Rubber Stamp..Fabric..and a Nice Chair Tutorial

Happy Sunday, all.....

Being the football girl I am at heart, I started out focusing on the New England and Denver Game, before this project took over. I was glad to see Denver win only because Tom Brady has been to the Super Bowl enough in his career. I was though disappointed in the game, it seemed as though Brady was lethargic the whole game, I keep wondering does he really wanna win. 

Now I watching Seattle, yes to Sherman, well they just fumbled which is a bummer....on that note...I will scream and yell during the whole game as my cat stares at me, wondering what is this woman's problem.

Okay, during the first game I decided to add some more detail to a chair I introduced you to awhile back. I don't plan any projects, being spontaneous a whatever hits me, I do. Today it was the chair...

I picked my fabric which is a simple cotton for a 20.00 chair find was good enough me, the chair, and someone else you'll see later. After trying many different rubber stamp designs, this fleur de lis seemed to work the best.

I took my plastic fabric measure, after cutting my fabric to the chair foot area, determined the spacing, and stamped it with black, then put it up to the chair and didn't like how light the stamping turned out. So...

I took a black fabric marker traced, filled in all the designs, and heat set the design to the fabric. Much better for the chair without a doubt. Now the fabric is from Walmart, nothing fancy, simply a cotton beige stripe. Actually the fabric like everything else I do was chosen at random, just because I like the colors. It was not intended for the chair. I take my time when I do a project and let it come to life on it's own. That way I don't stress myself out trying to make choices and it's always works out for the best. Meaning it always turns out the way I like and the way it's meant to be. The fabric on the other hand being cheap was great for this little one...

Now being an empty nester one would think, okay, it's time for me to have nice things. After all the kids are grown, married and starting there own families. Which leads to some more exciting news. My daughter had a baby in November of last year, little Will. Then I believe I mentioned my oldest son is having a baby girl due the first week of April. Well, my second oldest son, is also having a baby girl due May 30th.

 I was just notified yesterday, why so late...well a couple weeks ago my son tried to send me a photograph of the ultra sound, however, my phone wouldn't open the darn thing...so he said, you'll just have to wait...for what I said..he replied just wait...it seems they didn't know if the baby was going to make it in the beginning, due to complications with my daughter in law. And with my son working so much and wanting to tell me in person after the phone didn't work, he decided to wait while I sat and thought now what! Well, both mommy and baby are doing just fine. Three babies within say 6 months...wow...after 10 years of two grandson's I say I am really being blessed. 

Now as far as the one in the photograph...yes, my last child that won't leave home until old age...can be destructive. I keep her claws clipped yet she still tends to claw at my furniture anyway. I can't even begin to entertain the thought of having her claws removed, despite the fact she claws, they do belong to her...I know personally, I wouldn't want mine removed.

 I really liked the way it turned out, if you noticed the bottom piece, the chair does recline, the stripes are horizontal. I don't have a lot of the fabric and there was one piece that fit perfect. Beside it goes up under the chair in the upright position, so who cares, I can live with it, and that's all that matters. A lesson was learned during the process, oh yes, I didn't realize the top front piece came off the chair like the bottom one, hence, it took me longer to upholster the front piece. Duh! I now know how I am going to finish the rest of the chair.

I am pleased, although being OCD I find myself looking at the fabric and noticing the one fleur de lis out of place. See if you notice! I'm saying again..I don't mind I can live with it! As much as I am a simple, practical girl, I find myself decorating in a traditional manner. No matter how hard I try to add color, no matter how hard I try to decorate, rustic, eclectic, without a doubt not fancy, no frills, and lace with this girl, I always end up a bit more traditional. See how I decorate, notice the table next to the chair? Living in a small apartment one tends to utilize every space, it's paper mache round boxes, painted black, with a round piece of stained wood on top. Boxes store some of my crafts. Now, I just need to get to the fabric store and purchase the batting, padding, needed to complete the seat, and the arms. Would someone move the out of place fleur de lis to the right please! 

Redecorating Inside and Out

 

 

Lately I have been doing a lot of decorating inside and out with out any thought just going with the flow of my mind. Being multi talented and able to do so many things myself. I am finding things around me are just evolving on there own oddly in the last couple years.

 

 

I had no plans whatsoever to build a fire pit until out of no where last week, I removed my raised veggie beds (as you can see by the border) let the weeds grow dug a 2 ft hole and made a fire pit. The brick are sealed inside with a mud mixture the way they did many decades ago. I have not used it yet,  I plan on adding a small wire trap over the top to keep the fire contained and from releasing burning pieces into the air. It measures 4' by 4' just the perfect size for me. I love sitting outside and especially in the fall while a fire is burning.

 

 

It's hard to believe just a couple years ago this whole area including the high weeds in the background which stretch out quite a ways, use to be all planting field. I've lived in my apartment 7 years now when I first started gardening the second year this was all dirt. Now it's more landscaping and evolving into something new. If you take a real close look you will see all my lavender plants behind the fire pit. They've been cut way back for the winter to come. The white cloth is where I plant my varieties of lettuce now, the cloth keeps the rabbits and bugs out, let's in the sun and rain. I am done with decorating this area just haven't photographed it yet. I will do that to show how nice it turn out with seating and such...

 

 

I've also been doing some more inside decorating or tearing apart I should add. I found this chair at Goodwill a thrift shop for 20.00, what a bargain, right! When I got it home I found out the darn thing reclines just by leaning back. Now if you know me...I am not one who like anything to do with pinks, rose colors etc...so asap... I began ripping it apart, of course taking tons of photographs for putting back together. Now, I've never done reupholstered before especially to this extent, but hey, I'm game for trying anything new.

 

 

Of course the cat had to sniff around and make sure it meant her approval, yeah right, actually she's just investigating all the odors! Yuk! I can only imagine what has been on this chair, oh I don't wanna go there....Eeek!

 

 

So the ripping continued all afternoon, for hours, there were so many staples I thought I would never want to look at one again! Pulling and tugging using a screwdriver I kept on going...and I have to tell you it was gross, especially the padding it literally fell apart. I will need to replace it all and thank goodness, when done, it will be like a brand new chair.

 

 

That is... if I can keep my fingers out of the way...yes, I managed to take a chunk out of my index finger during the whole process. Where am I with it..well, it's sitting  in my living room striped naked waiting to be redone. I call it an art piece for now!

 

And that's what I've been doing, no knitting or crocheting, just decorating the inside and out. This winter I plan on redecorating nearly everything, inside of course!