DIY: How to recover a rolling desk chair

Sshh, I have a confession to make. 

It's not really a secret, just being silly. Ok, here is the deal-o. I heard about this site called Examiner.com., where they will pay you to write articles. Since I am in desperate need to quite the rat race, I'll pretty much do anything (except stand on the corner in a mini-skirt) to find ways to help support my family so that I can quit my job. I'd even settle for barely working, lol.

So, I check out the site, apply, and they finally said yes, we'd love to hire you, here's your category. They gave me 3 choices. So, naturally one of them was DIY. I thought that's right up my alley, heeeyy Crafty Allie, Ok, not so funny?

Anyway, they say my category is DIY in the Home and Living section. I am like what??? I am all about DIY, but DIY for home and living, that sounds like it will costs more to make than I'll get paid to write the article.

I am resourceful though! I put on my thinking cap and thought of a few things that I could do that wouldn't cost me a thing. Things for the home, that I wanted to re-do at some point anyway.

So, I decided to re-do my son's chair. But the site was not user friendly, it kept losing my pictures, and then wouldn't load them right, so half of my pictures were being cut off. Then as I am writing the article, they send me an email thanking me for starting the article, and since I am doing a how-to article, oh By the Way we're only going to pay you $2 an article. I was like oh nooo. I had some choice words, but I'll keep them to myself. I instead said, nope, not worth it, goodbye,laptop off, good night.

So now you guys get to see my DIY project. The best part is, I get to write in 1st person, not 3rd like a robot!

Without further ado...

I picked up this chair  from someone's trash. It screamed "SAVE ME FROM THE TRASH MEN!"

Oh trust me it was in a lot worse shape. I added the monkey tape (Gorilla Tape) to cover up the worn parts, but in the end it is worse off then when I got it, because this has been in my son's room. Boys will be boys!

I found this fabric on the $1 clearance rack at Walmart. It is a thick nylon/polyester material.

My son's room is in Army/Camouflage. For $1 a yard, I knew I just had to get it.

I began by taking apart the whole entire chair. I had to use a ratchet on this on because the screws looked like bolts. My husband helped with a few, but most of them I did all by lonesome.

I then took the bottom cushion and laid it onto the fabric and cut around leaving more than enough room to staple it onto the front and on the sides of the backside.

Then with a staple gun, I started stapling the sides to the back of the cushion.

Then I carefully did the corners, which is very tricky. But if it doesn't look right, take out the staple and do it again.

I then repeated it on the backrest cushion. I started stapling at the bottom of the cushion and left more than enough fabric to fold over onto the back of the cushion all the way back down to the bottom again. I didn't want to sew it so I carefully stapled it as close to the sides as possible so it would fall into the crevice and you would barely be able to see the staples. It's not perfect, but I think I will be the only one to really notice the flaw.

I even recovered the arm cushions, remember how hideous they looked?

After I stapled all the fabric on, I used an X-Acto knife to carefully cut out holes around all of the screw parts.

Then put it all back together and whaa-la. Its nicely recovered. My son absolutely loves it.

It feels so comfie now to sit in it. 

Hope this tutorial helped. Pretty please Pin if it did :)

Thanks for tuning in! Until next time...

Guest Blogging over at The Beautiful Mommy Club

I am excited to announce that I was asked to guest blog over at

  The Beautiful Mommy Club.

I shared ways to craft with scrapbook paper. I hope you'll go and check out the post here.

Simple, Quick and Easy Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Doesn't it look mouth watering?

This is what was for dinner tonight!

It's so simple, and the whole family loves it.

I make it when I have left over chicken; so it taste even better because the spices have been sitting in the chicken, yum!

So lets get to how to make it.

Please note that the amount of ingredients are enough to make 2 pies.

What you will need:

2 packages of frozen DEEP pie shells (each pkg comes with 2 shells)

2 1/2  COOKED diced chicken breasts.

1 large and 1 small can of cream of chicken

2 cans of mixed vegetables

2 tbs of garlic 

1 tbs dill weed

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients into a large bowl in stir it all, place ingredients into the pie shells. Again this will make 2 pies.

Put on the top of the pie shells and press the dough down into the rim of the pie so it cooks together.

Then cut an x into the center of the pie.

Place pie on a cookie sheet. Trust me if you've ever taken a hot pie out of the oven only to spill the while thing onto the oven door, then you have learned your lesson to always put pies on a cookie sheet.

Let that cook for about 1 hour, or until the crust is a golden brown.

Then remove from the oven and place it on a cooling rack.

And whaa-la there you have it. Let this baby cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Now, as you can see it's easy and very simple and also very inexpensive to make. The best part is you can now put the other pie in the freezer and have a whole other pie to just pop into the oven!

My husband and kids love it when I make this dish, and let me tell you I have some picky eaters! I love too that I don't have to serve anything else with it. It has the veggies and all in the pie already!

Hope this was helpful. 

 Let me know how yours turns out. 

Thanks for tuning in!

Until Next Time...

                         

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First Day of School Pictures with Chalkboard

Ahh, its that time of year again, THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

A bunch of mixed emotions! Excitement for their new journey into another grade, and sadness because they are older!

Happy dance because I get some free mommy time, but disappointment that I have to get back to waking up early, making lunches, consistent laundry schedule, regular bath time (often twice a day), oh ya and the dreaded HOMEWORK!

Where's my Margarita? 

I swear you guys, I'm not an alcoholic. In fact, I drink probably one drink a month. Ok, unless my sissy is hanging out with me, lol.

This year I wanted to change up our first day of school pics by adding the chalkboard. This will be our NEW tradition! I wrote the year first and took pictures of them outside of our house and then took some at the school with their grade.

"Ahh Mom stopping taking pics already!" He said

Me: Sniff, Sniff "But this is the last year I get to go into your classroom!"

BFF's! These girlies have been friends since kindergarten, and through their

 friendship their mamas have become Great Friends too!

To see how I made the chalkboard, click here.

Thanks for tuning in, until next time...

Lace Cuff Capri Pants

I love Sister time! I love that my sister still wants to do sleepovers. She is usually the one to come over and spend the night with me since I have kids, but I hang with her at her house whenever the ole' ball and chain is willing to watch the kids and let us women have Girl Time. Hey, us women are allowed to say Ole' Ball and Chain too right? Back me up ladies!

Yes, so sorry ladies, I didn't get any pictures while I was doing the project. But... I am pretty good at step by step explanation.

These were some jeans that had been cut off into Capri's. I offered to hem them for my sister but she saw some Capri's with lace and had to have them.

Similar Capri's have sold for $50 at Macy's, and while ours might not be as cute, they come pretty darn close!

You will need:

A pair of Capri's
Scissors
Lace
Sewing Machine (optional, can be sewn by hand)

Step 1: If your pants are cut offs then fold them and fold again to the desired cuff length. I actually folded it up and sewed it and then folded it up again, it's just an easier way for me to sew it, however I ended up with two hem lines, but you can't see it under the lace, so whatever you prefer.

Step 2: Pin your Lace onto your Capri's. We used this lovely  slightly off white/cream vintage look lace. We got it at Walmart for only $3.97 and it's 3 yards.

Step 4: Sew it by hand or use a sewing machine. Sew as close to the end of the cuff/lace as possible. 

Step 5: To make sure the lace stayed in place I then sewed the sides together where the lace should meet, and cut off the excess lace. I then sewed the other side to anchor it down further.

Step 6: With a lighter, I very carefully heated the edges of the lace to keep it from fraying during the wash.

Whaa-la you have your lace cuff Capri's.

I even used a white thread, as I didn't have off white/cream colored thread, but honestly you can hardly even see the where its sewed onto the cuff.

I think they turned out great! She certainly loves them! I think its a great salvage to a pair frayed cut off Calvin Klein. Calvin don't have nuttin on our design, lol.

We had plenty left over to do a belt maybe? Maybe I could make a flower too to attach to the belt or around the pocket area and add some of the lace into the flower? Yes, I think it would look even cuter with some more accessories.

Hope I explained it well enough. Thanks for Tuning in Guys!

100 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!!!

Celebrate Good times, Come On! Come on Ya'll, sing it with me!

First off, I want to thank everyone who followed me, even if I did come knocking on your door begging you to come follow me, lol. 

Lol, lol, Ahhh sadly I did do it. But that's ok, I take no shame in it!

Here we are though! 100 followers, well as of now 108!

As a THANK YOU, I want to do a give away!

What will you win?

The winner of the giveaway will get to choose one of my knitted animal hats.

You choose the size:

Newborn to Adult

Forgive the pictures, please.

As you can see... my son was the inspiration for my monkey hats!

RULES

1.You must Follow me (if your not already following me).

2. You must grab my button below:

<div align="center">
<a href="http://thecraftiestallie.blogspot.com/" title="Crafty Allie"><img src="http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q704/ebayqueen4ever/12f00a8f-b78b-4c4c-9bd7-1a9dff5aa9e4_zps934619bb.jpg" alt="Crafty Allie" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

3. You must tweet, post on Facebook or post on your blog about my giveaway.

 4. Leave a comment, as well as the links to the twitter url, fb post or your blog post.If you do all three, you'll be entered a total of three times. 

5. Get ready to win! The winner will be announced Friday.
US shipping only! Sorry, I cannot afford international shipping.

As for the hats, I'll teach you guys how to make those in the Fall :)

Again thank you guys so much, and I look forward to getting to know each and everyone one of you as my blog continues to grow. Lets keep crafting together!

Thanks for tuning in!

100 Follower Giveaway?

As you can see I am so close to 100 Followers, I can almost taste it.

As a Thank You to all of you who have recently followed me, I'd like to do a giveaway. So if you know of anyone who might like my blog, send them on over, so we can get this Giveaway party Starr-ttteddd!