It was a gorgeous day to be outside along the Charles River, see the fall foliage, watch the race, and eat awesomely greasy fried dough caked with confectioner’s sugar, and then walk all the way back home.
See my flickr photostream for more pics.
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This is a portion of a montage I just created in Photoshop using several of my photographs and drawings.
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This is a self-portrait that I took several years back.
I am eager to see such splendid colors coming again soon.
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I missed the 3pm local post office closing time. I took just a touch longer than expected finalizing the website before it’s official announcement gets mailed out.
On those save-the-date envelopes, I am very glad that Paul and I hand wrote them. Now that all is said and done, it feels more personal and meaningful to us. “Traditional” wedding etiquette supposedly calls for such, but the truth is that I couldn’t get any of the three printers in our home to print on those small A2 envelopes. I’d spent almost a day tearing my hair out and pulling out jammed envelopes.
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Done!
Well, I still need to put on some finishing touches like Scotch Guard Upholstery Fabric Protector and trim some seams here and there. But overall, it is as good as finished.
Here are the before and after shots:
The hardest part was the chair back. I didn’t want the original studded look which would have made it much easier as it simply involved nailing on the outside. Trying to nail under the seam of the back with such a delicate fabric was a bit of a challenge. There were a lot of pinching, pulling, and precision stapling and nailing with upholstery tacks.
It is by no means perfect; however, given that this was my first attempt (and that I was making things up as I went along), I am quite pleased with the final outcome.
The chair adds a nice little whimsical and flowery touch to an otherwise rather clean and simple decor.
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Progress on the chair (as well as with everything else) has been very slow as I am still fighting this lingering cold.
The chair now has three coats of Red Mahogany stain and two coats of satin finish polyurethane. Each coat takes only about 15 minutes to apply, however, I had to wait a day for each coat to dry before I reapplied another layer.
If I had to do this again… I would bring a brighter lamp into the basement. The stain was a tad splotchy on the side of one chair leg. I could have easily fixed this if I had been able to spot it during the staining. Fortunately, it isn’t too noticeable.
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We’ve been looking for a little chair for our living room. We browsed many shops, from Jordan’s Furniture to Bernie & Phyl’s to Building 19. No luck. But just last week, as I was still moving my stuff out of my old place over to Paul’s (a saga that I fear will never end), I found the almost perfect chair… in my attic.
I had almost forgotten that I had this little old chair. I had it since I was young. Very sturdy, no hint of any wobble, made of solid oak, but it looks a bit dowdy and the faux maroon leather had a sizable tear right on the seat ever since my sister owned it before she handed it down to me.
I had picked up a yard of lovely floral embroidered fabric yesterday in between errands. I started the makeover this afternoon.
The photos above show my progress:
I am hoping to find the time to stain and finish the wood tomorrow. As for that back… I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do just yet. I am figuring things out as I go…
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I threw in the suggestion of having a Karaoke wedding as a joke when Paul and I talked about wedding music. Paul immediately posted the following twitter message:
Some friends have taken him seriously, and they’ve picked out songs that they’d love to sing. It’s so awesome that I want to open up the question to everyone.
What song would you sing at our wedding?
Show your enthusiasm, and we may just be crazy enough… ;-)
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Paul and I just picked the wedding venue and the date for our wedding. And because it is nine months away, we have the luxury of indulging in many DIY wedding related projects.
I guess I should clarify that it feels like a luxury for me on both the creative freedom and cost savings fronts, and Paul is indulging me with the enthusiastic support and with the actual production efforts. A girl can’t ask for a better fiance. :-)
This is a sneak peak of the first stage of the mass production of the save-the-date notices we will be sending out shortly. We’d finalized the prototype designs of the invitation and the save-the-date cards last week.
In addition, I’m excited to share that I’d just purchased the Bridal Couture: Fine Sewing Techniques for Wedding Gowns and Evening Wear book.
Also in progress is of course… our wedding website.
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My luscious deck garden is sick. I clipped off lots and lots of leaves and branches from the tomotoes and herbs, and I gave all the plants a big dose of some sort of organic fungicide and insecticide a few days ago. Now, all I can do is water and wait.
I have this sneaking suspicion that I am the one to blame for the fungus. It all started with an infestation of aphids (plant lice) on the baby lettuce. So I bought a big spray bottle and ground up some garlic, mixed it with water and sprayed it on the lettuce. It sort of worked.
But then, I went a little nuts, and I also started misting all my plants with regular water as well. Isn’t that what they do at the green houses and in the garden shops? The plants always look wet and recently misted. So I sprayed all of my plants very well almost every morning. The plants kept growing beautifully.
Then recently, I noticed that the mint leaves were starting to look sickly with brown spots all over it. I didn’t do anything right away. Then I noticed that the mints in the other pot were starting to yellow too. I had to act. I clipped out all the affected leaves (~70% of the leaves on those plants) and sprayed them with the garlic juice too. It seemed to help the mints immensely. So I kept misting the plants, not realizing the connection.
And before I knew it, half of the leaves on the tomato plants were yellow and sickly. I just learned that too much moisture on the leaves or too much fertilizer make the plants susceptible to diseases. :-(
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