Getting Crafty and Getting Organized

Chad and I had a graduation party last Friday with a bunch of our friends to celebrate graduating from George Mason University and American University, and finishing Teach for America and our first two years of teaching. These are the graduation cupcakes I made. I'm proud of how well they turned out!

I found this picture online (below) of how to store your curling irons more efficiently and I loved it, so I did it myself. I could not find straight pieces of PVC pipe anywhere at Home Depot, so I ended up changing the design a little bit. Then I spray painted the PVC pipe and hot glued it to the cabinet door (which was only temporary - I need to hang them up with heavy duty velcro. I actually like the way I did better.

above idea from: http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Home-Organization/Bathroom-Storage/diy-bathroom-storage

mine

The next project I have been working on is re-doing a rocking chair I bought at a flea market sale for $7.50. The lady I bought it from said it was her great grandmothers and she was probably a grandma herself, so this chair is old! Here it is below. My mom was in town and we ended up re-doing the chair together. It was a lot of fun and she was really helpful! Thanks mom! It wouldn't have turned out as well without you!

First we ripped off all of the original padding and material.

Then we nailed a piece of board to the bottom of the chair to cover up the springs and make it a little more sturdy.

Next, we added padding to the bottom of the chair and then covered it with brown fabric using a staple gun.

Then we sewed a back cover and seat cover and stuffed them both, added straps to tie the pads to the chair, and re-stained the chair with brown and then black shoe polish to make it darker and cover up the scratches. Here's the finished product.

After I finished the rocking chair, Chad decided he wanted to find a way to make it fit in our front room, so he decided to do some rearranging. He also decided to bring the bookshelf in our bedroom out to the front room. We did some rearranging of furniture and pictures and "decorated" the tall bookshelf. In order to make the rocking chair fit we had to get rid of one of our end tables, which meant we lost a table for our lamp to the right of our couch. Chad decided to just set the lamp on the edge of the couch and nail the shade to the wall. I thought there was no way that would work - the lamp would fall and the shade would just rip out of the wall. It looks like I was wrong because so far it has held perfectly and not even wobbled. Good job Chad! Way to be creative! Sorry for doubting you! Here are some pictures of how our front room looks now:

This is the lamp on the couch nailed to the wall.