My New Edition

This is the newest edition to my collection of furniture to be fixed/refinished. I've been toying with the idea of a piece of bamboo furniture for awhile and this one sort-of found me. A man who lived in the house down the block unexpectedly passed away about a year ago and I guess they are just now cleaning out his belongings and cleaning up the house. In the clean-out, this chair was tossed because of the damaged caning on the seat. I like the bamboo. Love the barrel back. Don't care for the caned bottom.
I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I wish there was a pair. I keep toying with the idea of going down there to see if the pair that they would sell to me. I don't know, maybe the guy had my problem of picking up random pieces of furniture in need of repair. I'm sure it's some kind of illness!
I thought of painting it, but I'm now leaning to leaving it the natural wood color. My solution for the seat is to have Blasen fix a new seat that I will cover...in some kind of kelly green/white geometric print or large floral. I'm sure it will take me awhile to decide and months searching for the right material.
Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my find in it's new home, the foyer....I sure wish he had a friend though.

A Sara Fabric Tip

I don't know if I should share this with you as it may be detrimental to me...maybe not.
The fabric from the bed skirt from the baby bedding post? Sheets. Yes, I buy sheets at thrift stores, especially thick white ones. I have found several perfect white top sheets that are super thick cotton that were practically new and I haven't paid more than 2 dollars for a sheet. They are perfect for all kinds of sewing projects and if I used them for kid clothing, I usually don't have to line it or double-up on the white. They are great.
The chartreuse if from a sheet also. That was just lucky on my part. Who has chartreuse sheets?
The dark grey that I used to make the piping was from a sheet also. I also used it to bind the lap quilt I made for Kipp months ago.
So if you're out at a thrift store, browse the linen section...you never know what you can use. There are some pretty cool vintage finds too.

Easy Sunday Snack

Orange Glazed Pecans

These are super simple to make and don't take long and are extremely addictive. I actually made these for Christmas gifts this year. We had a bumper crop of pecans from our tree this year. We've have taken around 80lbs to be cracked. I don't know what that translates to shelled pecans but it's a lot. My freezer is full and we still have some to shell. Most Co-Ops will crack them for you for about $.35/lb. Blasen sits and shells them for me when he watches television.

Orange Glazed Pecans
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp orange rind
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 cups pecan halves toasted (stick in 350 oven on sheet pan for about 5 minutes)
   Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil over medium heat. Stir in pecans, stirring constantly until pecans are coated and syrup is absorbed(this may take a few minutes). Remove from heat and stir just until pecans separate. Spread over wax paper to cool. Enjoy...I love them warm!!

Wrestling--Tournament 2

Last week's wrestling tournament was in Scottsboro...home of Unclaimed Baggage. Yes, I may have been just as excited to go shopping at Unclaimed Baggage browsing through some poor souls lost luggage. 

Bliss did way better Saturday wrestling in 5 matches before losing out. If he would have won, he would have placed for a medal. He was so bummed out....so close. He wants to win one of those medals so badly. Unfortunately, his weight bracket is the largest and therefore has to wrestle lots more matches to win. Tomorrow we travel to Arab, AL for the next tournament. 

Blasen practicing with Bliss before tournament.

Bliss getting ready for his first match.

Zade plowing over his first opponent. 

Zade hasn't quite caught on to the strategy of wrestling, when to use what move, etc. It's to be expected...he's only 4, actually turning 5 next week. Blasen gets frustrated and says he just doesn't understand. I say "have you heard Zade's thinking process." For example, one day I was wiping Isla's nose trying to get her to blow her nose and Zade decides to give it a try. He blows his nose which evidently made his ear pop and he says "Whoa, I think I just got my brain stuck in my ear!" But he, too, has his sights set on a medal so maybe we'll get it together over the next few weeks. His bracket is small, therefore, he doesn't have to wrestle as much to place for a medal. 
I'll try to take some better pictures this week, but they don't let you down on the mats and I don't have a great camera.

Kipp's Bedding

I believe I mentioned last week that I was sewing a bit. I've been desperately trying to work on Kipp's bedding for months and months. Well, maybe I wasn't too desperate since he's now 10 months old (I can't believe it) and I'm just now getting to it.
Part of the problem is that I didn't know exactly what fabrics I wanted to use. I knew the colors I wanted to work with, but I've gone back and forth over patterns.
So here's what I finally decided on...

fabricguru.com

This Premier Prints ZigZag in Storm. I used it for the bumper pads which I just reused the ones I bought for Isla's bedding. Instead of 6 panels, I did 2 long for the sides and 2 short for the ends. It made it convenient cuts since my fabric was 54 wide and a crib length is 52. To make it not so busy(and a bit cheaper) I used a white cotton for the back of the bumper pad. I put ties only on the top. I did do a piping around the edge that was likely the most time consuming part, but I always think it gives it a nice not so homemade look.
I found this idea about an adjustable bed skirt. I've always hated that depending on the height of your bed your bed skirt is always either dragging the ground or way up in the air. I only made sides since one side is always up against the wall. I also used my twin needle to give it a decorative finish.

Source: blog.urbangrace.com via Sara on Pinterest

Here's everything put together. The crib sheet, I lucked out and found on clearance at Target before Kipp was even born.

I liked how it all turned out and hope to be able to work on a quilt for him soon. He'll be in a crib or toddler bed for a bit longer so it's not a total waste of my time...and the bumper pads are neutral enough that I can reuse them if we have another baby one day.