The Ottoman Empire

During the first couple of weeks we owned our house (early September 2010) I bought a torn up, green leather ottoman at a garage sale for $5. It was a great size, shape and price and had cute brass feet. . . all in all it had a lot of potential but was in no shape to be out for people to see it! Since its purchase the poor thing has sat, or more truthfully, been shoved under the table in our laundry/craft room until last week. But let's start at the begining. . .

Here it is in it's original state. . .torn up but waiting to be cute.

I began by removing all of the leather and setting it aside for pattern pieces. Removing the original leathe was probably the most time consuming part of the whole project.

Once the leather was removed I suplemented the original batting (which was in pretty good shape) with a little more just to even things out and give it a little more cushion.
Oh-I will also say at this point, I decided to eleminate the piping around the top and bottom of the ottoman and only keep some along the center seam. I tried it a couple of ways but decided that the piping was a bit fussy when mixed with the plaid fabric I was using to recover it.
One more note. . . This is the same fabric I used on our dining room chairs. I think this ties everything together nicely PLUS this fabric was donated to me from my lovely friend Amy. Making this a super cheap fix up. All told I think I spent under $10 on the whole project, how is that for frugal?

Okay. . . back to the upholstery. After I added the batting, I sewed the top and side pieces together and slipped it over the top half. Once I made sure everything was in it's place and fitting snug I tacked the edge down with upholstery tacks making sure everything was pulled evenly and securely.

Next I attached the center piping and lower fabric, covering the raw edges of the top half and piping. I attached all of this with my trusty staple gun.

With all of the visible parts being finished and pretty I stapled the remaining raw edge to the underside of the ottomen and called it done. . .well almost. . .

In it's original incarnation the ottoman had cute brass brads finishing the fabric around the legs I went ahead and bought new brads hammered them in and watched them shine!

The cats, as always, were a huge help every step of the way.

Here it is in the living room! Don't you want to kick your feet up and cuddle with a cat?

All You Can Eat Buffet

Over the weekend I got busy sanding, painting and otherwise revamping the hand-me-down buffet we have been using for the last five years. This little guy was my grandparents (I've mentioned their/our other dining room furniture here) and has been painted at least twice, once blue and once white with varnish over the paint. The white version, with aged and yellowing varnish, is what we had kept it as up until now.

Aside from the discoloration of the paint it had a few chips, cracks and problems, both from us and it's tenure in my grandparents attic.

After sanding, painting and new hardware it is looking fresh and lovely!!!!!

This buffet make-over is also making me realize I need to do some work on the dining chairs. I will take some complete shots of the dining room after I work on the chairs. . . but . . . one thing at a time.

End of Summer

The last two weekends have been beautiful! The oppressive heat of the summer broke (although we hear it is heating back up this coming week) and has led to open windows, walks, and a renewed interest in almost everything. . .including this blog.

I thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Yard: Part IV, things are growing

I know it has been ages since my last post but I needed to let a few things start growing before updating everyone on the yards progress. Also, I will admit I was being a bit lazy about taking pictures.

Without further ado. . .here are the pictures!

This is a little overview of most of the garden.

The squash looking lovely

The okra is finally getting bigger.

Mint and rosemary. Don't worry we will eventually we will deal with this dirt (although it may not be this year)

Marigolds

We've been working on some building projects and indoor projects too. I will try get a post up about all of those in the near-ish future.

As always you can check out the progress of our yard here, here, and here.

The Yard: Part III

The yard accomplishments we made this weekend aren't stunning to look at but . . . I feel we got quite a bit accomplished, especially since we were only able to work on Saturday.

Here is what we did:

1. Removed the rest of the black edging!
2. Finished filling the garden with soil and compost.
3. Finished digging out the side of the front flowerbed.
4. Added and enriched soil in back flowerbed.
5. Planted Cosmos seeds.
6. Removed unfinished railroad tie boarder from the front of house. This one is a big enough deal I'll throw in a couple of before and after photos. We plan on leveling the bed and putting some type of edging or border around it.

It rained Sunday morning which is AMAZING, the precipitation totals for March and April so far were .05 inches. Hopefully, this will green up the yard a bit and really get the Cosmos growing.

*Our previous yard posts are here and here if you are wanting to check-out any of the work we've already done*

The Yard: Part II

Our last two weekends have been filled with yard work, sun and wind. After this last weekend I feel we are starting to make progress! Here are some updates. . .

First, I have been working on removing the world's ugliest and most corroded plastic edging. It is along all of our sidewalks and was put in POORLY, making it harder to remove. I have gotten about 1/2 of it out but it is slow going.


Next, we gave the bushes along the side of the house a little trim. We may have to do more later but it is a start.

*I would like to note, the black edging use to be all along this sidewalk.

Then, we continued on by cleaning out the back flowerbed. I don't have a before and after comparison (I forgot to take a picture when we started) but imagine tons of weeds, grass, rocks and weird holes.


THEN, it was on to extending the front flowerbed. We still need to work on the side area (see bush-trimming pictures) and remove, plus replace the unfinished railroad tie edging but my shoulders and back are aware of the what we have accomplished.

Finally, we are on to the big project! Jerod built the frame for our raised-bed garden. I held things during the assembly but Jerod did 90% of the work. Eventually, we will make at minimum one more bed but that may not happen this year.
We will be filling the bed with a soil and compost mix. Since, our compost isn't ready for use yet we will be getting all that we need from the City of Norman Compost Facility (I think it's cool that this option is available through our city government).

We were so pleased with our work that Jerod took me here for a tostada and beer, both of which I was very glad to have!
Now on to planting and a fence. . .wish us luck!

*If you want to check out our first big yard project you can find it here.*

On Trend

I was pretty proud of myself when I saw this image and post on Apartment Therapy. If you all remember I had Jerod spruce up an old typewriter stand for us last fall (you can check it out here). Yay for being on trend . . . now I just need to be ahead of my time and get recognized for it:)

The Yard: Part I

We (and by we I mean Jerod and his father) made HUGE progress on our backyard this weekend! When we bought our house there was a corrugated metal shed in the backyard. This was good since there was no garage but bad because of its bizarre location (see pictures 1 and 2).

Don't ask me why but whoever put the shed in built it right in the middle of the yard and didn't level it, causing it to tilt towards our neighbors garage. Luckliy, my father-in-law and Jerod devised a plan that involved rolling the shed to the back of the yard on pipes (isn't that how Stonehenge was built?) Now our shed sits lovely and logically at the back of the yard (See picture 5)! Just imagine a fence, garden, flowers and green grass.




A couple of action shots. I tried to be sneaky so as not to interrupt all of the progress they were making.

Happy Daylight Savings Time!!!!!!!

I will start by saying I had other plans for this post unfortunately they fell apart but more on that later. Yesterday was a beautiful day, combine that with the time change and I have decided that winter is over! I'm sure it will get cold again but for now I am ignoring that and soaking up the good spring vibes.
I feel that Jerod and I got quite a bit done yesterday but don't have too much to show for it, picture-wise that is. Jerod raked and cleaned up the back yard and also got a lot of info from our neighbors on both sides (he discovered that the house behind us use to be a crack house, it's very cute now, and some interesting bits on different incarnations of our house and yard). . . so we are slowly but surely getting ready to start all of the yard projects.
I made some new pillows for the living room couch but am waiting to show them off until I finish them all. . .Do not worry I WILL post pictures. I almost finished a couple of small projects but they are gifts so I won't post about them until I give them (you can see part of one in the above photo).
I originally planned to post about the sweater I have been knitting which is/was going really well. I have 2/3 of the body and one sleeve done. Well. . . . all I can say is mistakes have been made. Everything I have mentioned is knit correctly and looking good but either in haste, distraction, or just plain old not paying attention (I began this sweater at the airport during a semi-stressful time)I have made this sweater about 20x to big for me (by misreading the pattern I am making and XL instead of a Medium). What I am trying to say is I am going to have to start over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can re-use all of the yarn which is good but YIKES! Needless to say, I am a bit frustrated with myself. I am/was enjoying the pattern and really love how sweater is going to look so I will start over BUT I need to take a few weeks off before I do this. In my experience it is often best to step away from a project for a bit after a major mess up. Oh well. . . below is a sneak peek of of what it was looking like. If something is worth doing it is worth doing right. . .Good Lord I am annoyed with myself though.

For today I think I will work on pillows some more and finish up those gifts. Maybe I will watch this while I do it:)
I hope everyone is doing something fun, relaxing or both this weekend.

Laissez les bon temps roulez

In honor of Mardi Gras I cooked up some red beans and rice tonight! As anyone who knows me is aware I am a bit obsessed with beans and will use any excuse to cook/eat them. My favorite cookbook of all time has a delicious and spicy recipe for "Bourbon Street Red Beans and Rice". They are great fresh out of the pot and even better for lunch the next day (which is always a plus). Our excitement for the night stopped there but good food and good company means a good evening.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and did a little celebrating.
So. . . Happy Mardi Gras to all and CHEERS!

*Note* wash hands with soap after cutting a Jalapeno and DO NOT rub eyes.