Half-finished Project # 532: Dining Room Chair Slipcovers

Today I awoke with a dilemma on my hands. . . which unfinished project to work on.  I bounced from Signe's room, to the laundry room, to the living room, to the guest room and back again, but every project in progress needed supplies--and I didn't want to run to the fabric store or the hardware store, I just wanted to get to work on something.  I finally settled on painting trim in the kitchen/family room.  Mostly because my husband suggested it might be time. . . since we put that trim up nearly two years ago!  But once I got all dressed in painting clothes I changed my mind.  I wanted something with a good before and after picture, and while I could post pictures of the kitchen remodel, I didn't want to post after pictures until it was actually all done AND decorated.  Which left one other thing I could work on.  Something I bought supplies for 1 year and 4 months ago.  Clearly I need to work on completing the projects I start.  It is one of my resolutions for the year actually--Finish all half done projects!  I am very good at the starting part.

A year ago last November I decided I was tired of the black upholstered dining chairs in my kitchen.  So I went out and bought these fabrics (which I also planned to use for accents in my family room):

I picked them to match my Turquoise Fire King dishes:

And this rug (Jordan, Porcelain Blue, in 9X12) I bought at Pottery Barn:

Then I promptly sewed a slipcover for ONE of my EIGHT chairs.  And though I loved how it turned out, I never finished the other seven.  A year goes by, our family adopts a springer spaniel, said springer chews up the legs to my dining chairs (among other things), and the chairs get replaced without ever being recovered.

But the good news is, the new chairs needed slipcovers.  I bought the new table (Provence) and chairs (Anna Slipcover Chair) at World Market a few months ago, but they were out of the slipcovers I liked.  Luckily I still had yards and yards of Robins Egg Blue Linen (Waverly).  So today I set out to make all six covers in one shot.  Otherwise I feared history would repeat itself.  And I almost made it.  Now I have six chairs that look like this:

Maybe tomorrow I will finish the box pleat skirts for the bottoms of them, and give them all a good ironing. . . or maybe a year from now. Let's shoot for tomorrow!

Crisp. Clean. Christmas.

We seem to have a one track mind around here. . . Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!  We will soon get back to furniture make-overs and tutorials (We scored three adorable chairs are the Goodwill the other day that will soon be undergoing a make-over), but today I thought I would share a little more holiday festiveness going on around my house.

For starters, I finally got the flowers in my ironstone pitchers as was originally planned.

They add to the effect of the paperwhites--which I plant every year since I saw a house in House Beautiful years ago that incorporated paperwhites into its Christmas decor.

And they are now starting to bloom.

Every year I try to find a way to display my Christmas cards.  And since so many people now do flat picture cards, I can't stand them on my coffee table and living room shelves like I used to.  So this year I tried a variation of the giving tree I made for Thanksgiving.

Only I hung snowball ornaments and clipped the cards on with clothes pins.

Mine is a little large and unruly.  This wouldn't be such a big deal, except since my family room is devoid of furniture, we moved our living room furniture into our family room until we manage to agree on what to purchase.

This would be fine in the living room, but watching TV through branches isn't a big hit around here.

But luckily, I like it without the tree too. (I found a space for it on a side table in the living room).

What I love about this softer, whiter style, is how well it goes with the rest of the space. . .

I've been Christmas decorating in increments this year.  I have the living room mostly done (though devoid of furniture) but with added touches of red and blue (which I didn't think I would like together--hence the lack of red in the family room), but I bought some wrapping paper with blue and red and white that I love, so we're going with it.  I'll post pictures of that room later.

For now I will enjoy my serene family room/kitchen. . . until it gets bombed again by the kids, in like an hour.

***Linking with Rhoda at Sothern Hospitality***