Featured Favorite - Part 1

I can't take full credit for this post, as the idea came from Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday's over at Mustard Seed Creations. FAB-ulous idea girl!

Although the hubs and I are just starting out in our old new house in the 'burbs, we have a few pieces of furniture that are my absolute favorite. Today I am featuring this antique sideboard that I picked up at the annual Lucketts Spring Market in 2009. It was love at first site. The detail on the doors and the legs are FAB and unlike anything I have seen before. I. Had. To. Have.

I have an affinity to shabby-chic, painted, "upcycled" furniture. This piece stood out because it wasn't white or cream but a smokey pale gray.  It sits in our living room and is the first thing you see when you step through our front door. I am hoping to find something similar to makeover myself and use as our TV stand in our finished basement. The search is on....

The Adventures of Emmit

First and foremost, I apologize for all of the puppy posts lately. But the adventures of Emmit continue in the 'burbs. Being a new mom puppy parent basically feels like having an child and has been a true test to both my and the hubs sanity and patience. I did some research online as to the stages of puppy development, and here is where we currently stand:

6 Months – 1 1/2 Years:
Watch out! It’s the beginning of adolescence for your dog(oh great). At this stage, they begin to challenge rules and authority, and tend to explore who the leader is (sounds more like the teenage years). It’s important to establish yourself as the leader during this period. Be stern with your pup for your own long term benefit. They are beginning to look like full grown, mature dogs, but still a puppy at heart! (courtesy of www.wikifido.com)

Bingo! This couldn't be more true for Emmit. I like to think of his current stage of development as the equivalent to a child's "terrible two's", or do we have a teenager on our hands?! He's quite the snatcher these days and anything left on the floor WILL be sniffed, chewed and/or eaten. 

Including one of these this morning....

 ...a bobby pin! YIKES! 

Immediately called the vet.

ME: Good morning, my puppy ate a bobby pin this morning, should I be concerned about that?!

VET: Well, that's not good! You are going to have to monitor him and see if his appetite changes or if he starts to vomit. If the bobby pin gets lodged in his stomach or intestines, it may cause a blockage which can be serious.

ME: (nervously giggles) Oh? That doesn't sound good.

VET: And check to see if he passes the bobby pin in his stool over the next week or two.

ME: Oh?

VET: If he doesn't pass the bobby pin, we can take an x-ray of his stomach and possibly scope his stomach or he may need surgery.

ME: Oh. (All I hear in my head is the cha-ching! cha-ching! of a cash register). Ok well I will monitor him and keep you posted.

CHEERS to sorting through dog poop over the next two weeks! 

The Cone of Shame

It was a tough weekend in the 'burbs. Emmit was neutered on Friday and has to wear the "cone of shame" for the next 2 weeks!

He's doing extremely well and doesn't seem to be phased by the experience at all. Let's be honest, it was probably harder for the hubs and I then it was for him. He's a such a trooper.

Emmit would like to thank everyone for all the well wishes. He's on the road to recovery. The hardest part will be for me and the hubs to keep him "quiet" over the next to weeks, per doctors orders. Yea right!

The Penthouse Suite in the 'Burbs

I know what you are thinking...and NO I do not keep the hubs in a crate in the 'burbs. Let me give you the story behind this picture. Emmit outgrew the original crate we kept him in, so I ordered a new one online. It arrived yesterday. Let's be honest, it's a lot bigger than I anticipated. It's so big that the hubs decided to see if he could fit in it!

Emmit now lives in the penthouse suite in the 'burbs in case you were looking for him. 

Office Chair Makeover

Here is the breakdown:

Chair..............$0
Paint & supplies...$0 (already had)
Fabric.............$7
Foam cushion.......$4 
TOTAL..............$11

The hubs and I were graciously gifted this chair by our neighbors who were moving and purging items from their shed. In this case their trash was definitely our treasure. I gladly took the chair with plans of "upcycling it". 

(BEFORE)

This chair serves as our desk chair, so I needed to spruce it up a bit. More importantly our desk is white, so the chair, as-is,  was clashing with the decor. 

The chair is in great condition, however, the seat was not the least bit cushiony (not a real word, I know). And not having (1) sewing skills or (2) a sewing machine, I needed a no-sew option for upgrading the seat cushion. So I bought some 1" cushion foam.....

And this great fabric at the fabric store.....

No wonder the seat wasn't cushiony enough....I turned it over and found this....nylon straps woven as the seat support. Who's butt wants to sit on that? Not mine.

So I disassembled the chair, removing the seat part from the chair frame. The hubs helped me do a rough sand to get the shiny finish off (no pics of this step...oops!). I applied one coat of primer to the sanded chair which was definitely needed because it then took 3 coats of white paint to hide the reddish tint of the original wood!

Re-doing the seat cushion was easier than I anticipated but forgot to take pics...oops! All I did was cut the 1" foam to size by tracing the original seat form onto the foam and cutting it out. Then I attached the new foam form on top of the original seat form using spray adhesive. I also sprayed the top of the new foam form with spray adhesive so the fabric would stick to it. Not sure this is an absolutely necessary step, but it couldn't hurt. The last step was to cover the newly enhanced seat with the new fabric using a staple gun....love the staple gun. It was super easy....and here is the finished chair!

(AFTER)

Next chair makeover project is to finish this diamond in the rough...stay tuned!

'Burb Etiquette 101

Solicitors - in our pre-doggie days it was a simple answer of the door, polite "no thank you" and we could move on with our day. 

A solicitor knocked on our door today. In my flurry to calm down our excited 6 month old puppy, I managed to only appear minorly frantic to the solicitor as I pushed the pup back, squeezed out the door and closed it behind me and stood on the stoop. I say a polite "no thank you" and return to this...

Not sure how this happened, and I probably don't want to know. But I know the culpret was this little guy:

How can you get mad when you see this face looking back at you?

Embarrassing tid-bit #1: The hubs and I have been living with temporary blinds on our front window for over a year. No, that wasn't our original intention. And yes, that is against 'burb etiquette. The "upgrade" to wooden blinds is on the "to-do" list. 

Embarrassing tid-bit #2: Those temporary blinds are actually pretty decent and don't look so terrible (can't believe I just admitted that!). And let's be honest, they cost about $10 each. They practically just give 'em away for free. But still against 'burb etiquette.

Embarrassing tid-bit #3: I immediately ran out to Home Depot to snatch up 2 replacement blinds, get home and take them out of the package only to realize I bought the wrong ones. So I had to go back to Home Depot, return wrong blinds and purchase the correct ones. 2 trips to Home Depot in the span of 30-minutes. That may be a record?

Lesson of the day: READ packages carefully before leaving the store and driving all the way home. DUH.

It's 90210 Day!

Blonde moment of the day.....

Me driving to work thinking, "Why is everyone making 90210 references on the radio today? Strange."

Thanks to the wonderful world of Facebook (which has pathetically been my main source of news headlines these days....disturbing, I know) I came to the conclusion that 90210 is actually today's date 9/02/10. 

DUH.

See you at the Peach Pit.

(Photo: www.marieclaire.com)