As I suspected Upholstering is hard.  Seems likely that this is why it's costs hundreds of dollars to have someone do it right.

I bought this chair for $20 off of Kijiji. (steal!)  I kind of liked it as is but the chair was covered in vinyl and a bit grungy so I thought it might be an easy first attempt and upholstering.

Before:

I had to carefully remove the upholstery tacks so I could reuse them.  I pulled off the vinyl removing as many of the staples as possible.

Then I lay batting then hot glued the edges and trimmed.

After:

The fabric wasn't my first choice and I stood in the fabric store for about 45 minutes pondering.  I originally wanted blue velvet but the only had this weird crushed velvet which I thought was potentially far to pimp-like.  I settled on this tweedy wool instead.

Cutting the Fabric to exactly the right size was a bit tricky.  As was getting the fabric tight enough to not show ripples.  I did my best.  I reused the upholstery tacks to finish it off.

I'm 80% pleased with the final product.  Maybe, just maybe I'll try it again someday.

Small Footprint

I've been wanting to do this for a while.  But having never tiled before I was daunted by my inexperience. I relied on dad to help out.  We were only tiling 5 square feet so the pressure was off.  The whole project only took about an hour.

I got the tile from a discount liquidator so it was sold by the sheet.  The marble cost $40 total. The grout and thin set cost another $40.

Before:

During:

After:

Turns out tiling is fairly easy, doing it perfectly is really hard.  Still happy with the end result, and will cherish the imperfections :)

Hard to take myself too seriously after watching the "She's Making Jewelry Now" song.  Luckily, I'm just doing it for fun.

A selection of the jewelry I've been making is available at the Drake General Store and online on my Etsy shop, Augusta Vintage.  Will be updating missing styles shortly.  So hold on if you want one.

Sure it's no dramatic entry back into the world of blogging.  Now with a toddler and being busy back at work, it's hard to get back into doing projects let alone brag, I mean blog about them.

Anyway, I saw this sweet mid-century night stand at salvation army the other day.  By the time I decided to go back for it, it was obviously sold.  In sadness I bought this uglier one for $10.  I was up for the challenge.

Before:

After:

So, I totally thought the night stand was covered in a wood veneer   After giving it a good stand to prep for painting I discovered it was actually solid wood.  I used oil and polish to finish the drawers, new handles and a fresh coat of black.

Thanks Dad

Since my dad knows what a scavenger I am, he could not pass up these two directors chairs when he saw them curb side.  Not a bad option for the new fire pit.

Before:

After:

 I sewed new backings and seats for them (pretty straight forward) with $5 worth of Ikea fabric.  I think they are a steal and we will keep them around for a few years yet.

Backyard in the City

So to update on the backyard work...we are now near completion.  Steve threw down a lot of muscle to get this done...we barely fought during the rigging of the gazebo either.  I've flooded a lot of pictures because we are filled with so much pride.

 I painted the old picnic bench and we tied up pallets to cover up where we keep the garbage bins

Pondering Garden Plots...

So some work has gone into our back garden plots.  With a 200ft. lot, we have some space.  My dad helped level out the edge of our property before the big drop to the park bellow.  We rejoiced with some coffee and deer spotting.  It's a work in progress, so I'll keep you posted.

A work in progress

I found this Ork poster and wanted to do something with it.  Maybe it's lame to have a Toronto poster when you live in Toronto but, well, whatever.

Before:

After:

It's still missing something, but I'll get there....I'm sure

Alright, I think we got it....

Doing triple duty

While I can't take credit for the idea...(Steve), I did still execute, including a trip to get the wood cut and figuring out measurements.  This bench functions as a window seat/additional seating besides the couch, dining room seating, and extra storage.

The table's home is up against the wall, so that it can also function as a desk.  But when you have guest you can pull it up to the bench to seat four.  When I put the table together, I made sure to inset the legs knowing that it would be pulled up to a bench (unlike a chair that you can easily tuck under a table.) so it needed the extra lip.  I cut up a mattress pad to make the top extra cushy, and used a micro fiber drape as the upholstery to cut cost.

Oldies but goodies

So I was digging through some old computer files recently and found a few photos a felt like sharing they are miscellaneous and not really DYI but I'm sharing anyway...

Little wood blocks

So I did this project a while ago.  In search of a way to casually showcase some photos I'm fond of I came up with this concept.  I printed a mini collection of photos wallet sized a cut some blocks from scrap wood to fit the photos.  I drilled a hole in the back of the block so it can be hung from a nail on the wall.  I like the idea of grouping them together or scattering them, as a little reminder of a tiny special memory...

Happy Bird Day!

It was baby girls first birthday so we threw her a Bird-day party!

alphabet from marthastewart.com

waiting for guests to arrive