Last week my husband's step-mother passed away. We quickly flew to Illinois to be with his family. On the first day, we had a little extra time before everyone got off work, so we spent some time in the cutest little town, Geneva. I learned about this place from Jennifer Rizzo's blog. (whom I might add is one of the nicest bloggers out there!) :) Even though my husband isn't totally thrilled with shopping in cute stores, he was a trooper.
I loved this bike in the middle of a planter!
I didn't get a great picture of this statue, but it's right at the end of the main street and is so cute!
The businesses all look like this.
This was such a neat wine store!
This was my favorite place! I love the magnets on the door announcing that they are open.
The store was FULL of great things! And they had a couch for my husband to sit on. :)
I love this ottoman!
And this canvas print.
Because we were traveling and had very limited space, I only bought this little bird, but am so thrilled with it!
If you're ever in Illinois in the west suburbs of Chicago, you need to check out Geneva!
In November I was at a garage sale and found a chair for $2. I was really excited about it, as it had so much potential. My husband was mortified that I'd bring something that disgusting home. (for the record, it was very, very worn, but not as disgusting as it could have been; however, it was not allowed in the house) :)
We started by removing all of the cording.
The filling was pretty awful. We probably should've worn masks... This particular part wasn't too bad.
My husband spent hours removing hundreds and hundreds of staples. They were spaced out about every millimeter and were in a groove, so it was very hard to remove them. He eventually used a Dremel tool to clean out the grooves. At this point, it was ready for paint.
Several coats of white paint had it looking much better.
We kept all of the old pieces of fabric in case we needed the patterns for the new pieces. This is from the arm (yes, very nice old fabric--I'm sure you're wondering why we didn't use it!)
We did the arms first.
We then started stapling the fabric to the back. We got this far and decided that it needed to be ironed. Ironing right there was our only option. (this picture is pre-ironed)
I used an electric knife to cut the foam and stuck it in the back. I used 2" foam from Hobby Lobby and it seemed to fit well.
For the seat, I used 3" foam. I also wrapped some batting around it.
I decided that cutting the exact pattern from the old fabric wasn't great for this part as I needed some extra to allow enough fabric to staple into the groove. This was before I did any cutting on this piece!
This was prior to gluing on the cording. The hardest part of this was cutting the edges of the stapled fabric that were hanging out of the groove. I used little tiny scissors and carefully cut it so it wouldn't be seen once the cording was glued in there.
I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of the next step. It was gluing the cording into the grooves. We used a hot glue gun and stuffed the cord in. At the ends of the cord, we used a lighter to glob it together so it would cut without fraying. Luckily it did not catch us on fire and it did firm up the cord quite well.
I haven't quite figured out where to put it yet. Here it is by the front door without a pillow.
And with a pillow....
Here it is in our bedroom, where it will probably stay.
So now my husband is impressed. He had been telling me that I was crazy to have bought the chair thinking we could redo it. (I figured we could, and if not, we were out $2!) I think it turned out beautifully! With the fabric, foam, and batting, I have about $35 in it.
Thank you for coming by! I really appreciate your visits and comments.
Today marks one year since I started blogging. What a joy it's been to join in the party! I've met so many great friends and have been so inspired. I spent the last year doing more crafts and projects than ever.
So, to celebrate my 'blogiversary', I am hosting a giveaway. I was out shopping today and found this pillow and wire cloche to send to the winner. I will pick the winner on Friday, January 27th via Random Number Generator.
*** Update--We have had a death in the family so I can't pick a winner on the original date. I will pick a winner on Monday, January 30***
It's easy to enter:
You need to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment.
This giveaway is only open to US residents.
Please be sure that I have a way to contact you via your blog or an email address.
Good luck!
The other part of my post is in regard to a huge honor that I've been given. When I was in high school, my basketball team won the state championship. It was the first championship to be won by any girls' team at my school. This weekend, they are inducting our team into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame. I am so honored and so grateful for the friendships and memories I have from that time. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend, but many of my former teammates will be there. My Dad is standing in for me. I am thrilled and so is he! :)
Here we were way back when. I'm holding the trophy. Those were some short shorts we wore! :)
Thanks so much for coming by. And thank you for making the past year so much fun!
Last summer we took at trip to the Palm Springs area to visit friends. My friend and I were shopping at Pottery Barn and found these numbered hooks on sale. I was thrilled that the numbers 1-4 were available. I wasn't sure where I'd use them, but loved how crisp the numbers were and how sturdy the hooks were.
They stayed on a shelf until right before Christmas. I decided that the perfect place for them would be in my friend's house.
My husband cut a board and routed the edges.
We painted it white and measured very carefully to space the hooks across the board.
Holes were drilled on the ends to attach it to the wall.
And off it went with anchors to attach it to the wall and plugs to fill the holes. She hung it today and says she loves it!
I'm sure she'll play around with what to hang on it. I think it looks great!
