Chair restoration project, part 1

One thing Fabian and I are doing is preparing for our move out of his parents house. His grandma offered to give us a bunch of old furniture; some of it is nice, some is not quite our style, and some is just really old and ratty looking—like the set of kitchen chairs.

Enter old, vintage chairs.

In their original state, the chairs look a bit sad. The chairs had a horribly faded red tweed seat that was covered with an equally sad looking piece of light yellow fabric. After popping the seats out, the first step was sanding each chair.



After sanding the chairs, I got to paint them with a nice coat of primer.



Next, the chair gets the first coat of epic green paint.



Then, a second coat, and they’re ready for some seats. I simply loved working with the green paint!! It was SO much fun!

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Moving along, I started working on the chair seats. First, I destroyed the old cushions, which were literally made out of straw and animal fur. The dust storm I created when tearing the seats apart was really disgusting.



I have cut the foam and fabric that I will use for the cushions, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on a staple gun to put them together yet.



Right now the great chair fiasco is about 80% complete. All the chairs have been sanded, primed, and painted green. Three chairs need a second coat of color, the fourth chair needs to be spot checked. I have the seats ready to assemble. I am just waiting on some good weather to get things moving again!

Feeling crafty, among other things

I’ve been in creative mode the past two weeks. One project finished, one in progress, and two in the queue!

No. 1: Chalkboard

Status: Complete

So, this project started on a a whim. We were at a craft store in Mannheim with Adrienne and Todd, and Fabian saw contact paper that had a surface similar to a chalk board. We both thought it was cool, and Fabian had been interested in having a chalkboard for a while. A few aisles over, there were plain wooden frames. So, we bought one frame and this contact paper. I was in charge of decorating the frame.

At first, I thought about paint, but I couldn’t decide on colors, or what look I wanted to go for. After looking online for ideas, I decided to decoupage the frame with amazing robot wrapping paper (we found the wrapping paper after Christmas, and I’m thrilled to have it immortalized!).

 

Right now, the chalk board hangs next to Emma’s changing table. When we move, it will go in the kitchen. :)

No. 2: Kitchen chairsStatus: In progress

I have a detailed post in progress about the kitchen chairs, and I will post it as soon as the chairs are complete. But, here’s a sneak preview!


The back story is that we have kitchen chairs from Fabian’s grandma, and they were in desperate need of fixing. I’m hoping to finish them this week!

No. 3: Kitchen table
No. 4: SofaStatus: In queue

The kitchen table and sofa are also a hand-me-downs from Fabian’s grandma. I don’t have any pictures of them yet, but they, like the chairs, need some love to shine. I’m going to use the same process I’m using with the chairs to restore the table, and I’m going to attempt to reupholster a 1960s sleeper sofa.

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In other news, Emma is getting a lot more interesting! She loves to practice standing (with our help), she coos, giggles, smiles, sucks her hands, kicks like nobody’s business, and is curious about things!
We bought her a play mat with things that hang overhead, and she will sit there and kick while concentrating on the toys above for 20 minutes at a time! It’s really bad, because I can use this time to get other things done, but usually I can’t help myself and I sit to watch her play…


What else has happened recently? Hmm… well, Fabian and I went to see Men in Black 3 (in English), and it was our first “date” since Emma was born. I was almost crying in the car because I didn’t want Emma to miss me too much, but I knew that Fabian’s  mom would take care of Emma. When we came home, Emma was sound asleep and Henriette said Emma was a champion.

We are making a mini weekend vacation to Frankfurt this weekend. Our friend from Canada has a 25 hour layover in Frankfurt on Sunday with her grandma on their way to Russia, and we’re going to meet her and introduce Emma to her Erasmus Auntie Natasha. Then Monday, the three of us go to the US Consulate in Frankfurt to register Emma’s birth, then apply for her US passport, and social security number. She’s a US citizen too! Fortunately it’s not too much paperwork, but it is obnoxiously time consuming and bureaucratic.
Speaking of bureaucratic things, I am practicing driving stick a bit more and I’m going to apply for my German driver’s license by the end of June. It’s great, because Illinois has full reciprocity with Germany, so I don’t have to take any tests (driving/written) as long as I apply for my German license within three years of being in Germany. I think I’m supposed to get it within six months of receiving my German residence permit, but that didn’t happen… All we need to do is get a photograph, translate my Illinois license, and go to a doctor who can verify that I am mentally and physically fit to operate a vehicle. This process certainly beats the 1.500,00 € cost of German driving school.

Emma is almost 3-months-old, and I think her internal schedule is changing. I really can’t say if that’s what her normal schedule is, since we’ve been letting her set her own schedule, but I think she’s sleeping a bit more than she used to. Also exciting, she finally sleeps through (most of) the night! She usually goes to bed between 9:30p and 10:00p, and is content to sleep until 4:00a! Then, she eats for 30 minutes, and sleeps until 7:00a or so. It’s AMAZING not to be woken two or three times in the middle of the night and feed her for an hour each time. The only really hard part is between 7:30p and bed time, because she is obviously tired but desperate to be entertained.

I also discovered that the mei tai-style carrier we received as a gift worked really well until two weeks ago. Emma is at an in between size where she is too big to sit comfortably in the carrier with her legs bent like a little frog, and too small for her legs to come down around the carrier. It’s got to do with the shape of the carrier—it’s a big rectangle, and she isn’t big enough to stretch her legs farther to the sides to wrap around me from the front. One of Henriette’s friends loaned us a Moby carrier, and Emma is now the perfect size to fit in it comfortably with her legs down. With the Moby, the wrap makes an X for her to sit in, and it’s small enough her for her hips. I’m glad to have options, and I think the mei tai will work again in a month or so.
I have an American friend who had her daughter three weeks after Emma was born. She’s going back to work and asked me if I would be willing to nanny her daughter 2-3 days a week. I’ve conditionally agreed, but I asked for a test run first! The thought of spending the day with two super young babies is exhausting, but I think (hope) I am up to the challenge. Maybe it won’t be so bad… I start in two weeks, and I am going to try paying more attention to Emma’s cues so I have an idea of what her schedule is in the hopes that it makes working with two unpredictable infants a smidgen easier.

I’m also taking a post-natal class and baby massage class offered by the midwife who helped us with Emma. The post-natal class is an exercise class to restore good posture after sticking my belly out for 9-months, and to strengthen the muscles that were weakened/pulled out of alignment by the pregnancy (stomach, back, thighs and butt) because of my changing posture. I’ve been really bad about doing my exercises, but Fabian reminds me ten times a day so I will have to do them. The baby massage course has potential to be fun, but the time spans when Emma wants to be sleeping. We made it through the first 30-minutes of class before she dissolved into inconsolable tears from being tired. We spent the second half of class nursing and cuddling. I have five more weeks of classes, I’ll let you know how it goes.

I think that’s all for now!