Finally Finished my DIY Upholstery!

I finally finished recovering 1 of the arm chairs in our sitting room this weekend! You can read about how I started and steps along the way. I am so happy how it came out and honestly cannot believe I was able to do it (with some help from my dear husband, of course). It really wasn't hard at all and I figured that if it looked terrible then I would just end up having them professionally done. But to save this much money, I just HAD to try it!

I suggest going to www.diyupholsterysupply.com and watching their videos. It took a while, but I think they were so helpful to me to get the basic premise. I also bought a few supplies from them for decent prices. But I was able to find a special staple remover tool at Sears. Here's what you'll need:

• fabric (I used 5 yards)  
• glue gun and sticks
• pliers, needle nose pliers (for pulling staples out of wood)
• hammer (to drive in stubborn staples and to pry off things)
• a tack remover tool- looks sort of like a screwdriver (this is what I bought at Sears)
• a sharp razor blade (to cut off old fabric in places)
• scissors (to cut new fabric)
• a heavy duty stapler gun (again, think of renting one with an air compressor)
• staples to fit gun
• cardboard (for pieces you find in the chair that are worn/torn) I actually used shipping boxes I had on hand for my Cayenne Paper business
• a big help for me was to have a magnetic catch-all dish (my husband had it in the garage) that I could toss staples in to avoid scratching my wood floor or sending one of us to the ER

I also HIGHLY recommend using or renting a stapler with the air compressor (heavy duty) because you will do so much stapling that it will kill your hands. Plus you want to make sure they are all the way in the wood and not sticking up like most of mine did. Note that this takes time! Don't expect to finish it in a few hours. I spent several hours each day over a weekend to do it. By then, I wasn't motivated to do the other chair, so I'm taking a break. Hopefully that one will be easier/faster since I sort of know what to do/not to do!

Start at the back of the chair and gently pry off that fabric piece which really acts as a cover for where a lot of your fabric is pulled to and stapled to. It has a strip of special tacks on each side here, so we were very careful not to rip them so we could use them again. I removed six trillion staples and took off each piece one at a time. I labeled the pieces and used them as templates. On the skirt, I didn't even take off the old fabric. I simply covered it up like wrapping a present because it has a nice sturdy base of some sort that I wanted to use. I just used my glue gun to tape it down! Same thing for the piping there.

Now I just need to do the other one! In case you're interested, I used Waverly Paddock Blue fabric from JoAnn. It is actually Sun & Shade fabric, meaning it is stain-resistant and won't fade. I also loved that I purchased it near the end of summer, so I got it 70% off!  Total cost for re-upholstering this 1 chair = $60 and lots of heavy-duty staples and sweat equity. Oh, add a few bucks for tons of hot glue sticks, too. (Yes, I did have to resort to Old Faithful, my glue gun, in some places. She gets me out of all kinds of messes. A true friend for life!)

Also, I love how my $5 thrift store footstool came out with my remnant piece of Waverly Jamestown Toile fabric:

I'm linked up to Miss Mustard Seed's linky party!

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Preschool

So far, Drew and Libby have been loving preschool! Last night was Open House, so Darrell and I got to see what their day is like. Libby made this for us to see. Drew was out sick that day. :(

Inexpensive Halloween Mantel

It's been beautiful here in Virginia the last few days, so I'm already getting excited for Halloween. I know, I know... it's only early September, but I can't help it since the stores have had out their Halloween merchandise since August! I came across these photos of my mantel from last year and wanted to share my inexpensive hand-made Halloween banner in case you would like to make one yourself! It was pretty easy, actually, and a lot of fun.

I used my Cricut machine to make the letters (Mini Monograms and George & Basic Shapes cartridges), but you could always use stencils or hand-draw them. Use containers from your pantry to find exactly the right size circles you'd like!

Here's what you need:

• cardboard (from a box)
• box cutter
• black cardstock (1 sheet for each letter)
• 12x12 scrapbook paper in coordinating colors/designs (I saved time and energy by picking up a Halloween paper pack from K&Company at Michaels with my 40% off coupon. It had the glittery cardstock and all the others to coordinate)
• matching die-cuts or stickers (also from K&Company to all coordinate)
• coordinating Halloween, check/gingham, striped ribbons (on sale at Michael's)
• pom-pom fringe or trim (I had the pom poms left over and found the pumpkin trim for 99 cents at Michaels)
• scissors
• strong glue or double sided tape
• Cricut machine with Mini Monograms and George & Basic Shapes cartridges
• hole puncher

Total cost: $15

Steps:

1. Cut out triangle shapes from the cardboard using box cutter. I simply made them using a 8.5x11" sheets of cardboard and made them all the same size.
2. Cover each triangle with scrapbook paper and attach to back with double sided tape or strong glue.
3. Cut out the letters enclosed in circles (I think they ended up being 5 1/2" on the Cricut) using the Cricut and Mini Monograms cartridge.
4. Use George and Basic Shapes cartridge (or another circular stencil/container) to cut out 5 1/2" circles from the black cardstock.
5. Glue your circular letters on top of the black cardstock circles.
6. Glue down the circle letters on the triangles.
7. Embellish triangles with stickers, die-cuts, etc. You could also use a stamp pad to distress edges here.
8. Punch a hole in top left and top right corners of each triangle.
9. Apply your pom-pom fringe or trim leaving a little space for the punched hole to be accessible.
10. Cut small strips of various ribbon colors and tie these to each hole.
11. Tie the ribbons together so they all hang in a garland.
12. Space evenly and hang on your mantel with nails, tacks, or tape

*Note: I was SO lucky that my letters all fit just barely on my mantel. I would advise you to measure your mantel width first to be sure you have enough room for all of your letters.

I love the "vintage" Halloween decorations that are popular at stores now. I had bought the cat bucket all the way on the right of the mantel from Restoration Hardware years ago. But I found the skeleton and Frankenstein candle holders at Michaels last year. The jack-o-lanterns were a splurge from Ballard Designs after Halloween one year, and the spider candle holders were from Lillian Vernon. I added some battery-operated flickering orange votive candles to the spiders. I also added some fun orange lights, making it so cute at night. 

Have fun! ;)

BTW... I posted this idea on The Shabby Nest, so check it out!

Another Katie's Chicken Casserole

I've been reading another Katie's blog lately and found this recipe for a Chicken Casserole she makes. I tried it the other night and it was delish! I only had white meat, but agree that maybe some dark meat in there would have made it even better. I'll have to try it that way next time. But definitely easy and Libby and Drew loved smashing up the Club crackers in the ziploc! The recipe:

1 whole chicken, cooked (white meat chunked, dark meat ground)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
1 stick butter, melted (I only had margarine on hand, but still good)
1 sleeve Club crackers

Grind up crackers in a ziploc by beating with a tenderizer. Dump in a bowl and add the melted butter and mix. Spray a casserole dish and add chicken, soup, and sour cream. Mix all together well and top with cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 till bubbly. YUM!

Mama's Mickey Pancakes

Don't you just love breakfast for dinner, especially whe your mama does sweet things like this? I must admit that Daddy put Mickey's face together. Let's just say that Libby and Drew cleaned their plates!

Hermit Crabs

Recently, our next door neighbors, Hailey and Kate, brought over their new hermit crabs, Rocky and Hermie, for us to see. Libby and Drew loved watching them move around, but did not want to hold them. "They will pinch us, Mama?" Is all they kept asking for the nextt 2 days. They asked if they could get hermit crabs, tto, so our deal is that if they both poop on the potty, we can get them. No trips to PetSmart yet, but hopefully soon!