Recovered Mom's Chairs

Over the weekend, my sister and I recovered my mom's

dining room chairs.  The right side is the OLD cushion, and
the left side is the NEW one.

 

Mom uses her dining room a LOT so the cushions were in
pretty bad shape.  We had dad remove the cushions from the chairs.

This is the BEFORE picture:

 We decided to get upholstery fabric to recover the chairs in.

Mom wanted the fabric to still be neutral, but a little bit darker.  We had

a total of 6 chairs to recover, so we got 2 yards of fabric from Hobby

Lobby. We laid the cushions on the fabric and cut around each cushion.

Then mom ironed each piece of fabric.

 

 

When we looked at the chair cushions, there was an edging on

the cushion. We decided we needed to glue this down so

that the new fabric would be smooth around the edge.  We were afraid
that after recovering the cushions with the new fabric that it wouldn't
lay right on the chair if it wasn't glued down.

 

While we were doing this, we got a little busy

chit-chatting, and hot glued my shirt to the cushion!

 

We placed the cushion on the fabric, and stapled the back, then

the front. Then all four corners. Then the sides. The hardest part

was making sure the edges were smooth. Since there wasn't much

of a pattern, every crease was noticeable. So we wanted to make sure

to get the fabric as smooth as possible.  It really worked well to have

two people working on this - Rebekah pulled the fabric and held it

in place while I stapled.  Also, keep in mind where the cushion will be
attached to the chair so you don't put a staple right where a screw needs to go.

 



Dad screwed the cushions back onto the chairs, and
here's the end result. I think they turned out really nice!!! 

DIY Tile Coasters

My sister has made hundreds (not an exaggeration!) of these over the

last year for bridal shower favors, Christmas gifts, some for both of

us to have... and we were even able to sell a bunch of them!

You won't believe how easy it is to make these....

Buy tiles at a home improvement store - just plain

white ones (they should cost about .19 cents a piece).

 

There are all different kinds of things that can be put on the

tile - scrapbook paper, photographs, wrapping paper, etc. I like it

best when the paper is a little smaller than the tile so that there is an

outline of the white tile around the paper. Using a foam brush, put

mod podge on the tile. Lay the paper on the tile, and smooth it out

so there aren't any air bubbles. Brush more mod podge over the paper

and let it dry. Hot glue felt on the bottom of the tile so it doesn't scratch

the furniture. If it's a gift set, wrap the coasters together with some ribbon.

 

It's that simple!

 

My sister's friend helping to cut TONS of scrapbook paper. Thanks Kathryn!

 

Mix and Match Coasters

 

Sold a bunch of coasters at a craft fair a while back

 

Coasters as Favors at a Bridal Shower

 

My fall coasters that my sister gave me... I love them!!



Pot Roast Recipe

Gotta love anything that can be done in the crockpot...

The hardest part about this recipe is going to the store to buy groceries =)

 

Ingredients:

shoulder bottom roast

1 packet of dry onion soup mix

1/8 cup of water

baby carrots, small potatoes, onions slices

 

Directions:

Put the roast, dry onion soup mix and water into the crockpot.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for 6-8 hours.

If the roast is totally thawed when you start, you can add carrots,
potatoes, and/or onions from the beginning and put the roast on top
of all that. Just leave the potatoes fairly big so they don't get mushy.

If the roast is frozen when you put it in, wait a few hours before
adding them, and when you add them, put them UNDER the roast.

 

This is good served with brown gravy - just add a packet

of brown gravy mix to your grocery list, and follow instructions

to make brown gravy. By the way, thanks MOM for the recipe!