A Work In Progress

A while back I was 'ah fixin' up these chairs as Wild Bill says. They were a bland light wood color to start. I got 6 of these chairs and the matching square dining table, with leaves, for $75 on Craigslist! A real steal in my opinion, but not in Wild Bill's because so far only these 2 chairs have been put to use. The other 4 chairs and the table are still taking up room in the garage while I wait for inspiration to hit me. In the picture above, one chair is in stage one -- painted with red primer -- and the other is in stage two -- painted with black paint over the red primer. This picture is the chair in stage three -- with a second coat of black paint.

I wanted to paint the chairs white or black. I decided on black when I found the only "brush on" primer I had was a can of red primer and it was late and I was already in my pajamas. A trip to town was out of the question and so was using "spray on" paint due to the weather and the late hour, so brush on was necessary. If in your mind you're asking "why not white?" clearly you've never tried to cover up red with white paint.

I had this round table, which was purchased a couple of years ago at Pottery Barn (PB) for half off ($500 instead of $1000) because there are scratches on the top from PB using it for display. Wild Bill offered to take the scratches out, but it's made to look distressed anyway so the scratches don't matter to me.

Even though I painted the chairs black, it amazed me how much they matched the table and a bench I already had, so I put them all together in the breakfast room. Now, I'm not the matchy-matchy type (this is an understatement)...but we had the house up for sale so I decided to leave the chairs looking brown.

I made a make-shift bench cushion out of a king-size quilt I had, and put the matching shams on each end. These were another steal, by the way, from Marshalls.

For temporary chair seats I just used pieces of a Home Depot paint drop cloth. I didn't even take time to wash and soften it. It would've looked so much better if I had. Man, this is like showing my dirty laundry!

Before I had time to cut up the quilt to recover the chairs and cushion, the house sold and I packed these all up and put them in storage. Yesterday I moved the bench into our new garage and I'm 'ah fixin' to reinvent it in the new house. I definitely need to get the sewing machine out of storage and make something better for the cushion and chair seats.

I'm linking to Debbiedoo's Newbie blog party for new bloggers or those with under 100 followers. Go there and check out some pretty great blogs:

http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/03/stenciling-burlap-new-project-to-share.html

Another Yard To Envy

Last Fall while I was out in California, my Mom and I saw this lovely little yard while we were garage sale-ing. As you can see, it was really small but well done.

I love the flowers around the trees and the cheerfulnes of the home. Small front yards are ideal in my opinion because you can really put effort into a small yard and not break your back or pocketbook.

The other side of the driveway had a more rustic look. Loved it too. I think the creeping stuff is thyme. I'm going to put it into the cracks between our walkway blocks. Can't wait to finish all this moving stuff and get into decorating and yard work! For now, I can look at pictures and dream.

A Texan With Hoof In Mouth Disease

Last week as Wild Bill was "ah fixin" to make a trip down to the old house to pick up another load of stuff, he stated that he almost called it home. It's hard to shift in the early stages of moving. "Well," I said "Home is where the heart is."

Him: "Home is where my guitars and computers are."

Me: "Not where your wife is???"

Him: "uhhhhh, that's what I was a fixin' to say next!"

Me: "hmmmm, I see your priorities."

The School Marm

I couldn't put my finger on why these pictures were so goofy until this weekend while watching westerns. Then it dawned on me that, if I were in the olden days of the western movies, I could've been the school marm!

Or, maybe the crazy lady that lives outside of town with all the cats?

The cable man comes this Friday finally. Have you gone without TV and internet for almost 2 weeks lately? It's surprising how much we depend on them. I kept thinking I would Google how to clean stained cement floors...then I remembered I couldn't. I was going to watch my favorite shows...then I remembered I couldn't. It has been a looooong week. Thank God for the free internet at Panera Bread.

Missing The Snow

This is the last snow that fell a while back here in North Texas. My mother-in-law took these pictures during the snow. I wish I'd been here. I love the snow.

I'm sure people up further North think this looks like a baby snow. Well, I remember 3 years I spent in Illinois in '75, '76, '77 (that's 1975, not 1875, for all you smart asses), which turned out to be some of the coldest on record at that point. So, I have experienced those huge snowfalls and I feel for you if you have your yard piled high with snow, but all-in-all...I still love the snow.