Strikes my fancy

We bought this chair after we had seen an ad on Craigslist that cracked us up. Its funny what challenges you to buy something. The ad listed a chair in similar style for almost $800. (YIKES!!) Then it said it was "All original" and "Recently reupholstered". For some reason it cracked us up to read that. So we came across this beauty and decided we could do a little switch-a-roo with it too. D thoroughly enjoyed the duct tape seat. I took all the layers off, re-stuffed the bottom and then recovered it with a lovely modern material. Loved the result!

Creamed Spinach & Mushrooms (from Cooking Light) Ingredients 4 teaspoons canola oil, divided 8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms 1 (10-ounce) package baby spinach 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic 3/4 cup fat-free milk 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour   3/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Dash of nutmeg ...

A friend of mine was looking for a different looking entertainment center. She was going back and forth about whether or not to go for a painted piece or not.  When I found this piece at Goodwill, it needed a lot of TLC. But, it had potential. So I sent her a picture, told her it was $20, and asked if she would be interested in it.    It had character, and was structurally in pretty good shape. The handles and metal pieces were quite neat. The finish was just kinda wanting.   When I started to work on it, I decided I had to sand the top. At first, I thought I had probably shot myself in the foot. Being veneer, I wasn't sure if it would sand well or not. But, it was worth a try. I ended up with the two tones you can see above. The top is sanded and re-stained. The bottom has the original finish.  The grain that showed through was absolutely beautiful! So I sanded the whole piece and re-stain...

Case in point this piece of furniture.   I bought this piece almost 3 years ago at a yard sale.  When I bought it some of the drawer bottoms were coming apart and it was green (I know, it's hard to see in this photo!).  It also had these twig and leaf nobs.  Well, the one thing I did immediately was change the nobs (see the very bottom one above).  I knew I wanted to paint the piece, but didn't know what color. Fast forward THREE YEARS and it's finally done!  A soft yellow.  Unfortunately I can't tell you the exact color because I just added white to a yellow I had at home until it became the color I was looking for.  I also finally fixed the drawer bottoms....not sure why that took me three years!   Before - green                                ...

Chicken with Zucchini & Feta (from laaloosh.com) Ingredients 1 lb skinless boneless chicken breasts 3 medium zucchini, sliced into half moons 1 lemon, sliced 1/4 cup parsley, chopped 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 cup fat free feta cheese Salt and pepper to taste Instructions Preheat oven to 400. Spray a medium sized roasting pan or baking dish with non-fat cooking spray. Slice one lemon into thin slices and cover bottom of roasting pan with them. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper and place them on top of lemon slices. In a medium sized bowl, toss together the zucchini, parsley, oregano, oil, garlic, and salt & pepper. Spread the zucchini mixture evenly over then chicken, then sprinkle with the feta cheese. Cover pan with foil, and make a few holes to allow for steam escape. Place in oven and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken breasts are cooked through. Serve immediatel...

I am not nearly as talented as my younger sister - nor do I get to tackle as many projects as she does...but every once in awhile I get to dabble.  And I get to phone a friend (aka the sister who normally does these things) every couple of days when I'm stuck. Almost 2 years ago I got a set of 6 dining chairs off of FreeCycle.  They were 90s brown with a blue printed cushion (kicking myself again for deleting that picture).  My plan was to use them when I had a dining room...and then I moved to an even smaller space.  So it was time to act! I started by removing the cushions, staining and then painting the chairs black.  (only 5 were usable).                                       Then I picked out this cool fabric and got to cover all of them....