Folding chair re-do

I've been meaning to post about this little 

project I finished a few weeks ago leading up to

Rachael's shower.....

this idea was the brainchild of me worrying about

having enough seating for people at the party.

I had these 4 hideous folding chairs that my mom 

had left at out house after Christmas....
I think my mom said they were a wedding gift
to her and my dad....
circa 1981 if that helps give you a visual....
So as you can guess there was no way I was
 going to use them for the baby shower in their current state!

I saw a post on another blog I follow
(www.betterafter.blogspot.com)
where someone had spray painted and re-done
a folding chair...so it gave me the incentive to try and
see what I could come up with for mine!

My blank-canvas...

correction: my nasty, dusty, vinyl blank canvas

Removing the seat turned out to be really easy,

I was afraid the screws were going to be rusted

and impossible to remove

After the spray painting!

I'm always surprised at how much spray paint

it takes to adequately cover things. I ended up using

2 entire cans of Rustoleum paint for my 4 chairs.

I bought some spray adhesive at hobby lobby and applied

a heavy coat to the chair seat and a light coat to

the fabric and then smoothed on the fabric.

After the glue-ing

Since I wasn't following any sort of tutorial for this,

I really wasn't sure the best way to go about securing the

excess fabric, so I used what I had available...a glue gun.

So far the fabric is holding strong and doesn't seem like

it's going anywhere.

I screwed the seats back on the frames and voila!!

Considering that they were practically ready for

the trash, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out

and I think we'll be able to get a lot of use out of them!

Yay for a completed successful project!

Rachael's Shower!!...much belated I might add...

I dont know what they heck has kept me from

posting this for so long....

I think I somewhat mentally checked-out after the

shower finally happened.

But...All in all I'd say it was a success!!!

Alicia came over at about noon the day of and

we spent about 3 hours getting everything 

set-up and ready.

Rachael came over a bit early around 2:30 to get 

first glimpses of all the preparations...and

I think she was pleased with how things turned out!

The rest of this post is going to turn into somewhat

of a picture dump....so, enjoy!!

The Wall-O-Belly Pics

Tissue poms and cute girly dresses

These pictures turned out so dark :(

But here was the food table as we started getting 

things set up and arranged.

Wish Tree!!

I made little birds that people could either

write a wish they had for Rachael & baby or

guess the birthdate/weight. 

People seemed to prefer guessing the

weight and birthdate!

Rachael is not a big fan of cake...so it only seemed

right that we have an ice cream sundae bar at her shower!!

The guest of honor in front of her food table!

I used mason jars and paper straws for beverages

Guests starting to arrive

Last fall when we went to the Plaza Art Fair Rachael &

I saw this booth of paintings that we really liked. I made a 

mental note of the Studio's name and ordered a print a few

months later. This is my replication of the print that I ordered.

It has a lot of the colors that Rachael & Matt are using in their

nursery and I hope it's something that Baby Girl can have in

her room for a long time!!

Present time!!

Rachael was excited to get lots of 

practical gifts from her nursing friends...

Yay for breast pads and nipple cream!!

She had lots of little helpers carrying away 

tissue papers and ribbons...

Ashley and Rachael

Becca & Megan.

Becca is expecting her first just a few

weeks after Rachael!

Molly and her sweet new baby Ellie

Amelia, Mia and Rach

Miss Mia is just too cool for skool...

Rach & Stacey

Baby Savannah, Cathi and Rachael

Alicia & Rach

Rach and myself

Guests crafting headbands for Baby Girl Clark

Last but not least, your hostesses...

Alicia & I!!

Phew!!

Who knew throwing a baby shower could

be so stressful?! I'm sure it has much less to do

with the actual party and a lot MORE to do with my

neurotic personality!!

Now all thats left to do is wait for Baby Clark

to make her highly anticipated appearance!!

Party Planning = no time for blogging!!

Bah! I'm getting behind on my updates....

and I hate feeling like I have things like a dumb blog post

hanging over my head!

I never even posted about my mom's 60th birthday party...

Which was great, btw, and I think she had a great time.

Shame on me, for not grabbing the horns on planning

her big party....

but I guess there's always her 75th to look forward to!

Currently though,

 I am completely consumed with getting everything 

together for Rachael's baby shower tomorrow.

I can't believe it's finally here!!

I've known I would throw her work shower from the day

she told me she was pregnant, so I've had way too much

time to plan and scheme....oh and maybe stress a lil' bit ;)

But at this point I'm feeling much less stressed and a lot

more giddy/excited/anxious for her to see

all of our hard work and preparation!

It's been really fun and rewarding to see my ideas

and plans come to fruition....

(I may or may not have cackled like a 

crazy mad scientist on several occasions)

My sweet mom came over on Thursday and helped

me clean and get things ready.

She has hosted many a party at her house and

is very familiar with the stress that can come

along with trying to have your house looking perfect.

I can totally remember as a kid, seeing her completely freak out

the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas and I never got it..

.....well mom, I get it now.

Anyways,

I've got about 10 balls in the air right now,

and much more running around like a headless 

chicken to do, so I'll just hurry and finish up this

post with a few pictures from my moms party!!

Kelly and I on the ride down to Mound City

Thank goodness the weather cooperated with

the plans to have everything outside!

My mom's oldest friend gave her 

a pair of Depends...

now thats just mean I tell ya!

Yummy Costco cake

Sibling love

This was towards the end of the party

when my mom had had a few glasses

of some beverage that was being called

'Jungle Juice'.....

This other lady was also 

quite fond of said 'juice' and shortly

after this picture went running off towards 

the pasture with plans of jumping

on a horse....yikes....

My next post will be filled with

pictures from Rachael's shower!!

....and then it's nothing but

waiting for baby to come!!

I can't wait!!

Instafriday

  

I seriously wanted to arrange these pictures in a nice

little compact square...but I'm apparently old as dirt and

can't figure out computers anymore.

Geez. I'm turning into my mother.

Ah-ha!

SUCCESS!!

I win...take that technology!

(do you like how proud I am of doing

something that millions of bloggers

figured out a long time ago??)

The first two pictures are what happened

yesterday....after I completely slept through my

dermatology appointment, which, btw...

seriously needed to happen so I was pissed...

Anyways, I rallied and made a trip to Suburban lawn and garden 

where I spent WAY too much money, 

but I got a bunch of flowers that I'm very excited about.

Perhaps you remember this post where

I explained my love/hate relationship with plants....

I say love/hate because I love the way they look,

but they hate me and often commit plant suicide

by dying at obscenely fast rates....

(P.S. all but ONE of those mums I planted died)

But anyhoo, 

They're currently looking fabulous and I've

threatened the chipmunk that lives under our front

porch with rat poison if he even thinks about munching

on my flower-babies!!!

Roy was super impressed and surprised when

he got home and saw the new and improved

abode...he didn't even bawk when I told 

him how much I'd spent!! SCORE!

Pic #3 is of the continued crafting that is

still occurring on a daily basis around here.

I seem to have hopefully fixed my sewing

machine snafu (fingers crossed).

Thanks Rachael for teaching me how to

make these super-cute paper streamers!!

They're looking adorable if I do say so myself...

Pic #4 is of my lovely mama.

She came over early this morning and we

headed out to do one of our favorite things...

garage sale-ing!!!

We're pro's. 

We don't mess around.

We can size up a garage sale in one glance

 at 35 miles an hour while eating giant cupcakes...

It's true. It happened.

(P.S. If you haven't ever had an orange

creamsicle cupcake...I just feel sorry for you)

Bonus, it's the day before her birthday...

her last day in her 50's! Eeek!

When and how did my mom become 60 years old?

So we were needing a reason to celebrate & have fun!

Thankfully, despite quickly approaching her 60's 

and despite the un-godly amount of baby supplies seen at everysinglefreakinggaragesalewewentto....

she didn't harass me too much today about having a baby,

which was very much appreciated!

Her big birthday party is tomorrow and I got

her Shutterfly book in the mail this afternoon!

Talk about being just in the nick of time...

Stay tuned for pictures 

 from the party that she's calling the

'It's too late to die young now' 

Celebration

Oh, that Janet, She's a nut.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Along with putting the final touches on Rachael's baby
shower, I made the decision to create a photo book
for my mom's upcoming 60th birthday.
I love making these photo books,
BUT I'm indecisive and a perfectionist so making
them often takes awhile and
leaves me feeling stressed out.
I finished it today because I had an amazing
Shutterfly coupon that was expiring.
This book would have cost around $73 and
I got it for $34!!
SWEET!!

Anyways, I hope she likes it....
I'm hoping for lots of happy tears when she reads it!