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.