December Happenings

December is flying by and I haven't had time to post anything lately.  I spent last week in my hometown with my family celebrating Christmas early.  My brother and his partner flew in from Louisiana and my sister drove over 6 hours with her sweet baby boy so that we could all be together for about 5 days.  It was fabulous!  I love my family!  

While we were there, my friend Megan who is a great photographer, snapped a few pictures of us. It was SO cold outside and baby boy wasn't feeling well so we had to make it quick.  Thankfully, we did get a least one really good shot. 

This is my brother, Adam, and his partner, Michael.  I love them both very much and wish I could see them more often.

Here's my sister (and her adorable baby bump), Raiden, and myself.  I had so much fun loving on this little guy.

 Isn't that the cutest grin you've ever seen?

After my week full of family, I got to go pick up my love from his parents' house.  He flew back from New York for two weeks to spend Christmas at home.  I love having him here but it's bittersweet because I know it's almost time for him to go back already.  So far, we've went out to dinner too many times, visited his favorite brewery, went shopping, and have generally just been lazy.  It has been great :)  We plan to go snowboarding next week so we are both looking forward to that! 

And finally, after I unwillingly pulled myself out of bed today, I saw that my zebra table been featured on another blog called Better After.  Check it out!  Lindsey scours the web for "transformations of thrift store treasures or overlooked items into beautiful and functional design and decor," and features them on her blog.  Thanks Lindsey!!

How to Sew Double Cord Welting

Hi everyone!  I hope you are having a good week.  I promised I would write out the instructions for making double cord welting when I re-upholstered my cane chair back in October.  So here you go...2 months later! 

The first step is to cut 3 inch (or so) strips of your fabric on the bias. Cutting on the diagonal helps with giving the fabric some stretch so it bends around the corners easier.  Or so I've read. 

By the way, this was my first sewing project in years.  Literally, YEARS.  I haven't really sewn anything besides fixing a seam now and then, since about freshman year of highschool.  That's been 10 years.  Wow.

In order to not waste a ton of fabric, you can sew shorter strips together to get the length that you need.  Just pin across and sew a quick seam. 

After you get all your short strips sewn together and have a long enough piece for whichever part of your chair you are doing first, put your cording inside and roll the fabric over the top and pin. I bought my cording at JoAnn's fabric for something like 30 cents per yard. 

 

 

 Next, attach your zipper foot to your sewing machine (or in my case, your friend's borrowed sewing machine) so that you can get really close to the cording with your seam.  Sew down the length of the cording.

 

The next step is to insert another length of cording next to the first seam and roll it all over to enclose it in the fabric.  I put the normal foot back on the sewing machine and sewed right down the middle of both pieces of cording. 

 

 

This step is a bit tricky because of the bulk of material.  And especially so if you haven't sewn anything in YEARS.  I broke a needle at one point, the thread kept coming out of the needle, and I kept knotting up the bobbin thread.  I had to enlist the help of my friend, Alejandra for this step because of my lack of patience.  But you can do it, I'm sure ;)  The key is to use an upholstery needle...I think.

 



So after you get all of your sewing done, its time to attach the cording to your chair.  I used a hot glue gun and glued it on a small section at a time.  I had two lengths of cording, one for along the back of the chair and one for the front along the bottom of the seat.

 

 

 

 And after all is said and done, you have covered all of your staples with welting and completed your chair!

 

I've been featured!

Ok, so I have to take a moment to brag a bit.  Remember my zebra print table that I created from a garage sale find?  I linked it up to the Thrifty Decor Chick blog about a month ago and Sarah chose my project out of over 400 to feature on her blog!  She has so many great ideas and inspiring posts so you should definitely head over there and check it out!

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2012/12/december-before-and-after.html

On another note, I got my Christmas tree up a few days ago so I thought I'd share some photos.  I bought the tree and ornaments on clearance after Christmas last year.  It's definitely not the most beautifully decorated tree I've ever seen, but it's my tree ;)  The kitties have already climbed to the top and knocked off the angel once, and they pull off the ribbon daily.  It may be totally destroyed by the time Christmas rolls around, but oh well! 

 

See what I mean about it being destroyed by Christmas?! Stapler likes to climb it.

And hide out underneath it.

 

Merry Christmas! :)

Goodwill Lamp Transformed

I finally found a lamp for my living room at Goodwill a few weeks ago. I was looking for a cheap lamp that I could spruce up, so that I can get rid of my ugly torchiere floor lamp.  Here it is before. Ugly brass, but with great curves.

 

I wrapped up the electrical parts in some aluminum foil and painters tape and primed the base on one of the few sunny days we've had here lately. 

I originally painted it with a silver metallic spray paint, but didn't like the way it looked.  I actually liked the white primer better than that!  So I primed again, and finished with a few coats of Rust-Oleum's Heirloom White.  Here's the new lamp in my living room.  The linen drum shade was on sale at Fred Meyer.  I've seen some great painted shades on Pinterest so I may attempt that someday.

  

 

 

 

Linking up to:

 



The Table From H-E-Double Hockeysticks

With this table redo, I finally just had to put the paint brush down and call it done.  I'll get to why it is the table from HELL in just a moment.

My sister got this table at a thrift store for $5 (and I think it was another 20% off). It's real low - too low if you ask me - but for $5, I figured it was good enough for a revamp project. It was another one that sat in my guest room for a few months while I tried to get some inspiration. I finally decided to fix it up and give it to my sis for her birthday so I wanted to paint it cream with a black top to tie into her black coffee table. Here's the before pictures.

 

 

I actually tried to pry off that diamond shaped detailing around the legs but had no such luck.  That was the first of the obstacles.  In order to paint the base and top different colors, I spray painted the base cream first and let that dry.  I then used black garbage bags to tape off the base so that just the top was visible and painted that black. 

 

Sounds easy enough right?  Wrong.  Most of my problems stemmed from not letting the paint cure long enough before moving on to another step.  I found finger prints in the paint from moving the table from outside where I was painting to inside out of the impending rain.  I chipped the paint on the sliding door bringing it in at one point.  I ran out of black paint and had to wait a few days until it was nice enough to paint outside again.  Ugh...I felt like I was never going to get it done! 

 

I also had to add wood filler to the existing holes for the hardware, since I didn't want to use the original and my new pull needed different holes drilled.

 

 

There are still spots that I should really touch up, but I am calling it good on this one. My sister can use it until she gets tired of it, and then she can throw it out. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living Room Updates

 I FINALLY have possession of my new pillows so I wanted to share the pictures of my new sofa!  Way-back-when I posted that I decided on updating my living room in greys, navy and coral.  I ordered a sofa from a company called Stanton, spray painted a vase navy blue, made over an old cane chair, and made some art on a budget.  Here are some pics of my new room!

 

 

I went with a neutral warm grey fabric for the sofa so that I can easily transition it into other looks if/when I get tired of the navy and coral. I’m loving this color combo though, so hopefully I can stick with it for a while!

 

 

 I absolutely love my pillows that I ordered from a company called Rowe.  They are a manufacturer that we sell at the furniture store I work at and they have the cutest fabrics!  My sofa was very reasonably priced, so I decided to splurge on the pillows because they add so much to the overall look. 

My other new addition is this TV console that I got for a steal. Our store bought it on closeout from the manufacturer, so it was already marked way down below the original retail price and I used my employee discount to save even more $$! It resembles something you would find at Pottery Barn, which I’m finding is very much my style. I love everything about it, from the curvy legs, to the bin cup drawer pulls, to the wicker bottom shelf, to the red mahogany color and slight distressing. 

The baskets were a Fred Meyer find (on sale and purchased with a coupon, of course) and are a perfect size for my DVD collection.  The console also ties in really well with my two tone table.

 

I'm loving how it is all coming together! It will be ever changing I'm sure. Currently, I'm working on a Goodwill lamp makeover so that I can get rid of that ugly torchiere and am on the hunt for another end table. 

Deals on Area Rugs

If any of you out there need an area rug, I've got some great finds for you!  First, go to rugsusa.com and search through their inventory of thousands of rugs in all different styles.  After you've found one you can't live without, go to groupon.com and look for the RugsUSA deal.  You can buy a groupon for $120 worth of RugsUSA products (area rugs, lamps, furniture) for $55, $170 worth for $75 or $235 worth for $95!  Those are savings of 54%-60%!  There are only a couple of days left to buy this deal, but it doesn't expire until February 2013. 

Now before you go purchase your rug, go to http://www.couponchief.com/rugsusa and find a coupon that would apply to your order.  If I were to buy one, I would use "FD2K1130" and get 30% off this rug that is originally $159 (which is already a great price for a 100% wool rug).  I would only end up paying $55 for it!  Unfortunately, I can't make up my mind on a rug for my living room, so for now I will do without. 

But I am quite tempted by this one.

Source