Porch Swing Cushions and Kid's Table Makeover

Sorry there's been nothing from me in over A MONTH! We have a new addition to the family - baby Kailyn! She's a preemie and she's lovely, but she sure keeps me up at night and if I can keep up with the housework - I'm doing good! Blogging?? What's that? lol Ok, so I have had a ton of things I want to blog about, but at the moment I can't seem to remember any of them! So consider this a life update :)

Right now I am working on a couple of projects and having a lot of fun with them. I am considering adding a DIY category to this blog..........ok, I am. :) My latest projects are a new set of cushions for my cushion-less, free, porch swing (got the swing off of freecycle). And my other project that I am in the middle of is refinishing and repairing a really old kids' table and chairs for my Sister-in-laws' little girls. Table is half done. It had a badly broken leg, which I glued and then sanded the whole table and repainted it. I have free-handed a stencil on the table top that I like and I still have to paint it. (maybe today?) I still have to finish sanding the 2 chairs and do a small stencil on each and paint the girls' names on the backs.

The swing cushions were pretty easy. I should share at this point the I love DIY, but I also love to cut corners and do things cheaply (if possible without wrecking the outcome). I am a results kind of girl. I had the very worn out cushions that came with the swing - so I "de-fabricced" them. They weren't nearly thick enough to just recover, so I put ALL of the cushions (back and seat) together to make one thick cushion. Then I found some foam on freecycle that was in the form of a camper mattress. I picked that up for the seat of my swing and cut it to the right size with a knife. I found some upholstery fabric leftovers at Walmart for $3 A YARD!!!! and bought it. (I was not too worried about getting outdoor fabric cuz our swing is under our gazebo and won't be getting that wet).

So then I took 30 MINUTES, lol, and "sewed" my cushion covers. I laid out the rectangle of fabric on the floor, put the foam in the center, folded the fabric over and HAND-SEWED it with very large stitches. Looks great. Works. Sooooo comfy. And if it's really thundering out there, I can just bring the cushions in for the night (the swing is on our deck). Besides, the little girls LOVE to play on them and pretend they are beds :)

I love it. 

My next projects are a rocking chair that needs to be refinished and cushions made, and I would like to spray paint my porch swing a dark brown (right now it's a yucky faded porch-swing green). I am sharing a link to one of my all-time FAVORITE DIY craft projects ever. It's soooo cool, you just have to check it out! Hope you enjoyed today's post and hopefully I'll get enough sleep this week to be able to come back here more often! Here are 2 links. One for Freecycle and the other for that project I love :)

www.freecycle.org
http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2011/07/photograph-tiles-from-midwestern-sewing.html

On Freecycle, everything is FREE! Give stuff and get stuff :) Free to sign up :) It keeps stuff out of the landfill and one woman's trash is another woman's treasure!