Free Lamp Re-do and Chair Upholstery Fabric

This is the giant cement lamp that you never thought you'd own. And friends, this piece of work is SO heavy that it took me two tries with some major "from the quads" lifting to get this thing in the back of dad's truck. It is heavy. And UGLY. Or it was.

Here she is after a coat of paint (primer & poly too)...give a new lease on life. The part I finished today was doing something with the stained lampshade. Buying a new one defeated the purpose of getting a free lamp. But I got the crazy idea to cover the shade with "Make it Stone" textured paint in a cream color and it turned out!

It looks a little weird in this picture (below) but I think it looks cooler in person.

Here is on of the chalky painted chairs (one of the four matching). I bought the fabric to cover the seats of the other two chairs that have removable seats.  What do you think?  It has some of the red and green tones of the couch that will be in the adjoining room. 

That's my progress...what are you working on?

Table Re-do (free!) Part ONE

Because I have nothing better to do (insert light sarcasm here), I thought I would re-do some furniture this summer for our new house. Okay, maybe rather because I want a cute house, but am cheap (er... thrifty?) and have a rather frugal budget to work with:). I am learning as I go, making copious mistakes and leaning heavily on the wisdom gleaned from cher Google and my parents. So far, it has been more fun than I thought, and some things have turned out rather nicely to boot!

Here is the dining room table we picked up off Craigslist for free. After lots of sanding, varnish and poly, we are looking more and more like an "after". I still have a run to Hobby Lobby (not my favorite place) to make to get more chalk paint for the chairs, and then we'll be in business. In the mean time, here is the progress:

One sander later (sorry dad!), I have a lovely, smooth-ish table top.

Here are the legs, well half of them.  This is before the sanding and varnish

Legs, after varnish...lookin' hot ladies!

Freshly varnished and poly-ed table top, waiting to meet its long lost legs

Creamy-colored chalky painted chair.  Still needs a wax coat and I need to pick out fabric to re-do the seat.  I have two of these chairs and four totally different ones that match each other. 

So there you have it...my progress toward a cute, rustic table for almost free (I paid $5 for the two matching chairs and another $20 in supplies so far).

We're from the country...and we like it that way!

The kids were invited to "help" with the wheat harvest in Waterville.  They had a blast riding the combine and running through the fields. 

It's beautiful country up there...love those blue skies and rolling fields. 

Cute clothes from G & G Crosby!

 Grandma Karen made these adorable summer dresses for the girls and they fit perfectly!  Louis got a cool t-shirt from one of their biking trips. 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Crosby!  We love you!