Almost everything has potential...

When it comes to furniture, I think almost anything has potential. There are a few caveats...pressed board pieces are generally not worth the effort ...okay, so maybe there is really only one caveat. Anyway, when my grandmother offered me this ugly footstool I didn't hesitate to take it in.

It took me awhile before  I decided what I wanted to do. I've never really recovered anything like this before, so I was a little hesitant. I decided to tackle it using some nice, but cheap fabric I picked up at St. Vincent Depaul.

I originally going to sew a removable cover for it, but since I'm new to sewing, I made the initial part of the cover a little too small, so I decided to get out my staple gun (otherwise known as my BFF.)

 I stapled the skirt on. I also chose to do the fabric on the reverse because it was a little garish (which is probably why it ended up at the thrift store.)

I  was able to cover up my staples with a combination of piping and gimp. This was my first attempt at making my own piping. The single piping turned out great, but the double piping not so much.

It's a little wonky, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. I have a similar project waiting it's turn in the basement.

Now the real challenge--- finding  time for the piles of potential hanging out in the basement.

Ready to travel

I have a hard time passing up a suitcase, but you can only use so many...especially when you rarely go any place.

I decided to take this suitcase and

combine it with this ...



The combination equaled a cute little side table.

I don't know if it was the recent royal wedding ... or maybe my extreme adoration of Miss Mustard Seed ... but I can't get enough of the Union Jack right now. This looks much cuter in person... the background is actually a light blue, but in the photo it almost looks white.

I have a paint brush and I will use it....

So I repainted this cabinet a while back. (It had some veneer problems) When I did that I decided to remove the decorative element from the doors because I wanted an unobstructed view of what was inside the cabinet.

I hung on to them for awhile until I decided to use them as "paneling" in the little area outside our kitchen area. They fit perfectly. I painted them and the wall so they look like solid wood. I recently repainted the wall a green color to make them and my artwork pop more too.

Around that same time I made a "child/dog gate" out of an old frame and some chicken wire. It keeps the dogs out of the basement while allowing access for the cat (he goes right over the top.) It's also held up better than the child gate we use to use, which broke pretty quickly.

It's puppet time

I wish I would have done a tutorial for this, but I was really winging it and was in a time crunch (hence the slightly eschew window.)

A while back, I picked up a canvas show curtain thinking I could use it for something. I did use it to recover a chair, but had enough left to make a puppet theater. I just had to add some coordinating fabric to the bottom to make it long enough.

I discovered after I made my hole, and finished off with seam binding, that I needed to add some fusible interfacing to the backside, to keep the window from falling forward. (It actually would have benefitted from a stiffer interfacing, but I was using what I had on hand.)

Ages ago I picked up some old felt board letters and have been able to use them for several projects. I was really glad to have them on hand for this project.

My darling neices were happy with their theater, although everyone also wanted to see out of the window too... so funny.

I'm linking to The Freckled Laundry's Air Your Laundry Party.

T-shirt redo

 

So when I was getting ready for a garage sale, I came across some clothes that I couldn't sell because of of stains. I decided to salvage some of those shirts and turn the designs into appliques to redo, plain shirts. I simply used Pellon (follow the directions on the product), to turn them into iron-ons and then ironed them to the plain shirts. I also did a zig-zag stitch around the edge of the applique.

Getting a picture of my little guy in this handy work is easier said then done.

Whew, he finally stood still. Here's his "new" shirt.

 I used the technique on a couple of shirts for him and a few shirts for me ...yeah, I was able to salvage my own Donald Duck and Pippi Longstocking T-shirts.

Whew, that took some doing...

So, I got this chair for free and it needed a lot of work as you can see.... but I thought it had beautiful lines, so it was worth the effort.

I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out. It will probably be redone again in the future, but it is definitely an improvement from where it came from... maybe when my sewing skills get a little better I'll redo it again.

I also decided to shop my basement for a "new" coffee table. I, of course, forgot to take a before picture, but just imagine a  plain black trunk. (which I was just using for storage.)

I decided to give it some flair by adding the Union Jack and added some travel inspired stickers to it. I also added casters, so it's easy to move ...and the greatest part is that it now holds Jack's hot wheel collection.

A chocolate bunny...

Last year I wanted to have a "chocolate" bunny for my front porch basket, but couldn't find anything that could stand up to the weather of a Michigan spring. Thankfully this year I found a great tutorial at Krafty Kat on making "chocolate" bunnies out of canvas, thread and paint --- all items I had. I tweaked it a little and supersized it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

On to other news, we've welcomed a 6-month-old St. Bernard Mix named Boogie into our family, temporarily. We are fostering him for 4 Paws Animal Rescue. You can find out all about Boogie at Petfinder.com. I know it doesn't work for everyone, but please consider adoption when looking for a new pet, if Boogie is any indication of the caliber of dog you can find in shelters across America, you won't be disappointed.

This is our first time fostering and we couldn't have asked for a sweeter dog. He's big, but he's gentle, sweet and well mannered. He already knows sit, lay down, and shake. I'm hoping to find him his forever home very soon because I don't want to get too attached to this giant sweetheart (more than I already am.)

I haven't upholstered anything lately because Boogie is such a gentle spirit, I don't want to frighten him with the staple gun...but I don't think I can hold out much longer.

I'm linking this to Freckled Laundry's link party.