pause.

i need this mug: it'd be a good reminder for me to just slow down sometimes. i'm not good at that.

as a result, i have done no crafting since that chair i did in july. none. i suppose a few things here and there, but nothing major. no furniture. no fun fabric shopping. no salvaged chairs.

 sigh . . . 'tis life, i suppose.

that is about to change. i am embarking on a new project that will require some craigslisting this weekend, a few cans of spray paint (i'm thinking bright pink. seriously.), and some fabric (and honestly, what project of mine does not involve these three?).

we don't need more furniture - and we definitely don't need more spray painted and re-upholstered craigslist furniture - so i'm not quite sure what will become of it. it's the process i enjoy more than the final product anyway.

in other "garbage we found that we don't need that now sits in our basement" news, we have this:

i'd been on the hunt for a nice big old shipping crate to be used as blanket storage for years. was going to a zumba class (my first and last- if you don't count the impromptu class my sister lead in my mom's living room over christmas . . . ) and saw an art framing gallery was having a warehouse sale. stopped up. saw this bad boy for under $10. called mq to immediately put down his breakfast and drive down to pick it up. got it home. and haven't the slightest idea what to do with it now. not. the. slightest.

it's big. it's also about 100lbs. seriously. it needs some serious tlc. apparently they don't make 'em like this anymore (or use them) because of some bug infestation. . . . which of course, mq disclosed as it sat in our living room. we also don't have space for it. but i had been searching for so long i couldn't pass it up!

we bought casters for it - which we've yet to attach. and it sits in our basement along with other unfinished furniture we've collected over the past several years.

we need to get our creative juices flowing again in this house. it's a good way for me to pause. 

operation(s) complete

the turquoise tufted chair isn't nearly as ugly as i was anticipating. i'm still not sure i love it - especially enough to keep it in our living room, but mq does.

when we moved in together for the first time, some things quickly became clear to both of us. 

i'm a better cleaner. and far too particular of a cleaner (some would say anal) to let him help me out. neither of us are chefs, so we split the cooking fairly evenly (at least, at one point we did). 

and, perhaps most importantly, he's in charge of all home decorating. my taste is far too feminine (think anthropologie home decor to an extreme) and, frankly, i just don't have a knack for that sort of thing. 

this has transferred to my upholstery projects. no matter how hard i try to find the perfect fabric, he usually picks it out. i'm drawn to birds and owls - or a perfect white - and he matches colors and takes risks. i've been hesitant about the turquoise - and now, even as this little completed chair sits in our living room, i'm unsure. 

it's grown on me in the last 24 hours though. 

i'm pretty sure he just loves the tufting (he's about as obsessed with tufting as i am with painted wood).

speaking of our living room - have you seen our new lamp - i.e. spotlight?

 our best rummage sale find of the year. another item was was not crazy about but has grown on me. we put a dimmer on it, cleaned it up a bit and now it operates just like lamp. a really big lamp.

it once belonged to the paradise theater in west allis - a small theater that opened in 1929. 

they stopped showing movies in the '90s and someone in our neighborhood bought the building before it became a church and was able to snatch up all the cool pieces of the theater that remained. 

and then he had a rummage sale to sell them all to his hoarding neighbors. 

 and now we laugh when we walk by pottery barn and see this one

or this one at restoration hardware: 

and sure, maybe these ones are a bit more shiny and fancy looking, but ours at least has its authenticity (right?).

alice's chair has also gotten it's final touches this morning. i just can't show the whole thing until alice and sean see it themselves. i'm making a special delivery tomorrow afternoon and am really hoping they're happy with it. 

painting hardwood floors

my affinity for painted wood has recently gone to a new level.

i realize painted woodwork isn't for everyone (and my dream home would likely give my mom a heart attack) but my latest obsession goes beyond simply painting that dark woodwork a beautiful bright white:

painted hardwood floors.

i see them and die a little bit inside.

and this Elle Decor article even points out how popular painted floors were in the late 1700s.

granted, it's 2012 now and not all that popular at all, but it's a trend i'm bringing back . . . .

just as soon as i own a home i can bring it back to.

p.s. i do promise never to paint over really beautiful wood flooring in my living/dining room.

but a kitchen? bathroom? office? that's fair game.

consider it an economical alternative to refinishing and a stylish alternative to carpet.

cute as a button

you know that tufted not-as-turquoise-as-i-would-like mess - i mean chair - that i've been ever so slow to finish? well, one reason for the delay is the tufting - and, in particular, the buttons.

i am using prong-back buttons instead of the more common (and much easier to use) loop back buttons. i ordered a pack of buttons from here and then sat with them for awhile, a bit stumped about how to actually cover them.

(these are the originals)

you see, really, i should have a button machine - and i do not. i don't cover buttons nearly often enough to make it worth the money.
 then i found larry (cue heavenly angel voices).

larry owns homestyle custom upholstery in bayview and agreed to cover my buttons for me- super cheap! so i took him a little bag of button backs, covers, and fabric and in return, he gave me these:

(cue angel voices again).

i loved them.
i wanted to hug him.

but he seemed way too manly and serious for that. i also wanted him to ask if i could be his bff and work for him as his apprentice so he could teach me everything he knows about upholstery.
 instead, he only said, "have a good day."

sigh . . . . if you ever need any real upholstery work done (i'm talking your boats and cars), go to larry. he'll take care of you.

{total sidenote: there is some irony in the two photos above. those buttons are sitting on my dining room table, which, coincidentally, lived in a button factory on the southside of chicago in its former life - hence, it's obviously well-loved and used condition.}

on my way home from my visit with larry, i stopped by a little shop off 2nd and greenfield called foam rubber products and had to restrain myself from hugging my new friend there as well.

he sold me 10 yards of double welt cording to polish off alice's chair for only $2.50.
plus, he made an exception for me . . . they usually only sell it in 250 yard increments. yikes.

speaking of alice's chair . . . here's a sneak peek. it's looking fantastic, if i do say so myself.

she'll be ready to head back south before you know it.

meet alice

 . . . . well, her chair, that is.

alice is a good friend of mine (and arguably the best kind of coworker a girl could ask for. . . . sigh . . . i miss her daily office antics) and she sent me an email awhile back with a photo attached of a chair just begging for renewal.

and it's a pretty awesome chair at at that.

we were in chicago saturday visiting friends we miss dearly and it was the perfect opportunity to pick up this little guy and bring it back to milwaukee to get started.

 . . . . and, by 10am the next morning, the fabric was gone.

(This, unfortunately, is the only photo I took - it was a quick shot on my phone to text my progress back to chicago)

I spent most of my Sunday morning stripping it down, replacing padding, gluing some weak spots, and prepping her for fabric.

she's looking so refreshed already, if i do say so myself.

i've also basically fallen in love with the chair. it's hard to tell from my less-than-professional photos but the woodwork is pretty awesome and with just a little more love it will make for a really great side chair. and i secretly wish i could keep it for myself (don't worry . . . it'll make it's way back down there eventually!!)

I got to work quickly on this chair . . . . perhaps because the other chairs I've been working on have been staring at me for months (and even years . . . ) and so it was exciting to have something new to work with. even more likely: it's currently reading a balmy 93 degrees in my living room, giving me the perfect excuse to spend countless hours in the much cooler basement.

that's sort of a masculine sentiment, no?

That doesn't mean I've forgotten my turquoise love.

This is about how far we've come though. The color combination is growing on me.

Both the back and seat are tufted and are taking a little bit of time but are prepped and will be ready to go soon. Despite my somewhat busy work week, I'm hoping to get both of these in sitting condition by early next week at the latest (provided there are no disasters involved). 

I'll keep you posted on my progress. For real this time.

buyers remorse

i know. it's been awhile. it's just that, well, i haven't been upholstering . . . or crafting at all really. my summer has consisted of a trip to vegas, a roadtrip to cincinnati, a few visits to chicago, lots of work, and lots of sun. it's been pretty wonderful, actually. in the past two week's i have even gotten two (yes two!) "you are awesome" email responses from my advisor. if you knew her, you'd understand why this would make my summer.

and so this week i finally decided to get back in upholstery mode and work on this little chair we got at ReStore way back when that's been occupying space in our basement.



i have a thing for painted wood these days. it seems so fresh and clean and perfect compared to natural wood. and so although i can't paint the woodwork in our apartment (although i've daydreamed about it), i've taken to painting wooden chairs.

this time i went with white.

 we picked out a fabric yesterday. truth is, i found myself drawn to this semi-ugly orange polyester fabric - in other words, the same fabric that was on the chair to begin with. that was shot down by the mister,  but we found a happy medium in a different semi-ugly polyester . . . turquoise.

i loved it in the store. i'm having buyers remorse at the moment. it seems more blue than teal in our house, and might be a little too quirky for me. but there's no turning back now. i like sort of ugly things sometimes to be honest - and if this chair doesn't end up fitting in with the rest of our  apartment, it's up for grabs for anyone else who also appreciates semi-ugly things and turquoise polyester fabrics (there has to be someone out there, right?).

this guy is next on my list but will require lots of work (obviously. the springs in this photo are on the ground . . . ) but i see it's potential. i've already removed all the fabric and my mom is working on removing the last remaining nails and then we'll get her started.

 i'm promising to dedicate more time (or as much time as possible) to finishing up - or making some good headway on these projects before classes start up again. i'm also promising to keep you posted on said progress. :)

who wears short shorts?

. . . . i guess i do, now.

i hate shorts. i find them uncomfortable and ugly and  the most unflattering piece of clothing i could ever put on.

want to see me in shorts? come to a 115-degree yoga class with me - otherwise, you're out of luck.

but i purchased my first pair of non-yoga shorts since high school on saturday. it may take some encouragement to actually wear them in public, but i did it. with, of course, extensive pressure from michael.

it sort of went down like this:

mq: try these no

me: no, i still don't wear shorts

mq: just try them. they're on sale.

me: fine (thinking- i'll just humor you and prove to you how insanely ridiculous i look in shorts and you will finally come to understand why i stick to skirts and dresses)

{try them on . . . come out of the dressing room feeling like i may as well be wearing a clown costume}

mq: love them. get them. they're a good deal. an extra 30% off.

me: no. nice try. i'm not a shorts person. i look stout and won't ever wear them.

and then i swear he took them from me and went straight to the counter and purchased them.

suddenly i was the owner of these jean shorts from the jcrew outlet:

i have a hard time thinking about shorts when it's been cold and rainy and we still have our heat on.

but perhaps they'll make a public debuet this summer. we'll see.

brian and michael might be my limited audience.

what do you wear with shorts anyway? i think that might be half my battle . . . . 

still going at it

the truth is, sometimes i think i could do this. forever. as my real job.

there's something about sitting in my basement, with NPR on in the background, just me and a chair . . . . . or 6.

i just finished my first real job on friday. real as in, the finished product wasn't going to end up in my living room, my mom's living room, or craigslist. as in, somebody sought me out and asked me to re-do 6 dining room chairs. and wanted to pay me to do it.

the pressure was on.

               Before:                                                                             After:

my photo quality is weak. mostly because my after photos were right as we were running out the door to deliver them and I realized I hadn't taken any. but hopefully you can at the very least see they got a much-needed facelift.

i have several summer upholstery projects lined up- mostly for myself, my mom, and possibly my mother-in-law. pressure is still on there, but there shouldn't be a time crunch. some will be difficult and might last well into the fall.

but i wonder if i've overcommitted myself already. it's not like i have the summer off or anything.

i have about half my required summer reading list piled on my desk at the moment.

the initial excitement of ordering all these books on amazon is looking pretty intimidating at the moment.

i'm sure i'll find a way to balance my reading with plenty of upholstery and crafting.

in other news. you know that quote from I Am Sam (love that movie):

"Huge mistakes. Mistakes that were huge"?

i love that quote and say it often to Michael about not so huge mistakes as a joke.

but let me just say that our health insurance company made a pretty huge mistake that has left me emotionally, physically, and psychologically exhausted.

i need to find myself a xanax and get to a bikram yoga class asap.

it's over. and fine. and taken care of and i'm not going to be homeless or bankrupt or uninsured as i was fairly certain i would be around 3:30 this morning as i sat with my cat, eating a popsicle, attempting to edit a 40 page paper i have due this week - all the while being completely hysterical and dramatic.

god bless michael quinn.

. . . . .  a summer of reading and upholstery is looking mighty fine right about now.

DIY barnwood cabinet

. . . . wherein "DIY" really means "do it with someone who really knows what he's doing" (thank you, Tom).

I don't have many photos - and the ones I do have are courtesy of my phone (and therefore of sub par quality). I'm eager to show you nonetheless. MQ has some great ones from the building process but I'm too impatient to wait for him to upload those for me.

Back story: About 2 years ago we were in search of a bathroom cabinet to help out our lack of storage situation. We got this bookcase from Ikea - with this door. It's a glass door and we covered the inside with fabric. It was decently cute and functional and cheap. Perfect.

The bookshelf has failed us miserably. I blame it on the bathroom humidity that has made it incredibly unstable.
So we set out to make a new one.

The plan: make it the same dimensions so we could reattach the door to the new one. I'm not an open shelving fan, to say the least. Books I can handle, everything else needs to be away. Behind a door.

Here's the old door fabric ready for a change.

And this is the cabinet.

We brought it home and only needed some polyurethane (several coats) so it sat in our dining room for about a week as Michael went to town.

(Isn't it cool, by the way?! I'll give the full run-down on the process when I get photos ready, but we're so happy with how it turned out!).

And then I came home from school on Monday to find her completed (full with the new door fabric)!

 . . . . . . . And we're not sure we like it.

Well, we love the cabinet; that part we know. We do not love the door. It looked much more rustic and barnwoody (that's a word, right?) pre-door. And now - eh. It's decent.

But what's an enclosed-storage-loving girl to do?

I'm thinking about some baskets. We can't just leave it as open randomness (MQ's many a hair products are nearly overflowing from his shelf in there anyway) but what about something like this:

Or this?

I don't love either of those options. I'm looking for an industrial looking, metal bin. Silver, preferably. And I think I could live with that. One per shelf.

Eh. In the meantime I'll settle for the door. Be on the lookout for us.

In other news . . . .

We have a similar cabinet in the kitchen and so I just couldn't resist giving her a makeover as well:

The before . . . . .

 . . . . and after

As a snack cabinet, she definitely needs those doors and I am loving the new purple. I know you can't tell in the bathroom cabinet photo but that new fabric is purple as well.

Not sure how I got that one passed our home decor president (i.e. MQ) but I'm proud of that one.

So, I want a bike . . . .

I'm fairly certain the last time I rode a bicycle was when we were in Ireland in 2005 on the Aran Islands. I seem to recall a very fast and frantic ride across the island after we realized the last ferry for the day was leaving soon and Michael had an exam to get back for the next morning. . . .

So, no, I'm not a rider. However, gas prices will kill our budget this summer (they have already) and so I figured I may as well just buy a cute little bicycle. 

Maybe this one . . . .

Or this . . . I love that teal. 

we're going as retro and cute and girly as possible. 

Let's say it's $150. Could I save that much in gas money over the course of the summer? 

Perhaps. Depends on how much I ride. I've mapped out a route to school that would help me avoid major hills and major traffic (both of which I fear) and I'm convinced that if I get a really cute basket, my laptop and books could ride along nicely AND I could make little grocery store trips with it. 

And then I remember I don't really like to sweat. Especially not on the way to class. Or anywhere public. Nor am I an outdoor person.  

And I start to think that $200 later I'll end up with a beautiful teal bike, the cutest helmet a girl can find, a little bell, and a wicker basket . . . . that sits in my basement as a drive to school to avoid the heat/rain/humidity/cars/bugs, etc. I'll find any excuse. 

It's like when I thought by simply purchasing a guitar I would instantaneously become the next Jewel. The lessons just never took on these tiny fingers.

For now, I'll scour Craigslist. Maybe I can find a used, $50 bike that I can paint and beautify and not feel so bad about using only once.