Chairs Through 3 Generations

Being a young family we are always asked if we need this or that piece of furniture before it goes to Goodwill or someplace like that.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE it, but sometimes whatever it may be needs some updating.  In this particular case it is my grandma's table and chairs.  I recently acquired them from my Mother, who also after receiving them recovered them in short order, and now it is my turn to have a go.

This is what they looked like when I got them.

This green was on the chairs since I was a kid. Back in the day it worked, not now though, 15 yrs or so later. :)  My kids have also done a number on them in the short time I have had them, that particular fabric didn't do well with spilled milk from a cereal bowl or mac and cheese all over and under a booster seat.  Anyhow, you can see now exactly why it was time to recover them.

I started with unscrewing the seats from the chairs, and taking out the staples from the previous recover job. As I began to uncover them I got a surprise underneath.  

Well, not a total surprise.  I knew it would be some really old fabric.  This fabric was actually used by my grandmother to recover the chairs.  It was pretty neat to see the way she tucked the corners and I even learned something from how she did it, and decided to do it the same way.

So after taking a few minutes to remember my grandma and what a wonderful lady she was, I got to work.  I chose a blue microfiber suede and later I will scotch guard them.

At first things started out a bit rocky but after I switch out to a real staple gun (cough cough, thanks to my in laws, cough) the process really started to pick up.  

My hands definitely took a beating from this but I got it done pretty quickly and it was so worth it, but I was glad when it was over...

I love the way they turned out!  I wasn't done yet though, after the kids went to bed I laid everything out to scotch guard.  

It was easy, shake the can and spray even coats.  I waited about an hour and did a second coat and let it dry over night.  Then I spent a good amount of time today cleaning the chairs and reattaching the seats.

I couldn't be happier, well I would really like to paint the chairs white and the table bottom and legs white also and refinish and re-stain the top but hey there is only so much you can do before your little girls birthday party, or in one summer for that matter. ;)

It's like the chairs are saying, "Come sit down, I no longer have kids stains and late 80's fabric! I'm new again!  It's okay, sit!"

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Citrus Oil Wasp Killer??

Hi my name is Kathleen and I have a phobia of wasps.

**Okay, bugs in general but there are different levels of bugs that I can tolerate.**

There I said it.  The first step is admitting your problem right?  My brother is allergic to sings of the bee variety.  Seeing my Mom jab an EpiPen in his thigh was a situation I saw on a few occasions growing up.  I never wanted to be the on on the other end of the EpiPen.  There my phobia begins....

Around our house, way out in the sticks, bugs and many animals share this beautiful land with us.  I have had my fair share of adjusting and calling my Ma about a cat size beetle (I'm telling ya, the size of a cat!!) and calling my father-in-law about a banging noise. Those are stories for another time. ;)  So just when I thought I was starting to make peace with the nothingness outside at night, and all kinds of critters...... wasps, my nemeses, decided to build a home under the eaves of my roof, on MY house.... Oye!

Last year we sprayed and I slept many nights on the couch because these things would find their way into the windows of our bedroom.  The windows that are on either side of our bed may I add.  We even called Ork*n.  Which I would never, never call, ever again.  I'll leave it at that, although I could say more.  We made it through the season and I got the sweet relief of winter.  Did you ever think a Wisconsinite would say that?  

So when I find them in my house I sorta freak out.  Last week there were 3 in one of our bedroom windows. So instead of grabbing my vacuum I went for THE SPRAY.  Yes, an insecticide of some sort.  I was a bit uneasy about spraying it in my house but there was 3 of 'em for goodness sake.  I was out-numbered.  Then while doing some other research on those awful creatures I came across MY HAIRBRAINED IDEA.....

I found this suggestion over at Get Rid of Things.

Citrus Oil Extract.

Simple.

 Non-Toxic to people.

Kills the buggers.

Perfect.

So I wasn't sure if Lemon Extract was the same thing, but I was willing to give it a shot.  So I went off to my family's favorite store (Walmart) and picked up the cheapest one I could find.  I already had an empty spray bottle at home, so all I needed was someone brave to test it out for me.  I talked my hubby into it.  He was skeptical, poked a little fun at me and then being the guy he is, tried it out for me.  

It works!!!  Really!!

Now this isn't your one shot one kill spray, but after four or five squirts, they went down.  And by go down I mean, flipping and curling a lot. Which eventually leads to their death.  If you're a chicken like me, I give 'em 5 good shots and get outta there, and watch from a far to make sure I got 'em good.  Then I walk away for a while longer, 5 mins. or so, and when I come back, donezo!  (Donezo, thats for you Chloe!)

My next hairbrained idea is to make my own lemon extract so I can have a full bottle of this stuff on hand and not spend a ton of money on it!  Hopefully it will be just as powerful as the store bought stuff... I let you know after my hubby tests it out for me. :)

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