Wow, I am so tired! I never realized that this could be such hard work. I can feel almost every muscle in my hands, and there are a lot more than I thought. I smashed my thumb a few times, kept pinching my hand in the stapler, have a few bruises that are unaccounted for, and a blood blister. I was also wondering if it was possible to rub off your finger prints. It sure feels like it’s possible, but I keep checking and they are still there. The man says that if I keep it up I will have hands like my father, the general contractor. He also joked that I might get brawny… pretty hard to imagine!

Today, I got the back put on. It was probably the most frustrating part so far! All due to the fact that my tools turned out to be inadequate for the job. And with my body aching at this point, it was hard to be motivated to keep going. I also ran out of cording for the skirt, and my stop at Joann’s revealed that the new dye lot is a completely different color. Ack! So I bought the three yards that they had left of the original color I had used and was able to have enough to go around the sides and front. So tomorrow I hope to get the skirt on the sides and front. And then I will ruminate on what to do about the cording in the back. So I don’t have a picture today, but I did get the house cleaned up. I also put the cushions back on so we can use the sofa and sip our coffee there in the morning!

I am finally to the fun part of this upholstery project. Although the house is a complete disaster. It shouldn’t take too long to get cleaned up, but I am so afraid of losing my motivation, that I have just let the rest of the house go. Fortunately, we had wonderful weather and the kids played outside all afternoon. The man is so laid back about everything that he just took the opportunity to snap pictures, like this one. See the chaos!

I got a lot done today. And it has been so fun to see it coming together one step at a time. Here is the stripped sofa:

One arm done:

Two arms done:

New batting for the backrest:

Springs covered:

Back covered:

And I got the side panels on. So here is where I am this evening.

Tomorrow I will work on the back panel, the skirt, and the cover for the underside, and hopefully clean up the house by evening. Stay tuned for final pics, tomorrow (I hope!)

Today, among other things, I ran around gathering supplies. A few things from my mom and a few from the store and I should be ready to jump right in tomorrow morning, because tonight I am tired! So for today, a little preview of what this girl will be wearing. I believe big pieces of furniture should be clothed in neutral colors. That way you can change your wall color and spice things up with pillows, and when you tire of the look it is easier and cheaper to just repaint and get a few new pillows for a new look. But neutral is not really my thing! So it is hard to focus on finding something neutral when I have the opportunity to do something fun like this:

But this fun print isn’t upholstery fabric. I do have a few other upholstery fabrics that might be fun. This one is, but I don’t have enough to do a whole sofa. I also noticed that because it is chenille it gets worn off a little and I don’t want to reupholster a whole sofa just to have it look like it needs to be redone in a year.

So this fabric I really love…

… but I am not quite sure I am ready to commit to having it on the sofa forever. It would dictate the style in any room and I don’t like being restricted like that. So the deep red that you see in the background of all these pictures is the actual color that my sofa will be wearing. It is about as neutral as I get these days. I am very excited to start making pillows to spice it up. And I am glad it is neutral enough that I will have lots of options for lots of different styles. I also found it for $1 a yard, so it was a pretty easy decision since most upholstery fabrics are $10/yard and up, so since I need about 15 yards… you do the math! Currently, I am wondering if I will ever get sick of red. I am starting to think it might be my color for life!

Now I have a nearly neked sofa. I am getting pretty tired of these ugly pictures, but here is a picture anyway. I have the sofa tipped over on it’s back.

I can’t wait to get some clothes back on this thing. I have to go out tomorrow and pick up a few more supplies, but hopefully things will start getting put back together by Thursday. It would be nice to sip my coffee while sitting on it’s bright shiny new fabric when the weekend gets here.

I made some progress today. But the sun was shining beautifully and on a whim I asked my mom if she wanted to go out and enjoy the spring weather by going for a lovely drive, lunch at a tea shop, and antique store shopping all the way home. It was really nice to be out in the sunshine and since I was feeling rather beat up since the children have been rather exhausting this weekend, it was wonderful to do something other than catch up on housework! I told my mom that I almost called her to come rescue us at noon on Sunday when the Man’s scowl was beginning to look like it might become permanent. But we made it through the weekend and hopefully if we are a little more strict and diligent the Boy will get through this phase. I should say the Girl isn’t going through a phase! She just had an exhausting slumber party that made it so her brain wasn’t functioning properly. Thankfully she is well rested and back to normal now! Okay, so here is what I found when I started to disassemble the sofa. Can you find the cheerio, toys, red licorice, sock, and kleenex? Yuck! I have also made 11 cents since I started!

So this is how far I have gotten already:

When the Girl said, “If I watch you, then I will know how to do it,” I realized that the reason I even think that I can do something like this is because I watched my mom do it once when I was a kid. She doesn’t remember this, but she even took me along with her to an upholstery class to help her out. My dad is a General Contractor (he also does Counseling. Funny combination, but great combo if you could choose your parents professions to ensure a good upbringing!) So I got to watch him build houses, buildings, lay cement smoothly, build bridges, and all kinds of other things that made me think, “Hmmm, I can do that!” So it is funny to grow up feeling so “empowered!” In adulthood I have had to learn to balance that with time, economy, and other priorities. I should also point out that I don’t have near the skill that my dad has in those areas. But I really like thinking that my kids will grow up with the same feeling. And the Girl is showing talent far greater than mine, for her age. I am excited to see where she takes it and what she will be teaching me in 10 years!

I have been putting this off because I knew it would be consuming. But I do want to get it done and I had it scheduled as one of my winter projects. So now that it is spring, but still feels like winter, I better get it done before I want to spend all my time outside watching things grow. I need to reupholster this sofa. I got it for free from a fellow freecycler who says her toddler trashed it. Considering the predominant odor coming from the fabric is stale juice, I actually believe her. I have also found toys and crackers in it as I have started taking it apart.

You can see I have the cushions finished already, but it is time to start with the real work. The last time I reupholstered something was about 8 years ago. Long before the we got our first digital camera. I realized that this time I can just snap photos as I remove things piece by piece so that when I can’t figure out what goes where, I can just use my pics for reference. I am so happy about that since I hated having to stop and write things down and make drawings. Now I just have to point and shoot. Okay, so the photos won’t be great since I will not be spending my time focusing on quality photos. Here is what I did this evening, but had to quit since the kids were already in bed and I was still banging away… and they probably ought to get some sleep.

So you all have to keep me accountable. Make sure I actually get this project done soon! Any tips would be hugely appreciated!!! Anyone done this before? And mom, if your out there, can I borrow your staple gun?

I posted about a birthday gift i made for someone else, but I haven’t mentioned my own birthday which was this week. I would have liked to ignore it, but with kids around that isn’t possible, unless you lie to them, which I was more than tempted to do! I tried it, ahem, but the guilt was too much, so I had to ‘fess up. So to make me feel old on my birthday, the nice teenage cashier at the grocery store didn’t card me. I always get carded, and even feel frustrated sometimes when the cashier acts like she doesn’t believe my drivers license is real and gives me the evil eye during the whole transaction. So I guess I am learning that if I don’t want that hassle, I should look for the youngest cashiers and if I am having a bad day and want to be cheered up then I need to find the nice old lady cashiers who will tell me I look too young to be buying alcohol. Nice!

The Boy also helped me feel just a little older by asking me if I had the same first name when I was a little kid that I do now. Of course, I said yes… that my first name has not changed. His response was, “Wow, your name is REALLY OLD!” Well, it is even older than he knows since it was the name of a town in the ancient middle east, but fortunately I haven’t had it that long!

So my birthday coming round again has just made me realize that I am very content. There just aren’t things that I want. If I really think about what I want, it is all things that can’t be bought. So for my birthday I wish someone could give me more energy, a little more motivation, and I wish someone could give me the gift of getting all the unnecessary crap out of my house. But I realize that is something I just have to do. And I need to learn to not be so anxious to have those things immediately.

But despite my not wanting stuff, my family still loves me, and packages, cards, eCards, emails, and phone calls started arriving. Carol sent me this:

Thank you Carol!!! I am so excited. I think they are so fun and creative and I am thankful to have some decorations that won’t be thrown away to pollute the planet after the party! And I needed the reminder to actually “Celebrate!” My husband’s parents sent me an eCard wishing they could give me this:

Sounds really wonderful! Although this funny gift from Heather is probably more appropriate for the next few months:

Thank you Heather! They will make me laugh every time I wear them. My sister bought this for me in Thailand. I love it. I love the mix of satin brocade with burlap. And the pom poms are great! I might have to steal the design and make a few more.

And my mom made me this lovely beaded necklace:

She is so amazing! There are earring to match and she made me another necklace that is a choker so the length is being adjusted so it fits just right, so I don’t have a photo of it yet. Even though I didn’t really want anything, these gifts made me feel so lucky. It is so nice to realize that people care and they actually know you well enough to give you something you will appreciate! Thanks for the phone call, Matt! And the Man has been on a week long quest to find me some music I will actually like. Which he knows is what I want more than anything he could gift wrap for me. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions! So far my new favorite song is “Love You Madly” by Cake… how did I miss those last two albums!

The Girl is going to an overnight birthday party tonight for a friend. It was the perfect chance to try out this skirt design. I have so many fun fabrics and putting them together is so fun. I also have been collecting a lot of rickrack, cording, lace, and bias binding from places like freecycle and the goodwill store in our neighborhood. It was really fun to mix in some of those elements and use the pom pom trim! I also finally figured out how to use the gathering foot on my sewing machine. What an amazing time saver!

Here is the Girl modelling it before it gets gift wrapped. She is much tinier than most of her friends so it shouldn’t be this long on her friend and she had to hold it up so it wouldn’t slide off her miniscule hips. She likes it and I hope her friend will, too. They might all just think I am crazy. And I guess, I have been realizing lately, that I am okay with that.

Saturday, we took the kids out for a late night date to enjoy the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. When the Girl was little we had season passes and enjoyed it regularly, but it has been a long time and many high school band performances since then. Since the Boy wasn’t so keen on sing-a-longs, I thought he might enjoy something more professional. It was so cute to see them all dressed up for the event. I told the Boy he had to pretend he was a grown up. He did pretty well with those instructions, though he did get a little antsy towards the end and the Man had him counting how many lights were in the ceiling to keep him occupied.

I wasn’t sure I would enjoy the performance since lately the only music I want to listen to fits into the category of music you cannot sit still to! If it doesn’t make me want to get up and move, then I don’t want to hear it. Maybe it is because I need things that push me to be more active. I am not naturally very energetic (except at parties where I have a tendency to embarrass the Man by being a little too animated.) Since my playlist consists of only the fast and funky music from artists like Rihanna, Gorillaz, Beck, B-52’s, No Doubt, Gem, K.T. Tunstall, A3, and Southern Culture on the Skids, a night at the symphony seems incongruent. So I was pleasantly surprised that listening to the orchestra still has the same awe inspiring effect that it used to. I am always amazed at the range of emotion that the music can evoke. And after dreading live music during the six and a half years we were associated with high schools and their band concerts, it was wonderful to realize again that a real orchestra can be so enjoyable.

So the kids were very good and only got squirrelly a little towards the end. On the ride home they didn’t seem very excited when I asked them if they wanted to go to the concert next month. I found it very amusing that the next morning they were both asking if we could go to the concert in April. I don’t think we will plan on going quite that often, but I would definitely like to go again. And while I am on this subject, please help me out by telling me what music you like that you just can’t sit still to. I desperately need to increase my playlist so I can get some house cleaning done!

Time flies! I don’t really feel busy, but when I look back on the last week I can’t figure out where it all went. I guess it is all the little things that add up. I have been slowly adding regular commitments to my schedule, a few hours here and a few hours there, so that is starting to be a factor. It is still very managable. But it seems like this week was full of little things. Paying bills, ordering new checks, costumes for kids for a school event, getting them to do homework, lunch with a friend (my mom!), grocery shopping, dropping of egg cartons for someone who raises chickens, turning in library books and picking up a few more. So the only project I have out right now is another potholder and granny hand towel in this design.

I am almost done. I just need to find some fun beads to put on the end of the strings that tie the towel to drawer pull or refrigerator handle, then take some pictures. And who knows when I will get to that. Hopefully next week will be slower and I can get some fun work done and some site maintenance. I need to add links too all the fabulous blogs of fellow crafters.