DIY or Shenanigan - You Decide

Cottage By The Sea isn't a DIY blog but, today you're going to get a wee bit of the do it yourself project I've been working on when time allows.  Actually, I whipped it out in about 2 hours.  I'm speedy quick (read: hyper activity disorder) like that.  Since we moved back into the cottage, I've been trying to save on some of the little things which I can do myself, for the time being.  So here's one of them for your perusal, I hope you like it.  If that's not what you came here for I'll go out on a limb and call it a shenanigan if you wish, since I did warn you in the intro/explanation of my blog that there may be a few of those here.

Here they are were,  my counter stools.  At some point I'd love to have rattan stools with backs on them in their place but, I had these unfinished wooden stools at my former house when I lived out in the country. I decorated them such; and they looked like this.

Like I said, I lived out on an acreage and had a lot of farm animals.  All of these stools represented some of my pets.

Do you know how hard geese bite?  From experience, I can tell you, hard!  They say geese make better watch dogs than dogs, and if you've ever been bitten by one I dare you not to agree.

This stool represented our bunny.  My son Cooper was just a wittle little guy when we lived out in the outer regions of civilization.  When showing off the bunny he would say, "This is mine bunny named Lily."  How cute is that?  You don't have to answer.  It was a rhetorical question.  Just take my word, it was  c u t e.

Back to my hyper activity disorder, you can see I never quite finished the little chicks in this painting.  I was probably too busy changing diapers, feeding kidlets and gathering chicken eggs!  We never ate our chickens — our little farm was just a petting zoo with chickens, pygmy goats and the such.  We did love us those fresh eggs though!

Back to redoing the stools.  We were doing that, were we not?  After a tiny bit of sanding, (I was in a hurry and I don't love sanding.) Also remember these aren't permanent like I mentioned.  You'll probably see them in a garage sale as soon as I find the perfect stools I'm dreaming of, (and get the dough to buy them).  I'd say that will probably happen about the time I'm finished paying for Uni for that adorable little kid who said, "That's mine bunny named Lily".  He's so worth it though. 

Lets see.  These were my choices from the material stash I keep in the studio.  I like all the colors and the 4th from the right is a beauty and matches the blues and greens I use everywhere.  As you can see I love red.  There's a bit of it in almost everything I have to choose from here.  This time though, I went with the yellow.  It's just the mood I was in.  As in, summery, cheery, sunny yellow.  There is a tiny fleurs-de-lis  pattern in the material which added the blue I love and also picks up the color in my dining room chairs.

 I could eat this color it's so yummy.  I also re-covered these dining room chairs which, used to live at our cabin in the mountains and were forest green & cream plaid.  Just not working for me here at the beach, ya know? I won't bore you with the upholstery process of these pieces because I know by now you must be so enthralled with the stools and waiting with bated breath for the termination conclusion, of this post. 

I used the top of the stool as a template, traced around the batting and material and made these perfect little circles. 

My trusty glue gun and I went to work and glued the batting in place.  My poor husband about had a heart attack when he saw me gluing over something I had painted.  Even though most of my paintings hang in the garage or the basement he has an unusual attachment to them and hates when I paint over them, which I often do, if only to reuse the canvas for a new painting I have in mind.  He's been known to go into convulsions when I paint over a mural I've done on a wall, but that's just the way I roll.  The man obviously puts up with a lot.

Such a satisfying beginning to a DYI project.  Oh, oh, oh.  HANG on here a sec.  The song "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carslile just commenced on my ipod and I'm crying too hard to continue writing, but...  {Waaaaa, sniff, snort, sniff}.  K, all right,  I'm gonna be okay. Don't worry about me.  Really.  I cry every time that song plays.  Eve since my first baby went off and got married on me.  Anyway, here are the stools {umm, sniff, stutter, sniff}, all glued, painted and the batting in place, ready for the fabric.  Really, forget about it, I'm okay now.  It's just that it is a long song.  {Ahhhh, why did you leave me baby girl?}  Was it because that cute guy asked you to get married and start a family?  Okay then.  

These are my trusty Ginger scissors.  "They are ONLY to be used for sewing" say I to my offspring.  Yet, last time I went to look for them,  someone (you know who you are) was using them to cut their fingernails!  

There was an awesome staple gun involved in this project too.  Have I told you how much I LOVE staple guns?  I LOVE staple guns.

Ta da! 

 Cost = 2 cans high gloss white spray paint and the risk you will never read my blog again. 

Picture of my pup on a stool,  priceless.

Blessings and, ya know I love you.  More than all the tears I just cried and snuffled listening to that dam Butterfly Kisses song whilst trying to get a post done.

Come back soon because something so exciting is happening around here I can barely keep it to myself for one more second.  I've waited a long, long time for this and some of you have too.  It may just involve dirt and possibly...

THIS!