A new shower curtain!

I know it's the crappiest picture, but it shows my new shower curtain!

I have been wanting to make one forever and finally got around to it.  This is our tiny bathroom, the only bathroom in our house :)  That is definitely one thing we will want in our next home, more than one bathroom, even my girls have requested that of our next house :)  What can I say?  We have a cozy home :)

Today

We are FINALLY going to plant our garden today, I will head to the garden store and buy fertilizer and plants so everything is ready when Casey gets home from work. Hopefully I can still get what I need.

I will be working on my mystery quilt for my Patchwork Posse group.

And I will be admiring these flowers that sit along the north side of our home, so pretty!

By the way, that is our neighbors driveway and it is made of tiny rocks and it hurts really bad to walk on it with bare feet, the rocks stick to your feet, ouch!

And I wish these were mine, they are our neighbors.

A new yummy garland

The other day I received a package in the mail from my friend Dana.

It had all these yummy scraps of fabric from Moda's Swell line, yummy!


It totally made my day, it was unexpected and such a sweet thing to do.
I had been thinking and thinking what I could make with them. Then I knew, this cute scalloped garland from Sweet Jessie. And the colors are perfect for my kid's playroom.
I love how it turned out! Also, did you notice the Darth Vador Potato head in the window? That's what I get for marrying a nerd. It goes so well with all the girly things :)


And look at this awesome chalkboard I found at one of my favorite second hand shops, the second I saw it I knew it was perfect for the playroom!

Thanks again Dana for all the yummy scraps!

Mini living room makeover

I had to find a place for my vintage loveseat I just purchased.

Doesn't it look right at home? I am loving it!

And, it didn't look quite right mixed with our other couch.

So, Casey and the girls talked me into moving the vintage sectional inside yesterday.

Even though it is not reupholstered yet. After getting it inside, I have decided that we are going to only get the cushions redone instead of the whole sectional. For a couple reasons: The gold velvet upholstery on the back of it really still looks okay, and come on, it's gold velvet! Plus, it will cost ALOT less money to just do new cushions. But, until we have some extra cash to redo them, this is how it will have to stay. It's going to be even cooler when it's done though. First, we are getting entirely new cushions because these ones are lumpy and falling apart. Then, they will each be covered in a different vintage upholstery fabric, I can't wait! And I think I am going to paint my coffee table again, maybe an aqua color. That table was made by my great grandpa out of scraps of wood, after we got it, I painted it black and added the glass top to it. Oh, and we need new rugs, the one in the picture is still okay, but we have another one on the other side of the room that is in a sad state.



I had to make new pillows for our new seating area. Luckily I already had these pillows around the house and I just had to make covers. I think this one is my favorite with a vintage doily, handkerchief, and trims.

These ones are with mostly vintage fabric and a doily.

And this one is made from vintage upholstery samples, vintage fabrics, and a bit of fabric from IKEA.

The change makes the room seem brighter and larger too, our couch and chairs before were dark green and very big. I am excited about my "new" living room, it feels much more like me.

Almost done!

Can you tell I am super excited about changing the color of this room? There are no more circles on the walls and tonight we are painting the walls a color called ionic sky!
I'm realizing that painting isn't all that bad, the last time I painted was when we bought our house, and we painted THE ENTIRE INSIDE! That wasn't fun. So one room is actually do-able and even a little enjoyable :) I do have to say that my painting skills are better than my husbands painting skills, sorry honey :) The circles I painted over took three coats, and Casey's took four :)

I'll take pictures when we are done!

Plans for the playroom

When we bought our home about 4 years ago (I think it's been four years) I painted these circles all over the playroom. They didn't really turn out how I liked and I have finally decided to do something about it, they have been bugging me, I think they just add to the mess.

First we have to go through all this stuff, which by the way most of it was given to our children by family, we would never buy our children this much stuff, it's just not needed. Plus we don't have room for it.

So, after we go through the stuff, I am moving it out of the way so that I can paint! I'm getting rid of the circles and painting it a very pale robyn's eggish blue. Really what got me thinking about seriously painting this room was this poster, well a smaller version anyways, that I purchased at Art Market a few weeks ago. I thought it was so cute!
I'm off to start cleaning!

You can still enter my 300th post giveaway here!

The lame roof will soon be gone!

It's finally decided to stop raining and it's supposed to be sunny for a little while, so we can now fix our roof! The hubby started ripping the 3 layers of shingles off. Apparently whoever built this thing originally didn't have plywood, underneath the 3 layers is small and large pieces of wood randomly pieced together, and some spots don't have any wood. INTERESTING.
So I guess we get to buy plywood too. Our home is about 90 years old and it has a few "newer" but still old additions onto it and we are learning that some of the things were just half hazardly built. Fun, fun :)

Today I am grateful for:
* a husband that can fix our roof
* A Lowe's credit card
* The sun!

Finished Kitchen

I had one more project to finish my small kitchen makeover. The art I had above my fridge needed changed. So I took the existing piece and mod podged fabric over it, I am loving the way it turned out. I love my sweet mushroom canisters too, they hold all my cupcake picks. And the spines of the Martha Stewart Everyday Food are so colorful.

Where I have been

I have spent lots of time in my laundry room the past few days. Not only have I done like 10 loads of laundry, but the room itself had become a mess. Part of the reason it had become such a mess is that there are some Rubbermaid drawers under the counter that house some of my kids coloring books and such, and it usually grows to the top of the whole counter. Now it is beautiful! I don't know about you, but after Christmas every year, I always want to clean every corner of my home. If you click on the picture above, you will see my favorite sign that says Laundry Room drop your pants here! (my husband and I have been known to do that from time to time) Ahem, did I just type that? Anyways...
Until we bought our house, I had always thought for some reason that it was lame to decorate the laundry room, then I started collecting things to hang on the walls, probably cause this room isn't very exciting to begin with and I needed something to look at while I do the laundry.

One of my favorite pictures in here is a print from The Black Apple of Hedgehogs doing laundry, it's in the middle in the green frame. The black flowery thing on the right on the wall is pipe cleaners, I saw this at Anthropologie awhile back and had to try it somewhere in my house, I think it would be cool if it covered the whole wall, the only problem is that stupid thing won't stay up on the wall, I periodically have to put it back up, the wall is bumpy cement, I know it's lovely:)

I will probably be sharing more pictures as I clean my house up, I don't know about before pictures as some of them would be scary, my house has been neglected for months while I had been preparing for all my holiday shows and Christmas.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

I finally found some time to pull the Christmas decorations out.

I bought this little gourd reindeer last year at Art Market and he needed a tree, so I made one out of a styrofoam base and bits of torn fabric strips.

I also made my girl's stockings last year, they chose all the fabric out themselves.

My Mom and Dad brought this home for me when they went on a cruise to Mexico, I think one of my favorite parts of this nativity is the birds around Mary's head.

This is my favorite Christmas decoration of all, I think it is so beautiful. I have had this Nativity for a few years now.

It gets to sit nestled in our bookshelf, every time I walk past it I look at it and it reminds me of the true spirit that Christmas should bring.

We also picked our tree out last night, I will share pictures when it is done!

Happy Halloween!

My kids decided all on their own that they would take care of some of the leaves today. How could I deny them their right to do what they please? They even found ways of making it easier to get the leaves into the can. Oh! and do you see our new fence! I am very happy that we have a finished fence! Well almost finished, it just needs sealed now, hopefully we can get it done before the weather turns too nasty.

And here they are dumping the leaves in the street (the city comes around and sucks them up with a leaf sucking truck) Sorry I don't know what else to call it:)

While my kids were raking leaves, I was playing around on the internet and found these cute Halloween paper dolls at Sarah Jane Studios. You can download them and print them up, so cute!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

yummy vintage

Is anyone else obsessed like I am about these vintage plastic wall hangings? When I see them at the thrift store, I just have to buy them, no matter how many I keep accumulating. This is just a small portion of my collection. I have a ton of butterflies, all different shapes and sizes. My plan is when we either move to a bigger house or we add on to our home now and my children can each have their own rooms, I want to make a wall with these all over it, maybe all painted the same color.

For now I guess I have to be satisfied with the butterflies above my kitchen sink. Yes, the colors in my kitchen are green, pink, brown and orange. Here's what my kitchen looks like if you were wondering.

So, This consumed my day

My house has been making me very unhappy, but I haven't been in the mental state to do anything about it. I have to walk through my kids toy room to do the laundry and every time it drives me nuts because I am stepping on all their CRAP. Even if they have this whole room picked up, it still drives me nuts because it's not put away neatly. So, yesterday I was doing laundry and something in me just snapped and I decided it was finally time for me to do something drastic. So, I told the kids I was cleaning the play room and they were not to help me. (This made it easier for me to get rid of stuff without my oldest getting upset at me) So, I spent oh, about 6 hours or so going through everything in their playroom, organizing it, throwing stuff out, and putting things aside to donate. I got rid of about 6 big shopping bags full of stuff, plus a large pile of bigger toys. It has filled the back of my van up. It really was not fun, but I am soooo glad I did it, I feel much better now, and now it will be easier for my kids to keep their playroom clean and they know how I expect it to look.

Here's the before pictures, I know, they are a bit scary.(I was terrified!)Here's the after pictures, (Big sigh of relief)

Now I must tell you what has been on my mind about all my childrens stuff. I know they have a ton of it and it drives me nuts, even after getting rid of a ton, they still have too much. I have this philosophy I guess you could call it. We used to take our kids to the dollar store every once in a while as part of our reward system. I have decided that the dollar store is evil. It is just another way of polluting. First, all the stuff comes from like China or someplace where whoever is making it isn't getting payed very much, and the process of making all this stuff pollutes the earth. Then our kids would pick something, play with it for like 3 days and then it just ends up in the trash polluting again! No more dollar store for us! Not as many other toys either!

I have also decided to rethink presents for birthdays and Christmas. I am going to start asking family that in lou of toys that they give money instead that my children will put in their savings accounts for college. I'm thinking Christmas this year might be like one nice gift, and then I think it would be cool to have all handmade gifts. So, that's my thoughts for the day, I know it was quite lengthy. I feel much better now, it's amazing to me what cleaning out a space can do.

My Children were very thankful for the job I did, and they have agreed to keep it clean, my youngest kept saying I love you so much Mom, it looks perfect! That made me feel good too!

Now if only I could get the rest of my house clean!

How does my Garden grow?

WILDY! I think my garden is just crazy, everything gets so big. This is my second year with a garden, and I don't really know what I am doing. We planted a little late this year, so we haven't picked much yet, just a bit here and there. Look at my Basil plant in the bottom right hand corner, it's huge, and I need to make stuff with it, maybe this week.

Did I mention organic nummyness?

My first full bowl of delish things, I even had a bit more that I shared with the neighbors, we are having beans with dinner tomorrow, yum!

I also picked a handful of raspberries which immediately went into my mouth, I couldn't help myself.

My home: Before and After

I wanted to share with you before and after pictures of my home. I love my home, it was built in 1917, and it has so much character. Plus when we bought it, it needed some love, so we were able to fix the whole thing up, so it is exactly how I wanted it to be. Although I will say that we have lived in it for almost 3 years now, and we still have lots of projects to do. It is amazing how much we have done though considering the amount there was to do.

So this is my kitchen and yes my favorite color is green. Do you see all the lovely jars filled with yummy things to cook with that are just above my cupboards? One day before I started sewing, I use to make delicous things with them. Now my life is devoted to sewing. I need to cook yummy things again. Maybe someday...........

A corner of my home

I love mirrors, I don't really know why, but I love them. I saw a picture once in a magazine, can't remember which magazine, of this wall covered in mirrors. So this is my rendition. It started out on one wall and has slowly grown to two walls. I'm going to have to buy a bigger house if I want anymore mirrors. I also think it is fun because some of the mirrors have stories. The yellow one was found thrift shopping for $5. There are some of the small ones that are thrifted for like $1.

In the top picture, the one on the left in the middle I bought on my honeymoon in tiuana. Some of them have been gifts from friends others I have just bought. I even have one from my favorite store Anthropologie that if you can believe it or not, I got for $15. One day I will type up all the stories and attach them to the mirrors, so that I will always remember where they came from.