Something To Do

Apples

2010-09-24T08:31:00.007-04:00

It is officially fall now! Pumpkins will come out next month but for September I'm loving apples.

A bowl of apples waiting to become a pie, or cake, or crisp.

I purchased this apple print from an Etsy shop. It is an original print from an agricultural book from 1913.

I love having something red in the kitchen.

Every afternoon I have been eating apples with cheese. I know... sounds strange, but it is so good.
Thinly slice an apple, top with a piece of sharp cheddar, and microwave for about 15 seconds just enough to soften the cheese.

Happy Fall!

Gray Summer

2010-09-08T09:30:00.002-04:00

And there goes another summer. For us it has been the summer of paint.

We are repainting the exterior of our house.
Early on in the summer there was no question, we would paint our house white just as it had been when it was first built. But then I changed my mind and decided I really wanted gray. I spent the rest of the summer just deciding on a shade of gray. You have no idea how many different shades of gray there are until you try and find "the one".
I found lots of inspiration online.

Light gray

(source: The Little Big House)

Dark gray
(source)

Bluish gray

( source)

Greenish gray
(source)

I read that gray was the color of indecisiveness. That about sums up our search perfectly.

In my mind I wanted a darker gray that wasn't going to look blue or green.

( source )

After buying so many quarts of sample colors we finally made a decision!

'Driftwood' from Cabot

A sweet and simple summer recipe!

2010-08-05T21:19:00.001-04:00

If you ever need something quick (and simple!) to take to an event or for entertaining then let me share the perfect recipe!

You only need 3 ingredients and about 10 minutes time, start to finish!

Lemon Creams

You need:

Mini Fillo Tart Shells (2- 15ct boxes)
Lemon Curd
Whipped Topping

( I love that all of these items are in the same aisle at our grocery store!)

First, the tart shells go into a 350 degree oven for just 4 minutes.
Take them out, set aside to cool.

Empty the lemon curd into a mixing bowl and beat until soft and fluffy.

Add about half of the whipped topping and beat slowly until it turns a pale yellow.

The mixture is ready to go into the shells. You can spoon it in or fill up a pastry bag. I love using a pastry bag because it makes it so quick and less messy.

Done!

(I added some lemon zest on top just to fancy them up a bit)

These seem to be a hit wherever I take them. I get lots of requests for the recipe and people are always surprised to hear how simple they are!

Frames and Finger Painting

2010-07-27T17:45:00.001-04:00

Yikes! It has been weeks since I last posted. Summer is keeping us busy and as August begins I'm starting to feel a bit anxious about trying to squeeze every bit of fun out of the last weeks of summer. We are still working through our list of things to do this summer and already I'm thinking about buying school supplies!

Recently I took advantage of these warm sunny days to do a little spray painting.

Two document frames from Walmart. Sprayed white. I love using document frames. They are inexpensive and very simple.

These now frame two priceless works of art done in the style of finger painting. Orange and blue to match the bathroom.

The blue one Shane did when he was two and I have held onto to it thinking that I should frame it. It only took me 5 years to finally do it.

I liked Shane's so much that I wanted one done by Max too. I squeezed orange acrylic paints onto paper and let him get to work making his own masterpiece.

I have a feeling that I will still have these hanging up long after their finger painting days are over.

The 4th of July!

2010-07-04T08:46:00.004-04:00

An Organized Summer!

2010-06-15T15:00:00.003-04:00

Summertime is here!

Usually withing minutes of going outdoors to play the boys come asking for something. A towel, or some bug spray, or the squirt guns, or.....

Using a little storage shelf, I set up a "Summertime Station" in the mudroom to hold all of these things. Now the things they need for summer play are quick and easy to find. (and organized too!)

Sunblock and bug spray tucked into the basket.

Sidewalk chalk and squirt guns in the blue pails.
The boys can grab the entire pail and take it outside when they want to use the chalk.

I found these metal pails for only $2.99 each and wrote on them with a dry erase marker.

An aloe plant and a old pieces of coral sit on the top.

I'm thrilled that summer is here and I'm really thrilled that I'm not going to spend my days hunting down beach towels, sidewalk chalk, and sunblock!

Utility Closet: Before and After

2010-06-02T09:30:00.004-04:00

Under our stairs is a deep, narrow closet that we recently updated.
Before:

I'd seen a picture from Country Living magazine where a closet just like ours had been turned into a pantry. They made the best use of the space with narrow shelves on the side and deep shelves at the back.
We didn't need a pantry, but we did need storage for cleaning supplies, paper towels, etc. So our under the stairs closet has become a utility closet.
After:

The narrow shelves at the side are perfect for cleaning supplies. The deep shelves at the back are perfect for bulky items like buckets and my shipping supplies.

Across from the shelves we added a light and hooks for hanging brooms and mops.

We used some flooring that was left over for the floor. When I'm not taking pictures for the blog the vacuum cleaner sits here.

Before I had all of these things scattered in different places throughout the house. It is great having everything all in one spot!

10 Things

2010-05-19T10:52:00.000-04:00

10 Things keeping me too busy to blog

1. Putting together raised garden beds so that we can have a vegetable garden again.

2. Working on our new master bedroom/bath/closet/stairs project. This one is gonna take awhile.

3. Sewing new shorts for the boys to wear this summer. I made my first pocket!

4. Visiting all of the great blogs participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. Many of these giveaways are ongoing past the 17th.

5. Sidewalk chalk on smooth, new pavement.

6. Cutting lilacs from the yard and putting them in every room of the house because they smell so darn good!

7. Deciding to finally update my blog header.

8. Washing red permanent marker off of walls and trim work. A big thank you goes out to the one who invented Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They really are magical.

9. Updating my Etsy shop with polka dot pillows in lots of fun colors.

10. Trying to figure out the best way to give this awkward piece of furniture a makeover.

Random Somethings: spring, school vacation, someday projects

2010-04-26T10:07:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't posted in weeks. I've been busy enjoying spring, keeping the boys busy over April break and finishing up all kinds of projects that have been lingering on my to do list for ages. I call them "someday" projects. As in someday I'll get around to doing them. I'm sure you all have those kinds of projects too.

A couple of weeks ago when I thought spring was never actually coming, I went out and cut a few branches from a bush in the yard. I had and still have no idea what kind it is, but I hoped the warm temperatures in my dining room would force something green to emerge. It worked!

April break kept us busy doing things like:
learning to ride a bike without training wheels! walking to the park digging in the sandbox Arguing over morning cartoons going to the children's museumeating lunch outside and experimenting with chemistry.

(Confession: At Christmas and Birthdays I usually hide away a few of the boys gifts. They are perfect for pulling out on a rainy day during April vacation. )

Sometimes these gifts stay hidden much longer than intended. This science kit had been hidden away since Christmas 2008. By hidden I mean hidden even from me. It had been packed away for our move last year and I just unearthed it from a long lost tote. We enjoyed it all week.

Finally here are a couple of those "someday" projects that I can cross of my list!
First I painted the armoire in the family room black and added a few glass knobs.

I love how useful an armoire is. This initially was used as clothing storage because our first home had no bedroom closets. We bought it before Shane was born and painted it white to match his crib. It was due for some fresh paint and black seemed like a better fit for the family room.
Now it keeps bulky toys perfectly stored out of sight.

Second, I finished up a little quilt for Max. This project was necessary to keep peace between brothers. Shane has had a small blue quilt with stars on it since he was a baby. It became known as "the star blanket" . When Max started becoming a bit too attached to his star blanket, Shane let it be known that he wasn't too happy about it.
I kept saying that someday I'd make Max his own little quilt with stars on it. After digging through my fabric scraps I finally did it.

I am not a quilter. I don't have the patience to see a project through so many time consuming steps. It isn't that I don't like quilts. I love them. I am in awe of quilters who are able to measure, cut apart, and then happily sew together millions of pieces of fabric. Amazing stuff.

A small size like this is about all that I can handle before I start getting antsy and want to move on to another project. I did love working with these colors though.

A tisket, a tasket, a hardware store basket!

2010-04-01T15:50:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago I had bought one of these metal baskets from Lowe's to hold my ever growing collection of fabric scraps in the sewing room. I never got around to putting it to use though. When I realized that I needed to grab a couple of Easter baskets for the boys I immediately thought of the metal basket still sitting in its bag, and how it might work perfectly as an Easter basket. I had Adrian grab another one while he was at Lowe's. The best thing about these baskets is that they only cost $5.82 each!

It isn't cute like a traditional Easter basket, but I figured that I could change that.

I thought about spray painting them but ultimately decided that I didn't want to bother. So instead I grabbed some fun ribbon and weaved it through the tines of the basket all around the top.

Then I tied a bow at the front. Simple.

I love simple.

Here is Max's basket, done with a yellow ribbon, all filled up waiting for Easter morning.

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Organizing arts and crafts supplies.

2010-03-25T09:30:00.003-04:00

Over the past few years our arts and crafts supplies have grown into a big unorganized mess. I had been using two baskets to hold all the paint, glue, brushes, scissors, etc. etc. etc.
Every time the boys wanted something we'd go searching through the baskets hoping that whatever we were looking for wasn't way down at the bottom.

I loved the idea of storing everything on the back of a door like I'd shared at the end of this post in January.

I emptied all the supplies out onto the counter then started sorting and tossing anything that was no longer usable. I was shocked to discover 6 boxes of colored pencils and enough glue to supply a small preschool. Since I could never find anything in those baskets, I'd just keep buying more. So wasteful.

I decided to use an over the door shoe organizer with clear pockets. It works perfectly. Now everything is organized, visible, and accessible.

Markers and crayons are in jars at the kitchen desk.

Items too large to fit into pockets, like coloring books, writing paper, and activity books, went into a lower cabinet in the laundry room.

Now when the boys need something they know exactly where it is and can even get it themselves. Organization is an amazing thing!

Random Somethings:Spring, Nerds, Pioneer Woman, and Postcards

2010-03-16T15:30:00.003-04:00

Some random bits of life lately:

Spring

It seems that spring is just around the corner! I know this because the snow is gone, the sun is shining, and we have eaten two bags of Cadbury mini eggs already. To celebrate springs arrival I took Max to the store to buy some seeds.

There really is nothing better than planting seeds with a 3 year old!

Nerds
As if the Cadbury mini eggs weren't enough,

I've been secretly finishing off a big box that Shane was given for his birthday. I let him have just a few and then hid the box.
I had forgotten how fun Nerds are to eat. Tart, sweet, and hard as rocks.
I make them fancy by pouring them into my little Martha Stewart bowls. Not because I like my snacks to be fancy, but because that way the kids don't come running to the sound of me shaking the nerds out of the box.

The bowl keeps things quiet.

Pioneer Woman
Okay so I am so late to this party.
I've got to be honest and say that when everyone in the blogosphere started writing about someone known as Pioneer Woman.
I wasn't interested.
They'd post about her recipes and how they stood in line for an hour and a half just to meet her.
I didn't get it.
They'd post about her love affair with a cowboy.
Cowboys? Um no thanks.
They'd post about making her cinnamon buns at Christmas.
I became mildly interested.

Then one night about a month ago I'd read yet another post referring to Pioneer Woman and decided I had to at least go and see what on earth this was all about.

I went. I started reading. I stayed up until 2:30am reading every word about how she fell in love with Marlboro Man. Until then, I really had no idea that real cowboys still existed.
I was hooked.
I ordered the cookbook and just finished reading every recipe.

I have a fridge full of butter.

I still haven't decided what to make first.

Any suggestions?

Postcards
We are excited about participating in the Great American Postcard Swap that is being organized by Aimee at Adventures and Pursuits.

Here's how it works. One family from each state agrees to send out postcards to one family from each of the 49 other states. So you send out 49 postcards and receive 49 postcards.
We have a map ready and are excited to learn a little bit about each of the states. Not to mention how exciting it will be to get those postcards in the mail each week!

Aimee is organizing 3 different postcard swaps and there are still states remaining in groups 2 and 3. In group 2 we still need families from the following states:
Delaware Kansas Kentucky New Hampshire North Dakota South Dakota West Virginia Wyoming
I think that the 3rd group has even more states open so if your family is interested in participating go visit Aimee's blog for more details!

Reupholstery Tips

2010-03-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

I've been getting so many questions about how I covered my chair. So I thought I'd share some of the things that I learned and few helpful tips for those of you who are planning on trying an upholstery project for yourselves.
I can't say this is the "right" way to do it, but it worked for me and maybe it will for you too.

I started by removing the old upholstery, carefully, piece by piece. I suppose you could just rip in and tear off the old fabric but it is better to do it this way and I'll show you why in just a bit. A narrow flat screwdriver and a pair of pliers worked perfectly for loosening up and pulling out all of those staples.

Just before I removed the old fabric I would snap a picture of how the fabric was attached to the chair. This way I could just take a peek at the pictures of the old upholstery whenever I felt uncertain about how to put on the new fabric.

I also drew a picture of the chair and numbered each section in the order it would need to be covered. It helped me to break this project down into a bunch of smaller projects. It definitely made it seem less overwhelming.

The reason I took the time to carefully remove the original upholstery is because once I had it all off, I ironed it flat, labeled it, and used those pieces as the templates for cutting out the new fabric. I hardly had to measure anything at all!

Besides staples, some pieces were also held on with tack strips. They are sharp and scary and they look like this:

There were three sections with tack strip on my chair. I was able to reuse the original ones, but you can find new upholstery tack strip on ebay. I just pushed a pencil through the holes left in the old fabric onto the new fabric so I knew exactly where to place the tack strip on the new fabric.
After I had the new pieces all cut out, and the welting sewn I was ready to start putting the chair back together. I'd line up the fabric, pull taught and staple it in place in an inconspicuous place.
A hand stapler won't do. I tried. No good.
If you are going to try reupholstering a big piece of furniture, you will definitely need a stapler with some sort of power source. Adrian brought in his small air compressor with a staple attachment. There is just no way I would have gotten this project done without this thing.

A few of your questions:

How long did this take?
It took me about 4 days. Started Friday afternoon, finished up the cushion cover Monday.

Where did you find that fabric?
The fabric is a black ticking upholstery weight fabric that I found on ebay. It is still available here. I bought 7 yards and only used about 6. Although with a solid fabric I think I could have used less. With stripes I had to be sure to cut each piece with the stripes running in the right direction.

Did you just use a regular sewing machine?
Yes. When sewing the welting and arm pieces use a heavy duty upholstery thread and and needle for your machine. It makes sewing through all of that heavy fabric so much easier.

A few tutorials that I found helpful:

Sewing piping/welting at edeenut creates.

Covering a box cushion at threads and another good tutorial with great info on sewing a zipper into your cushion from Much To Do With Nothing.

Reupholstered rocking chair

2010-03-03T09:11:00.004-05:00

This past weekend I took on a project that I have been wanting to do for so long.
It was finally time to do something with the hand me down rocking chair that Adrian's mother had given us two years ago.
It was ripped, stained, and pink plaid.

I spent Friday afternoon removing what seemed like millions of staples.
And lots of these razor sharp tack strips too.
Sharp things scare me. I closed my eyes as I pulled each one out. Then realized I should probably keep my eyes open if I wanted to avoid being cut.

My chair sat completely naked all day Saturday while I cut out the new fabric.

I had to get her covered, and fast, because the only thing uglier than stained, ripped up, pink plaid is spongy, yellow, upholstery foam.
That is the point where I had to deal with the really scary stuff like sewing new welting and a zipper!
It was the first time I'd ever even tried sewing welting or a zipper, but just like button holes, it turns out that they really are pretty easy.
I just had to take it one step at a time. Otherwise the whole project made me feel overwhelmed.

It all came together in the end, and I love our "new" chair!

This post added to The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday Party!

Going camp IN

2010-02-23T10:20:00.002-05:00

Last weekend, at the end of Shane's vacation from school, I thought it might be fun to do a camping trip with the boys. Pitch a tent, dig out the sleeping bags, eat hot dogs.....the works. While we do live in Maine, home to L.L. Bean and their thick, thermal below zero rated sleeping bags, the fact is that we have thin Coleman bags from Walmart. And I am not now, or ever, going to willingly sleep outside in February. This camping trip was going to be unusual because it was going to happen inside.
A camp in instead of a camp out.
We pitched our tent in a spare bedroom that just happens to be big and completely empty. The tent took up almost the entire room.

The best part of this camp in was the food. It was as if it were suddenly the middle of July again. Pasta salad, hot dogs, corn casserole, and fresh lemonade. I have to say that summertime food is so much better than wintertime food. I love summer. I miss it terribly.

Oh and then there was desert. A camping trip just wouldn't be complete without s mores. So we fired up a can of Sterno and grabbed some skewers.
It was so good and so fun.

The boys got to stay up late, eating as many marsh mellows as they wanted. When it was time for bed Adrian plugged in the sound machine and set it to play nature sounds. They fell asleep holding onto lit flashlights and listening to electronic crickets.

Confession: I didn't sleep in the tent. After story time I high tailed it across the hall to my big comfy bed. I was only in it for the food. Besides, there wasn't enough room on the air mattress for me anyway.

Covered notebook

2010-02-21T17:13:00.001-05:00

Our niece Emma celebrates her 9th birthday today. Keeping with my handmade gift habit I made a covered composition notebook using this tutorial from the blog V and Co. This is the second notebook cover that I've made and I just love them! I need to make one for myself.

Her tutorials are always terrific. I love the detail in this project and how simple things like a button and hairband turn into a closure.

I added my own special touch by including a strip of muslin and hand embroidering Emma's name onto the front of the notebook cover. I love to make gifts personalized.

I sent it off to Emma with a set of colorful new pens. And the best part is that a new notebook can be slipped in once this one is all filled up.

Happy Birthday Emma!

A pennant party!

2010-02-18T19:01:00.006-05:00

My etsy shop has been keeping me quite busy lately. I am thrilled! Tabletop pennants have been my best selling item since I opened my shop. Last month I had the pleasure of working on a custom order for Annette. She is an event designer who recently threw a baseball pennant themed party for her twin sons.

She asked if I'd make some tabletop pennants, a custom banner, and a couple of pennant banners.

I was happy too. Especially since the colors she needed were red and aqua, a combination that I love. love. love.

Aren't these invitations adorable?! She printed them herself and then boxed them with red and blue jelly beans. Cute and delicious!

There are more fun pictures of the baseball pennant party and so many more great party ideas over at Annette's blog . (Warning: After you visit her blog you'll feel a sudden urge to throw a party!)

I see red.

2010-02-11T20:00:00.002-05:00

But it's okay because its a sweet, happy, kind of red.

One that doesn't mind hanging out with pink.

Red in the shape of love.

Red that sits pretty upon white shelves.

Upstairs bath. Before and After.

2010-02-03T15:56:00.001-05:00

It has been awhile since I've shared any before and afters. Probably since most of the rooms in this house haven't reached the "after" stage. We recently finished up a few projects in the upstairs bathroom.

The before: This is exactly what the room looked like when we bought the house. The fixtures gone, the walls stripped down to the lathes, the floor boards pulled up revealing the very old, yet live, electrical wiring. I think it is fair to say most prospective buyers would take one look at this room and run for the door. But we loved this room!

Why? Because we saw it as one less room that we would have to spend time "gutting". The messiest work was already done, all we had to do is put the little room back together.

So we did. This is just a simple bathroom with the basics.

A bathtub

A vanity

A mirror

Recently we added some storage. Adrian built some Ballard Design lookalike shelves for the space above the toilet.
The shelves are great for keeping things organized since this room has no built in storage closet. Toilet paper and everyday items that we all use like lotion, hair brush, q tips, etc. on the first shelf. Adrian and I each have a small basket to throw our own things into on the second shelf. The large basket up on the top shelf gives us a great place to store extra shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
For towels I brought in this little white stand that I've had for years. Bath towels on the bottom, smaller hand and face towels in the basket on top.
I don't think I ever would have thought to use orange, green, brown, and blue together in one room if it weren't for the those Arcadia fabrics that I used along the bottom of the shower curtain that I made months ago.
Eventually we will add a master bathroom upstairs and this bathroom will only be used by the boys. I think these colors are fun for little boys. They have their own color coordinated towel hooks, hung low, in hopes that one day they may try hanging their own towels.

These vinyl decals were a fun addition. I've always wanted to try some somewhere and this seemed like the perfect spot.

Cold feet

2010-01-28T09:10:00.005-05:00

If you're living in a drafty hundred year old house in Maine (or any other cold climate) during the month of January then chances are that you too might suffer from cold feet. Especially if that house has nothing but hardwood floors. Brrrrr.....
So let me share a couple of steps that you can take to keep those toes warm.

Step one:
Sew up a bunch of these draft dodger thingies.

Place them in front of all the doors that should have been weather stripped or even replaced last fall before your part of the globe tilted away from that warm beautiful burning ball of gas in the sky known as the sun.

Step two:
Put something warm over your feet.
Socks will do.
(However, if you are like me than your sock drawer is overfilled with mismatched, toe holed socks. Every morning when you stand on the chilly floor looking through that drawer just trying to find two that match enough you become kinda frustrated and grumpy. It is a teeny part of your day that you could do without especially first thing in the morning.)
So a pair of warm handmade slippers are better.
Using a pattern that I bought from Sewing with Me's etsy shop, I stitched these up in less than an hour. Today I think I'll make another pair in black and white polka dots!

(If you suffer from cold feet but don't sew, you'll just have to go to the store and buy some weather stripping and a pair of slippers.)

As for keeping yourself warm from the ankles up...
All I can suggest is to dress in layers people. Lots and lots of layers.
Like this:

January criminal

2010-01-20T09:18:00.005-05:00

The January blahs are here and the only thing I can do is wait it out. Wait for the warmer weather and longer days that I love.

Woke up this morning to this:

It might be pretty but I still don't like it.

Not feeling too creative lately. Haven't wanted to craft or sew. The one place that I do find myself hanging out on these cold days is in the kitchen.

Yesterday I grabbed one of my favorite cookbooks,

and made the Lemon Cake on pg.168. It turned out so good.

It is even possible that I just ate a piece for breakfast, though I can't be sure. It all happened so fast I can't remember. The evidence suggests that I did.

In my own defense I will point out that there was yogurt in the recipe and not a bit of frosting involved. Just an innocent little glaze.

January decorating: Grocery store style!

2010-01-11T10:45:00.002-05:00

The month of January is long and cold. Most of our days are spent inside and without a holiday to decorate around, things were feeling a little boring around here. When I was at the grocery store recently I noticed a few house plants for sale in the produce section. I wanted to grab one but then I turned it over to see that that little plant cost $11.99. Forget it! I grabbed some green apples for the dining room table instead. Great decision. Pretty and edible.

Instead of a bowl I put them into a wide glass cylinder vase. I love these vases and have a number of them.
Sticking with my grocery store decorating theme, I poured whole coffee beans around a candle in another vase. It sits in the middle of the kitchen island and smells so nice. I don't know how something that tastes so bad can smell so great!
As someone who doesn't drink coffee I was a little overwhelmed by the coffee section of the grocery store. So many varieties and price ranges! I needed whole beans so I just grabbed the cheapest kind I could find.

Finally I took my grocery store decorating into the den. I grouped three tall narrow vases onto the mantle, added white candles (that I also found at the grocery store!) and poured plain table salt around each. It looks like snow which seems totally appropriate for January decorating.

Thinking about toy storage

2010-01-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

It is that time of year when I want everything organized. Especially the toys! Christmas turned our already unorganized system into a total mess.

I'd love to have lots of cubbies like this right now.

Ohdeedoh

This cute shelf with deep bins would work so well for those bulky trucks and blocks that end up all over the family room floor.

These shelves might be my favorite. I love that with just a simple board going across the front the bottom shelf becomes a storage box. Room for books, bins, and bulky toys all in one! (I think I just found Adrian's next building project!)

shelves from The Land of Nod

The toys aren't the only things that need organizing around here. The boys received loads of arts and craft type gifts for Christmas and I am struggling to find a place to put them all. I would love to put them away in a cabinet like this one.

Creative organizing

I love the idea of using a behind the door pantry rack for art supplies too. I have a couple of doors that I could do this with and I think it would be the quick and easy solution I am looking for.

stacks and stacks

Handmade gift wrap up and Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T14:23:00.005-05:00

Now that the new year has begun and Christmas feels like it was forever ago I think I'll wrap up the handmade gift posts.

This gift is from the kitchen and for the kitchen. I wanted to have something on hand to give to friends, family, neighbors, teachers, and the nice lady at church, who we hardly even know, who takes the time to buy the boys gifts every Christmas.

Last year I came across a blog post at Bethany Actually that described how to make bottles of vanilla extract to give as gifts. I thought it was such a clever idea and wrote a reminder for myself on the calender to do this the following November since this needs to be done a month ahead of time.

You can start with any small bottles, I took Bethany's suggestion and bought mine here. Add vanilla beans and vodka. Close the tops and just let the bottles sit for a month to allow the alcohol to take on the vanilla flavor. Easy.
Then I added a label that I made in print shop and tied a ribbon around the top. I packaged the vanilla with some trimmed hand towels, cinnamon honey butter, and/or hot chocolate on a stick.

(At the last minute I pulled the vanilla out from the teachers' gift bags. I thought that sending my first grader into school with what is essentially just a little bottle of vanilla flavored vodka might be a bad parenting decision. I wasn't sure. )

So now onto the New Year! I am not making any specific resolutions. I don't even remember what my resolution from last year was. Instead I am using the beginning of the new year to make simple changes in my day to day life. Focusing on things I've been neglecting, finding ways to be more organized, and more patient. All of that.........and donuts. We're kicking off the new year with homemade donuts too!

Happy New Year!

Handmade gift #2

2009-12-30T19:45:00.002-05:00

Another handmade gift given this year was an embroidery of Adrian's parents house. I followed the steps from Whosies tutorial.

It isn't perfect but I was pleased that despite my very basic embroidery skills it actually looked like a house in the end and not some unidentifiable object. I knew it had turned out okay when Max recognized it as being his Neena and Papa's house.

The house is brand new. They moved in last February. While I adore old homes, I must say it was fun watching this house being built. It started out as an idea that Adrian had to build a spec house. He brought home a magazine filled with house plans and asked me to pick one I liked. So I did and he ordered the blueprints.
At some point soon after that his parents decided they were ready to down size and thought the little house on paper would be perfect for them. So instead of a spec house, Adrian ended up building a house for his parents! I think the finished house is adorable!

Handmade gift #1

2009-12-29T09:40:00.001-05:00

Now that Christmas has come and gone I can share some of the handmade gifts that we gave.

I'll start with the snowman kit that I made for our niece, Brynne, who loves to play outdoors!

I saw this at Make it do. A wonderful blog with so many great ideas!

The kit included: A top hat, scarf, buttons, painted rocks, and a fake carrot nose!

I made a drawstring bag to hold all the pieces together and added a snowman face to the front.

And a tag to explain what it all was for

This would made a fun gift for a winter birthday too!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T19:42:00.007-05:00

Peace
Love

and Joy!
Wishing each of you a Merry Christmas!

Personalized Ornaments for 2009

2009-12-21T08:27:00.005-05:00

Today I'll be finishing up all of my handmade Christmas gifts. I won't be able to share any of those projects until after Christmas, since the recipients may be reading this. (Hi guys!)

I was able to finish up all the personalized ornaments for our nieces and nephews yesterday. These were much easier than the ones I made last year.

I kept it simple, just stitching up the first letter in their name.

The girls got a bit of ribbon on the top.

I'll tie these onto each of their packages.

(as soon as I get their gifts wrapped)

Inexpensive, recycled, and handmade tree!

2009-12-14T14:54:00.009-05:00

I've added lots of white to the tree this year. All with inexpensive,recycled, and handmade decorations!

My white polka dot garland was so fun to make. I used some upholstery weight thread and some 1" circle adhesive labels. Stick two labels together sandwiching the thread in between.

Does it get simpler than that?

Some simple white stars stitched, trimmed with pinking shears and stuffed. A great use for scrap fabric!

Finally a recycled ornament too! These glittered cardboard tube stars have been something that I have wanted to make since I first saw them months ago! I was waiting for Christmas because I thought they would be perfect on the tree.
You can find the complete tutorial at Her Cup Overfloweth .

The tree has been up for over a week and I am still adding to it!

These crafts were included at Kim's, Today's Creative Blog, Get Your Craft On party!

And also at The Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday Party!

A fun way to have hot chocolate!

2009-12-12T13:58:00.000-05:00

Have you seen Hot Chocolate on a stick yet? So fun and easy!!!
Recipe can be found at Givers Log , along with so many great gift ideas!

Now....I just need to make these homemade peppermint marshmallows to go with our hot chocolate!

(Martha Stewart)

Please let me know if you have made your own marshmallows before! Was it crazy hard or crazy easy?

Around the house at Christmas

2009-12-11T08:59:00.001-05:00

December is flying by and it is already time for Julia's, Hooked on Houses Holiday Tour! So let me share some of my favorite spots in our house this Christmas.

The dining room:
The buffet.

Living in Maine makes it easy to collect pine cones. I have sooooo many. A few years ago I made these pine cone garlands to hang in the windows. I'm amazed they've held up year after year.

I added more to the tops of the doorways.

The hutch.

In the kitchen, I have lots of color.
Candy covered trees and Santa's special dishes.

More fun dishes up over the cabinetry.

I made a pennant banner for over the sink.

Peppermint candy in old glass milk jars.

Fun pillows in the den

Nutcrackers on the mantle.

Some green and white ribbon added to my large skeleton key.

More pine cones on the stairs.

The tree lit up at night is my favorite decoration of all!

Boxes of cookies!

2009-12-04T13:07:00.001-05:00

I finished the advent calender yesterday. Thank goodness.

It was a tedious project for sure. I don't like tedious. But now it's stocked with treats and will be a much loved part of our Christmas season. Even better, now I can move on to all the other Christmas projects I want to do!

Today is all about cookies!
I thought I'd share my favorite way to deliver cookies at Christmas.

I start with a package of white mailing boxes. They come in packages of 3. I like them because they remind me of bakery boxes, but sturdier.

Then I cut a piece of colorful gift wrap to fit the bottom of the box. I'm loving these red and white polka dots this year!

Then I cut a long strip of wax paper to lay over the wrapping paper. Leave enough length on each side to allow the wax paper to fold over the top of your cookies.

In go the cookies.
Close up the box. Cut long strip of wrapping paper to go around the outside of the box. Tie a pretty ribbon to finish it off!

Already behind.

2009-12-01T08:32:00.006-05:00

Here we are, December 1st, and I am already behind.

The official Christmas countdown begins today and I'm still embroidering numbers onto each little pocket of this advent calender. (Whose crazy idea was THAT?)

Do you think my boys will notice if we start our count down with day number 2? ...or perhaps even day 3?

Dining Room Before and After

2009-11-25T22:00:00.002-05:00

The dining room is finished and just in time for Thanksgiving.

Here is the room before we bought the house.

The brass chandelier,The 70's hutch,
The scenic wallpaper.
After:

The wallpaper, brass, and paneled hutch are long gone.

My mother in law gave us this great old mirror (Thanks Pam!) I painted it to match the buffet table that we had.

For a window treatment I simply hung two long white tablecloths from ring clips.

I've loved seeing the drop cloth drapes done on other blogs but really wanted something in white. Two $10 tablecloths worked perfectly! No sewing. Simply fold at the top and attach to the rings.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are so thankful to finally have this room finished and we are especially thankful for our family who will be coming to spend Thanksgiving day here with us.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Dining Room Hutch Project

2009-11-17T08:39:00.008-05:00

The dining room is nearly finished. Why do all the little things at the end of a project seem to take so darn long?
I didn't want to wait to share my favorite part of the room. The built in hutch.
Here is the built in hutch that was in the nook when we bought the house. That brown paneling in the back tells me that this was not original to the house. Likely built in the 70's.
We took it out, but knew something needed to go back into that little nook.

I thought maybe we could make a buffet out of one of the upper cabinets that we had saved from our kitchen remodel. We had one that was a perfect fit for the space.

Then I remembered an old shelf that had been left behind in a bedroom when we bought the house. It was covered in sports team stickers but it too was a perfect fit for the space!

Adrian was skeptical of my plan. He started to come around once everything was sitting in place. He built a top for the cabinet and added trim where it was needed. We were able to use scraps of wood left from other projects so this project cost nearly nothing! Gotta love that!
I primed and painted for 3 days and now we have a built in hutch!

With lots of storage for all of those glasses that we never ever use.

I've included this project at funky junk interiors, Saturday Nite Special party!

Thankful Tree

2009-11-11T15:12:00.001-05:00

It turns out that I still haven't found anywhere to store those trees from Halloween yet. But that's okay! Roeshel, from The DIY Show Off, gave me a great idea when she left me a comment on that post. Cover those polka dots up with some burlap and use them for Christmas decorating! Perfect! I can put off trying to store them for another 6 weeks!
But since Thanksgiving comes first I came up with a fun idea for our family to share all that we are thankful for.

I brought one of the trees inside and covered those polka dots with some linen.

I cut out leaf shapes from card stock in autumn colors. Whenever one of us thinks of something that we are thankful for , we write it on the leaf, punch a hole and tie it onto the tree with some twine.

I hope that by the time Thanksgiving is here the tree will be covered in leaves!

After all we have so much to be thankful for. Especially cookies.

Dining Room Chandelier: Before and After

2009-11-05T08:15:00.007-05:00

We are still moving along in the dining room. We have replaced that lonely light bulb hanging from the ceiling with a chandelier. The chandelier was hanging in the dining room when we bought the house. It was old,dusty, and brass. So we updated it a bit.
Before:

After:

The 86 crystals got to soak in warm soapy water while the fixture got cleaned off and sprayed with some oil rubbed bronze paint. It was like the chandelier went to the spa.
I love how easy it is to update fixtures with spray paint!
This weekend we will finish up the crown molding and built in buffet. Then we will be able to cross another room off of our renovation list!

Max

2009-11-02T08:40:00.001-05:00

Max turned 3 yesterday. We celebrated with a simple party in the afternoon. Lots of family and cake!

And a little bit of decorating too!

Max is everything a 3 year old little boy should be. Mischievous and sweet. Full of hugs and kisses and incredibly impatient (like me). His blond hair and blue eyes make me smile.

He loves trucks, dirt, snacks, finger paint and macaroni and cheese (known around here as, "cheesy nunus"). He doesn't love being stuck indoors, tomato sauce (at least for this week), sitting still, or sleep.

Just one more Halloween project!

2009-10-28T12:08:00.003-04:00

Only 3 days left and I'm wrapping up one last project!

I love this picture from Pottery Barn that I've been seeing everywhere. I love how bright and inviting it is. If a porch in my neighborhood looked that nice on Halloween I would be dragging my boys to that house to trick and treat just to get a glimpse at how the house looks on the inside! As for the door, as terrific as it is, I can't imagine being able to pull off having a bright orange door the other 364 days of the year.
It was the inspiration for my pillows. I also love those trees in the planters.

I decided to try and make my own.
I ended up finding these orange plastic trash cans for only .59 each!

Stuck a few of these on.

Well more than just a few. You can never have to many polka dots!

Then spray painted it all black and pulled off all the stickers to get orange polka dots.

Brought in the same crew that helped me paint my sewing room, to help mix up some quick drying concrete.
Since I was out of cookies, they accepted a piece of gum for payment this time.

Stuck a few birch branches into the wet mix and let it dry overnight.

On Saturday I will move them out to our front porch. On Sunday I will be trying to figure out where I can store them until next year.

Visit the linky party at She's Crafty for more Halloween and Fall decorating ideas!

Halloween!

2009-10-23T11:02:00.007-04:00

Halloween is sneaking up on us quickly. Only a week left! I thought I'd better share a few of the projects I've been working on before its too late.

The bench all dressed up in polka dots and stripes for Halloween.

The scraps from the pillows and banner became a rag garland for the kitchen chandelier.

A cute little something for the laundry room peg rack.

I still have a few Halloween projects in the works for outdoors. I'll be sharing those soon.
The biggest project of all? The front porch!
We are racing to get the front porch steps and railings finished in time for all the trick or treaters. I'm looking forward to sitting on our new porch and handing out candy!

The Dining Room walls

2009-10-20T10:13:00.000-04:00

Time is up and I managed to do what I said I would! I should mention that my husband saved the day by helping me a ton. (Thank you Adrian, for doing all the plaster work and for helping me with the painting!)

The room is painted. The wallpaper is gone. The plaster has been patched, smoothed and sanded. I even surprised myself and got the trim painted! And in true procrastinator form I waited until the second week before I even began!

This is not the color I had initially wanted. I was planning on going with a shade of blue. However, we already had two gallons of Sherwin Williams Crisp Linen left from the mudroom and sewing room. So I opted to save some $ and just use what we already had. It really is a nice light color in a room that gets very little natural light.

There is no way we would have gotten those walls dealt with so quickly without the Procrastinator Party deadline set by Melissa at The Inspired Room . It was just the kick in the butt I needed!

What's next for this dining room of mine?

Some crown molding and I think we need a different light fixture. Or do you like this one?

(These are what the electricians left us with last winter when we had the whole house rewired)

A built in china hutch will go in this nook. It will replace one that we took out. That's why we didn't bother painting it. I'm excited to reuse some of the cabinets we saved from our kitchen remodel for this project.

Of course a table will eventually make its way in and perhaps even some drapes but for now I'm loving the unobstructed view of autumn.

90 years ago

2009-10-13T10:55:00.000-04:00

Progress is being made in the dining room. I have 3 walls scraped and I was oh so happy to discover that it was only one small section of the room that had 2 layers. I have scraped paper off of the walls in 5 rooms of this house and this is by far the easiest room I've done. For that I am soooo thankful.

In each room that I've scraped I have been able to uncover a little bit of history. Under the paper in each room I've found little handwritten signatures and dates to mark the occasion when someone spent their day measuring and pasting all of this paper up onto the walls. In this room the date reads, July 15, 1919. These plaster walls haven't seen the light of day in 90 years.

As I moved on to scrape another section of wall, I started thinking about that day and what it might have been like to stand in this same room 90 years ago. Who was this person who had hung that paper in the middle of July? Did he live here? Was he paid? Had he stopped to wonder about the day when someone else would come along and tear it all down? (I assume he did since he took the time to leave a note) Could he have imagined that the walls would go untouched for 90 years?

It makes me wonder about the things that we are doing in this house today. Will any of it still remain 90 years from now? I am sure someone will one day come along and change everything that we have done but I would like to think that something will forever mark the time that we will spend here. Something for someone else to discover as they try to make their mark on this house years from now. A reminder of a time when this house was our home. Even if that something is as simple as a name and date hidden somewhere along a wall.

No more procrastinating!

2009-10-06T09:05:00.000-04:00

I've decided to join the Procrastinator's party at The Inspired Room. It is such a clever party idea! You share a project that you can no longer procrastinate over, you then have two weeks to finish the project, and two weeks from today everyone will share what they were able to accomplish. Easy right? No. I am scared. But I am going to do it anyway!

I have so many procrastinated projects around here, it was a struggle just choosing which project to include! I could have gone with that chair I've been meaning to slipcover, the miles and miles of moldings that need painting, the doors that need painting, the closet under the stairs that needs finishing, the basement that needs a good cleaning and organizing, the upstairs bathroom that needs some attention.....the list goes on and on.

The project that I have decided to include is removing the dining room wall paper and painting the walls. This room has sat completely untouched since we moved in. We haven't used it at all, unless you count the pile of odds and ends that I've let accumulate in the corner.

I am excited to get this project started because I am sick of looking at that really old, really dirty wall paper! Max is just a few weeks away from turning 3 and it would be nice to sing happy birthday and serve cake in our dining room. So I am not only committing to working on this project, I have the best kind of motivation to finish it!

So goodbye little ships,

goodbye carriages,

and goodbye little water mills!

In two weeks they all will be gone. As well as the layer of pink geometric floral paper that is underneath.

I am only committing to having the wallpaper stripped, plaster patched, primed and painted. The dining room will be far from complete but it will be looking much, much better!

Two easy to make wreaths!

2009-10-01T13:26:00.000-04:00

I'm having so much fun working on Halloween and autumn crafts. As soon as I finish one project I think up ten more that I want to do!

I love wreaths. This week I managed to make two wreaths using items that I already had. I didn't have to go out and spend a dime! I love that even more than I love wreaths!

For my autumn wreath I ended up shaping one strand of fake leaf garland into a circle, adding a few pine cones from the yard with some hot glue, and some gauzy brown ribbon for a bow. The garland holds the shape well enough that I didn't have to use any other support.

The colors are so pretty on our back door!

I came up with a Halloween wreath too.

I found some black tulle on a spool in a clearance bin months ago. I remember picking it up, putting it in my cart, taking it back out, picking it up again, etc. It was a battle between my practical, frugal, "what on earth are you ever going to do with 12 yards of black tulle?!" self, and my creative, can never own too many craft supplies, "of course you'll think of something neat to make with 12 yards of black tulle!" self.

In the end both sides won. I bought the tulle but it only cost $1.

I started cutting that tulle and tying it around an old metal embroidery hoop I had. I also added some orange satin ribbon.

I hung it on the door that goes into our den.

This was such a simple project! I am so glad I talked myself into buying that tulle!

Tutorial: Halloween Tree

2009-09-28T13:30:00.000-04:00

Tutorial: A soft little Halloween tree!

All it takes is some of this soft stringy yarn:

A piece of cardboard hot glued into a cone shape.

Now you want to thicken that skinny strand of string. I did a long, long row of double crochet, but you could also do a simple long braid. Just keep it loose. See the difference between the original strand and the length that I widened. Having the wider length to work with will make the next step much easier and faster!

Then starting at the bottom, just hot glue your string around and around working your way up.

Until you get to the tippy top!

Mail time!

2009-09-24T15:27:00.007-04:00

I love getting mail! Seriously love it. I get so excited every time I hear that little white truck pull up to the curb. Am I weird? Probably.

When I read about the USPS cutting back and possibly dropping Saturday delivery, it actually makes me feel sad to think I might have one less trip to the mail box each week.
Okay, so I am definitely weird.
I love the walk to the mail box to see what has come. It is like a little rush of suspense and excitement in the middle of the day! Sure 90% of it is either bills, sweepstakes or credit card offers but it's that other 10% that I love. The catalogs, magazines, sale flyer's, cards, packages, newsletters..... I love that stuff!

This week has been an exceptional mail week! Lots of packages, packages, packages!!!

On Tuesday, I received a package with these adorable pumpkins from Jen, at Lipstick and Laundry. I was thrilled to have won her giveaway. I have these on the windowsill above my kitchen sink. Max thinks that they are candy and that I am being cruel for keeping them out of his reach. He is right though, they do look good enough to eat! I love them! Thank you Jen!

On Wednesday I had another package with my name on it!
A few weeks ago I had won a different giveaway at Just a Girl. Yes, I've won two giveaways in the last month! I'm amazed! And grateful!
This time I had won a custom sign from, Bee Charmer Primitives. It was so hard to choose, but I ended up choosing this Christopher Robin quote. It is perfect for the boys bedroom!

Today the mailman had yet another package under his arm as he walked towards the mailbox! Packages three days in a row make this one of the best mail weeks ever!
I had actually paid for this package, but I was still just as excited. I am always excited for new fabric! These I bought on Etsy, and will be used for some exciting projects that I have in the works.
If there is a package in tomorrows mail, my head might just pop off!! Tell me there is someone else out there that loves to get the mail as much as I do!

From garage to bakery?

2009-09-18T08:17:00.007-04:00

We still have so many projects to finish inside the house, but lately our time has been spent outside. Our days are numbered before the cold weather arrives here in Maine and so we are racing to finish up as much outdoors as we can.

One outside project was removing the old garage that sat in the yard. The garage was over 100 years old! I would have loved to be able to save it but there was no way. It had been neglected. It sat directly on the ground and started leaning so far to the left that it looked like it was ready to just fall on its own. It was dangerous and an eyesore.

Here is a picture I took just before it came down. Believe it or not it actually looks better in this photo than it did when we bought this place. At this point the siding had been stripped off to expose all those great wood planks.

The same spot today:
(Planting a new lawn is another one of our outdoor projects)

I did manage to save just a bit of the garage. I set aside a few of those old wide planks of wood. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I knew I wanted to save them before they were hauled away.

I sanded this one down to make a little something for my kitchen.

Before:

After:

A sign to hang up over my kitchen cabinets! I didn't like all that empty space up there. This seems much better. And I love that a little piece of the garage that had been standing beside this house for over 100 years can remain here. It seems fitting, even if it has to be disguised as an old bakery sign!

Done!

2009-09-11T12:17:00.001-04:00

I'm finished!

Elise you were very close when you guessed curtain!

It is a shower curtain.

Here's the story....
We found a great deal on a brown roman shade. Only 6.99! Then I realized I would have to be able to find a shower curtain that coordinated with the shade. Not easy. Especially since I hung the rod high and already purchased a hotel length liner.
So I needed to find a extra long, shower curtain to work with the new shade.
I looked everywhere, online and other. No luck.
I was going to just add a strip of fabric to the bottom of a regular length shower curtain to make it long enough but I could not find one that worked with the brown shade.
I decided to make my own. In order to get that much fabric I figured a bed sheet would be the best way to get the width I needed. Luckily they had the perfect shade of brown!
I wanted to add a little color too. I loved the combination of colors in this mix from Moda. The line is called Arcadia. Fun bright colors and patterns! I found myself humming the Brady Bunch theme song as I worked with all the orange, brown, and lime green colors. Something about it just made me think of that 70's home they lived in.

The best part of this project, well aside from the fact that the whole thing only cost $12.50, is that I tried sewing button holes for the first time. I needed 12 of them across the top. I had been intimidated over trying button holes. It turns out that they are actually quite simple. These aren't perfect looking, but they work exactly as they should.

Put them together, and what do ya get?

2009-09-08T16:49:00.004-04:00

Put together:

One full sized flat sheet from Walmart

and one Moda charm pack

and what do ya get?

So many possibilities.....I'll show you what I ended up with very soon!

Fun storage for children's books

2009-09-03T10:27:00.004-04:00

With the start of a new school year I felt the need to get our ever growing collection of children's books better organized. We have tons. The majority are kept....get ready for a big shocker here.....lined up the way books have been lining up forever, on a bookshelf in the boys bedroom (they share a room). Yeah I bet you didn't see that coming at all did you? Were you expecting some great inspiring bloggerific new book storage idea? Sorry to disappoint but books seem best stored on shelves. So how can a person jazz up those boring old book shelves?

Color!

Inspired by this. I arranged their books by working my way through the order of the rainbow, and ending with black and white. At bedtime, I can find books so much faster now! I just have to remember what color cover a book has and then I know just where to find it. I love how it looks but was a bit surprised after I had sorted all the books, that so many would be bound in white covers. Especially with children's literature I expected more color!
About half way through the sorting I started to think that this will never last. That the boys will have it all mixed up in no time. Then I realized that they may go nuts pulling the books off of the shelves all the time, but I am always the one stuck putting them back. If anything maybe this little system will make them want to try putting a book back. Just maybe.

All the books are not on those shelves though.
With Shane being in first grade he is reading more and more each day and I think that is one of the most exciting things ever!
He loves these skinny paperback easy reader type books. The kind that just get lost in among the larger, hardcover books.

I wanted him to have somewhere near his bedside where he could easily reach his books. However, he sleeps on the the top bunk, so a simple basket or side table wouldn't work.
I had an old narrow louvered door that I had Adrian cut in half.

Then I painted it bright orange, added alphabet stickers, and hung it horizontally by Shane's bed.

The thin books fit perfectly among the slats.

And Shane can easily find these books now that they aren't getting lost in the bookshelf.

This post was added to Julia's , Hooked on Fridays !

Goodbye Summer

2009-08-29T19:15:00.001-04:00

The end of summer is here. School starts in only 2 days. The mornings have gotten so cool that I need socks and a long sleeved shirt. I've packed away the beach towels and sunblock. So its goodbye to summer. I will wait patiently for its return.

Goodbye to:

trips to the lake, playing with the hose, eating vegetables fresh from the garden,
naps in the hammock, treasure hunts at the beach, cut flowers.
kayak rides, berries, sandcastles,
baseball, and parades.

Luckily, I love everything about fall. It helps me to forget all of those summertime things.

Hello to:

Sharpened pencils, chilly mornings,

packed lunches, pumpkins,

tricks and treats, homework,

soccer, raking leaves, and apple pie !

Pantry Door Project

2009-08-22T10:02:00.007-04:00

When we remodeled the kitchen we added a walk in pantry, which has yet to be finished. My plan for the pantry door was to paint it with both magnetic and chalk board paint.

My plans changed when I opened the quart of magnetic paint just to find that it had turned into a big hard metal lump. I had been so excited when we found that paint on clearance at Sherwin Williams. Now I know why it was on clearance. It must have sat on the shelf way too long.

I decided to go ahead and just do chalkboard paint. I'd seen lots of doors done like this on other blogs and really loved the idea. I find I write on it more than the boys do!

However, I still wanted something for magnets. I had remembered seeing this post over at Little Birdie Secrets some time ago. I had an old frame and bought a sheet of metal at the hardware store. It almost fit my frame perfectly! It needed only 1 inch trimmed off the length.

I painted the frame, glued the metal where the picture would normally go and hung it beside the pantry door. Now we have a place to quickly hang those postcards, pictures, and dental appointment reminders! Last night I ordered some of these magnets for fall!

Soon this area will be full papers and artwork that Shane brings home from school. Only 9 more days of summer vacation left! Yikes!

Trimmed Hand Towels: A Tutorial!

2009-08-09T16:11:00.007-04:00

My first tutorial! Inspired by Cheryl, who asked me to share how I made the trimmed hand towels in the 1/2 bath / laundry room. I have had so many nice comments from that post, I wanted to say thank you and welcome to all the new readers!

This really is a simple, quick way to change an inexpensive hand towel.

To get started you will need:
One prewashed, predryed hand towel
Some prewashed, predryed fabric

First trim off one end of the towel, just where the terry cloth becomes smooth.
Measure the width of the towels end. Add 1/2 inch. This is the length you will cut your fabric. Then trim the width of the fabric to be 4 1/2 inches.
For my hand towel I needed a 4 1/2 inch by 16 inch piece of fabric. Each towel is a bit different so be sure to measure!

Now iron down 1/4 inch fold along both long sides and then at each end.

Then fold fabric in half lengthwise and iron so that you have a nice edge.

Now open the fold and lay the cut edge of the hand towel so that it rests on the center line created by the fold.
Tuck the towel under the the 1/4 inch fold at each side.

Now fold the fabric up to completely enclose the end of the towel.

Pin in place.

Start at the bottom right hand corner to begin stitching. Run the stitch as close to the end as possible. Continue to the top edge of the fabric.

Make a 90 degree turn and continue across the width of the towel. (It is a good idea to periodically peek under to be sure your stitches are catching the fabric on the other side of the towel)

Make another 90 degree turn to close up the other end. Again stitch as close to the edge as possible.

That is it! So easy!

I love quick little projects like this! This aqua trimmed towel now hangs in my kitchen.

Embroidery

2009-07-26T20:16:00.005-04:00

My mother had given me all of this colorful embroidery floss a few months ago. I loved all the colors so much that I decided I'd might as well try to teach myself some embroidery stitches so I could put it all to use.
I borrowed an embroidery book from the library, which helped some but mostly made me feel overwhelmed. I had no idea that there were such crazy complicated embroidery stitches! They are amazing and beautiful but far too complicated to ever be stitched by me!
I'm sticking with the basics.
I finished this little sampler inspired pillow to sit in our child size rocking chair. I used all the colors of the rainbow. I love the colorful embroidery with the black and white polka dots.

The rocking chairs are in the family room and this little pillow stands out among all of the other black and white pillows that are in there.

This was such a fun little project that I have already started working on a new one that I will add to my Etsy shop. I'm still figuring it all out but so far I am loving the whole Etsy experience. I had my first two items purchased this weekend!

Half Bath/Laundry Room: Before and Afters

2009-07-23T12:12:00.013-04:00

Our laundry room/ half bath is all wrapped up! This little room was a bugger to finish. So much painting in a small space. It seems like I spent weeks in this room painting. I would go in and paint the wainscoting one day, come back and paint door/window trim another, another day would be crown, then touch up etc. etc. etc. It seemed to take forever. Now it is done and I really do love it!

So lets explore the befores!

This is actually the only true before that I took. (All the other pictures are after we started demo) It is of the sink because that sink was the only thing I could see when I stepped into the room. It was love at first sight despite its grungyness and chippy formica surround. The rest of the room consisted of painted paneling, vinyl tiles, a toilet, and a shower.

We immediately started removing the old to make way for the new. The sink is the only thing that stayed in the room. We had hoped to move the sink to a different wall, but when we removed the cabinetry we found a slope that comes up from the basement stairway was hidden within the cabinet. Plans were changed, the sink stayed put. That's how things are when you renovate an old house. You always have to have a plan B.

The room has sort of an L shape footprint. On the floor you can see the outline of where the shower stall had been. It had been added somewhat recently but it was too large for this room and we had no need for a shower downstairs. We also exposed what appeared to be an original hardwood floor. Unfortunately it couldn't be saved.

After removing the shower we opened up that back corner and framed up a nook large enough for a washer/dryer and some cabinetry.

The afters:

Since the room originally had hardwood we went ahead and put down the same hardwood that is in the kitchen. It is a bit unexpected in a laundry/bath but I really like how it looks and I really love not having to clean grout lines. The wainscoting was saved from the kitchen remodel.

The wall directly across from the washer/dryer. We had wanted to move the sink right next to the toilet.
The sink. Adrian built the cabinet and counter top. We bought doors to match the cabinets by the washer/dryer. We stained the counter to match the floor and added many coats of oil based polyurethane. It should stand up to the water just fine. I hope.

The laundry area. We decided to stack the dryer to save some floor space. I was really nervous that I wouldn't like it set up like this, but I do. At 5'2 I can just reach the controls at the top. I need a ladder to reach those cabinets above though. The cabinets are those really cheap, put together yourself, cardboard and plastic kind sold at Home Depot. We painted them the same color as the woodwork. I'd be hesitant to use these in a kitchen but think they will be fine in here.
Behind the door, a wood peg rack that holds beach bags and totes.
I thought the barn style light was perfect for over the sink. It was a silver galvanized exterior fixture bought at Lowes (I think). I spray painted it with oil rubbed bronze paint. I don't remember exactly but I know this fixture was cheap. Definitely less than $20.

I used a lot of that spray paint in this room. Like on the wire basket holding the extra toilet paper. A $2 find at goodwill. Also, I added the strip of ticking on the bottom of two cheap hand towels to match the window treatment.
I needed something for privacy since this is a bathroom, but didn't want to block out what little natural light there was coming into the room. I made a simple cafe style treatment out of heavy cotton ticking, and a fun little rag garland for the top. Sorry, I know the picture is washed out by the light. This room is tricky to photograph.
I added a cute little birdie decal above the curtain.
Apparently he flew out of his cage (also spray painted) when someone left the door open.

I've included this at The Lettered Cottage, where Layla is hosting an end of the year room redo party.

Sea Glass

2009-07-16T16:24:00.018-04:00

We spent the evening at a near by beach. It was a perfect sunny evening. We brought a picnic and lots of beach toys but more fun was had looking for treasures along the beach.

Our near by beaches are rocky, and often covered in sea weed.

I could walk a beach for hours. If I am at the beach my head is almost always going to be bent towards the ground. View? What view?
This trip turned up some great finds!
The boys found a piece of driftwood shaped like a crocodile. Or is it an alligator?

I found a few colorful pieces of sea glass.

I love sea glass.
I have a sea glass collection that I have been adding to for years. 10 at least. When we were first married Adrian and I lived in a waterfront cottage owned by his parents. It had a great beach. The beach was very private and always loaded with sea glass. I would often come back up from the beach with my pockets filled with bits of colored glass.
I even have certain pieces that trigger very random memories of the day that I found it. Like the pink pottery piece that I found one day I had gone down to the beach while I had a blueberry cake baking in the oven. See...totally random. But every time I see that little pink piece I think of blueberry cake.
I have dozens more pieces that are tied to other random memories. My collection grew and grew. Now I have a large bucket that is filled with glass and memories.

Yesterday I dumped out my bucket onto the counter and added the new pieces to the mix.
I love the colors of sea glass. The aqua blue is my favorite. Brown is my least favorite. I never keep the brown pieces. If I did my collection would probably be twice as large.
I used some pieces to make a summery centerpiece for the kitchen island. I set a small candle holder inside a large glass bucket and filled the space between them with some of my sea glass.

When the candle in the middle is lit all of the glass seems to light up too.

This post was shared on the Hooked On Fridays feature at Julia's Hooked on Houses. Go and visit some great new blogs each Friday!

Inspiring laundry rooms and A's for your Q's

2009-07-09T08:08:00.006-04:00

Since we are working in our laundry/half bath I totally have laundry rooms on my mind! Let me share some of my favorite country inspired laundry rooms.

I love the cabinetry in this one. The fact that you can hide the washer and dryer. So smart!

cottage living

An old doll house for overhead shelving! So unexpected.

country living

I love the colors in this laundry room. That wash sink is great. Enamelware and glass jars, two of my favorite things!

country living

This room has wainscotting and ticking. Two more of my favorite things! Again they can hide the washer/dryer behind the curtain. I love that! Our machines are stacked, otherwise I would totally copy this!

bhg

On another note, the A's for your Q's.
I realized recently that I've been asked a few questions about my past posts and I never answered them. I love the questions that come my way! (Although I had no idea so many folks were interested in paint colors!) I am always happy to share details from my projects. So if you have a question then by all means ask away! I have been trying to figure out the best way to answer questions and I think that what I will do is answer the questions in the same way they are asked. I know that some choose not to include an email address in their profile and I feel strange answering in their blogs comment section since it often has nothing to do with their recent post.
So....if you email me a question, I will email you the answer. If you ask in the comments section, I will respond in the comments section. So be sure to check back. (If it is an old post I may not notice the question right off) So if you have asked me a question and I didn't answer you I'm sorry. Ask me again, I'm paying attention this time!

I did something I hardly ever do.

2009-07-08T09:54:00.003-04:00

I sewed for myself! A reversible tote bag. Blue on one side, brown and blue stripes on the other. I kept some of the brown stripe fabric showing around the top of the blue side. I hadn't planned on doing it that way but as I was getting ready to pin the two layers together it was just sort of poking up on its own and I decided I liked the look. That is how I sew. No patterns, just go with the flow of the fabric I am using. This tote will be used for hauling library books, beach towels, snacks, change of clothes, and lots of other random stuff.

(I've discovered Picnik. Fun stuff!)

On the renovation front we are still plugging away. We are in the downstairs laundry room/half bath. It has already come a long way but isn't finished yet. Here is a little peek, in collage form, of some of my favorite things in the room.

The sink, Ticking, and Painted Wainscoting

Definately a country theme in there. More than I usually go for but with that sink I just couldn't help it. It screams country. As soon as it is done I will share the before and after pictures.

Can you name these flowers?

2009-07-02T18:57:00.008-04:00

The warm weather is slowly making its way to Maine. With all that we are doing inside the house I just don't have the time or energy to garden like I usually do. However, I am enjoying watching the flowers planted by the previous owners all grow and bloom in our new yard.

These gorgeous yellow flowers all opened up this week and I don't think I've seen them anywhere before and would love to know what they are. If anyone knows could you share the name with me?
They are about 18" high off of the ground. The buds were red and I was totally expecting red blooms to open up but instead they are a bright lemon yellow!

I couldn't resist cutting a few to bring indoors. At night the blossoms close up and reopen in the morning. I love that! I keep thinking someone is going to tell me that these are just weeds or something! I'm hoping someone knows so I don't have to go digging through boxes to find my garden books that are still packed away.

A few other pretty discoveries this week:

The entire backyard smells like roses right now! Such a nice follow up to last months lilacs!

So busy sewing!

2009-06-27T08:52:00.011-04:00

I've been spending lots of time in my sewing room lately. It is so great to have everything that I need all in one space! Here are a few little projects I've been working on.

Freezie pop sleeves! Summertime means freezie time. We go through boxes and boxes of these artificial flavored, artificial colored, high fructose syrup sweetened sticks in the summertime. They kinda make me cringe but the boys (including the 30 year old one) all love them. Max requests one every night after dinner. However he doesn't like the cold feeling on his hands. So with just a few scraps of fleece that problem is solved!

With the fourth of July right around the corner I wanted to add to the patriotic decorations I had made for Memorial day. I made these red, white, and blue pennants from some small dowels and more scrap fabrics. So fun! I was inspired to make them after seeing fun flags in the recent issue of BHG. I am thinking that I will make more for Halloween this year. I think orange and black would be great!

Finally, a personalized camo drawstring bag for our nephew's birthday. Ethan will be five on the 1st of July and I thought red white and blue would be appropriate for a sweet boy who came pretty close to being born on Independence day. The bag is narrow and long enough to hold another marshmallow shooter and some marshmallow ammo.

Sewing room, before and after.

2009-06-17T20:25:00.018-04:00

This room is finished and now I am ready to:

But first let me share how my sewing room has evolved over the past 4 months.
This used to be the laundry room. I fell in love with the wall of windows the first time we viewed the house. I couldn't (and still don't) understand why so many windows in such a tiny room. It is only 6ft x 11ft! I am convinced that this room has a history that we just haven't figured out yet. We may never know for sure and that is okay. That is what I love about an old house. We had decided early on that we would be moving the washer/dryer into the downstairs bath. That left us with this long, skinny room loaded with natural light. I claimed it as mine. Adrian seemed quick to agree with this since he and the boys had already claimed the entire 3rd floor attic as theirs to one day do what they want. (I think their plans involve an office and some model trains.) Overall this was an easy room to update. Just a little plaster repair, some rewiring, and paint. We also replaced the three large side by side windows but kept them the same size.

I hired a local painting crew. Their rates were reasonable and they accept payment in cookies.
The new windows:

If you take a closer look you can see the lilacs in bloom just inches from the house. When I open the windows I can smell the lilacs all the way from the kitchen! I also have a nice view of the back yard while I'm in here.

I told you I wanted to paint the floor and I did. Blue! I used porch and floor enamel in a satin finish. I love it.

You can see how the wall bumps out at the corner now. That was to make room for the washer and dryer in the adjacent bathroom.

And the rest of what little wall space there is, is devoted to organizing my supplies. Lots of jars, enamelware, and buckets. I went up as high as I could in order to get enough storage in this small room. Despite the small footprint of the room the ceilings are 9 ft high. So everything went up, up, up. Adrian came home from work with the shelves as a surprise. I was planning on painting them but I decided I kinda like the pine in here. Well that, and the fact that I really, really, don't like to paint shelves. So for now they will remain unpainted.

I hung this Ikea light (bought on Ebay) and added a blue and white striped cord cover.

I am so excited to have this little space finished!
Now I finally have a place for all my ribbon....

and buttons...

and fabric!

I really do love this room. And I am really going to love going in there and making a creative mess!

Teacher Gift: Welcome to summer!

2009-06-15T13:49:00.004-04:00

Shane has his last day of Kindergarten tomorrow! He loved Kindergarten and his teacher. She is wonderful and I know Shane will miss her. (She also taught Adrian and I when we went to Kindergarten!) I wanted to send in a little gift to say thank you.

I showed you the rug I made with the placemats I found on clearance, but I didn't say what I did with the napkins that came with them. I turned them into tote bags for Shane's teacher and the classroom aide! I didn't use any pattern. (I have no patience for patterns and avoid them whenever I can) I just measured, cut, and made adjustments as I went along. I had trimmed just enough off the sides of each napkin to make into handles! I was pretty pleased with that! Each tote took two 18" napkins. I lined them with a solid ivory colored cotton.

In each tote I sent an assortment of little summertime themed items that I picked up here and there. I included:
A water bottle
A little handheld fan
A citronella candle
An ice cream scoop
A package of sunflower seeds
A small American flag
Along with a thank you card that looks like a piece of watermelon!

Shane is excited about moving on to first grade and even more excited about summer vacation! He has made lots of plans for vacation. We have whole lists of what we will make, what we will read, and places we will go! It is looking to be a fun filled, busy, summer!

Another project for the sewing room!

2009-06-12T07:51:00.004-04:00

I found these in the clearance isle at Walmart. 2 placemats and 2 napkins for $1.00. I bought 3 of them.

I didn't need placemats or napkins. I did need a rug. So I stitched them all together to make a $3.00 rug.

Then I zigzag stitched over each seam for a cleaner look. I used a blue thread to match the blue floor. I love green and blue together.

Now I'm just waiting for the light to arrive and to hang a few things up and the room will be finished!

A gun cabinet transformation

2009-06-09T14:51:00.014-04:00

When Adrian was young he collected BB guns. He had so many that one year, for his birthday, his mother bought him an actual gun cabinet to store them all in. I'm not sure where all those BB guns went, but the cabinet sat in his parents basement for years. Then they sold their house and it had to go.
When Adrian asked me if I wanted him to bring it home- I just laughed. Ahhh...nooo thanks. What would we do with a gun cabinet?!
But a few days later I changed my mind. No I hadn't decided to buy a rifle and take a hunters safety course. I just figured that I could do something with it. Maybe.....someday.
Fast forward to last week when I was trying to figure out how to store my fabrics in the sewing room. I remembered the gun cabinet just sitting in storage waiting for me to do something with it!

Here's the before. We had already removed the glass with the giant frosted deer head etched on the front. Sorry you didn't get to see that. It sure was something. Go ahead and take a minute to just visualize it in your mind......

The whole cabinet is just flimsy particle board with a faux wood shiny paper covering. Not a lick of solid wood anywhere on it. Everything about it said don't even bother painting. But I did it anyway. I had nothing to lose. First I primed the entire thing with high bonding primer from Sherwin Williams. Then I painted it with left over paint from the family room. Left over flat paint. Crazy, I know. Like I said, I had nothing to lose.

I stapled some lightweight linen onto the back of the open door frame. I love this because 1. It was much cheaper than buying new glass. 2. It protects my fabrics from being bleached out by all of the sunlight coming into the room.

Adrian added some shelves to the inside for me. Room for fabric, scraps, an iron, glue gun, and that giant bag of pillow stuffing. Surprisingly, it actually turned out great. The flat paint gives it a milk paint type finish. It is the scrubbable kind so hopefully I can wipe off those little boy fingerprints that will inevitably be all over it. I even tried to scratch at it to see if the finish would hold up to wear and I couldn't get any of the paint to scratch off ! Yay!
I've got just a couple of projects to finish up in the sewing room and it will be finished!

Repurposing with twine in mind.

2009-06-05T07:26:00.005-04:00

I love twine. I use it for so many projects, even in gift wrapping. I also love yard sale finds. Recently I was able to incorporate both into one project!

I found this oak paper towel holder at a yard sale for $1.00. I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be perfect for hanging my spools of twine in the new sewing room.

Before in all it's solid oak glory:

After a coat of paint (Watery, SW):

The little bell jars are new from Walmart. They are a new contemporary design and I just love them. These two hold safty pins and push pins.

I've been busy getting the sewing room put together. What did I decide to do with the floor you ask? It might just be the same gorgeous blue as this shelf. It may just look fabulous. You'll have to wait and see though. I can't share an unfinished project. I just can't do it.

On the sewing room floor

2009-06-02T19:11:00.009-04:00

I'm thinking about painting the hardwood floor in the sewing room. We have pulled up the old linoleum to reveal some water damage (it had been the laundry room). With some time and effort it could probably be sanded and refinished just fine.

But I really love a painted floor.

Maybe a pattern like these stripes?

Or these fun harlequins?

Or go solid?

White is nice.

I love every single thing about this room.

Or maybe use color?
Right now I am totally leaning towards a blue floor like this one.

Hmmm.....decisions, decisions.

Worth the wait?

2009-06-01T15:02:00.013-04:00

When I shared our finished kitchen I hinted of another part of the room that wasn't quite ready yet. What was meant to be just a few days turned into a couple of weeks because life has been busy! When you have warm weather, t-ball, walks, lawn mowing and gardening to do outdoors, who wants to be inside?

With the help of a few rainy days we finally wrapped up another project!

The area before:

This was taken before we closed on the house. This was an eat in area. Since we knew we would use the new island as an eating area we weren't sure what we should do with this corner of the kitchen.

We decided to use the space for this: An office area right in the kitchen. We had a small desk area in our last kitchen and I loved it. It was convenient for so many reasons. Also I like the idea that when the boys are older and spending time on the computer I can easily monitor their computer use. The two cabinets at the bottom came from the same manufacturer as our other wall cabinetry. These are desk height (29") as opposed to counter height (36"). On one side is a pull out file drawer and the other cabinet hides our computer. The top hutch with all the cubbies we added our selves. Once again Adrian was able to match it all perfectly!

The best part is that there is so much storage space!

The baskets hold art supplies, paper, and coloring books.

The crayons and markers are always handy.

Bill paying central.

Since this is the kitchen I used the top cubbies for cookbooks.
I used the same blue from the plate rack to paint the bead board behind the monitor. This bead board hides all of those wires running to the printer and speakers. I am still deciding on what to put in the space above the monitor. I think it needs something.

I am so happy to have this done! We are packing up and moving on to other rooms now! Next up: My sewing room!!!!

Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-25T09:29:00.003-04:00

Happy Memorial Day

All we have of freedom, all we use or know -
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899

A few patriotic projects that I've been working on:

A scrap piece of wood painted and hung outside above a planter:

Red, White, and Blue rag garland draped across the bench:
An embroidered doorknob pillow:

Marshmallow Shooter

2009-05-23T17:10:00.004-04:00

Our oldest nephew, Jack, is turning another year older. Next week he will be 10. In keeping with my attempt to keep gifts handmade I really had to think hard about what kind of handmade gift would work for a 10 year old boy. Then I saw this. Perfect!
Here is what I put together for Jack. A marshmallow shooter, a bag of mini marshmallows, directions printed out on card stock, and I sewed a large drawstring bag to keep everything in.The camouflage is my go to fabric whenever I sew for boys. It assures that there will be absolutely no girlyness at the end of a sewing project.

These are so easy and inexpensive to make! Everything is available at the hardware store and all you need to cut the pipe is a small fine toothed hack saw blade. I used Krylon Fusion spray paint to be sure that the paint stayed on the plastic pipe.
I will definitely be making more of these. Perfect for kiddos with summertime birthdays!

Stone, Soil, and Moss

2009-05-12T11:57:00.008-04:00

I put together a little terrarium this morning. It literally took under 10 minutes and cost nothing! It is lovely and all natural. I just hope it doesn't die.

I took:
A small glass apothecary jar
A handful of crushed stone (rinsed clean)
A thin layer of really good dark soil
A pretty piece of moss

I just layered everything in that order and gave it just the tiniest watering. Everything but the jar came right out of our backyard! The jar was actually left in the home when the previous owners moved.

It should be low maintenance. Keep out of direct sunlight and don't let it dry up. We'll see how it goes. Just in case, there's always the backyard filled with more stone, soil, and moss to make another.
I think this would be fun to do with kids using left over peanut butter jars!

Our new kitchen!

2009-05-07T16:18:00.014-04:00

Here we go. The kitchen renovation before, during, and right now.

These first three pictures were taken when we went to look at the house a second time. The kitchen wasn't in terrible shape. It had been updated in 1987. Almost charming in a grandmotherly way I suppose. It would have been fine for us for awhile but we knew that if we were going to remodel the kitchen the time was now. We had just lived through a kitchen remodel at our old house about 18 months ago. Living in a home without a functioning kitchen and trying to feed children is not easy. We decided to take advantage of the month or so that we would not be living in the new house to completely remodel the kitchen.

We kept all of the cabinets and wainscoting for future projects. We were able to find homes for the appliances too.

As soon as we had the keys to this big old house we started poking around to see what we had to work with. Adrian started lifting some of the vinyl flooring to see if the hardwood ran into the kitchen. It didn't. Darn.

Here we are about 3 weeks in:

Here is how the kitchen looked the day we moved in! Yikes! The cabinets are just sitting in place, unattached, and the widows hadn't even arrived yet. We had to use the bathroom sink to wash dishes for a couple days.

Are you wondering why we left those three mismatched cabinets sitting in the middle of the room?

They became our kitchen island.

Here's how:

We bought three standard cabinets in a finish to match our new hardwood floor. We (By we I mean Adrian) added some extensions to the sides.

Then went around the sides and back with a finished plywood veneer.

Added some butcher block counter top.

And some trim to give it a paneled look.

Finally we finished it off with stain and polyurethane and those pretty glass knobs! The boys had breakfast here this morning!

Jeez...that should have been it's own post! Let's get back to the rest of the kitchen!

The kitchen all put back together:

A view of the wall with the chimney(with brick removed and covered with sheetrock). Notice the crown molding isn't finished? I have a plan for that recessed space between the chimney bump out and the door way. The crown has to be installed after that project is finished.

Adrian made this pretty little plate rack/shelf cabinet. Isn't he (and it) amazing?! (To buy one from the cabinet manufacturer was crazy expensive. So he made this to the same measurements as the purchased cabinets, had some paint color matched and it looks like it came from the same factory as the other cabinets! )

He also made the unit that surrounds the refrigerator! (Also way too expensive from the cabinet manufacturer!) He made both pieces out of MDF and/or finished plywood. Even up close you can not tell that these didn't come with the rest of the cabinets. Saved us a ton of $!

Jump over to The DIY Show Off to see so many amazing before and afters!

May Day Goodies

2009-05-01T14:04:00.006-04:00

We are getting the kitchen wrapped up this weekend. So many little, time consuming projects involved in a kitchen renovation! Enough already with the kitchen I am ready to work in a different room! But it sure is coming together so nicely. Before and Afters soon, I promise.
I've been spending every morning this week watching like a hawk for the mail man to arrive, hoping he had these with him:

Pretty antique glass knobs for the island. I am trying to make the new island cabinetry look like it is actually old. I think these will make that happen.

Shane and I have been working on putting some May day baskets together this week. I have always loved seeing the button flowers out there on so many blogs. I thought they would be perfect in a May day basket.

As soon as Shane gets home today we will go out in the rain and drop these little goody baskets (cans actually) off at the door of relatives who live nearby! I can remember doing this as a kid and am excited to be doing this with Shane now that he is old enough! He thinks it is the funniest thing he has ever heard of!
(These are inspired from the ones shown at Skip to My Lou. Just tin cans spray painted, wrapped in fabric. Inside each are some button flowers, a chocolate bar, and a little fabric birdy ornamnet.)

A Whale Shirt

2009-04-29T07:54:00.007-04:00

Somehow I have made it through 6+ years of parenting with out buying millions of dollars worth of clothing plastered with the latest, trendiest animated characters. (Okay, There were that pair of lightening McQueen slippers and those Blues Clues pajamas, but both were on clearance so that dozen‘t count) I usually steer clear of any cartoony items when I shop for the boys.

What makes this fact impressive?

I do most of the boys clothes shopping at Walmart where it seems like 75% of the little boys clothing has Sponge Bob on it.

What makes this fact a bit less impressive?

Neither of my boys have ever really been all that interested in any character or super hero. I’m sure if they had then I would have dressed them in all the Diego or Spider man they wanted.

Yesterday I took Max to Walmart to pick him up a few short sleeve t-shirts for spring. As I sifted through the racks filled with those freaky Yo Gabba Gabba characters, Sponge Bob, and some scary looking half man, half beast thing I was getting discouraged.
Max could see the shirts, he even recognized some of the characters. He realized that these shirts had characters from TV on the front. Quickly he asked me if there were any with his favorite character from TV. "Do they have any whale shirts Mommy?"
He was referring to Willy the Whale from the Justin Roberts song, Willy Was a Whale. Max loves the song and would watch the video a thousand times a day if only I were willing go running back to the DVR every 3 minutes and 16 seconds to replay it. Now I think Willy is adorable. I would have even been willing to shell out the $12 for a shirt if it had had Willy instead of Muno or the man beast guy.
However, Willy is only from a song with a short video that plays on Noggin once in a while. He is not an animated super star with billions of dollars worth of merchandise. There are no Willy shirts.
I figured I could put together a Willy inspired shirt for Max. To the pile of plain solid colored Geranimals I went! $3.50 each. (Take that Muno!) Max was going to get a Willy the Whale shirt that was going to be cute, cheap, and not cause nightmares.
I sat and sketched while Max watched the video, again. Found some appropriately colored fabrics and my Heat and Bond. Now Max has his one of a kind Willy the Whale shirt.

If you have never heard of Willy and I’ve sparked your curiosity, then I recommend grabbing the nearest preschooler and watching this . It is cute. Not scary. Not creepy. (Be careful though, the song will likely get stuck in your head for days.)

Chicken soup and French toast

2009-04-23T16:30:00.005-04:00

Yesterday’s supper was supposed to be chicken soup with homemade bread. Perfect for a cold, rainy day. But then this happened:

You know how you’re not supposed to lift the lid off of the crock pot when it’s cooking? I do it anyway. Doesn’t everyone? Yesterday when I lifted the lid off to stir the soup it slipped out of my hand and shattered everywhere. Into the soup, all over the counter and kitchen floor. Just great.

That glass was sharp! It broke into large shards and millions of tiny specks. Soooo fun to clean up.

It was 3 o'clock. What was I going to do for supper now? Shane had requested that I make “the white kind” of bread earlier that morning. I rarely make white bread. Usually it’s oatmeal but today I had two loaves of white bread rising and nothing to go with it.

White bread makes me think of French toast. Suddenly I remembered reading this. (Love her blog!)

Baked French toast. Perfect! This was meant to be.

It was good, very good. So good that it made me happy that my crock pot lid had broken. Not exactly as healthy as homemade chicken soup but Whatever.

Now I'm off to see if ebay has any replacement lids listed.

Black and White and Green all over.

2009-04-15T08:06:00.027-04:00

I had shared a photo of all of my black and white fabric awhile back. I thought I should share what has become of all of that fun fabric and it just so happens that that project works itself right into my first little before and after of our renovation project. Yay! A two for one deal!
This:

Became these:

Lots of pillows for our family room! I had finished sewing all of them some time ago but waited to stuff them until after the move. Much easier to pack that way!

Our family room is the largest room in this old house. It is a very long room filled with sunshine. This is where the boys have most of their toys, games, and puzzles. Essentially it is a toy room but I refuse to call it that in fear that the toys will take over. Those toys have a mind of their own you know! No matter what we call this room, I love it. Since this room is the only room that has 100% of its renovation work finished I find myself coming in and just sitting down and forgetting about all of that is left to be finished in the rest of the house. It is my little renovation oasis!

Here are a few before photos.

Remember this ceiling?:

and these french doors?:

Well all of this is in the family room so how could I not love this room?

This funky set of windows are directly across from the french doors and are original to the house:

A view to the right of the french doors looking at the other end of the room:

Over all, this room was in pretty great shape when we bought the house. It was one of the only rooms that didn't require a complete demo. All we had to do was paint, patch the existing hardwood, repair some of the plaster and replace the large windows.

We painted it a soft beigy green color (or maybe it is a greenish beige?) and all the trim is white. These pictures show how much this color changes with the change of daylight.

The french doors (which open up to the unfinished entry hall) after:

Here is a new view of the wall across from the french doors:

Honestly these windows drive me kinda crazy. So asymmetrical in the room. I mean how am I ever going to put window treatments in this room?! Notice that we didn't replace the two smaller sized windows? That is because I think that if we eventually replace the siding on the exterior of the house then maybe those two little windows will go. Maybe. Would that be awful? I would still be left with one window up higher than the others in the room. So I am not sure it would do anything to appease my symmetry loving self. For now they stay just as they are, which is fine, because they let in lots of warm sunshine!

The boys' play table is set up at the entrance to the room and seating is at the other end. I was hoping to create two separate areas in one long room and it seems to work great!

Here are those fun pillows scattered on the sectional. I know I will be adding more each time I find some fun black and white fabric!

I love the black and white with the soft green on the walls and sectional. I have hung some black and white photos and will hang the boys silhouettes. I put some black and white game pieces into jars too!

I have been able to use some pieces of furniture in new ways in this room.
This little hutch with glass doors has become home to all of the games and puzzles. It used to hold china. Now that is repurposing!

And the little bench that used to sit in our old entry has become a little coffee table!

I painted the sign that sits above the doorway a few years ago. It reflects the mood of this room so perfectly!

A little painting project and a bit of Easter decorating!

2009-04-11T20:38:00.005-04:00

Unpacking is hard work. I had no idea that getting everything out of those boxes and put away while in the midst of finishing up some of the renovation tasks would be so time consuming and tiring. But…I keep at it and hope to soon have at least one room that I can call finished. Today was spent working away in the Kitchen getting the back splash up and trim painted. As long as the butcher block for the island is delivered this week I hope to be able to call the kitchen finished by the end of this week.
Last week I did manage to do a little late night transformation on a great old bench (maybe it’s a pew?) that I gladly took off of my in-laws hands last Summer, when they were cleaning out their storage building to get ready to sell their home. Apparently it had been there when they bought the house 30 years earlier and they had no idea where it came from or how old it might be.
At that time I definitely did NOT have any room for this so it sat in storage again. Now it is perfect for our new mudroom!
So I gave it a quick 14 coats of black paint. Just kidding, it was only 3ish. It is hard to tell in this awful before (actually during) picture but it was actually a pretty great aqua greenish color to start with.
Before:

And after:

I was planning on sanding some edges to give it a rubbed patina effect but I figure my two boys will have that done for me in no time so for now I just tossed some new green pillows on it. I love the bright green against the black. So Springy!
I was feeling pretty bad about not having the house unpacked and decorated for Easter, so I threw a few plastic eggs into a new little nest and I love it! I love the contrast between the bright plastic eggs and the vines in the nest. Plus, those plastic eggs are great entertainment for a two year old!

I also unpacked just enough sewing supplies to make a little pillow case for Easter. Adrian said this fabric makes him think of those dot candies that you peel off of the paper and now that is all that I think of when I look at it!

I am off to bed looking forward to a wonderful, blessed Easter day. Also seeing the faces of my two little guys as they search all around this big old house looking for these in the morning:

The time has come.

2009-04-01T07:59:00.004-04:00

We have said good bye to our old house. This is a photo from last fall. A great little house we bought 6 years ago and also remodeled. We loved the house, but unfortunately we didn't have the foresight to see that no closets, or any storage space for that matter was not going to be conducive to raising kids.

So the time has come. We have moved to our new home! We have wired, plumbed,sheet rocked, layed floors, set windows, remodeled a kitchen, painted, painted, and painted some more. Totally livable. I say livable because I can't say completed. There is still so much to do but the messy stuff is over and now we can spend the rest of our lives fixing this house up the way we would like. Seriously, it will probably take the rest of our lives. But that is okay, because we love this stuff! So I am going to unpack what seems like twenty thousand plastic totes and try to turn this big ole house into my family's home.

For now Max has found a cozy little spot in the new house to call his own. He kept asking me to shut the door so it would be dark in there! This boy is scared of nothing. Those childproof locks can't be installed soon enough.

I'm So Excited!

2009-03-27T18:07:00.004-04:00

And I just can’t hide it! Two things have me excited today.

First is the pretty little blossom budding on my Meyer lemon tree! I discovered it this morning I bought this little tree from a mail order garden catalog last spring. I have watched it double, then triple in growth, but until now I had little hope that I would ever actually see any lemons. I know that one pretty white blossom doesn’t guarantee me any lemons, but it does restore hope that maybe one day I might see an actual lemon grown right here in my home!

The other thing that has me even more excited relates to the reason why I haven’t had any time to post lately. This darn renovation is claiming any and all of our time. But today has been a very good day on the renovation front! The kitchen cabinets are being installed! I love how they transform the empty kitchen into an actual room! I think that I should be able to find time to share lots of renovation posts soon, now that we have gotten past the grueling, messy, time consuming parts of this renovation. I can’t wait to share some before and afters!

Baby Gift

2009-03-02T15:26:00.005-05:00

Soon we will have a new nephew. His name will be Isaac and we are so excited about meeting him! One of the most surprising things in my adult life has been how much I've enjoyed having nieces and nephews. Sure I always knew I wanted to be a Mom but had not spent much time thinking about being an Aunt. It is amazing to watch them all grow up and getting to be a part of each of their lives is pretty special.
I wanted to put together a gift for baby Isaac before I got too caught up in the renovation/packing/moving events that are going on here.
I've been trying really hard to keep gifts handmade and it is not always easy. However, when it comes to babies it is SO easy! There are so many great things to make for babies!
I made some soft flannel burp cloths, crocheted a wee little hat (I just love the pearly sheen on the blue yarn), and an applique initial onesie.

It's not all bad.

2009-02-23T14:04:00.008-05:00

Among all the dust and debris I keep finding little treasures that make me the most excited about what is about the become our new home. For the most part everything looks about like this: This is what will be the upstairs bathroom. According to my husband it will be a fully functioning bathroom in just 5 more days. I have my fingers crossed.

There was very little worth keeping in this house. While the house was built in 1890 most finishes were circa 1970. Green shag carpet, faux wood paneling, yellow bathtub...not our style. However, here and there throughout the house I've found little things that most definately will be staying!
One not so little thing is this tin ceiling! The only one in the house, but it is in the largest room in the house.

I love the old trim that is all through the house. I really really really love the crown detail over the doorways!

French doors! I have always wanted french doors, and now I will have 3. Although I know that I will be constantly cleaning little fingerprints off of those little panes of glass. I also love those glass doorknobs!

I love this old sink in the downstairs bathroom It gets to stay, but it wasn't easy convincing Adrian. He has this odd aversion to old stuff. It is like pulling teeth to get him to step into an antique shop. Silly boy.
Because of this sink I came up with the idea of converting the downstairs bathroom from a 3/4 bath to a 1/2 bath with laundry. (If the laundry were off in a room of its own I would always forget to switch that load of wet laundry sitting in the washer, this setup will save many loads from getting musty!) Besides I can't get the idea of soaking my handwashables in this sink! The best part of this plan is that I get to convert the former laundry room into my very own sewing room!

Finally, this wasn't technically something that was present when we bought the house but it might just be my all time favorite thing about it! We have stolen some space from the dining room to make a narrow walk in pantry! I have so many ideas for this space.

Things are moving along so quickly now and it is so exciting!

Indoor Winter Fun!

2009-02-12T14:55:00.007-05:00

It's the middle of Winter and the playdough has been played until it's become that ugly shade of gray brown, and the blocks have been stacked and knocked over a million times, the coloring books have color on every page, and that great hiding spot is no longer so great. This week I decided it was time to get creative and put togethor some new activites to keep Max occupied during the day while he waits for Shane to get home from school.

I remembered something that I used to do back when Shane was about Max's age. I fill the kitchen sink about half way up with water, add a few drops of blue food coloring, grab all of the little bath time boats and a tall chair and it's like bathtime but without the slippery wet baby! Well....I should be honest.....the baby does get a bit wet but it is all in good fun! Max played contently with his boats the entire time I put together a baked ziti!

Here's a messy one but still worth the fun! Just rice in a container (with a cover), a few drops of food coloring (again) and mix! I saw this on another blog a while ago, I don't remember which it was but it was an idea that immediately went into my mental to do file. Reminds me of the rice table we had when I was in Kindergarten but much smaller. Max LOVES to have me bury small things in the rice so he can dig them out. I definately recommend this activity be done right before you plan on vacumming.

Finally, snowy fun indoors! Yes, its another food coloring activity! (Although the food coloring isn't nessecary for any of these activites I think color makes anything a bit more fun!) I grabbed another container, spent 30 seconds out in the 7 degree air to scoop up some (clean) snow, added a few drops of color and let Max scoop and pack and play until all that was left was a puddle on the kitchen floor. Easy clean up overall, although I might set this up on a large towel next time.

Getting Ready!

2009-02-09T17:14:00.003-05:00

I really haven't done much sewing lately. That's about to change! I am ready to start a project for the new house. All in Black and White! I have been trying to put together a good stash of black and white fabrics. I think I have enough to get started and I am excited. I'll share when its all finished!

Party Time!

2009-02-07T14:55:00.011-05:00

Shane turned 6 this week! He is such a great kid. I haven’t shared much about Shane on here, so let me tell you a few things about Shane.
He loves pizza, riding on the school bus, and office supplies. (This kid is obsessed with office supplies! The only things he asked for this past Christmas were rubber bands, a date stamper, and paperclips.)
He is very thoughtful, quiet, and clever.He always comes up with great ideas!
He is such a skinny kid. Like pull the adjustable bands inside the waist of his jeans ALL the way to the very last hole, and they still fall down skinny. Since he started Kindergarten he has become too cool for suspenders. They were so cute on him while it lasted. Now it is belts only.

And this year, for his birthday, he wanted a “real” party. I took this to mean that he wanted more than cake with us and his grandparents like we typically have done for his birthday. This year he wanted kids, balloons, games, decorations…..the works!

So I tried to give the birthday boy what he wanted.
Instead of a theme we just did decorations in orange, blue, green, red, and yellow. I threw down a blue party table cover, In the center of the table I cut some matching fabrics from my stash into assorted squares with my pinking shears. Tied bunches of balloons to my dining room chandelier and let curled ribbon hang down from the center. I thought it looked great but it turns out that most six year olds cannot resist pulling on a string if it is hanging anywhere near their face. Despite this, my chandelier is still attached to the ceiling.

My mantle is in my dining room so I turned it into a birthday mantle! Goody bags for the guests lined up on top. A banner that usually hangs in the boys bedroom matched the party colors so well that I brought it down and hung it for the event.

As each guest arrived they stamped their name onto a white tshirt with alphabet sponges and fabric paint. After each shirt was dry I rolled it up and tied on a tag with washing instructions. These went into the goody bags with some stickers, pencils, and M&Ms.
I wanted to do something other than giving out little bags full of candy but also not spend a fortune. This was just as easy and very affordable. I bought a set of 8 multicolored paper bags, a package of 6 white tshirts, a package of colorful pencils, sheets of stickers, and a package of 8 fun size M&Ms. I already had the alphabet stamps and fabric paint, ribbon and tissue paper. Divided everything up and all together it all cost less than $20. Of course we only had 7 kids at the party. I suppose this could get pricey with a larger group of kids.

Shane requested cupcakes which was perfect for our multicolored theme! I had fun piping icing the night before!

We played traditional party games like Duck duck goose, Who has the button?, Musical squares (a modern version of musical chairs) and we had planned on playing Pin the tail on the donkey so I whipped up this little blindfold so no one could peek.

I say planned because I thought I could just go out and buy a Pin the tail on the donkey game. No luck. (Kids do still play this....right?) Anyway I had to innovate and come up with something else. I wasn't about to attempt to draw a donkey so I came up with this:

I grabbed a bunch of dry erase markers and drew a cupcake on the front of the refrigerator (having white appliances came in handy for this!) Each child was blindfolded, spun around 3 times and then had to draw a candle on the top of the cupcake. Who needs a donkey anyway?

And being the six year olds that they are, the kids came up with a game of their own........PILLOW FIGHT! (Notice Shane's jeans falling off of his waist.)
A fun time was had by all. That night at bedtime Shane said, "Thank you Mommy, it was the best party ever". My sweet boy.

Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread

2009-01-29T16:39:00.007-05:00

Today I wanted cookies. I was not going out in the below zero temps to buy anything for making those cookies. Lucky for me, one of my favorite cookies requires only 4 ingredients; flour, salt, butter, sugar. I always have those on hand. With Max's help, I made shortbread cookies. Yummy!

Max is always by my side in the kitchen. Here he is in the apron I made him for Christmas. He calls it his , "helper shirt". Notice his, someone is taking my picture so I am going to pretend to smile, smile.

While the dough was chillin' in the fridge I got excited because I realized that I could use the new Valentines mini cookie cutters that I got last week for only .99!

I just love rolling out dough. I am not all that good at it. But I do love to do it! See the little orange specks in the dough? I added some orange zest to the dough. I guess that means technically, this was a 5 ingredient cookie.

Max is impatient, just like his Mommy.

Ready to eat! I love the texture of shortbread. Soft and crisp at the same time. It reminds me of those soft wedding mints. They just sort of melt in your mouth. Adrian doesn't like it (all the more for me!), he says they taste like flour. I say they taste like sweet, buttery, flour.

Let it Snow?

2009-01-23T15:14:00.006-05:00

I am a seasonal decorator. I love decorating for holidays especially. Most months have a season and/or holiday that I go all out for. January is always tricky. I have mentioned that I don't like snow. January is all about snow...and ice. Despite the fact that the last thing I want is more snow, I went ahead and did this:

I found packages of foam balls covered in snowy looking stuff and tossed them into small jars. I printed out the words, tore them out and tossed 'em on top. The balls were 50 cents and the jars were 1.49 each. Cheap and Easy. Which is the only way I would put together a snow themed decoration! I have them on the kitchen windowsill (there was so much light behind them I couldn't get a decent picture so I moved them for the photo) and I have to say they are kinda cute.

Also in my January home is some icy looking button garland strung around my dining room chandelier.

I can't wait for February so I can break out the Valentine's! I recently finished a Valentine's rag garland. It may have to stay up through the rest of January just to help me through the rest of this snowy cold month.

Love it....or not.

2009-01-23T11:03:00.010-05:00

I thought I should post a bit more about myself. So...here are a few of the things I love and a couple of things that I don't.

I can not live without: Twinings English Breakfast tea and Ghirardelli chocolate mocha cocoa. I do not drink coffee. Never have. Never will. Yuck. But...a mom with a two year old who still has yet to consistantly sleeep through the night needs her caffine.

While one hand holds a mug filled with one of the above, the other hand is usually deep into a box of these. So many yummy flavors...Annie's even makes chocolate bunnies! I'll take a bunny over a goldfish any day. Yummy!

My favorite spot in the whole wide world. Even though I really don't spend nearly enough time here. I like to burn the midnight oil getting stuff done. Even when I do go to bed Max is awake at all hours of the night keeping me up anyway. At least I have my tea and cocoa to make up for my lack of sleep.

I love cookbooks. As soon as I get a new one I read it cover to cover like it was a novel. I don't know what it is, but cookbooks make me happy. I have a ton, right now my favorites are these:

I like to collect things. Sea Glass, enamelware, clocks, Pez dispensers (Shane and I collect these together), buttons, and the list goes on. I gathered some of my clocks toghether for a photo. Notice that they all tell a different time. Usually I have them scattered all throughout the house because having them all together telling different times really confuses people. Although I do like seeing them all together again. Perhaps I should buy some batteries.

And a couple of things that I do NOT love.

Laundry. Actually I don't mind doing the laundry (I mean really the machines do all the work, I don't even bother to sort things). It is the folding and putting away that I despise. Luckily for me my husband doesn't mind doing it. Otherwise, it would probably never get done. My laundry room is rarely without a basket of clean laundry waiting patiently for Adrian to come home and fold it and put it away.

Snow. I try not to use the word hate very much. When I think of snow that is the only word that comes to mind. Maine can be a very snowy place. Right now the snow banks are taller then my car! Here is a pic from my back yard. The snow is going to swallow my bird feeder! The feeder is about 7 feet off of the ground. Lately it has been so cold the kids can't even go out and enjoy the snow.

It's not what it used to be...

2009-01-15T07:39:00.008-05:00

...but it will be again. We were given an old photo of the house we are buying, dated 1915. The house was built in 1890 and let's just say things have changed. Those two itty bitty spruce trees in the front yard, well they have had 100 years of growth and are now taller than the house itself and so full that you can not even see the front of the house. That once beautiful front porch is completely hidden from view. The trees will have to come down, which makes me feel kinda sad since they are so old and still healthy. They just cannot stay.
The funny thing is that all this time that we have been thinking about renovating this house, my mind has pictured it very much like it is in the old photo. I wasn't thinking white but seeing it makes me think it is the perfect color (or lack of) for this house. Fortunately, I have some time to think about it since we have the entire interior to renovate before we can even think about dealing with the exterior.

It's fun to play pretend.

2009-01-13T09:50:00.007-05:00

Shane likes to pretend he is a boss in an office (yeah, seriously, all he wanted for Christmas was a date stamper, some paper clips and rubber bands), Max likes to pretend he is a chef whose main ingredient is always play dough. Me? Well I have to play pretend too. I pretend I know how to renovate and decorate a 14 room house. I am starting to think that I will be pretending for a while since our new house has quite a few rooms. All of which need renovating/decorating. I think we are crazy for taking this project on. The craziest part? We have 1 month to do the majority of the renovating! The decorating can happen slowly after we move in but the messy stuff must be done before.
The plan is to be ready to go on day 1 after the closing! So I am picking out cabinetry, fixtures, flooring, appliances, colors, etc. now.

I am up to my ears in all of the decorating books and mags, renovating guides, material brochures, and paint samples that I have sprawled all through the house. I do try to contain most of it in the dining room but I end up with little piles in each room by the end of the day. I went to the library and checked out all their good decorating books. And of course I have been finding lots of great decorating blogs!

I have already scored some great deals on Ebay too! For a girl who has Pottery Barn taste on a WalMart budget Ebay is my new best friend. And though we have been GOOD friends for quite some time, we are spending a whole lot of time together these days. So far I have gotten great deals on a set of wall sconces, a chandelier, set of curtain rods, a kitchen faucet and some cabinet knobs and pulls! My watch list is 3 pages long!
Perhaps I can save enough to work some new furniture into our budget?!

Ribbon Score!

2009-01-08T10:22:00.008-05:00

I get excited about a good deal. I like to think that even if I were to suddenly become wealthy I would still seek a great bargain! Today I got a great deal and I am excited! We have limited shopping options here where I live. There are maybe 8 stores (including 2 grocery stores)total and few more that open just for the summer months. One place that we have is a salvage and liquidation store. You never know what you might find there but it is always fun to go look around. They have a large fabric section and that is where I buy lots of my fabrics. Almost all fabrics are 2.50 a yard!
Today they had ribbon! Tons of ribbon! Most spools where .99 and some were .39! I had gone in to buy just a couple quarter yard pieces of fabric and so I didn't grab a basket on my way in. I got so excited when I seen all of the ribbon, all in great finishes and colors, that I just started filling my arms with spools. I managed to carry 20 spools to the checkout, looking pretty ridiculous I assume because I was getting looks that said, "Just grab a cart lady". Needless to say I didn't get the fabric that had prompted the trip in the first place. I just might have to go back real soon.

3 of my favorites were these:

I love the smokey blue ribbon in the middle so much that I bought 3 spools of it! I am actually thinking that I might want to have paint color matched and paint an entire room in the new house this shade! The dining room perhaps? I could sew the ribbon along the edge of some window panels to match. Now...what to do with the other 17 spools?

The wait is over!

2009-01-06T12:13:00.007-05:00

After 5 long days of waiting we got a call from the realtor. Much to our disbelief it turned out to be Scenario C ! We really didn't expect that and had already started to think of a plan B in case she had decided not to sell at all. It was a low offer and our new mortgage payment will be less than our currant one! LOVE that. However... Isn't there always a however involved in great news....the new house is large and in need of a complete remodel. Our plan is to take a couple of months to remodel the vital things like bathrooms, electrical, etc. before moving and pick away at the rest after. I am going to take tons of before and after photos! I am giddy just thinking about all that remodeling and decorating!
During those 5 long days of waiting I kept myself busy working on a few projects.

I did some sewing for myself which felt strange after all of the Christmas sewing I did. I needed a new scarf for this cold and snowy Maine winter. I liked the first so much I decided to make another. I pieced some fabric together and backed each scarf with warm fleece. I am loving them!

I have been thinking ahead to Valentines decorating too:

A small pillow for the bench in my entry way and some doorknob pillows too!

I packed them away with my other Valentine decorations until Febuary, but I really just wanted to leave them out.

Just waiting....

2008-12-31T15:19:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we made an offer on a house. We haven't heard anything. It is making me craaaazzzzyyy! I am playing the scenarios in my head. Hmmm.... Either:

A. The realtor didn't get ahold of the seller to present the offer (He mentioned that she can be tricky to get ahold of).

B. He did present the offer and she is taking the time to consider her counter offer.

C. He did present the offer and she is taking her time to consider accepting the offer as is.

D. He presented the offer, she was shocked and offended at our low ball offer and will wait for another buyer!

It is probably A. I would love for scenario C to play out, realistically I am hopeful for B. Scenario D better be my imagination getting out of hand the way it does whenever something big is on my mind.

We have a buyer lined up for our current house, Adrian's aunt actually. That makes things easier in that we don't have the stress of selling a house on top of the stress of buying a house.

The house we want is bigger, much bigger, and needs ALOT of work before we can even move in. It is a diamond in the ruff (or is it rough?). We are both excited about what we could do with it.

I hope we hear something soon, but tonight I am going to try and focus on what a wonderful blessed year 2008 has been for us and ring in 2009 with lots of family and food.

Good Intentions

2008-12-28T20:59:00.006-05:00

I think I picked the worst possible time to start a blog of my own. Right at the beginning of the Christmas season on the same year as I pledged to present all of my loved ones with something that was handmade…..by me. I am very proud of myself for sticking with it and getting it done. I managed to send lots of handmade items off in pretty wrapped packages but all of that handmaking, on top of the regular holiday stuff, left very little time for blogging. My intentions were good, they still are, but I’ve learned that I am not a post every day sort of blogger.
I also learned that next year, I must start much earlier in the year if I am going to do so much handmade giving. (Or at least drop the by me part of my pledge and do more Etsy shopping!)

Here is a list of a few things I made:
• Crayon rolls, Marker rolls, Colored Pencil rolls, Crochet Hook rolls (I lost count of how many of these rolled crations I gave!)
• Rice Heat Bags (The feedback on these has been lovely, they are getting lots of use already!)
• Crocheted Throw
• Felt Food
• Baby blanket with matching burp cloths and bib (This project was my favorite. I hated packaging it all up to send it off. I didn’t even think to snap a picture, but I get to look forward to seeing my newest nephew all snuggled up with his puppy blanket!)
• Tote bag
• Aprons for my boys
• Wool Dryer Balls
• Crocheted washcloths
• Fleece Hats
• Christmas Ornaments and Decoration items
• Lots of gifts of the edible sort!

I am so grateful for having stumbled upon the blog world when I did. I found the inspiration to create for the people that I love and the courage to give Handmade items for Christmas! I think the items I gave were meaningful and the recipients were touched that I had made them something.
For the past few days I have said that I think this has just been the best Christmas! Not just the actual day, but the entire month long season. It was so nice, joyful even, each time that I got to sit down and think about each of the people who are so special to me and make something just for them. This year my joy truly came from giving !

Aprons for Shane and Max:

Some Button art and a rice bag:

A yummy felt breakfast:

Christmas Rag Garland Hanging in my laundry room waiting to be gifted: