My sisters Dining chairs were looking a little shabby and dull (and dirty) so we figured they needed freshning up.  There are various styles of dining chairs, drop seats are the easiest to cover,  for these however we had to unscrew the seats.  As it turned out this wasn't a very hard job to do.  My advice is, just take your time.... 

What you need

Old Dining room chairs

Fabric (we used two different types)

Staple gun (and staples)

Screw driver

Scissors

Chair before

1) Take the seat off the chair (if you have a drop seat or screwed on seat like here).  Mark on the underside of the chair which side is the back of the seat near the back support for when you've the seat covered.

2)  Either lay the seat on your fabric or mesure the seat to get the idea for the amount of fabric you want to use.  Cut your fabric allowing about 2" all round (4") for tucking and stapling the fabric.  Then Staple the fabric leaving the corners till last so that you can cut and tidy them up

3) Check which way the seat is marked (which you did before you unscrewed it) and place it carefully back on the chair frame.  Rescrew it back on.

The difference a couple of yards of scrap fabric can make!!

Well, Ionia and I finally got around to pimping some junk!!  We're both loathed to throw out stuff and we love making and crafts so we decided to get together and pool our resources.  I wanted to make pretty first aid kit out of a wine box, and she wanted to turn an old white board and a very large collection of corks into a cork board.

After oohing and aahing over pictures to look for inspiration, we got started.  In fairness there's only so far you can get in a couple of hours so I've only got the starter pics here of the two of us messing about and... er... light refreshments however, we've been very encouraged by others who'll be joining us in a few weeks.  So to start, well, Ionia cut all the corks in half ( so they go further and are easier to handle.  Then she laid them out in a square basket patternShe glued them with a glue gun (remember our make and do kit??).

Ionia discovered although she had three boxes of corks you need heaps for this project and has covered 40% of the board, so while she's collecting more (attention folk in Galway, do keep your wine corks and keep in touch we need about fifty more!!) she covered the rest of the board in linen fabric to pin pictures to.

Ionia and her corks..

Mean while  I got cracking on my medican cabinet/first aid kit/ apothecary box. 

I have to admit, there wasn't enough time for the paint to dry on the night so I'm still working on it, then again perhaps I got distracted half way through the project

So by next week I should have the full project uploaded and explained.  I suspect Ionia will still be collecting corks.  We meet again at the begining of December.  Dunno know where yet.  Another friend Orlaigh has offered to do a book making workshop,  perfect for making home made photo albums and gifts for Christmas.  Now there's a though

Well folks, I'm due another de-clutter or rather re-organisation of the clutter I have.  To figure out what I have to do however, I've gotta give the house a good going over.  I remember stumbling across a book in the Library in Irishtown (waiting to do an audition) and it was an entire book on how to clean your house and when. Very useful, full of homemade cleaning solutions and all that jazz.  Basicly it was a "how to keep and manage a home" book.  I've been mooching about online and in library's to see if I come across it but vain alas... I can't find it anywhere. 

Seriously, I don't want my house to end up looking like this!!!  I'd be mortified if I had to call Kim & Aggie!!

Anyway,  I did come across some great tips and put them together to give you an idea of what needs doing.

Now if only I could follow my own advise....

* Perform deep treatment on your home: clean and declutter, change seasonal clothing, clean out drawers, closets, under-sink storage, purge clothing, extra CDs, DVDs, books, and furniture.