DIY Re-upholstering

Recently (last week), I took it upon myself to figure out how to re-upholster my kitchen chairs. So I borrowed one staple gun (for one size staples) from my best friend, and Jamie had the other staple gun, which was for another size staple, which I ended up using both in the end. Our chairs came with the table, which came with our house when we bought it in late 2007. Over the years, the boys as toddlers have gotten them quite filthy. They're really hard to wash. So, I hunted down (at Fabricville) a material that would wipe right down. I chose a nice dark grey color, and did some youtube video watching on re-upholstering chairs. I ended up re-watching this video a few times before starting.

I unscrewed the seat from the chair frame, and put it on my pre-cut material.

I then began stapling away. (Right picture is one before and one after chair).

We now have 4 nicely covered chairs, that are like new again. I'm quite impressed with my re-upholstering skills. This is something that I had fun doing and would totally do again. I wish it were this easy to re-upholster a couch! We have some couches in our basement that need an uplifting. I even got a 2 thumbs up from Mackenzie! He noticed them right away when he got home from daycare the day I finished working on them.

I love the fact that once dinner (breakfast or lunch) is over, I can easily wipe down the chairs. One of the chairs was so bad, that it had smushed in Lucky Charms that Mack had sat on and squished into the chair seat. The stain from the colors wouldn't come out in the material the chairs were before. So glad that I have an easy cleaning time now.

How to Throw an Adult Party

First you need adult loot bags!

I simply picked up some glass storage jars, bought lots of candy (including my fave candy necklaces and also some superhero candy!) and filled them up! This way, once they are done with the candy, they have a nice storage jar to keep. I kind of stole this idea from my aunt, who made similar loot bags for my uncle’s 60th birthday party last month.

Here’s a close up of the top. Stickers rock!
I took a fave childhood photo of myself and made stickers.
(There was also a thank you on the bottom of the jar).
I have made another 15 of these, for my family party this weekend.

Then you get your hair done, make sure your mani/pedi is looking good, take our your finest black sexy dress, your very new high heels, round up your husband on a Saturday night and you go out with your closest friends for dinner.

Make sure some of your best girlfriends are there.

Make sure the restaurant has the best apple caramel cheesecake ever.

Make sure to snap photos of you with your friends:

Make sure your birthday girl wine glass is always filled with some good red.

And that’s how you throw a birthday party!

After dinner 4 of us headed to the Casino. I took out $100 from the bank machine there + $2 service charge, when we got there. I was watching Jamie play blackjack for a long while, and then I finally went to play some slot machines. I played a $20 bill. After 2 or 3 different machines, I was down to my last dollar on it, and then I won 15 bonus spins and from that, it went up to $49.50. So I won $29.50. but..... $29.50 - $2 service charge for withdrawing the money = $27.50 - $1 tip for the drink = $26.50 - $20 I owed Jamie = $6.50. My big winnings! It was just fun to get out of the house for a bit.

There’s been some Crafting

First up, I've been knitting. Though, now I'm stuck. Waiting for the designer to get back to me, whenever she can message me back (I'm in no rush honestly - this project has beyond frustrated me). I’m at 132 stitches right now, and it’s even k2, p2, k2, p2 all around. If I add in the last increase row, (8 more stitches) it’ll give me some p2, p2’s at every marker. The ribbing is supposed to work out evenly, k2, p2, all across. It’s just not. I've tried writing it all out, it just doesn't work out. I have the correct amount of stitches, and it all flows, until this point.

I've also been knitting up a new design, details will come shortly. Sorry, no sneak peaks yet. Maybe soon.

And I've still been working on more squares for all 3 versions of Babette I'm doing. Squares for version 1, version 2 & version 3. Their updated tally of how many squares are on the project pages.

Next up, I made my own version of a pencil vase.
It's in my kitchen and has all our pens, pencils, scissors, etc, in it now.
I think it's cute. I used an empty (large) baby formula can (from powder formula) & picked up pencils from the dollar store. This took 48 pencils. (12 in a pack).

Smiles for Great-Grandma

Over the last couple of days we've seen some family, and Quentin probably made my grandmother's day with that smile. He really is just a delight. All he does is smile (when he's not hungry, of course - cuz when he's hungry, it's as if you've never fed him before in his life type of scream).

We had playgroup yesterday and it was hosted by a Daddy. The mom recently had to go back to work until the end of the school year and we were asked if we minded if a daddy joined us. Absolutely not! Yesterday was a small playgroup due to the weather (rain) and probably the location of the playgroup (just off the island). It was definitely different being hosted by a daddy, but it was a nice different change. Quentin had his 4 month vaccines just before we left to playgroup today, and so by the time playgroup was over (and we decided to take a group photo of the boys) Quentin was out cold so I had put him in his baby bucket. I had the CLSC nurse take a look at his tongue tie and she said it's healing quiet nicely. Glad.

There has been some crafting around here lately, and I will show you what this is once it's done. Right now it's just a lot of different kinds of yarn (thank you again to Sandra for your yarn donations). This project is actually taking a lot longer than I thought it would to do. It's not as quick as it would seem it might be. I already though, have plans for a second one, with a different spin to it. You'll see.. soon enough, I promise.

Today's Link Love:
- Love this video preview for the crochet book. I want the book too.
- I think I've posted this video in the past, but I just keep going back to it. Love it.
- High by Lighthouse Family. Great song. It's been a fave since I heard it when I was in Israel in 2004. It reminds me of Jerusalem.
- Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards free point: BKTWJZQHZDCRPGB
- Another Pampers Gifts to Grow Code: GTGREWARDS4MOMS
- Love this image. It's so sweet.

11.19.10

I had started this the other day, but had to go back and re-do it today with a 1.6mm hook, because I didn't like the small hook I was using. It was too small (1.25mm). My ravelry project here has all the details. I find it interesting how the purple of the thread runs right up the middle of the bookmark. I do have a few other colors of this same thread, so I'm debating whether to make each teacher another color or to make them all the same one. Decisions, decisions, decisions...!

I really like the way it came out - I still have 4 more to do - Sean has 3 teachers and Mack has 2. I plan to add this to the gifts I am putting together for them for Christmas. They still need to be starch sprayed & ironed, but I will do that once I actually buy the starch spray & they are all finished, so that I can do that all together.

I also finished one of these today. I have one more half started. I was going to do it by painting the clothes pins, but got really frustrated after painting just one of them. (It just takes to long as you can't do all the sides or it won't dry nicely, at once, and it was just taking too long for my end of pregnancy patience). I then came up with the idea of using glue and ribbon. I really like the way it came out. (Yes, the clothes pins are on a ruler that I put a magnetic strip on the back). I wanted to clean up the mess of photos and papers on our fridge and thought that this was a really cute idea to do so. Then I saw this Holiday Wreath Tutorial on my blog friend Katheen's blog and totally want to make a non-holiday themed one, as we do get a lot of holiday cards/pictures in the mail this time of the year, but so that I can use it all year round.

The diaper bag that I will take to the hospital is complete. I don't think I need anything else. I've stashed in there newborn diapers (hoping I don't need preemie size like I did for Sean - who at full term (38 weeks) was 5 lbs 5 oz and dropped to 4 lbs 14 oz before leaving the hospital and then 4 lbs 8 oz in his first week). I also stashed in there wipes, diaper cream, nursing pads, dirty diaper bags (that I use), a few soothers. I don't think I need my nursing pump at the hospital. I will also put my nursing cover (that I made) in the diaper bag, must not forget that. (I'm shy when I nurse). I also just recently got a 2nd nursing wrap - for free - I just had to pay the shipping from the USA. Waiting for that in the mail.

Here is another Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards point code valued at 5 points: BJRJL-BZZLF-BDPGB. ENJOY!

I can barely keep my eyes open. I think I'm going to crash early for once.

09.05.10

Today was a really relaxing day. The kids played with clay.

Sean had fun making animals using Cheerios for the eyes.
I'd say that's very creative if you ask me.

Sean has also been tearing out pages from the latest Sears Wishbook, and has been hanging them on our banister. He discovered the banister is magentic, and everything that he hung, is on his birthday list, apparently. Every day (almost) he asks us if it's his birthday yet. My official due date is in 111 days, so he's got another 114 days until his birthday.

I finally took some time today to photograph some yarn I've traded on Ravelry for:

Cascade 220 Superwash #817. I thought I was getting 871 when we traded, but the girl was totally dyslexic with her numbers unfortunately. That's ok, I am sure I can find what to do with this off-white. (I was looking for pure white, and it's hard to tell in other people's Ravelry stashes). I sent her something that she was looking for, in return for this skein.

Cascade 220 Superwash #910. I knew I was not getting colorway 871 when dealing with this trade, but took it anyhow since the swap was a good deal. I sent her something that she was looking for, in return for this skein.

Cascade 220 Superwash #817 x 9 balls. Again, I thought I was getting 871 when we traded, but when I received it (picked it up in Pennsylvania where she shipped it to, at my friend's house). When I got home from the trip, I realized that it was again colorway 817 and not the 871 that I was looking for. For this swap, I'm knitting her 3 patterns, with yarn that she sent for those too - for her yarn shop. I've already finished ROAR, I'm working on the 2nd sample right now (pictures to come tomorrow) and the 3rd is a design of her own. I'm thinking I'll mix this off white with another color and make a baby blanket for baby boy #3, for when he starts daycare. (I made Sean's daycare blanket, and my grandmother actually made Mack's daycare blanket).

Cute conversation between Sean & Daddy yesterday:
Daddy: "Sean let's go upstairs and have some of Nana's leftover spaghetti for lunch."
Sean: "No thank you daddy."
Daddy: "Well, what do you want to eat instead?"
Sean: "Well, I think we should go upstairs and figure it out."

When did he become such a smart big boy?

Today's Link & Random Love:
- Knitted ice cream cones!
- I love that Sean can count backwards from 10. It's so cute.
- Sean loves watching this video while he cleans up his mess. Nothing wrong with a little extra motivation, right?

I will finish my book tonight. I really will. (I fell asleep reading last night).

08.26.10 :: 114 weeks old

Mack is 114 weeks old.

Today, I pulled my Destroyed Cowl off the blocking mats.

SPECS:
Pattern: Destroyed Cowl by Martha Merzig (My Ravelry Project)
For: Myself
Yarn: 0.78 skein of Dream in Color Classy
Needles: US 8 - 5.0 mm
Size: 46" round
Timeline: August 14-25 2010
Modifications: Twisted stitches 2, 6, 29 & 33 (cast on 34 stitches) to keep body smooth after dropping stitches. On right side I ktbl those 6 stitches and on the wrong side I ptbl those 6 stitches. (You can just purl all the way back, but I wanted perfection).
Opinion: I love it. I can’t wait for cooler weather to wear it. Looking for an easy mindless project to get your knitting mojo back? This project helped bring my knitting mojo back.

My garden update:

There is a huge cucumber ready to be picked. However, this cucumber plant grew up the wall of the house, and I will need Jamie to get a ladder to take it down. It's almost at the roof of the house. I love how the plant is growing up the wall of the house.

Another discovery is that our spaghetti squash plant is now growing out of the yard on the other side of the fence. I am not sure how this plant even made it to this side of the yard, as it's planted on the other side of the garden. However, there is a LARGE spaghetti squash growing near the ground as you can see. I'm curious to see if we'll get anything else off that side of the fence before the frost starts coming again.

Today's Loot. 4 Cucumbers, 1 small Zucchini, Stringless Beans, some cherry tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1 red tomato, and a bunch of lemon boy tomatoes (yellow tomatoes). My neighbor got a cucumber and some tomatoes. I also gave one cucumber to Sean's teacher (as she was away when I brought the last batch of cucumbers to daycare when I had my last large loot). The rest, I plan to make a cucumber/tomato salad to go with my lunch for work tomorrow. I can taste is already. And I plan to bake something with the zucchini.

Today I worked on getting together my scrabble letter earrings. Some of the letters I had already made, but I was missing more than half of the letters since the last craft fair they were brought to. They'll be brought soon to a craft fair and a friend will be selling them for me. I hope they sell! I always enjoy making them.

Tonight I said goodbye to an old friend.
Oct 20, 2005 - August 26, 2010
I picked up my brand new baby from the dealership.
It was after sunset by the time we got home, so I'll take pictures tomorrow.
I'm in love already. Though, I'll have to get used to driving her.
She's a LOT bigger than this car, so it'll take some getting used to.
Also, learning all her buttons. Very excited.
Very excited to see what the kids think tomorrow.

I'm officially a mini van driving momma!

Today’s link Love:
- Neat tutorial on how to make your own hula hoop.
- This awesome necklace tutorial.
- Definitely plan to make a fridge organizer like this one. (Must find old ruler!)
- What a cute gift these crochet hair clips would make!

I leave you tonight with this funny video. I've never seen a surfing Alpaca, have you?