Finishing Touches

What a difference $2 worth of trim and a glue gun can make! All the staples are covered up, and the chair now has a nice finished look.

Add $3 for a yard of broadcloth to cover up the bottom, and I'm done!

Upholstery Project

I had picked up a chair (actually two....) from Kijiji a while ago, thinking to put them in my living room. They both needed upholstering quite badly, but I loved the shape of them.

This is the first one, as I found it:

It's hard to tell in the picture, but this off white fabric was really worn, so I started to take it off. I pulled nails, and staples, and some more nails, and some MORE staples, and eventually, this is what I had:

Yes, indeedy, there were no less than FIVE layers of fabric on this poor sad chair. The original was close to the color I wanted ( a nice deep red) but in pretty bad shape.

It had to come off too. Then I had to replace the burlap straps on the bottom and re-sew the springs. Some new foam, funky fabric, and my Mom's staple gun and.... VOILA!

My tired old chair has new life. And it's comfy too!

I still need to do some finishing touches, but all in all, not a bad first upholstering job, if I do say so myself.
On to Chair #2!

Spring Storm!

This storm came up so quickly - within 5 minutes it went from cloudy to black skies to this:


Tim thought it would be fun to go out in it. Apparently it hurt

In the space of another 5 minutes, we had this much hail...

Probably about pea sized

We haven't seen this much hail for years...



* Tim thought it would be funny to grab the snow shovel and go across the street to shovel the neighbour's driveway. The neighbour thought he was funny and paid him $5!!! Danger pay, maybe? The neighbours wife was not too amused, and gave him a lecture about being outside in a thunderstorm....

Have You Had a Green Monster?

It doesn't really look like something that should be good... usually if food is green, I throw it out :)

They are supposed to be full of energy, and very healthy. I thought I'd try them... I'm not a big breakfast person, I often forget to eat in the busy-ness of getting everyone up and off to school in the morning. By mid-morning, I'm ready to crash.

The Green Monsters are quick and easy... and there are lots of variations, depending on what you have on hand...

This one has:

1 handful baby spinach (put this in the blender first, so it can be finely shredded. You don't want a big chunk of spinach in there...)

1/4 pineapple

1 pear (skins on)

1 banana

1 cup or so of milk.

I found this one a bit thick, next time I'll add some orange juice to thin it down a bit. You can also add frozen fruit or ice to make it more like a slushie. The color will vary also, depending on what fruits you add. Yesterday I made one with strawberries, bananas and orange juice with spinach. It was somewhat more brown, but still yum!

Talent Show?

Look at the amazing human pyramid! Such grace! such talent!

Well, for 1.8 seconds anyway :)

And this one - she's a doctor! Complete with a doctor kit from Dollarama...
Of course she can't see a THING without her glasses...

Here she is taking the rock out of my stomach.... with no anaesthetic!

"But Natalie, won't that hurt?"

"It's only pretend, Mom. Just pretend it doesn't hurt, ok?"

"But don't you have to sew my stomach back together?"

"Mom - I'm the doctor, remember? That means I make the rules"

"Yes, Doctor"

Deanna has a rock in her stomach too.

"I'll just take your temperature to see how you're feeling. Hm. 38. Not bad!"