Finally! New Desk Chair

I've almost lost count how many chairs I've had at my computer desk here in my craft room.  Most ended up being horribly uncomfortable.  And I don't even sit at the computer for long periods of time.  Admittedly, I've been cheap when it came to buying a desk chair.  That, and I really didn't want some big, dark, faux leather, clunky thing in here.  I really wanted a wood banker's chair type, but didn't want to pay the price.

Of course, I loved Pottery Barn's wooden swivel banker's style chair, but at $399 plus $15 in shipping, I just couldn't do it.

Pottery Barn

Home Decorator's Collection has their Oxford Office chair at $199 plus $30 shipping.  

Not too bad, but I was hoping to do a bit better.

Home Decorator's Collection

Walmart to the rescue!

On their site, I found just what I was looking for.  Their wood banker's chair is $139 and shipping is free if you pick up at the store.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's the same exact chair HDC was selling at $199.

The chair arrived very quickly, less then a week, and it was very easy to put together.  It's comfortable, height adjustable, swivels and tilts, and the casters roll very easily on my pink shaggy rug I have in here.

I'm super-pleased with this chair.

While I was in here taking pics of the chair, thought I'd share the new counter skirt and window valance I made.  I love the black and white print with the green apple walls, along with the pink shaggy rug I grabbed up at Lowes for a steal - twenty bucks on clearance.  

I may use some of the left over fabric to make a chair pad for my new banker's chair.  

Add it to the list! ;o)

Puppy Update

The new member of the family, Xena, is keeping us busy for sure.  We're still working on housebreaking her, and so far we've only had one day accident free since we brought her home.  Oh, it's driving me nuts!  We try to take her out every couple hours, but she still has accidents.  We can't seem to read her signals all the time.  

She seems to be getting leash training down.  I've been adamant about that.  Our last dog was terrible on the leash, which I'm sure is our fault for not training her properly.  On the subject of training, The Dog Whisperer is now my favorite show.  I DVR it and watch at least a couple episodes a day until I get caught up to the current season.  I really like his philosophies on dog training. Watching his show has also made me understand more about dogs and how they think, so-to-speak.  I feel myself being much more calm with Xena then I was with our first Boxer, Coco.

Another problem I'm having with Xena is getting her to "come" on command.  When I take her out to do her business on the leash, as a reward I unleash her and let her chase a frisbee.  She loves to retrieve it bring it back to me.  But when it's time to go in, she won't come.  I think she thinks it's a game to come close then dart off when I get near her to put leash her.  This morning, after we danced around the back yard for about 20 minutes or more,  I had to quick grab her and wrestle her to the ground to get the leash back on her.  GRRRRRR!!!!  That just will not do!  I think we need to work on the come command a lot more in the house.

See that white thing there on her collar?  It's a very cool device.  It's a GPS tracker.  Hubby found it at Amazon.  It's called
Tagg the Pet Tracker
and the cool thing is there's an app for that . . . hehe.  You download the app to your iPhone, iPad, smart phone, computer, etc., and if the the dog leaves your yard perimeter you can use the app on your device to track her location no matter where you are, with directions if needed.  It will even send you a text that the dog has broken the perimeter.  

Pretty cool!

As you can see, she's starting to love her crate . . . her space.  Unfortunately, that big, ugly cage is in my family room.  I have a small quilt draped over the top cause ya know they like to feel like their in their own den, but the quilt's just not working for me.  I've already purchased a painter's drop cloth and I plan on making a more fitted, hopefully attractive crate cover.  

Other then those few issues, I think she's a terrific dog.  And when we get those worked out, she'll be the perfect pet!

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This 'n That

Been pretty busy this past week

I've been working on some things for the Thanksgiving table using the items you see below.  

More on the finished product in a later post.

Also have been doing some Christmas decorating.

My house is suffering from a split personality disorder right about now.  The back of the house ~ family room and kitchen ~ is showing the signs of the harvest season, Thanksgiving.  While the front of the house ~ living room/dining room, foyer ~ is decked out for Christmas.

You see, I'm loosing a weekend in December to travel to North Carolina for Son No. 1's college graduation.  Which is certainly exciting, but not very time-convenient being the weekend before Christmas.  So I'm trying to get as much done as possible before Thanksgiving without totally transforming the house into Christmas mode. 

Speaking of Son No. 1, he flies home tonight for Turkey Day.  He'll be here only until Sunday, but then he'll be home for good in about three weeks.  I can't believe his college days are coming to an end.  Where on earth has the past four-plus years gone???

Oh, I got a new toy!!! :o)  

Well, it's not really all mine, although Hubby did set it up to read "Carla's Kindle" when it's powering up.  Frankly, I don't know how much I'll use it.  I simply don't sit around enough to play around on a tablet-thingy like this.  

I did purchase my first mag subscription, though.  At a $1.65 a month, it was a pretty good deal!   I'm not a very gadgety-type person, but I will admit this thing is pretty cool.

On Sunday I finally started painting the kitchen chairs.  I know, I know . . . I blogged weeks, months, ago about starting this project.  Needless to say I've been procrastinating.  That and the original spray gun we bought wasn't working properly.

the chair before

I've got two chairs primed and painted and one primed ready to be painted.  That leaves three more chairs and the table to do.  I'll most likely blog more about this project when it's nearly finished.  But let me tell you, using that spray gun attached to the air-compressor is the sweetest thing going for painting furniture.  The spray was perfectly fine and covered so nicely.  It was actually pretty fun to use!

Once painted, I really want to accent the chairs with glaze, but Hubby doesn't think so.  He thinks I should leave them as is.  The color is not quite white.  It's really a great color, actually, called Malted Milk.  Guess I'll wait about the whole glaze thing until I get them all done.

I may not (well, I know for pretty sure I will not!) get all the chairs and table painted by T'giving, but I don't think my family will mind sitting on a few white and a few stained chairs . . . as long as there's plenty of turkey and 'taters'! ;o)

The chairs you see above are a fairly new purchase.  I bought four of these chairs from Walmart's online store.  They're in the BH&G line (they come in black too).  Partial assembly was required, which was very easy, and  they're quite sturdy and well made.  And the best part was the price -  $38 each!  And if you have them shipped to the store for pick-up, there's no shipping cost.

I bought these chairs for a table I bought a few years back from a resale shop.  It's a double gate-leg table that is in need of refinishing.  Of course this projects been on the to-do list for a quite a while too.  My plans are to paint the legs and apron in my fave paint right now, Malted Milk, accented with glaze, and restain the top.  

It's a pretty sturdy table that can sit four comfortably, or six a little snugly.  It was a good price at $65.  Not sure if it's an "antique".  The workmanship seems good, and it doesn't really have that look of being mass produced.

I've also been playing nurse to Son No. 2 since Friday.  He had surgery to shorten a ligament on the side of his knee.  Apparently they go in and fold over the ligament to get it back to the proper length.  He has to keep that leg immobile wearing a long leg brace for three weeks, and it's been a pretty painful recovery so far.  

As for my back, it's getting better and better every week.  Perhaps my disc compression wasn't as severe as I suspected.  After eight weeks, I'm still getting twinges of pain and numbness down my leg, with occasional lower back pain on days when I'm on my feet a lot, but I'm slowly regaining strength and range of movement with each week.  Not quite back to 100% with my workouts, but I'm getting there.

Good thing!  

With the Holidays here and being extra busy, I don't know what I would have done if I was in the shape I was six weeks ago. 

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Say 'Ello to My Li'l Friend

Now, when you read that title up there, you have to do it in your best Al Pacino as Scarface voice. 

Granted my "li'l friend" isn't as deadly as a machine gun, but it's going to be my weapon of choice in the attack against my kitchen chairs. 

With all the turns and grooves in these chairs brushing would have been a nightmare.  Surely I would have used at least four cans of spray paint per chair ~ and there's six of them.  

My dear, sweet Hubby bought this spray gun that can be used with our air compressor a few weeks ago upon my request . . . okay pleading. 

But the darn weather here, for what seems like almost two weeks, has been so lousy.  Not good painting weather at all.   It's been damp and rainy.  And when it's not been raining, the humidity's been like 300%.

Finally a break! Today is clear, and not near as humid.  This weekend, and into next week, are supposed to be much better than it's been.  So now I have no excuse.  I'll be spending some time this weekend deep cleaning the dirt and grime off these chairs, lightly sanding and priming in prep for the paint.  

Hopefully within a couple weeks I'll have fresh, newly painted chairs.  

Then I'll be tackling the table . . . hopefully . . .

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A SURPRISE AND SOME AUTUMN TOUCHES

What a be-u-ta-full day today!!!

Today is just about as perfect a day as we've had 'round these parts in a long time. Comfortable temps, just a hint of a breeze, low humidity.

Gorgeous!

I hope you all are having a beautiful, restful Sunday afternoon as well.

I'm recovering today from a busy half-week. Yesterday, we hosted a surprise 70th birthday party for my Father-in-law. It was another beautiful day to celebrate his milestone birthday with some of his close friends and family. Some of the family members that attended, we haven't seen for many years. It was almost like a mini family reunion!

I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. It's always a treat to celebrate with family along with good food and drink and reminiscing stories.

As usual . . . I didn't take as many pics as I should. I did get some snaps of the guests, but I wished of would taken more pics of the set-up before the guests arrived.

The guest of honor, my Father-in-law (on the left in the baseball cap) surrounded by dear and close family.

Some of the guests.

There's my handsome Hubby on the left in the Hawaiian shirt and shades.

Look Ing Gooood!

My Father-in-law and his sister.

My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law and their close friends.

My Mother-in-law (purple shirt) and more of their close friends.

When entertaining, where I have the most fun is setting up the decorations and creating fun tablescapes.

I topped the tables outside in a fall-ish style. Using fall-inspired quilt tops, or "wips" ~ "works in progress" ~ to add some color and dress the tables.

I also created these cute centerpieces for the tables.

Cut the top from a pumpkin to allow a mum to fit inside. I found tiny mums at Lowes for $1.25 and medium sized pumpkins at our local Amish Farmer's Market for $3.00 a piece. A simple bow added to the mum and a Dollar Tree scare crow finish off the centerpiece. Easy peasy, quick and cheap!!!

To keep your cut pumpkins fresher longer, rub with inside and cut areas with bleach. Or, better yet, just spray with a bleach cleaner like Clorox Cleanup. The bleach will slow down mold growth. Then, after about 30 minutes, rub the cut areas with Vaseline or cooking oil to keep the pumpkin from shriveling. This treatment will keep your cut pumpkins fresh for about a week.

I wanted to share with you how darling this little dining set looked outside under the cherry tree.

A friend donated this set to Son No. 2's new apartment, but it hasn't made it there yet ;o)

I love how the print of the table cloth coordinates with the pale yellow paint.

I may just leave it out there for a few more days, just so I can admire it from the house {provided there's no rain in the forecast!}.

We had sooo much good food yesterday at the party. I'm afraid I seriously over cooked. There was enough food for a football team!

Meatballs, roast beef with au jus, pulled pork bbq, fresh turkey subs, hot wings, baked macaroni and cheese, and cole slaw. Dips, chips, veggies and fruit.

I won't have to cook dinner for a week!

I did all the hot food since we were hosting, and I have two 18 quart roaster ovens for preparing and serving for large crowds. Those things have paid for themselves so many times. Definitely worth the investment.

Anyway, I was especially very pleased, and proud, at how well the pulled pork bbq turned out. It was sooo yummy. Fifteen pounds of pork shoulder slow roasting for 14 hours had my house smelling divine.

Whenever we have pulled pork bbq, we have to eat it the way I learned on a trip to North Carolina many years ago ~ topped with cole slaw.

Delicious!

In getting ready for the party last week, I managed to put out just a few autumn touches around the house. I held back a little on the Halloween. Seems I always jump right into Halloween, and almost forget about showcasing just fall accents. Maybe I'll try to hold off on Halloween until October 1st.

It's gonna be tough! ;o)

Halloween decorating is one of my favorites . . . a very close second to Christmas.

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