That '70s Chair

...Well, I'm not really sure how old these chairs are, but one things for sure: They are are from a decade that is long gone!

I found these simple oak chairs this morning at the local Goodwill store. I really wasn't looking for chairs, but there they were! Goodwill Gold! (And at $4 each, they were even more perfect!)

I love the worn look of them. They remind me of the chairs you'd see in a college library. Imagine how many hung-over college students sat in these chairs over the years!

After giving each chair a little wiggle to make sure they weren't too wobbly, I soon came to the conclusion that they only needed one or two screws tightened and a good old cleaning. So off I went to the register with one chair in each hand! And let me tell you, these chairs were hea-vy! I nearly broke a sweat!

I didn't even bother carrying these chairs inside when I got home. Nope! They first needed lots and lots (and lots!) of cleaning to get through that layer of grime so the "patina" can show through. I left them on the front porch and brought out my arsenal of buckets and sudsy water and then I scrub, scrub, scrubbed for about 30 minutes.

After their much needed cleaning with a little sudsy water, and then some Murphy oil soap, I gave these chairs a rub-down with some Old English furniture repair polish. After that, I used some regular wood furniture polish to really make them shine.

Wow! Talk about a power combo! Soon these chairs were just shining in the sunlight coming into my front porch. Are they perfect, museum-quality chairs? Well, no. Did I want perfect, museum-quality chairs? Absolutely not. After all, I did pick them up at Goodwill! These chairs look great in my office, replacing the mismatched chairs that I've been wanting to replace.

With this $8 investment, I am so pleased! And now I have matching chairs for my kids to sit in when they're all playing on the computer together. I have to say it was a good (will) day!

Doin' the Paint Shelf Shuffle!

So I was stalking my friends, Natalie and Heather's blog the other day and saw this project that they just finished. Now, I'm not one who jumps at the chance to paint a room and I certainly don't enjoy painting furniture, but I do likes me a furniture make over every now and then! Well, with this shot of inspiration this girl decided that it's high time to roll up her sleeves and find something to paint!

I've been needing a wooden shelf (well, actually this house has so many built-in shelves, I really don't, but that's beside the point). Anyhoo. I've been on a closet organization mission and thought a shelf would be perfect to organize my shoes, so I found this shelf for only $36 bucks at the Habitat for Humanity store:

I know first impressions are everything when it comes to furniture shopping and this poor thing didn't stand a chance to become much more than kindling if left in the state that I found her. There was a thin layer of furniture stain, complete with drip marks, and she was rough to the touch. Also, when they loaded her up in my car, only then did I see the spider webs and eggs covering the bottom and in all her cracks and crevices. I had the heebie jeebies the whole way home. I kept getting that feeling that there was a spider crawling on me. (Shudder)

Well, I managed to get this big old gal out of my car all by myself without getting one spider on me. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this is intended to be one unit, but luckily the guys at the Habitat store keep a screw gun handy so a few zips here and there and she was broken into two pieces that slid into into the back of my vehicle.

After my daughter and I pulled her outside, we began wipe the cobwebs away and clean the heck out of this thing. I did not want to bring any unwelcome visitors into my house with this thing so we got rid of all the webs and checked the cracks for spiders. Once we got the all-clear we began to paint, and paint, and paint! This shelf took three coats and I'm sure I could go back for more touch-up!

And here it is! Ain't she a beaute?!

Remember how I mentioned that this shelf was bought with the intentions of closet organization? Well I changed my mind.

I decided that my office was in greater need of some shelves because, well, it didn't have any. I figured that if I got my printers off my desk and found a place for my stacks of books and miscellaneous items, my desk could be a nice, wide-open space. And I love big, clean desks!

I also decided that I like this unit better separated so I shuffled the pieces around.

Here it is broken into two pieces. The smaller one now holds my printer and scanner and the larger piece is filled with my favorite books including my new obsession, John Jakes. Well his books really aren't new at all, but after picking up that copy of North and South, I'm hooked!

And here you go! My new (to me) shelves with paint so fresh it still has that new paint smell!

The Season of Friendship - Is just around the corner!

As I'm sitting here on this three-hour school delay morning, I'm dreaming of spring. Now, I'll be the first one to admit that I love a good snow day, but after having two months in a row heating bills that were so high that I nearly fell out of my chair upon opening, I'm ready for a nice warm front.

So in my daydream believer style, I whipped up this card to entice spring to move on in. After all, Mr. Groundhog's shadow was nowhere to be found this February 2nd.

For this card, I used my beloved Season of Friendship stamp set that Stampin Up! offers. Love that set.

For the leaves I just stamped, stamped, stamped away to fill out the tree and I love how it turned out. And what tree would be complete without a few blossoms and a sweet yellow bird perched on top? Not this one!

I love me some Circle Circus!

I have to admit that I can't tell you how many times I've flipped past Stampin Up's Circle Circus in the catalog thinking to myself, Pssht! Who needs to spend twenty eight dollars on a bunch of circles? Well, Self, you do; that's who!

I recently became a Stampin Up! demo and when I was putting my first order together, I did a quick search to see just what the dealio was with this set and I was just floored by all the fun projects other stampers have made with this fun set.

Here's a thank you card that uses a bunch of inks and every single one of the stamps in that Circle Circus set. I have to say that this is now one of my favorite sets!

Love this nest.

I love making these simple nests. It's just strips of paper, but the overall effect is just lovely. (If I must say so myself!)

This nest also makes a great embellishment on a scrapbook album title page. When my youngest was born, I used one of these nests with the title, "A new bird in our nest." Sigh. So sweet!! Now my little bird is five years old! Whew. Time really does fly on by when you have kids! (Pun intended. Get it... birds, nests...flying?)

Shark! Halloween costume.

I got into the Halloween spirit a bit early this year and this weekend I was given the opportunity for uninterrupted craft time. (Hubby was out of town!)

So naturally, I ran down to Hobby Lobby and picked up some supplies to make this shark costume. A friend of mine from school that I'm now friends with on Facebook, has this adorable picture on her page of her and her little brother from a Halloween many moons ago. In this picture I was given the inspiration to take a stab at making a shark costume for my youngest child. Her mother, who was my elementary school art teacher, had made this glorious shark costume for my friend's little brother. I took the picture and figured up a pattern. After a couple hours of sewing and a little bit of hot gluing, here's my cute Chase posing in his new costume! I may sew the glued items down later on, but for now it will do!

The second photo gives a better view of the sleeves/fins. Chase was asleep when I finished the costume so his big sister tried it on for me. This was before I added a few more teeth!

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