86'n It

I'll do the "AFTER" in the next post.

I got quite a bit accomplished this weekend:

• Sold/gave away a bunch of furniture, 
• fixed the broken chair spring, 
• got new legs for the buffet, 
• installed a new light fixture in Franca's closet. 

Sadly, I don't have complete photos of everything. I have to remember to take the buffet photos tonight (with the light from the windows, a daytime photo is impossible), so I'll post on that one tomorrow.

So, I'll leave you only with this photo. <--- the poofs are a big hit with Franca. She treats them like her own personal bar. Literally "bellying up". That's momma's girl!

We really intended this weekend to be all about working on the kitchen, which it did end up being for Marc. Franca had other plans for me. I'm feeling back to 100%, but Franca was a little off and then Sunday turned into a full-fledged sick bomb, a cute, happy, funny sick bomb, but a sick bomb nonetheless. So my kitchen time was eaten up by the Target diaper run, grocery, and several loads of very gross laundry.

Before the craziness really set-in, we did score some pretty great furniture. Franca's daycare had a yard sale where we got this huge, low table:

It needs some cleaning up, but will be great for big art projects and serve also as a coffee table.

We also got three of these classroom chairs. The back on them pivots, so they are pretty comfortable. They were made in Michigan, and we know how Marc is a sucker for that.

All of this for $12. Not bad right?

I'd also like to spot light some of Franca's new furniture. The personalized rocking chair was a birthday gift from her Nana and Nonno. She absolutely loves it.

The bench and doll cradle were mine, handcrafted by my Grandfather Herman. He (like my dad) was super crafty. We put these all together in a corner of the living room for her.

Yes, the kid stuff is spreading around the house, but she needed a place beyond the now-too-crowded parlor to play. Here she can tear all her books off the shelf and "read" them in peace.


Speaking of the parlor.... When we were adult-rocking chair shopping, we went to a local antique place called the Tobacco Barn. We did not find a rocking chair, but I did fall in love with these leather ottomans called "saddle stools". I didn't even show them to Marc because I knew we couldn't afford something unnecessary, so of course, after we left I couldn't stop thinking about them.

Three weeks, and a cheap rocking chair solution later, I was still thinking about them, so I dragged a not-napping Franca back to the Tobacco barn. We looked high and low and couldn't find them. We looked again.
Nothing.
We asked the clerk. They sold 2 of them in January. Wait, January 2010. So mine were still here somewhere.
We looked again. Nothing. Then one last ditch effort look in the booth I thought I originally saw them. Low and behold, under two wooden trays:


Franca loves them to put her head on, stand up against, and beat like drums.
We love them to put our feet on while lounging on the couch. (A coffee table is fine, but with a toddler, the corners are weapons.) They also stack and can be strapped together a couple of ways:

A lovely lady named Kristin that I know from other parts of the interwebs saved the day here. She pointed out to me that with the handy help of a "Rocker Swivel Base with Legs", I can turn any chair into a rocker!

Kristin, you truly rock! ;)



I think *I* saw the lightbulb go off above my head this time because I instantly knew what chair we could use:

It is green chair to the rescue! Thanks for the help Saint Patrick. (I'm sure I'm right on top of his priority list.) The fabric on this chair as such a great texture too, check it out <----.

Great minds think alike because when I told Marc about the ad-on base option, he immediately sat up in bed and pointed at said green chair.

We already know that this chair will look good in Franca's room because I used it before the Ikea Poang chair. Also it has been approved by The Late, Great Tuna. Done. Deal.

I've read that all you do is cut a piece of plywood the shape and size of the bottom of your chair and attach the new base, then attached both to the chair. BASTA! .....Well, because nothing is easy here at 86'n It, I turned the chair over to find this popped spring:

For full disclosure, we knew something was up with this chair. It was just too squishy when you sat in it. I've googled and found out:

a) the wire parts are called "hook links"
b) I can buy a pound of them for $3. (That is about 99 more than I need.)
c) they are also helping to make the chair extra squishy

I'm trying to decide whether or not to just buy a hook link and a new Edge clip ($8/lb) and just try not to (Boing!) snap my eye out while reconnecting it, or if we should try to get rid of all the too-squishy hook links (Boing, boing, boing! There are more of those then we have eyes to poke out.).


Care to weigh in?

That title about sums it up. Franca and I are battling a serious stomach bug. We keep thinking we are better only to get knocked down again.

Thanks to really 'rocking' other parts of the interwebbies, we have a really great solution to The Great Rocking Chair Debacle of 2011. If I could stand up for more than 15 seconds at a time, I'd take some photos and fill you in, but alas, I cannot. So stay tuned!


TMI (That means To Much Information - Mom. Love ya!)
Below. So stop reading now if you are squeamish.
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If one more person asks me if I'm pregnant I'm gonna flip the f out. Per my memory, pregnancy made me want to barf out of my mouth, not my ass, but thanks for asking!
(Hey- I warned you. You are the sicko who kept reading.)

You know that chair that I was so excited about on Craigslist? The one I was picking up this weekend?

Well, let me give you a little run-down of what happened.

Saturday: I rush Marc around and make him stop cleaning/polishing the metal angle for the kitchen to load up a grumpy, hungry Franca in the truck and go drive to pick up my rocker. We get there. I knock. I knock again. And again. No one answers. I'm annoyed, Marc is annoyed, Franca is eerily happy. I think she knew what was coming. My baby has schadenfreude. I check my email on my phone. Yup. "1pm Sunday" not "1pm Saturday". Whoopsa. Marc, being the good husband that he is, didn't give me a hard time at all.

Sunday: I rush Marc around and make him stop cleaning/polishing the metal angle for the kitchen to *wake up* and then load up a grumpy, hungry Franca in the truck and go drive to pick up my rocker. We get there. I knock. A guy answers who has no idea why I'm there. Then he remembers. Then he tells me the craigslist seller just had to put her dog down today. He has no idea what chair I am referring to. Then he remembers. Then he leads us into the basement to get it. (I'm annoyed, why are you storing an upholstered chair in your basement?) The chair is buried under several other chairs, fabrics, car parts. Again, Franca is eerily happy in the basement. Weirdo.
He digs the chair out. I say, 'ok, does it rock?' (It didn't look like it did.) He lifts up the skirt and there are 4 solid legs. This is chair does not rock.
I am annoyed. Marc is annoyed. Franca is annoyed that we are leaving the basement.

We get into the truck. I check my email. It says:

"I was wondering if you still had this chair for sale and if it rocks?

I've been craigslist/antique mall stalking for an upholstered rocking chair that isn't too ugly or too expensive. I *almost* bought this one at an antiques place 2 weeks ago, but it had some cat hair on it that made me nervous and I knew the shape would be hard to reupholster.



A week ago I emailed about two promising chairs and heard nothing. Boo-hoo. I was about to give up, when I got an email about this chair.  It rocks, it has sort of clean lines that will be easier to reupholster!


Picking it up on Saturday!

I already went thru my fabric stash and found a really great black and white fabric to use! Anyone done any reupholstering? Or Scotch-guarding? Tips to share?

So, this party decoratingwas pretty challenging from a Martha Stewart-esk "make-everything-match" point of view. Not only did we have 95 extra foam fingers to deal with, my lovely husband decided that part of the decor need to be about squirrels (FC is slightly obsessed with them) AND I wanted to incorporate a collage of photos illustrating Franca's time on earth.

Squirrels & "A Life in Photos" & 95 Foam Fingers  


Hmmm.... I think I'm up for the challenge.


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We made a stop at a local party store, Bake it Pretty. They have an amazing website, but we Ashevillians are lucky enough to have a retail store right downtown. We picked up garland, party hats, toothpick pennants and the all-important plastic squirrels and squirrel cookie cutters. Here are some photos of the food spread:

My dad and I made this 3-layer cake with buttercream frosting.

With plastic squirrel toppers of course.

Cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto and goat cheese, cracker & baguette.

With the help of my awesome coworker, Tracy, I created a string of pennants with a photo for each week of Franca's 1st year with a smaller pennant calling out the day. (Many thanks also to Tracy for being the party photographer!)

Here we are, with Day 0 to Day 35 starting near the front door. Such a little peanut!

Sorry Thad, but you happen to be in the best photo of the pennants! (and what says happy first birthday better than Yuengling in a can?!)

Days 63- 77 running down the hallway. She is getting bigger!

Pennants around the dining room in the background.

And a little message at the end. (See how I tried to tie the foam finger in there with the "1st"?)

Of course, the party being her 367 day of life, her party hat had to have a Day 367 tag on it. Unfortunately, within the first 2 minutes of her wearing it, she snapped the string against her face and that was the end of that. Well, I look good in it too, right?

So what did we do with all those extra foam fingers? Here you go:

We stuck them above every doorway. Like this.

Hung them from the front porch.

On ribbon.

And stuck them on the stair rail. Fit perfectly!

And put them pretty much everywhere else too!

We put them on the fireplace along with all of Franca's artwork from the past year.

It was a pretty good party. Most importantly, Franc was surrounded by people she loves and who love her right back!

Like her Nonno. And all the other wonderful people: