Afton's Princess Chair

Chris found this by the side of the road the other day.  It was really rusty and the seat was awfully smelly.  So I removed the seat, sanded back the chair, put some Kill Rust on it and then gave it a couple of coats of paint.  I had to to get my husband to cut out a new seat base for me (I'm not that handy with a jigsaw - yet!) and I just bought some new foam and Princess Afton picked out the fabric.  It looks terrific in her room and she loves it!
 

And while I was at it, I figured I'd do the other stool too.  It comes up a lot better than the gold colour it was previously.

These little posers are my two girls - Afton (4) and Jariah (5).

 

First Table

This is Chris' first table.  It came up beautiful I think!  Good on ya Mum :)

Brought back to life

My father made this table when he was 14 and I have had it since I was in my early twenties.  For the last few years it had been sitting out on the deck.  It had certainly seen better days when I decided to restore it.  I sanded it back, spray painted silver and replaced the old scratched glass top with a new one - my first attempt at mosaic.  I thought it was a bit "girly" for my liking, but it's grown on me now.  Unfortunately I can't find my "before" photos.

This is a dresser stool that my mum spruced up.  The stool came with a dresser/table which we picked up at auction super cheap.  She only wanted the table so she gave me the stool.  But first, she used a spare cushion cover she had laying around and recovered it.  It looks great in my room.  I decided to leave the bottom for now.

The Joys of Retirement

After retiring about five years ago, it has taken a long time for Mum to find a hobby.  But it was worth the wait I think.  This is Chris' first mosaic masterpiece.  More to come :)

Bedhead

After hanging many prints/paintings up above my bed, it never looked right.  So we made this bed head.  Again, my husband had some timber laying around (after this hellish renovation we are up to our ears in it) and he constructed the bed head.  We paintined it brown and I put some wallpaper stickers on it that I got on ebay for about $20.  So all up this would have come to about $70.  Pretty cheap I reckon :)

My daughters' dollhouse

I had been searching for a dollhouse that accommodated Barbies, but I couldn't find anything that had "character" for a reasonable price.  All the good ones were for miniature dolls.  My husband and I then decided that we would build a dollhouse for our two little girls as we thought it would be even more special and sentimental.  I searched ebay and bought just a basic bookshelf for $16.  As my husband is handy with the power tools, he gathered up some chipboard/timber that we had laying around and made the roof, roof tiles and front doors.  I ordered the windows and front door from a website (I think the windows were about $6 ea and the door was $20.  For the attic window roofs I just used some small cardboard pieces and stuck them on. 

For the interior, I bought some contact paper which looked similar to floor boards and also some checkered contact for the bathroom.  Some of the Barbie furniture I purchased but the majority of the furniture and furnishings are homemade.  My mum gave me her sewing machine (which is nearly thirty years old!) and I got to work.  It would appear that all those home economic classes finally came in handy!  I was surprised how it all came back to me.  Anyhoo, I just picked up bits and pieces like foam, shoe boxes etc.  The bed in the top room is from a shoe box.  I picked up some scrap material that Mum had and got some more scrap material from Spotlight.  I also picked up from Spotlight some little picture frames, boxes etc. 

I think my most favourite items would be the TV (paracetomol box painted silver with black cardboard) and the kitchen (shoebox with a gravy tin lid as a sink).  The bathroom vanity is just moisturiser packaging which I painted white and painted matchsticks for handles.

 

There's still more to do but the girls love it!

Join the link party at: