Union Jack Chair - sponsored by the UK Shoppe

Check out this before & after! 

She's a beauty!  This year's YMCA Chairs for Charity event is keeping me extra busy.  I love all the chairs, but gosh, they take a lot of time!  Hug an upholsterer today - they deserve it! 

My Union Jack chair is made from an old shower curtain (the black & blue stripe fabric), an old velvet shirt (red stripe) and some damask print white fabric.  The black fabric is left over from last year's event and is a lovely, thick and heavy, black fabric. 

Hours of sewing at my vintage Singer (oh yeah, I finally got a sewing machine that [mostly] works), lots of staples, and all new foam padding inside. 

Jolly good!

Oh, and the cute little pillow I also made myself using my trusty Mac-Tac paper-and-paint technique. 

Ta-ta for now!

2nd Annual YMCA Chairs for Charity Event

Another excuse reason why my blog posts have been few and far between, recently, is that I've been pouring lots of my time into the YMCA Chairs for Charity event.  Old chairs get new life and are auctioned off in a fun evening event. 

The event raises money for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign which helps to subsidize youth programming for families that need it and kids who want to play! 

I have a couple of 'before and after' photos to post for you, and also think you should check out my post on folding upholstery corners since it's still one of my most popular! 

Local businesses sponsor chairs (to cover the cost of the refurbishing process) and we create chairs that represent the 'feel' or 'theme' of the business. 

For more pictures and sneak peeks into the refurbishing process, visit the Facebook event page. 

DIY: Pine Farm Table

 

After a loooong hiatus (oh, you noticed that, did you?), I'm back!

We moved, in a bit of a whirlwind affair, back in August and I finally found a workshop space in October and got the keys on November 1st!  I'm busy setting up shop now - and getting ready for another custom table order. 

Here's the first table I built from scratch.

I used the plans that Ana White offers on her website.  She calls it a Farmhouse table and the instructions are amazing! I printed mine out and added inches when I needed to - planning is the most important part!  I plotted out all my cuts so I knew what wood I'd need to buy and then I headed to Home Depot to pick up what I needed.  Ana's got a whole list of 'materials' as well as 'tools' and even a 'cut list.'  Could it be any easier?  No, is the answer, in case you were confused.

I assembled the table, filled all the holes, bashed it up with a hammer, and sanded the heck out of it! I stained the top with two different colour stains - Minwax's Espresso and American Walnut.  The final finish for the table top was about 5 coats of Varathane Diamond Floor Finish. 

On a sad note, or biggest little lady, Olive, went missing on October 26th.  She hasn't turned up and we miss her every day.  When we adopted the kittens, 'Miss Thing,' as we sometimes called her, was a fantastic mother.  She had so much love in her little heart, and we hope someone else might be sharing it with her today...if not, we know she lived a life full of love (and lots of cuddles!)

Olive can best be remembered as needing to have everything 'just so,' and demanding to have her belly rubbed with her signature 'stretch and roll' move, at least twice, daily. 

We miss you, Olive-branch.