Computer Chair Upgrade

I decided I would upgrade the poor, old computer chair we had sitting in the garage. It's been out there for over a year now. I still had some of the fabric left over from when I made the pillow mat so I used it. It was super easy to do this. All I needed was the chair, fabric, staple gun, and a little bit of hot glue. The cushion on the top part popped out completely. So I covered it in the fabric and used the staple gun to hold the fabric tightly in place. Then I took the hot glue gun and glued the cushion back into the plastic piece. I'd say this took less than 10 minutes. Then I went to work on the bottom cushion. Unlike the top, this piece isn't in a plastic piece. It did not come off the base. So I just took the fabric and stretched it over the cushion and used the staple gun to hold it in place. I also used a little bit of hot glue to glue down some of the fabric that was ruffling. And that was it. Now I have a totally made-over, dressed up chair. My husband complained I stole his chair but I just told him it's still his it's just pink now. :) I forgot to take a before picture but it was just a plain ole black computer chair.

Lego Block Table

Before, During, and After:

So for the past 2 days I've been slowly putting together a Lego table for Gus. In all reality, it could have been finished in under an hour but it's hard to let paint and glue sit while a 2 year old is running around. So I ended up doing the painting and gluing while he was down for the night or napping. Tonight I finally got it completely done. It was finished enough that he got to play with it with his cousin and friends yesterday during Thanksgiving but tonight I got the "road" stripes put on it. It turned out really cute and he loves it. I think it is his new favorite thing. It was super easy to make.

All I did was: paint the top of the little table we already had with black chalkboard paint (which was leftover from painting his closet door and Janelle's wall, haha). After the paint was dry I took the Lego Duplo base plate and used liquid nail to attach it to the table. I sat a heavy paint can on it to push it down while it dried. Tonight, I took some white paint and painted the "road" stripes around the edge of the table so he can play with his cars on the road. My stripes got a little (well a lot) crooked but I don't think he will mind ;)

Here is the original post I got the idea from:http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2011/08/lego-and-car-table.html.

Pillow Mat Project

So I got my sewing machine a little over a month ago. Before I bought it, I had never used one before. I have pretty much just thrown myself into it. So far I have managed to make things that look like they're supposed to. I made Halloween costumes for our family and people were able to tell what they were so I will consider that a success. I have encountered A LOT of trial and error, sewing is a lot harder than I expected. But I'm getting the hand of it slowly. (At least I think so.)

So lately I've been finding all these really neat ideas for Christmas gifts on Pinterest. I found a pillow mat and thought I could make one for my niece out of the fabric I had from a chair re-upholstery. (The company sent the wrong fabric three times!! Finally I decided to just keep it since they wanted me to have it so badly.) So I found the tutorial here....http://southerndisposition.blogspot.com/2011/06/pillow-bed-tutorial.html Instead of a duvet cover, I used 3 yards of material but ended up cutting about a foot off the bottom. The instructions were easy to follow, however, I had a hard time working with hemming fabric that was 9 feet long. I got it to work with a few extra hands from Jimmy though. Overall, it took me about an hour and a half to complete, which is longer than most that I saw, but hey I'm learning. Overall, it turned out really cute. I don't have the four pillows for it yet so I just stuffed random ones in it to see how it'll look. Yes, there are actually four pillows in it. I folded one under to prop the head spot up. The different size pillows made it look crooked in the picture but it's really not. I'm pretty proud of it! I think the best part is the pillows can be taken out so you can wash the fabric.

I plan on making two more of these (one for my son and his friend) but I think I'll do it a little differently. I will definitely cut the fabric down into smaller pieces and then sew those together. Working with 9 feet of fabric was a major pain in the butt for me. I think this will make it much easier and faster next time!