Sitting Pretty

I don't know about you, but I always have at least two or three projects in the works at any give time. Mind you, any or all of them could still be rolling around in my head, but they're there none the less, waiting to be introduced to the world.

So now, without further ado, I present my most recent (completed) project:

I found this little gem on craigslist a few weeks ago. I had been on the lookout for a chair or two that I could repaint or stain and reupholster. This baby fit the bill perfectly. I loved the lines of the chair and thought that the upholstery didn't look too complicated for me to tackle. Plus, I really wanted to whip out my nail head trim kit one more time!

So hubby and I went to pick it up. I knew right away that hubby wasn't feeling my chair love when he pulled me aside and whispered "Do you like it?"

Translation: "Uhh.. we drove across town to possibly pay money for this old piece of crap? Surely this isn't the same item you saw on craigslist. Just give me the signal and we're outta here."

My response? "Yup!! Load 'er up!"

I did try to offer the girl less money for the chair but she stuck to her guns and I ended up paying the full $30 asking price. If there's one thing I hate it's haggling. It wears me out and really, I didn't think 30 bucks was too bad.

So home we went for a makeover.

I started by unscrewing the seat from the frame of the chair and ripping off the old fabric.

Holy crap, there were about a million staples in this thing! It was a very well made chair, to say the least.

Looks like it was made in 1980. I'm a product of the 80's myself.

Way to go 80's. You've put out some great stuff, if I do say so myself.

Apparently I was in such a groove working on recovering the seat that I failed to capture the moment in pictures. Sorry! You'll just have to take my word for it.

After the seat, I moved on to removing the fabric from the seat back. This baby has upholstery on the front and back sides of the chair and my fingers were feeling it!

After all the old fabric was removed, I sanded and stained the wood. I used a mahogany stain that I already had lying around. I liked the color it was just fine, but I wanted to freshen it up a bit. Again, no pics of this step!

After the stain dried, I started in on the seat back. Since I chose a fabric with stripes, I had to make sure they matched up to the lines on the seat. It just wouldn't do otherwise.

Decor police are hardcore.

I used my fancy shmancy nail head trim kit to tack down the fabric.

This wasn't as easy as I had hoped, but after a few small outbursts and about 10 mangled nails, I finished the job. And I have to say, I'm very happy with the result!

What do you think??

Go check out some other cool projects at A Soft Place to Land & Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!

Shut the front door!

RED ALERT! RED ALERT!!

Fred has painted his mailbox!!!!!!

Yup, that's right folks. I put it out there, threw the message out into blogland, and now THIS:

I first saw it last weekend but I didn't have my camera on me. I did have the chance to whip out my cell phone and snap a pic to send to hubby, but a portly fellow was on his morning walk at the same time and was just pulling out his trusty notepad necklace to take down my license plate number, so I had to make it quick.

As luck would have it, this was the same day my mom was coming into town for a visit and she had specifically asked to be driven by the infamous mailbox during our sightseeing session! Sorry mom!

Do you think Fred reads my little 'ol blog??

Fred, are you there?

Can you hear me??

I'm guessing no.

Sigh.

Hubby and I now think Fred might have a lady friend. We saw some new potted flowers on his back porch the other night. His house backs up to the neighborhood park so we have a nice view of the front AND back of his house. He's got to be sprucing things up for something, right??

Now I'm thinking Fred could really use a privacy fence, if for no other reason than to keep hubby and I from spying and speculating about the poor man.

I'll have to bring it up at our next neighborhood association meeting. They just love me at those things. :)

Fun Stuff

I am totally ripping this off of another blog. Step-Fabulous is a friend of friend's blog and I happened across this post today. I'm not cool enough to have received the email forward myself, but I'm over it.

After almost peeing my pants, busting out a few snorts and falling out of my chair at my new job, I decided to share the love.

Don't worry, I was written up but not fired.


I have highlighted some of my favorites in red.

I also edited out some of the raunchier entries. You're welcome.


Random Thoughts of the Day:

1. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

4. Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

5. That's enough, Nickelback. (Amen and amen.)

6. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

7. The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

8. Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

9. There is a great need for sarcasm font.

10. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

11. I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

12. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

13. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

14. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

15. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

16. A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

17. Was learning cursive really necessary?

18. Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

19. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

20. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

21. Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

22. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

23. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

24. Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

25. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

26. While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

27. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

28. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

29. I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

30. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,and you can wear them forever.

31. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

32. Bad decisions make good stories

33. Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

34. If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

35. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

36. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

37. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

38. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

39. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

40. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

41. I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

42. While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

43. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dangit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

44. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

45. When I meet a new guy/girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

46. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

47. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

48. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

49. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

50. Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

51. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

52. It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

53. I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

54. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

Cool giveaway!

Top 'o the mornin' to ya!

I came across an awesome giveaway in bloggyville and wanted to share!

Peanut Petunia is giving away some super cute Lettered Cottage Home herb crates!! Layla from The Lettered Cottage has the cutest cottage style (check out her house!!) and found these little crates at a flea market, I think. And now she's selling them in her online store!

So head on over to Peanut Petunia and enter in to win! And if you don't just love these crates, sign up anyway and win and give me an early Christmas present!!

Deal??

Deal! :)

Style Dish

What's your decorating style? Do you know? Do you even care??

Well I care and I want to know!! So I took two totally different online quizzes to help me pinpoint exactly where my style tendencies lean, which will ultimately help me figure out the rest of my life.

Right? Right.

Quiz 1: HomeGoods StyleScope

Aja you are a

BOHEMIAN CLASSIC

You have a refined sensibility and bring a sense of history and tradition into your decor. You appreciate how symmetrical arrangements and beautiful, well-crafted pieces create a solid foundation to a room. But you like to shake up this restraint with objects and accessories that express your personality and your love of other cultures. When traveling, you seek out unique objects that reflect what you love, and you use them in a sophisticated way. You want people to feel comfortable in your home, and cozy chairs, ethnic fabrics, unique pieces, and even a little touch of quirk or humor give your house a laid-back, Bohemian flair.

You value creativity. You are stylish and fun loving, and can be an inspiration to others. You have a natural sense of drama, and you know you have to be willing to take risks—whether with colors, finishes, furniture choices, or ideas—for your home to stand out. Your home can be happy and lively and the place all of your friends want to be.

Quiz 2: Sproost

Survey Says? Your specific style combines three more general styles:

44% Cottage Chic

Who says that cottages can't be modern and chic? Who says that they have to be floral and cheesy? Not you! You love the carefree spirit that the cottage interior inspires, but you are also serious about your appreciation for modern art and hip treasures. You love old and new alike, and love to highlight them all to expose the uniqueness of each. What better way to show off these treasures than with a light background?

33% French Eclectic

Parlez-vous français? Even if the answer is no, you can confidently say your home does! French Country, like its name, somehow manages to both be formal and casual, classy and unassuming at the same time. You like your spaces to feel inviting from the moment you (or your guest) opens the front door and this feeling should continue even after you've entered your most formal room. Even though there are French antiques here and gold details there, the rustic elements provide a balance and warmth that seems to say, "come in, relax and stay a while." Your love of antiques leads you to flea markets, garage sales and hours of eBay hunting.

23% Rustic Revival

You can take kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid... or is your theme "you can take the kid out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the kid?" Either way you play it, you are one of the unique individuals who loves a mix of modern and country. The clean lines of the modern softened by rustic /vintage elements is the perfect mix in your mind. And can we blame you? You've taken the best aspects of two popular designs and mixed them in a manner that appeals young and old alike. A subtle background of white or light colors provides a nice canvas for all the wonderful flea market, eBay or garage sale finds as well as the classic modern pieces that you love.

Huh.

So what does it all mean??? I feel like I am getting some seriously mixed messages here! I will say though, that each of these categories speaks to me.. And they each talk about a love of old and new, which is definitely my MO.. I have a feeling this goes back my love of coloring outside the lines. I like to mix things up, test the waters, not follow all the rules.. you get the idea. :)

So how about you? What's your design style?? I'd love to know!

Nada

Well, clearly nothing tooo exciting or blog-worthy has befallen me lately, as seen by my complete absence in blogland. I have kept up with my lurking/stalking around other sites for a chuckle or spark of inspiration, though, so hopefully I will have something to show for it in the near future! I realize I am not keeping up my end of this one-side bargain we have and I'M SORRY! Sheesh.

In other news, I decided on a whim to paint our front living room this week. I think my right hand and wrist have aged about 10 years during this painting spree and my dog is pretty creeped out by my permanant bear claw. But Hubby LOVES it.

Not sure when you'll see the room reveal.. I have tons more to do on this room before I share with the world.

My mom is crossing the state line to visit this weekend! Hubby is heading the other direction to go to a concert with some friends so we'll have a nice girl's weekend. I'm excited! I have a couple of projects in the works that I need her help on and someone has to boost the economy by shopping, so we volunteered.

Have a great weekend!