Free Headboard Makeover

For awhile, I've been wanting to redo our headboard. But first, some back story on the piece.

Back in mid-2007, we PCSed to Goodfellow AFB for The Mister to teach at the fire school. The city had a fairly new Ashley's Furniture store and about the time we moved there, they were having an anniversary giveaway. Every week for a set amount of time (a month, I believe?), they gave away a "free" cruise package. At the end of the celebration, they did larger giveaways including a $5000 store gift card. Guess who won that?! Our poor family with no decorative items suddenly had money to purchase rugs, art, some furniture (sadly, almost all of it was so uncomfortable we gave it away when we moved to our current duty station), an entertainment stand, and lastly, a new bed frame for our room. Our previous one had met its demise when The Mister decided to take a flying leap and tackle the bed one day: the frame lost. At the time, we were sleeping on our mattress and box spring on the floor. A free bed frame with head board was definitely welcome.

So we went to the store and didn't like anything they had on the sales floor. (The Mister and I have fairly different styles and very rarely agree on anything. Anything he liked, I hated. Anything I found tolerable, he couldn't stand.) Finally, we turned to the sales catalogue with the items they can order in. After much looking, we settled for one that looked like it was a tall, upholstered head board with the bed rails upholstered in the same fabric. I remember the shot in the catalogue was a head-on one, and that the fabric looked like it was a pretty neutral, creamy/gray color. Imagine my surprise when what showed up at our door was a bed that was a) yellow/wheat colored and b) was a monstrosity of an upholstered half-sleigh bed that stood about 6 inches off the wall. Had it not been free, I would have sent it back and returned it. But...it was free, so we decided to deal until a time that we could afford to replace it. To date, finances have prevented this.

About the time we moved in June of 2010, I started hatching a plot: if we couldn't afford to replace the headboard--and dude, it was FREE, not like we were destroying something we put money into--why not alter it to something more suited to our tastes? The Mister resisted and the subject was dropped.

About 2 months ago, I started persisting again, because I really, really wanted to take off the ridiculous sleigh bed curl at the top of the head board. I would peek behind it and sigh at the floor space it was eating up and hiding back there. (Our current bedroom is rather large, but who wouldn't like an extra few inches to walk around the bed?) The Mister said we would get to it, but then his training came up and my plans had to be put on hold for a month.

Then came Friday, and the urge to rip apart the head board became so strong that I moved the bed off the wall and started investigating the back. After determining that the back had too many staples to make ripping them out practical, I decided the best approach would be to carefully slit it open and take a peek inside. I found The Mister and asked him where he kept his crafting knives and carpet knife. After asking me why, he decided to take over and about 20 minutes later, this was happening.

Ah, I love that man when he gets it in his mind to get something done. For as resistant as he can be to things, he's equally as enthusiastic and focused when he decides it should get done. Apparently, I need to threaten to take a sharp knife to our belongings more often. (I did try to find a photo from when we first got the bed, but couldn't find one. And I didn't think to take one before it was ripped open, so just imagine the fabric and padding are still covering it. It's funny, with the really YELLOW foam right next to it, the bed looks much less so. The back of the fabric which you can see, is a much truer representation of what color the bed is. It just photographs neutral. :P )

Two and a half Mister Hours later, and no cost to us, we had this.

So much better. It's still a little curved, but it's such an improvement and changes the whole feel of the room. We gained about 4" of floor space as well. For now, I'm content to leave it as-is, but when we move at the end of this year/beginning of next, I plan to change the color of the fabric. I love the texture and the fabric itself, but hate the color. I'm thinking of finding a way to airbrush it with a watered down fabric paint mixture.

And guess who else really loves it and keeps making positive comments?

Small 30 Before Thirty Update

This poor dusty blog, sitting over here and getting no love at all. Every couple of months I make a post and then leave it sit again. Blog, someday I will have more time, and I'll update you more often. I promise. But until then, please just accept me for who I am and know that I really *do* think about updating you. I'm a flake. Sad, but true.

I have been making some progress on my 30 things I'd like to do/accomplish before I turn thirty on 20 July, 2012. I have been crossing off items as I go, but some require a list in themselves. I've been doing a little reading lately--not at the pace I need to accomplish 30 whole books before July 2012, however.

To date I have read:

O1. The End of America

O2. The Omnivore's Dilemma

O3. French Bull Dogs

O4. Your Money or Your Life **

O5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

O6. Mr. Darcy's Diary

O7. Scott Pilgrim series*

O8. thrift

O9. Living Rich by Spending Smart

*I know I said REAL books for this list, but I figure that reading all 6 in their entirety in a sitting counts for something. :P

**I read the really old version of this book, not the updated one. I'd be willing to reread it just to see if their amusing predictions for what the early 2000s would look like have been amended or commented upon.

So I'm not doing too bad so far: 09 out of 30 are read. :)

OoTD

Outfit of The Day.

One of the things I've been meaning to use this blog for is to document the development of my own style. All of my life, I've worn tee shirts and jeans or cargo pants. They are functional and keep me covered, but are not very unique or expressive of who I am. I want to change this.

Documenting myself has another purpose: to get used to seeing my fat body and recognize that I'm allowed to exist. In my personal life, I'm OK with that and doing pretty well, but I rarely go out of my way to post pictures of myself online. And I'm much more likely to post a head shot then a fully body picture. This last year, I've been following Fatshion blogs with interest and they've sparked this desire to start my own.

SO. From time to time--hopefully more as I get more stylish pieces, or a more definite "look"--you will see posts of what I wore on a particular day and information about those pieces. I'm far from a clothes horse, so there will be a lot of repeats.

15 November 2010

Shirt: Anthropologie (L!)

Sweater: self-made

Pants: Lane Bryant

Shoes: Crocs

Necklace: Small Bird

I thought I looked particularly cute yesterday and that this was a great outfit to start with.

I love this shirt from Anthropologie and was absolutely over the moon when I found something in the store that fits. It was my first time venturing into the brick and mortar store--I've drooled at their online selection for years--and I wasn't expecting to find anything. My curiousity at what the inside of a store was like got the better of me. I *did* get some strange looks from the sales staff and other customers there, but I tried to ignore it as best I could and tried not to be self-conscious. Everything was a bust. Too structured. Too tailored. Definitely wouldn't fit and had not stretch or give to work with. Then I saw these tank tops folded on the table and, upon holding one up and giving it a stretch, I realized it just might work. Thanks to fashion's trend towards large billowing tops, I was able to find a straight sized item that fits like a normal top for me. It's so soft, and the delicate bird design is a departure from how I usually dress. And I'll admit, I was filled with glee when I came out of the dressing room and the clerk had already prepared her, "Oh, it's OK, maybe next time," face and already had her hand out to take the shirt back from. I got to happily tell her that it worked out and enjoy her eyes look like they may pop out.

I'm not sure what all else I want to say about my outfit, so I think that's it for this first post. :)

Someday...

I will start to post on this blog, but I'll admit, my knitting/crafting blog takes up most of my time and gets priority.

Part of the lack of posting is feeling like this particular blog lacks focus. I have the crafting blog, a gluten-free cooking blog, and I have a yet-unposted-to art blog. Then there's this one which covers everything else...or will someday. The majority of my favorite blogs to follow are specialized in content: they cover a specific area of the blogger's life. As my first three blogs show, I happen to like this model of keeping like-content all in one place. It's tidy; one knows what to expect when she reads it. But at some point, one can have too many blogs to upkeep and it seems silly to have more then 3 or 4.

So I'm going to make an effort to post about the other things I want to blog but do not fit into the other 3 that I am maintaining. I want to cover the progress on my 30 before Thirty list, Outfits of the Day (OotD), and anything else that strikes my fancy at the time.

30 Before Thirty

I love Making It Lovely's blog, and her entry on 30 things she'd like to do before turning thirty caught my attention in particular. It got me to thinking...I'm a bit further from the fourth decade of my life then she is, but it's coming up pretty quickly. I turn thirty on 20 July, 2012, and there are many things I'd like to do before then. So why not make a list and keep track as I accomplish them? Some are smaller, some are bigger. All are things I've been meaning to do.

01. Take a vacation outside of the continental US with The Husband.
02. Get some new ink.
03. Finally get the piercings I've been meaning to get.
04. Attend Sock Summit 2011.
05. Acquire signature pieces for my developing style.
06. Develop or find a really good gluten-free bread recipe.
07. Take a family vacation someplace the children will enjoy.
08. Knit a silk lace shawl.
09. Learn how to container garden.
10. Read 30 books. Real books.
11. Make a new bed quilt.
12. Find 5 new artists/bands to listen to.
13. Be able to do one proper pull-up.
14. Learn to make perfect hash browns.
15. Take an art class, or at least start making art on a regular basis again.
16. Learn to do something with my hair that isn't a pony tail or piggies.
17. Master basic clothing alterations.
18. Buy at least one more piece of related art so I have a collection.
19. Complete and frame the mermaid cross stitch I have sitting in my craft tote.
20. Sew a plushie.
21. Splurge on some Liberty of London fabric.
22. Make a garment with it.
23. Get some cute, but practical, shoes.
24. Become self-sufficient again.
25. Pay off our entire credit card debt.
26. Own my car.
27. Learn origami.
28. Get an ice cream maker and use it.
29. Look in the mirror and not immediately nitpick and criticize.
30. Simplify. (Vague, I know, but I'm not 100% sure what I mean by that yet.)