this couch potato is getting a serious makeover

I'd love a new couch. But I've been told by my better half that there's absolutely nothing wrong with this one.

I'd beg to differ.

I mean sure, it's actually quite comfortable, if you don't mind sinking into it and never getting up again. And the fact that it only cost 40 cents on ebay makes it hard to imagine a replacement that could scream !!!BARGAIN!!! quite like this one does. Everyone loves a bargain. Everyone that visits our home gets told "that couch cost 40 cents". If we didn't have the couch, what bargains could we brag about?!

But it's so dark and shows so much dust and is getting threadbare on the arms and the cushions are sad and flat and missing buttons...

Oh, it would be so lovely and grown up to own a piece of furniture that I'd actually bought because I like the design, rather than the price tag. But I guess I'll have to wait until I am...more...grown up.

In the meantime I shall exercise my powers of discretionary spending on soft furnishings.

Enter my Umbrella Prints cushions. I picked up two packs of Umbrella Prints remnants at the last Sydney Finders Keepers markets. Holy thread count, Batman, I am seriously impressed with their stuff.

Did you know that these original Umbrella Prints fabrics are hand screen printed in Australia on organic hemp/cotton and linen/cotton and the inks used are water based 100% solvent free. YES! It's true! And unlike some other Australian, hand screen printed, environmentally friendly fabric* I bought recently, I'm really impressed with the quality of both the fabric and the printing. Seriously professional product. And it was a dream to sew.

Well, I dreamt that part up. Actually, my awesome, wonderful, kind and sweet mother sewed these up for me for Christmas. Bless her and her sewing skills!

So things are looking up, on the couch front, don'tcha think?

But there's still so much brown....so I've decided to put my new found crochet skills to work and embark upon an epic project - my first granny square blanket!

I've purchased 15 balls of Moda Vera 'Cupcake' yarn, which is ever so soft and snuggly, in colours which I think will compliment my cushions nicely. I've got 4 base colours for this rug - a navy, pumpkin, mustard and red.

And then I've got 3 bright and cheery colours - turquoise, rose and purple - to add a little pop of colour here and there. Then I'll bind them all together with a nice cream. Yum!

And this granny square rug will not be anything like the rug on Roseanne, which is what my 'so called' better half exclaimed when he saw my granny square pile growing...

Now, If we add up the cost of these cushions (easily $100 with feather/down cushion inserts and not including labour) and the wool to make this blanket ($70 so far but since I haven't finished I'll bet I have to buy more, 4 balls of cream to crochet it all together is definitely not going to be enough) I think I'd have just enough to purchase another (albeit pre-loved) couch from ebay. But where would the fun be in that eh?!


*No, I shan't name names. I'd probably be ostracised by the Australian blogging community as this company gets a serious amount of online love. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to bad luck/exceedingly high fabric quality expectations/bad day at the press...but I doubt I'll be spending any more of my hard earned discretionary dollars there in the future. Sad face...