New Life to an Ottoman…

We were given this lovely ottoman when we moved in.

We were in love with its size (almost 3 ft. by 4 ft.) and it’s softness, just not its style.  So I pulled it apart, and luckily Andrew was willing to help because there were WAY more staples holding this thing together than I had imagined.  We probably pulled out close to 1,000 staples.

I couldn’t leave it in this naked state for very long because Olivia thought it was great fun to pull the stuffing apart.  I found some striped fabric that I liked and started cutting and stapling and sewing.  The only hard part was the buttons.  If I’d had an upholstery needle it would have been a cinch… but I didn’t.  My first attempt was with a wooden chopstick.  I sharpened the end to a point and carved a groove in the other end to tie the string onto.  It actually worked great, on the first button, but then it broke off in the middle when I tried the next button.   I was scouring the house trying to find something that would work to thread through 6 inches of padding and getting nowhere.  Then Andrew, the brilliant husband that he is, came in and suggested using a crochet hook.  I hadn’t thought of doing it that way and it worked marvelously.  I’m glad I married some brains.

The rest was easy-peasy.  I sewed a hem around the skirt, ironed in some pleats and started stapling away again…

What do you think?

 

I felt pretty bold in my fabric choice, but I really wanted some color in this room.

My Sweet Pea is Walking!

Can you believe Olivia is already 11 months old?! In all actuality, Sweet Pea has been walking for about 3 weeks.  She has gotten very good at it and chooses to walk most of the time now, unless she is in a hurry and then crawling is still faster.  She has mastered the stairs, going up and down, which is a huge relief to me since we have lots of stairs in our new house.  The only times she falls are when she turns around to see who is behind her or she starts showing off and dancing on the stairs.

She rips bows our of her hair as fast as I can put them in.  Last week I tried putting three bows in her hair, she ripped one out with each hand and the third one stayed for ten minutes.  That’s a record for us.  But today she found she could rip them all out in five seconds flat.  Oh well, I guess when you are this cute, you don’t need a flower.