Monday, April 9, 2012

It's Curtains for Us!

My MIL has graciously given me her old sewing machine so that I can learn to sew.  So far, I've made a few burp cloths, a pillow, and some liners for the cloth diapers.  My most recent accomplishment though is curtains.  Yea!  My MIL helped me to make curtains for my Craft Room and the Nursery.

Here is a picture of us cutting off the selvedge on the Craft Room fabric.

This is the south facing window.  At the bottom of the picture, you will notice my computer desk.  During the day, the sun really blazes through this window and renders it impossible to use my computer.  Because of this, I bought room darkening fabric for the curtain liner.

This is the other window in the room.

Here is a close-up of the fabric.  As you can see, it is a small, blue floral pattern with a white background.  I bought this fabric at Hobby Lobby.

The Nursery curtains were a heavier fabric, so I bought muslin for the liner.  I thought this pattern would look great in the Nursery's songbird themed room.  I was fortunate to find this fabric on clearance at JoAnn Fabrics.  At the time of the picture, we hadn't bought the curtain hold-backs.  Each window now has one hold-back so that the curtain panel sweeps across the window.

This is the view out of the Nursery's East facing window.  So pretty.

This is the view out of the Nursery's South facing window in the morning.  The bright yellow of the forsythia bush really stands out against muted tones of the frost and fog covered backyard.

This was a side project that Jim and I have been working on.  We wanted to put Avonlea's name above her crib, and this is what we came up with.   I know.  I know.  That's so cookie-cutter.  How unlike me. ^_^*  We painted it using the wall and ceiling colors.  We bought the letters at Hobby Lobby and the board at Lowe's.  Jim routered the edges to give it a nice detail.
I think she likes it.  :) 

Close-up

We have just been doing small projects around the house.  Jim has finished the trimwork around the hall window, and has done a few things out in the yard.  I tackled the thorns growing in the grapevine one weekend.  I only have less than a quarter left to do.  Hopefully we'll be able to salvage the grapevine.  When we bought this place, the grapes were taken over by thorn bushes and the supports for the vines had collapsed.  Jim is slowly making progress on the Nursery and Guest Room closets.  He is still in the sanding and painting phase of the individual parts, so no actual closet construction yet.  I'm looking forward to organizing Avonlea's closet.  I'm getting tired of having one small dresser for her current size and all the rest stored in boxes.  One day soon!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Snow!

On one of the few snowy days we had in February, Jim went outside and snapped these pictures.

From our mailbox

From our back deck

The Snowball Bush

The Pine Tree in the back that Jim wants to one day run electricity out to so we can decorate it for Christmas.

From the end of the driveway

Carpeting!

The nursery, stairs, and upstairs hallway were carpeted just before Christmas.  The Guest Room's carpet wasn't ready until just before the new year.
But, before the carpeting could be installed on the stairs, the old carpeting had to be torn out...

Looking Down

Looking Up
Mmmm....mint green and salmon pink

 Ahhh!  Much better!

What a difference!

It is really coming along nicely.

Looking towards Guest Room

Standing in front of Guest Room doorway

It doesn't look like the same upstairs anymore!

Close-up of the hall and stairway carpeting

Hall Closet
 We used some leftover Pergo flooring from my Craft Room

With the trim added

Nursery
As soon as the carpet installers left, I went upstairs and rolled on the nursery floor.  LOL!



Guest Room



It's About Time for an Update!

I'm finally able to update!  Yea!  I apologize for taking so long.  Jim has been working on a post about his newel posts, but he is taking forever with it, so I'm going to go ahead and post some pictures of the installation.  

The Shoe Rail

1/2 Newel Post Up with 1 Side of Balustrade

Coming Along

We don't have blueprints for the house; so instead, we placed a blue note and a 2011 nickel in the newel post.

Almost Finished!

Looking Good!

Happy Birthday to me!

The upstairs hallway is probably starting to look more like it used to prior to the 1960's.
Jim will hopefully finish his post about the installation one of these days.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Tutu Pretty

In the spirit of Christmas, I volunteered to help a family in need by making a Christmas present for the 2 girls.  If you read our other blog, Bloggle Baby, you know that I recently learned how to make a no-sew tutu.  I thought it would be fun to make one for each of the girls.  I found out their favorite colors and approximate waist sizes and got to work.  I sewed on flowers for an extra touch of whimsy.  ^_^  I also made a matching hair barrette with the leftover ribbon and tulle.  I like how they turned out, but I especially hope the girls that I made them for like them even more.  :)

Purple Tutu and Butterfly Hair Clip


Pink Tutu and Butterfly Hair Clip


What do you think?  Will the girls like them?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Where We Stand

I've been playing around with our camera's panoramic function.  I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet, but I wanted to post some pics of our progress.  These were the best of the bunch.  ^_^*

Nursery



Guest Room



Hallway


When we have finished these rooms, I will break out our tripod and take better panoramic pics to show you.

Last night, I was finally able to decorate the Christmas tree while Jim was outside staining.

I still need to add the tree skirt.  We also need to find a decent tree topper.  We looked for one last year, but didn't find one that we liked.  We'd like to find a star that lights up instead of an angel with a tree stuck up its butt.  LOL!  We put the tree in our dining room this year since the library is still full of stuff for our upstairs projects.

Stocking Feeder for the Birds

If we get around to putting lights up outside, I'll take a picture of them.  I'd like to at least get a picture of our Christmas tree from outside.