My MIL informs me it is time to take the Christmas stockings down. I think it is funny, since she still has Christmas lights up… wink, wink! I have been busy around here and feeling a little rebellious towards that little voice in my head that tells me I should post. I keep telling that little voice in my head, “This is MY blog, I will post when I want to!” I think a lot of women can relate to that voice that is constantly telling them all the stuff that they “should” do. It is different than things you “need” to do, like feed and love your kids, or pay bills. That “should” voice has A LOT of expectations and I think rebelliousness against it is very healthy.

So this month I have been cooking, cleaning (lots of cleaning!), and trying to enjoy time with my kids. I have been doing spring cleaning and selling a few things on ebay. We also put a bid on a house. Another buyer offered cash, boohoo! Actually, it is okay! We aren’t ready to buy a house and although we could swing it, it feels very freeing to not be taking on the burden of repairing a house right now. My daughter has also been having a hard time in school. Her grades are wonderful, but she was miserable. She has been begging me to home school her, again. I have always thought that I don’t want to burn myself out on home schooling before junior high rolls around. I mean, seriously, if you could have avoided the trauma of junior high wouldn’t that have made life better? So we have also spent the month debating whether to let her home school after the semester was finished or wait until the end of the year. We decided to rescue her now from her middle school hell, and so curriculum is on its way. She is excited and it is contagious. I am very excited about all of the practical things I can teach her that she wouldn’t learn in a classroom. And to top it all off, my son broke his arm last weekend. It is the third time. I am embarrassed to say it feels pretty routine at this point. He inherited my double jointed (backwards) elbows. They are great for freak shows, but not so good for avoiding broken arms. I should know, I broke both of mine when I was a kid (at different times fortunately!) But he has me beat. Hopefully, this will be the last time, but he is only seven. There are still a lot of years for me to be sitting around with my fingers crossed!

So with all that is going on I have been feeling a little creative deprivation. So I made a duvet cover for my daughters bedroom. I was excited to pull all the fabrics from my stash. The oriental blue one was a gift from a SIL quite a few years ago and I have been holding on to it for a long time. I always pull it out hoping to use it and then, I can’t find the perfect compliments to go with it. I was soooo excited when I pulled it out this time and actually had collected enough complementary fabrics to go with it. Yippee!

I basically did 18″ squares for this duvet cover. It was so fun to be able to start and finish this all in one day. It didn’t take too much time out from all the other craziness in our lives. And it was wonderfully therapeutic.

Or “More Things to do with Scarves!”

In preparation for guests I wanted the boy’s room to look just a little more inviting. It only took a few minutes to swap out his very boy curtains for something a little more grown up. I took two long scarves, layered them, and tied them up using a little ribbon. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about the fact that he is systematically destroying the rest of the room, starting with the window blinds, and the paint on the walls. (We won’t go into detail about the carpet that I had to remove and replace a few weeks ago!) The room could really use a new layer of paint, but it is hard to put any effort into it. Another year or two of grimy hands wiped on the walls and I am sure I will be desperate to repaint no matter what he would do to the new paint. Right now it doesn’t seem worth the effort. I am sure many of you mom’s out there can understand that dilemma. Here are the curtains that go back up this week after I run them through the wash.

On another subject, I can’t stand posts that are “un-comment-able!” I am not always sure what makes a post sound like that, but for an example see my last post. So just for the record, I want to formally invite all my blog friends out there roll your eyes and say a big “whoop-di-doo!”

Today is a gloomy, cold, rainy day… and that is why I love orange. I need something to keep me from getting depressed. I had no trouble coming up with an orange offering for today’s color theme. It even inspired me to play around a little bit with a graphics program that I have been trying to ignore for years. I like doing things with my hands and using a computer program to create something visually appealing feels to me like trying to make something with my hands tied behind my back. But I did come up with this! It is a start and I learned a lot by doing things the hard way (I discovered later!)

Pics include: My old dining room in our townhouse in the Philippines, paint swatches currently on the corkboard in my studio, gerbera daisies and the boy in my old dining room, wallpaper in my current kitchen, orange paisley gauze fabric still to be transformed into something lovely, and pillows on the sofa in the studio. In the center: satin bias binding from my collection, and detail of an Alphonse Mucha print (still my favorite graphic artist!)

I love this color! It is my substitute for days like today when the sun decides to hide behind a thick blanket of clouds. We even eat at a table in the orange striped kitchen on days like today in order to avoid looking out over the gloomy landscape from the dining room table. It’s my color therapy!

Almost! I am finished for now. I am going to keep my eyes open for two more yards of cording in the right color, but since the back is up against the wall, I don’t have to worry about it until I find a color that will work. Then the last two skirt panels will go on quickly. So I am trying to not be too much of perfectionist about the whole thing. I am trying to ignore the fact that I didn’t pull the fabric tight enough when I did the arms. It was too late to do anything about it by the time I realized it. So I learned the hard way that if you think you are stretching the fabric tight enough, your not. You have to pull it just a little bit tighter. Next time I will use a canvas stretching pliers to get a good grip on the fabric and pull it tighter. But, I am excited that I got it done in a week and it didn’t turn into another really long project. So here she is:

I also thought I would answer some of Sarah’s questions from the comments on the last post. I think the biggest factor that gave me the idea that I could do this was watching my mom reupholster a chair when I was in junior high. I’m not sure if I would have been so convinced I could do it if I hadn’t seen it done. I also bought a book about six years ago that has really great pictures. Our library also has quite a few upholstery books and the more pictures you see, the less scary it seems. I haven’t done a sofa before, but I did do a chair that was reasonably successful for it being the first time. I also would shop with my mom and hear her comments on what to look for when picking furniture to reupholster. Make sure that it doesn’t have any weird odors unless you are ready to commit to stripping it all the way down to the frame and replacing all the foam and batting. This will make a project significantly more expensive and it might not be worth it. Also anything with a lot of buttons and tufting is going to be complicated. And since I like clean lines with furniture I was never tempted to reupholster one of those puffy lazy boy style sofas that are pretty popular. I think those would be difficult. The main thing is that you learn how to put a piece of furniture back together by taking it apart. Being able to take pictures with a digital camera makes a huge difference. There were a lot of times that I just had to go back to the pictures and study them again. You think you will remember it all, but it is such a long process that there are just too many details to keep track of. I guess if you did it all the time, you wouldn’t need the reference like I do. I was amazed how many times I was about to put something back together and realized there was a significant detail that I had completely missed. Studying the pictures, let me find what I missed. If I had been relying on my own notes and drawings, I wouldn’t have had anything to go back to in order to find the part I had not been paying attention to while I was taking it apart.

Here is my cost break down on this project. :

Sofa = Free!!
12 yards of Red Fabric @ $1.00/yd (lucky break!) = $12.00
19 yards of Cording @ $0.78/yd (Joann’s 40% off coupon) = $14.82
10 yards of Cardboard strip @ $0.20/yd = $2.00
8 yards of Muslin @ $0.60/yd (Joann’s 40% off coupon) = $4.80
1 Queen size quilt batting + 3 yds (on sale for 50% off) =$10.00
2 boxes of staples @ $2.00 each = $4.00
GRAND TOTAL: $47.62

Okay, so I am a freak when it comes to buying stuff as cheap as possible. Looks like my splurge on cording is what took me past my ridiculous goal of doing this project for $30. But cording is such a pain to make and with a project this big it seemed like quite a reasonable expense. You can get staple guns for as little as $7.00 if you can’t borrow one. I hope to borrow my dad’s power stapler the next time I do this. I have a few more pictures it would be fun to post, so watch for those coming soon.

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?