Adirondack Chair

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In my bathroom, the medicine cabinet knob has been hitting the wall and was starting to make a noticeable dent in it. To solve the problem, I thought I'd hang a piece of art there. I already had a colored pencil drawing of seashells above the toilet, so I thought I'd use the same medium and theme. I created an Adirondack chair sitting on the beach.

I went to the dollar store to find a cheap frame. It was gold with a white mat, which didn't match my bathroom, so I made the gold parts silver and the mat the same color blue as the shower curtain and bath mats. The walls are spring green, so the sea grass in the drawing matched the walls. It solves my problem, looks cute and was a really inexpensive fix at $1!

My Cousin's 21st Birthday

My cousin B is the closest thing I have to a sister. We are both only children, and grew up very close to one another, but we couldn't be any more different. She is a social butterfly who likes to have fun at parties, enjoys designer clothing and is studying to be a lawyer. I am very shy, enjoy finding a bargain or making things myself and have a technical career. In reality our differences are quite a compliment to one another.

Since her 21st birthday was this summer and it's an important one, I thought I'd ask her what she would like. She knew right away she wanted a painting made by me. She always admired my art in high school and her mother even owns one of my pieces already. She said she wanted something black and white and romantic. Her idea of romantic is different from mine, but I was up for a challenge.

Based on her a piece called "The Embrace" from her favorite photographer - Bahner Bertram - I created this painting. I am much more comfortable creating black and white pieces with colored pencil and graphite than acrylic, but she asked for a painting. I'm also not great at doing people, but it was a challenge I was willing to take on for her. She ended up liking the piece very much.

Reupholstery

When we moved into our house, the previous owner had one more trip to make to take the rest of his belongings from the garage. In the garage he had an antique sofa. My mother-in-law commented how beautiful it was and the previous owner offered to leave it for her. The sofa's wood was in beautiful condition, but the material on the sofa was ripped and frayed. The sheet on the seat was covering a huge rip.

I spend most of my time in the den near the computer and the TV since it is the warmest room in the house. There is no where for me to stretch out and relax in there except for my desk chair. The sofa sat in the garage for about 8 months when I decided to reupholster it and use it in the den.

I started my ripping off the cording that was hot glued around the edge of the material - that ripped right off. Next, I took a hammer and screw driver and took out each upholstery tack one by one. They were all rusty. I had a coffee mug full of tacks by the time I was done. I also discovered it was reupholstered once before as well. I asked the previous owner and he said the sofa was about 100 year old, so that would make sense. After all the material was removed, The springs and padding were in great condition so I left them as is.

I found some great reversible fabric that was thin and red with gold swirls or gold with red swirls depending on how you used it. I used this for the curtains in the den. By pure luck I found a lampshade that used the same material at Wal-Mart so I used that to place behind the sofa. Per the suggestion of my friend B at work, I used a more durable material to cover the sofa - red microsuede with red embroidered swirls. I used the old material as a guide and cut out the new material and used a staple gun to attach it to the sofa. Once all the material was in place I found some matching cord and hot glued it to the sofa to clean up the edges as done before. My husband helped me move it in the den and now I can truly be queen of my household in my own throne!