Wicker Chair

By: Bethany

   This was another "junkin" find while we were in Michigan.

We loved the round, retro shape of it, but it looked a little…boring.

What it needed was a happy cushion to brighten it up and make it a little more comfy.

We found this really pretty fabric at Hobby Lobby, and then Becca used one of the flowers on it as inspiration for a pillow.

She painted white cloth with the basic shape, then embroidered the black details.

And it's reversible! 

Whimsy

By Becca



   When we were on our vacation in Michigan we went 'junkin' with our Aunt Barb.

'Junkin' is what Aunt Barb calls going to garage/rummage sales, thrift stores and antique shops. 

In one such place I found a sweet wooden rocking horse. Well, Mom saw it first and showed us.

 It looked a bit like this:

 I say 'a bit' because this picture was taken after I had taken his leather bridle, ears, and plastic eyes off.

(I'm still having a hard time remembering to take that 'before' picture)  

I liked him, decided to take him home and after paying a small adoption fee, he was mine. 

But I didn't know what I wanted to do with him.

Sand and re-stain him?

 Paint him all one bright color?

Make him look kind of realistic?

I couldn't decide, and so I ignored him for a while.

 I began playing with design ideas again, then remembered my favorite color horse:

Dapple gray is so pretty!

Using that for inspiration, I painted Whimsy. ( Yes, I named him. ) 

Isn't he a handsome boy?

I painted his head, body, and legs with some gray paint we had, and used black, white and sliver to make the varying light/dark dots. 

I painted a white mark on his forehead that went down his nose, and his nose got a nice not-too-pink skin color. 

His shiny black eyes where previously owned by a fluffy stuffed dog; it was silly how terrible I felt ripping them out. 

I love those soft gray ears! 

They came from bag of leather scraps, and they where the perfect color.

His mane is mane from a roll of twisted cord fringe,

 it has a lovely shine don't you think?

Yes, the tail is a little thin, but only so much material can fit in one small hole : )

 It was pretty tricking getting that on.

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After

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Fun with Windy

 Windy has been fitting right in…

Can you see her?

We may not be her forever family, but we certainly have been enjoying her. She's quite the distraction though. She thinks everything is a toy, and is often getting into places she shouldn't. She loves climbing things with her sharp little claws and chewing on the furniture. But that's only a portion of the day; the rest of the time, she's curled up, fast asleep.

First encounter with rabbits

"What kind of creature are you anyway?"

Becca had been having a lot of fun taking pictures of her, and Windy is very photogenic, don't you agree?

We were walking along...

This morning, after our school work was finished, we had to go out and hang posters for a rummage sale we are going to have this weekend.  Becca thought we should drive, because we would get it done faster, but I thought we should walk so we could take our dog Mocha.

   We ended up walking, which turned out to be a really good thing, even though it was awfully windy out; the posters kept getting wrinkled, and our hair kept getting mussed.  After walking down main street and hanging posters on all the available bulletin boards, we headed up the main road to one more place near the edge of town. While we were on our way back, Becca spotted something on the grassy boulevard.  It was gray, fluffy, and very terrified; trying to make it's self as small as possible against the wind and the cars roaring past. 

 "It's a kitten!" Becca squealed and quickly scooped it up. It hissed in return, and meowed mournfully, but other then that, it didn't protest.

  It wasn't hurt, but it had burrs tangled in it's fur. We brought it home, and it cried pitifully the whole way.  First, we stopped at our dad's office and held it up to his window. He came out, smiling, and asked "Do you want to add a cat to the family?". Our mom was very surprised when we came in the house with our little foundling. 

After our first cat Jack died, we decided we were not going to have any more indoor cats. We were tired of dealing with hair and all that, But when you look into a little kitten's face, how can you send it away?

It's a girl, and we've named her Windy.

She's been doing great so far, though we've only had her for 6 hours. She uses her litter box, she's been eating well, she gets along good with Mocha, and we think she loves us.  At least, she purrs when we pet her, and cries when she thinks she's being ignored.

With Windy, plus these little guys…

…we are currently overrun with cuteness. 

Mocha's pretty adorable too

Vintage Vanity Stool

         Do you remember that cute little vanity stool that we found? Well, I was able to finish upholstering it this weekend!

Before

After

                   It was missing the back cushion, so I had to replace that. I cut out a cardboard circle and upholstered that with some foam we had and the fabric. I was able to reuse the tassels from the old cushion, since they went with the gold color in the fabric.

And it swivels! I just figured that out yesterday. Someone had turned it around so many times, it was like it had been screwed into place. With a little twisting, I loosened it, and now you spin around in it (Carefully, mind you). 

   It was hard to find when the vanity stool was made. It still had a manufacturer's tag stapled to the bottom, but it didn't have a date on it. We tried finding similar ones online and eventually discovered that it was most likely made in the 50's or so.

  

  Oh, and Becca found the missing foot  :)