Little Houses Made Of Ticky Tacky

Is this a stoop?  Or just a front door / entry?  I don't know.  What I do know is that this sad sad entry stoop was plain and uninspired.  I live in a cookie cutter neighborhood.  Every time I drive down the street to my house I hear that song.  It goes:  "Little houses, on a hillside, little houses made of ticky tacky, little houses on a hillside, little houses in a row....." It was sung by Malvina Reynolds and is called "Little Houses".  It was the theme song to the show "Weeds".  Anyways, this space needed some personality.  I added a flower pot that I've had loitering in the backyard.  But, most importantly I added this awesome wreath!

Made with a dollar store foam 8" wreath and paper pinwheels. I just used straight pins and some hot glue to attach the pinwheels.  It only took 2 hours or so. The paper pinwheels took a while to cut and fold.  Wish it was bigger, but hey... it was what I had on hand.

I'm thinking lots more wreaths for different seasons is in order.  Don't you just love color in a boring space?  I know I do.  I'm happy every time I walk up those cookie cutter stairs now.

A Corner Of My Own

This is mine. All mine. My very own. And l love it. All 16 square feet of it. This is the first space that's all mine since we moved back in September. I didn't know how much I missed my own space until I got this desk. I haven't had much of a chance to actually sit and do something here yet. But I did decorate it and I found some things in storage to work on soon. Awwww yes!

 On one wall I have my finished Firefly cross stitch piece.  I love it.  And, the frame I found in storage works perfectly.  Below that is the box that my dad made for me.  It holds most of my sewing goodies.  On the other wall is the girls handprints from many years ago, a pin board/embroidery hoop, and my large quilting hoop.  This thing is so pretty.  I've been wanting to decorate with this since we moved it.  I finally figured out what to do with it.  I decided that it would be a work in progress hoop.  I found some lovely natural linen.  I will add embroidery, cross stitch, and found thingies onto it as time goes by.  I used some transfers from the book Little Stitching.  I love her designs. I have since finished two embroideries.  It's charming and it looks nice on the wall.

I see many many nights and days ahead of fun projects in this area.

My Favorite Room In The House

 

The boys room.  It's my current favorite room in the house.  In our first home my daughters got a fresh nursery with pale blue walls, and fluffy clouds on the ceiling.  When we moved to our next house, they each got their own "big girl" rooms.  When Cael came I was really uninspired with his room.  He was taking over what was Ray's room so it had pale yellow walls and pistachio green trim.  I knew we would be moving and didn't want to completely repaint it.  I posted about that nursery here.  It was cute... but not awesome.  For this house I knew exactly what I wanted the nursery to be.  Grey with blue, orange, and green accents. With a trains, planes, and automobile theme.  I wanted it to be fun for Cael but still cutesy for Liam.  All that's left to do in this room is make the curtain for the closet.  That will be done while my folks are here this next week.  I love love love this room.  So perfect for my sweet boys.

 

It's a small space, but it works.  On the wall next to the door is the changing table and Liam's crib.  He is still sleeping in our room, but he plays in his crib sometimes.  He will transition into here in the next month or so. It was a rainy day so the pics are a bit dull.  But the walls are a nice medium grey.  Lovely....  The art behind the changing table was made my by mom and I.  We found the wooden shaped at JoAnnes and painted them.  Then just hot glued them to some canvases that we also painted.

 Liam's crib is so filled with love.  The crochet blanket is one my grandmother made for our babies.  The cute fishie quilt was made for Liam by my mom. The black and white print was made by Ray for Liam's X-Mas gift and finally the doll was made by me for Cael... it's Liam's now.

 Cael's side of the room boasts the awesome rocking chair a shelf, wall decals and his crib.  Under his crib is the rug I crocheted up last year.  It was a labor of love that thing.  It weighs a ton, but boy is it cute!  On Cael's crib there is the robots quilt that I made him last year.

 Another shot of Cael's bed, but this one shows the cute wall decals.

The closet and then the small wall by the door.  Both the shelf and frames I found at thrift stores. I painted the shelf.  I printed off photos of each of the boys at 1week old.  I can't believe how different they were/are!

So Much Baby Knitting!!!

Whew.... It's been a crazy house around here since my last post.  I finally have a moment to sit down and blog!  A quick catch up:  The house is mostly packed, has been on the market and is now pending.  We've gone on a road trip to Spokane and picked out our favorite parts of town.  We are now looking for rentals and should be moved within the next 4 weeks.  The kids have been home and busy helping with all fun things that happen during the summer.  Hanging with friends, packing, swimming, going to the beach to see grandparents etc.  During my "down time" I've been knitting like crazy.  It's portable, and I can sit and knit and then stop easily without leaving any mess.  Plus... most of my sewing stuff and all of my spinning stuff has been packed. 

  So below is what's finished or almost finished.  (I did make some matching booties for the handspun longies, but I haven't taken a pic of those yet.) Right now I have a 1/2 circle blanket and a newborn umbilical hat on the needles.  Pics of those later.  I've posted the names of the pattern plus the link to my Ravelry page in case you want more info on yarns and size.

 

01 - Gift Wrap Romper

02 - Jungle Gym Overalls

03 - Handspun Butt Knits Longies

04 - Evie Pants

05 - Milo Vest

06 - Newborn Pebble

07 - Newborn Puerperium Cardigan

08 - Shadow Stripes Hat

 

 09 - Newborn Vertebrea

10 - Stay On Baby Booties

11 - Gift Wrap Bonnet

12 - Stay On Baby Booties Worsted - sorry no rav page for these.

This last week I made some time to start sewing my newborn/small diaper stash.  There are 6 more pockets on my table now waiting for velcro.  I'll do a full post on these later.

First Load Of Boxes Packed!

Were moving this summer. Across the state to the Spokane area. We really love the Idaho panhandle too. We'll be going to check out rentals within the next month. Anyways... My first major hurdle in packing is done and I'm feeling really good! Our laundry room has always been considered “The Pit Of Dispair” It's always been stuffed with large clear bins filled with extra fabrics and art supplies. Over the years it's also become the place to put all that stuff that we still wanted to keep but didn't know where to put. I wish I had taken a before photo. I started out slowly bringing out random things and re-boxing anything that we were keeping. It ended up that almost ½ of the stuff ended up in the goodwill, garage sale, and garbage piles. I really couldn't believe the amount of stuff that had piled up.

I'm following this woman’s packing method and absolutely loving it! If your moving and some of your stuff will end up in storage this is certainly the way to go. I won't have any trouble finding things when we unpack our home or when we search the storage area for something.

Here is a picture of the “Pit Of Dispair” area in the laundry room now. All nicely cleaned out with neatly labeled boxes with plenty of room for more boxes as I work on the other rooms.  Origionally this area was filled almost 3/4 of the way up that window and the shelves were stuffed.

And, here is our garage sale pile. It goes all the way back to the slider. And, with the garbage and the goodwill the pile was as tall as the table. I'm not sure where to put our garage sale stuff. Hubby is working on his car in the garage and there just isn't room... so this stuff may stay inside for quite a few weeks.

On another note, I'm feeling better today. I found some free maternity clothes on Craigslist from the nicest women ever. They are in the wash and I'm excited to try everything on. The pants will all be to big, but we all know I can alter them on the sewing machine!

Also, just check out my freezer. All those meals and readied ingredients just make me smile. Tonight, my hubby wasn't hungry due to a late lunch so it was “Every Man For Himself” night. Ali ate a bean burrito and Ray made Mac & Cheese for her and Cael. It was her first time making it alone and she smiled the whole time. She was so proud to sit down and eat it with her little brother!

Kids & Earning Money

We've never given our kids allowances.  Now that they are getting older though they are starting to need more spending cash for various things.  Things that neither Hubby or I deam our responsibility to pay for.  So, in an effort to teach our children about money (and hopefully give them a better chance of being responsible as adults) we are doing something a little different.  The kids will earn money on chores that they do.  I made a list of all kinds of chores that they could do around the house. Each one was then given an amount and how often they can do that chore.  For example... emptying the dishwasher.  That's something that happens everyday.  Where as vaccuming the stairs happens once a week.  I printed out this chart and put it into a page protector and put it on the fridge.  One for each girl.  It's nice because the page protector works great with dry erase markers.  The kids will be paid at the end of each week.  At which time they will put a minimun of 10% in their savings account.  Their savings will be in the cloth envelopes below.  They will keep track of all money coming and going from these envelopes.  Our goal is for the savings accounts not to be touched unless they are saving for something that they really really want.  Any other money that they get from birthdays, holidays, etc will be handled the same way. 

We have always been very careful with what we allow them to spend their money on.  We have never let them buy something random at will.  They need to think about it for a few days and if they are still really wanting it then we will usually let them get it.  With this new plan however, spending money will be allowed to be spent on whatever they want.  This will be hard for us because neither hubby or like to see money spent on junky toys that will be broken and forgotten in a day.  But, we feel that they need to learn more about responsible spending.  So, an example of free spending... Lets say that Ali spends her $5.00 on candy in the student store and then decides later that she would have rather spent that money on earrings.  She has just learned that perhaps not all her money should have been spent on candy.  Her earrings would have lasted her a very long time were as the candy was gone quickly.  Maybe next time she'll really think about what she wants before spending it all.   Maybe only $1.50 on candy and the rest saved for those earrings.

We are hoping this will work out.  So far the kids have been more excited to do chores!

A Nursery For Cael

We finally finished the nursery today. I would like to say that it's been a long time in the making, but that wouldn't be entirely true. To be completely honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do in this room until this last Tuesday. This room has been a play room / guest room the past few years. It's yellow with green molding around the top. I knew I wasn't going to change the color and that I needed to keep the spare bed in there, but other than that, I had no idea what to do with the furniture or the décor. I've been completely uninspired.
A month or so ago when my mom was up she and told me that it was driving her nuts that the room had nothing baby in it yet. So, we set up the crib, brought up the rocking chair, and moved around the furniture. All the baby furniture is on the far side of the room and the queen bed was pushed against the wall by the door. It's tight, but it all fits. She also put up a few baby toys that I had. But, the crib was filled with baby stuff and we didn't have anything else ready yet. So, the room stayed that way until she came up for my baby shower this last weekend.
With my mom coming up for the baby shower this last weekend, I knew we would be working on the nursery. But, I was still uninspired and uncertain. On Monday, with the shower over, she told me “Tomorrow we are working in the nursery.” So, feeling a little trapped against a wall, I hopped on the internet and found a picture of a nursery that had a simple graphic tree and bird painted on the wall. I loved, loved, loved it! With that as inspiration I started thinking about the rest of the room. Then I found this website with an adorable bird mobile. My mom loved both the tree and the bird mobile and that night we drew the tree and bird on the wall.

Tuesday morning we started painting the tree with Alaina to help. It was the fastest mural we have ever done. Total it took about 5 hours. (that's including the 1.5 hrs. that it took us to draw it on the wall first) We then emptied everything out of the crib and actually put everything in it's place! It's simple, clean, and very baby boy. I can't wait to bring Cael home to it.
The bird mobile: So cute! I had all the birds sewn up yesterday. Today I went out and cut some branches from our contorted filbert, cleaned them, and then attached the birds. Then my hubby helped me string the whole thing together and hang it. He loves it, the kids love it, and I love it. It's a great final piece in the nursery.
As a side note I just want to say that this room may never have gotten done to completion without my mom. With the girls I knew exactly what I wanted in their rooms and I had them ready months before they came. For some reason with this little man, I just didn't know what to do. Having her push me to do something with the room was very needed. I miss her living so close. She really inspires me when I need it.

A Witch, A Storybook Princess, & Some Weasleys.....

The Witch and The Princess:
Some Weasleys:
And, of course the pumpkins... left out of the title, but just as important.

Artisan Breads = Yummy

I saw this post on House on Hill Road and I got the itching to make some yummy bread. I haven't made bread without the bread maker in soooo long. It was kinda peaceful to kneed up the dough this afternoon while both girls were at school. I found a few free recipes online to try out. One of them was just a basic crusty white bread recipe and the other was a artichoke bread recipe. The white crusty bread turned out great and tastes very yummy. But, the hit of the night was definitely the artichoke bread. I'll try and post the link to the recipe later if I can find it again. Inside the bread there is artichoke hearts cut in to small pieces, pine nuts, garlic, pepper, and hard goats cheese cut into large chunks. I'm quite proud of these breads. I don't think I've ever gotten such good results before.
(the picture was taken after we ate half the loaf. note to self: restrain family from munching bread until you've taken a picture)

Happy Happy Turkey Day

Were keeping things simple this year. 6 people total for dinner with a few more coming for dessert. I set the table very simply with my everyday dinner plates and some special linens. And, of course no Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without my grandmothers turkey salt and pepper shakers. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween

Halloween started out in a flurry of activity. I prepared the house and most of the food for our annual Halloween party in the morning before I took my youngest to school for her “Halloween Ho-Down” party. I spent the afternoon at the elementary school going between the two girls classrooms helping out and enjoying the festivities. When we got home I finished getting ready for the party and began cooking waaaay to much food. Family started showing up and we ate, and ate, and ate until it was time go trick-or-treating.

The girls costumes were sooo cute. My youngest was Super Girl. I found her costume at Wal-Mart. My oldest wanted to be a pirate, but I couldn't find one in the stores that fit into the budget and looked nice. So, I set about making her costume. I made her shirt and vest from Simplicity 3644. I didn't like the vest pattern, so I used the jacket and altered it into a vest. I basically just left off the sleeves and slimmed down the shoulders. For fabric I used some of my grandmothers vintage navy polyester. For the shirt I used a white sheet that I no longer needed. I added embroidery around the collar for a custom look. I didn't have any buttons that matched, plus I needed over a dozen. I choose to pick out some brown plastic buttons from my stash that were all close to the same size. Then I used a product called “Rub & Buff” to make them all an antique bronze color. The pattern made up fast and easy. My only gripe about this pattern was the back slit in the vest. It looked horrible after I finished it so, I ended up taking it out and making it my way. I put in a real pleated vent. It looked much better. She wore brown sweats, brown boots, and pirate hat. I found a great wide black belt at the thrift store and put a pouch for all her pirate booty on the belt. And, no pirate could be complete without a pistol. (she didn't take this to school)

We had so much fun trick-or-treating with friends. The girls made it through almost the whole neighborhood before they were done. When we go back the “trading” began. They dumped out their haul and all four kids started shouting and passing candy back and forth.

One holiday down and three more to go. I've already started working on Christmas gifts. 90% of our gifts this year will be handmade. Lots of posts to come on those projects.

Fall Is Here

Fall seamed to have come quickly this year. The leaves turned color and began to fall in just a matter of days. With fall comes the usually hustle and bustle of the upcoming holiday season. Our first order of business was the local pumpkin patch. We had a great day. The weather was clear but slightly crisp. My girlfriend came with her hubby and kids. So, together the kids frolicked through the pumpkin fields in a search for that perfect pumpkin. Some of the other activities that we did there was a hay maze and petting farm. My oldest had a blast taking pictures of the animals with my camera.

Tonight we'll be carving our pumpkins and preparing for our annual Halloween party. I'll post pictures of that this weekend.

Finished Bathroom

Two weekends ago my hubby and I decided to finally finish the downstairs bathroom. Last spring when we painted the rest of the downstairs, we started the bathroom but never finished.

The before shots were taken in progress of painting the ceiling. But, it gives a good idea of what it looked liked before. My mother called this bathroom "the cave". The ceiling and walls were all painted the same deep red / burgundy color as the rest of the front room and hallway. But, with the ceiling painted too, it was very dark. The room also had one of those standard "bathroom" light fixtures that so many houses have. You know... the metal rectangle with the all the vanity bulbs in a row. Yuck!!! I very much dislike those things. And, when we removed it to install the new fixture there was a painted box around the space where the fixture was removed. The previous owners must have painted this bathroom at least 3 times before. So, my hubby had to sand down that area and re-texture. What a mess! And, I won't even get started on my massive disdain for that mirror. We have replaced that hideous mirror with a beautiful new one.

We painted the room with the same khaki color as the rest of the hallway and front room and painted the ceiling white. Then, we repainted the trim and cabinet our creamy white trim color. There were parts of the trim that the previous owners never even painted.

There are now just three more things to finish in here. #1 is to fix the light fixture. With the mirror centered over the faucet and cabinet, the light is waaaay off center. #2 is to buy and install a new towel rack for above the toilet. And, I'm putting a single hanging space right next to the sink so my girls have easy access to a towel. #3 is to accessorize. I'll hang black towels in here and maybe an accessory or two. Luckily one of my favorite pictures that I have in here pulls in the pastel pink that is our counter top.

I'm sooo glad now that it's finished. The bathroom looks so clean, bright, and updated. It's actually really inspiring me to go upstairs and finish painting the trim. I'm done babbling now... But, I'll leave with just one thought... Why would any housing building put a pastel pink counter top into a brand new home?

Craft Room Update!

After the whole “Painting Fiasco” back in May, we finally settled on a color called “Newport Blue”. It's really pretty. The color goes from our office / art room through to the kitchen. I'm using apple green and bits of plum as my accent colors. Curtains still need to be made and I'll post pics of the rest of my art space after I finish that.

I did finish one wall of my art room. Yep. A completely finished wall!!! Yesterday my parents brought over a drafting table for me. I love this table. It has a bit of family history and to make a long story short... It's now mine! It'll make the best cutting table. Originally this wall had the doll cabinet and a storage unit that had some of my fabric in it. I broke the unit into two pieces and put it down under the table on either side. I'm hoping to find a better place for my fabrics sometime because I really like the look of “nothing” under the table. But, for now it works great.

I fussed for hours over the placement of the photos and fabric swatch thingies. I'm happy with it now. I'm really proud of the cd storage shelf that I painted. I painted it the same white as everything else in the room and then painted on a floral design that I kinda stole from a fabric that I absolutely love. The best part is that my hubby likes it!! He's usually not a floral fan. Next to the table is a window where I have Mason Jars with buttons divided by color. Under that is a two drawer dresser unit. It to has fabric and some patterns in it.

I've been so motivated the past few weeks to really clear out and finish my house. It's definitely a one step forward and one step back process. My goal for this week is to finish the curtains in the art room and kitchen and go through two more boxes that we found in the garage with “stuff” in them.