I Heart Faces Photo Challenge: Love

Here is my I Hear Faces submission for the “Love” challenge!  This picture is of my boys and I love how much they love each other.  Go to I Heart Faces and check out the other submissions!

 

 

Reupholstering a Chair

My mom gave me a chair that used to belong to my great grandmother. It is very sentimental to me because it was in my parents house while I was growing up but over the years the upholstery gave out and it had a tear right in the front of it. It needed to be recovered and I have issues with spending lots of money on something I'm not sure about. I couldn't pick a fabric that I loved and I didn't want to pay an upholster $300 to recover the chair.

 I came across a post on pinterest where a lady at Cottage and Vine recovered her chair with a drop cloth and I thought "I can do that".

I bought some fabric on clearance and started tearing apart the chair.

I kept the fabric I took off to use as a pattern and I took pictures as I went so I could remember what the chair looked like before. 

My sewing machine broke right before I attempted this so I just made cording by using fabric glue. I used my husbands staple gun to put the seat of the chair on.

I then covered the existing back chair cushion with fabric and sewed the center lines by hand.  I'm not going to lie, it was hard work.  I about gave up several times (my husband thought I was crazy the whole time) but I stuck with it and it turned out pretty good.  My husband thinks I should open an upholstery business now and I got a "new" chair for about $40.

It's not perfect.  Far from it but it filled an empty corner and I'm pretty proud that I recovered a chair all by myself.

Do a Dot Activities

I've seen Do a Dot markers on several blogs and there were lots of great learning activities you can do with them but  I never could bring myself to spend the $15 plus shipping on them.   I ended up just using bingo markers that I found at Meijers instead.  The bingo markers worked okay but often times left a mess on my table and my kids.  Yesterday I was at Home Goods and I stumbled upon some Do a Dots!  I had to get them and I'm glad I did!  This morning the kids had a race to see who could make different letters the fastest.  For my three year old I wrote the letter on his paper for him to trace and my five year old did it on his own.  This worked great and seemed to keep the game even.  Once they tired of that my five year old made his own pictures while my youngest wanted to make some numbers.  After making numbers I wrote the alphabet randomly on a sheet of paper and then called out different letters for him to find a put a dot on.  He really liked this game and it helped him with his letter recognition.  I love that the markers didn't leak through the paper like the bingo markers always did and that they are washable when they get on the kids.  Overall I would recommend getting the Do a Dots if you have the money but if not be on the lookout for a good deal on some.

I Heart Faces- Anything but a Face

This is my youngest finger painting last August. It's such a mess but he loves doing it.

I Heart Faces- Winter Wonderland

I took this picture of my oldest during a recent ice storm. Everything was covered in ice and he was amazed by all the icicles.

I Heart Faces- Smiles

This picture of my youngest was taken while we were visiting market street in Charleston, South Carolina. I love that city and I like how it's reflected in his sunglasses. He was smiling because my husband and other son just showed up with some Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

I Heart Faces-Orange

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One of my favorite blogs to read is Made (http://www.dana-made-it.com/). A few weeks ago she featured autumn crowns that she made with her children. I knew it was the perfect craft for my boys so we made them the next day and they were a hit. They are super easy to make and I got lots of fun pics of my boys wearing them. This was one of my favorites.

I heart faces- Chalk

The I heart Faces challenge for the week is Chalk. My boys and I were playing outside with sidewalk chalk when I got the idea to get pics with the boys near thought bubbles. This is horrible but my husband always kids that our youngest is not the sharpest tool in the shed. I decided to take this pic for my husband because I know that my youngest is headed for great things.

I Heart Faces- Smirk

My oldest son was getting ready for bedtime and was really working on me to let him stay up later. He was being so funny that I grabbed my camera to take some pictures. This picture is of a smirk he gave when I told him he could stay up for five more minutes.

I Heart Faces- Beach fun

The I Heart Faces theme of the week is beach fun. We went to Kiawah Island in South Carolina for vacation this year and had the best time. This picture was taken our first night at the beach. We went straight from the car to the beach and the boys got right in the water with their clothes on trying to catch fish with their nets. This is my youngest looking down the beach holding his net.

I Heart Faces- Over My Head

This week at I heart faces the theme is over my head. I chose of picture of my son playing with my niece in the sprinkler. They had so much fun that day but what they found absolutely hilarious was spraying each other with the water.

I Heart USA!

The challenge at I heart faces this week is I heart my country. I heart the USA and wanted to share our neighborhood parade that we joined in for the first time this year. I was surprised about the number of people that attended. It made me proud of my neighborhood and my country and we will definitely participate again next year.

Tissue Paper Poms

I've been seeing these tissue paper pom poms all over my favorite blogs and I've been dying to find an excuse to make some. I've got two boys so pretty much my only reason to make them came at Easter. I think they turned out pretty cute and they are super easy and cheap to make. These were the first ones I ever made so I learned that they need to be longer than wide or they will look more like butterflies than flowers. The best tutorial I've found is on Martha Stewart's website. Just type in tissue paper poms in the search box and it should come up.

Sidewalk Chalk Collage

The theme for this weeks I ♥ faces is collages. I took these pictures of my oldest playing with sidewalk chalk this past fall.