the great chair makeover

A few weeks ago my town had it's anual rummage sale.  I didn't get a lot but what I did get I LOVE.  Included in that is this chair that set me back $1.50.  Yes, one dollar and fifty cents. 

Crazy cheap, right?

I just adore the shape of this chair but don't care as much for the super itchy fabric that makes me a little scared to sit on it.  Luckily, for both this chair and myself...I was itching to reupholster something. 

You see I've never reupholstered anything but always see people doing on on HGTV or online and I've been impatiently waiting to do it myself.  And let's be honest for $1.50 I'm willing to risk it not turning out all that great but I just know it's gonna look fabulous.

 Here's a sneak peak.

I used a laminated damask print by Michael Miller that I've had sitting in my fabric stash for a while so this whole project was free so far. 

 It's wipeable so I don't have to worry about little dirty fingers. Yay!

But that's all I've gotten done so far because of a certain uh-hm two kids who keep me way too busy.  I still need to paint the chair.

But they're cute so I'll let it slide this time.

my favorite things

I am blessed with a husband who loves me dearly. So much in fact that he watched the baby while my son and I went into town to grocery shop (and buy some fabric). We live in a small town with no major chain stores, fast food, or big restaurants. It's all mom and pop shops around here. Our closest city with a mall, Target, Starbucks, JoAnn's (because these stores are all I need to get by in life) is about 75 miles away.

So my boy and I headed to get some groceries, get the oil changed on the car, get a car wash (where I managed to freeze the trunk shut by not wiping it off immediately after the wash), we got our groceries, return some items, and go to Jo Ann's craft store.
And color me surprised... all the clearance fabric was 50% off the sale price. I didn't pay over $5 a yard for a single item and I even picked up some jersey knit and minky fabric. If you sew you know how great this is, right?

Here is some of my new fabric.

And I even found some shabby chic cotton to complete my collection that I am putting together for my daughter's rag quilt. I am planning on having it done in 4 years when she moves into a big girl bed. I like to give myself even time to finish it. lol

Now I didn't NEED all of it since I still have this messy stash of fabric waiting to be cut into.

Oh, and this over here, too. (can't wait until we go to Ikea and get me some shelves so I can get my craft room organized)

But the fabric was on sale and it will eventually all be put to good use.

Christmas crafts continued...

I finally finished up my big wreath complete with bird. There is so much satisfaction in making your holiday decor and it feels great to finally be done with it all. Well....almost done. I still need to make some tree garland for next year. Oh, and I still have some scraps so I will be making a holiday bag for next year. My son started preschool this year and I was constantly lugging Christmas stuff in and out of school this month. So next year I will lug the items in a fabulous Christmas bag. And the best news is that I have all year to complete it.

Christmas crafts

So we made it through our blizzard and were a little disappointed to be honest. We got very little snow. I think it's so cold here that we just don't get too much snow. Now southern cities like Fargo got a great deal of snow. My poor husband has been waiting patiently to get good use out of his new toy.

Either way we have enough snow for me and it is certainly cold enough to feel like Christmas around here so on to the Christmas decor. I made most of my decor this year. We have a Pottery Barn Kids decor with a mix or contemporary and vintage stuff so I just hodge podged it this year. We weren't able to put up all our decor or go all out because we are renting for a short amount of time and this house it much different than our Arizona home.

I made the garland and the birds for my tree (there are 8 birds on my tree). I used a fabric line called NOEL from JoAnn's and added some red and green gingham to it. I got the bird pattern here.

See the green birdie under the garland?

The garland was made with felt and thread and can be used year round for parties or really anything. I got the idea here. In this next picture you can see the garland strung along my windows as well. Oh, and the windows aren't dirty ( well, maybe a little but it's frost along with my flash reflecting off of them).

Using the same Noel fabric I made the quilt on the recliner and the pillow on the window seat. I also used the scraps to make my fabric wreaths.
Here is a close up for you.

I LOVE how these turned out and it was so easy. I just used a metal embroidery hoop from the thrift store and just my scraps (9 in. x 1.5 in. for my hoop) using pinking shears and tied them on the hoop. I plan on making one large one and adding a bird to the middle of it.