Reuse

I am trying very hard to get out of the disposable mindset and figure out ways to reuse or repair things in our home. For example - our kitchen chairs. For some reason, when I purchased them many years ago, I thought that white upholstery was the way to go. I'm not sure what was going through my head at the time, but CLEARLY white is not at all appropriate for our family. Between dogs, cats, kids, food, drink, paint, marker, and whatever else is on there, the chairs are disgusting and need to go. I decided to try to reupholster them instead of getting new ones.

In the past, I never considered myself "crafty" enough to take on a project like this, but I'm finding that the more you do the better you get at being handy. Besides, it's not like there are craft police who are going to arrest me if it's not perfect - and anything is better than how they are now. The project isn't that involved or expensive, so if they don't come out quite right the first time we can always try, try again.

So, a friend of mine, Al, was kind enough to cut new bottoms for us since the old ones were not solid and were an invitation for cat scratching, and we started experimenting with re-covering the cushions today. It's a work in progress....I'll keep you posted.

I also found a way to re-fashion a shirt I had gotten last fall and promptly managed to ruin on my first wearing when Harry's wrap got wet and the dye bled. I decided to try tie dying it this weekend. I figured, it's ruined anyway so why not try to salvage it? Turns out I am a gifted tie dye artist! ;) Seriously, it came out pretty nicely if I do say so myself - I did a turquoise gradation dye on it which came out kind of green because the shirt was yellow. (I'll post a photo eventually, but right now my usual computer is out on the road so I can't do pictures.)