Chairs with FLAIR!

This makes for two posts in very quick succession, but I'm so thrilled about these chairs that I just had to share - immediately! Because I tackled this project in the evening and HAD to post them RIGHT NOW, the photos aren't the best - the chairs are even MORE fabulous in good light I swear!

BEFORE (old, stained, plain-jane seatcovers)


AFTER (sassy, coordinating chairs with FLAIR!)



This was amazingly easy. All I did was unscrew the chair seats, and use a heavy-duty staple gun to wrap and staple new decorators fabric right over the existing fabric pulling tightly and tucking as I went around.

I found this Amy Butler print on super sale for just $9.95 a yard. One yard covered both chairs with a good amount left over to add to my stash.


I'm SO thrilled with the result, I'm off to see what else in my house needs a re-covering makeover!

Flip Flops Two Ways - Part Two

In class tonight the girls finished their two pairs of flip flops. Head back to part one of this post to see the tutorials and find out about their flip flops! They turned out sooooo cute! How fun would these be for a girls' birthday party or slumber party? And the best part of all is that they are super cheap to make!






I'll be posting from our final week of jewelry & fashion art class next week with our last two projects...until then, here's a sneak peak of the tee shirts the girls are making...

Happy Birthday!

to ME - not my blog!

Yesterday was my birthday and to celebrate, Heather and I whipped up a batch of MINI cupcakes with the new MINI cupcake pan I got as a birthday gift. SO CUTE!!!




I'm off to continue my birthday festivities through the weekend, but I'll be back next week with some new projects and tutorials - so check back soon!

Have a great weekend!

'da Bear

After much procrastinating, some crazy needling and a few choice words... 'da bear is complete...


I was right about the assembly - sewing this guy together was HARD. I wish the directions had been clearer - but I suppose it's more knack than skill, and one of those things you get better at the more bears that you knit.

I had three big issues...

How to get rid of the leftover yarn strings? Some of them you could sew through (head through and out the bottom of the body, for example) but that didn't work for all appendages. I ended up finishing the best I could and tucking in loose ends with my needle - which was tricky.

The snout. To create the snout on this particular bear, I was to sew a running stitch in a circle and pull together to tighten and create a 3D effect. My snout is a little too low - you can't really see the mouth. Next time I need to do the snout AFTER I join the head and body together to get a better perspective.

And lastly, the arms. They're a little crazy looking. While my placement of the arms is correct, the angle at which I sewed them is not. So, this particular bear looks a little bit like a muscle man, rather than a traditional teddy with his arms fallen at his sides. So he's got some guns, so what? : )

All in all he was fun to make - and I imagine the larger sized bears (this was the "small" of the small-medium-large patterns) are easier to piece together, but take longer to knit obviously. This bear ended up about 10 inches tall.

Now, to try a bigger bear!

Flip Flops Two Ways - Part One

Sorry I've been absent for a few days - would you believe I've come down with a yucky cold/sinus type thing in the middle of summer? Gross! I've been sleeping a lot and trying to get better, because my birthday is on Thursday! Yeah!

With being sick, I haven't felt like doing a ton of crafting, but I did want to share with you some photos from my jewelry/fashion art class yesterday.

We're making flip flops - two ways. I'm using a ribbon flip flop tutorial that I found HERE





and a flower flip flop tutorial I found HERE.





There are so many fun and inexpensive ways to jazz up a pair of cheap flip flops - I'm already coming up with a few new ways of my own. We bought our flip flops for 50% off at Hobby Lobby - just 75 cents a pair! I know that Michaels and JoAnn's have good deals on them too, and there's always the good old Old Navy flip flops too.

The girls had a great time with this project, and were super focused on the details. We ran out of time in class to finish our flip flops, but will be finishing them up next week. Stay tuned for Flip Flops Two Ways - Part Two, to see how they all turned out!