crafty new chair

At the end of the school year this May, a lot of our neighbors and fellow school employees were leaving permanently. This resulted in a lot of random things in and around the dumpster outside- things that were in perfectly good shape, but people didn't want to bother hauling them out of here.

 

One lady threw away a huge collection of unopened custom greeting cards; they were untarnished by the rest of the dumpsters contents, so I quickly snagged them, along with an armful of brand-new looking hangers. Hey, I'm not too proud to save useful stuff from a landfill!

 

One day I got a cute wooden little side table with shelves, and magazine holders on each side. It fit perfectly into the kids' room, especially since for some time now we'd been looking for something to hold all their extra books that would fit in the small space we had.

 

Another lady left a twin mattress and box springs, as well as a cute chair. She was still loading her truck when I spotted the items, so I asked her if the chair had any issues. It appeared to be a wood framed chair with brown non-descript cushions, and the mattresses were resting on top of it. She assured me that the chair was fine and was actually a rocking chair! In addition, she told me the mattresses were fine too, and I could take them if I wanted.

 

Jonah had been asking when he could get a big bed (he's still in the toddler bed) and these were in perfect condition. In fact, they'd been in plastic zip-up covers so they still looked brand new. Yay!

 

So the chair had the cushions upside down. When I turned them over, we (my mom was with me visiting, did I mention that?) discovered an unexpected pattern of colored patches that was sooo me. Yes, there was the hole too, but with mom there, we could make quick work of that!

 

 

 

I sewed a few patches on the sewing machine (there was something to repair on both sides) then my mom  hand-stitched the patch onto the cushion faster than I ever could. Because the pattern is patchwork anyway, it could pass as an accent.

 

Don't we all look so crafty and creative?
Okay, it was hot and humid, so we're a little disheveled.

 

 

And just like that, I got a cool new chair. I think Joseph likes it even more than I do, as it is quite wide and he can sit and rock comfortably- he has taken to dragging it over to the computer in the evenings when we watch shows together.
 

 

 

I'm glad we rescued these items just in time too, it started to rain right after we brought them in the house!

Oh, and if you were wondering what Elora was making in the photo above, she was making a new bracelet for grandma! It says "Love" and has a heart, though it's hard to see in the photo (purple on pink). She worked really hard on it...now grandma can be so fancy!