If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.

--Hamilton Fish

Monday, April 18, 2011

What did you do last week?

So....my daughter and I are in the process of redoing a bunch of old furniture pieces.  We bought an old white and gold (gag) Bassett chest of drawers and painted it and added new hardware.  Our $45 chest has a brand new look and we're very proud of it!  ($45?? Well, before the paint and the ten drawer pulls that had to be replaced--the old ones were hideous!)
The chest is sitting at this moment in my kitchen.  It's the only project we've finished completely!

We also had an old side table (this one was in my parents' house in Tullahoma back when I was little--we moved from there when I was 8, so it's old like me...) that we'd already painted for the apartment she's in now.  I repainted the top surface a different color and drew the pattern from one of the squares from her quilt onto it.  We started painting it last night...I think it's pretty cool too.  It's not finished yet but we're close. (This one was free!!)
The table is also in my kitchen.

Our biggest project so far is a coffee table we made.  (http://www.hgtv.com/living-rooms/build-a-factory-cart-coffee-table/index.html)  We didn't put the wheels on--we bought legs instead--and our top boards are run lengthwise instead of the short way, but other than that it's the same.  It's not stained yet, but it's built.  After buying all the boards, nails, screws, wood glue, stain, wood conditioner, sandpaper, countersink drill bits--did I forget anything??--we could have bought a super nice table already built!  But this one is going to be cool, and we did it ourselves.  (Kinda proud of that!)
The coffee table is upside down in the dining room, waiting to be moved to the deck to be sanded again before it can be stained.

Our next project is having the couch cushions recovered.  We've bought the fabric and I think I've found somebody to sew them.  It's a wooden couch, with three seat cushions and three back cushions which are loose, so it isn't exactly like taking it to be reupholstered. I just have to take one of each size to Varnell to let the lady decide if she can do it.
Let's just say it's a good thing JoAnn's has upholstery fabric and they put 50% coupons in every Sunday paper...

In the meantime, I've got canvases to do.  Right now, there are at least a hundred bottles of paint and several cups holding my brushes on my dining room table and a bunch of canvases leaning on chairs, table legs, etc.  I've got all my drawings I use for patterns in there too, along with a bunch of scrapbook paper I used for some other canvases.
The problem with using your dining room as your studio is it makes it tough to have an Easter meal in the room!

On Mondays we keep our grandson.  So everything was on hold today.  It was actually nice to have a "day off" from my projects.  Today we ate breakfast, played in the swing on the deck, went to Chick Fil A for lunch.  We strolled around the neighborhood.  We played with the balls and Tigger and we watched the dogs run around outside.  He's 10-months old and he's so much fun right now!

I'm wondering, how did I ever have time to work??  Retirement is wearing me out!!

No comments:

Post a Comment