Rumer And Company

For Sale!

2010-09-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

We are the crazy kids selling our house....AGAIN. This marks the third house for sale in three years. First one, - 2007, Second - 2009, and now this one - 2010. Our sweet realtor LOOOVVEES us, and it certainly doesn't hurt that we love her back! We've become great friends over the years and, honestly, I'm excited to have a reason to talk to her almost every day again. Love Renee!!

And the funny part is - we love our house. We haven't outgrown it, actually just got it looking like we always wanted it to, and it suits our needs perfectly. I guess we're just THOSE people (the ones who "enjoy" moving every two years) and we should embrace it. We just love houses. We love searching for the perfect "right now" fit and all the planning to make it ours and beautiful. Then, just as we're finishing up to make it perfection, we get antsy again and want to repeat. So funny - I swore I would never pay capital gains again...oh well. It'll be minimal at most. ;)

Last week was hardcore finish up the tedious project time. IE: painting almost ALL the trim in the house. And painting the kitchen and storage closet. And installing indoor/outdoor carpet over the unsightly linoleum. I was a busy busy bee. I literally JUST finished all the painting and carpet install. Sam is so lucky to have me. I have become a pro trim painter and will no longer be able to get away with doing just the rolling - boo to that. Anyhow. The house is now spick & span and ready for hundreds of people to pass through - I can hope atleast!

So here's the final product of (almost) all the rooms in the house, we left out the storage closet and the laundry room....gotta leave something a surprise!! (plus, they don't photograph well...)

Our Cute House

Living Room - much bigger than it looks from exterior!

Love Love Love the French Doors

Especially because THIS porch is on the other side of them!

Dining Room - too bad I never bought the fabric for the draperies...or is it?! ha!

French doors in this room too!!

Hallway - we love the overall flow of the house

Master Bedroom

Bathroom

Second Bedroom - aka William's Nursery

Kitchen - and the retro stove/oven works PERFECTLY!

Kitchen

Kitchen - buffet/kitty dinner area ;)

Third Bedroom = Our office/sewing room

That's the quick and dirty home tour. It was fun while it lasted - we enjoyed making it pretty again - it sure was rough when we got it. Hopefully the next owners will love it as much as we have!!

The Birthday Party

2010-08-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

Pepito is about to wake up from his nap - but real quick - the party decor from William's Pepito Burrito Birthday Party.

the whole room, burrito bar, chips, fruit, and cupcakes - yum!

Sweet Buffet - entirely too many cupcakes and rainbow twizzlers!

Happy Birthday Pepito Burrito Pennant Banner

using the stripes from the invitation

Found a good use for Pepito's Month Number pictures,

complete with his "crowning achievement" of that month

Seriously - 48 cupcakes might've been a little overkill...ha!

There were an exorbitant amount of pink and purple helium balloons

so they all went on the twizzler favors

I will be more on the ball in a little bit and show y'all the invitations - which if I'm going to brag a little big - were AWESOME. And it was the only thing I had to go off of for the party colors, etc. That's what I get for not having a real theme, only colors and the idea of a burrito bar... And to be perfectly honest, I was almost in tears having a serious meltdown a week before the party because I hadn't done anything to prep, except for making the tablecloth. haha! It all ended well, so that was a relief. But I won't leave it for last minute next year, that's for sure! (best laid plans...right?!)

Nothing like a birthday party to motivate

2010-08-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks - hence no new posts. Sorry about that. There was a week to prep for an interview (I didn't get the job - boo to them), a week to prep for the beach, a week at the beach, a week to celebrate Sam & William's birthday and that brings us to now. I made a booboo on William's party invitation and accidentally bought myself an extra week in getting ready for it! Yay!! My subconscious must've know I'd need the extra time...

Anyhow - so in honor of Pepito's birthday party this coming weekend - we decided it was high time we made our screen porch look pretty enough to put some people out there. Our house isn't THAT big and we are going to have A LOT of people/kids running around, so we need all the space we can squeeze out!!

It has been on the to-do list all along to fix up the porch. We had already painted the furniture blue for our anniversary but the floor was still ugly. Super ugly. And we could've painted it, but yuck. We hate painting. Plus, it would still be concrete which is a hassle to clean up pollen, dirt, etc, and it would be less than comfy for the very mobile little boy. So, we decided on indoor/outdoor carpeting.

Brilliant. It was super easy to put in, even though we cut the template wrong and had to "make it work". Luckily we had gotten extra carpet so it's all good. We just used double sided carpet tape and tacked it down. Easy cheesey. And it may not last forever, but since it was way under $100, that's absolutely number one a-ok. We love it. William loves it. And I love that now I can open the doors (when it's not murderously hot/humid) and he can wander out and play and I don't have to worry about anything. Fall is going to be lovely.

Then Sam woke me up this morning all motivated to plant new plants, and I will never argue with him if it's HIS decision to buy pretty green things, so off we went Lowe's bright and early. We have a wonderful history of killing flowers, so we thought we'd try greenery this time around. So far, after 5 hours, they're still alive. I'm taking it as a good sign. Ha! We did get one big flower pot thing for the center of the table, but it's an annual - so it's going to die eventually anyway.

So - if you are coming to the birthday party - I hope you go to the screen porch - we worked hard on it!! Well, not too hard, but you get the point...!!

My Bestie's House

2010-07-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hads is buying a new house and you know what that means!!! I get to play and make it beautiful!!

I will post more in depth coverage of what we have going on so far - but in the mean time - here is the color story.

I am so excited to be working with my bestest to make her brand new old house exactly what her and her hubs have always wanted!!!

Adler's Pear My Way

2010-06-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love Jonathan Adler? I mean seriously. He's great. And I will admit that

I don't know a whole lot about him, I've been busy changing diapers, but somewhere

this pillow popped up and spoke to me. I love pears. I love pillows. Yum. And the

best part - I knew I'd eventually be able to figure out a way to have it - even I had

to make it myself.

So I did. :)

Have I mentioned how much I am in love with appliques? SO IN LOVE!

I'm having the best time - pepito is slowly losing plain white onesies every day.

I don't have wonder under so I'm using interfacing, but as long as I throw a couple

pins in it to get started, it's working pretty well.

I love that the pear isn't solid - the trellis is one of my most favorite fabrics ever - but
never made it into the living room officially in a big way, so it's nice having just
a touch of it. And the best part - it was totally free - made with scraps and remnants I
had lying around!! Gotta love that! Much better than $98, even if JA's is wool and
perfect... It only took maybe 30-45 minutes start to finish - this is also making it on the

Chrismtas Gift List of possibilities!! Oh the combinations!!!

The only problem is that I don't have any of the cream fabric left over to make a pair,

I really wanted a lemon pillow for the other chair, so I guess it will have to eventually

move to the sofa. No big deal - but I'm pretty sure that means I am one pillow short.

Have to think that one over. In the mean time - I'm tickled pink with how easy and

happy this one pear makes me!

I Heart Monograms

2010-06-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

I mean, seriously, who doesn't love a pretty monogram?! I would put initials on every single thing I own if I could afford it/my hubs would allow me too. They're pretty and classic and just plain fun. Makes me smile every time.

Enter stage right: our comfy large pillow in the living room.

On a whim (I was bored and had no sewing project for the day) I made a cover for a 16x24 pillow form I had hanging around out of our drapery fabric. I thought it'd be nice to have the fabric pulled over to the sofa and it is a seriously comfy pillow - can't go wrong - right?! Well, I knew it would need something to help jazz it up a bit, but in an effort to not make ANOTHER trip to the fabric store, I just left the trim off and decided we'd make do until hubsters would give me permission to buy some trim and then I'd remake it. Easy cheesey. No big deal.

see the pillow in question on the right? - yeah - it's naked

And the pillow did NEED something. It was cute - but was definitely not statement making - and definitely felt a little naked. Now, I don't know if I saw this somewhere on Etsy, a random blog, or maybe I made it up - but I came up with the idea to make a pillow "sleeve". I figured it would break up the large floral and maybe that would be all it needed.

now it's dressed up and all pretty

But yesterday, I discovered that doing appliques really wasn't that difficult even though I don't have an embroidery machine and then the monogram was born. I actually made the pillow sleeve twice, because the first time, like a dummy, I traced the letter with a red pen and you could see faint pinkness hanging out in the stitches. Not cool. So instead of going to bed like a smart stay at home mommy, I wired myself up and made another one. Much better. I traced with yellow this time around.. ;)

And the best part - the first one was done when the hubs got home from work - and he QUOTE "that looks great - did YOU do that?" SCORE!!! He loved it and it looked good enough that he was IMPRESSED that I did it!! yay!!! Gotta love that man!! I don't think he is even aware of what he did for my self-esteem.

This might make it onto the Christmas Gift List Possibilities for everyone I know...so - if you are expecting a gift from me this year - let me know if this is the one you want - or feel free to ignore this post all together and be surprised in six months! ha!

Strawberry Banana Yumminess

2010-06-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago we ate at the club with B&B so they could see William before we left for the long weekend. Becky had this amazing strawberry banana soup from the salad bar and let William have some and he went absolutely nuts for it. So when we were at my parent's house, I googled a recipe and tried to recreate it The recipe I found wasn't quite the consistency I was hoping for - it was too thin - ie. difficult to feed to a busy body kid like mine.

Today became grocery shopping day somehow - probably because we needed food to be able to eat dinner tonight - and I thought I'd pick up the ingredients to try again, only this time with heavy whipping cream. I just finished it - and from my taste test - it is a success. It is much thicker, not overpoweringly sweet, and just plain yummy. Can't wait for it to chill and have some tonight!

In case you want my very first custom recipe (yep, I'm tickled with myself) - and it is ridiculously simple to make so you should - here it is!

1 container of fresh strawberries, sliced
2 medium bananas sliced
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice, I like fresh - cut lemon in half and squeeze one side until you don't want to squeeze anymore :) how's that for instructions?! ha!
1/4 cup sugar - I might go up to 1/3 cup next time
1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Fat Free Sour Cream (I'm sure you could use full fat if you weren't counting WW points and it would be even yummier)

I think next time I am going to throw in 1/4-1/2 cup of raspberries - so I will definitely be upping the sugar to 1/3 cup. Updates on recipe as I make it. Sam suggested maybe a strawberry extract (do they make that?) if losing 1 banana doesn't cut it (I made it with 3 bananas and we couldn't taste enough of the strawberry) Sorry y'all - this is obviously a work in progress to perfection but it's too good not to try and so summery!

Combine Fruit, Lemon Juice, and Sugar in food processor.

Whip Heavy Cream until soft peaks form, very small peaks - really until it kind of stands by itself just a touch - we're not making meringue here... ;)

Fold in Sour Cream and then when that's mixed in, Fold in Fruit.

Chill. Garnish with strawberries if it makes you happy and you didn't use all of them before. Serve. I'm thinking it is going to be about 12 - 1/2 cup servings. And in case you need to know - each serving (if 12) is 3 points each.

I think this would be adorable served in tea cups. Ones with flowers on them. Just saying.

Dress It Up & Review It

2010-06-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

So, for all the lack in interior design related posts, or really just posting in general, I just want you to know that I have a reason. It's probably not a good one but my closet thanks me. I've been selfish sewing for a couple weeks now. Making skirts and dresses mostly. Skirts for another day - Today is about the dresses.

When I was working - I lived in dresses. Especially when I lost all that weight and got to enjoy shopping in the smaller single digits!! Too bad it was shortlived - got preggo - but anyhow. Point is - I LOVE dresses. So girly, fun, and easy to wear!! My current, post baby, wardrobe was lacking casual dresses for when I wanted to feel pretty but still had baby and nowhere to go but WalMart. And it's kind of funny - I only buy patterns when they're on sale for $1 - sometimes I'll pay $1.99 but NEVER EVER EVER full price - what a rip off!! I would cry if I spent more on the pattern then on the fabric itself! And I never pay a whole lot for the fabric either. I like to keep my total cost under $10 an item, including zippers, etc. so I stalked remnants and red tag like it's my job and have truly come to love broadcloth. Cheap, cotton, pretty, tailored. Love. Moving on to the fun pictures - though please excuse my facial expressions, less than perfectly clean hair, and the remotes on the floor.

These are three of my most recent favorites...

McCall's M5659

I bought these fabrics at JoAnn's when their redtag fabrics were half off - $1.50 & $1.00 per yard. I think I bought 3 yards of each... The print is navy & purple leaves with pink background and the more solid is kinda like a crosshatch texture in purple & pink. I made this dress weeks ago to wear to a baby shower for a sweet friend (remember the nursery?!) This might be one of my all time favorite dresses in my closet right this very second. So very very wearable. No spanx required - though a racerback bra does come in handy. If I remember correctly - is was pretty easy to master the directions - curvy sewing and all - but I think when it came to the top I made up my own instructions...so be forewarned. And pockets are easy!! Adds a half dozen extra steps but I miss the pockets when I don't have them. I highly suggest this one! You will wear it out! Mine ends up in the laundry every single week.

Simplicity 2702

I also bought this great green stretch cotton, it does have a basketweave kinda texture but I can't remember the official name for this type of fabric at the moment (mom brain!), at JoAnn's half off red tag sale. Maybe $2.00 or $3.00 a yard? Now, I'm fairly happy with how it finally turned out but I will never make this dress again - what a pain! The instructions were impossible to understand. Seriously - I didn't know what I was sewing there for about an hour. I just stared at the gray piece of paper trying to make it make sense. The collar was the hardest part. And I ended up winging it - it's fine - just don't look too closely - it's not the neatest sewing I've ever done. So - cute dress - but no thankyou. And I'm not sure how I feel about the extreme flutter sleeves. The girls at school thought I looked cute, and I will wear it again definitely, but I'm not 100% thrilled with it. Just saying. So don't make this one unless you are a rocket scientist and don't need the directions.

Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity 2497

YOU MUST MAKE THIS NOW!!!!!!! Seriously - I am in love. And you can adjust the size of every piece to make sure that it fits you perfectly. (I didn't do that and am glued/spanxed within an inch of my life but I got it zipped and that's all that matters!) I don't think that next time I will put the pockets in. The zipper overlaps the pocket a bit and I couldn't understand how to fix it - so next time - no pockets for me - or I'll try and figure out a way to put the zipper down the back. Probably wouldn't be that difficult. This fabric is just black broadcloth bought with 40% off coupon - so I think 5 yards was around $8.00!!! It's also REALLY REALLY easy to sew - fabric and pattern - so do it now! And I obviously made the maxi dress - but there is a mini and knee length cut lines if you don't want it to the floor. (and the reason I look like I lost a bit of leg - there's a slit and I was hopping to get in front of the timer before it took the picture so there wasn't any time to fluff...)

I mean, c'mon, could the ruffle collar be any cooler?! And I seriously got stopped while grocery shopping this morning - someone asking where I bought my dress - and I felt so bad when their face dropped when I said that I made it. But I was grinning slyly on the inside! THAT is why I sew!!! (and what's that face I'm making?! Weird non-smile smile?!! note to self - cut head off next time...)

Next time I think I'll post the easiest skirt ever - with all kinds of ways to jazz it up without thinking at all. I hope you enjoyed this installment of "indulging Meghan & her sewing"! Have a great weekend!

A Long Work Weekend

2010-06-03T05:30:00.000-07:00

Silly us - what do we decide to do on our Fourth Anniversary weekend AND pepito is at the grandparents house for four whole days? Relax? Not a chance!! We painted the kitchen cabinets and countertops of course! Doesn't that sound like a wonderful way to recoup from taking care of a sick baby? Ha! Though, it is much nicer being in the kitchen at 3am making a bottle now then it was a week ago.

Friday morning I drove baby up to Atlanta to meet my Dad at Grandmother's house and ended up she was having a lunch thing with my aunt/uncle and their kids, a close friend with her baby and an aunt who had managed not to meet pepito yet - so I was there a little longer than planned. Lucky for me - I got to miss taking down all the doors, with 13 screws each, and painting them. Sweet.

We've always loved white cabinets, black countertops, checkered floor. Nothing fancy. Just simple. Classic. Can't go wrong. This was our plan and we had figured out a way that we could do it NOW and not later. Well the floor is later, but whatever. I can NOT look down. Maybe. We'll see... So we had a plan. (and let me note here, that THE PLAN had been made when we chose all the colors and schemes in the house, not made on a whim, just saying. there was no backup)

Sam made the executive decision that he wanted to spray paint the doors - fine by me - it's really his deal this time. The cost was a little more but the finish would be so much better he said. And truth - the enamel finish is nice. Shiny - but super cleanable. Perfect. So, I get home, change into paint clothes (you know you have some too), and start painting the boxes. I almost forgot to mention - that we learned the hard way that when painting with spray paint, it is an absolute necessity to make sure you get ALL coats done in a timely fashion. If you wait until the next day to finish up - you will be stripping the paint off and starting all over. Yay us. Atleast it was only on five of the doors...

Three coats later - we're done. Easy cheesey. We might get to go to bed at a relatively decent hour. Wait - Sam wanted to hang a couple doors to see how it all looked - and what do you know - the whites don't match. Of course they don't. So at 11:00 pm, we're sitting on the floor, well I'm sitting - Sam is pacing like always, trying to figure out what we can do to fix it that hopefully doesn't involve spending anymore money. I go digging through the storage/paint closet and come out with the only two semi-gloss paints we own. One is Forest Lichen, our bathroom color, and the other is a leftover from a job, which is a pretty blue gray.

I grab a craft paint brush and crudely put up samples. We sit. We stare. We talk it out. I really thought we'd have all white cabinets. But the two tone look could be good. Or it could be bad. Very bad. We don't want to look like we're taking the kitchen backwards. How much worse than what we got could it be. Only us. What color should the walls be. Do you think I could find fabric to make the blue work then and then we don't have to repaint the walls. But I love my poppies. And so on and so forth.

We end up choosing Forest Lichen. I can keep my poppy window treatments, it's less of a contrast, much softer, but we have to repaint the walls. I just can't make the china blue work anymore. No big deal. I'm sure we have a gallon of something that work.... I believe we got one coat on that night, then two more in the morning. And three fresh new coats on the buffet that was previously D.O.N.E. Yep - 12 more doors that had to come off with 13 screws each. Thank goodness we had a spaghetti/garbage disposal incident a couple years ago and needed a drill with a cord - best thing we ever bought.

I'll sum up the rest of the kitchen - we couldn't get the sprayer hardware out of the sink and thought we were going to have to replace our entire sink because of it. Which was going to be irritating because the only one we could afford to put back was the exact one we have - not in the plan. But Sam remembered the reciprocating saw and just cut the thing off - 60 minutes and a lot of sink searching later. I don't know why we can't be brilliant immediately... Sam redid the plumbing underneath because the pipe had rotted out. Whoever did it the first time didn't install the pipes at the right level so it never drains right and we will have to do this every year. No big deal - just add it to the list. Faucet gets installed without a hitch, I tape off the freshly painted cabinets, and we start painting the countertops. Somehow we didn't get it quite as even as I would've preferred, but it was hard enough to live without putting things on the counter this time and I don't plan to do it again anytime in the near future. It's good enough and a vast improvement anyhow.

So - that's our kitchen makeover. Oh, and Sam spent 2 hours detailing our oven because he's decided it's the centerpiece to our new kitchen. Fine by me - it was old and dirty. Plus, he figured out to get the nonworking huge timer box off the top, so I'm super pleased. Happy new kitchen. Now, to paint the walls and maybe we'll be done with paint. Yeah right - I've said that before! Ha!!

FINALLY!!!

2010-05-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Let it never be said that I don't have some patience in me. Granted, not a lot, but just a smidge. I have had this fabric picked out for 3.5 - almost 4 years. I lovingly refer to it as the perfect floral and have chosen all colors in every house I've ever owned around the hope of having this fabric grace my windows. Two years ago my sweet husband bought me 31 yards for my birthday. And it has been rolled up waiting for us to either take it to the workroom or pick a house to live in for more than 365 days. I used to visit it in the attic, pull it down occasionally just to glance at it, and then drag the heavy bolt back up out of the way.

Well - NO MORE!!!

As an Anniversary gift for my husband, I made the draperies. Fourth Anniversary is fruit & flowers - so it's perfect - and he wanted them bad too! Now - this is where my non-patience enters. I was sewing on the DL, so I had managed to get two of the panels done, but desperately wanted to see what they looked like in the room hanging. Only problem - we didn't have the window hardware to hang them - so what did I do? Tacked them up there with finish nails! ha!! It did hold surprisingly well and I was so pleased, that I RUSHED to get the last two panels done and up so I could surprise Sam when he got home from work.

He actually noticed!! Though, it probably helped that I left a note on the door telling him there was an early anniversary gift inside... ;) I realize that it was my job as an interior designer to impress upon people the great qualities of window treatments - how much softer, warmer, etc everything feels when the windows are dressed. But they still manage to surprise me every time I put them up in our house. The living room just feels done now - atleast the furniture seating group of it - and it's so much more comfortable. We are in absolute love.

And - in true form - we've already moved the blue frames to the left of the bookcase. We added an armoire to the hallway for storage and all of our favorite prints had to be relocated and found a new home there. I'm sad to see the blue frames go - in my head it looks perfect and done - but in reality it hadn't quite gotten there yet and pretty sure the Hubs was none to pleased with the idea in the first place. Oh well. It's not like we ever leave something where it is forever. Ha!

But We Left the Ironing Board Out!

2010-05-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

The title is seriously something that came out of my sweet hub's mouth as a reason why friends couldn't come over for drinks after dinner out when we first met. It has stuck with us for a year and half - which is wild - it feels like we've all been best friends forever...huh...anyhow.

Our ironing board was disgusting. Years of burnt starch, fused interfacing, and probably a spilled diet coke or two. But somehow, I could never stomach paying $15 for a new shiny cover... Funny how I pick and choose what's worth the money. Though, it WAS probably worth it...

But to Sam's surprise and hopefully delight, I whipped this brand new one up for him the other evening. Afterall, he irons everyday, so he's the one who has to look at the grossness and pray that it doesn't end up all other his Brooks Brothers shirt.

And, wow, was it easy. I ironed the old cover, laid it on top of the new fabric, cut around about an extra 1/2", folded over and pressed a casing, sewed the casing shut except for a couple inches, and then threaded elastic cord into the casing, tied it in a knot, and put it on the board. Should've done this years ago!!!!

New, sort of, Countertop!!

2010-05-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

We never go to Lowe's anymore. We used to go almost every day and three times a day on the weekend with the Dream House. If we were friendlier (ha!) I'm sure we would've been on a first name basis with every. single. employee. We were there THAT much. I think the paint guys would run when we came in. Anyhow.

before we moved in

Pepito's room gets lit up at night by our inconsiderate neighbor's spotlight - seriously - why are you playing with your four dog at 9pm?!! In your backyard that is literally 5 feet from my baby's bedroom?!!! Just saying. So the time had come that blackout roller shades were necessary for our sanity - we don't work well together on only a couple hours of interrupted sleep and it seems that being on the same page is a good thing when parenting together... heehee.

Sam's test run on painting cabinets

Off we went to the big blue box to get some roller shades cut. William will put up with errands in the cart as long as he is moving and has new things to look at. So, while Sam waited with the shades, we rolled over to the paint section. I love looking at all the spray paint colors. I swear, one day, I am going to buy a fun color and do something fun with it. One day. Put it on the list. But while I was dreaming of how to use the perfect happy green spray paint - lo and behold - there it was.

Laminate Countertop Paint.

OMG - I think I yelled at Sam I was so excited. I absolutely despise our countertops. Mint green yucky geometric disasterness. And it was on our list to replace them, just with black laminate (money spent on granite, or even a solid surface, would not be recouped in our neighborhood), but we don't have tons of money just laying around, so there it stayed, on the list. That infamous list.

This paint is $20. Done and done. We actually waited a whole week to buy it. So proud of us. Got it tinted in black and home again home again twiddly dee. I had to go to a party a friend was hosting that afternoon, but by the time I got back, Sam had fixed the broken spots, sanded, cleaned, and painted two coats.

The surprising part about it was - it kept looking better and better the more days passed. The instructions say to give it three days to fully cure and for once in our lives we obeyed the instructions - so I've gotten to assess the finish often. We just tested it on the buffet for the time being. We can't be without countertops for three days with pepito needing to be fed, constantly... so this was perfect.

We're still trying to decide if the backsplash should stay black or if we should paint it blue to match the walls. I think we're leaving towards blue, but I'm not sure how the blue paint would do on the laminate and this stuff is MADE for laminate...anyhow - I'm waffling. It would be an AWFUL LOT of black. We'll see.

Now here's hoping we can get the rest of the cabinets and countertops painted on the other side of the kitchen over Memorial Day weekend - any grandparents want to keep pepito? Four days of fun for everyone!!!

For the Mommas

2010-05-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

I'm sure all you moms out there have already thought of this - but I'm gonna put it out there anyway. We are going through baby food like m&m's. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but seriously - it's out of control. And I feel so wasteful throwing away the containers, plastic and glass alike. So I've been saving the ones that aren't stained orange from sweet potatoes waiting for my lightbulb moment.

At some point last week, I was searching for snaps or buttons or both in the blue container I'd just been dumping them in. Which used to be a functional way to keep them all in the same place, until that container also began to hold elastic, grommets, safety pins, and all other random things that happened to be lying around when I cleaned up from sewing.

Now - I've got dozens of the glass baby food jars, but recently the plastic two pack Gerber foods were on sale, so I had accumulated dozens of those too and thought it would be easier to only have to unpop the top then to screw off a lid - plus, they stack a lot easier.

So - I found some scrapbook paper, cut tiny rectangles out, wrote with a sharpie on the top - and now I have individual storage bins for all my random sewing notions. Ridiculously easy and makes my life so much easier to boot. Just one of the many uses for these things - wonder what I'll need the six on the window sill for...hmmm...

The Unveiling of a Nursery

2010-05-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

Today was the day by which the nursery MUST be done - J's big baby shower! And her girls did the BEST job - the food was yummy, the blue pina coladas in bottles were adorable, and J is MORE than set for when little Will graces the world with his arrival in July. And the icing on the cake - the nursery is finito! Except for a couple pictures on the wall and staining a bookcase - J has really made his nursery a place for a little boy to grow and be loved in.

(Now - I'll be honest - my camera is having some issues with autofocusing - as in, it won't do it - so these are the best that my photog bestie could get for me...)

Without further ado - Will's nursery highlights:

What we did:
Completely custom crib bedding except for the crib sheet - "circles" & monogrammed blue linen crib bumper with stripe ties, stripe inverted pleat skirt.
Semi-custom window panels with stripe "skirt"
Hand-painted Sailboat Canvas by J - isn't she talented?! - with large stripe fabric sails
One of J's only REQUIREMENTS was that I find space for a RadioFlyer wagon - I think it's an adorable toy storage solution for in front of the window - unfortunately - the caboose that came with it wouldn't fit - but I bet it still makes an appearance later... ;)
J picked out the lamp and table and they both fit perfectly - once the slides are fixed - the dropleaves will come up and give her plenty of room for all the momma necessities
The chair is covered in a chenille and the pilllows, which I already showed, make the perfect spot to cuddle with sleeping babes.

And there IS an adorable deep chocolate fluffy rug that goes in the middle - but who would want 30 people's shoes tromping all over it when there's a baby coming soon...

What we did:
J found the BEST resource for paper lanterns - so she ordered a bunch (seriously - like 30) and we suspended them from three little white hooks with fishing line. Very free form but I could not be more tickled with how great it turned out!
J and her mom also scoured stores and the internet alike to find a dresser that fit the dimensions perfectly to act as their changing table. The nursery is a good size - but using a dresser instead of a traditional changing pad would up the storage possibilities (and be a lot prettier and more functional later in little Will's life.)

What we did:
This is probably the EASIEST project - open back frame, monogrammed knob stuck directly into the wall, covered pretty hanger, and what do you have? The cutest way to display your little ones coming home outfit. This has been on my to-do list for my William for forever, and I'd be lying if I wasn't a little envious that J got it done before me...but it's so cute - I don't mind! ;)

I could not be happier with how Will's nursery turned out and it was an absolute pleasure working with his momma to make her dream come true. Much love and best wishes to you both! I can't wait for his arrival!

For the Mommas

2010-05-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Can you ever have too many bibs? Well, maybe only when it's laundry day but otherwise, I know I like have drawers full of them (spreads out the laundry days...) Reading around blog world - I ended up on Homemade by Jill - and if you haven't checked her out - go do it and come back...please. :) As fate would have it - the top tutorial (thankyou alphabetical order) was her bib tutorial. Easy cheesey.

My sewing table happens to line up directly with my bin of "cute" (read - not in daily use) dishtowels. And in that stack was KMart's Martha Stewart fruit set that I coveted for months until I finally gave in and paid way too much for them. They're towels. And they get dirty. But I love them. Which is also why they are in a bin and not under my sink....moving on. In the name of things I have actually getting used - I thought they would make ADORABLE bibs. Kids eat fruit - makes sense.

So I printed out the template, cut the towel while it was doubled over, sewed it inside out, flipped right side out, topstitched, added a snap (because I don't have white velcro handy and I'm trying to keep myself out of fabric stores this month), and voila. I'm in love. I can't wait to cut into the rest of the set.

This would be adorable with any cutesy set of dishtowels - and I may not be allowing myself in the fabric store but I'm pretty sure the dollar store is not necessarily off limits...just saying. Or Target's dollar section might also get a visit shortly. Plus, with all the scraps of fabric I have - maybe I should just pick up a bundle of washclothes and go to town. The possibilites are endless!! And these would make such a cute gift paired with a burp cloth!! And be sure to check out the rest of that blog too - it's AWESOME!!

Problem Meet Solution

2010-04-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ok - so I'm going to have to admit that the hubs and I are terrible at doing dishes. I think it might be both of ours most unfavorite chore. And on top of that - we are constantly asking each other if the dishwasher is clean or dirty. Because without fail, one of us will grab a baby spoon or something out of the clean dishwasher without unloading it and then the "clean" light will go off. Then - neither one of us will unload it because we think it's dirty...cycle... It's kinda ridiculous. But anyway.

I had this thought that maybe if I made a sign that clearly said Clean/Dirty then we would know and maybe the dishes would get unloaded/loaded appropriately. The hubster is going to think this is juvenile and SILLY but if it works - I'm going to feel brilliant.

I already had everything I needed, so it took maybe 2 minutes to do this. Cardboard, pretty papers, stickers, velcro, glue stick. Easy cheesey..

update: my hubby came home for lunch and LIKES the sign!!! SUCCESS!!!!

I may never take this off

2010-04-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Random fact - Hancock Fabrics had an Earth Day sale. I had no idea until I rolled up early Thursday morning but it was a nice surprise. I was there to pick up ONLY pink seersucker to make a dress for my stepmom's principal? vice-principal? someone important at her school...but then I got sucked in to the prices. Surprise surprise.

I had this pattern sitting at the house begging for me to make it and I finally decided to go for it Thursday afternoon - rushing to get it done so I would have something to wear to class that evening. (like my closet is empty - silly girl)

I chose a grey tiny pinstripe cotton (my newfound favorite color for some reason) and navy for the contrast hem and cuff (another surprise I know). I thought the combo would be effortlessly casual but still "nice" enough to feel pretty. And, I was right. I don't want to take this dress off. I wore it to class last night and all day today when I had running around to do. And I felt great.

The pattern itself is remarkably easy to understand. Usually I don't understand the directions exactly, and maybe I still don't and end up making them up myself, but I had NO problems sewing this at all. The best part - only side seams on the bodice, you don't have to deal with turning under the armholes, which is always a pain for me. So that was awesome!

I added top stitching at the neck to help the facing stay put and also at the cuff just because I wanted to. OH!! Did I mention that it has POCKETS!! And they were easy to sew in?!!!! LOVE!!!

Feel free to ignore all the wrinkles - I forgot to take a picture when it was all fresh and clean - I've been wearing it ALL day... I had made a tie to go around the waist to cinch in a bit more, it's a little loose on top and through the waist, but I hand tacked it quickly last night and it came undone. I'm not sure if I actually need it though - I liked that I don't look as wide with it but I do feel a bit like a little girl with it on. Hmm...I'll decide later.

So - there you have - a cutesy dress that's super easy to wear for less than $10. Now go sew something fun!! :)

How We Met Our House

2010-04-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

What a fun party!! I definitely want to play!!

(and please excuse the mess of the blog - I JUST decided to redo it)

It's no secret that we have moved every year we have been married (this coming Memorial Day Weekend marks our fourth anniversary) - so we've lived in A LOT of houses, though we've only bought 3. I guess we get itchy, who knows. This year will be different though - no moving for us. This will be the house that I finally have draperies made and the kitchen will be just right.

In 2008 we had bought the Dream House. Loved it. It was the perfect humongous, pain to clean, beautiful house - where we were supposed to live forever and raise children in. Only problem - we ended up deciding to have children earlier than "our plan" and then on top of that I got laid off. So - bye bye Dream House.

We had looked at renting, but with two large dogs, a cat, and a baby on the way, the options were slim. Either the rent was cheap but the neighborhood was scary, they didn't allow dogs over 30 lbs (ours are 50 & 75), or the rent was too expensive. Plus, after owning two homes, we didn't know how we would feel about renting again. Not having something be OURS would be quite the change.

So we got our realtor to find us some houses to see in the piddliest of price ranges I never thought we would have to look at. And turns out - they weren't bad houses - just, well, different. (and disappointing...) I thought we would never find a house and we were definitely running out of time - closing, baby, etc.

One Sunday, Sam & I just started driving around and came up on the corner of 17th & 35th and I thought I spied a sign up in the ivy. (why they thought THAT was a good idea...?!) Anyhow - we hurried home, looked it up, and called Renee. It was $20,000 more than we wanted to spend but the mortgage would still be totally manageable. (we had purposely set a VERY low limit)

When we walked in - it was perfect. Mostly. I hated the steep driveway, the trim & roof color, the crazy big texture on the walls, the parquet floor in the dining room, the nasty 50's kitchen, the bathroom made me sick, and the carpet in the office - yuck. And the yards were untended, messy, and full of weeds.

But in spite of all that - it was perfect.

The front door opened into a large (much larger than it looks from the outside) living room that is perfectly situated to not have to deal with any awkward door openings and then there are french doors to the dining room. Swing door to the kitchen - which has plenty of storage & cabinets and the cutest vintagey stove/oven that still works perfectly! There's a small hallway that has both bedrooms & bathroom off of it and it's perfect. I love that we are only 15 feet from pepito and sharing one bathroom is no big deal to us at all.

The office is kinda weird - we did have to move a door opening to the laundry area and we removed a very strange and un-airconditioned half bath because it just didn't make sense - but it definitely works now that we've rearranged it a dozen times.

We are the happiest we've ever been in this house, even though it's the smallest house we've ever owned - a mere 1500 sq ft, but it's perfect for us. The layout and flow of the house is perfection - which is what is truly most important to us. I know that here we can resist the itch to move for SEVERAL years.

I die.

2010-04-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

My bestest Hadley has a photography studio - you know that. I posted about the window treatments already. But the poor mama's (and their entourage) had nowhere to sit. Now granted - I don't think I've ever needed to sit in a chair at her studio, usually I'm too busy desperately trying to get pepito to pretend to be happy during picture taking - but I've never had anyone come with me either. Anyhow. Hadley needed chairs. Cute chairs. Cheap chairs. (please ignore the quality of the iPhone pictures - I really need a point & shoot I can carry around...)

More than a month ago, when both our babes were elsewhere (how did that happen?!) we scoured the thrift stores and found some perfectly sized comfy chairs at Salvation Army for $25 each. Not an awesome price like I've seen all of you find - but pretty dern good for Columbus and hefty chairs. At this point I was convinced that, even though it looked more complicated than anything I had attempted before, I could strip them down and recover them for her.

Oh, woe is me. Way above my skill level. Well - maybe not - but I didn't have the right tools to even get them ripped down properly and I certainly don't have an air gun stapler thing. Shoot. So, with much shame, I called Hadley and call the my workroom, who quoted us a price. And while reasonable - I felt terrible. But we didn't have much of a choice if we wanted them recovered. Shoot.

Upholstery magician Ray had them ripped down in a matter of hours and then they sat in my house while we tried to get our schedules to align so we could paint them. We FINALLY found the time to paint them RED this weekend. So, first thing Monday morning, I loaded them back up in the car and took them to Ray to finish. I'm sure he thought that I had fallen off the face of the earth - but atleast they understand that I have a baby and the time that it takes to get out of the house/do anything at all is ridiculous. I digress.

I got the call last night that they were ready! Yay! First thing today I headed out to get them. Lucky for me, I only live 2 minutes from the workroom. And I die. I knew they would look awesome - I squealed when I saw the fabric at Hancock's - but this - is just awesome. Really happy we didn't go with a solid texture - these have such a great punch!!

I had to drop them at Hadley's house instead of the studio, crazy baby schedules, and I can't wait to see them with the curtains. It is going to be so fun with all the colors and patterns. Hadley squealed and, honestly, I'm a little afraid she's not going to take them to studio she loves them so much. They might find a home in her home... ha! So Love!!!

Poppies Make Me Happy

2010-04-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

Knocking projects off the never-ending project list does too - so happy Two for One to me! ha!

In honor of my new sewing station - I decided it was about time I finally got these window treatments marked off the list. After looking at the ribbon, even though it was yellow polka dots, I decided that a self tie was what would be best. Easy cheesey. I cut four, sewed four, and tied them on this morning.

And I will say - I'm not sure why exactly I put this off for so long - but the finished product is worth it. I am in love. These are the easiest, prettiest window treatments ever. Sew a rectangle (with or without lining), sew the ties, make cute little bows and you're good to go. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm repeating the style above my sewing table (as soon as I pick up more lining).

They make me happy. (the weird light does not - another day...)

My very own spot

2010-04-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

I love my hubs. Seriously - he's the best out there. And here's why. We were cleaning up our wreck of a house this weekend and he tells me to sit down. This never means anything good (well, actually it does but in a round about way). I automatically know that this means he wants to rearrange furniture (AGAIN!) and I just don't know that I'm up for all that. Turns out - he's REALLY tired of all my sewing stuff being in the dining room and would like to bring in our very old desk from the shed, move some shelving, and put me in the 'office' permanently. He didn't have to get to the end of his proposition before I was saying yes.

I know he probably doesn't believe me but I didn't like having all my mess out in the middle of the house anymore than he did. And on the plus side, this meant we were going to have to deal with the disaster situation of all the shelving in the back.

Not a whole lot to say about this process, except that there were several trash bags involved and a run to the attic.

One of many disaster before looks....embarassing

My sewing spot!!

It's definitely not wonderful yet. As you can see I'm still in the middle of painting the ugly trim white, the "desk" needs a new paint job, window treatments need to be hung (and made..I do have one done...), and then fun things on the wall. But I am so excited to have MY VERY OWN SPOT I couldn't wait to show!!

Need a Button?

2010-04-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

Warning: Not exactly, or at all, related to home interior design.

Completely relevant for mommies though.

I can't remember when - but apparently at breakfast one Saturday pepito was playing with jacket buttons I guess. Because it's been in my head that I need to make him a button "blanket" to play with. I found myself with no immediate sewing project today and having taken my exam last night, I could ignore anatomy for the day as well. So - early this morning I raided my itty bitty pieces of fabric bin - and of course picked the green geometric print and the roosters. Can't help myself. Plus, they were two of the few pieces that were actually large enough.

Now - seriously - this is the easiest project ever!! You know all those buttons that come as "extra" when you buy new clothes? Well - I throw them in the bottom of my jewelry box and never think about them again - until last night. Brilliant. I have atleast 30 buttons I have absolutely no need for - sweet!!

While pepito was "watching" Curious George and Dinosaur train, I sewed the buttons onto the green print. Easy cheesey. No real pattern obviously but I did try to space out by size & color so atleast all the huge black buttons weren't hanging out together.

(and I'm really trying hard not to rip out the one blue gingham ribbon that got jacked up...)

Finished up the buttons this afternoon after a wild morning of errands and appointments, pinned on the pieces of looped ribbon to the green, pinned the roosters on top (right sides facing) and straight stitched all the way around, leaving room to turn inside out. Top stitched all the way around, closing the opening, tacked on some red poms poms on the corners and done! Easy stinking cheesey!!

Now - I just hope that it entertains pepito more than saran wrap - but I'm pretty sure that's impossible.

Have fun Mommies!!!

I Heart Spray Paint

2010-04-12T19:53:00.001-07:00

I know - I haven't posted anything on THIS blog in awhile - more than a week. Bad blogger. Life has me busy. Baby, sewing, baby, school, baby...it's a vicious cycle. But - I found some time this morning, avoiding studying for my lab exam tonight, to do a tiny project that I've been meaning to do for forever. It didn't hurt that, while looking for sandpaper, I found brown gloss spray paint.

Enter stage right - Grandaddy's red bench.

still forgot to take a true before pic...

It has found a final resting place in our bedroom. Unfortunately, the red doesn't work. We've had plans to paint it blue, at Forest, white, on the porch, etc etc. Now - the plan - brown in the bedroom at 17th.

Pepito is taking a marathon nap, as is his 'usual' morning routine, and since I can't find the sandpaper to do start some chairs for a friend, I figured I'd take 10 minutes and knock something off our list. Easy cheesey.

I only did one coat, because I only have one can of paint, and there are probably some spots that need another hit, but...oh well. No one sees it but us and I'm pretty sure I can just avoid looking at those spots. I was actually surprised I was able to get the whole thing covered with only one can - guess this Monday is going to be a good day afterall!!

Loving the after - the bench feels like it belongs instead of just plopped in our our room because we didn't have anywhere else to put it. Now to see if I can keep from piling clothes and towel on it...ha!

And on a different kind of good note - I'm hoping the spray paint fumes help me take the test - it did the last time anyhow! I was in a "happy" kind of mood!!

Pink All Over

2010-04-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

We went out of town this weekend to see my parents and when we got back - we were greeted with a yard full of pink. The azaleas have bloomed!!! All of them!!! Nothing makes me happier! Well, maybe if my daffodils had bloomed I would be happier....oh well.

From the front door

We still have to get more mulch to fill in the rest of the bed...

So pretty to see when we park

By our steps - this was the first one to bloom

AND - my stepmom sent me home with LOTS of flowers to plant!! Now - she warned me that they will probably be in shock this year and not bloom - but NEXT year - watch out!! I vow to keep them alive - easier said then done. I usually kill everything...but maybe this year will be different!!

My new plants waiting for me to find a minute to put them in the ground

Our yard is starting to make me happy...now if we just had grass instead of weeds!

It's Gone!!

2010-04-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

My wonderful husband had some comp days stored up from all of his travels this year and decided to turn Easter in to a four day weekend. He made it very clear that Friday it was like he wasn't here - he wouldn't be helping me with the baby - he would be outside. Fine with me hon. (as long as you return the favor on Monday when I have a quiz..!)

before we even moved in - how 'lovely' is that though!

He decided that it was finally time that the weed flower bed by the driveway to leave our house forever. And not a moment too soon! It was awful trying to negotiate getting in and out of the car when six inches from the door is an eight+ inch high flower bed that holds nothing but "wild flowers" - ha! Nevermind trying to get the baby and the thirty ton carseat in and out. So I was happy to oblige and even made it out there a couple times to supervise help.

down to the dirt!

It didn't take too long for him to shovel out the dirt and I actually did help with this part - which made it go surprisingly quickly. The dirt was soft and easy to dig thank goodness!!! We had all of that cleared out by lunchtime.

Then, came the gravel. Randomly, there was a TON of gravel in our backyard. I guess someone used to park back there... I was hoping to dig that out and use it on the side - but Sam decided it wasn't worth the humongous effort it was going to take to get it out of the yard and that was assuming there was even enough, which I'm pretty sure there wasn't. So - he borrowed his dad's truck and went to Durty Works.

this may not look like a huge deal - but believe me - it is!!

THREE THOUSAND POUNDS of gravel later, and I helped shovel this briefly while pepito took a short nap, and we can now get out of the cars without spraining ankles!!! It's amazing!!!

Now, eventually we will have the entire driveway repaved so it's one continues stretch of concrete, instead of car tire strip things and we will concrete that spot by the side of the house as well. But for now, this is perfectly fine interim solution.

And it was a beautiful weekend for lots of yardwork. We also weeded the front yard and "planted" grass in the back, now that there was all kinds of transplanted dirt back there! (which will definitely have to be weeded in the near future...oh well)

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!

Rock A Bye Baby

2010-03-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

J's Nursery Chair came in last week!!!

I went forever ago and picked out three choices for upholstery, 2 good and 1 best of the worst, and she picked my FAVORITE!! A velvety textured fabric. LOVE!!

She coerced asked her husband to put it together Friday night and it is perfect!! The color - everything.
OH - and she got a fluffy chocolate rug!!! It will all make sense in the end - and her crib is coming in any day now!!

I love how the colors in the pillows pull across to the curtains - but just you wait until the bumper and skirt are done - it's going to be perfection! SNEAK:

New Blog - Venture - Excited!!

2010-03-25T07:24:00.001-07:00

Indulge me for just a moment and go check this out...please!!

http://nutmegsclothing.blogspot.com

Thanks!!!

Etch a Sketch

2010-03-23T05:42:00.000-07:00

Wow - how I loved my etch a sketch. Never got really proficient at it - but I'm looking forward to buying one for pepito...

Anyhow.

It has been on my to-do project list to do sketches of our old houses, 18th Ave & Forest, to replace the baby pictures (that were never meant for the living room anyway). Over the weekend I found some vellum paper in a stash and also a picture of 18th Ave. I decided that first nap was as good a time as any to start.

Originally

We fell in love with 18th Ave at first look....of the outside. The diamond windows were gorgeous, the front porch was perfect, and the yard was level and full of grass. It was days before we were able to see the inside because the floors were in the process of being redone but in our minds it was ours. And silly first time homebuyers, with no realtor buying a FSBO, offered full price because we were terrified of losing it. We learned our lesson, never again.

The first weekend after moving in - I wasted no time in getting up the holiday wreaths!

We moved in 5 days before Christmas I think and it was wonderful. Sam & my Dad even moved our Christmas tree! So many great memories from that house. Sam BUILT our porch swing and it was THE most comfortable swing I've ever sat in! Playing in the yard with the pups, working on projects in the massive building in the backyard, and just having fun being newlyweds.

Love the Fire Engine Red Front door! It was no small feat to paint it though - it was solid wood and weighed agizillion pounds.

Back to the task at hand. The sketch only took about 20 minutes! I still kinda wish I would've been able to find my marker paper, but it was a whole lot easier to copy the house with the vellum... And I'm still trying to decide whether to go over the whole thing in pen. I'm kinda scared to because what if I don't like it and then I have to start all over? But, I guess it would only take me twenty minutes to redo if I had to....

The large print in the center is not one of our houses, unfortunately. My brother got married on Jekyll and Sam & I took the historic home tour while we were there for the weekend. It was our just our favorite house out of all the ones we saw and we used to try and pick up prints from everywhere we went off. Now - we get magnets - much more cost effective...

So - pen or no pen? Any thoughts?

Mixing It Up

2010-03-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Sam decided that since it was rainy on Sunday and we couldn't do yardwork, we would spring clean instead. And apparently pepito agreed - he took 2 - 2hour naps for us and then played happily in the walker all day. Success!!

We managed to get the living room, dining room, kitchen, hall and our bedroom totally clean. Top to bottom. Steam mop included. It was a TON of work - but so worth it. There is nothing better than a super clean house.

And then when we got done for the day and pepito was in bed - Sam came back to me on the computer and said he wanted to switch around the living room. I was not so sure it would even work. But in the spirit of being a good wife and indulging him, I said ok.

This is the only full picture BEFORE of the living room and it had much improved since.

His reasoning was that our armchairs are way comfortable but we never used them because it was not a good tv viewing vantage point AND they were always covered in baby paraphernalia. It took about two hours of moving furniture, sitting, looking, talking about it, move some furniture, repeat...but we LOVE the end result!! And we don't have any truly orphan pieces, which is nice.

AFTER! We flip flopped the chair & sofa, lost the blue wing chair which created a nice little nook for all things baby and we put our smallest drum table to use as an 'accessory' piece by the fire place. The petite table from the dining room found a new home by the front door and is perfect for keys, wallet, and the occasional Diet Coke. ;)

In the grand plan, we are going to enlist my Dad to help us mirror the built-in bookcase, creating better symmetry. The secretary moved from behind the front door (where it was never really used) to by the sofa. Perfect spot for it too. We also decided to keep the blue frames (they were starting to bother me even though I wasn't done with the full vision yet) but put all of our prints to good use in them. Attic shopping anyone?! The ottoman from the wing chair even got to stay in the room - and now lives underneath the radio cabinet's drop down door.

The other side of the room, with the french doors, also got a bit of a makeover, but isn't put together enough yet to show...sorry. But, sliding the furniture down to center on the window instead of the bookcase created a lot more open space in front of the front door & french doors. (more space for pepito to run around in!)

Unfortunately, since we borrowed the little table from the dining room - I'm back to square one here. The good part - now pepito has much more room to toodle around in his walker. Plus, the table was getting beat down by the sun and that's no good.

I even made the bed this morning I was so jazzed about our new clean house.

This is the wing chair's new home - not perfect - but it'll have to do. It's so big, there's no where else it would even pretend to fit.

We didn't make it to spring cleaning the office, so excuse the mess, but this is where our pretty little antique green chair ended up. I kinda like it here even though it fit so well in the hall.

So - all in all - great mini makeover! We are tickled with the final result of the living room and are enjoying the cleanliness of spring cleaning!! I should've linked THIS up to Finesse Your Nest - oh well - the party's over now... This was the epitome of shopping your house!! A whole new look and not a dime spent!! (well, except that now I have to fix the dining room....ha!)

And I'm so proud of my husband for thinking outside the box and coming up with something brilliant!!! I know I married him for a reason!! (or hundreds...!)

Sew Happy

2010-03-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

I know, I know....I'm ridiculous. Since I finished my dress and need to go to the store to get supplies to begin to finish J's nursery items - I was left without a sewing project yesterday. Not cool. So I decided to create one. My spring wardrobe is seriously lacking because of my new mommy size, granted I still have to go attic shopping and see what I have up there to fit the bill, but using all my remnants (this top cost me under $3!!) to make a new top seemed like much more fun.

I had a yard of linen and a half yard of minty green small diamond print laying around that I thought MIGHT be enough to turn my dress into a top. And - luckily - I was right! I had JUST enough linen to make it work. Though, wouldn't you know, as soon as I had all the pieces cut realized that the linen would be SUPER see through. Again, luckily, I had some white thin polyester (maybe?) fabric remnant that I could use to line it.

Totally not in to the extra work the lining would create but it's better than giving everyone a show or having a tank top show through messing up the cute lines of the shirt. It was a bit more work and was definitely more difficult to work with but it makes all the difference. No peep show!!

I chose to eliminate the zipper, because I didn't have one on hand, and I was pretty sure that I could fit it over my head without one, and I also nixed the tie because I wanted to do ruffle collar and arm holes and didn't want there to be too much print. Somehow with the lining, the measurements got a little smaller, so there was no need to cinch in to make it fit. Sweet.

I finished up the ruffles this morning, I had run out of the off white thread, but decided that no one would be the wise if I used white bobbin thread. Plus, I REALLY wanted to wear the top to breakfast with the in-laws. My MIL always looks uber chic, seriously ALWAYS; all of my friends want to be her when we grow up. And I always feel like a puffalump in my yoga pants & tshirt next to her, so I really wanted to put some effort into myself this morning. And, honestly, I should do this more often. I felt so pretty and put together with cute outfit, makeup and my hair done. I even put on earrings and a wood bracelet. (wood bracelet specifically chosen so pepito could chew on it if he got bored with all of his toys. He's usually VERY interested in my jewelry...)

Anyhow. Here's the final top - and my sweet hubs forgot to mention that my strap is showing, but, for some reason, I'm unable to retouch it out... Guess I'm really just THAT pale! ha!

I have been seriously amazed at how easy it is to make clothes, baby and adult sized. I don't mean to go on and on about it on the blog, but I'm so excited to have "conquered" this and am hoping that some of y'all realize it's not such a daunting task. Try it!! Just pin the pieces and sew in a straight line!! Easy cheesey!

Now go enjoy the beautiful weather!!! Perfect for sleeveless cute tops!!

PS - Just linked up to Finesse Your Nest Shop your House Link Party - be sure to check out all the fun new projects everyone is doing! This project may not be exactly home related like all the others - but I did definitely shop my house (fabric bins) to make it - so I think it counts...sort of... My first Link Party!!! Yay!!

To Flower or Not to Flower

2010-03-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

As mentioned last night - I made a mistake when trimming the hems on my dress and nicked the shoulder. boo. And truth be told, an excuse to be able to wear one of these adorable flowers is awesome. I've been making them and making them and never getting to use them for myself - silly!! Anyhow - back to the subject at hand. Fixing my dress.

So I made a bunch of flowers last night and Sam and I decided that all the blue flowers were too much - so I have two options for you. And be honest!! And please leave a comment!!! Input is absolutely essential on this one!!

First one - just two green flowers with covered buttons. Simple, easy, and covers my boo boo.

Second one - two green flowers with a mini blue polka dot flower. A little more something...

And sorry for the crazy looking pictures - it's really hard to take a picture of yourself with this huge awkward Nikon camera...

I would tell you which way I'm leaning but I don't want to influence the comments....though - I bet you could guess!

Thanks for the help in advance!!

It's Done!!

2010-03-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

And if you'll please excuse my less than perfect mommy body, mommy hair, and tired expression. ;)

And wouldn't you know that at the very end, while trimming the hems, I knicked the face fabric at the right shoulder. So now I've got to figure out how to hide the hand sewing... Would a couple blue polka dot flowers look odd up there? I'll mock some up and get a pick on here soon - I need help with this one!

Bring on the Spring

2010-03-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I realized that Easter is coming up much sooner than expected and the thought of having to buy a dress put me into a panic. Having to spend money on a dress and the agony of trying to find one that fits - ugh. Not fun. And then, while taking a study break at Hancock Fabrics this weekend, yes, I am THAT dork, their 99 cent pattern sale inspired me. I could MAKE my dress! Save oodles of money, be cutesy spring just like I WANT it to be, and it would fit just right. (or close to just right - I'm not that good yet)

In addition to this pattern, I also came away with five others to try out in the future. How could I resist - saving upwards of $10 on each pattern!! Gold mine!!

So, I wandered the store, looking for the best fabric deal for color that would be flattering and weight that would be appropriate and found the prettiest emeraldy green for $1.95 a yard. Perfection! Light summer weight, slightly stretch, cotton in a color that all redheads look wonderful in. Cannot. Contain. My. Excitement.

As the accent - I couldn't resist navy polka dots. I love navy. I love polka dots. Easy choice. Especially since there was 1/2 yd remnant - 75% off. Seriously - it just keeps getting better.

First thing I did after my final was break into the pattern and start cutting out my size. I'm not sure I was home an hour before I went for it. Wait - first I did P90X with the hubs and THEN I started. So, maybe it was 2 hours. (by the way - Tony is the devil...)

I think I stayed up late sewing that night and it was surprisingly easy to manage. I always have a problem with pattern instructions. They never make a whole lot of sense to me but I figured it out and forged ahead. Got the dress stitched together, but without the right interfacing for the neck and armholes I had to stop. (still don't have the right interfacing...maybe I'll go search it out tomorrow)

And let me just give myself a pat on the back for sewing in the zipper. I have been TERRIFIED of zippers and feel absolutely ridiculous now because it was REALLY easy. Fear - Conquered.

Last night I cut the accent strips and today I stitched them on. And it is adorable.

I'm so proud of myself for (nearly completing) this dress. My wardrobe is a constant source of frustration with the new mommy body (enter P90X) and it's been hard to shop when I have literally tens of totes in the attic with beautiful clothes that used to fit. It's so fun to be excited about clothes again!

Run down of costs, approximately...

Green Fabric: $5

Polka Dot Fabric: $0.75

Zipper: $1.50

TOTAL SO FAR: $7.25

Still need to get the interfacing - but I'm hoping I can keep the total to around $10 - we'll see!

Compared to $40 for a dress from Target - Savings of $32.75!!! Now THAT'S something to be excited about!!

Bad Blogger

2010-03-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

I feel bad for not really posting anything in awhile. The dream house post was a last ditch attempt during studying to allay my guilt. It didn't work. But, I took the final last night, made a B in the class, and have already started enjoying my two weeks off.

Last night I started my Easter Dress, J's nursery bumpers, and today I completed J's nursery window treatments. And I completely forgot to take a picture of them. Bad blogger again - I know. But they are super cute and I can't wait to see them up.

I definitely plan to have something real to update here soon. House related or not - I will have a real post for my favorite few who read this!

OOh - forgot about this - found a monogram vase at Goodwill three weeks ago for $1.31! And I love it even more because it took a project off my neverending and always expanding list! Now I just need some flowers...

The Dream House

2010-03-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

I just realized I keep referring to our Dream House but some of you may have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. So a quick tour is in order I think, and I'll spare the you the many before pics. Maybe another day, another post.

Forest Ave Originally 1926 - picture found at the library

Every surface in the house had to be touched. Every single one. Literally. We did some our selves, and hired some out. Because of the sheer amount of wallpaper stripping (every room) and painting - we hired someone and didn't regret it for a minute. We would've saved a bundle of money DIYing it but they did such an AMAZING job - fixing every little problem that arose.

taken on the first day we looked at it

Something else we learned - don't open up the walls (especially plaster walls) unless you absolutely HAVE to. You never know you're going to find and it usually isn't good. Just saying.

after all the exterior painting, gutters, etc. had been done

Not all of these pictures, in fact probably most, are not great quality. They were taken in various stages of light and doneness - don't hold it against me please... :)

view from front door

formal living room

living room to dining room to sunroom

dining room

sunroom

family room (tv)

downstairs half bath

breakfast room

kitchen, totally gutted

i hand polished this copper hood

oh how I miss this laundry room

upstairs landing

master bedroom

upstairs bathroom

the guest room

our office, upstairs

That's most of it. 3,400 square foot of loveliness. Truth be told though, I only miss it at holidays. I miss having the entire family over for Christmas Eve dinner. We are much happier in our house now and are enjoying turning it into our new dream house.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Waiting Game

2010-03-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

LOOK WHAT MY NEIGHBORS FINALLY THREW OUT!!

This beauty has been sitting on their front porch for weeks and I've been SOOO tempted to walk over there and make an offer. Good thing I didn't - they finally put in on the side of the road!!!

As soon as the sun went down, and pepito was asleep, I went over all stealth mode and grabbed it. Seriously - it's sturdy and HEAVY.

Project wheels are turning.... (I'm leaning towards a bench on the screen porch - real furniture out there - oh my!)

....I don't even want to know what the hubs is going to say about this...

Fringetastic

2010-03-06T12:53:00.000-08:00

On a whim, and because I desperately needed to do something that was for ME since I've been so busy sewing/reupholstering for everyone else, I decided to get the sewing machine BACK out of the closet and make a pillow for our bedroom. (poor sewing machine only saw the closet for about 16 hours, so don't feel too bad for it)

I waffled a bit on whether I wanted to reuse the 20" fills that I had to rip the seams of pillows I had custom made before the dawn of my machine or to use the 16x24" fills I got last weekend at IKEA that were "supposed" to be for our armchairs in the living room.

At some point I decided I wanted to reuse the fringe trim on the original pillows. I think seeing how it was sewn in originally made the whole process a little less scary to try. And then I guess I thought I didn't have enough of the cream fabric I wanted to use to make the 20x20" - I actually thought wrong - but decided to make the 16x24 and the measurement on the trim would work perfectly.

the original pillow made for our guest bedroom at the dream house

Or so I thought - I think I didn't stretch it enough as I went, and truthfully, some of the fringe fell off when it's stitching came a bit undone - but I ended up having to borrow fringe from the other pillow and now I'm to making just one pillow. That's fine. I wanted to be done by the time my parents dropped pepito off anyhow. Easy cheesey.

And now for my first pseudo how to. I think I took enough pictures - well I forgot the ones of just the fabric pieces.. oh well - those would be boring pictures anyhow.

For a 16x24 pillows I cut one piece at 16x24 and one at 16x 28. (the finished pillows hold their shape and fluff better if the cover is just a touch smaller) I want about a 3" overlap in the back. Then I cut the 28" piece in half. Fold over 1/2" and straight stitch on both 16x14" pieces. You could do a double fold hem - but I'm lazy and this particular fabric wasn't laying flat after pressing.

Then - pin the trim on the right side of the fabric with the fringe towards the middle. Sew all the around about 1/4" in - or where the stitching on the trim is. You don't want any of the loop stitch parts showing - so keep it close. I used an upholstery needle - it seems to handle the thicker things better.

Next up - pin one of your shorter 16x14 pieces, right side down, and sew its three sides. Repeat with other short piece. Cut the corners diagonally but don't hit the trim - it may not matter - but I imagined a huge fringe flying disaster. My corners turned out just fine just trimming the fabric a bit.

Turn inside out, stuff in the fill, fluff and you're done. I forgot to iron the seams, and it may have been relatively difficult with the trim sewn in, but it doesn't seem to matter with the finished product.

please ignore the lack of shams - Target has been out -

they must be psychic for more people than just us.

I was formerly terrified of sewing trim. Avoided like the plague, even though several pillows I've made would be more adorable with some kind of fun edge. Turns out it is super easy and I had absolutely no reason to be scared of it. So jump in and have fun - worst case scenario - you have to rip the seams and start over. And seriously, I don't think I've sewn anything to date that I haven't had to rip atleast a little bit. It's not so bad...

OK - Moral of the story - I am tickled pink with how the pillow turned out and proud of myself for conquering something that "scared" me.

Pillow Talk

2010-03-04T18:42:00.001-08:00

As the title implies - I've been hard at work making J's nursery chair pillows - and they are A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. I absolutely love that they don't scream "baby" and seriously, the fabric makes you want to snuggle in - it's so soft and comfy.

She had found the 18" forms at PB Outlet at a super price, and has a bolster at work that she loves, so picked one of those up too. But when she went to get the fabric - they only had about 32" of the plaid. So...we weren't going to be able to do both pillows out of only the plaid. No biggie - we have that gorgeous checked chenille we could pair with it.

Originally, we were thinking to do one and one but then J suggested using both fabrics on both 18s. Brilliant - and yes, I am embarrassed to say I didn't think of it first... Y'know - as long as someone is brilliant - it doesn't matter.

So, with no baby to interrupt, I cut the fabric, hemmed, made button holes, pinned, sewed, made the covered buttons (which was no small feat with upholstery weight fabric), sewed on the buttons, and fluffed. Love love love. And so so easy!!!

I'm not gonna lie, the bolster pillow scared me. Sewing in circles - ahh!! But I am happy to report that I only had to rip half of a seam because I put the envelope flaps backward and my first try is a smashing success. J loves it!

Now, on to the crib bumpers and skirt. Ridiculously excited about this nursery and kinda wanting to completely redo pepito's...just saying. ;)

Tweet Tweet

2010-03-02T11:57:00.001-08:00

I haven't joined Twitter. I still don't understand what it is... is that sad?

No - I found some brass birds at Salvation Army. I don't know why I don't stop in there more often - it's really close to my house - well, closer than Goodwill anyhow. Anyhow.

$1.50 for the set. Very sturdy. Probably could've left them brass - I again forgot a before picture... But they didn't begin nearly as cute as this one so I'm saying it's ok...

So - I lightly painted on a couple coats of gloss white spray paint that I had - and love. But then instant gratification got the better of me - and I touched them (moved them off the floor so the dogs didn't trample them) and in doing so - messed up the finish.

with one very light coat of paint

I spent the better part of the day soaking them in paint thinner and sandpapering off the paint. Luckily, I was able to get most of the bad paint off. Then I started from the beginning again and vowed not to touch them until I got back from class.

soaking in mineral spirits - this took hours

And, just so you know, there's a very good reason they say don't spray paint in an unventilated area. I was high as a kite when I walked into class this evening. I doubt that it helped me on the quiz, but I sure was happy to take it!

tweet tweet - their eyes look kinda mean don't they -

huh - didn't notice that before - oh well!

Turns out, after all that, I missed a couple spots but seriously, those will just have to be that way until it warms up and I can paint outside. Good enough for now and I still absolutely love them. Terrified of putting still barely tacky birds on our inherited console - I put them on a tray. I'll rework the whole thing tomorrow I am sure but after all my efforts I wanted to blog now!

Oo Oo Studio

2010-03-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

My best friend Hadley has her very own photography studio now and a brand new fabulous place. And I get to be lucky enough to help make it feel fun and kid friendly.

Totally awesome stuff... www.hadleyscott.com

We began with window treatments, of course, my fave. And in effort to save her some moolah - we decided that purchasing ready made curtains (84" length) and sewing a skirt on them would be the most beneficial. and easy for me! ;)

She found the super fun squiggly stripes at Hobby Lobby - I told her to buy the entire 8 yard bolt because we needed to add 27" to each of the 8 panels and the extra, what turned out to be 32 inches, I could use on the door windows.

picture taken pre-pressing... but how fun is that fabric?!

Luckily Target had the perfect grommet heading panels, though it took two trips to enough for all the windows in her studio. I did some math - and decided to hang the curtains high, taking advantage of the 9 foot ceilings - cut off 14 inches of the solid brown panel, hemmed and sewed on the 27 inches of squiggles, repeat 8 times and done.

fun fun fun

We installed them on Sunday and she (and I) love them! Kind of by accident we decided we liked the "full break" at the bottom hem. I "might" have mismeasured a bit...but I like how it turned out and goodness knows I've installed draperies that I intended to hang like that - so all's well that ends well.

two of four windows in this room...wait til it's all done - it's going to be awesome!

I can't wait to finish out the space, with new chairs, accent tables, and hang all of her gorgeous photos on the wall!!

and I had every intention of taking in progress pictures - but got too excited and forgot...my apologies.

She's Crafty

2010-03-02T06:50:00.001-08:00

I'd like to think so - but I'm pretty sure the jury is still out on my crafty prowess...

I did, however, manage to complete my crafty corner redo in two days. Painted dresser and craft organizer board. HUMONGOUS difference!! Big plus for me since it's pretty much the first (and only) thing you see from the kitchen.

The dresser was a big red mess and now, after sanding and three coats of antique white semi gloss paint it is delightful. The finish probably leaves something to be desired - but it's good enough for me. Three coats is my limit. I hate painting.

I still want to paint little sayings that relate to the drawer contents on the front - but maybe chalkboard paint would be better - then I could always EASILY change the description. Good idea Meghan! Well, thank you self. haha

OOH - or if I could get mini chalkboards on sale - paint the frames green - ooh yes. Much better. Remind me to find those one day.

The craft board isn't quite done - but only because I can't figure out what else I need it for. I hung the baskets, picked up at IKEA for $1.99!, threw in all my glues, tapes, wire and scissors, and now I have no idea what I want it to hold. The dresser holds everything else so neatly that I am at a loss. Suggestions? Ideas?

(Aside - I'm also thinking about painting a giant R in the middle...because who doesn't love a pretty monogram?!)

It's too short to hold wrapping paper - that is in a bin in the corner. First drawer holds craft paints and excess materials. Ribbon is in baskets in the second drawer.Third drawer is pretty paper and stickers. Fourth drawer is cards, tissue paper, bags, etc. So - with all that - what should go on the board?

And finally - our "extra" dining chair - recovered with happy roosters. I probably meant to put the roosters facing out - but didn't notice until every single staple had been stapled and I screwed the seat back on. Yeah - need to pay a little more attention next time. Though, I'm not sure it REALLY matters. Love this fabric - makes me smile every time!

Now if we could just replace the nasty old carpet IMMEDIATELY...when will money grow on trees?

Cork it Up

2010-03-01T05:53:00.001-08:00

One of my more brilliant discoveries was that my corkboard was not more than 54" wide. This is important because "decorator" fabric comes in 54" bolts and for some crazy reason I was under the impression that none of my fabric would work because the board was too big. Crazy.

the before - blah and breaking...oops - probably should've hotglued that a LONG time ago

I decided it was just easy enough to tackle recovering it Saturday night. Um - yeah - why did I wait so long to do this project? It was almost as easy as recovering dining chairs (which I also did Sunday night - I need to take better pictures - will show later).

mid-progress - kinda wish I hadn't been so eager and taken the time to paint the frame - oh well - doesn't bother me THAT much

Cut fabric - spray adhesive - attach. Cut ribbon - hot glue ribbon - done. Easy cheesey. 35 cents of quilter's thumbtacks later and I'm in business. Well, the cork is atleast.

And now looking at it - wish I had gone with blue or white ribbon instead of the neutral tan - but I figure I can change it out when I am officially sick of the tan... And the board has unintentionally started holding more favorite photographs than actual inspiration ideas - but - hey - it makes me happy.

the after - a huge improvement if I say so myself

All the inspiration I need.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

2010-02-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

Haha - this is only funny because my hubs is morally against recycling. Really only because he doesn't like that the city wants us to pay for the recycling bin - whatever. Doesn't bother me.

too excited to wait until daylight to take the pictures...

On my attic surfing adventure - I re-found these two frames (top). They actually held some very nice fruit prints, but the fruit didn't really work colorwise with our living room. However - they happened to be the perfect size to fit some gorgeous botanical prints we had, if I ignored the lack of matting. (which I was happy to do.)

Previously, just the green matted prints were on this wall, more centered, and while it looked just fine, I couldn't help but layer on some more. Now - if you can picture it with my favorite floral fabric draperies - it's just perfect. :)

Gotta love totally free projects. Had everything I needed ready to go - but the hammer. It took me almost an hour to find it. Better late than never I guess. (turns out I had put it away in its correct resting place - silly me)

On the matter of not matting - of course we would rather have a larger frame with a mat to really do the print justice but it finally just seemed silly to me to avoid hanging something on the wall that makes me happy because of that. Why "suffer" when "making do" isn't that bad. I might even decide that I like the prints unmatted - who knows?!

Attic Treasures

2010-02-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

I went surfing in the attic Friday. It started out just to visit my bolts of fabric that I have stored up there, turned into a search for my art paper (which I still cannot find), discovered some frames that would be perfect for some botanical prints we have, and ended up finding what appears to be a panel of some sort for something in our house. I have absolutely no idea where this thing is supposed to be - but it just so happens to be the perfect size for over my craft dresser. Now I just have to decide which of the many functions it could hold would be most appropriate.

You're lucky I'm not showing the whole room - didn't realize what a disaster the "office" is - guess that's what I'll be working on while Sam is gone. Anyhow - the big black board is what I discovered in the attic and Sam says he doesn't know what it was for and I can have it. Sweet.

I've wanted a peg board all things crafty wall organizer for forever. So - it seems that doing this would make the most sense. I will obviously have to think a little bit about how to get the bins on the board since there are no peg holes - but that's just wandering around the hardware store and pondering...

I've had this magazine page on my inspiration corkboard for years! I think I've moved it twice!

What I really need to decide is - paint, fabric, chalkboard paint... And now that I've said it "out loud" - I think I am going to cover my monster corkboard in fabric - so that's out. And, while in the attic, I also discovered an old mirror that would be perfect for chalkboard paint - so that's out. (all these fun projects and not enough time!) Paint it is.

In an effort to NOT run and get spray paint, which would be so easy, I'm going to work with what we have. And we have A LOT of paint in the storage closet.

The office is painted Provence Blue, the fabrics I'm using in here are green, blue, yellow, and the kitchen, which is just off the office, is painted China Pattern Blue (super dark and bold - I love it!)

I could paint the frame Shagreen (our living room color), Colonial White (seriously the best white ever), Divine White (our hall color, but I think we also have it as a tinted primer) or China Pattern Blue (super dark and lovely).

Or - maybe a two tone paint job would be best. Hmmm... Definitely one of the whites in the center - depends on which one I decide to use on the craft dresser below it. Done. Now - I'm thinking the green for the outside frame. It's happy. I like it. I love it. I want some more of it. I try so hard.... I digress.

Well, actually, I think I might be done for the moment. Until I actually do this project - I suppose there's not too much to say. My hubs is in for Germany then Toronto for two weeks and pepito is going to be MIA with the grandparents for the next couple days - so needless to say, I am looking forward to a VERY quiet house. Perfect for projecting uninterrupted and studying. Boo to having to read 400 pages of Anatomy.

Catch ya on the flip side.

Beep Beep

2010-02-26T11:01:00.001-08:00

I almost forgot about this!! I had to wait to blog about how cute this little project turned out because it was a gift and I just now ran across the picture!!

Tutorial from here. I think I stuck pretty much to the instructions, swapped blackout lining for interfacing because that's what I had on hand, I didn't sew the ribbon on correctly, and I used iron on letters instead of searching Columbus for freezer paper - but I think it turned out darling.

Happy Second Birthday Liam!!

I did it again

2010-02-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

Yep - sewing has once again been monopolizing my time. In between, of course, going to school, washing bottles and trying to keep the house in some sort or order. I've been playing with a couple of different projects...

My best friend in the whole wide world recently got her very own studio space and I am lucky enough to turn it into fun land. Seriously - go check her out - she's awesome. Hadley Scott Photography. Also, check out her blog - there is a ridiculously cute baby on it...just saying. We're not going too crazy - leaving the walls white - better for the whole picture taking thing - we don't need a haze of green or turquoise all over the babies. I've been busy turning readymade Target curtains into semi-custom fun ones. It is remarkably easy to do this and much more cost effective, especially when you need "luxury" length panels. I'll probably go into more detail later - so here's just a quick sneak peak.

Ah..my kitchen. We have been in need of proper treatments for these windows forever (and they're still not quite done, but y'know) but I've had a bit of difficulty wrapping my head around fabric selections and what to do about the shutters which threw off the proportions.

these were the first idea - stage coach valances; loved the print, picked up on the blues and greens in the other rooms, but the measurements got a little off and I wasn't thrilled and at this point, Sam was insisting we had to keep the shutters - so it always felt off. And obviously I never truly committed because I never hemmed the ties... Though, for one of the first sewing projects I tackled, it was a good learning experience.

Then, over the weekend we had the prettiest weather - sun out, just warm enough, birds chirping - it was perfect. But our kitchen was SO dark. And we just decided to take down the panels on the french doors because we were missing out on the light and so I decided to take down the shutters and it was lovely. All the light!!

Second idea, really did this as a "test run" for a friend, but then we decided that the inverted pleat valance was more appropriate for her room. I was never really happy with how this turned out anyway. But, you can see how I am already thinking "these shutters have to go!"

And I'll be honest, I put off handwashing the baby bottles a little less now and when it is officially spring & summer I will get to stare at my neighbor's blooming roses and other pretty flowers.

So I ripped the seams of the "faux roman shade" and sewed a large rectangle with lining. The lining is really more the view from the outside but I could go on and on about that - another day. I'm still trying to decide whether I want ribbon ties or accent fabric ties so they are tied up temporarily with scraps from the ribbon drawer... I am super pleased with the result though. And I LOVE having a view now instead of staring at shutters that constantly need to be dusted! ha!

On a whim today, and because I saw that the flannel was on sale, I got the idea to make William a new blanket. Something a little lighter weight than his plushy ones but still large enough to wrap him in the carseat/stroller. Plus, we have lots of friends expecting babies, and I was dying to practice making a flannel blanket. Fun for me - it only took about an hour and that included keeping the baby out of the trashcan. Cut out the size you want with fabric stacked, line up, pin bias tape, sew the tape, fold over and sew the other side of the tape shut and done. Easy cheesey. It's so cute and I think he likes it too...

It's yellow gingham, green pinstripes, and blue binding. It's just shy of 36"x36" I think. I had four yards of bias tape, so I needed to keep the dimensions under this because I wasn't interested in attaching more pieces midway... I think it's adorable. Almost as cute as my sweet little button.

Camelia Camelia

2010-02-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

So pretty.

I wasn't even aware that we had a Camelia bush in our backyard until literally this morning. And what a nice surprise. I snipped every single bloom that was worth it and filled most of my vases throught out the house. Well, atleast, in the living room, kitchen, and hall.

They make me ridiculously happy to pass all day and the flowers cost nothing - which will make my hubs happy. He has yet to figure out that my happiness is worth buying something that will die in three or so days ... I'm still working on that. ;)

And I mentioned this little shelf earlier and it is now so cheery with bright pink flowers. Success!

Target Is Psychic

2010-02-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

Our Master Bedroom has been a 'struggle' for me. We picked the paint color because we had liked it so much in the guest bedroom at the dream house, but the bedding was for a full bed & we had to leave the roman shades with the house, so we knew that we would have to get new bedding, draperies, etc. Then I found the most gorgeous peacock white/chocolate toile fabric and fell in love so I made curtain panels to go behind our bed. And then I got stuck. We have always like the "hotel" bedding, simple and easy borders, and could get it for under $100 in white and chocolate and thought that would fix the problem. But something was always nagging at me. I felt like the wall color was random and just plopped on the wall with no real plan. I waffled between painting the walls a more neutral color and going very monochromatic with the color scheme, to trying to find a new fabric for the windows because the corallyorange was feeling like such a random paint color choice.

But we still loved the color and truthfully, I didn't want to have to move all the furniture and paint the room when we JUST finished painting the last room in the house. And then, we had to go to Target to get prescriptions refilled, and while wandering around, it happened. Target knew exactly what I needed and saved me all the trouble of either searching endlessly or painting.

I couldn't believe it. The color was perfect, the pattern was just 'eclectic' enough to make all the random wall art fit it, and it was lovely. Sam and I both stopped in our tracks. He continued on looking at other stuff and keeping the cart moving so William would stay happy - and I just stayed there holding the bedspread and thinking, trying to vision the "new" plan.

random picture from google - don't remember where I found it -but aren't the panels lovely?!

Unfortunately, now the peacock window treatments have to go. Way too busy and formal to go with the new bedspread - we're going to try them in the dining room - but I don't think they are going to do anything for that room - but we'll see. And to replace them in the bedroom - I'm thinking burlap curtains. It's cheap, chic, and will be a perfect neutral warm tone addition to the room. I'm feeling optimistic now and completely unstuck about our bedroom.

picture found at Freckles Chick, but I think it's originally from The Lettered Cottage

Remind me to never "design" a room without a full and complete plan again. Way too difficult to just add to it as I go without a full vision of what I want. And it's hard (and sort of embarrassing) to admit that because it was my job to help other people get unstuck and always have the answer. But all is well that ends well.

A Tisket A Tasket

2010-02-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

I love all things basket, box, and container. Just ask Sam - it's quite the obsession. We had to get two of those ginormous UHaul boxes to move all my baskets. I. LOVE. THEM. And it just so happens that I am on the hunt for one (or two) to go under the tv/radio cabinet in the living room to hold William's toys. I haven't really put a whole lot of effort into it and I'm not sure if I want/need a lid - though it would be nice to officially hide the toys...hmm. I am sure that I don't want to pay what I will probably have to pay to get what I want. And then it occurred to me - I have exactly what we need - all it needs is a new, pretty, living room appropriate lining.

some day I will have a very organized office with bookshelves filled with these ikea boxes.

some day.

And off to the sewing machine yet again! (I think I make up excuses to sew now - it's getting kinda ridiculous...)

love pottery barn. hate the price tag.

Now of course I would much prefer to have a huge, wonderful basket that holds anything & everything - only problem is we have no where to put it. Especially since we already have one and it holds our blankets. Plus, on the flip side - I don't want it to scream A KID LIVES IN THIS HOUSE CAN'T YOU TELL BY THE HUMONGOUS CHEST!!! I really try not to have the house be so baby - atleast when people come over. Now if you just drop by - yeah - you're gonna get hit by the walker, jumper in the doorway, and trip over about a dozen rattles & rings but that's what you get when I have no warning. I can't keep up the clean house 24/7 - it's all just a show.

Target trunk basket.

Back to the matter at hand. We needed something low, so it would fit. And probably don't need the lining - but I can't pass up the opportunity to add some pattern. I am all about layering pattern on pattern on pattern. Some people may not be into it - but the more the merrier to me. It all makes me happy.

we are always watching PBS these days - and I probably should've closed the cabinet door before taking the picture - oh well - best laid plans.

The green fabric to the left of the cable box is the original lining - does NOTHING for our fabric story.

Now I have never sewn anything with this many corners and three dimensional corners and I'm a little worried. But it's not going to destroy THAT much fabric if I screw it up and for crying out loud it's for toys and it's going UNDER the cabinet so it won't matter at all if it looks wonky. Just saying.

i decided to use scraps from the french door window panels and it worked out perfectly yardage wise - gotta love that.

Turns out - it was really easy - somehow my measurements got a little - so it's slightly weird - but no one will ever know but me. And the outside corners didn't sit right, so I hand tacked some ribbons and I love the navy bows on each corner. and - Sam thought it was cute. Though I think he has picked up on the fact that I appreciate hearing that my hardwork is worth it but, for now, I am going to pretend it is every bit of sincere that I hope it to be.

And sorry that there isn't a before picture or action shots during construction. I decided to sew this late last night and now I'm in a chocolate induced coma thanks to my bestest.

A Nursery for William

2010-02-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

Not my William - but for a friend who is having a little boy this summer and I am so excited to be getting to help her with it! We had our first consultation on Sunday and we figured everything out in two hours. The general floorplan, what pieces of furniture to look for, crib selection, wall decor elevations, fabric selections, it was lovely. And on top of it all - I get to sew the bedding and window treatments for her!! Well, the bumper and bedskirt. I am really excited to get started and figure it all out.

More later - but the fabrics are gorgeous and that's where I will start. Her husband, who is perfectly adorable and would probably hate that I say so, had this "thing" against polka dots, which is kinda why we're doing "custom" bedding. It was difficult finding a readymade bedding that she liked AND had no polka dots in sight. Problem - while fabric shopping, J. found the cutest "circle" fabric and it was PERFECT. So we had to keep referring to it as circles, and not dots, and lo and behold - he agreed!! It's going to be pinch your cheeks cute - so excited!! And the swatch doesn't do it justice, because there are three rows of "circles" total and they are different colors. Will snap a pic of the full pattern later at the store...

the full fabric story all together

the "circles" will be the main fabric for crib bumpers

J loves a good stripe - this will be an inverted pleat bedskirt and also part of the window treatments

this will be used on the wall in a very cool way - more on this later

a feel good plaid as an accent pillow for J's chair

possible accent for crib bumpers - we're also looking at a solid linen...

So that's the general idea - with slightly darker than normal beige walls. Sherwin Williams Sands of Time - it's going to be great!

the swatch looks funny on my screen - it looks much better in person with the fabrics.

Just so I don't spoil everything - I'm stopping now. But stay tuned...this is going to be fun.

For the Moms and beyond

2010-02-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

For Christmas we asked for formula. All you moms out there understand I am sure. The cost of formula is crippling our budget and since we don't "need" anything, Sam thought it would be wonderful if we were to receive months of supply. Our family rocks - we got almost 2 months of formula as gifts!!

and so it begins...

Some of the formula came in the form of cans, and not the plastic bins, and I just knew there had to be something I could do with them. An upcycle - is that the word everyone is using for this? - of sorts. Unfortunately I didn't inform Sam of my need to hold on to these cans soon enough and so some were lost. But I did manage to hold on to two of them. Enter my project.

don't judge the state of our ironing board...we're going to buy a new cover SOON! ;)

I already redid my "craft closet" by making a "craft dresser", but some of my supplies could be better contained. My first idea was to use scrapbook paper but the circumference of the cans was larger than 12" and I didn't want four seams. Second idea was to use - fabric -my favorite!! I have tons and had some scraps that would be perfect and I wouldn't have to cut into any large pieces of my favorites.

the home stretch...

I figured out the height and then just cut to the end of the piece knowing it would be too long but long is better than short! I pressed the hems on both and then plugged in the hot glue gun. Couple dots to get started and then started wrapping, dotting glue as I went along on top & bottom. Folded over the edge when I got back to the beginning, bead of glue to hold in place, and voila. New and improved container for paint brushes, scissors, glue sticks, tape, & sharpie pens. I really wish I had one more, might have to abandon the Sam's Club formula bin for one more can of Similac just once... I don't think Sam would approve though...we'll see.

one down, one to go

Anyhow - now if I could just find the time to repaint the dresser and the money for some shelves above the dresser and my little craft station will be in serious business! And it fulfills my need for all things fabric & sewing, since I'm supposed to be studying for two exams this week, without breaking out the sewing machine!

so much more fun than stuffed in a drawer.

Sewing Up a Storm

2010-02-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

OK - so I haven't really done anything related to design or home lately, though I am starting to let my obsession with all things container out, but that's for another day.

I have been busy reinstating my sanity by sewing. I've been making window treatments, dresses for gifts, and little jon-jons for William. I even got up the guts to try an EASY pattern for me. Sewing is my quiet, stress release time and all the things on hangers prove it! haha!

Without further ado - what I've been so busy with.

This was for a friend for her office.

Taken JUST before I realized that I had the fabric upside down. Boo. Had to rip the seams and flip over. Luckily, that only took 1.5 hours.

Made for a dear friend with the cutest little girl. I also made a matching flower headband. Can't wait to see her in warm weather!

I bought this cute green lineny fabric remnant for $2 or less. Finally stopped making little dresses and made this for William. So springy and happy.

How cute is my kid?!

Got this plaid for $1.95 a yard yesterday at Hancock's.

When does spring get here?

First attempt at a shirt for me. Silly me grabbed the wrong size pattern - so the shirt is 2-3 sizes too big but Sam says it's "tunic-y" and looks cute. (and those clothes behind are clean I promise!)

Please excuse the dirty mirror - William likes to touch it with his nose and I didn't realize it was so icky... I love this one and the fabric was $6 for both patterns I think - I might make my entire warm weather wardrobe out of just this shirt. ;)

I am pleasantly surprised by my skills. I can pretty much almost always sew in a straight line and I even figured out how to make my own bias tape and sew it on! And it's so much fun making the little outfits for gifts - that I think it might become my staple baby gift. I did make a super cute dress for a baby shower but I think she reads this blog - so I can't post it. But she (ASHLEY!!) is going to die - atleast I hope so....

So this is how I keep my sanity much to the chagrin of my husband who would like his dining room table back, even though we eat at the coffee table...just saying. ;)

Everything in its place

2010-02-01T06:15:00.000-08:00

At Forest, aka the dream house with an amazing amount of closet space, I had an entire closet devoted to all things crafty, party, and decorative. When we moved to this house - we have one extra closet, in the hall, and it's tiny and not near adequate for what we needed it to hold. And try as I might I was never able to keep all things sewing and crafty in order on the one shelf I had. Nevermind that I also needed to keep extra linens, vacuum cleaner, etc in this closet as well. It was a disaster and it frustrated me and irritated Sam. I could never find what I needed, so I would end up buying duplicates, and that's just no good.

Enter my childhood dresser. Poor thing has been moved I don't know how many times and Bella, our "little" brown dog used it for teething. Several houses ago we decided to paint it red, who knows why, and now it needs to be painted something a little less HI HOW ARE YOU!! but until then it has become my organization for all things fun. And it's in the back of the house, next to the computer, and is in no one's way - except for the maybe the attic hatch...

I am totally a person who likes everything to have a place and everything to be IN that place (though I can never find my keys so I fall short often) - so this makes me crazy happy to have tackled this when I should've been doing other things. I now know exactly where my paints, papers, ribbons, cards, bags, boxes, hot glue, everything is. And this made it SO easy to wrap a baby gift for a friend this weekend. I kinda wished I had more things to wrap I was so excited!

In my master plan - I also have one of those awesome hanging organizers for ribbon and the like - but I've got to convince Sam to build me one. "add it to the list"

This one by Centsational Girl

In 10 Minutes or Less

2010-01-31T13:21:00.000-08:00

Recovering the chair in our living room that sits by the secretary has been on the to-do list for awhile. But not for any real reason since it was already covered in our dining room fabric. So technically I was recovering an extra dining room chair that hadn't been changed from the red fabric we had on the chairs at our big dream house.

To make Sam like this project, remember I told him I would bring the fabric across the room and put it on this chair. I finally decided to go hunting for the electric staple gun and put a naptime to good use.

It took me less than ten minutes start to finish, not counting trying to find the staples and then figuring out how to load said staples into the gun... Easy cheesey. Love.

To Light or Not to Light

2010-01-29T05:51:00.000-08:00

I have been on a "quest" to find the perfect candlestick lamps. And by quest I mean that in the back of my mind I think I would really like some but have never really tried to find any that me and the hubs could agree on. I usually vote for "fun" and he usually votes for VERY traditional. I get that our house is traditional and that we decorate traditional and usually I can inject some FUN into the house but lamps are a different story for him. So - we haven't had any in any of our houses on this buffet. (that we bought while in our first house for $150!!!)

Now my problem lies in whether I actually want lamps on the buffet. I am in LOVE with the dried hydrangeas from our yard and really don't want to move them - and I'm sure I could find a home for them somewhere else in the house but I like passing these a hundred times a day. Can't wait to add more once they bloom and start to die again. Obviously I could lose the pillar holders, since I haven't even bothered to get candles for them, and the crystal bowl would be ok too even though it was a wedding gift and Sam loves it. But do I WANT/NEED two lamps?
We love our house most when all the lamps are on - the soft glow can't be beat. On a whim yesterday I very quickly perused online for candlestick lamps. (I google imaged candlestick lamps...ha!) And this is what I found in less than five minutes.

I have long admired this one. At work, we had an account with Sterling and they have THE most fun lamps. And plenty of other fun furniture and accessories that just make you smile. I'm pretty sure Sam vetoed this one three years ago - but I wonder if I could get him to reconsider...

How fun are the Teacups?!

This is a Sterling Home lamp - not sure where I found the picture

This one would be easy to agree on. Clean simple lines, a little variety in the shade but I'm just not sure I want the hard black base.

Simple & Classic

Southern Accents

This would be a good compromise - fun shade, goes with our colors, and has a brass base. Though the shade is too big...

Cute Polka Dot Shade

www.customlamps.com

I like these, but I think the shade is too small and I don't like how the brass on the base doesn't continue up. But they are antique and lovely. And the red shade might be too strong. I'd like to infuse some green or blue into this room so it flows better from the living room.

Tiny Red Shades

www.antiquesatthebunkhouse.com

These are just pretty sconces. Wouldn't work in our room with all the doors but LOVE!!

Floral Sconces

www.antiquesatthebunkhouse.com

Love Love Love. Great color, shape, everything. Too bad they're $4,200!!

Porter & Plunk

So that's where I stand, and I can't get the underline to go away so just ignore. Opinions?

Goodwill To All

2010-01-27T06:31:00.001-08:00

After being seriously inspired by Bower Power that it might be possible that my Goodwill doesn't totally stink - I've been popping in maybe once a week. This week - I went with a $4 budget (that's the cash I had on hand). Which was kinda fun and kinda not. I had to turn down some "silver" platters that would've gone great with the ones I already have but I wanted all 5 and it that meant I would've had to break out the debit card... Oh well.

Wandering around though - I did find a lonely wall pedestal thing - I had no idea where in the world I was going to put it but it was speaking to me. At $2.32 - Yes please - I will take you home. It had some scratches, which I am sure that some Beeswax magic stuff will fix if I ever remember to do it, but it's perfect. I had considered painting it - but my hubs thought it was just fine the way it was. And turns out - he was right! It fits in right nicely in our hallway - perfectly actually - less than a 1/4" to spare. And - the little silver vases had become orphans after I redid the dining room console (AGAIN! I'll show you later!) and now I can see these much more often.

going to oh so cute when I get flowers - little happiness in the hallway!

My second little treasure didn't look like a treasure at all. In fact - it was a little creepy. I'm not sure I even understand why there are roman numerals all over this - but whatever. It was a cut size and I liked the little "hook" on the top and it occurred to me that the raw material to make a door sign for William's room would be more than $1.31 - so it came home with me as well. And since we already own TONS of paint - this was easy cheesey. Three coats of green because I didn't want to mess with primer, two coats on the dandelion, stencil the letters & one coat of brown. Done. And so cute. Even Sam likes it. Which means I did good.

see what I mean - what is going on with the roman numerals?

super cute!!!

I had originally thought to hang the sign with ribbon - but decided that banging on the nursery door would be bad, very bad. And it had a sawtooth on the back - so nail in the door and some of that sticky moldy type stuff on the two bottom corners and it's not going anywhere! No reason to wake up a sleeping baby because I wanted to make something cute!

More is More

2010-01-26T06:30:00.001-08:00

There is very little that I love more than a large series of pictures all hung together. It makes me ridiculously happy. Seriously. Love. I was thinking last night that I am probably a more is more kind of person (unless you're talking about table surfaces and then I like them clean and useful). I would hang every single print and piece of art we own on the walls if I could make it work. As it is, I have probably hung more than my sweet husband really wants. I try to edit myself, but I think it's more fun to be surrounded by the things that make you most happy.

Our bedroom in the first house we bought - the prints are now in our kitchen hung as a set of 8

Southern Living

House Beautiful - LOVE THE DARK WALLS!!

Southern Living - y'all know this one - Erika from Urban Grace She's amazing!!

Now the point of this post was to show you our new "family" (ie - William) wall in our bedroom. I love family pictures everywhere - but Sam prefers them to be less OUT THERE!! (Someone has to be able to reign me in!) So, we compromised, what a good marriage we have :), and I get to hang all the pictures I want in our bedroom. And, seriously, there's nothing and no one cuter than my kid. I picked my favorite faces from the past 6 months, edited them in black and white, and sent the to Snapfish. (seriously - check them out - cheap cheap) 14 pictures are in my mailbox less than a week later. I practically stalked the mailman for this package - I was so excited!

Into the frames and off we go and here we are. Granted - I only bought 12 this first time around but at $3 a piece - I am just going to pick up two every time we grocery shop and then I'll have the rest I need.

And just for the record, and to get this post back on track and less about my kid, it was REALLY easy to hang all these. All you need is a level (and a tape measure for the first one to find the center) The frames were 12" wide, I wanted approximately a 2" gap between pictures - so I put a pencil mark every 14". And then did the same after going down 12.25" for the next row. Obviously this is really easy when the hangers on your pictures are all in the same place on the back, otherwise you have to measure individually and you will be braindead by the end of the day. Not that that has happened to me... ;)

I'm thinking I like the four rows - opinions anyone?

So - the whole project, to this point, has cost me $36 (plus tax) for the frames and $14ish (we had a gift card from buying Santa picture in December so we really only paid $4) for the pictures. Not too shabby for a wall I will spend hours staring at! Now to just take more pictures and buy more frames - it could go on forever!!!

In the Works

2010-01-25T10:05:00.001-08:00

This is for William

This is for our bedroom!

I doubt there's a whole lot of mystery behind either one of these - but since I don't have the finish products yet - this is what there is. I am absolutely tickled about both though!

Let there be Light!

2010-01-24T14:38:00.001-08:00

Nighttime picture of the new & improved bathroom wasn't so great - will try again tomorrow...

As you saw last week - we had one pretty disgusting vanity light. Yuck. But we had decided to wait, not spend the money, and just be happy the walls were painted. Well, as luck would have it - Sam's dad needed to borrow our Angostora (sp) Bitter for drinks Saturday night and decided to "pay" us back for it. WAY TOO NICE OF HIM - but we SO appreciate it. He told us to go to dinner and have fun. Our idea of going to dinner is now picking up Chef Lee's and watching Gerard Butler in BluRay - yum - so there was cash left to fix the light this weekend. Hooray!!

We had originally gotten this fixture (but chrome) and was going to get the globes at a later date - one at a time - spread out the cost. But when we got home we didn't have the clearance above the medicine cabinet to install it without filling the existing holes and making new ones in the plaster walls. Major no-no, atleast for us. We've done it before and we decided it wasn't worth the hassle (i.e. complete destruction of the plaster...and the patch never looks that great anyway)

So back to Lowe's to get the contractor grade chrome light. It kinda stinks we can't have the nicer one - but this is SUCH an upgrade from the existing - that we will survive. The extra two lightbulbs we are able to have is AWESOME. The great white light is AWESOME. I didn't fully understand how hard it was to get ready in the nasty yellow two light bathroom - but now - I actually know what I look like when I go out in the world. (yes - A&P class - you're welcome...)

We also picked up 4 double hooks to install on the trim. I had no idea those came two to a pack - so that was a nice little $5 savings. I'll take it where we can get it! Now even William has a hook for his towel - so cute! I still have to think of what we want to do on that wall because I was planning for a little Hobby Lobby black shelf with 4 picture inserts and 4 hooks that would be installed on the wall - so maybe I'll "switch" (switch in my mind - the print isn't yet framed and matted) the print from the toilet wall to this wall and I just remembered that I found very cool inspiration for a shelving unit above the toilet. (I should seriously start bookmarking those so I can find them later to reference for you...oh well.)

We're getting there...

2010-01-22T05:20:00.000-08:00

Our bathroom is the redheaded stepchild of our house - and I can say that because that phrase also describes me. Though I've never understood why it's a bad thing... Anyhow. The rest of the house has been painted for months - since before little William was born - but we have seriously neglected the bathroom. We did paint the vanity - and that helped - but the walls were still a mess and it lacked any kind of style. Someone truly "brilliant" had popcorned not only the ceiling but the walls as well. Ick. Serious Ick. I guess that deterred us a bit - never felt up to making a humongous mess I suppose. That all came to an end last weekend. We had orphan gift cards (less than $5 left) and we gathered them all up and put them to good use - SemiGloss Paint in Color Forest Lichen from Lowe's.

I'm in love. This is my new favorite color. I expected it to look good but it surpassed my expectations when Sam got it on the wall. It's PERFECT. Not too blue, or gray, or green. Perfection.

now to replace that hideous light fixture... and isn't my kid adorable! ;)

The popcorn came off surprisingly easy, which is always a plus. We learned one thing from Forest - you never truly know what you're getting into when you start messing with things. Sam had to patch a couple holes where the paint/wall board didn't like the wall anymore - but easy cheesey - he had the whole thing painted in a day. Gotta love small rooms.

Yeah - the vanity top needs replacing too - but one step at a time.

Of course, now that the bathroom walls were so pretty it seemed a shame to put our old-seen-better-days shower curtain back up - so off to TJ Maxx William & I went. So proud of us - we found the perfect cream one for $5.99 and a heavy clear liner for $4.99 - can't beat it. And the best part - I had a yard of fabric that would look AWESOME as a skirt on the shower curtain to jazz up the plainness. I even surprised myself by figuring out how to sew an inverted pleat. I cut the yard in half - hemmed - and laid out the print next to the shower curtain and pulled in the pleats until the width was the same. Granted - I probably could've done some awesome math, and there was a little involved, but I was so tickled with myself. REALLY easy!!

So now what could've been plain and boring is now making me very happy on a daily basis. Best part - since they're installed on separate rods - I can make full use of the clear liner only when showering to get the most light. (installing a ceiling light fixture is on the list of to-dos - but we need my Dad's help for that one!) Oh and very sorry if that was TMI....

Neat huh?!

Obviously - we aren't even close to totally complete - but this is the beginning of the end I hope!! And it's SO MUCH better than white gross popcorn walls!!

What a difference a half hour makes!

2010-01-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is going to be super short....promise.

We got a Pottery Barn gift card for Christmas - we bought the coolest wooden tray & vase. It's funny, we had wandered the store for 30-45 minutes and couldn't make up our minds and on the way to grab the vase we both saw this tray and it was like magic. It was perfect to help organize our coffee table.

One problem - it was a LOT of wood. Wood table, wood tray. Love the tray but it needed something.

wood, wood, wood, lovely - but way too much of the same stacked on top of each other.

Enter green geometric print that I almost jumped for joy when I saw a yard in the remnant bin. Seriously - $5. Love it!!

the smallest little break in the wood makes me oh so happy

Cut out the size, hem, sew, voila!! Just enough of a pop to give the tray the extra oomph. (And, when I find the staples to the staple gun - this print will also go on the chair for our little secretary desk by the french doors.) Repeats make everything cohesive. I only mention this because my husband thought it was pretty random until I gave him the whole plan. He still doesn't quite understand why I need some pop in the tray but he let me do it and that's what counts.

detail of the fabric - seriously can't go wrong with this print!

Enjoy!

Now Close to Balanced

2010-01-13T10:04:00.001-08:00

My dining room has been making me crazy since we moved in. There are certain rules I live by - one of which is that the chandelier is centered in the room and the table goes under it. (and, yes, there are exceptions, but not in this house...) Our dining room has been horribly imbalanced since June. The interior wall has the buffet, the middle is the table, and the window wall - nothing. It didn't have draperies, nothing to give it some visual weight. When we got the amazing steal on roman shades - that helped - but not nearly enough.

The before - but the bench didn't stay there very long - it went to the screen porch and is now in our bedroom waiting to be repainted...

I was sewing one day and needed the armchairs out of the way to sew on the table and so I put them on the window wall. I was sewing for several days, so that's where they stayed. And, lo and behold, we loved it. Mostly because it somehow managed to give us some extra room for traffic, not that we were tripping over anything, but an extra 6 inches really does make a huge difference. Then I got home last night after Bunco, and it occurred to me that we needed a table there. Nothing large, not too high or too deep, and we should just keep our eyes open. Um - look in the bedroom silly! We had the perfect table there! Borrowed from my always stylish in-laws who I guess didn't have room for it.

The after - absolute perfection - atleast it will be when the I get the draperies made

The after - full view to compare how much more balanced it is now. Please ignore all my sewing stuff on the buffet...

and that I forgot to turn on the chandelier - we haven't had sun in so long I'm trying to enjoy it

AND that I don't have a dining table centerpiece. I have been looking for 3 years for something I would want to stand front and center...

Perfection!!! I rummaged and rearranged and borrowed from other rooms for the things on top of the table - not 100% happy but very pleased just the same. Now I just need to buy the fabric for the draperies, yep, I bet you already spied the swatch thumbtacked to the trim, it's going to be fun and lovely.

These things make me happy - now if the vases just had flowers in them it would be perfect

So, there you have it, shopping your own house does really work. And to think I thought it couldn't be done because we got rid of so much furniture when we moved from the dream house...silly me. (and we moved our "outside" bench from the screen porch to where the table was in the bedroom. Brilliant. Perfect place for Sam to put on his shoes in the morning!)

Moral of the story - balance is of the utmost importance!! And I bet, more times than not, it's why something just "feels off" and you can't put your finger on it...

Loves.

A Need to Separate

2010-01-13T05:25:00.000-08:00

just if you're interested : www.rumerandcompany.com

I've been combining my two worlds in the blog One Little Rumer, design & my wonderful little button, and I've decided that it's time for the two to go their separate ways. I feel bad for talking about interior things that interest me when I supposed to be updating my family (and friends!) on all things baby. Plus - when I get my sweet darling husband to buy the book made out of my blog posts for Mother's Day, hint hint Sam, - it would probably be more appropriate to be more about the baby than anything else.

I am interior designer by trade and I miss it. I was laid off from my job, that I loved, at the end of 2008. Stupid economy. I tried to start my own business but, seriously, there's not a lot of people who spend money on interior designers when money stinks. Though I do love the few people I've gotten to work with in the past year. What I'm trying to say is - there's a big hole in my life where design used to be. And now it is tugging on me hardcore to do something - anything - to fill it back up.

Enter the blog.

Probably I will end up posting about our house and the never ending struggle to get it "done." But I hope to also post about the things that make me most happy design wise as well. Let's see how it goes...

one of my most favorite pictures of all time.

everything about it makes me happy.

white hydrangeas from our old house in a thrift store teacup with the perfect blue walls.

ahh...I kinda miss our big beautiful dream house now.

Loves.