my new chairs!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I snuck in yet another traveling/family post last week that I forgot to post on the fb wall, so check it out if you'd like to see more lake, puppy, fam jam pics! 

I FINALLY stayed in Birmingham this weekend. I feel like it's the first time since May! I got some projects done that I had been wanting to do, like painting this table for the booth:

She desperately needed a makeover. I'm sealing it today, so I'll try to have some pictures of the finished product up this week! 

The most exciting thing that happened this weekend: I sold my leather chairs and was able to put my new midcentury modern beauties in the den! And my new, I mean new to me. They are definitely the real thing. Authentic. Original. Glorious. 

I found them on Auburn's Craigslist. I was helping Murray list his couch, and these were the second listing under furniture (which means they had just been listed). I immediately contacted the girl, because she had them listed for $25 EACH!!!!!! FIFTY DOLLARS FOR BOTH!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?! I almost had a fainting spell. My sweet little sissy picked them up for me in Auburn. Looking back, she probably listed them for that low due to the fact that there are a couple of stains on the cushions (I turned them over) and a few worn spots on the arms. I figured someday down the road after I had worn the fabric completely out, I would recover them.

Look at those arm angles!! 

Close up of the fabric. I love that it's original and still in style. Geometrics are definitely in. The fabric has a slight sheen that you can't see in this picture. The light picks up certain triangles depending on which angle you're looking at them. 

 I had originally thought I wanted to dye the fabric since the couches are almost the same color. Once I got them in here, they definitely pick up the couch color, so for now I think I'm just going to leave them as be. I could change my mind down the road though.. 

Diesel modeled amongst the pillows. I had thought to dye the chairs the blue color in these pillows. There is a navy/dark royal dresser in the dining room that would've tied into them as well. 

But when you're in here, the lighter colors really lighten up the space. See how nice they look with the current couch and loveseat? That is Katie's coffee table, and I know she won't always be here, so I'm constantly brainstorming on what to replace it with.. I love glass tables, but I work on string art here, so hammering + glass = no bueno. But that's a problem for another day.

View into the dining room. Please ignore the wood pile(s) and table waiting to be redone back there. The lighting is weird from this angle, but the green room matches the curtains in the den. It's not as kelly green as this angle shows. 

Yet another angle! Gah, I LOVE THEM! 

Hot legs! How many midcentury legs are too many?! 

Don't forget, the TV is also midcentury. I might end up switching out the side table between the chairs so it doesn't look too matchy-matchy. 

I'm still digging this side chair I scored at the thrift store. It hides the junked up gaming shelves so well (wii and xbox at the top, board games at the bottom). I really need a solution to those cords down there. 

I'm about to updated the living room tab at the top with some of these pics, but go click on it if you'd like to see the before pics! One last time of my lovelies: 

Ahhhh! 

lake weekend

Murray and I went to the lake this past weekend, mainly to celebrate my dad's birthday, but also for some delicious food! Yep, my ma and dad's birthdays are within about 3 weeks of each other! They both turned the big 6-0 this year! 

Dad always lights the grill with a propane flame thrower thing. I have no idea what the real name for it is, but it gets the charcoal ready in about 20 seconds.  

We had steaks and corn that Friday night. Afterwards, I worked on my class reunion invitations! My 10 year reunion will be in September this year, and of course I volunteered to do the invites and address the envelopes (along with being on the committee, duh) . I'll post close ups in another post soon! 

I turned around to shout I'M FINISHED! when I saw this.. Dad and Murray sleeping. 

(Yes, the Christmas tree is still up. If you recall from earlier in the year, dad is trying to pull all the needles off so it is a bare branch tree. His deadline was 4th of July, but it's clearly been extended). 

Two of a kind.

Dad is the king of the remote, and his favorite things to watch at the lake is as follows: 

ACM, aka old as dirt movies

black and white movies with no words

SPEED network, aka drag racing or car building stuff

golf

football if it's football season

and rarely, something I choose if he happens to fall asleep

If I had to pick any of the above, it would be football, but naturally that doesn't happen during the summer! (so I guess I'd pick that he'd be asleep so I could choose). This past weekend on Sunday, there was a replay of the best college football games of 2012. WOOO! This was the most interested I'd been in the TV at the lake since Thanksgiving of last year (when there was tons of football to be played). I try so hard to get into the old movies, but when he changes the channel every commercial and doesn't return for 20 minutes, it's really hard to follow! 

Once I realized they were donez-o, I put it on HGTV. Dad promptly woke up an demanded the remote back. #rude

On Saturday, we went to Chuck's Marina for some pizza! It was a gloooorious day! 

Dad and Murray wanted a Chimney Rock pizza (with everything on it) and I wanted a pepperoni one, so we got half and half. Chuck's was PACKED and it took almost an hour to get our food, but it was totally worth it. I made dad smile with his birfday pizza. 

Is that the most epic mustache you've ever seen, or what?!? 

Soooo dad's birthday was 7/17, a Wednesday. I came by the lake the weekend before, and his cousins had thrown him a surprise party! I wasn't able to get there, but I came through the Sunday afterwards (but before his actual bday). I asked him what he wanted for his big 6-0 and he said "ice cream cake".  Done and done. I brought one to the lake for us to eat on all weekend.. 

When we got back to the house after Chuck's, this is what I found. I brought this thing at 6pm on Friday. We left the house at 11am on Saturday on the boat to go to Chuck's...

There were only three of us there. 

This thing was like 20" wide. Dad has no self control when there is ice cream in the freezer.  He ate a couple of slices before dinner (we all did), a couple after, and a couple more around midnight. Murray and him admitted eating more of it for breakfast before I woke up. BASICALLY a cake one would have for 24 or so people lasted us less than 24 hours. haha! 

Murray and I ran up to the gas station before dinner on Saturday. I hung out the window to get these shots.  

The sky was lovely! 

Dad asked what we wanted for dinner on Saturday. He has steak and shrimp. Do yall want both?!? he asked.

DUH! 

Dad buys a whole cut of ribeye at Sam's Club and carves the steak himself. They are DELICIOUS. All he does is sprinkle some garlic salt on them before grilling them about 2 minutes on each side. Rare = perfection in our household. 

He boiled the shrimp, but we also did a batch  on the stovetop. They were equally as yummy. 

Posing! hahaha

I shared this shot on Instagram. We didn't have any sides, unless you count the shrimp! haha That's how we do here. Meatatarians. Yep, that steak is almost bigger than the plate. My mouth is watering just looking at it! You better believe I took all the leftovers home (and fought anyone who tried to eat them before I could bring them up to bham!). 

Sunday we woke up, and it was a bit cloudy in the am, but by lunch it had cleared up! We all went out to enjoy the sun, and naturally I brought along some work to do!

Can you think of a better work space?!? AHHH! 

I have lots of new invites to share, along with some new states of string arts, so look for those coming up! 

stream of consciousness: summer edition

If you're new to these parts, stream of consciousness posts are just random things that are going on in my little life! 

This has been a summer of traveling and fam jam time for me, with Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Dewey's wedding, Ma's Bday, Father's Day, the 4th, and coming up dad's bday! PHEW! For Fourth of July, I went to Auburn for a night before heading to the lake. I stopped by AuburnArt to check out the new Toomer's Tree replica! It's amaze balls! 

Do you spy my string art?! Prime location, yall! 

Binky and I decided to be festive on the 4th by dressing up all 'merican-like. First we both had on eagle shirts.. 

Then Binky let me borrow an epic blue jean, cut off sleeve, button up shirt with American flag pocket flaps and collar. I wore it with pride! 

I went to the lake shortly thereafter, and if you were anywhere in the Southeast, you recall that it rained FOR FOUR DAYS STRAIGHT. All day. Barely any time with the sun out at all. We tried to go on a quick boat ride when we got there..

But it started raining after 3 minutes. The pups were thrilled. 

Dad, Toni, and Don stayed at the back

while Murray and I endured the rain pelting us. 

I think I've scarred the pups with the rain ride. The only reason they got on in the first place was that dad put a towel on his head (like when you get out of the shower) and they didn't recognize him! Just jumped right on the boat. Below you can see them staring him down since he had removed it by this point. 

If you're new here, they are TERRIFIED of my dad. He scared them when they were pups by jumping at them, and they've never recovered haha! 

That night, our slough was full of people shooting fireworks! They pushed the big Kowaliga fireworks show back until Friday night, so we just had these to enjoy. 

At one point, one flew over our heads, and a piece of it landed on the dock. Crazy!

iPhones aren't the best for capturing fireworks.. 

The pups were terrified of the noise, so we let them inside. You know their scared when they'd rather be in the same room as dad than be outside. I guess they haven't been acclimated to fireworks.. Did you know that more dogs run away on 4th of July than any other day because of the fireworks? Secure your pups, people! 

This was pretty much our view the ENTIRE time. 

So what did we do? We ate. and ate. and ate. 

Steaks, burgers, shrimpies, oh my! 

Don't worry, the string art and invitation orders are still rolling along, however I haven't done many new states so I didn't think yall would want to see another blog post dedicated to a location I'd already done. Texas is still the #1 ordered on Etsy, along with lots of Auburn stuff for AuburnArt. The dated one below was Auburn with a date for a couple who got married. 

The week after the Fourth of July, the some of the family on my ma's side met up down at Panama City Beach. I drove to Dothan and we rode down together. We went out on the beach once we arrived, and it was gloooorious (especially after about 9 days of rain in a row).

I present to you some typical beach scenery pics:  

The fam leaving the beach.

We discussed getting matching airbrushed tshirts, and for some reason we waited until the last night before going to look. They were going to make us wait overnight, and everyone was leaving the next day so we opted out. SAD! 

Aren't these couples shirts hilarious?!

"Why do you go on so many family vacas, Rachel? Can't you opt out of some?" Well, yes, I suppose I could, but do you know what one of the best perks is? My parents feeding me. I know you agree. It's like you're still their baby bird, and they're not going to let you go hungry.

And what comes with these feeding frenzies?

LEFTOVERSSSSS! For the last three weeks, my fridge and tum tum have been full. BBQ from mom's bday party, steak from the lake, and fish, corn, etc from the beach. Dad's steak lasts about 3 meals. Just tonight I made steak nachos with melted cheese and salsa from Mexican Connection in Dothan. YUMMM!

I may die from too much red meat.

In a totally off-vaca-subject...

Look at these awesome chairs I scored off Craigslist last week! I LOOOOOOVE THEM! 

 I'm going to paint/dye the fabric, so get ready for a tutorial on that coming up! There are a few stains on them that I need to get out, but that shouldn't be too hard. I love the pattern on the fabric, which will still be evident after the dye. I'll do a better close up once I start so you can see just how awesome it is. And these are LEGIT mid century, yall. Most chairs I've run across have been recovered, but this is the original! EEE! 

They'll be replacing these guys below, which I've already sold on Mountain Brook Trading on Facebook. It's an awesome/hectic/crazy group on there where people can post items they want to sell, and the first to comment gets it. Awesome! I've posted a couple of things, and I've had good experiences overall. If you live in the Birmingham area, you should join the group! There are several other groups like this in the area (Vestavia Trading, Homewood Trading, Resale 280), but I think MBT is the biggest and gets the most action. 

The reason I'll be dyeing the new ones is that the couch and loveseat in the den are both off white, and the colors clash. I'm thinking navy, or maybe a goldish yellow, OR I had a moment where I thought ORANGE! yesterday while I was looking at tutorials online for painting fabric. 

WHAT DO YALL THINK?! You can click at the "living room" tab at the top to see the colors in there with better lighting. If I did orange, I'd have to redo the room, sooo that's a big negative. But a change could be good.. 

decisions, decisions.