Danielle: My First Chair Makeover

So you may have noticed that I haven't blogged in about...3 months? Well, I have been up to lots and lots including: completing graduate school, moving from California to Washington, traveling for a month in Europe, celebrating the 4th of July in Chelan, visiting Maui, beginning my first job and preparing to move again. WHEW. So that's what I've been up to, how about you?

Yesterday I was out thrifting in preparation for my move to Seattle, and I came across this chair. (Four of them, actually.)

The color combo is super nasty and the cushion is a faded, dirty velvet blue...not cute. But look at the shape of it! I was in love. Originally $19.99 per chair, they were marked half off so I scored the set of 4 chairs for $43!

First, I removed those super gross cushions.

Set those aside for the time being.

I used fine grit sandpaper ($3) to sand down the chairs so my paint would stick. I wiped it down with tack cloth ($3) to pick up all the dust.

Then I spray painted the chairs using a high gloss white. It took quite a few layers to cover up all that brown. (5 cans at $3.50 each) Quite the improvement, right?

 Next, I went about the reupholstering of the cushions. I fell in love with this amazing ikat print, but it was sort of spendy. My fabric was supposed to cost $37, but I signed up for a store membership and that knocked the price down to $24! I have never reupholstered anything in my life, so it was a total experiment. I think it went well, however, my hands are KILLING ME from using a handheld staplegun. Ay.

Reattached the cushions.

And VOILA! The final product.
My grand total was roughly $90 for everything, making each chair about $22.50. HOW COOL IS THAT?

Can't wait to bring these to my new home!

Melanie: Getting Ready for the Show

I have been a very busy bee getting ready for the Funky Junk Sisters show on May 13 & 14 in Puyallup. 

These are just a few of the items that I will be offering for sale at the show.  The vintage typewriter and its original case and this handmade concrete cross with Madonna and child.

This little Boston Terrier figurine looks so real!  I also can't help myself when I find an old scale.  I think they look so good for display.

I filled this little shelf with old bottles and a snuff box.

Can you believe how worn this old wooden bowling pin is?  It has just the right amount of paint missing for my tastes. 

Can you imagine a time when people actually had to record their time in a book such as this?  I have really been having a good time preparing for this show.  Two more weeks to go!

Danielle: Grand Canyon and Sedona

Last week I took a little hiatus from studying for my final to meet up with my friends Monica and Landon in Arizona. If you have never been to the Grand Canyon before, I HIGHLY recommend it! I don't think I had any real expectations for what it would be like, but it was phenomenal. Truly breathtaking. 

Did you know the canyon is 1,840 MILLION YEARS OLD. Crazy!

Showing off my sweet dance moves.

This shot was taken at sunset. We attended a concert at dusk, and the woman in the corner of this shot was playing an ancient Japanese flute. Soooooooo coooool.

Monica was our resident chef for the weekend. Check out that camp-chic look!

During our travels we stumbled across "Bedrock". It was this absolutely ridiculous park filled with Flintstones paraphernalia that must have been built 30 years ago. We had a blast.

I didn't get to capture many photos of Sedona because I was driving which is a huge bummer. The red rock there is gorgeous and I would love to spend some more time there.

This was our campsite before we got set up. We slept on sand which was super nice and soft!

Back on the road to California...

Since I drove through Palm Springs, I tried to capture the famous windmills. Again, I was driving, so it is kind of a fuzzy shot! Hope you enjoyed the photos. Stay tuned for upcoming posts about a few things I picked up along the way, some things since then, and then a little "dumpster diving". (yay!)

Danielle: Arizona Sunshine

 I am going a mini "vacation" (camping) for two nights in Arizona. It will be my first time in the state and I'm hoping to see lots of desert, wacky pit stops (which I have been advised to avoid) and maybe a sight or two like this one.

 

Check back soon for the photos!

Danielle: Large Decorative Hand Painted Asian Fan

 Here is one of my recent thrifting finds. I believe it is a hand painted fan that is meant to be hung on the wall. It doesn't have any markings on it, so I really don't know much about it. No place to hang it yet, so I've got it propped up on the couch (so classy) for this photo shoot.

 

I really need to learn how to use my camera. I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT and am still a real amateur with doing anything fancy with it. Any experts out there? I mean, I can point and click, but this fan is soooooo cool in person and hopefully SOMEDAY I will be talented enough to showcase all these great details with my sweet photograpy skills.