DId I Do This For Nothing?

Do you ever wonder that partway through a project? It's a regular occurrence here. 

So the pickling turned out nice.

I like it. 

And I'm almost through with the upholstery. I left some things in place, like the burlap and the webbing. There was no reason to remove them.

I cut out some patterns with the old pieces of upholstery.

And then used canvas as a base layer. This is the back.

I put some foam in the front, and then covered that with part of an old mattress pad.

And then I covered that part with canvas, too.

I found a piece of foam in my stash,and kind of sculpted it with an electric carving knife.

And then I covered that with part of another old mattress pad. I got tired of stapling, so I decided to put the legs of the chair and the hardware back together. 

That's where the tantrum happened. 

Yeah. My tantrum. 

This the the (upside down) bottom part of the chair. The legs. There are these little wood inserts that make the base look round, with the legs projecting out.

One of them looks like this. I decided to leave it. Authenticity and all that. Plus, where would I get another one?

Well, two of the legs were loose, and one of the inserts came out. There's a metal plate that goes over all this, and I can't put the plate on until all the inserts are in place.

(those are toothpicks sticking out of those holes. I need to make new holes for some screws, but they would have been too close to the old holes, so I used the toothpicks and wood glue as a filler.)

So without the insert, this is what I'd have. 

Boo. Hiss. 

And I couldn't find it anywhere. 

After two hours of frantic searching, during which I blamed the dog, blamed other people in the house and wondered why I even started on this chair, I finally found it. 

Only to find that the battery on my drill needed to be recharged. 

So not only has the upholstery part of this project gone nowhere for two hours, I'm no farther ahead on the hardware, either. And I really wanted to finish it so I could show you all this morning.

I need a cookie. Maybe I just want one. 

I hope you all have a great Labor Day Weekend! 

The Verdict, Please

Option A

 Or option B?

Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury, what say you? (I'm kind of leaning toward B myself, but I'm waffling. And~those stray threads will be removed. I promise.)

Upcycled Light

Did any of you see Gina's genius idea for upcycling outdoor lights? 

source I thought it was so cool, and such a great idea! I wondered if it would work indoors as a night light if it were hung near a window. And since this is a very inexpensive project if you already have the light fixture, I thought I should try it. 

 I chose my victim. This light fixture that I bought at an estate sale about a year ago. 

I removed the chain and the cord.

(And painted over that bare spot on the shade. It's the exact size of a price tag.) 

And I have to admit, I had pangs about 

the chain. But I saved that. Just in case. You never know when you might need 15 feet of really grungy chain.

But I do like how the rope looks, too. 

 All you do is take a $3 solar light from Walmart, remove the stem and hot glue it into the light socket. 

 Genius, I tell you!

I used that metal strap to secure the rope. (I've found that when I buy tool boxes at estate sales, there are usually lots of odds and ends still in the box. Sometimes those extras come in handy.)

   But does it work as a night light?

My answer is a somewhat qualified "yes". If the light is hung by a window that gets a lot of natural light and there are no heavy window coverings, then it will work. 

But if you hang it by a window that doesn't get a lot of light during the day, then it won't work as well. 

(I know. Call me Captain Obvious! I'd hang this in our hall bathroom, but there are no windows there at all.) 

Thanks for reading!

Guest Posts Needed

Yes, it's almost that time of year again. I start weighing trucks 

source sometime in the middle of September.

source There's no way I'll be able to post much (maybe once a week) so I'm asking for help. Do you have a project that would fit in here on Meridian Road? I'd need your post sometime in the next three weeks.  If any of you are interested, email me! 

A Note to Myself

I wrote this awhile ago, as a reminder to myself. I couldn't think of a tenth thing. Can you?

Things to remember when you read a blog.

1-where you live doesn't matter nearly as much as how you live. 

Reclaimed wide plank flooring is great; patience, humility and love are even greater. 

2-most things are not as great as the photo makes them look. Behold. There is proof. 

Thank you, Photoshop.  

3-Most recipes came from another blog or website first.

4-That goes for ideas, too. 

5-It's easy to crop out the mess in nearly every photo. Every paragraph, too. What you see and read on a blog is the tip of the iceberg. You'll never really know how much is under the surface. (also,see #2)

6-You can follow a tutorial exactly and still not get the exact same results achieved by the blogger who wrote the tutorial. 

7-That's OK. Different is not a fail.

8-You are not the only one didn't eat grilled pineapple drizzled with organic honey and balsamic vinegar with 30 of your closest friends this summer on the patio of some semi-famous person. 

Most of us just had popsicles or s'mores in the backyard with our families. And it was probably more fun, anyway!

9-Not all thrift stores are created equally, and sometimes it's easier to just go to Walmart. Or the dollar store. Or wherever. 

10-What would you say #10 is?

When Church Ladies Get Together

and make a cookbook

(looks innocent enough, right?)

You never really know what you're going to get. This is from a cookbook that the women in my grandma's congregation put together. My mom recently gave it to me.

Yes, indeed! That does say 

what you thought it said. 

Doesn't that sound tasty? 

(But only if all visible fat is removed, if I'm reading correctly between the lines there.) 

Of course I had to share.

source

Just in case any of you ever get the urge to roast "a primarily nocturnal, large, 

semi-aquatic rodent." 

And if you want, tomorrow I'll share the recipe for tanning hides~with or without the hair!

Have a good one!

I Do

I wanted to make something for my husband. A small sign he could put in his office (or not) or on his bedside table. 

I got this small sheet of craft luan at Michael's for about $3. 

I stained it.

Added some stickers.

And sprayed it with some flat white paint. Then I peeled the stickers off. A razor blade really helps with that part.

Then I found a heart graphic online, printed it out and then positioned it onto the sign. 

I traced it with a ball point pen, pressing hard. That left a slight indent on the wood so I could see where to paint the heart. 

Then I used this to fill in the heart. I got it at Michael's, too. It wasn't expensive and  I really like the chiseled tip. I also did a thin red border around the sign, just to make it look finished.

But then it still didn't look finished.  (Also, most men wouldn't take this in the spirit in which it was intended. Think about it.) So, I added some script, using the same method as I used to do the heart. But I used a fine tip red Sharpie instead of a paint pen.

And there it is! I'm excited to give it to him.

*And just to prove that I am not a card carrying member of the Illiterati, here is is being fixed.*   (yeah, that chair is still kicking my behind. I started upholstering it, and realized I'd messed up. I'm redoing part of it. Patience. [I'm telling myself that!])

More Than I Can Chew?

Maybe I did bite off too much with this one. We'll see. 

Remember this scary chair? 

It's kicking my behind. 

It's in such rough shape.

 I removed the old upholstery.

There was some sort of grass padding in there. 

Weird. But the burlap and the webbing are in pretty good shape. 

So are the springs.  This was what was on the bottom. Old carpet. (I blurred out the fabric swatch that was on the chair. I want to keep that a surprise. What I ended up choosing was even a surprise to me!)   I sanded the whole thing down to the bare wood and then

I tried bleaching the wood, but I'm not totally happy with it.  So I'm going to try a really old method of lightening wood. An ancient method.  Something that I'm pretty sure hasn't been done since 1993. 

I'm going to pickle it. 
Wish me luck!