Sick week :(

It is so frustrating to get sick right when you have so much to do!  I have two custom orders right now of 8 chairs...eight chairs!  On top of that we have been renovating our tiny kitchen with a shoestring budget and all our own labor while the darling husband has been looking for a job.  Of course, the circulating respiratory cold has gotten me and I've been in bed for a solid week now (ick!) with all these projects mounting up.  Sigh, hopefully I'll be adding to the ranks of chairs in the shop in a week or so if this silly cold ever goes away!

Who knew???

My darling husband, VERY unexpectedly lost his job last weekend.  We were completely blindsided, so he is now among the legions of job seekers!  If anyone in the central Illinois area needs a super handsome, extra sweet, southern boy licensed in all things financial/insurancial/incredible, drop me a line!  :)

Renos and jobs...

Well, I didn't think I would ever get up the nerve but I have officially quit my job!  I should clarify...I have quit ONE of my jobs :)  I am no longer waitressing during the day!  I still run my dance studio and help my fabulously talented friend with her wedding photography business on the weekends (check her out, she's seriously awesome... www.deidrelynnphotography.com).  The big reason I quit was so I can invest more time in my Etsy shop and get more beautifully designed pieces posted more often!  I don't like doing something part way and I felt like I just had too many things on my plate.

All that being said :)  My darling husband and myself recently (about four months ago) bought a small cape cod and have spent a lot of time renovating it since the moment we stepped in the door.  On a whim (please note, I DO NOT condone this kind of behavior :) I decided to renovate the incredibly tiny and ucky kitchen.  I mean renovate as in redo everything myself and expand the kitchen area into the eating area.  To top it all off, right as this whim struck, the hubs got super busy at work and has not been available at all.  Hence, I find myself in the middle of a cratered kitchen that I have destroyed and now I have to finish...alone :(  Fortunately, aforesaid fantastic friend Deidre (owner of Deidrelynnphotography) has been helping me with the demo and painting, I'm proud to say that two little girls with no upper body strength at all were able to dissemble an enormous amount of countertop, cabinetry etc.  

The best part about this project is that it's on a budget, if any of you were ever young newlyweds in a first place (which I imagine some of you were :) you understand!  I think budgets make renos SO much more fun!  It's been crazy challenging to see what we can reuse and build and who knows what else.  We're trying to keep the whole thing under $1500!  I'll keep updates on how well we do :)  I'll try to post pictures too as we go!

Slipper Chair is done!!!

At long last the gorgeous lady's slipper chair is done!  It certainly took long enough but it has just turned out every bit as stunning as I hoped it would!  (See earlier post for the beginning of this project)

The back has been closed up.

All the welting has been applied...

...and the fabric couldn't look better on her!

See the completed chair in the shop tomorrow!

www.reclaimthethrone.etsy.com

New customizable listings!!!

I love customization, being able to re-design a piece exclusively for your home is priceless!  This is a new idea for the shop but now there are five new customizable listings!

New Project in Progress!!!

So I don't quite have the "after" picture yet because it's only half done but I'm pretty excited about it already!

This piece is going to be a lady's slipper chair, it's a completely unique shape, I've never seen a slipper chair quite like it!

What is a laundry basket table?

I have to admit, in all my furniture wanderings I had never before seen this particular feat of vintage engineering :)  A laundry basket table is an all-metal transforming piece that delivers a huge amount of visual punch while doing twice the workload of normal tables!  This piece has the perfectly fitted original glass top (not pictured), which immediately transforms it into just a beautiful starburst table with all the flair in the world.  However, remove the glass, lift the rim and voila, a perfectly functional extra huge laundry basket!!!  To top it all off the designers put it on casters for the ultimate in convenience!

This design is SO cool and yet if you look online you can find almost nothing about laundry basket tables, it makes you wonder who came up with them, why the double-duty-design and where are they all now?  You can check out this super cool specimen in my shop and if anyone has other info or pictures about these awesome tables please let me know!

My table has a super-retro lime green finish on it that has been scraped down a bit to give it that "rustic, vintage" feel and avoid a "lacquer" look.  I hope the more the table is used the more the finish will wear off at the joints to increase the time-worn feel!