No empty chairs *Tutorial*

Alright, my computer crashed a few days ago. On my facebook page I promised a new post on Monday. Sorry to all of you who may have been watching for that. But I'm back now and have lots of things to show you! This first project was a lot of fun to do.

Here is the back story. I met my husband 11 years ago. About a month after we started dating and about three weeks after we knew we were going to be married to each other one day, he took me to meet his family for the first time. I was so nervous. I had never met a boyfriends family before and had never introduced anyone I had dated to my family either.  So I really didn't know what to expect. We drove 2 hours to his parents house to spend the weekend. I wanted them to like me as soon as I said hello to them but knew that, that wasn't how it usually works. Plus I am extremely shy when I first meet people. Like PAINFULLY shy! I crawl into my shell and do not start conversations. I stick close to the people I know, leaning on them to diffuse the discomfort. I generally don't look people right in the eye but rather I look just pass them so I dont feel like they are judging me with their judgy eyes, and if I am asked a question I tend to give short answers not exaggerating on anything. Basically, I suck when I first meet people. I honestly don't know whats wrong with me. For the record, that really isn't me at all. I'm loud and outspoken, when you get to know me.

Anyway, My husband comes from a large family. Honestly it was overwhelming meeting my husbands parents, and his 6 siblings. Not to mention that his father called me "Lacey" (my husbands ex- girlfriends name) for the entire weekend. Actually he did this for the first year of our relationship. Anywho, Bry's mother has said something to her family over the years. I guess its a constant reminder to herself and her children. I never fully understood the weight of the comment and how important it is to remember. She would say, "No empty chairs". Some of you are bound to know what that means. But for the rest of you who are like me, I will explain.  "We must cherish one another, watch over one another and gain instruction, that we may all sit down in heaven together" - Lucy Mack Smith.  No Empty Chairs: This means when we look at our family eternally, we should always remember our goal is to have no empty chairs at the celestial family table. We should use love for one another to encourage and lift each other to the goal of eternal happiness. if you do the things that are asked of you by our Heavenly Father and are sealed to your family then you will be together in heaven (as a family) as you were in life. This is so sweet and meaningful to me. So that is what this project represents. A constant, quiet, and loving reminder.

So to begin I ran to hobby lobby and looked at their unfinished doll furniture to see if I could find some small chairs. I was lucky and found some that were perfect, but there were only 3 and I really wanted 5. I gave my husband a looked that could only mean, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make me a couple more chairs!" So he picked up the materials he thought that he would need and we headed home to start our new project.

Below is a picture of one of the chairs I bought. We (and I mean HE) used it as a template to cut out his own version of the chairs. he put the pieces together with wood glue and let them set for a bit.

So here are the chairs ready for the next step.

Now we attached a couple of pieces of soft maple together. 6 1/2" h x 19" L  x 3 1/2 D

I didn't attach the chairs at this point. So hold off on that part until the end.

Now pick out the colors that you want to paint your chairs. I went with bold colors red, yellow, navy, green, and a baby blue.

I painted the maple shelf/plaque thing a taupe color. Then I stenciled on the words "No Empty Chairs" If you are cooler then me you might have a cricut in which case you should pull that sucker out and make yourself some vinyl letters. Or another option would be to go to the craft store and pick up a pack of those small wooden letters that you could just paint and then put on. I stenciled because that's what I had.

Obviously you fill that in with some craft paint.

And because I didn't really like the spacing that I left myself with, I added some flowers between the words. This is where you are going to want to attach the chairs. You can used would glue or hot clue. Whichever you have on hand will work.

And that's it! I love it! I think its a fun pop of color and the words are very meaningful to me. What do you think?