travel Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Slipcovers by Shelley

White duck cloth chairs

October 17, 2016 by Shelley

My client wanted to transform her old chairs into white duck cloth chairs. She priced out getting all new chairs from IKEA and decided it was about the same, but the difference was her old chairs were way better built and more comfortable. I think she made the right choice! Anytime you have a great shape and frame it makes sense to breathe new life into it with slipcovers. Quality matters. I won’t buy boots or kids shoes unless they are real leather. I won’t by a leather couch unless it’s top grain leather, not bonded leather. I like things to hold up and last.
Chair–BEFORE– great scale and nice lines.

After—Set of white chairs with custom slipcovers

The back cushions were a bit flat, so I wrapped a new layer of batting on them.
Self lined skirt

Kiss pleats on the upper corners of back cushions.

SIDE NOTES–I have a new idea! I’ve been wanting to do an Airbnb of some sort after listening to a podcast called Shampoo and Booze (they are super frugal and creative in making a living), and stumbled upon this idea while Heber was away on a river trip. I’ve always wanted to renovate an old camper, but could never justify the expense for two camping trips a year. I love sewing, projects, and trips–this couldn’t be more perfect for me!

Here’s my idea–Renovate vintage camper and rent it out for $75/night and people can take it wherever they want. I’ll have nice sheets, down comforters, duvets, vintage awning with solar lights, outdoor rug, vintage aluminum webbed chairs, etc.

Within two days of Heber getting home we purchased this 1975 roadrunner camper. I’ve already done a ton of work on it! Painted the outside, painted the inside, sewed all new cushions, curtains, replaced flooring, and backsplash. I’ve ordered a wide black and white stripe outdoor fabric to make a vintage awning with a scalloped edge.

Heber–You shouldn’t leave me unattended with my thoughts for more than a day or two–

I just finished painting the outside last weekend! I couldn’t be happier. It’s turning out exactly how I wanted.

Here’s a peek on the inside. There are two beds (queen and just smaller than a full), plus two bunk beds for small kids. Oven, stove top, heater, sink, and refrigerator. NO bathroom. We figured we didn’t want to mess with 4o yr old plumbing, and most of the time you would be at a campground with restrooms.

Christmas Isn’t an Excuse for a Free for All

November 23, 2015 by Shelley

Ok–I’ve been called a scrooge in the past, because I don’t enjoy the commercialization of Christmas. Here are my thoughts on the whole Christmas thing…Heber and I haven’t bought gifts for each other for years–In the early years of our marriage we just did stalkings for each other, now we forego all gifts and go on a couples trip every January together instead. I’d rather put $ into making memories than filling up our house with more stuff.

Christmas isn’t an excuse for a free for all! Just because it’s Christmas, doesn’t mean you should spend $ you DON’T have on gifts.

If you don’t have much $ and are feeling pressure to put gifts on credit cards, because you feel obligated. This is WRONG! It is not a NEED to give gifts! No one wants you to go into debt to give them a gift they didn’t know they needed or even wanted. To be honest in years past, we have bought the kids random trinkets and gifts and they always end up lost/broken by the end of January–we should’ve saved our $!

Just because it’s Christmas, doesn’t mean we are entitled to buying more stuff! Somehow the following answer is always accepted, “Oh, we are getting that for Christmas”–like that makes the $ magically appear that you didn’t have. We need to change this upcoming generation to be more grateful than entitled. Ask them, “What are you giving for Christmas?” instead of “What do you want for Christmas?”

How many times have people asked you what you want for Christmas or a birthday? And you answer “nothing” because you really don’t NEED anything. Why are we all scurrying around buying stuff that isn’t needed or wanted?

I am not saying to cancel Christmas, just be more creative/frugal in the gift giving. Our kids don’t need $500 worth of stuff each to feel the Christmas spirit. “If you can’t find the Christmas spirit in your heart, you aren’t going to find it under the tree” said one of my son’s friends. Here are some of my favorite ideas for Christmas.

–Free Christmas-Name of the game for the whole family, $0 gifts. It’s a fun game. Find stuff you have and “gift” it. Maybe it’s a jewelry box you’ve had kicking around that you don’t super love, but you know your niece would LOVE it. Maybe it’s an old soccer jersey that you wore a ton and have outgrown, but know it would be your younger brothers new prized possession if you gave it to him.

–Homemade Christmas–I love making/receiving homemade gifts, I always feel like they mean more. Baked goods, sew a purse, make a knife (my sons latest obsession), tie a quilt, repurpose stuff you have around the house, etc. There are always tons of ideas online.

wallet made out of grandpa’s old shirts

apron made out of grandma’s old table cloth

–Sentimental gifts–I love these the most! I’ve cut up my grandma and grandpas old clothes and have made the grandkids aprons, wallets, teddy bears, etc. I’ve put old letters in a photo box for my mom. I’ve made stuff out of Heber’s Grandma’s old linens (turned a table cloth into an apron for his sister). Memory jars were a HUGE hit with my parents–all the kids wrote down funny memories or stories from when we were growing up and put them in a jar. My parents relished these for the whole afternoon, reading them and laughing and crying, and learning about all the naughty things us kids did. Much more heart warming than a new set of knives!

–needs–stuff you’d buy anyways! Socks, underwear, a new coat, etc.

–Thrift Store christmas– My kids and I love shopping thrift stores. Look for the good, quality brands. I can always find something anytime I stop in. Eddie Bauer Sorel boots $6. REI outdoor shirt $5. Rubbish brand jacket $6. Spider brand ski pants $20. You’d be surprised with what you find and how little you spend!

Christmas at a beach house in California

–Trip–One of my favorite Christmas’s was when we decided to make memories instead of give gifts. It was MAGIC, we rented a beach house in California for the week with my sister’s family. We did stockings for the kids and that was it. We went for walks every morning and collected shells, watched the dolphins, went to the tide pools, made cinnamon rolls, hot tubbed 3 times/day, and had campfires. Yes, I understand this isn’t cheap–but I’d rather spend $ on a trip than buy extra clutter and stuff for the kids that they don’t need.

Sledding the driveway at the cabin

–Gift of time together–with extended family, plan a day to be together and eliminate the unnecessary gift giving. Sledding, movies, stories, dance party, crafts, card games, etc.

Linen Couch and Chair

January 10, 2015 by Shelley

My designer client wanted to have me slipcover this couch for her clients master bedroom. She wanted a tan linen couch and chair done. It was a chocolate velour fabric and had finials screwed in on the top back corners. We removed the fancy finials and filled holes with batting. She also wanted batting to cover the nailhead trim on the arms. I simply staple gunned batting in those areas before putting slipcover on.

Couch–BEFORE

Couch–AFTER! She chose a heavyweight linen look fabric that had a backing on it. She wanted to add some extra detail, hence the extra skirt pleat. We also made all the pillows with pleat ruffle detail. The pillow in the very center was a double flange mitered pillow–she saw a pic of one at some fancy hotel and took a pic of it to show me. I thought about it for a few days and figured out how to make one.

Here’s a close up of the double flange mitered pillow! I love the way it turned out! Definitely time consuming, but kind of fun to do something different that I hadn’t done before. I am thinking of possibly doing a video tutorial for it, if I have enough interest to warrant the effort. Let me know if you are interested.

In the same master bedroom my client wanted to slipcover this traditional dark chenille fancy chair to make it more casual. We used the same cream linen as the pillows on the couch. She wanted to make it super feminine with ties closures and a box pleat skirt.

SIDE NOTES— I took the second half of December off with my family. We skied a few times and spent a few nights at the cabin for Christmas. The kids were so excited—it finally snowed on Christmas day, so they had some fresh powder on the driveway to snowboard down. Then the day after Christmas we drove from Utah to LA to catch flights to Oahu!

Carter helped me make a homemade gift for his auntie Sarah out of his Great Grandmas old table cloth linens. It was super easy. Curved out the top by the arm pits, added ties and a pocket out of ticking stripe fabric.

Luke was all about getting a tree set up at the cabin and had it decorated in 3 min. flat before anyone else could help him! I love spending Christmas at the cabin! It’s a bit of an adventure hiking up the driveway with sleds of food and snow clothes, and it was 20 degrees inside when we got there. It takes a few hours to get the fire going and warm the place up. Then it took another day to get the kitchen sink to work (space heaters trying to warm up the pipes). No worries I just filled pots of water from the shower to dump in the sink to wash dishes. I love an adventure and a good story!

My sisters came up Christmas eve for some driveway sledding! The cousins loved it!

Next we headed to OAHU!! or as Luke says it…AWAHOO!

This pic was taken on the top of Chinaman’s hat!

We boogie boarded/waded to Chinaman’s hat (small island right of the coast) then hiked to the top! That was my favorite adventure for the trip. It took us 25 minutes to paddle over.

We found a turtle as big as Luke!

We also love our beach time!

Here’s how we kept our trip affordable—cause you know I am all about traveling for cheap!

1.Bought tickets on Allegiant Air for $440 roundtrip out of LAX and only paid for 1 checked bag.

Allegiant charges for carry on bags –but personal items are free. All the boys packed in a drawstring backpack (personal item) saving us $240! Tickets out of SLC, UT (where we live) were $900 each! We decided to drive to LAX to catch flights and save $2250. Since gas prices took a huge drop in the past month it only cost us $100 in gas to get to LA and back. We drove Hebers subaru impreza instead of my pilot. Less space, but better gas mileage.

2.Used Chase Sapphire credit card miles to book our rental car in Oahu–saving us $200!

3. Used Chase Sapphire credit card miles to pay for our Condo stay–saving us $750!

I had just gotten a new credit card offer in the mail 4months before our trip offering me 70,000 miles if I spent $5,000 in the first 3 months. WE put all our expenses on this card for 3 months, then used the cash back option and paid for the condo we f0und on VRBO.

4. Used Chase Sapphire credit card miles to book one hotel night in Barstow, Ca for the way home–saving us $100

Our flight came in at 8pm and we knew we wouldn’t want to drive 10 hours to get home that night. We opted for a 2 hour drive, and a quick hotel stay that included free breakfast.

5. I packed food for the drive to LA and made sandwiches for the plane ride. No way I wanted to pay $12/sandwich for 5 of us! Heber thought my hard vintage suitcase packed to the brim with bread, PB, honey, crackers, oranges, etc for the drive was hilarious–but he put up with my crazy idea anyhow! What a great man!

6. We shopped at Costco in Oahu for our groceries. We spent $200 for the week. We made all our meals in the condo, except for the buffet dinner we had at the Polynesian Cultural Center (which ended up being free–our friends parents volunteer there and hooked us up!)

7.We got discount tickets to the Polynesian cultural center from our friends parents that work there one night a week. —saving us $425!

8. We borrowed boogie boards and snorkeling gear from my friends parents in Oahu–saving us $150 in rentals

8. I shopped around for airport parking before we left and paid online–saving us $50! Parking our car for the week only cost $52 instead of over $100!

9. We made an approximate spending budget before we left and brought cash in an envelope–that way we could monitor more easily where we were at. From the time we left our house to the time we returned we spent $800 total! This included gas to LA, groceries, food, activities, souvenirs, etc.), which was way less than I thought we would. I had brought $1200.

10. Total for trip to Oahu for a family of five was $3,100!