Vintage Skis = awesome

We've been on a role fixing problem spots around the house. Today is more of the same (no the problem is not Smokey... sorry if he offends anyone) the wall above the stairs is very narrow and long and I have been trying to figure out what to hang there for 5 years... 

Our friend Kris left a pair of vintage skis at Mum and Dads and since Dad already has a set I stole them. 

 We used this tutorial to hang them. I LOVE the way it turned out. And it is definitely fitting in with our travel outdoor theme that is going on in the hallway

 And yes I do think that people from Florida who come over don't really get our house... Who am I kidding probably no one from anywhere gets it... but our homes are all about what make us happy right?

And these make me super happy... and Kris can have them back when ever he wants but he'll have to get them off the wall all by himself

Switching up the Ottoman

I went back and forth on selling this monstrosity, ottomans are ridiculously expensive and I could not find a replacement that I liked that had wheels... I bought and returned stuff to redo this sucker multiple times but when I decided on the chairs and the fabric my thoughts on this finally came together. This ottoman is really large 33"x21" just a huge box - no storage. I recovered it right after we moved into the house it started out a dark emerald green velour and was a hand me down from my grandparents (thanks!). Microsuede was an improvement at the time but now ... not so much... 

The whole storage thing got me thinking... why can't I have storage? It's totally set up for it already

Note Management checking out the situation

Uber made me a bottom (hurrah for seemingly never ending pile of scraps)

 And then I ordered some Linen in Elephant and Premier Prints Suzani in Slub Charcoal   and got to recovering

 It's definitely on the funky side... and far from perfect

 But I am so thrilled with the way the storage turned out

The hinge and spring loaded bracket were found at Lowes 

 And now all of Micah's toys can be hidden in a few seconds

It doesn't get much better then that!

I'm a copy cat

That's right I was so jealous of Mum recovering chairs that I decided I had to do some of my own... not really... well sort of... 

I had my over sized living room chairs up on craigslist for the last few months. It really hurt to sell them (especially at the ridiculously low price I ended up getting) but we really needed the floor space the old chairs were 35"x35" and the only time they are sat on is when company comes over = not that often (which is funny because we have been having loads of company over recently). I actually had found replacements I wanted on craigslist but I (to make a long story short) made myself wait until I had the others sold before I could buy anything else... and of course the other chairs after being up for weeks sold the day I called : ( 

So plan B I had seen these puppies at Costco but they wanted $180 for them... which is a lot considering I was going to rip them apart and I wanted the entire bill for the new chairs to be covered by the ones I sold. So after getting the no go on the others Uber and I decided we would just go check out these at Costco again and as luck would have it they had clearanced them down to $130 - SO MUCH BETTER!- and these new ones are 25"x24" big difference! Micah now has a lot more floor space to spread his gooey fingers on. 

So as I mentioned earlier I got them home and unboxed and immediately started them ripping (literally) apart. Because this fabric is just not my thing and I am really trying to get more color and pattern into our house. 

 I recovered them in Anna Maria Horners old Drawing Room line Nouveau Bouquet in Teal. I had bought a few yards of this a couple of years back for under $5 a yard and mailed it to Mum to make me a dress thank goodness she said it was too heavy weight so it has sat in her cupboard until recently when I realized it matches my house perfectly.

 I am so totally in love with them. And as most people know this is sort of bold pattern is definitely not my usual style but staying home makes you re-access your surroundings. I used to want it to be calm and quiet because I spent all day out in loud spaces but now I want my house to be fun and a little more loud.

I was very sure I had a more recent before picture somewhere on the blog already... oh well since I don't have time to locate one at the moment here is an old one that shows the chairs.

and here it is today

***this wasn't supposed to go up today but what ever here it is... getting so fed up with blogger...***

Uber's crafty

This wall has been bothering me forever.  It's very frustrating to have all of your furniture purchased and still feel like your space looks unfinished. We have 9 ft ceilings in our downstairs and something was needed above the TV. 

I had saved a few images for inspiration-  (sorry I don't know where the top one is from) 

  And asked Uber super nicely if he would build me something, lucky we had a bunch of scrap molding in the garage from old projects so this was a great way to clear some of it out. I think this project ended up costing about $9.  

 Here it is close up. I did distress it ... but apparently not enough to really show. What made it even better was the next Pottery Barn catalog I received in the mail had this $400 version which seems a little ridiculous to me but I was super happy to show it to Uber so he could see what an awesome job he did.

 And here is the wall as it looks now. We raised the TV up about 5 inches since we both had never been happy with the height and I switched out the picture for this mirror.

 I'm not done accessorizing yet but I'm slowly working on it. The giraffe by the way is Ubers gift to Micah from a recent trip to Central America.

I have a bunch more house projects to show you so stay tuned!

Micah's Album

Finally finished updating Micah's album... I am really not sure how 3 months flew by! If this interests you check out the tab above to see the new pages. 

But for fun here is Uber back in 1980

 and Micah in 2011

Book of Colors in the shop

I'm done- finally!

they are in the shop

How did that happen?!

He is quite the comedian. 

He has mastered clapping... which he likes to do if he thinks you should be paying attention to him.

He has the gist of waving... but he will only wave when he wants to.

He will tease you by holding up his arms and when you come to get him he yanks them down and laughs.

If you cough he coughs, if you sneeze he laughs.

His hair is still blonde and his eyes are still blue.

He still only has two teeth but that doesn't stop him from eating everything we do.

He can go up stairs and walk his push toy around the house. 

He would live in the water if you let him (this includes the ocean)

He loves balls and will roll and throw them all day long. 

I could go on but that's probably enough. 

He is a funny little midget!