A Labor of Love

About the begining of November the kids started putting their Christmas wish lists together. Lydia decided she wanted a Camera. then The Toys R us Toy catalog came out and she saw a Barbie Doll House. The poor girl really wanted a camera but now she also really wanted a doll house for her Barbies. The next question was could Santa bring both? Um.... no that is out of Santas budget.

Mariah and Clarissa then hatched a plan. Lets make one for her. I stupidly agreed. I am now glad but I spent all of December on this doll house. I built, sewed and painted. They did about 10 % and I did 90%. But in the end it is fabulous and she now has a wood dollhouse that will last a long time.... maybe for grandchildre....?

Clarissa really wanted her to have a gift under the tree so she wrapped up a note. When she unwrapped it we directed her to the doll house hidden in the other room.

She has spent the whole day taking pictures with her camera and playing with her dolll house. Gi Joe even made a visit.

Festival of Trees

I recently volunteered to be on a Festival of Trees Committee. Each volunteer is asked to make 8 items for the gift shop. These are two of my items. What do you think?

Fabric Love!

Isn't this fabric beautiful.. I saw it and knew I had to have it! Then the question became what do I do with it?

The newest Quiltmaker magazine had this quilt on the cover. I was instantly intrigued with the secondary pattern and the way it seems to curve. I got out my pencil and my paper and started to play with the triangles.

I'm pretty sure I know what pattern I'm going to do. Stay tuned for the finished product!

the great spring break makeover is done....

Almost!

I have a few pillows to sew and some decoration to do. But generally it's done and the rest will be finished over the next few weeks.

The biggest project was my new TV unit.

Did I mention that I built it!!! All by myself! I got the plans from the blog Knockoffwood. I suggest you go over and have a look at her designs. Then I saw a post on the blog shanty2chic where she outlined everything that she did to build the same unit. Hers has more parts. Reading Shanty2chic blog gave me great confidence. So on day one I headed over to home depot with a diagram of how I wanted my first sheet of MDF cut. I used all MDF except for the trim pieces. The HD worker Stefan did a great job cutting my pieces he was very meticulous! Which I appreciated because it's really important for the boards to be cut square! If you go to the Layton Home Depot ask for Stefan.

Then the work began. I used Decking screws, and lots of gorilla glue! to hold everything together.

I have one tip that could make things easier and that would be to borrow a couple of drills so that you don't have to keep changing out your bits. You will need a countersink, screwdriver and drill bit that is slightly smaller than your screws. Three drills would be perfect.

Countersinking your screws are very important for a nice finished look. There is a how to tutorial on knockoffwood. I suggest you watch it before you try putting your pieces together.

After all the pieces were assembled I puttied all of the screw holes with wood filler. I am a great believer in caulk. Caulk gives a nice finished look to everything. I caulked all of the seams, sanded and got ready to paint.

I found just the finish I wanted at TheFrugaldesigner blog. She had a tutorial on doing a rubbed white finish with a turquoise underlayment. I liked the playfull but not over done finish and went to work. I used a tinted primer, sanded, two coats of turquois color and then 3 coats of white.

The last step was to gently sand away some of the white so the blue shows through. You sand areas that would naturally show wear. It's subtle But I am happy with it!



Did I mention I did it MYSELF!!!!

the basment before

after

The color on the walls is certainly celery. I took a piece of stampin ups certainly celery paper and had it color matched. It's perfect. Light , bright and perfect for a kid friendly space that I'm hoping the basement becomes.

A smaller but fun project was putting a seat in a nook that we have. No plans I just made it as I went along. First I made a 2x4 box for the frame. Set it into the nook area and attached it to the wall. Then I took 3/4 MDF and covered the front and top. Caulked, filled holes, sanded and painted!!

More pictures comming soon.

the great spring break basement redo

is in full swing!!

I love Pottery Barn Kids. I drool over every cataloge they send me. Unfortunatly I can't afford their stuff. So whem I found the blog - knock off wood- I was in heaven. Ana has put up simplified plans for all kinds of look a like stuff. If you have the guys at Home Depot or Lowes do the wood cutting all you need is a drill ( two would be easier) and a hammer! I have been making the Cameron wall system!

Here is a sneak peak.

Valentine Treats

I made this cute pillow


And this cute little wall hanging for Valentines Day

The flowers are all

needle turned applique!

I must be in a flower phase,

my next project is also involving flowers.

Stay tuned!

let your self go

I love to sit and read the Sunday Paper. It's even better if I get to do it with my pj's, fuzzy slippers and a warm cup of herbal orange tea. I always start with the funnies and then systematically go through each section. Last week in the opinion section one columnist talked about her retirement after 47 years as a journalist. She mentioned "letting herself Go" but not in the terms we normally think of when we say " wow she really let herself go" meaning whats up with the unkempt hair, the expanding waist line and the pajama pants at the grocery store. She meant letting go and imagining the possibilities that are open to her. I began to think about what it means to let your self go. What would I do, or accomplish if I was willing to let myself go? What fears would I let go of? What possibilities might I begin to see? How might I view life differently? Would I go back to school? Would I quilt more? Would I start a business? Open my own bookstore? What possibilities might you discover if YOU "let yourself go"?