Get Ready for Some Snuggle Time!

So have you heard about this "Storm of the Century" that's coming?  No not the two other ones that were supposed to come last year.  I'm talking about the one that's supposed to come TONIGHT!  I'll believe it when I see it... but here's to hoping!

If the storm DOES come to our area we plan to do a lot of this:

Because who doesn't love to snuggle up with your loved ones on a cold winters day?  Especially when you have a husband and puppy that are this cute!

The night I took these Kevin was a good sport and posed with his book while I took photos from all different angles.  And poor Lucy was snuggled under the covers on Kevin's legs when I heartlessly exposed her to the cold in order to take the above shot.  But it was the only way I could get a picture where she was sitting still!  All the rest came out like these:

And after so many pictures Kevin looked like this:

Awww.  What a trooper.

I hope we get a TON of snow!!!

Sofa Update!

Well my goal to complete all the sanding on the sofa this past weekend fell a bit short... despite putting in a good 7 or 8 hours of work on it.  Grrr!  But I've been waiting to share some photos from the "deconstruction" phase so here we go!

Remember how it looked originally?  Well first I flipped it over and started with the bottom.  If you choose to do a project like this yourself make sure to look at your furniture carefully to decide what order the pieces should come off in.  Usually you start with the bottom, as was the case with my sofa.  Memorize the order in which you take everything off (or take lots of pictures!) since that is the order in which you should put all your new material back on.

There were two layers of black material to pull off... meaning I also got to pull out two layers of staples.  Whoo-hoo!  Typically there is only one layer of material but I think the previous owner added the second layer to cover up a hole in the first.  After neatly pulling out every staple ripping off the material and staples I was left with this:

Now comes the scary, no-turning-back part... I started peeling (okay, I was still ripping) the old material off beginning with what was stapled to the bottom.  I had to be somewhat careful though so I could use the old material as a pattern for my new material.  Once the bottom edges were free I was able to stand it upright.  Before I could continue taking the material completely off I had to remove the welting (strip of material that hides the staples) which came off in two pieces: the back welting and the front welting.  From there I was able to continue taking the material on the back off.  Since the sofa's arms round into the back this part came off in one piece.  Here's what I found underneath:

There was also a layer of batting between the old material and this black material but I forgot to take a picture. Next I took the black material off of the back since you can't take any of the front material off without doing so:

See the gray strip running along the bottom of the back of the sofa?  That's the material from the seat.  They pulled it through the back and staple it in place.  This is why I had to take the black material off in order to take the front material off.  Here's a close up:

The back of the sofa looked a little frightening since the backrest has so much tufting.  Each of the puffs of batting represents a button on the other side.  I read that they tie the knot over batting like this so that the knot holding the button in place doesn't pop through the material.

When I think about putting my new material back on the tufting part is probably what makes me the most nervous.  The original material was creased so perfectly around the buttons... if I can't get that part right I'm worried it will make the whole makeover look bad.  At least the arms didn't look very complicated:

Who would have thought the insides would contain basic things like cardboard and string?  After taking aaaaall those buttons out I was able to take the material off the front of the sofa.  And here it is in its semi-naked glory:

And here's her old, stinky, stained, rotten material:

Yuck.  I really wanted to just throw it away.

So beyond that I don't have much progress to show off.  Every night after work I've been spending about an hour working on sanding the sofa but it's taking forever.  Hopefully this weekend I can make some major progress.  Sanding is the worst part of any project.  It's just dust and finger cramps.

Oh By the Way...

Did I mention my little sister is getting married this June?  And my older sister is expecting her first baby two weeks after the wedding?  SO excited!  That also means I get to throw a shower for each of my sisters :-)

My little sister is having an outdoor wedding with the bridesmaid dresses being orange.  Not my first choice when it comes to dress colors, but it will look beautiful outside in the sunshine. (Yes I've already decided it WILL be a gorgeous sunny day.)  Here is a picture of the bridesmaid dresses:



(Picture from David's Bridal)



Looks good right?  Now begins operation lose weight.  I may or may not have gained 30 pounds since getting married...  But who's counting right?

SPEAKING of gaining weight... Pretty sure my older sister has gained nothing since getting pregnant. 

I can't wait until June!

Nice to Meet You!

It's about time I formally introduce myself!

Hello!  My name is Christie and this is my husband Kevin.  We have a puppy named Lucy...

...who is a little rascal.  But isn't she cute?

Kevin and I just recently bought our first house which means we are hard at work making some much-needed changes.  The sofa makeover is the next step in our home-improvement master plan and I'm hoping it doesn't take too long to complete!  I'm going to try to get all the sanding done this weekend... which might be a little ambitious.  But I'm taking a ton of photos during this process to make sure I know how to piece the sofa back together so you'll be able to see the transformation every step of the way!

Long Weekend Heaven

So right after I finally figured out how to start my blog... I had a four day weekend and decided not to blog!  But no worries, I was hard at work on my new project (which I am very excited about!)

After months of living with this cushion-less sofa in our front room I finally decided to tackle the daunting task of reupholstering it.  Scratch that... not just reupholstering it... recreating it!  Why even bother?  Well we bought the sofa on Craigslist along with a love seat, two chairs, three end tables and a coffee table.  Everything was in great condition except this here sofa.  Oh you don't see a problem other then the lack of cushions?  Well allow me to give you a closer look:

This lovely brown stain likely came from the fact that the entire couch was encased in specially-made plastic covers since it was purchased sometime in the 70's.  I'm guessing a spill managed to get past the plastic unnoticed and was left in there to marinate until we came along.

Now if I had you fooled by our sofa's good looks from afar, please note that this is not an actual antique.  This is a knock-off from the 70's that came with a very bad paint job.  I'm all for distressed... but right now the frame just looks dirty.  So in addition to new fabric, I will be sanding, re-carving, and staining the frame.

Here's something little Lucy (our new puppy) has been working on.  She agrees that the old material needs to go. In my next post I'll have to share a little more about Kevin, myself and our adorable little pup.

A NEW Beginning...

...is the only way I can sum up my year in 2010.  And here I am at the start of 2011 and it's looking to end up much the same.

Welcome to my NEW blog!

Honestly I can't believe I'm committing to this. You see I was the girl growing up whose diary had about 5 entries... total... with no less then a year between updates.

But it's a new year and one of my resolutions was to begin my own blog.  Why?  Well for the past year I've been frequenting the blogs of other crafty ladies for project ideas and inspiration. Did you know there's a whole wide world of extremely crafty women out there who love and worship Jesus Christ as their savior???  Not only have I admired their faith but also their creativity, honesty and dedication to their families while sharing it all through their blogs.  In fact, I have to admit I was jealous of them.  And jealousy, while natural, is never good.

So now that Kevin and I have settled into our (NEW) home and our (NEW) jobs with our (NEW) puppy... I thought it was time to create a place of my own where I could begin to store life's everyday memories.  So here we are!  The next step is to become one of those people that actually takes pictures... since a good blog always has lots of pictures.