I purchased this settee about 5 years ago and it’s completion is long overdue. I thought it would be a perfect second project for an upholstery class I was taking at the time. WRONG! Would you believe I actually moved this baby, by myself to and from class? How crazy is that?

As you can see it was in terrible condition. I striped it completely, right down to the finish on the legs. I refinished the legs, applied new webbing and retied the springs. If I took pictures, I can’t find them. After partially tearing a ligament in my thumb tying the springs, it has been sitting in my basement and garage, unfinished, ever since. Suffice it to say, I was a bit over zealous choosing this as my second class project.

Determined to clear out my garage, so that it can actually be used to park a car this winter, I decided to turn it over to a professional, and this is how it turned out. I already had the fabric, a light neutral linen, which I had purchased some time ago. I have a weakness for fabric. If I see something I like, I buy it in anticipation of that next project.

The seat is so tight you can flip a coin. Honestly, I would have never been able to achieve such beautiful results. Some things should just be left to the professionals, don’t you think? Simple chairs are more my thing.

This post is being linked to:

Between Naps on the Porch: Metamorphosis Monday

Brambleberry Cottage:Time Travel Thursday

The Shabby Chic Cottage: Transformation Thursday

Mustard Seed Creations: Furniture Feature Friday

Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Nite Special

Not bad for my tiny little garden. The tomatoes and peppers have been plentiful. Surprisingly, the eggplant didn’t fare as well. Last summer, when I planted them in pots, I produced so many that I was giving them away. Go figure. And after following the instructions explicitly for my blueberry plants, they just didn’t thrive. The company I purchased them from said they would replace them, so I will give them another try. Honestly, I can’t say that I have been overly attentive to my garden but it sure is serving my family and I well.

How about you? What’s growing in your garden?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Speaking of inspiration, one of the things I instantly fell in love with, was London’s architecture. The buildings there have such presence with their ornamnentation and detail. Balconies ordorned with flowering window boxes were breathtaking and made my heart sing. As I walked from neighborhood to neighborhood, my jaw would just drop at the magnificence and overwhelming beauty. Here is a sampling of the eye candy I had the pleasure of seeing:

What do you think? Have you ever experienced architecture that stopped you in your tracks, compelling you to be in the present moment so that you can take it all in?

This mirror was a road side find that has been sitting in my garage for some time. I was thinking of using it on my striped accent wall, so I thought I give this one a makeover.

I used a jig saw to cut off the damaged sections of the trim, leaving the side sections that were still in tack.

I sanded, primed and painted it a glossy white.

I apologize for the terrible picture. It had just started to rain and I have yet to master the correct way to take a picture of a mirror. Is there anyway to take one without being in it or masking out the reflection? If anyone has any tips, I would welcome them.

Haven’t hung it yet because I can’t decide if I want to use it or the round one below on my striped accent wall. Either way, I want to surround the mirror with a lot of frames that I painted glossy white too. At first, I was going to use all oval of circular frames but they are so hard to find so I thought I mix them with some rectangular ones as well. I just love the look of a wall accessorized with frames.

Here are two arrangements I came up with so far. I thought it best to experiment in Photoshop first.

As I acquire more, I will continue to add more. What do you think?

I’ve been away from the creative party circuit too long, so I am linking this post to: Between Naps on the Porch: Metamorphosis Monday,Domestically Speaking: Power of Paint Wednesday, The Shabby Chic Cottage: Transformation Thursday, Mustard Seed Creations: Furniture Feature Friday and Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Nite Special.

IF you guessed London, you’re absolutely right! Above is a police officer, pedestrian directions (trust me they are a necessity), the Big Ben Clock Tower and Buckingham front gate and Palace. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel with my family there and spend a couple of days in Paris. For the last two weeks, I have been experiencing British culture and it was amazing. I love London and we had the best time. Mr DIY, an IT Consultant in his other life, has been working on a project requiring monthly trips there. On his last trip, we decided to combine business with pleasure; he worked a week and we vacationed the second week. One of the biggest highlights – the flight! American Airlines Business Class is definitely a thumbs up! I had to keep asking myself am I flying somewhere or dining out at a restaurant? Mr DIY is use to it, but for me it was an unbelievable treat! Our boys enjoyed it as well.

As for London, our hotel was centrally located and we walked or took the Tube (transit system) everywhere.We stayed at the Marriot in Kensington which I recommend highly. The staff is friendly and helpful and the breakfast is heavenly. I looked forward to it each and every day. The weather was great; some warm days with a few showers here and there mixed with a few cool days.

We returned last night at 7:30 PM (12:30 AM London time) yesterday and I made a point of staying up to midnight (21 hours) with the hopes of getting in sync with the time change. NOT!!! Woke up 4AM (9AM London time) anyway. No. 2 son woke up at 4:30 AM as well. Mr. DIY, who is a pro at this, effortlessly woke up his normal time and headed out to work unaffected by the time change.

I kept a journal and took a lot of pictures (hope they’re blog worthy) of anything and everything that spoke to me. I will be sharing with you some of what I saw in the weeks ahead.

Gratitude is a big part of who I am. I make a conscious effort to not take anything for granted. This trip wasn’t just another family vacation. I viewed it as a “once in a lifetime” kind of experience. My last trip of this magnitude was when I took a 3 week class in Italy, before kids and a very long time ago. Will there be more trips like this in the future? Doesn’t matter, because I had this opportunity and I am very grateful.

Have you had a similar travel experience that gave you that “once in a lifetime” feeling?

Life is not measured by the number of  breaths we take,
but by the number of  moments that take our breath away
Author Unknown

Mr DIY started building a bed for No. 2 son about 3 years. He didn’t like the way it came out; ahe joints weren’t up to his expectations and he wanted to chuck it and start over. He even attempted to stain it and, well let’s just say, that didn’t help matters any. So it sat and sat in the basement, then the garage. I decided to make lemonaide out of lemons, work some DIY magic and rework the design since perfection is truly overrated and the bed is solid and very sturdy.

I started by removing the Colonial Maple finish. I have worked with a lot of stain hues, but I don’t quite understand Colonial Maple. It could be me, but the orange tint is unattractive. I have tried it on various types of wood and it have never had good results.

Here is what it looked liked before:

and after sanding:

It still had an orange sheen that would not go away. I even tried to bleach it out and had no luck.

Next, I applied a dark stain with the hopes that the orange color would disappear. No luck, the orange hue continued to stand its ground and was visible just enough to annoy me. So I turned to paint. I watered down some chocolate brown latex paint I had lefteover from another project. I brushed it on and the orange hue was gone, with the wood grain was still visible, resulting in a stained appearance. I did add some streaks of watered down black acrylic paint to further enhance the wood grain. This is what it looks like now:

I am almost done applying a satin polyurethane finish. Unfortunately, my PDD caused me to have a little mishap, perhaps you can help me with. Multitasking the other day, I forgot to wash out the brush I was using. Does anyone know if it is posible to remove a water based polyurethane from a brush after it has dried? Turpentine, denatured alcohol or mineral spirits perhaps? I invest in good brushes so that I can reuse them and would love to save this one.

Have you ever used paint to create a faux stained finish?

Between naps on he Porch: Metamorphosis Monday

Domestically Speaking: Power of Paint Wednesday

Funky Junk Interiors:Saturday Nite Special

Yesterday, I sought the services of a professional upholsterer to finish a setee that I had started re-upholstering about 4 years ago. It was in my basement and then moved to the garage when the basement was being remodeled. I got as far as the webbing and retying the springs. I partially tore a ligament in my thumb while tying the springs. Thankfully, it repaired itself with physical therapy. After that, I let it go for a while. When it came time for the foam padding, I wasn’t getting the results i wanted. So it sat in my garage, unfinished, all this time. Rather then continue to fool myself that I would finish it, i decided to have a professional finish it instead. I wrestled with not completing this DIY project but sometimes you just have to “get real” with yourself and realize you can’t always do it all. I was a little sad to see it carted off but I know it will get the professional attention it rightfully deserves. I am toying with the idea of having it just covered in muslin or a neutral canvas or duck cloth fabric and making my own slipcover for it so that I can change the look whenever I want.

Have you ever had a project that sat around unfiinished for a long time? How and when do you decide to throw in the towel and hand it over to a professional?

Yesterday was the last day of the 10 in 10 challenge. Although I fell a little short, it was a productive 10 days. I completed 6 tasks:
Repoted plant
Painted inset compartment to secretary
Replanted flowers and layed mulch in front of house
Painted vertical stripes on accent wall in dining room
Cleaned inside of van
Decluttered/organized garage

Had I not committed myself to the challenge, they would still be items on my “to do” list. The task that made me the happiest was decluttering my garage. It took me two days. I can actually see the floor again and all my DIY projects are lined up in an orderly fashion awaiting my attention. I decided I am going to continue until I finsh everything on my list. I figure I ‘m on a roll, so why stop now.