The Gentrys

I've had these two matching chairs for awhile now as I tried to decide on the perfect fabric to reupholster them in. Well, I found some fabric a few weeks ago, but really didn't need to spend the money to pay someone to do them. So, I decided to attempt it myself! Warning, if you are a professional upholsterer, please do not read this because you will be horrified by the shortcuts I took to make this work! I didn't have metal stripping or several other items typically used so I had to improvise. I did the entire project with just a staple gun, a needle and thread and here's the bad part...hot glue! It worked though!

I'll start with the finished product because that is how my pictures uploaded and I can't seem to get them to move into the reverse order! I'm pretty proud of it even though the pattern isn't exactly centered and if you look closely I'm sure you'll find a million flaws, but I'm happy with how it turned out!



So this is how it looked after I stripped all the fabric off (which by the way was the hardest part!)

At this point, I was almost in tears thinking I was in WAY over my head. There were just too many staples, tacks and stripping and I didn't think I would ever get it put back together.

Monday morning Emma Cate and I met my mom in Birmingham and headed to Georgia for the week to visit my mom's family. This was the first time they had seen Emma Cate and I think they really loved her :)

Our first stop was Hartwell, Ga. where Gran lives, but we had to detour to the North Georgia Premium Outlets to take a peek in the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware outlets...but I'll post about those later...nothing too exciting.

When we got to Gran's we relaxed and enjoyed Emma Cate and spent some quality time on the back porch where I snapped a few pictures of Emma Cate with Mom and Gran.









Then the next afternoon we headed to my Grandad's house on the lake in Eatonton, Ga. to visit Grandad and my Aunt Laura. They have a sweet golden retriever named Sam that loved on us a lot and of course you know Emma Cate loved him! Here are a few pictures of her with Grandad, Aunt Laura and Sam.







Mom and I got up Thursday morning and started to head back to Montgomery. We stopped in an adorable little town about half way there called Senoia, Ga. If you are ever near there, you should definitely stop! Their downtown was so cute and just lined with antique shops and little restaurants. We made a few exciting purchases there (hope to share in a coming post) and there was one store that we loved absolutely everything they had, but we had to restrain! Then we had a delicious lunch at a little cafe (where Emma Cate tasted an orange pictured below) and got back on the road.



I intended to wait until Emma Cate was ready for bed Thursday night and then get on the road home so she would sleep the whole way, but I was so tired and ready to get home that I went ahead and left that afternoon. That was probably a mistake because she wasn't sleepy and therefore cried for 2 1/2 hours of the 3 hour trip home. It broke my heart! Overall she did really well on the trip, but she's been super clingy and fusses every time I put her down since we got home...I'm guessing just because she got a little spoiled having someone hold her all the time on our trip! We are settling back into our routine though and Phil and Jake are glad to have us home!

I have several big projects I'm getting ready to start on...first on the list is reupholstering 2 chairs myself. I'm trying to save on the expense of having someone else do them and try it myself...after over an hour of working today though (even with Phil's help) I'm only about half way finished taking off the old upholstery on one chair so this could be a long project!

Time to get little bit to bed. Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

We made a quick attempt at some 7 month pictures this afternoon despite the almost 100 degree temps! What is the deal with this heat in late September?!

At 7 months EC weighs around 17 lbs. She is doing better with eating solids. We try to make an attempt 3 times a day at normal meal times. Sometimes she flat out refuses to eat any of it, other times we'll get a few bites in and every now and then she'll do really well and eat most of a small jar. Her favorites (or rather the ones she tolerates the best) are carrots, pears, bananas and pear/raspberry combo. She's also done pretty well with squash, apples/apricot combo, prunes and applesauce. Not a fan of sweet potatoes or peaches!

We had a few difficult weeks of nighttime sleep, but are doing better now. She typically goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 pm and wakes sometime between 9 and 11 to nurse again then right back to sleep and sleeps until 6 or 7 am. We are pretty much down to 2 naps a day now. One from around 9/9:30 until 10:30/11 and then another from around 2 until 3:30/4.

She is sitting up pretty well on her own now, but I still usually put the boppy pillow behind her if I am going to leave the room with her sitting up. She rolls all over the place and scoots everywhere, but hasn't really tried to push up to crawl. She goes all over the house in her walker and wants so badly to be able to get up and run! She can stand up holding on to someone/something and will walk if you hold her hands up.

She still loves Jake and laughs at everything he does. She's talking (jabbering) all the time now and says "dadadada" and "mamamama" and "babababa" most of the time.

Her favorite toy right now is her keys, but she would rather have someone elses real keys if she could get them!

I'm enjoying all the moments...they are passing much too quickly!

Aden and Anais "Issie" lovey blanket:

I wanted to give Emma Cate a lovey to sleep with to help with the transition from swaddling, but I was worried about giving her anything that she could bury her face in and make breathing difficult. These are super thin muslin just like the swaddle blankets we loved. They are so soft and the perfect size to snuggle, but completely breathable.



Farm Tails book by Jellycat: