Fabric Choices

I've had a couple people wondering what our decision was for the living room curtains (click here to see the choices). Well, we are still working on that. Of the 5 fabrics I shared, we chose the center one (the blue floral on a white background), but it is proving more expensive than some curtains at JCPenney that I also like. So we are still working on the living room curtains. There is no real rush as currently the front yard is covered in pine trees as you can see here, but once these trees are removed, I'll need to make a decision. I promise to keep you posted!

Messes must be created before order can ensue.

So what have I been soo busy doing that I have dropped out of the blogging sphere these past few days. Well, I've been transporting myself back to childhood when anything you did required a mess to be created. Okay, so I'm not playing with play dough or making mud pies. I've been unpacking. I can hear you loud and clear--still unpacking after having moved over 2 months ago. Well, as our house still needs renovating, alot of our things could not be unpacked until key rooms were completed. Now that some of them are finished, I've been able to unpack more items. And as anyone who has ever moved knows, unpacking equals a big mess as items need to be removed and spread out in order to see what you have and figure out where you want it to go.

So here were the three major messes I made:

1. In the family room (not completed yet at all), I removed book after book from their boxed up home and threw (not literally, just figuratively) them on to the built in wall shelves. And no, I will not share pictures of their dishevelled state.

2. In the master bedroom, Josh was kind enough to lend me a corner for my scrapbooking affairs as the basement proved too damp. So I've been scattering paper and embellishments all over trying to create order in a very small space.

3. In the garage, I finally unpacked all my husband's boxes of garage-ish items, such as tools, gardening supplies, car supplies, etc. This was motivated by a comment at Madi's birthday party by her 3 year old godbrother, David. He informed my mother-in-law that our cars were not parked in the garage because it was "too junky". Yes, a classic case of motivation coming from the most unlikely source. And yes, I will share pictures of my mostly organized garage, but not today. You'll have to check back later.

Can you Tell me how to Get?

How to get to Sesame Street? So I thought I would share the birthday gift we got for our daughter. Well, that we made for our daughter. She has a love for Sesame Street, so using printable magnetic paper, I made a few of her favorite characters into refrigerator magnets. I printed them, covered them in contact paper, then cut them out. I even made one of Madi, so that she can have herself interact with the Sesame Street characters.

Izzy Invades Again

As some of my devoted readers who have been with me from the beginning remember, our cat, Izzy, has decided to single pawingly destroy our home. In her previous post, The Izzy Assault, you learned how she is trying to destroy our brand new carpet. Well, now she is out to destroy our trim. In our previous house, the doorway trim became her scratching posts, and we are rallying all our backup to try to prevent a similar disaster from befalling this new home.



As you climb our staircase to the upstairs hallway, all looks serene and orderly.


Gazing down the hallway, a slight breeze causes the hair on your arms to rise, and slowly you begin to realize that something looks out of place. "What are all of those blue streaks?" you gasp.



In our efforts to save the doorway trim, we have sacrificed style and taste, and have covered all of the doorways with contact paper (sticky side out).



It seems to be working, and the slight tacky (no pun intended) look is worth it to avoid this:

So for now, the battle wages on with an end anything but imminent. And here's the cat oblivious to her negative propaganda being dashed about the blogging world.

Bargain

Look what I found at Joann Fabric for $5!! It will look great with my cast iron bedroom furniture, but the only problem is I have no idea what to put in it. Any ideas?

The Never Ending Curtain Saga

So do you remember my initial curtain quest? Well, I'm still searching. I have tried sheers from Target, sheets from Ralph Lauren, and now I ventured to Joann Fabric's custom order fabric. My plan is to make window mistreatments similar to these from The Nesting Place blog with some patterned fabric--still to be determined. It might be one of the swatches below. I then would like to hang some type of tie up shade, maybe like these. So here is my currently boring tan and slate gray/blue living room. Any suggestions on the fabric or how to add some color with the blinds? Until I choose curtains, I didn't want to put up any pictures or add throw pillows.

The H.R. Flu

So I think Josh and I have officially got the home repair flu. These past two weeks (post Madi's birthday party) we have both been unmotivated and lethargic. Josh has maintained a work ethic in organizing our desk and home related papers, but I've--well--I've really not done much of anything. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still feeding my family and keeping the house some what organized, but as to any projects, well, shopping sounds more fun. And going to the pool sounds more fun. And laying in bed reading sounds more fun. Maybe it's that end of summer rush to do all those relaxing things you planned, but never got around to due to this project or that task. So maybe after today's trip to the pool, I'll be more on track and able to share some home project fun. Or maybe after this weekend, I'll get around to breaking out the paint or finishing organizing the garage or moving all the objects I stacked at the bottom of the basement stairs instead of walking 10 more feet and putting it away. Maybe. . . but now. . . I'm going upstairs to lay beside the cat on my canopy bed. . . with a book. . . to read. . .

Window Mistreatment Party

So I'm joining in the window mistreatment get-together over at The Nesting Place.



Here is my most recent window mistreatment for my kitchen that was so newly painted. This is a Gabriel Brother's find, which after I got my scissors after it, looks perfect. It's nicely held up there with a tension rod-- no power tools for me!




And here's the leftover fabric just waiting to be used for some pillows or chair coverings. I'll get to that later. . . much later.

And here's my bedroom window, it is completely mistreated by not evening having a curtain to call it's own.


Maybe that's because the bed frame stole them all!

I won the fabric lottery!

So today was the first time since moving that Madilyn and I ventured out into the big unknown to do a little yard sale shopping. I happened upon an ad for a 10+ family community yard sale, and decided to check it out hoping that the sales would be within walking distance of each other, so we wouldn't have to play the hop potato in-and-out of the car game that all one-year olds heartily enjoy. We arrived finding 5 sales grouped together, and sprung from the car eagerly anticipating the bargains laid before us. We left encumbered by a rooster clock calling out for a new color and new picture,


about 9 pieces of clothing for me (5 of which did not fit--but the 50 cents was worth it for the other four), a Elmospalooza VHS tape (should we really be buying VHS's? aren't they out of date?) that Madi couldn't pass up,

and the jackpot of all jackpots a large box of upholstery fabric for $1, yes $1 for the whole box.





Now you may ask, what could I possibly do with all that fabric. Well here are some of the items awaiting a little pick me up.

First Birthday Cake

Here is Madilyn's 1st birthday cake! I must say all those Wilton cake decorating courses really paid off. I worked at Michael's Craft Store as a scrapbook instructor (until they stopped offering classes). I was able to get to know the cake decorating instructor very well. So I took her courses, and voila!

It is a torted white cake with pink and green butter cream icing and royal icing daisies. A little lopsided, and a little crumb filled, but hey, that proves it's made with love!

The Big Unveiling

Here are those long awaited pictures of the dining room: (well sort of)



And here is the much anticipated first birthday cake!


Oh, what's that you say? It's covered in a trash bag (yes, it is soo large that it will not fit in my cake carrier). Well, then you'll just have to wait until after Saturday to see it. Besides, currently it is just a hastily iced cake, no fun decorations adorning it, and no tier to crown it. (That's right you heard me--tier!) Now I need to go clean up that kitchen.

A Work in Progress

Sorry, I've been missing in action! We've been in crazy mode trying to get some things done before Madi's birthday. We are planning a first birthday party, and it just so happened when we added up the close-by relatives that we ended up with 32 people invited--yikes! So we've been working on getting things livable for the party--i.e. dining room finished and kitchen. I've also been busy clearing out the family room for seating purposes, planning the menu, grocery shopping, cake making, etc. It's been a little hectic.

And now to have our AC die on us is just a little crazy. We've already been dealing with appliances that might I say are still NOT fixed!! And our fridge seems to have been sabotaged by previous owners--missing the freezer insert that allows ice to be made--so I've resorted to ice cube trays for the party. We finally have the dryer working without a way to vent outside--we put a nylon over the output to keep the lint from going everywhere. But I guess it has been good for both of us because we just have to look around us at our amazon of a yard or at the huge chunk that the dishwasher installer took out of our wall, and realize that things just will not be perfect at the moment. And then we have to turn and take a look at ourselves and realize that we need to work at perfecting ourselves, more than repairing and redoing our home, because lately we've been a little more crabby and a little high strung. I guess it just goes to show you that just like our home is a work in progress for us, so we are a work in progress for God.

R.I.P.

It is with great chagrin that we must announce the death of our air conditioning unit. For the past month it has been struggling along after seeing the doctor, umm, repair man and getting treated with freon. It leaves behind a mortified hydrokinetic heat system, a timid hot water heater, a home vacuum system, and many appliance friends. Those who trusted in the unit will remain at home, however, a little sweatier and a bit lethargic until the cooler weather comes.

Services will be announced once a new unit is installed probably sometime next spring.

Donations can be sent to the Box Fan Charity.