Homework Day!

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. ~Thomas Foxwell Buxton

We spent the day today just chillin' at the condo.  We didn't even go to Sanibel to do any shelling! But it is just 5:30, who's to say I won't take a quick trip before it gets dark....to the lighthouse or maybe Bunche Beach! After all, it's only 15 minutes to Sanibel from here, and about 10 to Bunche Beach.... :D  We'll see! 

When we bought our condo, it was partially furnished. The main den was done in oranges, orange curtains, all the pillows and lampshades were red or orange. Since we have been coming down, I have changed everything over to ivory with punches of teal.  The only thing that I didn't know what to do about was this chair....

Even the back had orange fabric on it! I stuck an ivory and teal pillow in it, and kind of ignored it...but no more!! Yesterday I went into town and found some teal material, I read up on how to upholster on the internet, and proceeded to (carefully) take the chair apart. I figured if I mess it up, oh well, I sort of inherited it anyway!

Slowly, but surely I began putting it together.....making it our own! :)

One step at a time...

What do you think? I am very pleased! It almost looks like a professional did it!! The color in the pics isn't so accurate, lets just say that it looks a whole lot better with that pillow now! It matches! 

My next project is this cabinet....

Can't you see it distressed and painted sort of 'Old Florida' with seahorses, shells and coral?? I can!! I won't attempt it this trip....but stay tuned!

While we were at our 'other home' I took an opportunity to play with some shells and make a couple of things for my Mom's upcoming birthday in September.  I have always wanted to try the shell flowers, so I stole borrowed this idea from a facebook friend.  

Whatcha think?

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a post on what awesome shells we will find! I have been collecting all the jingles I could find....I still have some more creating to do!!

Stay tuned!

::Hugs::

Cheri

"Decorating" in Florida-- Long distance!!

“If you wait until you have enough money to decorate and make your home your own, it will never happen. If you wait until you can afford to buy everything new, you are missing the point. It is the old, the new, the hand-me-down, the collected, the worn but loved things in your home that make it your own.” Stacy Risenmay

I am constantly thinking about our house in Ft. Myers, even when we are not there! Thinking about what we will take next trip, and we usually have quite a few things we take down when we go.  I bought some new towels for all 3 bathrooms, of course in keeping with the "beachy" theme! These have got Sea Stars on them in a neutral tan and ivory, and some plain tan so it won't be too busy...and I can mix and match.  

I also wanted to take down the chairs to go with the table I refinished and took down a couple of trips back. The dining set was my parents that they bought each other for their first anniversary....which would have been January 1955!! If you remember I went from the 'blonde' that they had to walnut. I decided I wanted to cover the seats to match the 'decor' of our home in Florida and found that finding fabric these days is pretty difficult! When you do find something it is quite expensive!! I was wandering around in a fabric store and this fabric 'jumped' out at me, it was on clearance, and it is not normally my sort of thing!! It looks like tapestry, and I wasn't sure if there was enough for 6 cushions, so I bought all they had, and picked out a second choice, just in case.  The colors of the 'tapestry' were perfect with the other things in our room, and I had a pillow from there to compare colors.

The 'Tapestry' material

With the pillow....colors aren't showing up to well....they are 'teals' or dark aqua

This is the 'second choice' material, it has a silver highlight of flowers, they don't show up as bright in real life, it kind of looks like a batik material, couldn't get a true picture of it. It is also dark teal or aqua and it blend well with the tapestry.

I tried to take pics from several angles to show the colors, but didn't ever get a good one, just remember the teal shows up more than the highlight! Both materials go well with the pillow(s).

It turns out I had just enough of the tapestry for 6 cushions!!! Woohoo!!

I am not sure how well this material will hold up, but I am certain it will look awesome in our house!! Now all I have to do is cut it, and not make a mistake!!! This step took me a little while!!

First one done!!! Looks awesome....right??? I don't normally like tapestry type material, but this I did, kinda reminds me of "Old Florida" how appropriate is that since it is an "Old" table that has been redone!!

Second done!

All done!! For now we will only have 5 chairs....for some reason, don't remember why, I only refinished 5....so I have the material saved for the sixth!!! 

Now all I need to do is 'install' them onto the chairs, and load them up and take them down to our house and see how they look!! Hmmmm maybe a trip is in our near future!!! :D

.....to be continued!!

::Hugs::

Cheri