summer birthdays & projects

Coolness--we found a 'toy' typewriter in a shop downtown--the kids are loving composing notes and stories and musings.  they are...interesting!

On Lily's birthday, which had identical weather to the day she was born--sunny, warm but not hot, low humidity--perfect--we walked over to our old house, where she was born.  I lingered and remembered the getting down on all fours once I was gripped by the realization that this was IT, the calmness Rob exhibited while arranging care for Eric, who was 2, and getting us all home, how my friend Kristin came and got on the phone with my midwife, while she and Grace got the birth supplies, how everything unfolded just as it should and the midwife arrived approx. 45 min. after Lily.  Now here she is, as beautiful and strong willed as ever, Lily Jane.

I had some presents in my cache that I could have given Lily, but Grace and Mamie had gone downtown earlier in the day and bought her a present--a poofy pink and purple wand--perfect for Lils.  She was delighted.  So, that was her present.  It was just right. 

Here we are browsing baby pics.

And the projects--Rob made me this table out of scrap wood years ago--till now it's been unfinished.  I had a gallon of paint I was itching to use, so I cleaned it up (it was the laundry table in the basement) and painted it, I put it on the porch and discovered it's a perfect table for the stools out there.

And I painted this free buffet/cabinet I got from a friend--I added knobs and handles that I already had, along with some little wood flower details I glued on. 

Here's my vintage cooler!

And the patio is done!  And it looks amazing.  I love it.  Thanks, Rob!

re-arranging

The other night it was just me and the little 2, and I got the urge to move our computer desk from the dining room into Lily's room, which is right off the dining room, and have a little craft/computer room.

I envisioned putting it here where the dresser is, and moving the dresser up to Grace's room.  Grace's room has 2 twins, one of which will be Lily's eventually.  Right now, though, Lily is sleeping in Eric's bottom bunk. 

I also thought I'd move this craft cabinet into Lil's room and make a space for doing art projects that don't involve the dining room table...

So the fun began.  I found that I couldn't fit the desk through the doorway, no matter how I turned it.  I ended up removing the door, which was tremendously HEAVY, being solid wood and 7 feet tall.

I got the desk into 'the spot.'  It looked awful there.  Funny how a good idea in my head can look soooo bad in real life.  I thought 'I have done all.that.work for nothing.'  But then, how would I have known had I not tried?  I did get a lot of dusting done.  Organizing, too, so that was very good.

And Lil and Calvin had the best time playing in/around the desk, when I wasn't moving it around.

I got the craft cabinet moved in.  It looks pretty good there, I think.

THEN, I decided to move Calvin's crib out from our room into the space where I had wanted to put the desk.  It fits!   And here's a quandary...I think I'll leave the lilac and white stripe on the walls, but I want to paint over the pink.  All I can come up with is some variation of green, but then I have a green bedroom, green kitchen, green garage, green bedroom (well, half green) for Grace, and I want to paint the dining room some shade of green potentially.  I think that's Too Much Green.  Maybe I'll do this room green and the dining room something else.  Something funky.  Hmmm.  Any thoughts are welcome!

I really like this area here.

And here's our coffee table turned art table (which WILL be painted I'm sure).  It wasn't as long as I hoped (craigslist buy) but I liked the bottom shelf and the drawer.

So now this is Calvin's room/craft room.  We'll see how this works out!

new desk setup & other nesting projects

Fall seems to make me want to nest.  I've been doing all sorts of projects, a big one being our screen porch (pics to come).  I found this AWESOME vintage desk on craigslist (which happens to match a recently painted chair!) and drove down south last night to pick it up.  The ensuing mess of transferring everything over was a PITA, but now everything is nice and organized.

before--a disorganized heap of a mess!

and after

sewing table before--I was so over the pink!

sewing table after.  LOVE it.  I added a drawer pull too, and made a sewing machine cover since it's always out.  I painted the wall shelf thing (show above) to match the lilac wall--a good place to keep scissors and pins out of reach of little hands.

This bus tent has seen some serious action.  It was a christmas present for Grace in 1999!  We videotaped her running from one end to the other popping her head out and saying "hi mom! hi dad!"  Hard to believe Calvin is the 4th child of ours to play in it.

Paper Journals & Books & thrifted furniture part 2

blank books ready for little storytellers and artists

I've been interested in sewing paper for awhile and finally sewed some journals last month. After some difficulty with needle breakage, I went with some heavy duty denim needles and that's worked well. I also tried doing pockets in my first journals, and I like that, but it's more difficult to get my machine to handle it, plus more time consuming. These are just one seam down the middle, each journal/book only takes about a minute total. woo hoo!

Supplies ready for book making.
I made a stack of paper journals to give away to my friends. So awesome!

I made a picnic blanket/lap quilt. Oh my goodness, it was so easy! I have a stash of fat quarters and chose 6 of them, then because I wanted a rectangle, I cut 2 of them in half to sew on the ends of the square (which I made with 4 fat quarters). Then I used other larger fabric scraps for the backing, cut about an inch smaller than the quilt front, and folded the edges of the quilt front over and sewed, so the pattern of the front dresses up the plain backing. I really love this blanket.


Time for a part 2 to my part 1 here.

This bookshelf is perfect for this corner here! Found it at Goodwill for $10 and painted it the same color as the walls.

This table was about $5 I think.

This is our craft cabinet, which I found at a yard sale for $30. It needed new shelves inside, which Rob did for me, and then I repainted it white.

And this interesting chair was $1. It was brown and had no seat. Rob cut a new seat from plywood and I just stapled fabric on and attached it and painted it white (well, I painted it first).