frantic want-to GTD

David and I made “want to” and “have to” lists that we try to keep updated in our kitchen to keep us on track with getting things done.  Our usual “have to” list includes mowing the lawn, cleaning the kitchen and the floors, and finishing up a few projects that we’ve started but not finished (how fun).  Most of my “want to” list is made up of things that I want to spruce up around the house.  Today, armed with the power of the grandparent army, I found the strength to tackle a project on my "want to" list. 

First, I had to go gather supplies.  Without a definite plan, I made an unsatisfying stop at Home Depot, then headed through insane Sunday traffic to JoAnn Fabrics.  I came home with a few fabric purchases and decided that I would try to re-cover the gnarly seat cushion on Ellie’s Stokke Tripp Trapp Chair.  A super great deal on eBay, we had to accept the gruesome beige cover that came with it.  Aside from being un-fun, it is pretty disgusting—a fact that we can’t blame solely on the previous owners (you’ve seen Ellie feed herself yogurt, right?).

The fabric I ended up with wouldn't have been my first choice if I had endless time to search and money to spend, but I was excited that it was on sale, it was bright and fun, and really girly.  I consulted briefly with my mom, who actually knows how to sew, about how I should go about the project… then, quickly growing impatient, decided just to start.  I took the iPad into the purple room and looked up “diy tripp trapp cushion”.    

On a side note, can I show you the purple room?  Intended to be an art space, here’s what we’ve got going on.   

That's where I planned, cut, ironed, and sewed this entire project, see the sewing machine?  David says it looks like we’re hoarders.  And while I’m confessing to our craziness, this is what the kitchen looks like when I bake. 

Haha. (will you ever eat any of my treats again?)

Anyways, I got pretty excited when I found a rough tutorial outline online and started on my own.  Things seemed to be going well, the sewing machine was working, Ellie and Emery were occupied and I was making great progress.  Until I wasn’t.  The tutorial I found was written by a French person, who wasn’t awesome at explaining anything in English.  It got me started, but after consulting it multiple times (swearing more than I have in the past year) ripping out stitches to try things different ways, running out of bobbin thread (convincing David to reload it), and chasing down Alden after he ran away, my heart was racing and I was frustrated that I had wasted my precious weekend time on such a failure.  This is when my internal conversation turns to “this is why it’s not worth it to do anything,” and “you should’ve just been home playing with the girls.”  Probably because of David’s optimism (foolishness?) I kept going and ditched the tutorial.  Just to give you some perspective I’m pretty sure one of the steps in the tutorial said “put the right side of the back side of the bottom cushion on top of 2 of the four layers of batting”.  Yeah, that wasn’t happening.  

I finally figured out the right way to put all the pieces together, and then continued to eff up the seam about 5 times before finally getting it right.  Convinced at this point that it wouldn’t even fit on the chair, I was prepared for defeat, but…

It actually worked!  Since I couldn’t be bothered with precise little details, David was kind enough to read some directions and figure out how to make the extra large button hole for the strap to pass through (after this pic was snapped).  Voila!  We did it!  Without tears!  When Ellie saw it she…. didn’t really care.  She did tap it a few times, though.  Probably her way of saying, "holy crap, that's awesome!"