Last weekend, my husband had to work a 48 hour shift... right??? Can you even imagine it? He's a paramedic, and I'll tell you one thing, unless I'm unconscious, you will never see me on an ambulance! They work medics to the bone around here, and 48's and sometimes even 72's aren't all that uncommon, so you never know if you are getting a fresh medic or one who hasn't had any sleep. Poor guys.
But anyway, off that soap box. While he was gone, I had two goals, I wanted to get Journey's new bench made and my crochet/knitting chair recovered. My mom came over to help, thanks again mom!
This is what I started with. I think it was a coffee table, but it was pretty weird. I bought it for $3 at the thrift store by my work. The lady started a $10, but I made a "you've got to be kidding" face, and she said "ok, $5, but that's as low as I'm going". I said, "ok, do you have the glass pieces that slide in the sides?"... and I got it for $3. That's right people make faces and haggle.
The laminate on this thing was rough! The corners were terrible. You could see the composite chipping in lots of places. It had weird holes in the middle section that maybe dowels or something went in? The sides had weird shelves with wide ridges on them. I have no clue what this things intended purpose was, lol. It says patent pending on the bottom. I wonder how that worked out for the inventor, lol.
Friday, I removed the weird shelves, sanded and primed it. The fire you see in the background is the stumps from our ugo-dead Christmas trees that Justin finally cut down. We are planning some big stuff for our yard this year. I will try to remember to post some of our ideas soon. I can't wait!
When I woke up Saturday, I decided that I hated this little quarter inch lip on the middle section.
So I sanded, and sanded, and sanded the ba-jesus out of it. Then I decided, I could not live with the weirdo holes everywhere. (Even though I planned on buying baskets for all of Journey's stuff, anyway... I was going to do this right.) So I got out the wood filler, and I patched up all the holes, the corners, and the yucky spots.
Meanwhile, my mama came outside to keep my company and sew my new chair covers.
Journey just chilled. She LOVES to be outside, and she was obviously feeling no pain.
Finally, the wood filler dried up, and I primed over the bad spots. Then I painted the whole thing "Brighton Beach" blue by ACE. It came down to two blues, but I went with Brighton because that's where Lydia Bennett ran off to, and I love me some Jane Austen :) Did you notice my patch work?
No more weird shelves.
Then I cut some MDF to fit the top, upholstered it, and wa-la! Doesn't it kinda look like it's smiling at you?
Journey loves it already... but mostly she just loves having a soft place to lay around and look out her window. It's way more comfy and sturdy than the last coffee table bench I made.
I got the baskets at Micheal's. They were having a 40% off sale on all their baskets, score! AND they fit perfectly. One has her toys, one has her meds and treats, and one has her harness and clothes. (Yeah, she's a fancy clothes wearing dog sometimes. My favorites are her footie pj's and her Valentine's tee shirt.)
She's such a crazy good photo creeper model.
While I was working on the bench, my mom was sewing, sewing, sewing. I needed to recover this chair, and the ottoman. (p.s. the ottoman turns into two little people chairs and a foot stool. My nieces love it. The bright starry red was a little much though, lol)
I bought the fabric for the top of my bench and this fabric at Hancocks. I got this soft stone color on the remnant table, represent! It was only $5 a yard. The butterfly fabric was thrifted, and I think it made a good springy pillow cover.
So that was last weekend :) And even though we worked from dawn til dusk Saturday, it was really fun! This weekend was great too. It was my niece Emilia's birthday yesterday. I was painting faces, so I put mom in charge of taking pictures. (I think my camera was giving her some trouble, but here are some cute ones.)
This is her opening the tutu I made her. (She lives in tutus!) Mom chopped off her head, but the stance is great!
She put it on under the tutu she was already wearing. I also made her the sea horse necklace she's wearing.
She had a fairy/pirate party. My sister is dressed as Tinker Bell, and Mia is Rosetta.
Today I went over to my mother-in-law's for Easter brunch, and it was wonderful too. I hope you've had a great Easter weekend! Love, Clare
