Kitchen Chairs

A few years ago the hotel next to my office was getting all new furnishings.  They cleared out all the old stuff and sold it one day at really cheap prices.  I bought four chairs planning to paint them fun bright colors and put them in my kitchen.  They may have sat in my basement for a few years, but I finally got them done!

Before:

After:

I think I bought three other fabrics to use before I found this one and decided it was perfect!  I already had the paint colors picked out and this matched them all perfectly.  It was a little pricey ($20/yd on sale) but I think it was totally worth it.

We spray painted the chairs outside on the last really warm weekend of the year.  My neighbor across the street told me she thought they were cute before they were even half painted!  I ended up using Valspar spray paint just because it was the only brand I could find that had all the colors I wanted.  I wish I had found another brand though.  We had several problems with the paint.  They seemed to change colors in the middle of the can (after they had been thoroughly shaken) and the yellow has clumps.  They ended up looking good, but it was sure a lot of work to get them that way.

The seats were easy though.  The cushions themselves were in great shape, so we just stapled the new fabric over the old.  The hardest part was getting the pattern to line up evenly.  I ended up using a full two yards because of the way the pattern was printed.

Overall it ended up costing more than I hoped, but still super cheap for sturdy custom chairs.  I spent $60 on the chairs, $40 on fabric, and probably $40 on spray paint (of which I have plenty leftover) and $5 on staples.  So about $150 total for some super cute colorful chairs to brighten up my kitchen!

Crafty

I've slowly been learning how to use my Silhouette. I finally figured out how to create a cuttable image out of any image, and started putting it to good use. First up, I created an image of a disc golf basket on vinyl to put on our cars so we can show our support everywhere we go. I think they turned out really great!

Disc Chic Challenge

About a year ago some good friends introduced us to the sport of disc golf, and we've been addicted ever since.  We have a pretty nice course about 10 minutes from our house, so we run down and play a lot.  The terminology is very similar to golf, but instead of hitting a ball towards the hole, you throw a disc at a basket.

A couple of weekends ago I entered my first tournament - the Disc Chic Challenge.  With all the participants being girls, it was a bit less intimidating, and I entered in the intermediate division.  Pat tagged along to caddy for me, and we had a really nice time and met some great people.

The first round was played off of blue tees, which are the closest ones at the course.  I did really well that round and ended with a -3 tied for first place.  The second round was played off the yellow tees which are a bit further back.  I did not do well with my putting that round and ended with a +12.  So, overall I had a +9 score, and ended up tied for 8th place.  I did however win a CTP (closest to pin) and got a prize for that.  You can check out the full results at Disc Golf Scene.

Here are some pics of the tourney:

 Getting our instructions

 Warming up

 Putting it in

Our group from the first round: Dusty, Liz, me and Sunny

Me throwing backhand

Me throwing forehand

March, April, May, and June Book Lists

MARCH

Aftermath by Ann Aguirre - 307 pages
A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison - 438 pages
Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane - 339 pages
Half the Blood of Brooklyn by Charlie Huston - 223 pages
The Night Circus by Eric Morgenstern - 387 pages

TOTAL - 5 Books - 1,694 Pages

 APRIL

Fever by Lauren DeStefano - 341 pages
Fair Game by Patricia Briggs - 293 pages

TOTAL - 2 Books - 634 Pages

MAY

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin - 728 pages
Lover Reborn by JR Ward - 572 pages
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris - 327 pages

TOTAL - 3 Books - 1,627 Pages

JUNE

Timeless by Gail Carriger - 386 pages
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 372 pages
A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin - 924 pages

TOTAL - 3 Books - 1,682 pages

I haven't ready so many long books in quite some time.  It feels good to get something I can sink my teeth into!  Looking back over the past four months worth of books, I'd have to say that my favorite was Ready Player One.  I just couldn't put it down.  The Night Circus also sucked me in as did both George RR Martin books.  Unholy Ghosts was the biggest letdown.  I had seen rave reviews of the book all over the place and was really excited to read it, but it felt a bit flat to me.  Maybe my expectations were too high.

I finally got around to reading the second Song of Fire and Ice book so that we could watch season two of Game of Thrones.  I think I'll be glad that I read book three well before season three airs so that the differences between the book and the show aren't quite so glaring.

San Rafael Swell

We took a couple of friends camping with us to the San Rafael Swell this spring.  They are usually forest campers, so it was a bit new to them.  Our trip started out with a flat tire on their truck.  That was quickly swapped for the spare, then we found a close spot to camp out of the wind (mostly).

The next day we went exploring and found a ghost of a mining town.  The buildings here were mostly standing and had random old appliances scattered about.

We also explored the remnant of the mines a little.  We didn't go far because we didn't have flashlights.

This one was big enough you could drive a four wheeler around in it.  It would be lots of fun to explore more one day.

 Hondo Arch

We went for a brief hike with the dogs.  Their favorite part was splashing in this small puddle.  I'm sure the water is completely gone by now.  The hike was down Crack Canyon, which is a slot canyon, and we didn't get very far before we had to turn around because the dogs couldn't maneuver the six foot drop-off we ran into.

We had a really good time, though I don't think our friends fell in love with the desert the way we have.  Maybe it has to grow on you.