Sunday, April 15, 2012

The Chairs of Doom/Awesome

Ok... so our good friend Wendy moved into a house in Alpine a long time ago, but has been rearranging some things and opted to get rid of some chairs that belonged to her great grandmother (I think?) which she was going to reupholster, but never got around to it.

Now I understand why NO ONE should ever "get around" to reupholstering a chair. Actually... I'm really glad I did it, but I must say it is not for the faint of heart or for those with full-time jobs, or a house that they want to keep looking orderly. Instead, I spent all of my free evenings while Brett was at work pulling out staples (this took a surprising amount of time), making a complete mess of my mother's house where we were living, diligently taking pictures and writing notes to myself, picking fabric, cutting fabric, and then stapling (and hot gluing in parts... shhhh) this chair back together over a few months. Not to mention the sewing involved in the seat cushion and the back, some of which I had never done before - thank you YouTube!

I'm not going to do a tutorial because I think there's already good stuff out there. Here's the blog that I mostly used - although with some "winging it" here and there when it didn't apply (no pun intended).

The only thing I'm going to mention specifically is that the backs of the original chairs were stuffed with what I assume was horse hair... I'm going to continue calling it horse hair... It must be horse hair...If it's something else... I'm very afraid  - which was then wrapped in batting making a tube. My process was much more obnoxious (but less disgusting) since I disemboweled a huge body pillow/headboard that Brett made me when we were engaged. He had it stuffed with tiny bits of foam from this warehouse in SLC, which was really cheap and worked great for the pillow, but I tell you I HATE that stuff! It got everywhere! Lindy was finding it on the floor in every room and would stuff it in her mouth thinking it was cheese. I don't know how much she swallowed, but I know I caught her from chocking too many times to count. I tried to just wrap it in batting like the horse hair was, but it would NOT stay in place. So I opted for sewing little tubes which I then had to stuff the foam into with a plunger handle. Besides pulling out the staples it was the most time consuming and definitely the most frustrating part - trying to get it packed tightly, but evenly, and not too tightly, or it's hard as a rock... etc.

There are a bunch of mistakes, but I think most are small enough that the average Jo wouldn't notice them. I notice them because I was face to face with this monster for days on end.

So here it is... the before (of both chairs) and after (one done... one to paint and reassemble).

BEFORE:






AFTER:





Am I proud of myself and this chair? Yes! Yes I am! A little too much probably, which means it will likely sustain a horrible grape juice attack all too soon just so I can be humbled. This is currently the only non-kitchen chair that we have (except that rocking chair I redid, but it's in the baby's room). So if you come over, you can sit in it!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Lindy's First B-Day

Picture stolen from Uncle Ted's Blog
We had a whirlwind day for Lindy... our camera was packed, so I didn't many good pics on the actual day,  but here's how the day went.

She woke up and had some special birthday oatmeal (it may have just been her normal oatmeal, but just go with it).

She got to hang out with her awesome cousin, Casey, while "the guys" loaded all our stuff onto many trailers.

She had a great morning nap (yes... even on her birthday).

She participated in the Boren family Easter Egg Hunt!

She had her first cake - carrot cake to go with the rabbit ears and cream cheese frosting. She "tickled" the frosting for a while first, she's not a big dive in to something unfamiliar type person, but she did end up eating a good chunk of the cake. Mostly she was distracted by the rocket balloons that the other cousins (and Grandma Reesa) were launching all over the yard.

Then she went down for her afternoon nap while her parents abandoned went ahead of her to the new house to unpack.

Grandma Reesa and Papa Phil brought her to the new house for dinner time (which we shared with Grandma Marilyn and Gramps too!). And finally got to open her presents. This year's take includes:

  • 1st Year Memory Book - the pictures below take FOREVER to load, so go fold some laundry while you wait.



  • Hand-made and hand-quilted blanket from Mom and Grandma Reesa (you may recall that I started this before she was born... there's been a lot going on since then).
 

This was called a piano key border. Mom and I decided to quilt every other rectangle, which made them kind of pop out every other one - a fun effect in my opinion.


The quilting is actually pretty cool, although you can't see it very well. It's dragonflies and 2 different butterflies, plus little "flight patterns." I couldn't get a good picture of the bugs, but here's a closeup of a loop-the-loop.

 
  • Blocks
Her tongue is out... this must require serious concentration.
  • Stacking cups toy
 
The cups click together to make differently sized balls - clever!

Here comes Godzilla!
  • Push toy - which apparently was pretty cheaply made and will be returned... sad day.
The next day (Easter Sunday) she got to spend time with the Groneman clan, including a new cousin!

I'd say she had a pretty great day!