Marge

Meet Marge. She's cute, isn't she? 

Marge is an extra special chair because she was once a plain old boring school chair from the library; but now she has been re-imagined and will be going back to the library for a "Chair-ity" auction. She's looking quite stellar!

Last year the library was soliciting people take home old chairs, "renew" them (haha- pun intended), and return them back to the library for an auction event benefiting the Mt. Lebanon Public Library. I thought it was a great idea and couldn't wait to get one, or maybe even two or three chairs. But, in typical fashion I procrastinated until there was only one chair left. Seriously, I got the last chair! Why do I always do that??? So instead of three, I got one. But it's all good, right? Here's how she started out when I got her, and then another picture after I sanded her down.

I have this total obsession with owls. Not real owls per say, but the cutesy ones that everyone is decorating with now - They're just so fun! I had it all planned out that one chair was going to be a cute little owl with a nursery rhyme I love, and the other one was going to have a vintage Pittsburgh Pens logo on it with "Let's Go Yinz" painted across the top. Buuuttt...since I got one chair, I had to choose one design. And since I'm about the most indecisive person on the planet, my lovely Facebook fans helped me decide. The owl won! Plus, that meant I could use one of my favorite nursery rhymes, The Wise Old Owl, that I read to my youngest son.

I saw several really cool owls online that I could have copied onto the chair, but being that this chair is for the library "copying" an image seemed sorta wrong...I was having flashbacks of college plagiarizing lectures. YIKES! So I decided to freehand my own owl using this picture as inspiration, and then transfer it my chair for painting. She needed to be a "wise" owl to match my nursery rhyme, and what "wise" old owl doesn't wear retro 1950's cat glasses, right???

 

My lovely lady owl got painted in some girly colors and set upon a beautiful painted oak.

I originally used acrylic transfer medium to transfer the nursery rhyme to the back of the chair. That was a TOTAL disaster and I ended up sanding down the entire back on the chair and painting it over again -And using some choice words in the process. Don't try a new technique on a otherwise finished project. Lesson learned. NOT fun. See:

I finally decided to print the rhyme on card stock and decoupage it to the back of the chair. After several coats of polyurethane she's fun and done!

I'm naming her Marge. When I was growing up we had a family friend named Marge. She was a lovely older lady and she wore these great 50's style cat glasses. They were probably originals and she was fashionable and didn't even know it! She was such a nice lady and she made the best gingersnaps cookies - Yum! I immediately thought of her when I saw the glasses on this owl and knew the chair's name would just HAVE to be Marge. Here are some more pics.

If your in the Mt. Lebanon, PA area Friday, April 19th, please head over to the Mt. Lebanon Public Library for the Chair-ity auction. Marge will be up for auction along with many other fabulous chairs. She could be yours! Here is a link with more information about the event http://www.eventkeeper.com/MtLebanonChairity In addition to great chairs, there will be live entertainment, and light refreshments. Yes friends, free food and music - That has my name ALL over it! I'll see you there!

p.s. - If you miss the auction or this fabulous gal sells to someone else, check out my Etsy site at www.remaderenegade.etsy.com for other items for sale. I try to add new things each week and remember - I love custom orders. Happy Shopping friends!