they know us well

I go in spurts of decorating our house.  A little at a time right?  Well, my parents are redoing their kitchen and my Mom has been bouncing some ideas off me, so naturally I started looking at kitchen things too.  Then, when Brent and I were standing in my parent's work-in-progress kitchen Saturday night, my Dad apologized to Brent for the ideas their project has put in my head.  See, the women in my family can get a little crazy when it comes to new projects.  And poor Dad and Brent know it is inevitable that if one of us starts something, another will follow.  They know us too well.  

And that is exactly what happened!  My Aunt remodeled her kitchen, which lead to my Mom remodeling hers, which has led to me surging ahead with new energy to decorate my house.  (Needless to say, there will be plenty of material for new blog posts!)  I was so energized that early Sunday morning, when I couldn't sleep, I came downstairs at 4:30 am and moved around/reorganized my piano room, placed holds on decorating books from the library, went to church, went to the vintage store worked on our quilt and made dinner.  Then at 8 pm, when I crashed on the couch, Brent kindly woke me up and told me to go to bed.  Even as Brent's to-do list gets longer and longer, he is still patient and supportive of my crazy ideas, as I'm sure my dad is of my mom. 

 

My vintage store finds:



coffee table that i am using as a bench



dark yellow wood frames with nature prints

blue tin tray to catch my threads and scraps



shirt to girls tunic refashion

Since we've had these little teases of warmer weather, I've been bursting with clothing ideas.  Yesterday I took this old shirt of mine....

 and refashioned it into this tunic for Ella! 

Extremely brief instructions:  Using one of her shirts as a pattern, I took in the neck, sleeves and body.  Then I added the ribbon to form a casing for elastic and changed the buttons (told ya' they would be brief...)    

Guess who likes the lemon filling on her girl scout cookies! 

denim skirt and new fabric

A few weeks ago I ordered this skirt from Old Navy. 

I really liked it online, but when I tried it on I did not like the pleats in the back.  Pleats are cute but not when they make your backside look puffy!  Then on Sunday, I remembered my mom had given me some lightweight denim, (chambray I think).  So I made my own, pleat-less, elastic waistband version. 

  

I'm pretty happy with the finished product.  It is a little stiff, but will probably get softer with more wash and wear.  I know it would be better to have pictures of me in it, but pale legs and an almost 3 year old photographer just don't cut it.

Also this weekend, I visited a new fabric shop in Cincinnati called Sewn Studio.  There was so much beautiful fabric it was hard to limit myself to two! 

Wouldn't the red cherry print look cute paired with blue for a skirt or sundress for Ella?

cargo pants to tote

 I've been eyeing all the military/utility canvas jackets popping up in stores, but can't bring myself to buy another coat.  So instead, I was inspired to make a tote out of old cargos from one of my brothers.

it has cool sideways pockets...

and polka dot lining (which is not so military, but fun anyway)!

I might have to say goodbye to the diaper bag!

new spring clips

So I've had my etsy shop for almost four months now, and I feel like I am still trying to find my niche.  There are a LOT of hair clips/headbands out there!  So I am trying to combine two of my favorite things right now - felt and embroidery.  Here are my favorites so far...

a tulip trio!

bicycle clip!

and because I wish I could wear the little girl clips, I made something more mommy friendly. 

birthday presents

Last week I made some heating pads and gave them away as birthday presents to two of my sisters.  

 They have a removable bag of rice inside, which can be heated in the microwave.  (Brent and Ella took turns trying them out - sorry Mary, yours was heating Ella's toes!) 

I thought they could also double as a cold compress...just stick in a bag of peas! 

striped pillows

Pillows are definitely the easiest and fastest way to give a room a new look.  And I did just that a few weeks ago when I found some large, striped fabric at Ikea.  

 

I love the chevron pillow (from this tutorial at MADE), but ran out of fabric, time and patience, so I pieced the back.   

(The yellow pillows are actually on our purple couch - yep! we have purple couches and I love them.)

Now, if I can just keep our dog off the new pillows...