Filling an awkward space

We have a wonderful little nook in our dinning room where there’s lots of light and a nice view.

We didn’t want to fill that space with furniture because it would block the windows, but it looked funny with nothing there.

This is where a handy Father comes in, well…handy!  Dad measured the area and built a nice long bench for us to use as a window seat.

If you don’t have a handy Father, I have seen people turn old coffee tables into upholstered benches.

Since I do have a handy, and generous Father mine got delivered a few days ago.

Here is what it looked like after I attached, with spray adhesive, some left-over 5 inch foam from making  the Shasta cushions.

Next I went to price out upholstery fabric. I couldn’t commit to a pattern I loved so I decided to use a plain off white fabric.  It was going to be around $70.00.  But then I have a DING DONG go off in my head and I remembered seeing people use drop cloths for all kinds of upholstering and drapery projects.  Right next to the fabric store is a hardware store so I decided to check it out.  I got two LARGE drop cloths for $6.00 a piece…yep that was the way to go!

  While the drop cloths were washing and drying I draped the bench in fluffy poly batting, pinned the corners, trimmed to about a 1/2 inch,  and sewed them up.

Next I turned the batting right side out and using a staple gun, stapled the batting all around the base.

Then I flipped the bench over and painted the legs, and added felt pads to the bottom (which I should have done first, but forgot about them since I was too excited to start sewing LOL.)

I ironed the drop clothes and started by centering the top and repeating the pin/sew step just like the batting.

After I made and added the piping, I sewed a box pleat skirt and sewed that on.

We think it fits so nicely here in the window alcove!

The best part is we can drag it around wherever we need extra seating!

Later gators!

Melissa

Kitchen Progress

The kitchen painting is underway!

I have the first wall, the door, and trim on that side done, and one bank of cupboards.

It’s not much, but  I will work on it today and see where I can get.

I opted for a controversial color in here, controversial because The BG doesn’t like it, but all the girls in the family did.  And girls are always right!  Right?

It’s called Cool Pool and is a lot more greeny-tealy blue than the pictures show. I couldn’t wait to start sprucing up that side until all the painting was done, so I made some curtains out of an antique table cloth and decorated the table top.

I popped out Saturday to visit a couple of my favorite antique stores and found some retro goodies to go with my oven. LOL

A wonderful Lustroware bread box, a crispy cotton vintage table runner, and a little Pyrex bowl are  the perfect compliment to my retro dinette set.

Do you ever go to TJ Maxx?  I love stopping in to see what they have every now and then.  I found a GREAT deal on two large, white platters to hang on the wall.

Now to just get the rest of the kitchen painted.

Have a great day!

Melissa

Grungy Farm Egg Tutorial

It is so spring like in Michigan that I can’t help but set my sights on spring time decorating.

I saw these grungy looking eggs at an antique store awhile back and I decided I would give a go at making them myself.

Wanna join me?

You’ll need some Mod podge, cinnamon, paint brush,  various brown craft paints,  a blue paint  of your choice, and some paper mache’ eggs.

First give your eggs a light coating of blue paint.

When they dry mix in some brown and dry brush that on.

Keep adding and dabbing different brown mixtures until you are satisfied with the look.

Paint a circle of mod podge then dip in cinnamon.

When dry you can give it a light spray of matte sealer just on the cinnamon circle  if you would like.

Before adding the eggs to your basket dry brush a little cinnamon all over the rest of the egg to give it a more matte, rusty, dusty look.

Pair your grungy farm eggs with a spring-y sign and wait for the spring to actually arrive!! =)

Lator Gators,

Melissa

pincushions and peg boards

In between a plethora of Doctor and Dentist appointments last week I did a little sewin’ and craftin’.

 The BG helped with this one.

We took a plain old board,  some paint, and some square head nails and made some little peg shelves last week.

 Now I have a place to hang new cross stitch projects!

One I stuck on a wall:

(that’s a Stacy Nash cross stitch pattern I whipped up)

And the other I stuck on a ladder to have extra places to hang do-dads:

Rusted up some cans for a few new fall arrangements:

Made a little burlap sack to hold some Sweet Annie:

On sewing day with Mom we made pincushions galore!  We had so much fun.

awww isn’t it a wee little cute thing?

This one was out of a Whimsicals book.  We used wool roving to form the ball.

Then there is this jumbo sized one for my sewing room:

We definitely have plans to make some more pincushions….we’re addicted!

I’ll take off on a parting shot of the sweet little deer I found while antiquing this weekend.

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Later Gators!

Melissa

where every single thing has a place…

BEFORE

I was massively inspired to do a sewing room re-do when I recently went into my stash closet and found this:

AVALANCHE!!!!!!

Can you believe I would even share that mess?

Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful to have a room at all the sew in, even if it is tiny AND messy.

But.

I was sick of trying to find fabric in that tiny closet.

I was sick of my cutting table set up too, with the whole skirt thing that I had to lift up to rummage through boxes that held fabric scraps, paper scraps, crafty scraps, you name it…it was shoved under there.

Very unorganized.

I wanted everything out in the open, labeled, and ready to use.

ENTER SOMEONE”S BRILLIANT IDEA!!

I was poking around on Pinterest when I saw this woman’s genius idea. (click here for source)

That is just what I needed!!!! I made The BG take me to Target as soon as he got home from work so that I could shamelessly copy her idea.  I found some white bookshelves that I thought just might work.

We loaded up 4 and I put them together that night.  That was the easy part.

It took me 3 Days to tame all that jumbled up fabric you saw in the closet above.

A trip to Meijer’s netted a really great deal on some scrap book boxes, and a 2 trips to the dollar store ( I underestimated the amount of scrap fabric I had) supplied me with lots of cheap storage bins.

One last trip to Salvation Army for a great deal on a this  hutch and I was ready to ORGANIZE!

AFTER

disclaimer: pay no attention to  the hideous yellow paint that lives in every room of my home, or the trim that needs to be painted, or the wood floors that need refinishing, etc

The craft desk/netbook spot:

New cutting table (which is just 4 book cases placed in a square shape) and fabric storage. Fabric RIGHT where I can see it and grab it when a sewing frenzy begins!!

Trims and paper and embellishments in nicely labeled boxes!!

New hutch to store cute things I find in my travels (I’m sure it will fill up in no time hehehe)

Sewing area.

And an organized closet with color labeled scrap bins!!!

Glad to be done and glad to have a better more organized space!

Later Gators,

melissa

winter dabbling #2

Today’s little project that I am sharing is a primitive whisk broom that was born from a random trip to Michael’s craft store.

I found these in the 90% off Christmas stuff.  The thing that drew me to them was the AWESOME cinnamon smell, just like the pine cones they have out at Christmas. YUMMMM They were  cheap, 49 cents a piece, so  I took five of them thinking I would just chop them off and put them in my crocks to enjoy the nice smell.

Which I did with two of them.

I used 2 more to make a little whisk broom. Won’t you join me? (giggle)

First you need to cut them down a tad, I cut them off just below the first wicker tie with garden snips.

Don’t be like me and do this part at the kitchen table…..take yours outside and cut it so that you don’t make a big fat mess like I did.

Then I squeezed them together at the top end and wrapped floral wire very tightly around several times.  Once it was fairly secure with floral wire, I wrapped jute around and around making a loop on the back for hanging, then used a dab of hot glue to secure the end.

(  HA! look at my grody glue gun!)

Now we are going to make a primitive label for our whisk.

You can type up something or you can use the one I made here:

Cut out a piece of wax paper the size of a piece of pinter paper ( 8 1/2  x  11) and iron it to the back of some muslin, making sure the waxy side is toward the fabric.  I used some nice dyed muslin.

Then using a mat/ruler/rotary cutter , trim the muslin to the same size as the freezer paper= 8 1/2 x 11

As this is the same size as a sheet of paper it should run through your printer fine, it worked for me and this was my first time trying it. So I have no great advice for you if it doesn’t work. LOL

Print off your label.

Peal off the freezer paper and trim around your label. (You can save the freezer paper to use again!)

I cut a little slit with the scissors and ripped my fabric so that I would have nice frayed edges, but you can trim yours with a rotary cutter if you prefer.

I then did the same ripping method to cut a piece of homespun big enough to wrap around my broom with about a 1 inch overlap in the back.

Attach your label in the middle of the homespun with BIG primitive stitches.  I used a nice old looking wool floss.

Wrap it around your broom and make BIG primitive  x stitches.

Starting in the back, make a running stitch all along the top at around 1/4 inch down.  When you get back to where you started you can pull both ends tight and tie off. This gives you the tapered edge you need.

Man it smells so good!

Later gators!

melissa

 

winter dabbling #1

I promise this is still a quilting blog…but I’m sidetracked AND the quilts I am working on are for new patterns sooooooo….

I thought I would share some little projects I have been dabbling with.

Today’s project is a School girl slate.

I found a really adorable antique school slate while antiquing with my Mom and month or so ago.  I snapped that baby right up, but when I went to pay for it, the lady at the counter didn’t think that the correct price tag was connected to it.  I’m not sure if she thought I switched it or what…needless to say she wouldn’t let me buy it.  I left my name and number so that when the booth owner okay-ed the purchase they could call me.  It never happened (bummer.)

So when I was in Hobby Lobby and saw some little slates for  $2 and $3,  I said to myself, “self you should pick these up!”

So I brought them home and stained/bri waxed em.

Then I had the Brooding Genius drill some holes for me in the tops (I could have done this part, but why should I when I have a perfectly good husband to do it for me, hahaha.)  One slate got a jute strap, the other got a leather strap.

Then I made a little bag to hold the chalk for my imaginary school girl.

Here is my first attempt at a cross stitch chart  and my very professional (not) way of sharing it with you.  Maybe you can click on the picture, save, then print if you want to make one just like mine.

I ran the leather strap through the casing in my little chalk bag and through the holes in the slate, leaving it long enough to tie a knot at the top for hanging.

Someone’s ready for school!

The other slate is for the kids and I to play with and leave notes for eachother.

Later Gators!

Melissa

Back to School count down.

About one week, or twelve days, or 288 hours until my kidletts are back in school and running on a schedule.  But who’s counting?  Ahhhhhhh…… I am.

We are checking off things on the Back-to-School check list. Just a few more pairs of shoes and I think we will be ready! There are fresh,pretty backpacks filled to the brim with sharp new pencils, crayons, glue, etc. hanging up in the closet. There are fancy new clothes, and ready to learn brains. I have to say it really makes me want to go back to school too!

Minate lost her other front tooth! And guess who pulled it?  Oh you know I did!!! I wasn’t going to miss out on it this time!!  It made a really gross noise when it came out, but now I can pull the rest NO PROB!! I am a pro now. LOL

umm…think someone is going to need braces??

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I am shamefully behind on my autumn decorating.  Here is what my living room has looked like for a week:

I am putting it off because I really want to rearrange the furniture in my tiny house. I would love to bring the mantle down from our bedroom and somehow fit it in the living room…more area to decorate ya know?  But it is almost impossible to configure it correctly. Guess I will work on it today.

I am excited about a new purchase.  I saw this at T.J.Maxx last week and left it there.  Then it kept haunting me …you know how that goes.  I just thought it was the perfect Halloween-y decoration. I looked it up on the net and saw it for sale at some European decorating site for $60.  It was only $15 at the Maxx.  So I went back to get it, and by golly it was still there!!  I will make a cute display with it sooner or later when I get the furniture thing worked out!  =)~

Wouldn’t it look great with some black branches and crows? SPOOOOKY. LOL

Hope your day is more productive than I have been!!

Later Gators, Melissa

Happy Birthday BG! and some decorating too.

  Today is The BG’s birthday!  I woke him up with his favorite doughnut: custard filled long john.

 

We went to dinner last night and saw the Star Trek movie for his b-day because tonight is his brother’s wedding rehersal and dinner.

I hope you have a wonderful 37th year baby cakes!!!

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I did a little shopping yesterday and found some more 50′s shell art. I am starting to fill up my shell art shelf (that my dad made)  in the sewing room!! I check all the antique stores around my area every couple weeks to see if anyone has any shell art pieces. Pictures can’t do these gem’s justice because the are so glittery and sparkley in person.

(please ignore the STILL un-quilted quilt hanging there!!)

Here are the new ones:

This is my very favorite piece. It is gorgeous!!!!!

 

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I thought I would share some more of my patriotic do-dads I have about.  I picked up these flag towels from the dollar store  to add a bit of July 4th to the towel rack:

 

Here is how my “liberty” sign looks hanging up (I think I got a little crazy and made it way too big! It was my first attempt at making a banner.)

 

My favorite Uncle Sam that the BG gifted to me quite a few birthdays ago:

 

Here’s a quick festive tip: Throw some patriotic balls in a bowl, you could make rag balls out of red, white, and blue scrap fabric!

 

There are many free patriotic post cards out there  that you can print and frame if you need a space filler!

 

I was so excited to pull out this little quilt from the book “My Folk Art Best,” by Cheri Saffiote-Payne. I finished it too late last year to hang up for July 4th season.

 

Here is the “Service Star” quilt I have on the coffee table. It is a free pattern and here are a couple links:

http://www.mccallsquilting.com/patterns/details.html?idx=4735

http://www.quilterscache.com/H/howtomakeanarmedservicesflag.html

 Another scrappy July 4th quilt:

Another Uncle Sam:

Lator Gators! Melissa

Sunday, not exactly a day of rest.

I know Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest, BUT we just had so much to do today.

We were going to go camping HAHAHA ! Are you just craking up at me saying that every weekend? I am!! But then we decided we just had way too much to do.

The BG had about 20 applications/resumes to send out, the house was a wreck, I had to sew that work project quilt and I still have bunnies from easter out on my shelves!! FOR SHAME!

We did get so much accomplished. Cleaned, dusted, changed sheets, vaccumed,laundered, checked out the BG’s cover letters. I feel good.

So next weekend camping?? har har har I hope so!

I recovered the backyard chairs and made a table cloth and the BG screwed them into place.

I took all the Easter decor down and brought out a box of “summer” stuff, which is really just patriot stuff for July 4th.

 

 

Tomorrow I will finish putting out the “summer” stuff and I will feel good about leaving the house for the great outdoors next weekend.  Our daughters are dying to go fishing and I just want to get outside.

I am also hoping to finish up the Charleston Harbor quilt tomorrow! Wish me luck! =)

Later Gators, Melissa