When I grow up

All you crafters out there know what is happening precisely right now - CHA Chicago!  It's big, it's bad, it's oh so good.  I don't know about you, but I really want to go.  I know that I don't have a shop or a website to sell retail (yet), but I want to be there with all the designers that are hocking their newest creations.  I want to feel the excitement of revealing new products and mingling with the best in the scrapping world.  I want to meet

 Heidi Swapp

and Tim Holtz,

  

and most of all - I want hang out with the very cool, very stylish Elsie Flannigan. 

  

I am inspired by all that creativity in one spot and am hoping one day to not only get a chance to attend CHA, but to maybe, just possibly, be one of those designers that is putting all her chips on the table and betting on her talent to sell.  One day.  With hard work and dedication right?  Right.

When old becomes new

I have this lovely craft room chair that was given to me ages ago when Kev and I first got married.  We call it the Catholic chair because it has a little kneeling bench on the backside and folds up just like extra chairs at church do.  I love it and plan to never part with it.  However, it was in desperate need of a makeover and I thought I should approach recovering this special chair with gusto. 

As every mom knows, Hobby Lobby is amazing, but not so much when you have three kids in tow.  As I made my way to the fabric section with a stroller full of three kids (yes, three - most amazing stroller ever), the Hobby Lobby crash began.  You see, my kids have an expiration when it comes to time spent in stores.  The commissary has a 45 minute expiration before they start in with the whining and crying.  Hobby Lobby is about 15 minutes.  I don't know why it's so little at the best places ever, but it is what it is.

So - we are in the fabric section and the meltdowns begin.  I find the most fantastic fabric ever and get it cut only to find out that is was mismarked and the fabric lady is not going to budge on the price.  The kids are crying, I am sweating at this point (99 degrees outside and a balmy 80 indoors and I have been pushing three kids in a stroller), and the lady is just looking at me with pity filled eyes.  I grab the fabric, run to the checkouts, begrudgingly hand over my money, and make it out the door with minimal yelling, only to have my four year old announce, "Thank God we are leaving Hobby Lobby!"  No joke!  I laughed out loud.  What else could I do?

Later in the week I finally got a moment to recover my beloved chair.  It was fairly simple - mostly removing screws, stretching some fabric, and using the staple gun.  It still needs some more staples, but I am having a hard time finding the right sized staples for my gun.  Apparently, I have the "girl" version of a stapler and have to go to a teeny tiny hardware shop to order my staples.  Oy!

After all was said and done, I took my new chair to the front yard to photograph and had a very curious two year old interested in trying it out.  She gave it her approval and I couldn't be happier!

The new and improved Catholic chair

Stella Bella gives it her approval

Well Begun is Half Done

I am a crafter. I paint, glue, smudge, ink, and distress just about anything I can. Blogging is not in my repertoire, but I was informed that if you are a somebody, and you wanna be a big time scrapbooker, you have a blog! So - for the two of you out there reading this - I am making an attempt to write creatively and post my newest projects and ideas. Here goes nothin'!

Recently, I have been in class, which takes up any time I might have left over after taking care of the kids, house, etc. Thankfully, I am in art school and have gotten the opportunity to take an actual art class. (In case any of you are considering art school, don't be disappointed when they require you to take math and chemistry before you actually get to make art). I have been studying Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts Movement from the early 1900s.

In an attempt to complete a previous project and come up with a creative idea to complete an assignment, I made a chair. Now - let me set the record straight - I bought a bare wooden chair from IKEA and painted it laboriously, put a few screws in place with the help of my four year old, and then poly coated the whole thing. I did not turn wooden spokes on a lathe or anything! This chair is for Connor - my 11 month old. It's too big for him, but he'll grow into it and I'll get some cute pictures out of the deal.

So the goal is to paint six chairs and make my table like the one in Monica Geller's apartment on Friends. My chairs are all the same, but will have new shiny paint in each family member's favorite colors. We shall see how this project unfolds...