A Chair for Ava

My sister is pregnant with her first child, due in July.  My 11 year old daughter is the only grandchild on our side so this is a big deal.  Especially when we found out it was a girl (for me anyway).  I mean, it's been over 11 years since we've a had a baby in this family.  Not to mention that I wasn't even remotely crafty when I was pregnant with Hannah.  I've learned a lot of crafty things in the past 8 years and now I have the chance to do some fun things with them.  There's been a lot of knitting, quilting, sewing and painting going on.  Some stuff isn't finished yet (how in the world can I stuff a knitted bear and make it look normal?) and some stuff is already in Ava's nursery (I'll get photos on Mother's Day), but this one, this one is finished and still in my possession. 

Introducing Ava's Chair:

I got the chair at Goodwill (where else?) a couple of weeks ago for a few bucks.  They had 2 chairs, but since there was no little table to go with them, I just got the one chair.  I painted it with flat white spray paint.  I didn't prime because flat paint can be used as a primer (I used to work in the paint dept at Lowe's, many moons ago).  I did three coats of that and then I lightly sanded with 320-grit sandpaper.  I transferred the A onto the seat using this method and then painted inside the lines with one coat of black semi-gloss paint.  Once that dried, I used the 320-grit and sanded the letter to age it.  Then I distressed the edges of the chair and sealed the piece with some polyurethane.  I love, love love this chair, even though the A is not exactly centered.  To me, this looks like something you might find in a PB catalog.  And now I wish I'd gotten that 2nd chair!

Here's the Before shot. 

And a closer shot of the A.

Linking to:
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Get Your Craft On Tuesday @ Today's Creative Blog
Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays @ New Nostalgia   
Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented 
Met Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch 
Toot Your Horn Tuesday @ A Silly Little Sparrow
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping it Simple 
Power of Paint Party @ Domestically Speaking  
Penny Pinching Party @ The Thrifty Home
A Little Creative Therapy @ Life in the Pitts
Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design  
Make it Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Treasures and Trinkets Thursday @ My Cottage Charm  
Get Your Craft on Thurs @ Life as Lori
Hooking up With HOH @ House of Hepworths
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home  
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous 
Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge 
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Piece of Work Weds @ Primitive and Proper  
Creative Chick Parade - Day Three 
The CSI Project - Typography Project Link Party