Tale of $5 Chair

My Hubby and I went Yard "Sailing" this weekend. He was a good sport and gave up his Saturday morning to drive me around. There were some hits and misses. It was windy and not quite as warm as I like it! This poor little $5 chair was my favorite hit. We spent most of the weekend together doing a makeover!It was sturdy, old and had some cute details. The plan was to make a slip cover for the seat. I have been considering slip covers for the dining room and this could be a good practice. Look at the cuteness of the back of the chair!

The leopard was not what I had in mind and the cording was falling off. This was not a professional job!!!

Underneath that.....even worse!!!!!

At one time it had a caned seat under the stripe. The caning was broken. It could have been replaced, if they had not put so many nail holes in the wood when they put a seat on it! So I covered the seat with a piece of toile I had. Much better already!

I got out the big linen dress that I got at a thrift store recently (to make pillows out of) and made a slip cover.

My favorite part are all the little pleats. They took a long time ....maybe I'll reconsider doing slip covers for the 6 dining room chairs!!!!

And here it is - in the hall- with a new/old needlepoint pillow! Cute!

The pillow was a needlepoint canvas I found at Goodwill and finished 8 years ago! There were four of them. I made the first one into a pillow. Then the others went to the pile of unfinished projects. I found this one when I was cleaning the sewing room. It had a few moth holes :( but luckily I had more of the yarn. I repaired it and made the pillow this week...now if I could only find the other two!!!

Thrifty Thursday

This is the Thrifty Thursday Party- Green Edition! I'm not Irish, but for today I can pretend. Here is our kitchen table decked out with thrift store treasures.

On top of my estate sale green tablecloth is a linen dish towel for a table runner found for $.50 at a thrift store.

For my centerpiece a sweet crocheted doillie given to me by a friend, collected cookie cutters and a wee clay leprechaun in a thrifted wooden pedestal.

Love these salt and pepper pugs, a Christmas gift from the newlyweds!

The Johnson Brother's ironstone was a steal at Angel's- I could not have gotten it cheaper at Dollar Tree! The little ivy plates , Early English Ivy by Crown Ducal, are from Mission Thrift-$.75 each.

Mix and match vintage napkins (collected here and there) with cute thrift store urn napkin rings-

The goblets also came from an antique mall up the road in Valley, AL for dollar store prices!

And don't forget the candles by Glade with improvements copied from Leigh!

A couple other thrifty things that are new to me this year -

An estate sale leprechaun, who was captured and placed under a cloche in my parlor!

And a bowl of faux moss rocks from Dollar Tree! Please excuse the fact that the silver bowl is not old and tarnished! I know it is not my style, but I forgot that I had it. When I saw a tarnished one on another blog I remembered the bowl given to me when I retired - still in the box! I pulled it out so that it can age and look more at home in my house!

Thanks again to my friend Leigh who enables my junk addiction every week by having this party in Bloggeritaville!

Extreme Pruning

We had two ancient camellia bushes. One on each side of the porch. They have not been pruned since the first year we lived here.Now they have.

I love those bushes. They always bloom in December for the Porch Tour. I hope we didn't go too far!

Knock Off

Here is my inspiration photo from the RSH catalog. Price $75 on sale for $59...not going to happen.Here is my knock off version. Price $1.18. I can live with that!

I had an old topiary from a yard sale. It was unloved. I bought some plastic eggs and a nest. Painted the eggs. Glued them on. Added the ribbon since I didn't have a bird I liked. Done!

A Whole Lot of Sewing

I've spent most of the week up in the sewing room. It is now messier than it was last weekend and I have not made a dent in the junk pile. But I have finished several things for friends. This pillow came together quickly for a friend who is having a shower this weekend and was "fluffing " her nest. She had the trim and I had a scrap of fabric. It is hard to tell in the picture but it has a wide band around the edge and another row of fringe around the back. It turned out really cute and now I want one shaped like this for me!

All of the next pictures are the Spring wardrobe for a friend's 3 year old daughter. She bought the fabric and T-shirts. I came up with the appliques and made the pants. I don't know which one is my favorite!

That was the fun stuff...now I've got a bunch of alterations to get done before I get to work on any more cute things :( !!!!

Thrifty Thursday

I've been doing a little Spring cleaning or purging this week. The only fun thing about this is finding stuff that I have forgotten I had. I had declared February the month to clean up the sewing room...it did not happen. And it still is not done. I'm such a pack rat. I started pulling out stuff and it just got messier! I have gotten 1/2 of one wall cleaned and redone. (This was the easiest wall!) Everything here is a hand-me-down, yard sale, or thrift store find.I cleared everything off the mantle, then shopped my junk pile and around the house to put things together. I started with the suitcase stack and the picture frame. Then gathered things in Spring colors to fill in.

I found the vintage linens tucked away. The old postcards are from a thrifting trip to Angels with my Mom.
The suitcases are filled with craft supplies. They were already in the sewing room but, they make more sense in front of the fireplace. There was no place for storage on that wall so it was pretty much wasted space.

Mixed and matched rose cups and dishes - $.50 here and there. Grandma's elephants and a $2 shabby pink shelf - all look new to me after digging them out of the stuff I've squirreled away!

Two weeks ago I saw this intriguing topiary and had to try it! I just love it! Even the boy liked the fuzziness of it and could not believe I made it from an old sweater! That is a real compliment because he is not impressed by home decor!!!

It was so fun to make! Thanks again to Leigh for hosting Thrifty Thursday each week! I look forward to collecting new ideas like this one!

Thrifty Thursday

I started this Thrifty Thursday post at Dollar Tree. Dollar Store Crafts that is! I read a post about a cloche made of picture frames then I set out to find what I needed. After playing in the frame aisle to find 4 frames for the walls and 2 for the roof that fit together this is what I came home with:

And a couple of weeks later this is what I ended up with:
There are better directions here. But the short version is-

1. Take out glass and use wood glue to make a box of 4 frames.

2. Use painters tape to hold in place until they dry.

3. Have Husband cut 2 triangles out of scrap wood for the ends of the roof and a rectangle for the base (he added the routing around the edge!)

4. Glue roof together. Add a HL wood fleur de lis on the roof end.

5. Glue 4 old wooden spools on the base for feet.

6. Spray paint everything.

7. Replace glass, glue in place.

I have not decided what I want to put inside it yet, but for now I've got a little blue bird hanging out there!

Thanks again to Leigh for hosting Thrifty Thursday. I always come away with more ideas than time! I am working on burlap bunnies and a topiary made from a wool sweater from last week!

Chug Update

I was watching the "Pet of the Week" last week to see if they mentioned that Chug had found a home. They did not say the name but they said the SPECIAL NEEDS dog had been adopted by one of their viewers! OK, our work is cut out for us!


We knew that adding another animal to the pack would not be easy! They have been getting to know each other...alliances have been formed...territory has been marked....and we are being trained! We have learned that a rescue dog comes with baggage and issues! Chug has separation anxiety issues. He does not like to be confined or left alone! He is a "people" dog and does not like to be without his people! We are trying to get him used to the company of dogs!

He is perfectly content to sleep in a chair as long as I am in the room. Of course he would prefer to be in my lap but we have made progress there. We are struggling with leaving the house without him! He gets hysterical in the crate. I came home to find the crate locked and Chug missing. He chewed the metal bars and bent them enough to get out...the hole was no more than 4 inches!!! He was partying upstairs in youngest son's room!

Next we tried the double baby gate in the kitchen since he can jump the gate that keeps the pugs in. It worked for 1 day! On Sunday we came home to this:

He chewed a hole in the plastic gate and let Eli and Bitsey out! We were gone about an hour! His destructive acts are limited to when he is confined so we are going to start letting him roam the house when we go out for short periods!

And the crate is fine as long as the door is not closed!!!

He also has some issues with housebreaking. Luckily we walk the pugs a lot so he goes with them whether he wants to or not! We have seen great improvement there. He seems to copy Eli! The first week we had to carry him outside and he just sat and shivered. Now he runs to the door most of the time when someone picks up a leash. He has also learned to chew dog toys and sticks. He and Bitsey have argued over toys some and he does not back down!

He is the most loving dog I've ever seen, even with his issues, I can't imagine who could give him away!