real upholstery: round 1

During the summer of 2009, I started accumulating furniture that needed to be refinished or reupholstered. At the time, I was still sharing an apartment with my brother, and most of the furniture we were using was his. Two years later, I am finally living in a place where I want to use this furniture, and I recently got around to the chair below. I purchased it at an estate shop for $60, and the fabrics were super cheap remnants. About a month ago, Mom and I looked at some upholstery books and got to work. After 2 weeks and literally pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into it, I have a beautiful antique horsehair stuffed chair, remade to custom match my living room.

The chair before:

During (this is where we discovered the horsehair and quality cotton batting):

We removed the skirt and unnecessary cording, added larger buttons, made the tufts in the back/seat deeper, and ... after:

The chair is happily nestled in the corner between our two bookcases (one for books, one for games!), and you can see the beautiful print on the back right when you walk in the front door. I have a teeny tiny table that I want to paint and tuck in between the chair and the tall bookcase to make this reading corner complete, but that's another project. For now, I'm so happy and in love with this chair!

coasting by

Tomorrow will by my eleventh day off from work in a row. Other than a trip to Arkansas last weekend (which really turned into a trip to Chicago, but that's another story), I have been hanging out at home with my favorite boys and knitting a bunch. Getting back to the grind this weekend will be difficult, but at least I only have to endure a three day work week...

Today I finally got around to photographing these adorable coasters that I made about eight months ago. I crocheted them from re-purposed t-shirts that were spun into a sturdy cotton yarn (another purchase from my many trips to Asheville), and I love the way they turned out. They will be hitting the shop any second.



In other news, I just set the knitting machine up for the first time in six months. I still need to hang pictures and a shelf to keep the clutter off of the table, but I'm sooo happy to have a home for the machine in the new office/knitting room. New machine assisted knits will land in the store soon. Happy dance!

alpaca/silk/merino

These are the ingredients of the most luxurious blend I have worked with recently. Not surprisingly, this scarf is oh so soft. Look for it in the shop soon!




PS: I'm introducing a new face to the store ... Asher! Since Banks and I have opposite work schedules now, it's hard to catch daylight at the same time (especially in the winter), which means I have temporarily lost my usual male model. I'm sad, but working with my little brother is fun.

be mine

Valentine's Day is a week away, and I've been having fun with it this year. Henry has a Valentine party at preschool next week, and each child is required to bring a card for everyone in the class. Instead of purchasing a box of cards, we made multi-colored heart-shaped crayons for everyone. I hot glued them to foam cards, and voila! Cutest Valentines ever!

The supplies:

Peeling the wrappers off is tedious. Why do kids think it's fun?

Finished:

We had so much fun, and Henry can't wait to give them to his friends. :)

bamboo spins

Just having some fun with a new scarf that will hit the shop soon. My first knitting experience with bamboo, and I love the way it moves.