My Creative Space: A Little Humble Pie

When I went to Judy Seidman's slumber party, I stuck to the chairs.  And the sofa.  And had I sat on the floor in the hallway, I'd have stuck to that, too.  Judy's house was swathed in a layer of vinyl, and I, omniscient at age twelve, was horrified.  "What kind of family," I wondered, "wraps their furniture in Saran Wrap?"  I never went to Judy's again.

Fast forward more years than I'd like to discuss.  And imagine my turmoil as I shambled shamefacedly into the fabric store to purchase enough vinyl to defend my dining room chairs against the daily onslaught of grubby fingers, spilled spaghetti, and banana "fingerpaint" that fill our days.  I studied my Crocs as Millie---who was clearly having a stinker of a day to begin with--- manhandled the unwieldy bolt onto the cutting table, lopped of my three yards, and rang up the sale. 

In my own defense, we use these chairs seven days a week, (at least) three meals a day.  And we've had them for a good seven years.  But still, when I plunked my roll of vinyl on the dining room table, I was faced with a tableful of chairs that looked  like this.  (And, no---this is not "the bad one."  I assure you, each was more dreadful than the last.)

So, armed with a pair of school scissors, my trusty staple gun,  and a set of curtains I'd rescued from the attic, I began the revamp.  And after the first one, I gotta tell you, I started to get a little pumped.  (Which, I'm sure, had nothing to do with the how my short assistant was entertaining herself while I worked.)

Yeah, let's go ahead and cover those suckers while we've got the vinyl, hey?  And don't talk to me about off-gassing.  I'm not listening...

Pretty sharp, no?  Here, look closer.

See what I found inside the first chair?  Can you explain how that got in there?  Me, neither.

So far, I've got 5 of the 8 done.  The remaining three are going to require a little more finesse than I can manage just now...they're from a different set (see Shani's chair above?) and have piping and lots of tricky curves to contend with.  Of course, I discovered all this after I hacked the existing fabric off of them, but I'll figure it out...

And forgive my miserable shot-in-the dark photos...I was too excited to wait till morning to share these.  See what the rest of the world is up to over at Kirsty's.