Often I come across a product where I think ‘Cool, that definitely has its uses..’ I guess in many ways I’m (like most people) fairly selective about which products I choose to use on a daily basis.
At my last birthday I was brought the frankly excellent “Bonfire of the Brands” by Neil Boorman, which is definitely a ‘must read’ for anyone who wants to understand how brands shape our way of thinking.
Facebook is one such ‘brand’ which people use on a day to day basis to stay connected, luckily its free and as far as I know planning on staying that way! Is it fair to say that a fairly large percentage of people have some form of Internet Ready phone? By that I mean from basic to advanced etc. Obviously some people use it slightly more then others!
The first in a perhaps continued series on cool gadgets is the “INQ1″ by Three Mobile, which is a pretty cheap mobile phone with Facebook and a mobile broadband connection attached. Which means you can surf the net at HSPDA speeds!
I’m unsure as to whether this phone could work with the free SIM Cards offers which frequent the internet. I believe it is on contract only, which in my mind is a shame.
Looking back through Old Photographs, digital obviously, led me to a few pictures of a holiday my family went on a few years ago in Southern Ireland. Which has to be remembered as the type of holiday where it was thoroughly rubbish at the time but looking back was pretty good, a strange kind of retrospective which can only be attributed to family related activities or those carried out within friendship circles.
The Holiday started badly: the cars engine flooded just outside the port ; then we ended up having to push it onto the ferry. All was done in the hope that It would dry out before we made it across the Irish Sea and that we would not have to pay for a repair job to be carried out to enable us to actually make it onto Irish Turf…
This holiday has to be remember for the fact that my parents wanted to travel for the whole holiday using a local Horse Drawn Caravan hire firm who promised a Horse and a wooden Gypsy style caravan for the couple of weeks we where in Ireland.
It seemed however we where situated miles from anything amusing that could possibly provide entertainment for two teenage boys and their seemingly also bored Dad.
Why we simply didn’t use a car hire firm in dublin is beyond me. We could have covered the distance in the shortest amount of time and then gone to a water park or something…
Here are some pictures from the trip.
As you can see by the last photo, the most enjoyable thing about this ‘adventure’ as my parents called it was infact the scenery. Perhaps this is what spawns emo children: Holidays where all you do is look at the scenery…
This Christmas I have un-upholstered furniture to look forward to when I return home to the nest for the festive season. Everything else will be nice: the younger brother is home from playing war games in friendly Afghanistan ; Mothers food will be delightful as well.
The idea of upholstering furniture got me thinking… “There is a lot of household goods which can simply be adapted to better suit the home”. For example re-holstering furniture is apparently pretty easy to do and doesn’t require much in the way of tools, only a willingness to give it a try and perhaps a number of a professional to call should it all go horribly wrong.
Here are the fairly ‘necessary’ tools for the job:-
* A pair of needle nose pliers
* A staple gun (with staples) or upholstery tacks
* A rubber mallet
* A pair of sharp scissors
* Welting (cloth used to trim along the edges of furniture)
* Glue gun
* Cotton batting (to make the furniture soft to sit on)
Because I’m feeling fairly lazy today and in fact have never re-holstered any pieces of furniture or even attempted to re do any kind of sofas. I have decided to copy this information about re-holstering an Armchair from the excellent site : Repair Home. It goes fairly in depth as to what to do.
Reupholstering an Armchair
Reupholstering an armchair is a little more challenging. Depending upon its size and decorative features (as found in wing chairs or scrollback chairs) you may require extra fabric and a little more patience.
Preparing the Fabric
- Remove all staples or upholstery tacks with your needle nose pliers.
- Remove all fabric and batting. Try to remove the fabric without ripping it, because you will use these pieces as templates from which to cut your new fabric.
- Lay out the old pieces of fabric on top of your new fabric. Cut around each template, leaving at least two or three inches overhang on all sides.
- Place new batting over the bare pieces on the chair, particularly the seat, back, and arms. Staple or tack down with your mallet.
Upholstering the Chair Back
- Lay your fabric over the back of the chair. Tuck the fabric into the sides of the chair, and pull through to the back.
- Holding the top of the fabric taut, staple the fabric to the back of the wood frame.
- Pull the bottom of the fabric up along the back of the chair and staple to the upper bar on the wood frame.
- Pull the sides of the fabric taut along the back of the chair. Staple to the sides of the wood frame.
Upholstering the Seat
- Drape your fabric over the seat of the chair.
- Pull extra fabric through the frame and underneath the seat.
- Pull the front of the fabric taut beneath the seat frame, and staple.
- Pull the back of the fabric taut beneath the seat frame and staple
- Pull the sides of the fabric taut beneath the seat frame. Pleat and staple down.
Upholstering the Arms
- Lay your fabric over the chair’s arms.
- Fold one-third of the fabric (the part closest to the chair back) forwards.
- Pull the fabric taut on either side of the arm, and staple to the chair frame.
- Locate the center of the folded part of the fabric. Cut a slit along the center of the fold, right to the end of the fold. This will allow you to wrap the end of the fabric around the arms.
Finishing the Arm Chair
- Attach welting on along the seams, as desired.
If you are feeling pretty clever, It could be a nice Christmas present for someone. Perhaps rob a chair of them and come up with a different pattern and apply it to all of there chairs. What a great Idea…. Unfortunately I will be suffering A Painful Christmas, due to the work being done on the lounge not being complete…
Just look at what can be achieved!
