[Post 1,522] More Catching Up

This is one of 4 chairs my FIL gave my daughter for her new house.  The seats were long-gone, and that was one of the challenges.  The other was that the paint on them was really reluctant to let go.

Eventually I had 3 chairs sanded down and stained.  Then I put 2 coats of polyacrylic on.  This step alone took hours.

After a couple experiments, we decided to weave seats (that's me weaving) out of strips of fabric in greens, golds, and browns.  My first one had the largest learning curve, of course.  I was glad to improve on each one.  The 4th chair is at my house now. I painted it black.  It was the one that had the must stubborn paint.

Here is a chair partially stained.

"My" chair, with a pile of fabrics torn and ready to use beside it.

Here is a finished seat.  It is remarkably comfortable to sit on.  The weaving was grueling, and awfully hard on my fingertips.  Back-breaking because of the odd angles I had to be in.  But I did it for love, not money.

Here is one of the quotes painted on the kitchen wall.  From Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-A fame.  

The closing picture is some of the best food on the planet being prepared...strawberry pretzel salad.  Mmm-mmm.

Thus endeth another good week.

{Post 1,520} First Week As General Handywoman/Cook

I spent two weeks with a week's break inbetween at the house of one of my daughters.  She had bought it very recently and asked if I could come spend some time helping her spruce it up.

She wanted me to do all those "ing" things...unpacking, organizing, cleaning, sewing, painting, COOKING...

My daughter, SIL, and one of their best friends live in the house.  All of them work full time, so the best thing I did for them was have a hot, delicious meal ready when they all got home (which was 8:30 PM or later, nearly my bed time!). They could have left overs for lunch the next day.

Here is my sweet potato casserole base, ready to go into the dish.  They loved it.

She had a list of projects a mile long.  She is my most organized offspring.  She had a huge whiteboard with rooms of the house listed.  Under that was a plethora of Post-its with projects for said room.  Let's say I did what I could.

They have a coffee bar. One of the more simple projects I did was make this mug hanger from pallet wood. It has since been mounted on the wall slightly higher than this.

There were several shopping trips in my week.  I shopped for kitchen items they did not own, food, various household things.  On a Goodwill trip, I found this adorable stool for kids.  She has a room especially for littles that visit.  $2 at Goodwill!

I did not see my daughter much. Maybe an hour every evening.  As my time to leave drew near, we realized I could not get to EVERYthing.  So she began to prioritize.  This is the wall behind the head of her bed and about 18" on the adjacent wall.  The plan was to paint it red, then the headboard would cover the lower part of the wall.  She was going to get a 4' x 8' piece of insulation board and cover it with fabric to match the curtains for the top part.  That's why the whole thing is not painted.

It was a fulfilling and exhausting week.  I ended up going back after a week of rest.  I will save those projects for another post.

Susie is Hand Quilting!

My Susanna (aka Susie) pieced a very cute I Spy quilt top some time ago. I offered to machine quilt it for her, but to my surprise, she wanted to hand quilt it! I gave her a short little lesson, and off she went. She is following in her older sisters' ability to do much with little instruction.

~Joan