What I've Been Working On

Now that I am caught up with Christmas posts I can now start focusing on what has been happening in 2013! I just compiled last years posts and submitted them to Blog2Print to have them all put into a hard bound book for our 2012 family yearbook. Feels good to be done with that and on top of things!

I've been keeping busy with other projects lately too. One has been a furniture refinish project. I just love those! A friend of ours and his wife recently moved up here, and to help them with their home decor I took on the task of refinishing a dining room table his wife and I found at Goodwill (funny story on that table too!) for $20 and I am now fixing their 3 dining room chairs to match. I love how the table turned out and the chairs are looking fantabulous as well!

Here's what the table top looked like from the store. 

after a little sanding

 

And WHA LA!

I love how it turned out. And I just love how the little knob on the little side drawer stands out. The Table legs were kinda fun too. I put them on my lathe and sanded and painted them while they were spinning. Talk about FUN! And perfect finish! 

Now the funny thing about this table is that my friend and I found it at Goodwill for $20. Well that parts not so funny, but here's the kicker. It used to be my BEST FRIEND'S table! You may remember me telling you about Marie O'Neil once or twice. Well, she moved to Germany back in November (still broken hearted about that) and she had sold the table to her neighbor before she moved. They must have moved since then too or found something else. But as soon as I saw the little red marker streaks and blue pen markings on that table top I "knew" this table. I had seen it time and time again at the one place I used to spend hours talking with my bestie. Eating mac n cheese with 8 lil kiddos around and making messes. So for me this wasn't just any furniture makeover. It was a reminder of my BFF and many memories! sniffle sniffle.

After the table top was finished it was time to make my friends dining room chairs match. They we in need of a makeover and I was just the person to do it. Dan had been in the Philippines again and I needed a project to keep me busy. It just happened to be that I didn't get around to this part til he got back :)

Here are the chairs after I gave them a light sanding to get rid of the old finish and make it so the paint would stick. I totally spaced taking a "before" picture.  I got to work as soon as these babies got to my house. You can see in the white bucket the fabric that used to cover the seat cushions. Lovely vegetable print! It was time for an update!

 

And here are the new seat cushions are prettied up again

 

Side by side before and after. Awh much better!

Two chairs down just one more to go!

I am also working on a couple quilts. Yes, I said a couple! My little sister is expecting her first baby and I am taking this auntie thing to niece or nephew#2 very seriously. But since I don't know what the sex of the baby is going to be I decided to go ahead and make a quilt for both sexes just to cover all possibilities. Call me crazy! I love my sister! And in the end I'll have another awesome quilt to gift to someone else since babies are happening everywhere it seems.

I've finished up all the quilt blocks so far and now just need to sew them together to make the quilt top. I am thinking of doing one with a purple border and one with an orange border. What do you think?

 

And while I am at it, I thought I'd share this picture too. This is what I found as I was leaving to go pick my oldest daughter Kiera from the bus stop. And when I got back it was still going on. I just had to get a picture. Just melts my heart!