Before & After: The Sofa

The following is a rather belated posting of a late summer project (as should be fairly obvious, as it's currently December, and the project is being done outdoors, in shorts & a tank top.)

 
After experiencing great success with my first reupholstery project earlier in the year, I was ready to tackle the sofa.

The plan was solid, and the was fabric chosen. Once JoAnn Fabrics published their coupons & end of summer sale, I was ready!

 Before. Old, tattered, saggy, dirty, stinky. (The sofa, not Miss Leia!)

 This is an example of the level of wear on some portions of the fabric.

After skinning, a healthy dousing with Lysol is imperative!

 Worn out spring straps are replaced.

Detailed plans are very important when working with $65 a yard fabric!

No fabric cutting ever goes unattended.

It gets really exciting when the 2 major pieces are finally covered with the new fabric!

Now back in the living room, the reupholstered arms are reattached, and the new stained legs are attached. The same new legs were also used on the reupholstered chair, for unity.

One last look at the internal framework before the final back panel is attached.

Levi approved!

 Penny says, "I really am the final accent that perfects the new sofa!"

A Note About The Fabric: I chose to use Crypton brand upholstery fabric. Read up on it here at their website: Crypton At Home.  It was an absolute DREAM to work with, looks gorgeous, and, so far, is unbelieveably durable. If you are looking to reupholster a piece that has a sturdy frame which will last for years, using the Crypton fabric is worth every penny!



Yours truly-
Tigerlily

The Joy Of Pursuit

Yours truly-
Tigerlily

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day- August 2011

I work a desk job.
By nature, I'm an outside kind of girl, so there are times of the year when it's really tough to be in the office.

One of my coping strategies is to bring a vase in every Monday morning with what was blooming out in the yard.  It's a nice little reminder of what I'm working for.
Sometimes my vase is kinda skimpy, but not so in August!

Rather than go around the yard and photograph every bloom, I thought I'd do a little "one stop shopping" and present to you my entire yard of star performers, all in one vase.

Here's the roll call for today's desktop bouquet:
• Dahlias
• Monarda
• Butterfly Bush
• Yarrow
• Nasturtium
• Chocolate Cosmos
• Nicotiana
• Rudbekia
• Shastas
• Sweet Peas (eat your heart out, Midwest...our crummy summer = the sweet peas are still kicking!)
• Echinacea
• Salpiglossis
• Potentilla
• Lavendar

Be sure to check out what's blooming in other folks' yards over at May Dreams Gardens!


Yours truly-
Tigerlily

Lake Twenty-two

Today's travels with Lewis & Clark brought us to Lake Twenty-two, off the Mountain Loop Highway.

A gorgeous little gem of a hike, I give you 22 images from our travels:

Twenty-two Creek

The fog got heavier the further along and up the trail we went

Columbine (aquilegia canadensis) with Maidenhair Fern

The fog made the day eerily beautiful.

The lake is just under 3 miles from the trailhead

Under good visibility conditions, we'd see a towering granite wall behind the lake.

Careful around that small ice cave, Lewis!

I believe this is False Hellebore (veratrum viride var. eschscholzianum) punching up under the snow.

An incredible amount of snow remains.

There's a lake back there.

A quick game of chase on the snow.

Heather (calluna vulgaris)

Fog Dog

Time for a little rest at the lake before the hike down.

Or perhaps a big rest!

Lake Twenty-two is part of a section of land that was originally set aside as a Research Natural Area in the 1940s.  The surroundings are lush, but also fragile. 

Please be sure that your use is confined as strictly to the trail as possible, to assure the beauty remains intact for generations to come!

You can read the full description of the hike on Washington Trails Association's website:
Lake-22



Yours truly-
Tigerlily

The Poop Jar

Dogs poop.

Under normal circumstances, picking up, containing & disposing of the poop is no big deal.
When you're hiking, though, the options are few and none is ideal:

1) Let it drop and pretend you didn't see it.   This is also referred to as "Not an option".

2) Pick it up, and leave the bag on the side of the trail with the intent of picking it up on the way back.  Aside from the obvious fact that this only works for an out-and-back hike, it has got to get really old for people without dogs who are on the same trail.  I wouldn't like to see someone's kid's discarded dirty diaper on the side of the trail, so why should someone have to look at my poop bag?

3) Pick it up, and put it inside of another bag, and then a ziplock bag, and then maybe another ziplock bag, and put it in your backpack, hopefully nowhere near your lunch. You spend the rest of the hike really, really, really hoping nothing else in your backpack pokes through the bags.  Oh, and, despite the fact that you try to convince yourself it's not true, it still smells.


With these considerations in mind, I give you my most recent invention--  

The Poop Jar

You'll need a Nalgene bottle.  
I recommend the wide-mouth, unless you have a pocket dog.
You'll also need some duct tape & sharpies, since this is a "no going back" assignment for the bottle.

Next, make it pretty:

Let 'em poop, and pick it up.  Into the Poop Jar it goes. 
Depending on the size & shape of the deposit, a little manual manipulation squishing may be required to get it through the opening.

Do your best Ray Stantz and close the lid:

When the light is green, the trap is clean.

The Nalgene safely contains the poop and the stink.  Additionally, due to its lightweight yet hard-shell construction, it is completely safe to toss into your backpack with no risk of squishing occurring.


The stink is so well contained that the Poop Jar can travel back with you in the car with no apparent odor.
In fact, as we discovered, it can sit in the house in your backpack that you forgot to unload, contained within The Jar, with no apparent odor (you may want to keep this part in mind, because when you do this, and you finally DO open the Jar, yeah, well, you can guess how good it is).

Penny says: You'll never guess what I'm carrying in MY backpack!

 

Happy (well-contained) trails to you!

Yours truly-
Tigerlily

FREE

I love finding FREE stuff.

In early April, I was out walking the puppies and came across a bag on the curb with a FREE sign on it.  Yes, I still call them puppies, even though they are both grown adult dogs.  

I could resist looking, and lo and behold, it was full of strawberry plants!

What variety, you might ask?  I'll tell ya what variety- FREE.

I picked through to select about a dozen and a half of the healthiest crowns, trimmed off the dead stuff, and put them in a sunny spot in the vegetable bed.  Well, sunny is a relative term. Sunny-ish.  This is Seattle after all- our idea of sunny is a bit skewed.

The spot I chose also happened to be next to the rhubarb- that's it in the foreground.

I figured these two better get to know each other early on.

By mid-June, the plants had about doubled in size, and were starting to fill with blossoms.

The monster rhubarb, in the meantime, had about quadrupled in size!

A few more weeks, and ta-da!

Sweet, Summer Perfection!


I love finding FREE stuff.

Yours truly-

Tigerlily

Late For Work

Me: Penny!  Levi!  Come on, puppies, I've gotta go to work!

 Penny: Sorry, mom, no can do.

Me: Dudes, REALLY, I've gotta go!

Levi: We're very busy.  You go ahead, we've gotta stay right here.  Don't you see it?

Me: Umm, up there?  I don't see it.  Are you sure?

Penny:  Yeah, I'm sure.  It's right there, mom.

Levi: Yeah, it's totally right there.  Don't you see it?

 Levi: Look again, mom. Really.

Me: Oh, whadaya know, you're right!

Yours truly-

Tigerlily