Already?

Yes. I am already listening to Christmas music.

It started Saturday. Last Friday night I went to the state fair with a bunch of friends. It was pretty cold outside when we left at 1:00am and we all headed back to our house for hot chocolate and apple cider. When the roommates and I woke up on Saturday (all in our flannel pajamas) we made breakfast, decided to put in a Christmas flick and there you have it.


This is my favorite Christmas hymn. Few things in this world make me tear up, but the third stanza of this song does it almost every time. I haven't stopped listening to it and doubt I will until January.

Now on to decorating...unfortunately I will have to wait a bit longer on that.

*If you want some great Christmas albums check here and here.

Re-upholstery attempt #2

...was a success!

About 3 1/2 years ago, when I found out I was moving to Mississippi, I ran to a garage sale with my mom. We weren't expecting to find anything, but thought it might be worth the trip. When we arrived I saw a set of 4 chairs that looked like they might have potential. I talked the home-owner down from $40 to $30 for the set of four (the leg on one chair needed a slight repair) and walked away a happy camper.
*note: I was moving into a big house that needed furniture, so it wasn't a completely random purchase.

Once the chairs were purchased I had to figure out what to do with them. The more I looked at them the uglier they were. The wood had a horrible finish on it, hideously tarnished brass tacks and a mauve-ish Naugahyde covering...but the bones were good!


I have ALWAYS love this picture from a cover of House & Garden. It was actually the first issue I ever bought because I loved it so much.



I have always wanted a dining room similar to this one - old farm table with white Louis XVI style chairs (hopefully with a crewel or needlepoint upholstery). In my mind I was sure I could do something similar with these 4 chairs.

The first few months I was in Mississippi I searched and searched and searched and finally found some fabric I liked in an issue of the now axed Blueprint magazine. I tracked it down in a shop in Soho and had them ship me last 4 yards. Once I decided on my print I had to find a solid to cover the seat and back with. Thanks to a trip to The Linen Shop in Canton, MS I found P. Kaufman's Slubby basket in Caribe for $8 a yard.

I then removed the former covering of the chair and white-washed the frame. I covered the seat and very back of the chair in the green and the back with the floral. The hardest part was making the cording out of such thick fabric! I ended up cheating and attached it with hot glue.


Those two chairs now float between my living and dining rooms.



Three years later I still had two chairs in the storage room, but realized I needed a chair for my new office. What to do? Re-cover another one, of course!

I was much more prepared with this one. I went the paint store and played with paint colors for a while. With the help of the guys behind the counter I settled on Benjamin Moore's Bavarian Cream. I am really pleased with the color. It's just a bit warmer than bright white.

I covered the seat and very back of this chair with a great neutral linen I found at Premier Fabrics ($10/yard). I covered the back of the chair with a fabulous fabric that I found at Sir's for about $4/yard. I later found that fabric in a shop for $50/yard. Go me!

For this chair I used bronze upholstery tacks instead of trim. That. was. difficult. OMG. It's amazing I didn't chip off more paint than I did (thanks to my dad, who was in town a few weekends ago, the tacks ended up much straighter than in the picture above). But the finished product was worth it. Don't you think so?

Crafty Guests!

My parents came in town last weekend and in typical fashion of my family we crafted!

What do you get when you combine this


and this fabric?


You get an adorably cute trash can!

Yes, a trash can. After dinner my mother busted out the tools to make me one!

Perhaps you remember the super-cute beverage bucket I made a few months earlier this year.



It was inspired by an idea my mother got in a local shop back home. She made herself a trash can using the same technique and last weekend she made me one! It took all of 24 hours start to finish (and that includes a lot of drying time).

Here is the finished product!


Follow the directions here to make your own!