I inherited a little chair from a friend of mine who lives in Boise. I've never been to Boise, but we are friends nonetheless. We "met" online several years ago through a mutual friend. Anywho, last time she was up visiting, she asked if I wanted to take this little chair off her hands.
I said yes, of course. Fast forward about 4 months, and I actually did something about making it look a little nicer.
The original fabric was a bear and balloon print, circa 1985. I wanted to use what I had around, so I grabbed this red and white striped material and some dark purple linen for the sides and back. I didn't have enough to do the same fabric all over, but I kind of like the patch-work look of it.
This is the first time I have "recovered" any furniture, unless you count throwing a sheet over an old couch. So things are not as tight and neat as I would have liked. Still happy with the results though.
Basically, I just unscrewed the arms and then removed the staples holding the cover onto the chair. Ripped out all the seams, traced the pattern pieces onto my new fabric, sewed it up following the original sewing lines, added a little more batting to the seat and back, painted the arms and base white (they were a not-so-great odd wood-color before), reattached everything, and presto!
You can tell I was determined to get this done since I spray-painted the wood pieces when it was about 45 degrees outside. It was at least not snowing. You have to take what you get in terms of weather when you live in Idaho.
And like all things you do for your children, they were less than impressed. I showed the kids the newly redone chair I asked, "Do you like it? Do you want to sit in it and read?" They responded with a "meh" and went about their business. That's ok. I still like it. And they do sit on it to read or stand on it to look out the window to check the weather.
The shed now is
completely up and after this picture was taken, Jason put the siding
on. Almost ready to start going through all of our junk; I mean, storage stuff.
I made new pillow covers for the couch throw pillows. A couple are zig zag, floral, and then these two. I'm liking them a lot.
And the kids have a project whenever they go outside: emptying the
bird feeder. We need to hang it up out of reach, but until then, they
have fun pulling out any bird seed remnants they can find.
I'm sure that you all know that Jason and I like "natural" products: wooden toys for the kids, beeswax candles, organic food (when affordable and in season). I'm just a northwest hippie (wink) into breastfeeding, natural childbirth (as much as my wimpiness will allow), homeschooling, and cooking from scratch. I will admit to a fondness for fast-food hamburgers, though I've noticed that as I have gotten older, my stomach doesn't like a Sourdough Jack as much as it used to. Compared to some, I know we are newbies when it comes to "natural living" and we haven't yet gotten into the world of making our own kombucha and kefir, though we do make yogurt on occasion. This isn't to say we won't get there eventually, but I just haven't started doing those things yet.
Over the past few years, we've been using more natural products, especially with our kids. After reading some not great things about some baby wash/shampoos and diapers, we changed what we bought for them. And Jason has been encouraging me to start using natural cleaning products (something I've pinned lots of ideas for, but haven't really used yet) and natural beauty products.
A year or so ago we started making our own deodorant. I'm sure that many of you will think this is crazy (at least maybe to those who aren't from our community). But I assure you, it's not as strange as it might sound and especially when it comes to women's deodorant, it definitely does not have all the yucky additives that can be harmful (aluminum, triclosan, etc...). Jason was happy with our recipe, but I wasn't super cheerful about the consistency. I need to give it another spin. So right now I use Tom's of Maine brand and am fairly happy with the results, but making and using our own is of course the cheaper alternative.
And about two months ago, I gave up using any face wash products and instead use just honey. I could have gone whole hog and just started washing with water, as do several of my friends and husband, but I couldn't quite get over the comfort of using something to clean my face. And I can say that it is wonderful! Even though I am approaching the big 3-0, I still break out quite often. And I've noticed over the past months that my breakouts have gotten fewer and farther between and when I do get a pimple, they go away much more quickly than before. Honey has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, which makes it a good fit for someone who breaks out occasionally. There are a million websites out there with more info, but here is one of them. We also use a Vitamin E oil with almond and coconut oils in it as our moisturizer. I love it. And it smells yummy.
Another facial treatment that I've been liking lately is a turmeric/garbanzo bean flour mask. It does make you smell a little like curry while you're wearing it, but it makes your skin very soft and works to take away dark spots and blemishes. You also look slightly crazy while wearing it. To make you combine:
2 heaping spoonfuls of garbanzo bean flour
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 spoonful of almond oil (less than a tablespoon)
a bit of milk, to make it the proper consistency (thick enough to stay on your face and for the flour and turmeric to dissolve)
The next thing we are going to do, once we run out of our current products is start using this homemade shampoo recipe. My good friend and I like to joke about how we have such funny conversations about "granola mom" topics. She started using this shampoo recently and says that it's wonderful. She and a lot of other people out there also recommend using coconut oil as a natural conditioner. So that will be our next step and I'm excited to give it a whirl!
On a side note, this video is me and Abby some days.
And I'm starting to research body soaps/bar soaps and more natural alternatives to what we use now.
I have also made dish soap using this recipe, but was not impressed with the consistency or the soap's ability to suds up. I need to do more research and try another option.
So that's our little update on our home and beauty products. We'll let you know how the shampoo turns out and if I find a great dish soap recipe.
Today, I'm having a hard time managing my mental "to do" list. But so far we have:
made apple pancakes
gotten dressed/showered
drank market spice tea while looking for a good online story about St. Patrick's Day (no luck)
printed out shamrock coloring pages
caught up on dishes/let Hazel watch an old Winnie the Pooh cartoon while I did said dishes and Klaas "napped"
catching up on laundry that was neglected during our move a week and a half ago
thought more about curtain-making
played legos with Klaas
read part of Charlotte's Web and an Olivia book with Hazel
sword/spoon fought with the kids
surfed for knit dress patterns to make Hazel a St. Patrick's Day
dress out of some orange polka dot jersey I found at the thrift store
(yes, orange. I am honoring my grandmother who was very stubborn and
clear that one should wear orange on St. Patrick's Day since one is Protestant, not Catholic)
remembered that I also want to make Klaas an Irish flag shirt
thought about the menu for our feast on Saturday and maybe making a
fun appetizer and the fact I need to find a recipe for Guinness frosting
for our Guinness brownies
started thinking that we're having someone else over for dinner Friday and I need to clean more today and unpack more boxes
listened to the kids play hide and seek in their closet
thought that maybe we should all watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People this week
let the kids paint some pictures
disciplined for throwing things/saying no/having attitude
It's only 12:37pm.
(It should be noted that a lot of these activities were being worked on at the same time as other ones.)
Monday, September 26, 2011
Last week we did some little alphabet sheets I found via Pinterest (the best thing ever). And we're continuing in her Rod and Staff workbooks, which she loves, and the reading book, which is (as I predicted) a little hard for her. So she and I have slowed down a bit with that and are spending a couple days on each lesson. But Jason and I are so proud of her since she is recognizing letters right and left when we go out and starting to remember her numbers too... This is what a typical morning looks like around here: Hazel wearing some funny outfit she came up with (I can't wait until that dress actually fits her - it's from my sister-in-law and I love it!) and Klaas was getting frustrated that he couldn't get his feet into the klompen slippers without assistance. And this is Hazel and me reading last night on the couch. It made me happy because she just climbed up on my lap like that to look at her AWANA book while I was drinking tea and relaxing. And it makes me laugh because this is her attempt at a "real smile" when Jason asked her to look happy. (We're keeping it real with the random diaper, apron, and shirt that are on the couch. This is just what our place looks like on a Sunday night: slightly crazy.) A project I finally finished. We bought this stepstool when Hazel was a baby and I finally painted it this summer. I can't find a before picture, but it was very beat up and pink. Jason helped me sand away some nasty who-knows-what it was (wait, Jason probably does know) stuff that was on the steps about, oh....3 months ago. I got around to painting it a couple of weeks ago. (I'm keeping it real yet again by showing you the random Lego pieces and my shoes that are on the floor.) Another little project we did was this. Jason saw something similar on Pinterest (there it is again, the best website ever) and found an old shutter at work somewhere. So I painted it "way too green" in Jason's opinion and we hung it up to hold pictures, cards, and whatever else we want to stick up there. I also repainted our kitchen table, something I've been talking about doing for about 1 1/2 years. It's now white and I love it. But it's covered in stuff like always, so it's not very photogenic right now. I will try to style a very chic photo shoot later this week.
And just so he's not neglected by not being super-involved with this post, here's Klaas yesterday, lying down in the slide. I guess he wanted to watch the clouds.
