A Mini Makeover

Summer has officially arrived in the Burke household. Oh the joys of being teachers. Three months of bliss. Now that we're somewhat free, I thought I'd at least update the blog!

This mini makeover occurred a few months ago, but has yet the grace the pages of the internet.

Evan and I wanted a bench for our odd little kitchen nook, so we hunted one down in our favorite store, Craigslist. We came across this cutie and thought she could use an update.

Those odd floral butt pads had no cushion whatsoever, so the comfort factor had to be improved, not to mention the fabric reminded me of the embroidered purse my grandma had in her closet.

Thankfully my mother in law has a stockpile of fabric. We picked out a gray-ish pattern that was once used for curtains and got to work.

First, we cut the foam using a turkey knife. Seriously, it works so well.

We also didn't want the separate butt pads, so we just covered the whole thing. Made so much more sense to me!

Then we added the fabric and voila! Major transformation in about 20 minutes time. We may paint it some day--the wood isn't so pretty on the legs, but this project was done before we actually moved into the house, so we didn't want to make any rash decisions.

Oh and the original idea of her sitting in the kitchen didn't work. The proportions were all off. So we are still in search of something to fill our kitchen nook that will give us some storage and a place to drop all our stuff. This cutie ended up in living room underneath my favorite shutters and is lovingly accessorized with one of my mother in law's pillows. I like the mix of patterns and the fact that we only paid for the bench!! Yay for cheap and easy mini makeovers!

Happy Birthday, MD!

Marin Dog turned 2 today! Of course, this is a made up birthday. We have no way of knowing exactly how old our pound puppy really is, but April 10th is her special day. So to go along with this ridiculous made up birthday, I thought I would put together a cheesy post about the birthday girl!

We know its silly to celebrate a dog as much as we do, but this animal has brought us much love, lots of laughter, and has been a special treat to our lives. We will always adore our first "baby." Some people thought we were crazy to get a sickly pit bull, but she's been so wonderful.

Look at how far she's come!
 

First day bringing her home. She weighed a whopping 23lbs.

Look at that skinny face!

Playing in her first backyard.

And you can see the mange is this picture. Poor baby was so sad when we got her.

And now look at this grown up girl.

Traveling to new states...Hiking in the mountains...And carrying her own pack.

She looks like a little panther... No mange here!

Graduating from intermediate obedience class.

Marin has been with us through lots of changes. She's lived in 4 different homes- which meant different jobs for us and different cities. She was my constant through those changes. Truly. Jesus and Marin got me through some rough months of adjusting to our life as we moved around! Evan and I joked that I talked to Marin more last summer than I did anyone else!

So...Happy Birthday to my 40lb. lap dog! You are loved (probably too much)!

 

Behold the Ottoman...

Since I last posted, lots has happened. Well, one really big change that makes everything seem new and different. We bought a house! A whole house. We paid for it. Still blows my mind and then the monthly mortgage check comes in the mail and I settle back into reality.

We love our little 1960 home. Wood floors, brick entry, 10 (count em- ten) closets, one very wonderful sun room and a backyard. We feel like kings. We own trees!

As we've been setting up house (read: buying random stuff off of Craigslist to fill all the space), I realized that now we have this huge living room we needed something new... Our coffee table looked dinky... Our feet needed somewhere to go... We needed a ginormous ottoman.

This was what I envisioned:

Source: ballarddesigns.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Price tag: around $300-400
I pinned about 9 versions of this on Pinterest. I hoped. I dreamed.
I showed Evan and we decided the inevitable: since we can't afford it, we'll make it.

First step: buy cheap coffee table on Craigslist with cute legs. Cute legs and size were the only determining factors... this guys was u-g-l-y but only $25. Score.

Second step: buy fabric. This is where my all knowing mother-in-law came is super handy.  I already have about 5 other fabrics working in this room so it was tricky... She took me to the fabric mecca in Dallas and I found a neutral with some color and a vintage vibe. Done.

Third Step: Disassemble ugly coffee table and prep for transformation. Sand legs, paint the same gray-green as my mother-in-laws cabinets. Convenient and free.

Fourth Step: have wonderful husband cut ply wood to serve as a base. Oh and duct tape the odd little drawers that existed in the ugly table.

Fifth Step: Haul all parts and materials to mother-in-law's garage so that when the tricky parts or troubleshooting occur there is another brain besides mine involved in the decision making. We made the tufting buttons, cut the foam, covered with batting, and got to stapling. I won't go into the issues that almost stumped us, but this was a much bigger project than I originally thought it would be.

Sixth Step: Get those darn tufting button sewn on. We struggled to find a better (actually possible) way other than threading a super long needle through the holes we drilled beforehand, but after about 30 minutes of taking turns trying to get the needle back through the hole, we got smart. One skinny crochet hook got the job done.

Seventh Step: Scotch guard the crap out of it and enjoy!

If you really need a step by step, this girl did a great write up. DIY Tufted Ottoman.