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Recovering a Seat Cushion

Okay, it's not that hard, but if you've never recovered a seat cushion before, here's how to do it:

When I posted about my dining room transformation, I asked you not to look at the two head chairs with the non-complimentary blue chair cushions.

I was looking for some neutral fabric to recover those chairs. I thought about using a dropcloth because it would match the curtains and would be inexpensive. I kind of wanted fabric with a little more texture, however. I lucked up and found the perfect fabric at Old Time Pottery for about 5 bucks a yard. (They had some great designer fabrics there that pretty much made me want to redo my entire house, but I refrained.)

So, here's how you recover a chair:

1. Cut your fabric. Remember to leave enough room to fold it over the cushion with extra fabric to spare.

2. Start by pulling the fabric taught (but not so tight that the shape of the cushion changes) and put one staple in the middle of each side. Staple top, bottom and then side to side.

3. Staple all around the edges leaving the corners for last.

There are 2 options for corners. You can do a gathered corner or a pleated corner.

I went for the pleated corner. Just make sure which ever way you do it, both corners match.

I gathered the back corners because it was more of a rounded edge and they are less visible.

4. Trim off excess fabric, make sure any screw holes are accessible and reattach to chairs!

Much, much better.

Linking here.

Dining Room and Living Room Updates

One of the things I enjoy about blogging is sharing projects we have going on around the house. I know there are a gazillion houses out there way more beautiful than mine and there are even more people out there with more design skills than me. Having said that, who wants to redo something in your house and not show it to somebody? : ) Blogging inspires me to get things checked off my list and hopefully a few others will be inspired along the way.

That being said, I have made some updates in my dining room and living room recently.

We painted the living room chocolate brown soon after moving in. It was a horrid burgundy and we loved the chocolate color of our previous dining room, so we went for it. Well, let's just say in a small dining room, dark walls, dark furniture and dark floors make for a...well DARK room!

I forgot to mention that I also had dark drapes.

I had some light aqua paint leftover from our accent wall in the living room which is open to the dining room, so one evening, I started painting. It only took a few hours since we have panel molding and only one wall with no openings/windows. It was already looking better! I looked and looked for the perfect fabric for new drapes and ended up just using drop cloths like everyone else on the planet. (***Tip- if you are using dropcloths for drapes, buy them at Home Depot. The ones at Lowe's have seams in them! ***) Love them. I decided to fold the tops of mine over to create some interest and to keep from having to hem them.

We also changed the layout of the dining room furniture. It seems much more balanced now having the china cabinet on the main focal wall. And to be honest, we did it because it makes traffic flow to and from the kitchen much better!

So, on to the pics...

BEFORE:

and AFTER:

I L.O.V.E. the new light airy feeling. I really wanted to do something to break up my all matchy matchy dining set. So, I sold all my chairs but 2 on craigslist and made enough money to buy these beauties.

Because they are cream, they also lighten things up and they are washable. I've already washed paint and crayon off of them. I think they will make it with my kids.

Here's the view looking in from the kitchen.

And, another one looking from the living room.

Now, you may have noticed that the two wooden upholstered chairs are covered in a fabric that doesn't quite go with the rest of the room. Don't worry, I have already taken care of that. I just haven't uploaded the pics, yet.

I still want to make, or find a cute runner for the table and I'd like to change out the chandelier with either a simple chrome one with white shades or a drum shade pendant. One day it will be finished, right? Probably not! I'm okay with that, though!

Now, the living room has gone through many different furniture arrangements.
Here's a pic showing the old curtains that matched the dining room ones. The lady that bought my dining room chairs ended up buying these also!

We used to have the couch on this long wall, but I never liked it.

Please excuse the bad, blurry pics. (The camera class I took, is definitely paying off! These were taken BEFORE I took the class! : ))

Here's a pic with the new drop cloth curtains.

I like the couch floating in the room. Something I don't love: the book cases. It's so hard for them to not look cluttery. I needed something big on that wall, though and that's all I have, so for now, it has to work.

Do you see that print over the chair? That's one of my favorite Christmas presents that Kris got me!! It's a family rules poster and you can find it here.

One day, I'd really like to get a sectional for this room. But, this is how we live in it right now. When we moved to this house in Oct of 09, we had moved 3 times in 3 years. When you move that much, it is hard for all your furniture to work from house to house. I think that's one reason that my house keeps evolving! It's a fun process, though!

Linking here and here.

This boy

Most of the time, when we are out somewhere, Brady is not very outgoing. Many of our friends comment on how he scowls at them. Kind of like in these family portraits we had made.

It's not that he's mad or unhappy. He's just really shy and unsure of people.
These are pics are proof that he is a happy child and he DOES smile A LOT!

Sometimes we play a little game where I say, "don't you smile at me!"

Then he looks like this. He purses his lips and won't look at me, trying not to smile.

But, he can't handle it, he gives in and smiles, every time!

I think he thinks that if he closes his eyes, I can't see him smiling.

This boy...he just melts my heart.

My Attempt at Organization

For some reason, January usually brings a desire to purge and organize. We have definitely been doing that in the Dolberry household! I always feel like I am trying to get to a place where everything is in order, because I think things will run much smoother! I am not always good at putting organization into practice, but there are a few things that have made our lives easier and I thought I would share some of them.

One thing we have done is move the kids' chore/behavior charts to the laundry room. They used to be in their rooms. Now, they are more centrally located which makes it easier to check off their lists. The washer acts as a great place to keep our magnetized markers and are in perfect reach of the kids. (I'll be posting about our behavior rewards system soon.)

This window calendar has been a great help in keeping our week organized. It is an old window from my Mom's house. I cut the days of the week out in vinyl and I use a dry erase marker to write in our appointments and schedule for the week. This is great to keep up with practices and meetings. I have also found that having 2 kids in school and 1 in preschool that it was hard for me to remember which child had a party when and when what paper was due for which kid.

Each Sunday, I check their separate calendars and write in anything that will be coming up that week. I'm totally a list person, so this really works for me.

Since I mentioned kids and school, this is another area of my house that helps me keep things under control, for the most part. I blogged about it here and here.

Each kid has his or her own basket where all their school work goes until the end of the week. We will recycle most of it and keep a few pieces to save. Those pieces go in this basket.

Another item that has added organization to my life is my Droid X phone. I have my daily to-do list on it that I love checking off everyday. (I told you, I'm a list person.)

I think this app is called Astrid tasks and it is free.

Another app that I love is Evernote.

It allows me to have several different notes/lists that I can access from anywhere on the internet. It is also free!

So there you have it. What great organizational tips do you have?

Snow, snow and more snow.

I like snow, I really do, but now that this is the 4th time we have snow forecasted in the past month and a half, well, I must say that I'm not that excited.

Nevertheless, we will enjoy being at home together (assuming they will cancel in the morning) and pray all the siblings will get along.

Here are some pics from 2 snows ago.

We got about 4 inches at our house, which considered a blizzard for us in the south. : )

Brady always seems to put his hat on any way but the right way. I just leave it because I think it's cute.

We started building a snowman.

We wanted to make a really big, giant snow man.

He ended up being a little munchkin snowman.

I had seen a snowman kit right before Christmas and almost bought it. It was so cute with everything you need to accessorize your snowman. We just used what we had. Since it was the day of the SEC championship game, we put an Auburn toboggan on our snowman to show our team spirit. War Eagle!!

Then, a little ditch sledding took place.

B spent a little more time with the snowman.

The next day, we did some real sledding on a big hill we found while driving around.

B went down the hill a few times with me or Kris. But he mainly just watched. Notice the hat again.

Konnor turned a few flips.

Emma started out just going down from halfway up the hill. She finally would go from up top.

We had a great time sledding and it looks like we might be able to do it again tomorrow. One thing I haven't done in the three snows we have already had this winter, is make snow cream. I put a bowl out to catch some fresh snow tonight. Guess I'll be googling some recipes to make some for the kiddos tomorrow. Stay warm!