and recover a $3 garage sale chair.

And tackle an antique couch I picked up for $15...this one is going to take a while...

Before and After

I love to go garage saling. I realize as I type this, that "saling" is not actually a word, but that is what we call it in my family. I have also realized that many people do not enjoy this practice of rummaging through other people's stuff. However, I really enjoy taking things and turning them into something else or even just the bargain hunting and bragging rights afterwards! Ok, we have discussed before the fact that I am a little crazy...




I found this desk last weekend. The lighting in the picture makes it look MUCH better than it did in person - it is a really ugly and not well taken care of laminate. Since my office has been turned into a bedroom for my mom, I decided I needed a place for my stuff. Someplace other than my bed where I can put my computer... I also decided it would make a good bed side table for my room. It is a little larger than I would ideally like to have beside my bed, but I love it!

I found some beautiful glass knobs from Anthropologie and (woohoo!) half of them were on clearance. I even painted the insides of the drawers.

Now I just need to find a really cute chair to go with it!

Dinner

I ate my dinner tonight standing up in my kitchen. Very Must Love Dogs-ish. But I have to say that tonight I even surpassed my own patheticness. I ate ice cream for dinner. Out of the carton. Standing up in my kitchen. In my striped pajamas.

I have experienced many changes in my life all at once. Some of them are too painful and private to talk about here, but I feel that sometimes I want to crawl out of my skin. Tonight is one of those nights.


I don't have my boys here. (I always have a hard time on the weekends I don't have my kids.) I don't have any homework. (Weird! I haven't turned my computer on in almost a week!) My back is out, so I have been laying on the floor for the last two days, despite a trip to the chiropractor. My sister's hair started falling out this weekend. And I just terribly hurt someone I deeply care about....


However, I am trying to reach out and make new friends. I called a couple girls and we went to a huge block sale this morning. I came back with some great finds including a screen door for my sister's room, a fabulous mirror, a new (well old) chair for my new desk and a couple of other great things... I'm trying to train myself to focus on the positives!