What I've Been Up To

I've been plugging away at some projects and I'm quite pleased with what I've accomplished in the past few months. 

I started this dresser make over about 4 years ago.  When I got pregnant with Jane, I put it on hold and took far too long to get back to it.  This dresser was one that me and my sisters used when we were little.  My parents gave it to us for Mark to use when he was born.  It has been yellow, white, red and brown before I got super brave and painted it purple!  It is such a relief to have this project finished!  I don't feel a twinge of guilt when I pull in to the garage and see this sitting and waiting for some love!

 

before

 

after

I don't remember if I posted this dresser yet, so I'm doing it now.  This one was in the trash at my neighbors house and I rescued it.  This project was one where the piece 'spoke' to me to change the direction was I was going with it.  I really like how it turned out and I'm glad that I was able to transform it into a new life.  I now have room for most of my fabric.  Can you believe that within these two dressers I am storing about 100 yards of fabric?!  I've got to get busy with my sewing machine before I can buy more fabric! (In my defense, some of this fabric has been passed down to me from my mom.  The fabrics are old- like she made her maternity wardrobe out of some of these fabrics old, so I have come about this fabric honestly!)

before

 

after

The entryway of my house needed to be fixed.  I had grand ideas of decorating the shelves on top of the coat rack, but it was more work and bother than I wanted to give to it.  The shelves started to host odds and ends and it was driving me crazy.  We are "surface abusers" here in this house, so I needed to alter the surfaces that were available.  I sold the shelf and shoe holder and headed to Lowe's to get a few supplies.

before

 I was going to clean out this area and make it look good for the picture, but then I realized that it wouldn't be a real 'before' picture, so I'm giving the before and after with no editing- just keeping it real! 

 

after

 I installed some crown molding and a chair rail that I put some coat hooks on.  The week that I did this was freezing outside, so I turned the living room into my work room because the thought of working in the 10 degree garage wasn't fun. I made the cuts in the garage and did the painting inside.  I am so thankful that I can purchase low odor paint!  I still want to style the shelves on the top, but for now I'm good with what is up there!  I sprained my ankle the evening that I finished this project.  It was a good thing that it was done and that I had everything put away because I wouldn't have been able to work on it for a while! 

 

Our house has a coat closet, but it is in the dining room. The bottom of it is angled because it is above the stairs. Since it wasn't right next to the front or the garage door, it wasn't being used much.  I put the same coat holder system in the laundry room (that is right off of the garage) so we now have plenty of places to put our coats.  I took the coat closet and changed it into a pantry/storage area for kitchen appliances and large dishes.  That coat closet was housing a lot of odds and ends that I had forgotten about!  I put the music books and beads in my bedroom closet and sent a lot of things to the thrift store. 

before

after

 It has been so nice to have a place for the cookie sheets to go where I don't' have to stack them and dig them out when I need them.  My kitchen cupboards feel so spacious now!

 

Last January I bought a new sewing machine.  It has a lot of bells and whistles and I have been kind of intimidated to use it.  My friend and I started to make wall quilts for each month.  I started February's quilt last year, but didn't finish in time for February, so instead of finishing it, I put it away.  This year I decided that I couldn't put the December quilt away (I haven't made the January one yet) until the February one is ready to hang.  This was my first adventure with free-motion quilting on my home machine.  It was a bit of trial and error to get things working right, but I pushed through the problems (taking a 24 hour break because I was getting really close to saying some really bad words) and I figured things out.  I am very pleased with how this quilt turned out.  Hurray for me!  I got it done and I officially put Christmas away last night! 

 

 

 

 I'm in the middle of a few other projects and I'm hoping to have them done in the next few weeks.  It feels so good to have these projects crossed off of my to-do list and it feels even better to be enjoy the finished products! 

 

Another Before and After with Jane

Jane loved playing with this snowman last year. 

It was so easy to get her to hold still for a picture last year.

When I tried to get a picture of her with it this year, she wasn't wanting to pose for me.

Then, I wouldn't let her play with the camera and see her picture.

She settled down, but still wasn't ready to smile.

Oh well, I tried! 

Last Christmas

I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away.  Sorry, I wrote the post title and then the words to the song just flowed out of my fingers!  My boys sing this song all of the time and I think that it is hilarious!  Anyhow, back to our scheduled program:

Last year at this time Jane was just learning how to roll.  She rolled over to the Christmas tree and took a few ornaments off (and put them in her mouth). She loved to get under the tree and look at the lights (and play with the presents).

This year, Jane is running around and loves to look at the Christmas tree.  She has been taking ornaments off of the tree and depositing them all around the house.  I found some in my closet, in the laundry room and in the kitchen cupboard.  She has been putting things on the tree too!  The bottom half of our tree looks very sparse compared to the top, but it is all good!  I am absolutely amazed at how much Jane has changed in the last year.  Our family is so blessed to have her with us! 

If you look closely, you can see that Jane is hanging her necklace on the tree!

A Thanksgiving Makeover

I couldn't bear the thought of taking the Halloween window display down, but I didn't want to keep up a Halloween decoration.  After a few moments of thought, I discovered a way to give Snoopy and Woodstock a makeover.  It worked out quite well, I think.  (However Snoopy might need to work off a few pounds after eating so much!) 

So here we go with our makeover.  Here is the before:

And here is the after:

To answer a few questions about painting on the windows.  I just used acrylic craft paint.  It has to be taken off using a razor blade, so it is a bit of work.  The cold weather makes the job a bit more challenging, but it is an easy, yet messy,  job.  Madeleine drew up the art on paper and we hung it on the inside of the window and she followed the outlines with paint on the window.  

My Pantry

I have been meaning to organize my pantry for months.  Many, many months (like 24+ months).  I had been stuffing and stacking things in the pantry for far too long and it was driving me crazy!  Every once in a while I'd hear something fall in the kitchen and when I opened the pantry door more things would fall out.  That is insane and I'm embarrassed that I let it get to this point. 

I had intentions of cleaning it out several times, but I wanted to add some shelves and I knew that it would be a bigger project than just cleaning it out.  When we moved in I was in love with this pantry because we had a sorry excuse for a pantry in our old rental.  The pantry was about 18 inches wide and had a heat vent that ran below it so it got really warm. 

Two weeks ago I finally had had it and I gave myself an ambitious goal to pull everything out, built shelves, paint and organize in two days.  Why two days?  Because I think that is the longest time I could go without having a chocolate peanut butter shake at the time and I told myself that I couldn't have another one until I organized the pantry.

I swear that it looked worse in person.  You can't see the many things stuffed in the back.

Here it is completely empty and newly painted.  The shelves are 17 inches apart and 14 inches deep

I added two half-shelves in the back. I love my new nail gun! 

BEFORE

AFTER!  Here we are nice and organized! 

Originally I had all white buckets, but I found these green buckets and I like how they add some color to the area.  If I was really daring, I would have used a colorful paint, but I used the free paint that was in the garage.  The paint smell is finally going away- blech!  Next time I'll buy some low-VOC paint.  I used it with my bathroom project and I couldn't smell the paint.  I think that I need to convert all of my painting projects to the new low-VOC paints. 

We have been able to keep the pantry looking this clean for two weeks now!  Hooray for an organized pantry!  That was one well deserved chocolate peanut butter shake!

Before and Afters

This week has been rather productive.  I finished the baby quilt and two other projects that have been hanging over my head. 

The first is the upstairs bathroom.  I love the shower curtain that is in there, but it didn't have anything pink on it.  (by the way, at my 38 week dr appointment, he did an ultra sound to make sure the baby's head is down and not breach, and he confirmed that the baby is a girl- no external plumbing!  I am soooooo relieved!)  Anyhow, back to the shower curtain.  I have looked around for a new curtain, but couldn't find anything that I loved.  I have an attachment to this shower curtain because I bought it while we were living in Georgia and it brings back a lot of memories.  (the boys when they were little, etc.)  Weird, I know, but I hated to part with it just because it wasn't pink. 

I found a towel that had all of the same colors as the curtain plus pink, so I decided that I could find a way to add pink to the curtain.  I wasn't 100% convinced that it was what I was going to do, but then my friend Jenni gave Jane a hooded towel that was made out of the same towel that I had just purchased, so I took it as a sign and figured out how to make it work. 

Bathrooms are  not the easiest to take pictures of because they are so small.  I can't find my 'before' picture, but all of the pink on the curtain is added.  I used ribbon and some left over material from the quilt to add to the bottom.  Does it bother anyone else that shower curtains hang 8 inches off of the ground?  I like having the curtain hiding the tub.  It feels better to me. 

The last picture is an 'after' of a project I finished probably a year ago.  See the nifty frame around the mirror?  I made it out of molding and glued it to the mirror.  It is just a basic builders mirror.  The project cost me about $10.  It was so easy to make!   My brother-in-law installed the new lights, we use to have the builder basic lights.  Daniel put in a new faucet. 

I have a few more things that I want to do in there, but for right now, this is how it is going to stay!  I didn't take a picture of them, but I found the cutest little shower hooks, they are frogs! 

The second project I finished this week is in the kitchen.  We had an over the range microwave, but it broke and we had to get a new one.  The problem we ran into is that the depth of the new  microwave ovens are too deep for our cabinets.  We have a corner cabinet that  won't open with the depth of the new microwaves.  We bought a microwave that sits on the counter top about 6 months ago and I have been staring at this horrible spot trying to figure out how to fix it.

We really want to put up a tile back splash, but we want to put in new counter tops first.  New counter tops are not on the priority  list right now, so that puts us in limbo.  After browsing the internet for inexpensive ideas for a temporary back splash, I came across one that would work for us.  (I can't remember the blog, but I have to give this woman all of the credit for this idea, I completely took her idea and made it work in my kitchen). 

So, here is the before:

And here is the after:

Another angle before:

And after:

This solution totaled $30 and took me about 2 hours to complete.  I used place mats from IKEA and mounting tape.  Yes, I have seams that I don't love, but overall I am very pleased with this transformation.  I'd rather look at the seams than look at the ugly spot where the old microwave use to be! 

The only problem I have with finishing this project is that now I need to make new curtains- they don't match the back splash!  That will have to wait until after the baby is born.  I can't start a new project right now because I still have other projects I want to finish before she gets here!

Before and After

Here is the before and after of my garage entryway. The last two homes we lived in had finished garages. I really like how peaceful it can make a chaotic garage. It isn't anything grand, but it definitely makes it feel more welcoming. I had to draw the line somewhere to stop painting. One of these days I just might continue on where I stopped.
Here is the before:

and after: