yes, i am still doing furniture.....

but barely....

i have been very busy with photography and the furniture is languishing in my basement.  

shannon found this ummm, lovely (???) coffee table at the goodwill.

she thinks like me now (like mother, like daughter) and can 

see the potential in the ugly.

exhibit A...

it's big (60 inches) and has great bones. 

the drawers go all the way through and have knobs on both sides 

so the same drawer slides out from either side.  

the door opens from either side too.  you will see that in a minute....

the legs are curvy little french things and

sit on fluted columns.   

there was a lot of damage, however, to the legs and especially the top

these gouges were pretty deep because the wood is extremely soft.

probably why this was only......

but, easy enough to fix. right?   well, i love a challenge!

shannon wanted the top to be stained in a dark brown/black and have the bottom painted in a cream color.  after sanding the top down to the bare wood and painting the bottom

with annie sloan chalk paint in old white 

we started rethinking the dark stain on the top.

we both really liked the way it looked with the bare wood.  it looked very beachy so 

for fun, i painted the inside of the doors and the drawers in louis blue chalk paint.

the coolest thing about this coffee table is the knobs....

shannon is really a fan of the jane austen time period and loved these.  

there are two each of six different designs.  when she bought it, there was one knob missing.  after loading the table into her car she was getting ready to leave the parking lot when the guy that helped her load it into her car came running out with the missing knob.  it had been laying on the floor off to the side of where the table was and they both missed it.  

for now, the top is bare wood.  she is deciding whether to whitewash it or just wax it and leave it.  

maybe a light gray or do you think it would look good with a dark stained finish?

not bad for 7 bucks!!!!

my first attempt at a slipcover.....

was interesting to say the least.....

i have a couple of pieces of furniture that need to be recovered or reupholstered.  the thought of doing it by myself freaked me out.  i would read blogs about people that do this seemingly effortlessly.  

reupholstery is scary.  

the fabric on this small sofa is scarier.

and don't even get me started on this one...

can we just pretend that this chair is not dressed like a ghost?

this chair is actually a really nice chair whose fabric no longer fits our decor. 

the decor that i changed about 18 months ago.  being the intelligent man that my wonderful husband is, he started (18 months ago) ripping said fabric from the chair.  i was able to stop him before he got all of the fabric off but not quick enough to rip the fabric from the ottoman that i have already recovered.

but that only took a staple gun and a glue gun.

now, it looks goofy if we leave the chair uncovered. 

hence, the hillbilly slipcover, aka the paint drop cloth. 

don hates it and is convinced that i am a master upholsterer and for the life of him, cannot figure out why i haven't reupholstered this chair in a nice home decor fabric.

well, this is why...

 detail....

 detail....

and more detail, aka, piping......

like i said,  reupholstery is scary.

  

slipcovers seemed a little more doable for me. 

even though i have no real sewing skills to speak of.  

so i researched. and researched. and researched some more.  

i found and followed the video tutorial series that marian from miss mustard seed was generous enough to provide for everyone.

and i am proud to announce that after only 4 days, three broken sewing machine needles 

and two canvas drop cloths from lowes

and heavy duty thread that never did work in my sewing machine (hence one of the broken needles)

this...

became this...

no piping on the arms because piping scares me...

 and a little grey paint on the pretty legs,

it beats the white sheet i had on it before to cover it up.....

i still need to sew some ribbons on the back to keep it tied up

 but is so much prettier now than that green fabric.

 it's not perfect, there are lots of mistakes (try not to notice that the ruffle is uneven) and it tugs, pulls and buckles in places that it is not supposed to, and my seam ripper was really given a workout.

but overall, i think it turned out okay and i am glad that i finally took the plunge. 

 this one is next, and i am using the drop cloth that is part of it's ghost costume.  maybe i'll wait until after halloween......it's kinda cute!

more senior shots.....

i have know alexa since she was about 6 years old.  her family moved into our neighborhood about 2 months after we did.  i became great friends with her mom and austen played with her and her younger sister as a tot....

she has a sister who is two years younger,

arielle breanna...

and one that is 5 years younger,

adrienne monet.  (like the artist)

  all three girls are absolutely delightful.  and beautiful.

they moved out of the neighborhood about 6 years after moving in but their mom and 

i have kept in contact and remained great friends. 

debbie asked me to take alexa's senior pictures and i was honored that she asked me.  

she was born on march 17th, st. patrick's day, with a head of red hair and green eyes.....

and christened....  

alexa emerald.  

she plans on becoming a physical therapist in an eight year program....she would be perfect for the job!!!

debbie, your girls are gorgeous and i don't think you could have picked better names for them.  

i adore them all!!!!

oh, yeah, ignore the no trespassing sign in that picture way up there.  we totally weren't trespassing...  ;)

we will never forget....

like everyone else on that horrifying day, i remember exactly what i was doing when i heard about the planes hitting the world trade center.

tuesdays were my day to start work late.  i didn't have to be there until 10:00 am.  when getting ready on the late mornings, i would turn the tv on and watch the martha stewart show.  when i turned the tv on that day (the sound came on before the picture did in our tv)  i remember hearing a mans voice talking.  i wasn't paying too much attention because i was busy getting ready, but i was trying to figure out what man martha had as a guest on her show that day.

when the picture finally came up, the first image i saw was the burning tower.  my second thought was, "why is (the movie) independence day playing at this time of day"?

of course, it didn't take long to figure out what was going on....that i was actually watching the "today show" that had pre-empted martha, and that man was matt lauer.

i called don at work (on the manufacturing floor at general motors) and he had just gotten called into an office with a tv and had seen it too....we said extra "i love you's" during that phone call.

i called my parents and my dad didn't have the tv on yet.  i told him what i had seen and i remember telling him "we are in big trouble".  with everyone else, i tried to process the shock and horror of what had happened, but i couldn't.  it was hard to pull myself away from the tv to go to work and while on my way there, they announced that the first tower had collapsed. 

 i was petrified and sick with worry.  

i'd dropped 4 year old austen off at daycare before i went to work.  shannon was 20 years old and already living on her own.  within the hour,  i made shannon go pick him up and bring him to my work.  my mom came to my work too and they all stayed there until late in the afternoon.  

i didn't want to be at work, i wanted to be at home, in my secure nest...

i just wanted my family with me.  i needed to see them, feel them.

i think the thing that scared me the most was the fact that you could not listen to the radio and hear music.  every station was now a news station..the other thing that scared me was that i didn't hear any airplanes in the air that day.  that was so weird because there is a minor airport about 7 miles from our house and we heard planes all of the time. 

 they just became white noise in everyday life but that day, 

the silence was deafening.

we sat that night, huddled on the couch together, watching the recap of the days news.  

since i had been at work late that day, i hadn't heard too much about 

the other planes going down in pennsylvania and at the pentagon. 

we all slept in the same bed that night, and the next night. 

i was scared beyond thought but i felt lucky that i had my family intact and with me.

my heart went out that day and many, many days since to the families of the victims.

ten years later, i hope that most of the families have found peace in their "new normal". 

however far removed we were in distance from new york, i never forgot that it just as easily could have been our family, or yours or anyones.   

i pray for the deployed soldiers and their families now fighting to secure our freedom.

god bless them and keep them and i want them to know that my family will 

always remember.......  

****adding something interesting today****
for dinner today i made pasta with chicken and artichoke hearts. i got out the jar and.......

 this was what i found on the lid....

for reals........

i miss them.....

jerry and tina used to live next door to me....they moved away about 18 months ago and we miss them like crazy.  she made our family part of her family and introduced us to the fabulousness of greek food and life straight out of "my big fat greek wedding".  we always have so much fun with them and their families always treat us as if we were part of theirs.....

  tina is a personal trainer and she trained me down 3 clothes sizes a couple of years back....

i will be forever grateful to her.......jerry is a pharmacist and took immense pride in his yard.  he and don always had so much in common because of that.

we missed last year's photoshoot when she moved and subsequent chaos that ensues because of it....

we are back in the swing of it now though!!

their little girls are eden and london.....

one is an image of her mama and one is an image of her daddy!!! 

 i think that this picture of london flying with daddy is one of my all time favorites that i have taken so far....it takes my breath away!

 we took the pictures on a windy summer evening at a small local beach 

just as as the sun was getting low in the sky....

 it casts the most amazing light and shadows....

 just gorgeous.....

 eden has a couple of new teeth and was happy to show them off for me.

we miss your family, jerry and tina, and we have got to get together more often..

we are going to work on that, okay??