Dress It Up & Review It

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

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!!!

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!

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!!

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

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

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!