Project Update #5

Lots to update! I put these pictures in a drafted post, but am just finally getting around to writing about them.

First of all, I got the front finished and stapled on. The lines didn't want to stay straight as I pulled all the fabric tight, so I had to undo some of the staples on the right side (closer to the piano) once, but that's not too bad. Here's a picture of the inside of the side. I had to open it up completely to staple on the green fabric.

Here's a picture of what it looked like when I was done stapling it on. The back isn't pulled tight and stapled yet. That happens last before I staple on the new dust cover on the bottom.

Here's a close up of the fabric. It has some flower brocade detail in it that you can see when the light shines on it right. The green fabric was just some regular cheap fabric. It's thinner and stretchier than the upholstry fabric, so I'm a little worried that it won't last as long and rip easily, but we'll see how it goes. It will be under the cushions most of the time anyway.

As I said before, I had to open up the sides completely to staple the front piece in the correct places. This is the left side arm as I took off the old fabric. It was very dirty. Yuck!

Here's a quick interlude. These are the tools that I use to do this. I accidentally cut into a staple with my nice sewing scissors, so I'll have to sharpen them when this is all done with and over.

Here are two pictures of the arm I got finished! It's starting actually look like a couch again!

I had a little mis-calculation on this part. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. The old upholstery had a skirt to cover things like this. I might just tuck it in somehow, or cover it with a decorative wood block or something. We'll see.

Last of all, here is what the couch looks like when I'm not working on it so Monkey doesn't get into the padding that's showing. In other words, most days it looks like this. I'm going to try to get the stripe part done before General Conference in a week and a half.

Bacterias!

Preface:

Dave loves to eat Chili-mac (mac & cheese with a can of chili mixed in). He eats it about 3 times per week on average. Sometimes, if there isn't a clean pan, he'll just rinse out the pan he used last to make a new batch. I keep telling him he'll get food poisoning, but he keeps not getting food poisoning.

Chapter 1:

Today I got home for my lunch break and a pot of water was boiling on the stove while Dave was in the office on the phone, so, being the helpful person I am, I put his mac & cheese in for him and put in a box for me as well, not thinking to see if he had washed the pan. I realized as I was draining it, that the outside was still dirty with chili. Of course I was a little grossed out, but it had boiled, so all the bacteria was probably dead anyway.

Chapter 2:

Dave had finished his phone call and so he came in to cook the chili. (I may be a nice person, but I'm wearing white pants today. Being the clumsy me with food, I'm not going anywhere near chili!) I teased him about not washing the pan before he used it. He looked at the pan a little puzzled for a second, then his face lit up with understanding. "Oh! I thought that you had just used it to boil something because it was clean on the inside, but I just remembered that last time I used it, I let Monkey lick it out when I was done!"

Epilogue

Of course I didn't throw it out! I had to have something for lunch. With each bite I take, I remind myself, "Dogs have cleaner mouths than humans, dogs have cleaner mouths than humans..."

Simply Entertaining

I doubt you've noticed since it's so far down on the page, but I added a fish tank thing on the right column. The fish follow your cursor and when you click on it, it drops food, which they then eat, creating a ripple. There is 1 fish of each color that was available. Problem is that the background is the same color as one of the fish.

Sometimes I feed the fish looking for the secret fish. It's like hunting Yeti, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster, only more rewarding! Give it a try!

Ps: don't be fooled by the white fish. The secret fish will look like a fish-shaped hole through the other fish.

Project Update #4

Are you wondering what happened to Update #3? Well, it was included in yesterday's post. I just didn't label it as #3! Tricky…

Well I finally got around to working on the couch again. I looked up the price for the dust cover stuff on the bottom of the couch, and it's super cheap so I just took it all off since it was ripped anyway. Turns out it used to have an actual purpose, but now it's just for looks mostly. The springs all look like they're in good condition; none are broken or anything.

The front strip is attached to the springs with a string, which you can see in the picture below. I'll have to figure out a way to do that.

I attached a double layer of padding from one of the side pillows to the front of the couch to make up for where the skirt used to be. It looks really bumpy and funny right now, so I'll probably have to take off one of the layers.

So far, the hardest part of attaching the new material is making sure that the stripes are straight. I've used a level to make sure that they're straight, but some parts are more difficult to use a level than others. I plan on working on it some more tonight, so I'll update again tomorrow. I think I can get all the stripe part done this week!

Update and Spring Cleaning!

I haven't worked on the couch a ton lately. I sewed the front panel together and added some fabric that will be covered by the cushions. I plan to work on it this week though. I can possibly get the striped part finished! Depends on how much time I have on Saturday to work on it.

Yesterday I was in a grumpy funk after lunch and I couldn't figure out quite why. I realized when I got home that it was probably because our kitchen was a complete mess. It was disgusting. So I put on my rubber gloves, and got to work.

I should have taken a before picture, and an after picture of the kitchen. It was drastic. I did all the dishes, even the hand-washing. I wiped off all the counters (Dave helped), and then I decided to tackle the pantry.

Last summer we had an ant problem, so we bought a few packs of ant poison to put around the house, and it took care of them. However...we had an apple box full of candy in our pantry that got devoured by the ants. I finally got to going through it and throwing out the bad candy, marshmallows, etc. Then I went through all our canned foods that we tote with us from apartment to apartment through our lives. Some of the cans expired in 2006! Yuck! Now I can actually tell what food we have in our pantry!

Don't look at the fridge! I haven't gotten to going through the junk all over it yet!

Appreciation

For fun and self validation I got a hit counter for my blog. It's a high-tech one that shows me all sorts of stats, like your weight, height, eye color, favorite flavor of ice cream, and which room your computer is in at home. It even tells me when you pick your nose while reading my blog.

Before I'd base my hypothesis on if anyone was reading my blog by how many comments people left on each post. I mean, I always try to comment on the blogs that I read so they feel appreciated. Needless to say, I like the hit counter results more! Thank you for blog-stalking me all two of you!

Sweet Tooths...Teeth...

My friend Sarah is doing a cake giveaway on her blog! I get to increase my chances of winning cake by posting her blog on my blog. Who could resist!? If you go here you can enter to win cake as well! (again...who could resist!?) See her blog for more details. I'm hoping for the strawberry pound cake. YUM!