Class of 2018

What the?  Holy cow what just happened?!  I have a child that WILL GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL IN 2018!!!

How can that be?  I'm NOT OLD ENOUGH to be THINKING about having a child graduate from high school.  Seriously.  NOT OLD ENOUGH.  (My birthday is Sunday.  Maybe I'll be old enough then.  I don't think so, but maybe.)

Do you have these thoughts too?  I think you do.  We all do.  Your going along, all whatever, yada yada, and then BAM!  You look around and you're like CRAP!  How did this happen?  I have children and a dog and a mortgage and people think I'm responsible enough to be the PTA president (they are CLEARLY delusional- another post).  How does this happen?

Well, I'll tell you how it happened today.  I'm working on my to do list and I think "Oh- I should sign up for the middle school list serve so I know what is going on at our new school" so I log into the district website and there are like 25 lists you can choose from and one of them is ACMS2018...it's the latest graduating date so I then sat and thought about the 11year old and how old he'll be when he graduates... and then I was like "CRAP" and there you have it.  Be responsible, you can to freak out too.  Good times.

No, I'm not having some sort of crisis of the quarter or mid- life variety; I'm just surprised that there's a date attached to his graduating.  That's weird.  And, not something that I'd given much thought to up until today.  7 years.  That's all.  Better make the best of them.

Busy, busy...

Aren't we all?  Well, duh.  It's just how things go now-a-days.  I thought that not being employed would mean that I had loads of time to do things like re-upholster chairs and blog, but alas, it is not to be.  I still have loads of other things to do like laundry and grocery shopping.

I have noticed that I was much more efficient when I was employed, there was more structure to my goings on.   Guess having a time frame will do that to you.   Really, I knew that taking the summer off meant that I would be loafing, and that was in the design, but as the summer winds down, I find that I'm looking forward to the return of the schedule.

And, the return of the schedule must mean the return of employment too-right?  Yes, it does.  I have a few irons in the fire right now and will be re-entering the land of the "worker" in September.  Doing things that I love.  (And, getting paid)  Because, that has been my focus.

In the mean time, there's a trip to the beach for fun and a trip back to the beach for work-- we have one more visit to my FIL's place before we sell it-- we spent the weekend there this last weekend and had so much fun!  It was bittersweet for DH- he's struggling now.  It's to be expected.  We sat back and looked at the situation, it's only been 3.5 months(!!!) but feels like it's been 3.5 years.  I'll be more introspective about that later.

And, I noticed that there was a comment looking for the reward shoes photo...here you go!


 I never thought I would buy THESE shoes, but the salesman was English... and cute (not Jude Law cute but still)... and oh so persuasive...

Chair Dance-The Finale!

Well, how do you like that?  I'm done!  Yays!  

After all the work it took to put the front of the chair back on, I thought for sure that it would take me another 6 months to get the back of the chair back completed- what with all the welting and then the spikey thingies.  But, nope!  It just took 1/2 an afternoon and I'm DONE!

Gotta tell you, I'm pretty proud of myself.  I was terrified that I'd screw it up, spend more money then it would have been to have a "professional" do it in the first place, and end up with a completely awful piece of furniture that we would then have to haul to Goodwill and then go buy replacements.  Since that didn't happen, I think I will reward myself with shoes from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.  Sound good?

So, I finished up...I sewed the welt, then attached it to the back and sides of the chair back.  I then attached the back piece of fabric using the cardboard tack strips-- I don't think that these particular things should be called tack strips-- they should be called something else as they don't have tacks in or on them.  

After that piece was attached, I added additional batting and then it was time to use these: (yes, those are 3/4 inch steel spikes sticking out of the steel strips...)

Since I had not a clue as to how to attach these, I consulted the all-knowing source of YouTube.  There's a ton of great upholstery information there-- there's also a ton of great Harry Potter videos there and music videos and...yes, it sucked up the other 1/2 of the afternoon not used in upholstery.

The video helped, I used the tack strips (THOSE are Tack Strips!) and moved the chair into the house.  Where it sits in its place and NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO SIT ON IT.  Just kidding...sort of.

 

Remember what we started with?

And, now I begin on the 2nd chair- which will take much less time then the first chair because it is the 2nd chair and the 2nd of anything is always much easier than the first.  And, we are less careful with the 2nd of things...and even less careful with the 3rd.  That's another post.

I'm going shoe shopping.

Frustrated Chair Dance

Well, I've been working on the chair, but I gotta tell you, it's not been easy. Turns out that I'm kind of a perfectionist. (Um, duh?) And, I have this notion that I should just innately KNOW how to do things, like, reupholster a chair. Strangely, I'm not omniscient- not in this endeavor and not in my daily life. Kinda knocks you down a peg or two, doesn't it? I'm kidding here- sort of. I mean, I know that I don't know everything, but I do have an expectation that things just aren't as difficult as they appear. This whole chair thing has been a lesson for me in many many ways. I'm not gonna say that I'm glad that my trans-gendered FIL died so I could learn a lesson, because that is way too weird. But out of the whole strange situation, I'm glad that I get to learn something that will further me on my journey. (And don't even get me STARTED on DH's learning out of this...that's a whole different blog!)

Anyway, back to the chair. When we last left the garage, I had the seat fabric cut out and ready to install.

I made the welt with spray adhesive (woo hoo!) and did some sewing to attach said welt to the "skirt" part of the chair.

I then proceeded to attach all the fabric, making a very very nice corner fold, thank-you-very-much, and then attaching welt and skirt with extra stuffing and a cardboard tack strip! Woo! It all looks very very nice. And, I kinda wanted to stop right there- because it looks so nice.

You can't stop with a redone seat and a naked back however. So, I pressed on. Here's the big road bump/block. The back of the chair is curved, rounded, concave. Not flat is what I'm trying to say. And, when you attach fabric to it, you have to make sure that it's not all lumpy or wrinkly. That's HARD. I cut out my back piece- I even cut it bigger anticipating these issues. After that, I let it sit in the garage for a week. To think about what it had done. Being all rounded and difficult. As if that would make it easier. (It didn't) Finally, on this week I came to realize that no one else in the house was gonna magically take up the re-upholstery project and that it was up to me to figure this beast out. That, and we are having guests at the end of the month and right now we are seriously lacking seating in the living room and it would really suck to be all, "hey sorry we don't actually have chairs, they're in the garage, I'm waiting for the upholstery elves- just sit on the floor for now, I'm sure they'll arrive soon..."

I won't bore you with the attaching, removing, reattaching, re-removing, reattaching again... etc. that went on. Or the sitting on the floor and being mad at the back of the chair. Oh, and I forgot the being really frustrated with not understanding how to fit the stapler under the back of the chair to attach the fabric. Suffice it to say, there was bleeding on the floor of the garage and I was ready to just forget it and cut a new even bigger piece and try one more time- when last night- it worked! And, it's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close and I'm very pleased with the result. Yay!

I will now resume photo taking. It just wasn't a good idea during this last bit of the project. Trust me.

Today I will sew another welt, and then attach that to the back of the seat. Once that is in place, the back of the seat needs to be attached. That means more cardboard tack strips and then the use of some super nasty looking metal nail strip thingies. Seriously, these are some of the most fierce looking upholstery supplies I've ever seen. Should be interesting.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Chair Dance Part 2

Destruction is done! DH is a really good destroyer. In fact, that's the name of the soccer team he coached last fall for my son- The Destroyers. The Fire Breathing Disco Monkey's was the 2nd grade girls team. He's not so much of a fire breather or a disco monkey- but he's got destroyer nailed (or un-nailed as it were).

Destruction in process- you can't tell but-- garage is cleaner.

Naked chair! Lulu the Wonder Dog thinks we are weird for hanging out in the garage so much.

We got the last of the staples out, went to Home Depot and got talked out of an air-compresser and staple gun. We got an electric stapler instead. And...we are going back to return the electric stapler and to get the air-compresser and staple gun. It'll just be better.

Well, we were wrong about the air-compressor thingie. We ended up with another electric stapler that is really, truly better for upholstery. I think. I've managed to get the new fabric cut out and attached

Here's where we are now- LuLu is helping:

And, after it's cut out:

And, attaching to the seat:

Lessons learned:

1. When cutting out new fabric using old fabric as a guide, don't cut the leg 'holes'. The new fabric is likely to have more or less give than the old and the 'holes' will probably be in the wrong spot.

2. Don't worry when you cut out the leg 'holes' and you really shouldn't have. It's fine and you can fix anything with a staple gun!

Whew! Next up is the welting and the the skirting around the bottom edge. I'm a little nervous about the welting- there is sewing involved and stapling through many layers of fabric and cardboard. I think I need to go get longer staples...

Whoopie! (pies)

Um, YUM!!

Last Saturday after cleaning the garage all day long, my SIL and I hit the mall so she could find some fun summer fashions. Sadly, she did not find any fashions that struck her fancy, but luckily, we went to Williams Sonoma and they had stuff on SALE!! (And, everything at Wm. Sonoma always fits and looks great.) I've been eyeing the Whoopie Pie pan for a while now and it was on SALE for $14.99 instead of $19.99 which makes it a much better deal.

*Side note: If you are looking for birthday ideas since we are at T-47 days, there's a super cute honeycomb pull apart cake mold that has my name all over it. Just in case you were wondering...

Anyways, I made them. Using the recipe they give you with the mold.

I'm not going to show you all the steps, but I used my handy dandy cookie scoop which is a tablespoon and a half - just right for the wells! I love it when stuff like this works out...

Aren't they so pretty just out of the oven? They smelled amazing too...

I also made the yummy frosting/filling. I think this is my favorite part- you can have the chocolate, I'll take the frosting, thanks.

Ta dah! Aren't they cute?

And, they were so yummy! I know that I'm late to Whoopie Pie party as they've been pretty popular for a while now. Oh well. That's kinda how it goes for me.

I think I'll make these for the July 4th BBQ we go to. I think they'll be a hit.

Thanks for being patient with my photo skillz too-- I'm working on it!

Chair Dance - Update

Well, I wanted to work on the chairs yesterday...but in order to do that, the garage needed some attention. Bummer. I, along with the kids and the hubby, spent the better part of yesterday clearing out and sweeping up the garage so that it is now... clean? As clean as a garage can get? Ready to be messed up again? Whatever. It's better now then it was, and I'm going to work on removing the rest of the seat fabric tonight and will update tomorrow.

Right after I make Whoopie Pies. Which is a whole other post. My sister-in-law and I went to the mall so SHE could buy clothes and I'M the only one that ended up buying anything! A Whoopie Pie pan if you can believe that. If you know me, you can believe. I do love the baking. Funny, I don't love the sweets so much, but I do adore creating them. You know you wish you lived closer to me. So you could be the recipient of the baking.

Chair Dance- Part 1

Long time, no blog. *Sigh* The auction was a HUGE success. So glad it's over. Ready to work on the next one. In two years.

Also, not working anymore. Quit. Life does that sometimes. Makes you think about direction and where you are going and where you'd like to be going. Then you make changes. Scary, good, nerve wracking, amazing, changes. Usually something spurs this line of change and thinking- something like death. Of your DH's parent. Who is/was trans-gendered-- Used to be a male but became a female. Seriously? Yes. Weird? Of course. For reals? Do you think I'd make this up? Will tell the story later. You won't believe, most of our IRL friends don't believe either, but again, why would we make it up?

So.... what do you get when your trans-gendered father-in-law dies? Not sure how to answer that one? I don't know why you're struggling... everybody knows, you get chairs! OK. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a trans-gendered FIL and even fewer are lucky enough to get chairs out of the deal. But I am-- Lucky on both fronts! Yay me. And, I get to do the chair dance!

How do you do a chair dance you ask? Hiding in plain sight in the icky yucky garage of my FIL's house were two amazing chairs. Here's one.

(That's MY messy garage...I really can't do justice to the messy garage at my FIL's.) DH was kind of appalled that I wanted to drag them home with us. I was ridiculously excited about the chairs. They are amazing. Great lines, comfortable, and ripe for reupholstering! I've always wanted to learn how to do that, but I've never found anything that NEEDED to be reupholstered. Most of the things that I would want to re-do are already re-done and that's silly.

After they were hauled up here, I decided that they were too awesome for me to screw up and maybe I should have them done professionally. I called around and asked about prices and timeline, you know, I did research. Did you know in the Portland Metro area reupholstering is very popular and most folks that do it are 1-2 months out in taking new projects? I didn't. Also, in the 'burbs, where I live, there is a shop that will do it, and it will only be $740, plus fabric. Oh, fabric starts (STARTS) at $35/yard! (We need 8 yards for our project) Crap! I so totally could have bought the chairs for less than re-doing them could cost me! Maybe I will be doing this myself.

Off to the Mill End store I went. Armed with my photos and three books I checked out from the library--this isn't going to be a new career, I thought borrowing books was better than buying. At the Mill End Store I met lots of really nice helpful folks who, having only met me one time for less than 10 minutes, are completely confident that I can do this project all by myself AND I can do a good job. (Note: If you are feeling at all puny, you should go to the Mill End Store and talk to the folks in Home Dec. They will make you feel MUCH better about yourself.) So, I bought fabric-- that was only $15.99/yard, I'm sure it's not nearly as amazing as the other fabric, but I really like it. The backs of the chairs will be the print and the seats will be the solid. They only had 1.5 yards of the print and it is PERFECT for the vintage of the chair, so, I'm making it work.

Last weekend we started pulling apart one of them. Well, I started to pull the back of one apart then I decided to wait for DH- he's better (more patient) than I am with destruction and since I need the deconstruction to be fairly orderly so that I can use the old as a pattern for the new, he helped me. And, this is as far as we got.

Cool huh? It's going a lot smoother than I anticipated- I thought for sure there would be sewing and glue and just general strife in this part of the process and so far, nothing. Nada. Not to say that it's not coming, we haven't started on the seat part... yet.

I did get a call from a very nice lady who does upholstery, she can't get to my project 'till September or October, but she is willing to help me since she, too, is sure that I can do this after speaking to me on the phone for 5 minutes. I will email her photos and questions and she'll direct me. How nice is that? I'm thrilled that there are helpful souls out there who will rescue me when I screw this up royally.

I'm going to go get an air compressor (YAY!) and staple gun (DOUBLE YAY!) first, then we will attempt the deconstruction of the seat. I will keep you updated.

Lofty Ambitions

So, I have lofty ambitions when it comes to blogging, and no follow through. Bummer. I do think of posts each day, in fact, I think of several posts each day. I just don't sit down at the computer and type them out on this blog. I type them in my brain. How exciting for me!

That being said, I have things to type now. The first is this: The auction I am chairing is 6 weeks away. I'm beginning to FREAK OUT. I'll elaborate on that more later, I just can't right now. The second is this: It's hard to be at a place where you can't help someone, no matter how much you want to. And, if you read that word "help" as "control the situation", you and I are kindred spirits.

Right now, my DH is in a place professionally, that is not ideal. He has been at his current employment for 12 years. He has always been well liked and done a good job, but lately, that's not cutting the mustard. The new Big Boss (BB) showed up 2.5 years ago and isn't much of a leader. He's vague and wimpy and it's hard to work for the vague wimpy guy. He gave DH an off cycle review and said nasty things like apathetic, untrustworthy, poor leader and liar. But, the review conclusion was "Satisfactory" and DH is still in charge of the budgets. Really, do you WANT an apathetic liar working on your budget? I don't think so, but I'm just a stay-at-home mom so what do I know.

Then there's the New Guy (NG) that BB hired as a "consultant". I met NG last year at the annual event for the college. NG had a whole bunch of fun things to say about his current co-workers. He was not very kind in his descriptions of the, ahem, "other" employees. Apparently, he's smarter than 99% of the rest of us, and he's not afraid to let us know that. There was drama surrounding how NG was paid-his "friend" had a staffing agency so NG could get paid- and how much he was paid. And when the money was about to become a huge issue, they hired him. Now, there's scrounging to pay "what NG is worth" ie. what he was making as a consultant, and DH is in charge of the budget-still. Oh, and NG is in charge of DH because BB was mentoring DH and it didn't go well. (Generally, you have to TELL someone that you are mentoring them for it to go well, but that could be a whole other post.)

Long story short, DH needs to leave his job and find a new one. And, I can't do it for him. He has to do it himself. That's good and it sucks all at the same time. It's hard for me to let go, I like to be in-charge. DH is capable and marketable and smart and he can do this. I can sit down and be quiet. As much as I want to call the local paper and tell them all the dirt I know, I can't. I won't. I'm a big believer in Karma and I also know that Karma can be a b*tch. So, that's where I am. Knee deep in an auction and sitting quietly in the corner. Oy vey. I need help- or a drink. I'm not sure which to start with.

See, I'm slipping already!

OMG. It was January 2nd and I FORGOT! :) Oh well. There's always today...

Happy New 2011!

Happy New Year! I'm always harping on the 10 year old to update his blog, and well, I was feeling a leetle hypocritical... so here I am. This is, as always, an experiment, we'll see how long it lasts, but, I'm going to post daily or every other day or at least weekly. No promises.

Anyway, today was technologically advancing! No, I didn't get the iPhone 4-- have to wait 'till Valentines for that, but we did install and use Skype! Both of my nieces are on it and we'd been thinking how cool that would be, to be able to talk and SEE them... Like George Jetson! Woo! It was touch and go there for a bit, the three of us on line trying to figure out conferencing-- there's a blond joke in there somewhere, I'm sure- in the end we were successful and it is amazing. We chatted as a group and then one on one. It is so amazing what we are able to do with computers... My kids loved it too-- the web cam is AWESOME. I think that we'll set up a weekly Skype to stay in touch. And, maybe that will make them living there and us living here not quite so far apart.