Meet Sally

Look! It's my new baby. Her name is Sally and she is a 2010 Honda CR-V. This picture is of the latest model. Shhh. Don't tell Sally I didn't feel like going outside in my pajamas to take her picture. She's also pretty dusty from the construction I drive through everyday. No matter. She came to me by a lovely twist of fate which is why I had to say goodbye to Blue.

Yes, I'm hugging my very first car goodbye.

But, I sure have been enjoying Sally. I think my dad is probably disappointed that I purchased a foreign vehicle. Sorry, dad. This ride is so sweet! I can't wait to haul stuff around in her massive back end and fold-down seats. Truthfully, I don't really care what I drive as I hate driving and wouldn't be sad at all if I didn't have to drive another day in my life. However, because I have the long commute that I do, I might as well drive something fun, right? Sally, I promise to take better care of you than I did of Blue. Ride on!

Pillows, pillows everywhere

I have been sewing in my new sewing room, just not anything super exciting. I have LOTS of projects lined up but I can't seem to find the time to create them. This saddens me. The only things I could manage to sew this past month were these pillow covers for my sister.




I didn't have the pillows to put them around in order to take their picture but I wanted to share the fabric with you anyway. She is looking to switch up the accent colors in their living room and I think these lime green and royal blue patterns will help tremendously.

And now for two slightly embarrassing Ashley-isms.........

I have recently discovered the Celtic Pandora station. I am more than a little excited about this. I think I probably should have been a step dancer. The fiddles and flutes, their lilting tunes. I just love it! I cannot get enough.

The other night, I got sucked in to not one but two episodes of Dance Moms on Lifetime. This was a horrible display of dive-tude and, as the show's title indicates, it was all the moms. The girls just love dancing and want to do well. I am ashamed that I wasted 2 hours of my life on this show that I will never see again.

Money Class

The Money Class is the latest offering by financial guru Suze Orman. While I've never actually watched a whole episode of her show, or seen her segments on Oprah, I do know that she offers sound financial advice and has written many books on the subject. Because we could all use a little more money in our lives, I thought it prudent to see what she had to say on the subject after the economy has been in the crapper for so many years.

The Money Class focuses on "standing in the truth" and owning up to where are you financially and what choices and decisions you should really be making about your money. I really liked this way of putting it. Sometimes the information was tough to swallow because things have been so doomsday lately but it's that information that needs to be read by everyone. Orman discusses when you should or shouldn't be borrowing money, how best to plan for retirement, what you should be doing for yourself financially at various stages of your life and much more. As I read, I was pleased with her theories on percentages to save/spend/invest because I am already following them. In fact, I gave myself a continual pat on your back throughout reading this book. I also learned a lot about how to approach finances with your children (not that I have any) and your aging parents. All of that was very interesting.

If you want to get serious about where you stand financially whether you are in super amounts of debt or sitting pretty, pick up The Money Class. Informative, easy to understand and helpful in a number of areas. Check it out.

Rating: * * *

Recipe Re-blog #34

Where is the summer going? I'm going to miss all this fresh produce. I need to move somewhere where the growing season lasts all year long.

Salsa Fresca: I've never made salsa before. Can you believe that? When we planted our tomatoes this year I had visions of salsa every day. Sadly, the tomatoes that I thought would grow to twice the size of my fist, never really made it bigger than my one year old nephew's hand. No matter, father-in-law to the rescue with 2 big beefsteaks. Hello, salsa! This recipe is from Bobby Flay's cookbook Grill It!

P.S. I hope this link works. When I looked for the recipe online, it took me to Google Books, with which I have no experience

Something I'm Working On

Do you ever find yourself jealous of others' lives and successes? Do you wish you could have taken that trip, bought that car, gone down the exact path you planned for your future like everyone else seems to do? You hoped to have more friends, that girl's size 6 waist, a dog that doesn't bark at nothing and embarrass you in front of the neighbors. Lately, I have had a big problem with this. It feels like everyone around me has it better off or is doing things or going places I want to do, be, say, experience. Some days it's hard to find the fulfillment of life, isn't it? And being fulfilled is oh so important, at least I think so. There will always be aspects of my life that I am perfectly content with and yet, other holes that remain unfilled. Isn't that what life is though? A series of ups and downs, victories and disappointments.

No, I'm not working on being envious of everything and everyone around me. What I'm working on is NOT doing that. I have been trying to remind myself on a daily, even hourly, basis that there are plenty of things in my life that I love and wouldn't trade for the world. I have it pretty dang good, actually. Sometimes I lose sight of that. Sometimes, when there are bill to pay instead of bags to buy, responsibility over frivolity, it's hard to remember the awesome things you already have. That crappy minutiae should be overlooked in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes, when you have your health and the love of your family and friends, you have to stop and take stock of these things. Because, they are enough.

Time to re-focus. If you have the same problem I did/do, I suggest you do the same. Remember, it's all good!

chair makeover

When we moved into our house, it became quickly apparent that we did not have nearly enough furniture to fill the space. This was especially true in the living. The living room is a 15'x21' rectangle, give or take. We love the size but unfortunately, it has been a challenge for furniture placement owing to the location of the cable outlet and the fireplace on one end. Anyway, while we're still thinking about those things, we decided to start adding more furniture.

We were lucky enough to be given 2 cane-backed chairs by my stepgrandma. She no longer needed them and they were in good condition so we snapped them up. I love their curved arms. What I did not love was the color and finish of the wood and the upholstery on the seat. I was not deterred. Instead, I said to John, "We can fix these."

I knew I wanted to paint the wood so I set off taking them apart as I thought this would be easier for painting. Wrong. The chairs were very well put together (who knew?) so after I unscrewed all the screws, I realized everything was also nailed in many places. Oops. Back in with the screws and instead I just covered the cushion and went to town.

I selected a satin finish chocolate brown spray paint by Rustoleum. I roughed up the wood a bit with some sandpaper and started spraying. I did not prime. I probably should have but luckily, one can provided just enough paint for two coats. That offered enough coverage for my liking.

After the first coat, all taped up

I purchased 2 yards of 1/2" foam from Joann's to help add a little more cushion to the chairs. I might have preferred 1" but it was more expensive and actually, in hindsight, a full inch of extra cushion might have been too much added height.

The main accent color in the living room is blue. Originally, I purchased this upholstery fabric from Joann's to make a roman shade for the kitchen. After holding it up against the window I decided I didn't love it there and put it away. When the time came to start working on these chairs, I draped the fabric over one of them and decided I loved it for the chairs instead. Score! Off to purchase another yard and get started on my project. Well, after also purchasing a staple gun and staples too. Home improvements are pricey.

I do not think I could have done the upholstering portion alone. Luckily, John was around to lend an extra pair of hands, and offer ideas of just how to tackle the curved back of the seat and tricky parts around the legs. I really wanted to try to do this with one piece of fabric. We not so quickly realized that was a fool's dream. Seriously, we probably looked at it and laid fabric on it for a good hour.

Instead, I measured and cut strips of fabric for the front sides and back of the base of the chair and a separate piece for the top of the cushion. It probably took us 2 hours to figure all of that out and get the first chair done. On the first chair, we did the strips first and then covered the cushion.

This was dumb. It didn't let us hide the staples like we really wanted to and so on the second chair, we did the opposite. Much better, cleaner and quicker. Luckily, they looked pretty much identical anyway. Once I abandoned the single piece of fabric theory, and succumbed to the idea that I would definitely need to add trim to hide the staples, it was smooth sailing.

Look at this beauty!

Because we had lots of staples that needed to be hidden, I embarked on a trim hunt. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to use since I hadn't anticipated this step. When I settled on nailhead trim, I didn't realize what kind of mission this would involve. You can do nailhead trim the hard way, banging in each single nail, one.by.one. Or you can take the quick and easy way, buy nailhead trim by the strip! It's not sold everywhere and it was more expensive than I expected, though not bank breaking. I bought my pewter strip here, 10 yards for $20. Not terrible but the shipping was $8.00 I think Joann's sells this, also for $20, but my store was all out. Too bad, with a coupon it would have been less than half of what I paid from Beacon. The cool thing about this trim is that there is a whole every fifth nail, so you are only hammering in every fifth one even though it looks like you did them all separately.

See that one nail sticking out?

Tool time!

The not so cool thing about this trim is that it is SHARP when you have to cut the strip to fit between the legs. I was able to use my kitchen shears (probably not the best) because my regular scissors wouldn't work. I snagged my finger on one of the pokey ends. It was a gusher! Still hurts a bit today while I'm typing this.

Wounded in Upholstery Action

(ignore my hair, my finger has a bandaid on it but it's flesh-toned)

But check it out! Nailhead trim that looks expensive when it wasn't. And was really simple to attach, just watch those edges.

See, see see?

And here is the completed project! Unfortunately, the trim doesn't show up as well when photographed from further away. I assure you from my view on the loveseat across the room, these chairs are stunners! If I do say so myself.

Here it is with a throw pillow I made awhile back for added comfort. The blue in the pillow picks up one of the dots perfectly. For now, my two lovelies are side by side but I'm on the hunt for a small accent table for them to flank. I think it will make the space look more intentional, rather than just two armchairs next to each other.

So, let's break it down.......

Chairs: Free

Foam Cushion: $10

Fabric: $15

Nailhead Trim: $28

Paint: $4

Nailgun/Staples: Not including since I'll have this forever now

Total: $67 for two chairs

Pretty amazing, right? I'm really pleased with the outcome. I even have some foam, fabric, and trim leftover for future projects. This nailhead trim is my new fave. I think it would look great around a memo board or, well anywhere really! For my first upholstery project, I definitely had a slower learning curve. Now that I've done one, I'm confident I could tackle another with a bit more confidence this time. I would say the skill level on this was medium so it was a bit more advanced than I probably should have attempted for my first project. If I had been able to take the chair apart like I wanted to in the first place, it would have been way easier. But, you never know until you try, right? Come on over and see the chairs for yourself in person! The pictures on my iphone and crappy camera really don't do them justice.

Don't be afraid to reupholster something of your own.

You can do it!

One Hundred!

Last week, I harvested my 100th cherry tomato. What a momentous occasion! The name of the plant, Sweet 100, did not let me down. They sure were sweet and I got the promised 100. We celebrated the landmark the way we celebrated the first two tomatoes harvested, rinsing them off from the hose, wrapping a leaf of basil around them, and popping them in our mouths. They were just as tasty as the first.

The fact that I'm dedicating this whole post to how excited these tomatoes make me is quite momentous in itself. I used to loathe tomatoes. I wouldn't eat them raw if you paid me. I could always eat them in things, sauces, salsa, etc. But if one appeared on my salad, it would be promptly pushed to the side of the plate. No thank you, tomato. Looking lonely on the plate after the salad was long gone, my mother would typically scoop them up for her own consumption. True story, one time when I was probably 11 or so, my mom cut a tomato in half and made my sister (also a tomata-hata) sit at the dining room table and eat the halves. We weren't allowed to get up until they were gone. It was a terrible day. Salt, sugar, nothing helped. We could only just plug our noses and choke them down. Thanks for scarring me for life, mom.

What a long way I've come though, right? Just the other day, I cut up a tomato and put it on my salad. I might have even enjoyed it. I'm going to chalk that up to its sweet freshness. I'm not sure I'll be making a habit of that once my growing season has come to close, which is, sadly, just around the corner.