Musical Quilts

Lately I've been playing musical quilts with the beds in our house. We started out with this blue and brown comforter on our bed, but I sold it at our yard sale this summer so I could change up the color scheme in our room.

Then I built our new bed and bought a quilt with embroidered flowers. I really liked the quilt, but it just didn't go with the light blue gray walls.

 So I bought a darker quilt, and it works much better with the walls.

Once I got the master bedroom settled, it was time to work on the other beds. Our old log bed frame got moved to the basement guest room, and it needed bedding. Since the quilt with embroidered flowers didn't work in our room, I tried it in the basement guest room.  Apparently I really like this color, since the quilt and wall colors are almost exactly the same. It's a nice color, but it was a bit much, especially in a room that gets very little natural light.

So I brought the striped quilt down from the former guest room (now River's room) and tried it on the log bed. It looks much better. The turquoise stripes go well with the walls, and all the other colors brighten things up.

So now we're back upstairs in River's room. It used to look like this before River moved in.

Since the striped quilt looked better downstairs, I brought the flower-embroidered quilt back upstairs and tried it in River's room. It's not quite the same color as the painted walls above it, but because they're not right next to each other, it still works.

Sunshine may end up in this room when the baby is born- it depends on everyone's sleep habits at that point. She'd prefer a pink room and bedding, but I think the flowers on the quilt will win her over. That and getting to sleep in a big bed- this one's a full size, she currently sleeps in a twin.

Am I the only who switches quilts from bed to bed to bed?

Running is Fun, Part 2

This is a follow-up to yesterday's running recap.

I went for another run outside on Saturday. I wasn't sure how it would go since I spent Thursday and Friday feeling like crap, dealing with the fallout from eating something Wednesday night that really didn't agree with me. Not gluten, but the reaction was almost as bad. I think it was some rice flour- I've been reacting worse and worse every time I eat it, but it hasn't been this bad before. And whole rice doesn't seem to be as problematic as rice flour. A day and a half of stomach and intestinal issues was definitely not fun, and meant that I ate and drank very little. So I was tired (I'm perpetually tired, but felt even more so), dehydrated, and under-fueled going into this run, but I thought it went very well despite that.

Like last Saturday, I ran 4.1 miles, but this time I managed to run the first 3.1 miles without stopping. Yay me! After finishing the first 3.1 miles, I walked for .2 miles then tried to run again, but realized I had no energy left, so I ended up walking all of the last mile. Not what I had intended, but all that I could manage given everything going on with my body.

I was able to run 3.1 miles in 35:05, which is about the time that I finished several of my faster races this year. Interestingly, I didn't feel like what I was running too fast or too hard. Though in all reality, I was running faster in those races since I stopped and walked multiple times during the races and still managed to finish in the same time that I ran on Saturday.

I did have to talk myself into continuing running a couple times because I was tired, but overall the run felt good and I'm cautiously optimistic about the New Year's Day 5k on Thursday.

Running is Fun, Part 1

I wrote a post I was going to post today, but needed to link it to this one. When I went looking for this post, I couldn't find it. Apparently I never actually hit publish, despite the fact that I thought I had. So this is a week late, and I'll have another running post tomorrow.

Saturday morning we didn't have anything planned, so I braved the chilly temps and went for a run outside. I've been taking the easy way out and hitting the treadmill most days, but I wanted a good, long run, which I knew wouldn't happen on the treadmill.

I'm lucky if I can manage two 10 minute stints of running in a 45 minute workout when I'm on the treadmill. I'm not sure why, but it just feels so much harder physically, and it's a lot easier to lose motivation when you're not actually going anywhere. We don't have the best treadmill, so that could be part of the issue, but maybe it's just all in my head :)

I've been sticking to 5k races and workouts since the half marathon in September, but I have an 8 mile race at the end of February (replacing the mud run I've done the last couple years because pregnant bellies and obstacle courses do not get along very well) and a half marathon the first weekend in April, so I need to start increasing my mileage. I generally go into longer races undertrained, but I need to be a bit more careful with my upcoming races since I'll be about 25 weeks along for the half marathon. Yes, I was pregnant when I last ran the Disney half, but I was only 3 weeks pregnant. It's vastly different to be approaching the end of the second trimester versus being barely pregnant.

Saturday I decided to aim for a 4 mile run and see what happened. I wasn't going for speed, just distance and endurance. Interestingly enough, my endurance has improved. Despite my struggles to run on the treadmill, once I was outside, it almost felt effortless. I was a little short of breath in the first half mile or so (I remember this happening when I was in the first trimester with River, so it wasn't unexpected), but once I warmed up it wasn't a problem. I ran 1.5 miles, walked for .1 mile, then ran the next 1.5 miles. I haven't run a 5k with only one walk break in a really, really long time. My legs and lungs actually felt pretty good, I only had to stop and walk because I felt like I needed to throw up (pregnancy hormones strike again). After running the second 1.5 miles, I walked another .1 mile, then ran .55 miles, walked .1 mile, and ran .3 miles, finishing with 4.15 miles total.

Mile 3.25-3.75 had two fairly significant hills, which is why I added in another walk break so close to the finish. The course I ran had several long hills, but they were fairly gentle and didn't feel strenuous, except those last two hills. I ended up staying out of the neighborhoods and running the main roads and it actually wasn't too bad. I've avoided the main roads in the past because they're narrow and cars tend to speed a bit and aren't always considerate towards runners and bikers. Our roads are so narrow that they don't have painted right-side lines and the shoulders are usually fairly non-existent as well. So I did have to stay vigilant so I could hop off the pavement into the grass/barrow pit when cars were coming from both directions at the same time. Most of the time if just one car was coming toward me they swung wide and I could stay on the pavement, which was nice.

I wasn't looking at my times while I was out running, but once I got home I saw that I had run 4.15 miles in 48:45, which is an 11:45 pace. That's only a little slower than what I've been running during races, and I kept it up for 4 miles instead of just the usual 3. So Saturday's run was definitely encouraging.

Random Pregnancy Thoughts

I've experienced nausea and aversion to food smells with all three kiddos (but  not with the miscarriages, interestingly enough). They were very bad with River, but I don't remember them being as bad with Sunshine. This time around they haven't been as bad as with River either, which has me wondering if this one is a girl. I'm not holding my breath on that though, because I was convinced that Sunshine was going to be a boy and I thought River was going to be a girl, so my track record on this isn't very good. Based strictly on levels of nausea, though, this one seems to be more like what I experienced with Sunshine than with River.

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I ate a lot of chocolate while pregnant with River- it was about all I could stomach during the first trimester. Mini Snickers and mini Butterfingers were in constant rotation. This time chocolate tastes disgusting. Seriously. It's very weird since I've always liked chocolate and I'm picky about the kinds I eat. But even the ones I've enjoyed in the past taste like nasty, cheap chocolate. On the other hand, sugary candy like Starbursts and Dots actually taste ok. This is another reason I'm leaning toward this baby being a girl.

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Having Mr M around for the first trimester has been WONDERFUL. It was rough having him gone a good portion of the time when I was pregnant with River, but it would have been worse this time around. Sunshine can fend for herself pretty well, but River can't, and I don't know that he'd appreciate all of his sister's efforts to feed him :) I'm very blessed to have married a man who knows how to cook and doesn't mind taking up the slack when just thinking about food makes me nauseous.

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pregnancy bladder + pre-race nervous bladder = having to pee the whole race even though I went twice just before the start.

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My usual pregnancy tip-offs of drastically increased hair loss and chest tenderness were a bit masked this time around. I switched up my hair routine not long before getting pregnant and while my hair likes it, it does encourage tangles that only get smoothed out in the shower, which also releases the hairs that would normally have fallen to the ground throughout the day. So every time I wash my hair,  there's lots of hair to clean out of the drain. I was chalking it up to the changed routine, but at least part of it is pregnancy-related.

River is still nursing first thing in the morning and this has gone a long way to minimizing the chest tenderness I usually get (so nice!). I've only experienced minimal tenderness.

I was late, but I was chalking it up to stress (there's a lot of stress in our lives right now). Then I thought "I better make sure...." :)

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A late night trip to the bathroom last night reminded me of a theory I came up with while pregnant with River.

Having to get up in the middle of the night to pee prepares us to get up in the middle of the night to feed the baby.

I think it's kind of rude, though, since we really need to be getting as much rest as possible in the weeks and months leading up to when the baby is born.

Sunday Funny

A couple days ago my phone told me it couldn't complete a backup because there wasn't enough space. I looked through my apps and files and finally decided the culprit must be my photo stream. I synced it to my computer, then deleted all the items in my photo stream from my phone. Success! Plenty of space to complete a backup.

The next step was to look through the newest photos from my phone. The first thing I noticed was that most of them weren't photos, but videos. And one of those photos was 30 minutes long. I didn't remember making a 30 minute video, so I clicked on it to see what it was. 30 seconds in, I called Mr M over and we just busted up laughing.

River likes my phone, but he likes it when the screen is colored, or can change if he touches it. If I hand it to him and the screen is dark, he'll hand it right back and complain. I've learned the hard way not to unlock the phone for him (he deleted half my email inbox one time), and pressing the circular button at the bottom doesn't keep the screen active for long. So I've started turning the camera on for him, which is how I ended up with a 30 minute video on my phone.

The first few minutes made me a bit seasick as he walked around the house (the drunken sailor stagger makes for a very shaky video), punctuating his explorations with the random squawks and grunts that are how he currently communicates. We got some sideways shots of his crib and some close-ups of the carpet in his room when he dropped the camera on the rug and then scrabbled around to pick it up again.

Eventually River closed himself in our closet and when I retrieved him the phone got left on the floor. The video was still running (which I didn't realize) so the picture went dark but we could still hear what was happening in our room. Eventually I went searching for my phone and I turned off the video when I found it.

I found several other videos, but they are all much shorter and not quite as amusing. I'm sure there will be more videos :) I wonder if we have a budding movie maker on our hands?

Did you know you can print envelopes with your Silhouette?

I found a post here that described how to do it and I realized I could use the tutorial to spiff up our Christmas card envelopes. I wouldn't say it's quicker than handwriting all the addresses, but it does look nicer :)

I used my sketch pens- silver sparkly for the snowflakes, black sparkly for the names and addresses. Then those ran out and I used blue for the snowflakes and black for the writing. I think I went through 4 or 5 pens all together, so not super-cheap in that respect. I had a package of sketch pens that I received for Christmas last year, so I had fun playing around with them.

The only problem I had was remembering to switch the pens in between the letters and the snowflakes. A couple people may be getting an all-silver printed envelope...

I really like how they turned out- especially the snowflakes on the envelopes. If I do this again next year, I'll leave more time for this project. It took longer than I had planned and I ended up rushing to make it to the post office before it closed today. Oops. They should still arrive before Christmas, though, so it's a win in my book :)

Pregnancy and My 40 by 40 Goal

Monday I mentioned that being pregnant will give me a slow start to my goal, but I think I can still do it. I didn't say anything more then because I already had this post in the works.

So how does being pregnant affect my 40 by 40 goal?

The baby is due less than a month after I turn 38, which is the official start of my 40 by 40 challenge.

Well, I'm still sticking to it, it just got trickier and I may have to back off on some of the longer races I wanted to do (a full marathon and the 8 hour race). I've managed to complete 16 races in the 14 1/2 months since River was born, so I just need to add a few races to my schedule to still be able to reach my goal. I will probably end up having to do more races in the second year than the first year though.

I will also be willing to walk a couple races to keep on track. For example, I will hopefully be able to walk the Fourth of July 5k two weeks before my due date. I was planning on walking the women's four miler at the end of August, but it turns out it's actually in September this year (it's always the Saturday before Labor Day). I did find a fun run put on by a group that trains women for the four mile race that's being held the week before, in August, so I'll probably do that one instead. It's about six weeks after my due date, but my kiddos tend to come late, so I'll probably be 4 or 5 weeks postpartum.

The key to achieving this goal will be staying flexible, I think. Giving myself permission to walk and really listening to my body will make it possible for me to keep on track and not injure myself.

Staying active while pregnant with River made such a difference in how the pregnancy went and I'm praying I can stay active and keep running as long as possible with this kiddo as well. It's hard work, but totally worth it for an easier pregnancy and delivery. And I still think that exercise helps with morning sickness.

In the meantime, I've really got to get my food issues resolved so I can fuel myself and the baby and River (who still nurses once a day) and get everything done that I need to. No wonder I'm tired all the time :)

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Slides

A couple years ago I made pinewood derby slides for my Cub Scout den, but I used a jigsaw to cut car shapes out of a thin piece of wood. It worked, but was time consuming and not practical for a large group of boys.

For pack meeting this month I opted to use a piece of door molding I had sitting around. I found the idea in several places online, so it's not my original idea- I'm not that good, unfortunately :) Door molding is flat on the back and narrower than crown molding, though if you had the right shape of crown, it could work also.

I cut the door molding into 20 pieces (I wanted enough for the boys and their siblings), then cut slices out of two different size dowels that I had. One site I looked at suggested using two sizes of thumbtacks for the wheels, but I couldn't find two sizes, so I opted for the wood dowels. I think they look more authentic. I used our mitre saw to make all the cuts, and they went very quickly.

After all the pieces were cut, I lightly sanded any rough spots and then broke out the spray paint. I primed the sides of the "cars" before coating with other colors. I had navy blue, white, orange, and pink spray paint, so I used those for the car bodies, and black paint for the tires. I forgot to take a picture of all the colors of the cars, but the kids liked the variety.

molding and dowels cut and waiting to be painted

One thing to be aware of: temperatures in December aren't always the most optimal for using spray paint. The day I sprayed the cars was a bit chilly, so the paint came out a bit tacky. Two days later (when it was warmer) some spots still hadn't quite dried, so I re-sprayed all the pieces and they dried properly this time.

When it came to prepping the cars for pack meeting, I painted the bodies and tires beforehand, and glued the front tires on. I was worried about the kids burning themselves (even with low-temp glue guns), so I figured it would be easier to do the smaller tires myself.

At pack meeting, we helped them glue on the back tires, driver, and conduit. They used washi tape and some pinewood derby stickers to decorate their cars. I had a hard time finding pinewood derby stickers that were small enough for these cars, since the stickers are really made for regular pinewood derby cars. I was able to find one package of small stickers, so we used those.

And here's my pictogram of materials: piece of molding, dowel wheels, pony bead, washi tape, and conduit. The only thing I purchased for these slides was the stickers- everything else I had on hand. That conduit is from the same piece I bought more than two years ago!

December 5k Recap

Saturday I ran my December race, which was a small 5k to raise money for groups that support the troops. I always enjoy participating in races that are for a good cause.

It was 31 degrees when I arrived at the race location, 35 minutes before the start. I'm not sure what the temp was when we started, but I do know it had warmed up some. The bright sun helped things seem warmer. When I left an hour after the race started, it was 48 degrees.

I've been cold a lot lately (I blame screwed up pregnancy hormones), so I had one too many layers on. I could have removed my outer layer, but my number was pinned to it and I didn't want to mess with it. Note to self: err on the side of being a little chilly at the beginning rather than "just right". "Just right" won't be "just right" for long, as I saw Saturday. I didn't overheat too badly, but I was a bit too warm for comfort.

I really like the course for this race. About two thirds of it is on paved roads and bike paths, but the other third is on gravel paths, which is a nice change from most 5ks that are strictly on the road. The gravel paths were a bit uneven in places, but nothing like the trail 5k and trail 15k I did earlier this year.

I was tired all week, so I was worried about how this race would go. I think my fueling has been ok this past week, it was more an issue of dealing with all the physical changes that occur when pregnant. I remember being pretty tired at this stage last time too. Getting to bed earlier would definitely be beneficial at this point.

Despite how this week's workouts went (not well because of how tired I was feeling), I felt good during the race. I did have to stop and walk a few times, and my pace did slow down as the race progressed, but I never felt exhausted and my legs didn't feel like lead, like they were earlier in the week. I did take a nap when I got home though :)

My Garmin said the course was about .1 mile off (3 miles instead of 3.1), but maybe I'm just getting better at running the tangents? :)  I was able to finish in 33:25, which makes it my PR for the year. Yay me! And I did it while pregnant! Double yay!

My next race will be the New Year's Day 5k that I PR'd at two years ago, which I WILL do this year so I don't screw up my "at least one race a month" goal again. I skipped the race at the beginning of this year because I was a little under the weather and I thought there'd be another race I could do that month. For whatever reason, there's only one local race in January. We'd have to travel 2-3 hours to find another one, and I don't like traveling that much for shorter races. I don't understand why there's not more races in January in our area. It's not like we live in the north with lots of snow and ice.

This year I ran 14 races; at least one every month except January. In July, August, and October I did two races. Last year I only ran 7 races, so I doubled that and it felt very manageable and not overwhelming. In June I start my 40 by 40 goal which will require an average of 20 races a year for two years. Being pregnant means I'll start out slow, but I think I'll still be able to do it.

I feel good about my running this year. How about you?

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December 5k:                          33:25          PR!  pregnant
Turkey Trot 5k:                     34:22          pregnant
Halloween 5k:                        35:26          ran in costume, barely pregnant
October 5k Trail:                  38:05          second trail run

September half:                  2:51:01         first half marathon since getting pregnant

August 8.5 miles:                2:06:58         first trail run
August 2 mile:                     ~40 min?      Mud Run with Sunshine
2nd July 5k:                           35:27
4th of July 5k:                        34:15
June 5k:                                  38:11          Ran with jogger
May 5k:                                  39:23          Ran with jogger
April 5k:                                 37:40          Color Run
March 5k:                               37:33  
February 4.5 miles:            1:49:55          Mud Run
January:                              ---

Sunday Funny

if River is around, this towel won't be here for long

For some reason, River can't leave hanging towels alone.

He'll go into the half bath next to the kitchen and the first thing he does is yank the hand towel off the ring.

Every time he goes into the kitchen, he makes a beeline for the stove and yanks the hand towel off the oven door.

If you see him doing it and call out his name, he just turns his head and smiles at you while he finishes pulling the towel off. Such a stinker! Good thing he's cute :)

Great News!

A few weeks ago we received some unexpected, but very welcome and exciting, news.

yes, I totally take pictures of my positive pregnancy tests- I have them for Sunshine and River too

It took 4 years to get pregnant with Sunshine and another almost 7 years to get pregnant with River, so we weren't sure if we'd be able to get pregnant again. The fact that it happened so soon is good, since it means River and the baby will be pretty close in age (about 22.5 months apart if the baby's on time), something we wanted for Sunshine, though it obviously never happened.

Interestingly, when I went to the doctor to get a referral to the ob/gyn (our insurance is archaic that way), I was asked if we had planned the pregnancy. I don't remember being asked that before. In any case, no, this wasn't planned. But neither were Sunshine or River :) In fact, the two times we tried to "plan" things, I miscarried. So we don't plan our pregnancies. Though I do remember thinking this past summer that if I got pregnant in the next few months River could have a sibling close to his age and I could still accomplish my 40 by 40 goal. I'm writing a post about my 40 by 40 goal and how it'll be impacted by this pregnancy, so more on that in a few days.

This summer was supposed to be a family reunion/road trip summer, but that won't be happening. I'm due the middle of July- right when we're usually traveling. We did the road trip thing when I was at the beginning of my third trimester when I was pregnant with River, but there's no way I'm driving cross-country while days away from my due date. And I'm pretty sure the airlines wouldn't let me on (which makes me wonder how far along that lady was who gave birth on a Southwest Airlines flight this week and how she managed to get on the plane). We haven't decided yet if we'll try for a spring or fall trip instead since we need to wait and see what's going on with Mr M's job at that point.

Grandparent Camp

This is from forever ago- I wrote the post, but never got around to editing the pictures after I got most of them from my sister. I finally got the pictures done, so here's the post, 6 months late.

cousin sleepover- love how they're all snuggled together!

While we were in Colorado for Sunshine's baptism, Sunshine and my sister's kids had a day of activities with Oma and Opa (my parents). Call it grandparent camp, craft day, or whatever, Mom and Dad came up with some fun things for the kids to do with them.

My dad is a pack rat and likes to hang on to things "just in case". Case in point: he has a 12" disk drive and a disk that will fit it. We always give my dad a hard time about it, so when we were visiting, he dug out the disk to show the grandkids.

A, N, and Sunshine with the mythical 12" disk

The girls tried to catch a chicken, but I don't think they were successful. They had fun trying though.

discussing strategy while peering in the chicken coop 

working together to try to corner a chicken

Sunshine trying to bribe a chicken with a handful of chicken feed

Opa had the boys (Mr M and my brother-in-law R included) clean up old hammer heads and then clean up some old hammer handles. They matched up handles and heads and then attached them to make useable hammers. They even engraved their names on the hammer heads :)

Mr M watching, S looking at something else, B cutting his handle to fit the head, Opa looking at something else

Mr M checking the fit of his handle and hammer head

After they finished their hammers, they sorted through old lead pieces and melted some down to make bullets.

While the boys (who are older than the girls, so this division of activities was age-based, rather than sex-based) were doing those activities, the girls were making things with Oma.

They made bracelets out of fish hooks and beads (remember making those as a kid?).

the finished products

Then they rolled beeswax candles and made Father's Day cards for their daddies.

My sister brought a reverse tie-dye activity that they tried to do quick before we left. It didn't turn out quite like she expected,  so no finished pictures of those. The bleach ate holes in the shirts before the color was bleached out.

My sister and her family were able to stay longer than we could, so her girls also got to dip paraffin candles and my sister added some flowers to make them pretty. I still need to do this with Sunshine.

In the evening, after all these activities, we took the kids shooting. The little girls each got 3 shots on Opa's .22 (and Sunshine got to take a couple shots on Grandma's .22 that Papa had brought). I shot Grandma's .22 and our handgun and then my sister shot the .22. We knew the girls wouldn't be able to sit through everyone shooting, so we went before the boys and then my sister and I took them back to our parent's house. After we left, the boys got to shoot various guns. The boys got to shoot the bullets they made, which they thought was pretty cool.

S showing the bullets he made to the girls

Opa giving the safety briefing and explaining all the rules

Sunshine has seen pink .22s at Cabela's and wallyworld (and wants one), but this was her first time actually shooting. She, N, and A (also their first time) did really well. They listened to instructions, didn't mess around, and enjoyed it all. They didn't hit anything, but that wasn't the point of the exercise :)

helping Sunshine line everything up and hold the rifle properly

Sunshine shooting

showing off her brass

the girls all showing their brass

I think I was in college the first time I shot a .22, so these kiddos have quite a headstart on me. I think teaching them to be respectful, safe, and confident around guns is a good thing. They're much less likely to do something stupid. And if they decide they want to go hunting when they're a little older, they'll feel a lot more confident than I did when I went a few years ago.

The kiddos had a fun day making memories with their grandparents and each other and hopefully we'll be able to do it again one of these days. Living so far apart does make it a little difficult to plan these types of activities.

Sunday Funny

Sunshine's fiddle teacher has a large dog that has a large bed. 

River decided it was just right to sit on and read a book.

River sometimes lowers his voice when he talks to Mr M. Instead of using his usual voice, he says "dada" in a low, gravelly voice. We're not sure if it's because daddy has a lower voice than mommy and he's acknowledging that, or what. Whatever the case, it's hilarious to hear.

That usually happens in the morning when I bring River into our room to feed him and he sees daddy, but he sometimes does it on other occasions as well.

The other day Mr M gave him a piece of cheese, and in his normal voice he said "ooh!" and in his lower growly voice he said "nom nom!"

Unfortunately we haven't been able to film River talking in a lower voice. This is definitely one of those times when it would be nice to have cameras throughout the house to catch the funny things he says and does.

Family Pictures

Back in October Mr M's brother came for a visit and while he was here, we did some family pictures. I'm still figuring out how to take good pictures with our camera and when the best lighting is, but I decided to give doing our photos a go.

We did them first thing in the morning, but since we stayed at home, the sunshine had to filter through the trees. As a result, we actually started a little earlier than we should have, but we couldn't wait for the light to improve because River (and Sunshine) didn't have the patience for it.

I set the pictures up and tried to get the focus right, then handed the camera off to my BIL, who tried to stand exactly where I had been standing. For the most part it worked out, though obviously it would have been better if I'd been able to do it all and I actually knew what I was doing.

They're not perfect, but my technique is improving. I've discovered that picking good poses and making sure the background looks nice is also part of taking good photos, and not always easy.

I like this one, even if River isn't looking at the camera. I didn't get the lighting quite right (my head is in shadow), but it turned out pretty good.

This is the classic "everybody standing in a line" pose, but our height differences make it look a little weird. And since I don't weigh what I would like to, I'm a bit self conscious of how I look here. I upped the contrast a little too much when I was editing this photo, but since I'm not printing it, I'll leave it as-is.

I got this pic of River and Mr M when I was messing with my camera settings and I thought it was a cute one.

I like the background of the first two pics a lot better than the ones with the bench- there's a lot less vibrant foliage in the back yard compared to the driveway. This picture turned out good, but the background was a bit blah.

We went back to the driveway to get a couple more photos. I thought this one was funny, with both kids looking off to the side.

This one turned out better (just ignore the fact that they're sitting on the driveway!). It wasn't till I was editing the pics that I realized that having them sit on the driveway isn't the most picturesque pose. Next time we'll have to bring the bench up to the driveway to sit on and just forget the back yard.

This turned out a little blurry, but it's a really good picture of Mr M. Isn't he a handsome guy?

This one also wasn't quite in focus, but I thought it was a pretty good picture of me.

Overall, I think the pictures turned out pretty decent and I know some things to not ignore next time, so it was a good learning experience.

Revamped Bench Revamp

This bench has been revamped, then revamped a bit more, and revamped again. Each time it's served a purpose and gotten closer to it's destiny, and I think it's finally arrived!

This bench was actually a coffee table I bought on craigslist for $10. I added length to the legs and gave it a nice coat of paint to cover the ugly brown paint and the white paint smears I made while using it to hold other projects. When I finished, I put it in our master bedroom (you can read the details here.) Somewhere along the way I painted it a lighter blue-gray and finally added the brown cushion, but I was never truly happy with how the cushion looked. When I rescued the sideboard and put it in our room, the bench was moved to Sunshine's room (you can see it under the window in the first picture in this post). Recently I've been rearranging furniture all over the house and the bench has moved once again.

Our LEGO table used to be in the living room, but we moved it to the basement where the other toys are awhile ago, which left us without a coffee table in the living room. I saw the Marcelle Tufted Ottoman and the Clare Tufted Bench at World Market, and while I liked them, the prices were out of our budget- $400 and $250.

Marcelle Tufted Ottoman via

Clare Tufted Bench via

I realized our bench could be altered a bit to become a tufted ottoman/bench. The style of the bench is not the same as the ones at World Market, but they did inspire me as I moved forward with this project.

The first thing I did was to cut some length off the legs. The irony is that I had added height during the original revamp. Ah well. It worked then, but didn't work now. I actually cut off some of the original legs, in addition to the feet that I added.

That made the height just right, and I could move to the next step, which was removing the cushion and repainting the bench. The light blue was too close to the rug color and I wanted something a little different. We have other pieces in the room that are white, so I just stuck with that. Hard to beat a piece of furniture in classic white. I very lightly distressed the corners and edges that were most likely to see wear and tear anyway. When I was happy with how it looked, I gave it all a coat of wax to seal it.

Once the wood portion of the bench was taken care of, it was time to move on to the cushion. I never really liked how the cushion looked without buttons (I tried to tuft it the first go round, but it didn't work), so I decided this time I would find a way to tuft it.

I removed the cushion and the piece of 1/4" plywood that was sandwiched between the cushion and the bench. When I added the cushion originally, I wrapped the fabric around the cushion and the plywood, then used screws on the underside of the bench that screwed up into the plywood. Since I     wanted to do real tufting, the plywood was no longer necessary.

After some googling, the consensus seems to be that you use an apple corer to make good size holes in the foam. This gives you a nice channel for threading and sinking the buttons into. Of course, my apple corer is not sharp enough to cut through foam (I used it on pumpkins a few years ago and it's never been quite the same since). Another suggestion I saw was to use a drill bit in reverse and to start it before you touch the foam. That didn't work either though. Finally I decided to try my Dremel. After looking through my bits, I decided to try one meant for drilling/shaving wood (it's a fluted metal barrel). It was narrower than what I wanted, but it worked great. After all the frustration of trying to figure out how to make the holes, it took all of two minutes to make 27 holes.

I was going to use some velvety gray upholstery fabric I have (it's supposed to be for the chair in the guest room) but decided I wanted a pop of color like the World Market pieces. There's a lot of gray in the house already and now it's time to start bringing in some color. I found some teal/blue/gray microfiber  fabric that I liked at JoAnn's, and while I wanted a velvety fabric, the price of the microfiber was right since I happened to catch the 60% off Veteran's Day Sale. So instead of $20/yard, it was $8/yard. I purchased 2 2/3 yards and since the last 2/3 was the end of the roll, I got an additional 50% off of it, which made it $2.67.  I paid $18.64 (before tax) for 2 2/3 yards that would have been $53.31 (before tax) at full price. Less than the price of one yard for 2 2/3 yards. Even with our current super-tight budget, I couldn't pass up that kind of deal.

I had some cover buttons that I thought would work, but they were too large and not as heavy-duty as what I needed. And I didn't have enough. Since I had to go to the store anyway, I checked out the selection and found some half ball cover buttons that looked more heavy-duty than the ones I already had. The only problem with the half ball cover buttons is that the teeth you're supposed to hook the fabric into aren't long enough for the microfiber fabric I was using. So I hot glued the fabric into the underside, then glued the back of the button on top of that. Then, just to make sure it all held together, I ran some wire through the button loop in the back. A bit of a hack job, but it's held up so far.

blurry nighttime pic

I had planned on threading the buttons through with twine and a needle, but after the problems with the buttons I decided to go the other route I'd seen online: screwing a washer partially into each hole in the foam, then glueing the buttons on top of the washer and screw head.

After some trial and error I got the tufts in place and my diamonds looking pretty good. I trimmed the fabric and folded it under the cushion, on top of the wood.  Because the wood extends out past the foam I had to staple the fabric to the top instead of wrapping it around the wood and stapling it to the bottom like most pieces I've found. If foam didn't cost so much I would have purchased another piece and not trimmed it quite so narrow. But at the time that I did the bench originally I thought I wanted it that way. And in reality, I don't mind how it looks.

To cover the staples, I made some double welt with the fabric left over from the cushion. Double welt is nice because you just glue it on over the staples and it gives the whole piece a nice, finished look.

The last step was to carefully hot glue the cover buttons in place.

And an ugly bench that was then an ok bench is now a fantastic bench!

While I'm very happy with how it turned out, it's not perfect. There's definitely some things I'd do differently if I attempt tufting again. I should have tacked the foam in place- it shifted slightly as I was working and is now just a smidge off-center.  I'd also make sure the fabric is laid out straight as well. I thought I lined it up along one long edge, but when I got to the other end I realized it wasn't. Luckily I still had enough fabric on the other side to make my double welting. I'd prefer to thread my buttons, so finding a better solution to the button/cover button issue would also be something I'd do. The bench isn't great for sitting on because you land on the hard screws that stick up an inch or so. It's great for putting your feet up on or resting your laptop on, though.

Despite those issues, I love it! I love the colors and the tufting looks so much better than the untufted version.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I've been moving furniture around. The living room and library furniture got moved around the most, and now our living room looks like this. I wasn't sure if I'd like this arrangement (the love seat is a little closer to the fireplace than I'd prefer, but since it's a gas fireplace we don't have to worry about sparks and embers), but I actually really like it.

view from the hallway that leads to the kitchen

view from the front entry

I've also finally decided what to do with the fireplace, but have to wait till we have the money to buy the materials needed. Hopefully I won't have to wait too long- I really want to get the living room finished! In the meantime, I'll focus on taking down my fall decorations and putting up our Christmas decorations and enjoying our living room :)