Porch Chairs Refresher

One day I thought..."Hey, these chairs are kind of blah." We have had them since we got married 9 years ago. I have always thought that they were indestructible.

But on closer inspection...I noticed that they were getting rusty. So...even more reason to clean them up and give them a fresh coat of paint.

I have spray painted a lot of things in my time...but these were tough! All the holes! All the angles! The clean up from the over-spray took as long as the spray painting did! (I used Krylon Cherry Red and I loved the ease of the nozzle, but the over-spray seemed ridiculous! I sprayed in my garage with a large tarp under and behind the project, and there was red dust from corner to corner of my garage. It didn't stick, so I just had to sweep it up...but it was messy!)

I love the results! The red chairs look fresh and summery! To entice neighbors to come over and stay awhile, I whipped up some outdoor pillows. I used one yard of Waverly's Sun and Shade fabric and at 40% off of $17.00 per yard, I wanted to use ever inch of it, and I did, selvage and all!

I used the little leftovers of the fabric for some rosettes. I added some burlap alongside the blue fabric to stretch my leftovers and to incorporate the burlap ties (I didn't have enough of the blue fabric to make ties...and in the windy city of Herriman, you need to tie your pillows to your chairs). I hot glued to rosettes and some red buttons to tie the whole look together. So cute!




I thought while I was at it, I would add a rug. I couldn't find anything that I liked that went with my color scheme, so I decided to make my own after being inspired by Jen's runner. I bought 4 cheapo rugs from Target and laid them out on the floor and taped them together with duct tape. Then I carefully flipped it over and hot glued ribbon on the seams. It is pretty sturdy... I have picked it up and shook it out a few times and it has been blown back into a crumpled heap by the aforementioned winds.
My porch definitely needed a makeover when competing with the stairs that have these beauties growing on them! (my first successful containers!)

Linking up my Red, White, and blue porch to:

Felt Toddler Watches

I saw the cutest little watch project at a linkie party the other week. Kimberly came up with a toddler watch made out of felt and buttons and included a great tutorial. I ran right out and bought the supplies the very day I saw her cute watches. I made 4. Two for my son, one for my daughter's best friend, and one for my nephew.



The only thing I would change about Kimberly's watch would be to cut two wristbands and glue (I used hot glue) them together. Felt can be stretched out and it doesn't get unstretched. My son is only 1 1/2 and he started pulling at his to pull it off and it got stretched. so...I just glued a strip to reinforce to them. But I think it would look more professional to have the whole wristband shape.

So cute...and you don't see too many cute things for boys. So I jumped on this one!

Linking to these parties:

Taloolah the Tooth Fairy

I'm sure many of you have seen the super cute tooth fairy pillow on mmmcraft's blog. I had seen it quite a while ago, but came across it again recently and it was serendipity! My daughter had just discovered that she has two loose teeth. I decided to whip this cutie up before her teeth came out and here is the result!



Here she is in all her glory...looking a little demented! I had all the supplies on hand so it was simple and free to make. Funny enough, the only thing I didn't have in my supplies was the silver pipe cleaner; but that very day I went to a local fabric store and it just happened to be the shop hop (all the quilting stores in the area have an event) and they were giving out these really cute crowns made out of silver pipe cleaner. So I just disassembled mine and used it for the wings!

I had to laugh because Larissa from mmmcrafts mentioned that the idea of a tooth with teeth cracks her up. Well, when my daughter saw the little tooth fairy pillow she started laughing and saying the same thing.

Larissa's fairy is made with more care than mine. Instead of hand stitching the back closed and the cheeks on, I machine stitched the cheeks and hot glued the back closed and then covered it with some more felt. I used an antique button that was in bad shape as the little jewel on the crown. I just hot glued it on. It came from my grandma's stash (her whole stash recently came under my care!!). It belonged to her grandma before her. I love that I was able to use something sentimental on what is sure to become a treasured object for my daughter.

Or maybe the next one I make will become the family treasure...this one looks a little crazy and may or may not be the final product!

Linking to these parties: