Decorating Dilemma - The Daddy Chair

Do you have a decorating dilemma? If so, write up a quick post and join us at Amanda's for the decorating dilemmas party!


Here's my dilemma, my hubby insists on keeping this in our home and I just don't know what to do with it...





okay, it's really not that bad, my hubby's chair actually looks identical to this one:

only it's almost 10 years old, so it's not all new and shiny.

I don't mean to offend those of you who own reclining furniture. I swear there are only two camps on this issue- those who love reclining furniture and those who hate it. Actually, there may be a third camp. Those of us (like me) who are closet recliner lovers. I've never been crazy about the way most reclining furniture looks but when my hubby and I joined our belongings the chair appeared and I haven't been able to get rid of it. The thing is, as much as I wanted to hate everything about it I must admit it is extremely comfy and I do enjoy sitting in it. That said, our particular chair is a bit of an eyesore at this point and I would really like to replace it with something a little nicer looking.

My hubby on the other hand doesn't know how you can call a place "home" if there isn't one of these somewhere inside. I think it was written somewhere in our marriage vows that I get to decorate however I want as long as he gets a comfy recliner. It really is his only request as far as furniture/decorating is concerned so how can I deny the founder of the feast his one seemingly simple request of a "daddy chair"? I can't. So, I really need your help in finding a suitable compromise.

This may seem like a simple task, but my hubby's needs in a recliner are three-fold.

1. It must recline
   
2. It must rock or glide
   
3. Since he's 6 feet tall the back needs to be high enough to support his head in the reclined position.
   

Oh- I almost forgot number 4- it must be attractive!

To my knowledge such a chair doesn't exist, so I'm not holding my breath for the perfect solution, but maybe one of you lovelies knows of a solution??

I've considered trying to come up with some kind of slipcover solution, but because of the open design of the arm, I can't come up with an attractive design. I may keep working on this idea though.

I really love the look of this chair from ballard- never thought I'd say that about a recliner! I don't however like its $1400 price tag. Ouch! Unfortunately, even if I had $1400 to spend on one chair ( I don't!) I'm pretty sure this chair doesn't rock or glide and I think my hubby's head would come up higher than the top of this chair, so as pretty as it is it's out of the running.




Ideas? Suggestions?


Love,

Pippers and Bunnimins

Just to warn you, this post has absolutely nothing to do with decorating, but if you're up for some random snow day fun and cuteness read on!

We started getting hammered with snow on Friday afternoon ...

and it didn't stop until yesterday evening! We got a total of 28 inches, and there was already about 6 inches of snow on the ground from Wednesday so we're pretty much buried in snow right now. You can't tell in this photo, but my little side porch there is actually several feet higher than the ground and the snow comes all the way up onto the porch. We actually had some trouble opening the front door!



Seemed like the perfect morning for homemade cinnamon buns, or as Jellybean calls them- bunnimins!

I used this recipe which has you make the dough in a bread machine, but if you scroll through the recipe reviews you'll find instructions for making the recipe without a bread machine. Oh- I also followed one reviewers tip and made the dough and assembled the buns the night before. In the morning I just popped them in the oven and frosted them. I don't know about you, but there's no chance my little ones would wait patiently for two hours for their breakfast!




They were yummy.

Seriously yummy.


Here's some gratuitous sweetness...

This little girl LOVES her daddy!

After breakfast it was time to brave the elements.
Jellybean got all suited up, stepped outside for several seconds and then ran back in asking for glasses beacause as she put it- the cold was getting in her eyes.
There, that's better! AWESOME!!

When I asked her what was in her backpack she said, "princess stuff".

there you have it.

I did not venture outside. Instead I started going through my fabric stash and found some cute printed flannel and fleece pieces that my SIL gave me a while back (thanks, Andrea!). Seemed like a good day to try out this pattern to make some slippers for my girls (or as my nearly 2-year-old calls them, "pippers!"). I first traced my girls' feet and figured out how much to enlarge the pattern for each girl. Once I got the pieces cut out, it went really fast.

They are printed flannel on the outside and they're lined in fleece. The soles are a heavy cotton twill. I added an extra layer of fleece to the soles to make them a little warmer and cushier.

I placed the toe pattern piece carefully so that there would be a princess on top of each foot.

They may look upside down,

but to the wearer they are right side up!

Can you tell she put her socks on all by herself?

Love,

5 Reasons Why My Blog Rocks!

In case you're wondering about my title, no, I don't need a big slice of humble pie. I'm participating in the "5 Reasons Why My Blog Rocks" party at Serenity Now!

Amanda created this party as an opportunity for those of us who couldn't go to Blissdom to network and get to know each other.

Actually this is sorta hard for me- as I suspect it is for most women. We're generally taught at a pretty young age that it's not nice to brag, and while men seem to learn the difference between bragging and self-promotion, most women I know (myself included) can't even take a compliment! I guess we think we'll seem full of ourselves if we just say "thank you" when someone says something nice about us?

My Boogie (in case you're new here, that's my goofy pet name for my husband) has been trying to cure me of this since we met. On one of our first dates while answering all of the typical getting-to-know-you questions it came up that he was a fine art minor in college. Then he said something like, "I paint. I'm actually really good at it." I was a little startled that he could state his talent so plainly. Then it was my turn. I told him I was a music major with a vocal concentration. He said something like, "so, you sing. Are you good?" To him it was a simle question, but I couldn't bring myself to say "yes, I'm quite good" even though I had a degree to prove it! Since then he has been forcing me to just smile and say thank you every time he gives me a compliment, no matter what. Sometimes it takes all I've got not to disqualify the compliment with some sarcastic comment, but I'm getting better at it!

So here it goes, my 5 reasons why my blog rocks!

1. No filler posts here!

I don't post everyday, but I'm trying for 3 times a week, and while my posts are not as frequent as some other bloggers, I only post when I really have somthing interesting to share.

2. I love a good makeover!

Most of my posts involve before and after photos, either of simple solutions for problem spots around the house, room makeovers, or furniture makeovers.

3. My projects are either cheap or free

I'm a sahm, and living on one salary means I can't spend much (or sometimes anything!) on my decorating projects. I find that this actually works to my advantage since necessity is the mother of all invention- motherhood has necessitated my inventions! So along with some cool diy projects I'll offer ways to procure the materials for next to nothing.

4. I offer clear instructions and lots of encouragement!

Some of my projects are simple, others may seem pretty lofty, but I'll always do my best to give you all the information and encouragement you need to get the job done!

5. I'll be the guinea pig!

All this necessity makes me come up with some pretty hair-brained ideas (like turning garbage into furniture) and I'm crazy enough to try them out! I'll work the kinks out so you get the benefit of my mistakes and my successes!

There, I guess that wasn't so hard! I hope you'll come back to visit me again soon!

Love,

Clementine Crate Footstool Tutorial

Sorry about the lack of details in my last post! Here's the how-to if you'd like to make something like this:












Out of this!




By the way- I did this as a footstool for my living room, but I think this would be super cute as little kid seats or tea party "tuffets" as my girls are calling it!


Materials:

• Clementine Crate



• Foam



• Fabric (my crate required a 20" x 24" piece, not sure if all brands are the same size?)



• Dresser knobs, old finials, whatever you have on hand to act as feet!



• Fabric



• Trim



• Hot Glue



• Sewing Machine- Optional

• Lipped Piping- Optional

• Butter Knife- Optional
  

Step One: Trim foam pieces to fit the top and sides of your crate and hot glue them in place. Note- my pic below is incorrect! Learn from my msitake! If you use egg crate foam (like the blue foam in the pic below) glue it bumpy-side in! Otherwise the bumpy surface will show through your fabric. I pulled mine off and reglued it but I forgot to take another photo!

Step Two: Hot Glue or drill knobs onto the ends of the little posts on the crate to act as feet for your footstool. Spray paint them first if yours are all crazy mis-matched colors like mine! Sorry I forgot to get a photo of this step!







Step Three: Cover your crate in fabric. I used fabric leftover from my slipcovered coffee table project and I used my embroidery machine to add the "F". Just center your 20" x 24" fabric piece over your padded crate(measure your crate first to make sure this size is adequate since I'm not sure if all clementine crates are the exact same size!), make hospital corners just like making a bed or wrapping a gift and pin in place snugly.




If you're slightly less nuts than I am (Like crazy enough to try making a footstool out of garbage, but not crazy enough to put a whole afternoon into it!) You can hot glue the raw edges of the fabric to the inside of the crate, take the pins out, hot glue some trim around the bottom and call it a day. But if "you are just my brand of crazy" (sweet words spoken to me by my Boogie when we realized we were falling for each other!) then here are a few more steps for you...







Step Four: Top stitch the four corners in place on your sewing machine and slip your little cover onto your padded crate.





Step Five: Tuck the raw edges under making them level with the sides (not the posts) of the box. Hot glue purchased lipped piping just under the folded-under edge of the fabric.





Step Six: Measure the perimeter of your padded crate and multiply by 3. That's the length of fabric you'll need if you want to make the little knife-edge pleated ruffle at the bottom. Piece together a strip of fabric 2" wide by (perimeter times 3) for the length. Make sense? Turn under about 1/8" hem with your fingers while feeding the strip through your sewing machine (I could have used more width and turned it under twice, but then I would have had to press in place first and that just seemed like way to much effort for this little project.) Then, using a butter knife as a guide, pleat the hemmed strip around the knife and use little dots of hot glue to hold the pleats in place. You could certainly pin and stitch the pleats in place, but I wanted this project done before Puxatawney Phil rears his head again, so I opted for glue.





Step Seven: Hot glue the raw edge of the pleated trim under the edge of the piping.

You're Done!!





Love,

Oh my darlin'...

What do you get when you cross a clementine crate, some leftover fabric and foam, and 4 old dresser knobs?



an upholstered footstool, of course!

In the interest of time I'm keeping this one short and sweet, but I will gladly do a tutorial if anyone's interested.

Update: I just posted the tutorial here.

BTW- am I the only one who can't keep track of the linky parties I want to participate in? Anyone know if McLinky has a calendar with all of the parties listed by topic or something?


Today I'm participating in:

Trash to Treasure at Reinvented

DIY day at ASPTL

Before and After Party at TDC

Love,

Mug-shot

It's no secret that I'm a coffee lover.

Did anyone else fall completely in love with these mugs shown on the Sept. 2008 cover of BHG?


Are they the sweetest?! I'm completely ga-ga for them. Unfortunately for me, they're $24 per cup and I'm pretty sure that doesn't include shipping. Sorry I couldn't get a bigger pic of them for you, but the site they're sold on won't let me steal the photo! How dare they?! If you'd like to see them close up, go to maisonreve.com. If you click on Shop- House- Kitchen, they're the first item that comes up.

While online shopping for a reasonable stand-in I spotted these vintage french cuties on etsy...

Apparently this type of cup is called a "mazagran"? I believe that definition has more to do with the shape of the cup than the lack of a handle, but what do I know. If anyone out there can educate me on this- I'm all ears!!
This set costs $35, plus $25 shipping. Will someone out there please buy these so that I won't be so tempted?!

Love,

Simple Wall-Mounted Charging Station

I'm participating in DIY day at ASPTL!

If you've ever read the flylady you know all about hot spots, otherwise known as those little surface areas that tend to be piled with a new load of junk everyday. The catch all spots that each member of your family adds a few items to everyday until you can no longer see the surface.



Here's mine:


Let's see...
My bag? check.
Jellybean's favorite princess sweatshirt? Check.
Boogie's measuring tape? Check.
Gloves? Bible? Pirate hat? Check, check and check, matey!


Nester's post a few days ago inspired me to try to sort out my problem with a simple solution. You may not be able to tell from this photo, but my biggest problem in this area is not all the clutter, It really doesn't take long for me to sort those items back to their original owners. The biggest problem here is this:


There are so many little devices that tend to get charged here and their respective cords tend to hang out and party here long after their devices have been charged. I've wanted to incorporate some kind of charging station in this area for a while. I looked into buying one, but aside from costing more than I'm willing to spend, they all seemed to take up too much real estate on a small counter top like mine. I thought something wall mounted would be perfect, but I didn't have any luck finding a wall-mounted charging station that could accomodate 4 plus devices.

I thought about making something- let's see... it would need to be long enough to store several devices on top, not jut out too far from the wall, and have a hollow space inside to hide the cords. Wait a minute, that sounds a whole lot like something I already own! I had this ledge shelf in my bathroom and it happened to fit the bill perfectly.

The right end covers the outlet and all the unruly cords are hidden inside. The back and bottom of the shelf are open, so I can still get to the outlet without taking the shelf down- with a little effort.

I used these to hang it on the tile.

Then I just wound up the cords with twist ties and hid them inside, extended the head and a few inches of each cord on the shelf top and taped each cord in place on the under side of the shelf.

Have you found a new practical use for something around your

home? I'd love to hear about it!

Love,