Cushed MCM Chairs

I finally finished the necessary work on the pair of mid century modern arm chairs I picked up at an estate sale way too long ago (over a year—eek!). They weren't in bad shape but as you can see, they were missing some crucial parts.

I couldn't find webbing material similar to what remained on the chairs, so I opted for some woven straps that reminded me of cotton seatbelts and tacked them down using a staple gun.

The webbing didn't take long to replace but it took me a long time to make these cushions or should I say build up the nerves to get started. I'm no seamstress or upholsterer and was entirely intimidated with the task of making cushions for the chairs. At first I wasn't even sure how to start but after seeing a few similar chairs on craigslist and one identical match in Emily's room on the finale of HGTV's Design Star, I knew I could do it. So, with the first task of project-cushions accomplished, aka growing a pair, I was ready to get my hands dirty.

The second task was finding fabric, which speaking from experience, I knew wasn't going to be easy. I had three basic criteria I needed the fabric to fulfill: 1. neutral color, 2. upholstery quality, 3. I had to like it. Pretty simple huh? Well, let's just talk about that. First I scoured my go-to discount shop in Chicago, Textile Discount Outlet, and when I left empty-handed was highly disappointed. However, I didn't give up and visited three other large fabric stores warehouses, perused the selections at Hobby Lobby, and even stopped at Joann's—still nothing. Then one magical weekend when we were up in Minnesota paying a visit to our friends and family, I was venting my fabric-finding frustration and my friend's boyfriend mention a store in the area that may have something. To all y'all that live in the Twin Cities area, and have a fabric fetish but don't know where to look, let me introduce you to Mill End Textiles (this is the Rochester store).

I hope the photos speak for themselves, but let me tell you that the selection there was fantastic. The Rochester store wasn't extremely large but I easily found fabric for the chair cushions as well as another project I had been needing fabric for. The best part, it was a holiday weekend and everything was discounted on-top of the already terribly low prices. We bought 4 yards for the chairs and only paid $20 and probably have at least 1.5 yards of fabric left. Woo hoo!

With that checked off my list, the next tasks I completed were purchasing foam and finding a box-cushion sewing tutorial online that I could follow easily. Unfortunately, foam is not cheap so I patiently waited for it to go on sale at Joann's and when it did, I was on it like peanut butter on jelly. In the meantime, I found this great tutorial on Sew Mama Sew and read it about a hundred times. I followed the steps to a T, omitting the handles, making one of the seats first. Can you guess which one (I hope not!)?

I am so please with my work not only because this project was a huge skill- and time-undertaking (it took about three hours to make one cushion) but because I think I did an excellent job for a first-timer and now we have two more functioning chairs! What do you think? Did you ever think I would actually finish this project?

BTW: According to Urban Dictionary, "cushed meanz dat u feel comfortable".

Biggest and Best in the Upper Midwest

Over Memorial Day weekend, Justin and I ventured North to visit some family and friends in Minnesota. My best friend Heidi, who is a Minneapolitan and whom we visited last fall, is always gushing about the goods she gets at too-good-to-be-true prices from the Minneapolis farmer's market, so when the rooster crowed Sunday morning, Justin and I met up with her and her boyfriend to wander around the self proclaimed largest open air market in the upper midwest (see photo).

After touring around the place, I must agree with the sign.

There were rows and rows of vendors selling all sorts of yumminess at buy-like-there's-no-tomorrow-prices. From local vegetables, freshly plucked from gardens...

to herbs that smelled so good they could almost induce an aroma coma...

to plump fruit and berries, just begging to be eaten.

You can even find interesting oddities such as this purple basil. (Well, at least I've never seen purple basil, have you?)

The insane part is that the majority of the items for sale are grown by local folks, which turns yummy-food-smiles into pat-myself-on-the-back-for-supporting-my-neighbors-smile. Not to mention, the beautiful way some vendors spruce up their packaging. Nothing says "hello sunshine" like some pansy faces, am I right?

But of course, flanking the end of the good-for-you fruits and veggies is another row of cooked food such as hot caramel corn, pulled pork, and mini donuts (yum-o!). Heidi is particularly fond of the fresh squeezed orange juice, which I must say is probably the best darn orange juice I have ever had.

The last, but certainly not least, row capping the end of the market is what I call gourmet alley. There you can sample olives, olive oil, nuts, spreads, bread, and even homemade soap.

Unfortunately, after perusing through all the goodies, all four of us left with empty hands. Surprising, no? Well, in our defense, we had a full day ahead of us and didn't think the produce would last in a hot and humid car all afternoon. But, now that I've experienced it, when I talk to Heidi and she is slurping down an orange juice, I'll be even more jealous. In fact, it sounds delicious right now.

Twin Cities Exploration

The other weekend Justin and I traveled up to Eden Prairie, Minnesota to visit my great friends, Heidi and Don. I must report that we had a great time with Heidi, but unfortunately Don was under the weather and I think we saw maybe two fleeting glances of him the entire weekend. Not to say that I didn't want to visit with him, but after our Saturday spent out and around town, we arrived back at their abode to find out that he had stopped over at Urgent Care while we were gone and was told that he could possibly have the Swine Flu. So, we helped Heidi disinfect the joint before taking it easy the rest of the night. On the brighter side, we had just returned from a fun filled day out and around the cities, which I am here to share with you!

Our Saturday started on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. We grabbed our caffeinated beverages from their respective shops and strolled up and down the street catching up and checking out the varied offerings. Before leaving the area, we swung into Punch Pizza to get some chow to go.

Photo from here

Heidi had talked up this joint, gushing about its identity design, but also raving about the food. Being that her friend (not me), who studied abroad in Rome, claimed it had nearly authentic tasting italian pizza, we had to try it, and she wasn't wrong. Yum!

Photo from here

Being a huge fan of cheese, I ordered the Quattro Formaggi (mozzarella, fontina, goat cheese, and parmesan), Justin got the Toto (arugula, prosciutto, goat cheese, cracked red pepper, and garlic), and Heidi ordered her usual, the Borgata (sun-dried tomato, goat cheese, eggplant, saracene olive, and basil).

Photos courtesy of  The Punch Pizza's flickr photostream.

Let me just say that those who live in the twin cities are dangerously spoiled by having a pizza chain like this. Justin and I have yet to find anything as delicious around us, and we live in the (second) city of pizza!

After getting our fill of the deliciousness, we went on an adventure to find the mecca of Goodwill. Heidi told me that she knew of one of their stores that was the biggest she had ever been in. Not surprisingly, she had me at "giant Go-". So after a few wrong turns (we blame it on the GPS) we finally found it. Unfortunately, the selection was underwhelming and we didn't stay long, but never fear, we didn't throw in the towel! As we were on our way to the next destination, we drove by this...

...and I yelled "stop!" Any store that puts Herman Miller and Lane furniture outside on the sidewalk deserves at least a look-see and this particular place is Classic Retro at Pete's on University Avenue in St. Paul.

I knew this shop owner had to have a sense of humor because when we walked up to the entrance I noticed that his sign called out the first letter of each word spelling C-R-@-P. Let's just say that Justin couldn't agree more and Heidi and I couldn't disagree more.

When we entered the store we were pleasantly welcomed by (I'm assuming) the owner who was playing his guitar and plopped in front of a T.V. with the football game on. Justin didn't have much to say after that! Additionally, the store was jammed front to back, top to bottom with amazing pieces. Sadly, the three of us could only afford to look, but he had some good eye candy.

(See the guy way in the back with the guitar? I wasn't lying!)

After wiping the drool, we piled back in the car and continued to our destination, Hunt and Gather Antiques on Xerxes Avenue in Minneapolis.

If we thought we had been overwhelmed at Classic Retro at Pete's, we had another thing coming. When we entered Hunt and Gather, it was a gold mine. The items were amazing and the prices were affordable, the perfect combination! Here are some cool finds that I had to pass up.

It pained me to leave this map behind, but with 3 full grown adults, a day of shopping, and one small Honda, I didn't think it would fit.

We hope to visit again soon!