The fair....

Hi Everyone!  It's been a long and fun weekend!  The Arbor Day Fair was this weekend.  I didn't take as much as I normally do since I'm having the Open House for my Studio in a month, but I did take a variety of items.  It was a good weekend, but not a great one. Just a warning, this post is picture heavy but I thought I'd show you what my booth looked like.

 Set up started Friday at 4pm.  Mom, Dad and I were there a little before 4 pm ready to set up and get out of there as early as we could.  This little bench was the first thing we unloaded.  Just as soon as it was set down, it was sold.  It had a twin that I brought last year to this same fair and the gal that runs the fair bought it and bought this one too.

 My little headboard turned shelf with pegs sold as soon as we set it down too....also to the same gal that bought the bench.  The two items really went well together and were the very first thing you saw as you entered the room.  I could have sold them both to at least 4 or 5 other customers.  They stayed in their spot the whole weekend and brought me several orders and a wonderful new business contact (I'll share more on that later).

 I took a couple of mirrored windows (none of them sold).

 These bead board frames were new this year and two of them sold.

 The black chicken wire frame came home with me.....

 ....as did this green backless bench with storage in it and a stained top...

...and so did my bird bench...

 ...I sold a few sheet music rosette magnets...

 ...and one white and one grey crate, several of the plain pillows, several chicken wire frames, and the numbered peg sign...

 ...the foot stool was liked by a lot of customers, but came home with me as did the large window mirror...

 ...as did this bench with storage that was painted with dark walnut paint (I've already decided to repaint it in Old White)....

 ...I sold a set of wooden love birds in white...but the rest came home with me...

 ...these burlap rosettes on clothes pins were also attached to the message boards, but the packaged ones didn't sell...

 ...and neither did the tree slice numbered tags...

 ...or the blank note cards...

...and neither did these hand painted totes...so it seemed like I didn't sell much, but I did okay and I'm alright with the amount of items I brought home...they will all be for sale at my Open House next month.  So now I have to replenish some of the items that sold and finish working on my studio to get it ready for the big sale.  If you happen to be in Southwest Iowa over Memorial Weekend, please feel free to stop by and say hello...email me for directions. 

I want to say a great big thank you to my parents for all of their help and support this weekend.  I couldn't have done it without you!  And now, I'm going to sit back with my feet up and rest for one evening before I start getting ready for the Open House.  Thanks for stopping by!

New footstool....

Hi Everyone!  I'm getting closer to being ready for the fair this weekend.  It was a long night last night but very productive!  One of the things I finished last night was this little footstool.  It was too dark to take pictures of it last night, so on my lunch break today while the dogs were running around the yard I hauled this outside for photos.

 I made it using 2x4's for the main body, jute webbing, foam, batting and duck cloth fabric. 

 The legs are square corner Queen Anne legs that I painted black, distressed and waxed.

 I'm really happy with the way this turned out.  So now the question I've been contemplating is, do you call it a footstool or an ottoman?  Ottoman seems so formal to me.

I will be taking this to the Arbor Day Fair in Nebraska City this weekend and hopefully it will go home with someone.  Now I need to upholster a couple of bench seats.  I have a much shorter to do list for tonight and I'm already half way done.  Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to:
http://www.myrepurposedlife.com/2013/04/catch-as-catch-can-119.html 
http://madeinaday.com/2013/05/02/made-u-look-linky-69/ 

Footstool remake....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I hope your week is off to a great start.  My parents arrived home last night.  Yeah!  They are tired and have lots to catch up on.  While they were gone, I remade my dad's footstool.  But I thought I'd better wait to share it with you until after he had a chance to see it.

Do you remember the footstool I made for my mom?  In case you missed it, you can check it out here.

It looked like this.

 This little footstool used to be my mom's but my dad took it over (that's why I had to make a new one for my mom).  Nothing wrong with it really, except that my dad ripped the seam on the top.

 It's hard to tell in this picture but the seam running from top to bottom is ripped and the button is missing it's cover.  So I decided while they were gone to fix it for them.  I started by removing the cushion from the base.  Then I mixed up some chalk paint to make black and painted the base.  Sorry I couldn't find the pictures I took of this step.  Then I removed the cushion using the leftover fabric from my mom's footstool.  So no new money spent on this redo.

 Then I reattached the top to the base.  And here it is sitting in my parent's living room, just waiting to be used.

My parents noticed it right away when they got home.  Now the pair of footstools look like they belong together.  They aren't exactly the same but they do look good together...just like my parents.  Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to:
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/03/furniture-feature-friday-feature-link-party/ 

Birthday present for Mom...

Hi Everyone!  My mom's birthday was this week.  And even though she didn't feel good, we celebrated her birthday with a little gift party!  We'll do something else for her when she's back to her usual happy, fun self!  My mom had mentioned several months ago that she needed another footstool for the living room.  She had gotten one a few years ago, but my dad has sort of claimed that one for himself, thus leaving my mom with out one.  So I made her one.

I  had this stand between my love seat and recliner and it is just proportionally the wrong size.  And if you look closely at the bottom of the left leg, it has been chewed on by one of the puppies.  So I had an idea....

I cut the legs off from just above the stretcher making it almost 11 inches tall.  Which is the standard size of a footstool.

I painted it black to go with the accents in her living room.  And when my niece and I were shopping, I picked up some sage green, heavy duty fabric to upholster the top of the stool and some upholstery tacks.

You can see in this picture that I used the tacks on the underside of the top rather than stapling it.  I thought it would give it a cleaner look.

I gave it to my mom on Tuesday night and she was thrilled with it.  And my dad was happy too because now he didn't have to share the other footstool.  And I got to repurpose that small side table into something practical and nice and I still have the bottom part to work with...I wonder what that will become...?  Well, thanks for stopping!