Doors open

As I've become a bit more confident with my woodworking and sewing skills (not better mind you, just more confidant), I'm also less patient. I asked my housemate to find an outdoor table for our back deck but then promptly made my own. I knew she was having a hard time finding something affordable and I had this idea for a simple table base with an old door, which we had tucked behind our back stairs. And here is the result. The light blue paint with the aqua benches makes it a little easter egg-y but blue was what I had and I wanted to finish it before this weekend's house guests arrive. I'm thinking I might paint it the same creamy white as the door or maybe red? Not sure yet--it may see a few coats of paint before I decide.

The door as table top is not an entirely foolproof scheme because the panels of the door make for a bumpy surface. It seems that the ridges are about as equally spaced as plates should be though and our maiden meal went without a hitch or a spill. I also dressed up the old wood table (in the background) with some oilcloth and a collection of potted herbs that make the table seem intentional and somehow very better homes and gardens as if we must have our potting station looking lovely and symmetrical.



Oilcloth is really a lovely material, by the way--crisp and firm like paper but more durable and somehow much easier to cut. I found a blue green polka dot print and paired it with some blue gingham to dress up a string of Christmas lights for the outdoor dining arrangement. I cut circles with tiny slits in the centers to push the lights through thinking they might look like little sparkling flowers. They look more like lights with very straight collars--actually very Christmas eve service candle collar now that I think about it. I may try to bunch the circles with those tiny elastic bands people use for a very small amount of hair. I'll post more pictures if they improve.

Oh and the roses are from our front yard, really a miraculous thing--having a mature garden that you did nothing to create--Portland really is the Rose City for a reason. They're everywhere.

Chairs from the side of the road AFTER

Sanded, Painted and tightened up, the chairs are good as new. I found two tri fold futon mattresses with good quality foam at the local Salvation Army and cut them up into the three seat cushions and three back cushions and then covered them with vintage ticking stripe fabric. Considering I got the chairs for free, this project cost me a little more than I meant it to because the foam cost 20$ and the paint and fabric supplies cost another 20$. For two chairs and a chaise all made of wood, I know it's still a good price but I get a little stingy when it comes to free furniture.

Chairs from the side of the road BEFORE

Slightly blurry picture of the next pair of remade jeans for the oldest. I cut down the length of a pair of juniors jeans that, let's be honest, never really fit me anyway to the length of another pair that fit him well. Then I tucked the back waist line over and put elastic in it and took in the side seams , the crotch seams and a little bit between the two back pockets. The design of the jean lends itself well to smaller portions because the pockets on both the front and back were pretty small to begin with (the way juniors clothes are) and they had a low rise that fit perfectly on a three year old. Any lessons here about buying juniors clothing? Probably anything that can be made to fit a small child with relative ease, should not be worn by a mother of two.

This process did make me realize how much better the washes are for adult, especially women's jeans and how easy it is to make cute clothing for the boys from cheap thrift store buys. And when you aren't looking for jeans with the right fit, the thrift store world opens up exponentially. I made a pair of jeans from the remainder of the legs for the youngest but without the pockets and zipper, they seem a little more generic. I might try sewing on some details or making him a pair from the top of another pair of jeans.

And I will paint my chairs pink

I know pink is not everyone's favorite color. In fact, I know that the other three adults that live in my house would probably never buy a piece of pink furniture. But every once in a while, I just don't care.

My aunt gave me two bright yellow chairs with unfortunate plaid cushion covers when we first moved out to Oregon. I've kept them on hand as sturdy supplements to our benches and as the one adult chair in the kitchen full of high chairs. The color and pattern always sort of made me cringe though. So a couple weeks ago I found a hodge podge of paints left by the owners of our house and picked out a bright fuchsia and a brick red color and with a big can of white house paint mixed a lovely soft pink for the yellow chairs. I unscrewed the cushions and used an electric knife to cut the foam half way through the width making four total cushions and decreasing the height of each seat. After the paint dried I wove strips of burlap that I had serged around all the edges from front to back and then side to side. I stapled the strips in place and then removed the staples as I replaced them with upholstery tacks. I spent about 5$ from the cost of upholstery tacks, which only come in little plastic cases of 20 tacks each. What project would only require 20 tacks? None I know of.

After I finished the two yellow chairs, I repaired the chair I took from a dumpster in Astoria and used one of the extra foam seat covers and some spare lumber to finish the seat to match the other two. They turned out pretty adorably actually. And no one seems to mind that they are pink, or at least they haven't told me so.

lilac love

I just remembered the lilac bush at the top of the yard at the house I grew up in New Jersey. I walked by it every day on my way home from school, our three legged cat tracking me back from the bus stop. Lilacs--the look and smell of them--remind me of spring afternoons and the east coast and my younger self and backpacks and lovely things I can't quite name. So I like them. I like them so much I made a whole group of visiting relatives stop at the Woodland Lilac gardens to walk along paths draped with the heady blossoms of my childhood. And it was perfect. Minus those sunglasses, which looking back I will probably regret having worn in photographs.

Banners Away!

For James' Apple birthday (he got a new mac laptop) I decorated the house a la apple inspiration. This mostly involved about 20 pounds of granny smith apples in stacks and rows around the ground floor of the house. But I also threw this set of banners together at the last minute before guests arrived. And we all who live in the house liked it so much, it's still up. I purchased about 1 1/2 yards of fabric total for about 4$ and a spool of dollar ribbon and had way more fabric than I needed. In fact we could have festooned the whole house if I'd kept going, not just the dining room. The banner itself is far from perfect--I just ran the serger along the top edge of each triangle and along the edge of the ribbon. I had originally planned to surge all three edges of each triangle but time and guests in town kept it simple and the rough edges aren't noticeable. A blanket trim with the two folds might have made it smoother and more finished looking but that would have required my sewing machine work, which it doesn't. I don't think anyone has expectations when it comes to banners anyways.
Now I'm thinking about making a banner for our back deck with oilcloth so that it's weather proof and maybe with varying sizes of rectangles instead of triangles. We'll see.