The Chairs

I had been searching for the perfect kitchen chairs for my apartment for a long while, but never came across the right ones. Last week I stumbled across this little gem in Value Village..

It is that wonderful mid century style I love and it is a very solid piece, but the fabric was worn and stained and the wood was scratched, and of course there was only one. Still, for $3.99 I couldn't pass it up. With a little effort, it would be just right.

I picked up some wood oil, foam, and chose some wonderful echino fabric from my stash, and got to work.

Pulling off the old foam was quite a chore, but stapling on the new was almost therapeutic.

Then came the fabric..

I am so happy with the result! I decided to keep the chair back in wood. There are some tiny holes from where staples used to be, but they are not very noticeable.

My lonely chair needed a mate. In lieu of a matching mate, I pulled up a wooden chair from my parents' basement that would suffice.

In order to coordinate them a little, I quickly sewed up a seat cushion in the same fabric (you can see the first chair, mid-makeover in the background). I had just enough! It is quite thin, with only three layers of organic cotton batting inside, but it is thick enough to keep bums comfy and warm through the winter months. I am so happy with my mismatched chairs!

Right Now...

There is mama and five four week old kittens, rescued from an awful situation, taking up temporary refuge in our finished basement. There is a lot of nursing, cudding, and playful antics for the kittens, and eating and gaining strength for mama.

There is a lot of reassuring and attention giving to the four permanent animal residents.

There is a lot of harvesting from the garden. Blackberries and tomatoes by the bowlful!

There is a lot of last minute crafting before the big move.

There is a lot of anticipation, preparation, excitement, and some sadness and worry.

And some last minute thrifting.

There are good friends, good food, and summer celebrations.

There are a lot of long days out in the sun, soaking up the last bits of this summer.

And things are good. Yes, they are oh, so good.

Garden Treats.

I deeply enjoy nuturing a garden, seeing a plant from seed to fruit and watching the growth and change from year to year. Being able to pick something from the garden and use it in our meals feels good. Summer is the busiest time for harvesting, but we do get little treats during the Spring and Fall. The very first garden gift we receive in the Spring is Rhubarb. We usually use it to make one of my favourite treats - rhubarb crisp.

The stalks are big and sturdy, bright green with a hint of pink. The leaves are huge! They are nice to have in the garden, away from Lola since they can be poisonous to dogs. We have had the same rhubarb plant for years and years.

To make the crisp we mix our own granola and cut up strawberries and peeled rhubarb. We still have to wait a while for strawberries from our own garden.

Then we add a simple orange custard.

The finished product usually looks a lot nicer, but we put too much rhubarb in the dish and it boiled over. It was still delicious, despite the mess!

Playing with the peelings is optional, but kind of fun.

What is growing in your garden?

The First Photos of May.

Rescued kittens at the Toronto Cat Rescue adoptathon! I was there for eleven hours straight, but we did have a few adoptions which is great.

Moving to Peterborough! I'll be slowly moving in over the summer and will be living there full time starting in September.

My Lily of the Valley are coming up!

A new Pyrex bowl.

April in Photos.

Part two of the 365 photo dump!

March in Photos.

I haven't posted any of my 365 pictures since the beginning of March! I am still doing the project and am going to make a couple posts in order to catch up. Here is March!

Fridgie Straps

A while ago we cleared out the Tupperware drawer and started using glass for food storage instead. We find that it's not only safer, but it lasts a lot longer. My vintage Pyrex collection was put to use, especially the refrigerator dishes. They're cute, fun, and great for storage!

In a few months time I'll be living in Peterborough during the week, and I began thinking about food transport since I will often be bringing up leftovers with me. I didn't want to turn back to the Tupperware, but the lids on my fridgies only sit on top. There is nothing to secure them. I decided to sew up some velcro straps to hold them together during transport to avoid food spilling out.

Of course, this only works with solid food. Soups and liquids will still leak out the sides. For those I use mason jars or a thrifted ceramic lunch container with a silicone lid. I've tried some of those glass tupperware containers with the plastic lids, but I've found that most leak too.

The straps were very quick and easy to make. I sewed up the straps just like I'd sew up a purse strap, and then sewed a strip of velcro on each end. The straps for the small and medium fridgies are 18 inches long, with almost 5 inches overlap. The strap for the larger fridgie is 24 inches long with about 5 inches overlap. I used 4 inches of velcro on each strap to ensure a good hold, but less length and velcro could be used. This is a great project for using up those fabric scraps. I ended up with a collection of fabric strips and edges left over from old projects, so I dug into that for this one.

What would be even cuter - vintage fabrics that coordinate with the dishes. I'm picturing one of my flickr friend's vintage fabric collection for this. Amazing.

My mom asked why I didn't just use an elastic band to hold the lids on. I guess I could have done that, but this is a lot more fun!