Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure we all need a long weekend to enjoy the warmer weather and kickoff the start of the summer season, whether you are spending time with family, traveling, or just catching up on projects at home.

I am catching up on projects at home myself. I just finished my fourth chair and finally have a matching kitchen table and chairs. You may remember my pictures of the table as I was preparing to stain it. The stain looked blotchy and did not absorb into the wood the way I expected so I decided to paint it black.

Here is the before photo -



This is how it looks today with matching chairs. I recovered the seats with a black and white mini plaid check fabric.



My husband set up a new workbench in the garage for me. I bought a new scroll saw and will be setting that up today. I have to stop at Home Depot today to pick up some wood and other supplies to start making some prim projects. I have so many ideas for shelves, gameboards, and signs that I have been planning to make and hopefully sell on Etsy. I'm considering starting a selling blog as well.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Slowly Progressing in the Kitchen

What a slow process this has been. It seems like I have been working on my kitchen table and chairs forever. I'm back to working 40 hours a week again so time is limited. I guess that's a good thing and I should be lucky to have a full-time job, however I miss having that one extra day off per week to hit the thrift stores and work on my crafts. I have the table and one chair completely finished. I love the way the chair turned out. It has such a clean sppearance with the black and white check upholstery fabric contrasting against the black wood. I have three other chairs painted. I just need to finish covering the old seats and then I will have four completed chairs to put under the table. I took this photo to show the original chairs - white oak with hunter green seats. They definitely needed to be updated. Hopefully by next weekend I will have the last two chairs painted and then I'll have time to concentrate on a new project.



Speaking of projects, I started embroidering Gail Pan's Christmas Wish BOM. The blocks work up quickly. Maybe I'll make more than one set of the blocks and turn them into Christmas gifts.



Another project that I want to start is a quilted wallhanging in a primitive/country design to hang in my great room. It can't be anything too large, but needs to fit the quilt rack shelf that I found at Goodwill - (another project I'll need to paint). I have cathedral ceiling that comes to a peak above my antique sideboard which should allow me plenty of room to hang it, but I'm hoping it doesn't look strange having a shelf too high on the wall. I ordered this primitive quilt pattern book from Amazon. It's called Garden Club Quilts. I saw many patterns that I would like to incorporate into my project. Hopefully Mr. Mailman will deliver it by this weekend.

Vintage Bears for Sale and Kitchen Table Update

My daughter is in the process of downsizing her collection of vintage bears. She asked me if I would list them on eBay for her. There are two Bearington Bears and one Boyd's Bear for sale. Click on the "My eBay" in the right sidebar to go to my eBay page. They would make a great Mother's Day gift.

I haven't posted anything on by blog during this past week. It's not that I'm getting lazy, but I'm trying to finish projects that I had started. I am finished working on repainting my kitchen table but still have to finish repainting the six chairs to match. What a long process it is when you work days and have to wait for the many coats of paint and poly to dry. I'm not going to post a picture until I'm completely finished. I still have to find a fabric to reupholster the seat cushions. Does anyone know a good on-line fabric store that sells upholstery fabric? I'm not having much luck in my area. My only fabric store around here is Joann's and they don't really have any "prim" fabrics on their upholstery racks. I made a "prim" prairie dress that I will be hanging on my peg board shelf that my daughter donated to me this weekend. I also made a small embroidered herb ditty bag which will hand on one of the pegs. I need to repaint the shelf in my favorite black paint. You'll see a photo when it's finished.

Yesterday my daughter Jenn and I went to Buckler's Craft Fair. It's a country craft fair that travels around the southern states throughout the year. They come to the Fort Myers area four times a year. They always sell such wonderful country/primitive items. We were disappointed with this one. There were not as many vendors as we've seen in previous years. I guess the economy is having an effect on crafters also. Needless to say, I only purchased a pip-berry candle ring which I will also hang from my peg board. Usually I would find unique wooden items such as peg board shelves, quilt racks, wood cabinets, etc., but this time nothing drew my attention. Even the handmade quilt vendor was not there.

Well it's time to get out my paint brush again. Then maybe I'll downsize some of my crafting supplies that are taking up all the room in my sewing room closet and list them on eBay today also. I'm looking at a large plastic container filled with Christmas ribbons that I had bought to make bows for glass block lights a couple of years ago. If anyone has any use for them, check out my eBay later today. They are perfect for Christmas wreath bows.



Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.