Dining in Style!

Austin is getting to be quite a big little man and his red "bebe pod" chair just wasn't cuttin' it anymore. (it's pretty much the same as a Bumbo) He was like a little sitting bucking bronco in that thing and feeding was becoming a bit tricky. :o) Add the bucking to his raspberries every now and then and it becomes quite the scene.....not favorable.

So....we decided a couple of months back that instead of buying something new, we would remodel Ernest's old high chair. I wasn't sure how it would all turn out, but then I remembered that I come from a long line of fixer-uppers. Don't have a certain tool? Call Dad. Need some advice about sewing? Call Mom. Need to refinish some furniture? Call either one! You get the idea. My parents rarely buy replacements for household items. "We just fixed it ourselves!" As an example, they've had the same dryer for 37 years! The main knob even broke at one point a few years back and they felt the replacement piece was too expensive, so my Dad just made the part himself...out of wood! "Throw a black line on there as your marker for which cycle you need and yur set!" Pretty funny. So as you can see, my family actually LIKES the challenge of making something old and dated into something new and fabulous. I really like doing this too, but after being married to Big E for a very short time it was clearly evident his talents lie elsewhere. He has the attention span of an ant, so painting, refinishing, remodeling and pretty much anything with a "re" in front of it is out. What's a girl to do? Call Mom and Dad!

Ok, enough rant..back to the chair. We were given this particular high chair by E's second cousin Carol. She and her husband were moving down to Mexico from Austin, and she gave us several of their antiques. Very nice. I was truly thrilled to get the high chair even in its condition. Of course, I totally forgot to take a "before" picture which is a bad habit of mine, but I have several "afters". So imagine this same chair with big rust spots on the white tray due to these big metal clamps that came around the sides from the wooden part, then rough up the paint a bit, take away the cute cherry chair pad to fit that Mom made, and take away any and all safety straps and now you have the "before". Thanks so much to Mom and Dad for refinishing the tray, painting the chair, and sewing the cute chair pad. Oh...and adding the safety strap. ;o)
It turned out perfect!

I even sent these pics over to E's cousin Carol and she told me the chair was actually purchased in July of 1937 and was originally light green. Many a child has been nourished from this very little seat.
I'm so thankful Austin made the list!