bored in the laundry room...

Okay, I had to do something in the laundry room, since I now spend LOADS and LOADS of time in there and only had plain blue walls. I didn't want to add the traditional quotable art, like "one load at a time," or cliches about doing your own laundry, so here's what I came up with. Found a cute print on etsy that I framed--not a super obvious reference to laundry, but you get it.


Then I found a set of 3 plain wooden clothespins that I sanded and painted and drilled hanging holes into the back. Then I remembered some leftover cable I used for a gallery wall from Ikea, and here's what I've now got on the wall above my washer and dryer. Much better!

I've registered a domain

After much research, I registered a domain for my new website/shop through godaddy.com. I decided to do it independently, and not attach the registration to the hosting. I've just read too many stories about people wanting to cancel their hosting service and losing their domain. Happy with their service so far, though I haven't done anything with the domain yet!

I've decided to have fatcow.com do the hosting of the site. I have lots of build-able options at a reasonable price and so far (at the very beginning of the process) I am pleased with this choice as well. I hope to launch the new web store at the beginning of November. Excited!

Casual jewelry I've been working on

all girl no play







contradiction







branching out







noble roble

Here is the dotted fabric. Thanks, princess, for demonstrating the cushion of the foam! My husband convinced me to only reupholster the seats of all 4 chairs. The mission style backs are really nice, so I'm fine with having less work to do!

reupholstered chairs

Once I pulled up all the staples, worn out padding, and torn fabric, I cut out a section of 2 inch foam to fit the wooden seat. Then I cut out fabric the same shape, allowing about 3 inches extra all around. My biggest take-away from these steps is to use a knife (maybe even electric) to cut the foam. There is really no way to get an even cut with scissors, and that will affect the final result. I was also careful to line up the stripes/plaid. Then I stapled like a mad woman, pulling tight as I went. (I like knowing that I am an expert at removing them if I make a mistake!) I think the corners take extra skill, and mine turned out just adequate. You can see some puckering in the photos.

done!

It's taken me forever to get these chairs done! Part of it is that my 17 month likes to sit on my projects. Very scary since I'm working with a screwdriver and pliers, and tons of tiny staples. My 5 year old is legitimately helpful, though. We developed a system on the last chair, finished today, where I pried up all of the staples with the screwdriver and he pulled them all out with the pliers. He said he might like to be a staple puller when he gets older. I told him that would be fun, but he would be good at many, many things, and he might want to choose something different when it's time. He's SO sweet!

Photos tomorrow...I've been taking photos of jewelry today, but no chairs. I'm disappointed in myself, but I just can't take pictures of all of the different steps. Before and after is the best I can do!

I loosened each staple by prying it up with a screwdriver, then pulled it out with pliers. (I started by grabbing one end of the staple and pulling straight up, this does not work! You have to grab the staple, then used the wood as leverage to work against the pliers.)

Okay, now I have to get the foam. I'm going to do one chair at a time so I don't have all 4 chairs out of commission at once. Also, I've decided that I'm going to leave the arms on the end chairs. These will now be the chairs my skinny husband and I use for 1) the computer and 2) teaching piano. That will leave the armless ones to become the parsons chairs, which will be comfortable for any type of booty.

I removed one seat!

And there are about a thousand staples holding that fabric on! I don't know if this is a sign of a chair that's well-made, or if the guys at the furniture factory were having a good time with a staple gun. But I pulled out staples for 2 hours last night (admittedly stopping occasionally to stare at Real Housewives with my jaw dropped). And I still have a few more staples to go! I'll put photos up so you can feel my pain.

Fabric for seats only of side chairs







Fabric for parson chairs











They look great together, though they won't be kept that close when the chairs are done.










Found these chenille fabrics at fabric.com. Awesome website!







I'm going to try to take one of the side chairs apart today. We'll see how that goes!

First time reupholstering!

This chair is so sad. 12 years of existence, and the last 2 as our computer chair. I think it actually hurts my butt to sit on it. I'll be doing 2 like this.











I have 1 more chair that looks like this. Am I crazy? My plan is to turn these into parson chairs. They serve as chairs in sort of a "waiting area" in my home. I want to remove the arms, add a little more substance to the backs, pad the seat and the back, and cover all. my husband really thinks I'm crazy on this one. It's just that the arms are so puny that they're not comfortable, and if your rear is wide at all, you have a hard time getting in and out.

Photo Depression

I've just found out that the photos I've been posting are too dark! My monitor apparently needed major adjusting, and it wasn't obvious until I ordered some prints that turned out way too dark! Thankfully we have a photo person in the neighborhood who calibrated the monitor for us, but I feel depressed. I need to go through all of my photos and brighten them up, then re-post them to all of the many places on the internet where they live!

Lyrica copper Set...

close up of the patina on the links











bracelet











Earrings












Necklace

Feeling Crafty!

I think it's nesting, though I'm not pregnant. But every fall I want my house to be just so. My brain is flooded with home ideas that mostly I can't afford! So I'm gonna be making things other than jewelry in my craft room for the next couple of months. I may just put some photos up here, as it seems like fun and it's good for my amateur-ish photography skills! So I'm looking for fabric for a magnetic board and to re-upholster (is that how you spell that?) 2 or 4 chairs, and hunting down inspiration for a king-size headboard. More to come...

Dejavu Necklace











Trunk Bay Agate Necklace







Agni Fire Agate Necklace

End of summer??

Is is time to go back to school yet? I love all of my children, but sometimes having all 4 of them home all the time is challenging! For some reason the 3 boys asked to go with me to the grocery store. How bored are these poor, poor sweet boys that they want to help their mom at the store? Well, since the husband's home right now, he can stay and watch the baby while the rest of us go, so I said, "sure," with a question in my voice.

From home, to the bank, to the store, there wasn't a moment of silence. (Lord, I don't even expect that anymore.) It's that constant barrage of questions that blows my mind. The questions I'm required to answer require multiple degrees, and they are endless!

Not once was there a span of 10 seconds between my children's questions. It wasn't always the request for fruit snacks or Reese's Puffs, but often it was. I've decided the problem is that they're all 3 boys, they're all 3 the centers of their own universes, and they are all the most talkative people I've ever met. After an hour in that place I wanted OUT! Forget the last 2 things on my list that I had coupons for, I can't handle any more!

Anyway, I love school. It brings order and routine. And despite all the reading, drawing, fishing, swimming, traveling, bike riding and chores the kids are doing this summer, it's not replacement for getting wiped out with the wonderful demands of that institution. Home-school moms and dads, you guys are amazing! Even though I'm a teacher myself, I could never do it!

So I just can't decide who to use to host my web store. I don't think I want to create it from scratch, mainly because I don't have time to learn how. Though if I knew what I was doing, I'd be totally into it! I guess the problem is, I want it to be really customizable. I'm a little business and I don't want to spend all of my money on a website!

I created this to match an outfit I wore to sing in a wedding. I haven't named it yet.
Sanibel
Gia (This piece will be customizable. Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel will look the best, but for a bold look, try the contrasting colors.)
Adrushya Necklace

I've been wanting to re-invent my jewelry line for a couple of years. When my beautiful bonus baby came along over a year ago, I basically stopped production. I'm finally back where I was, mentally, and I'm ready to get a new company and a new website going! I'm excited, mostly, to be creating again. I've also set up a permanent space to work, so that's been huge. I'm experimenting with store names right now, but the jewelry lines are pretty clear in my mind. If anyone has tips for getting domain names, I'd love to hear some!

Adrushya earring
Ollie Tree
Vanilla Lime Bracelet
Trifecta Rough
Giardiniera