house projects.

As the time quickly approaches for our Michigan trip, we've been working on things around the house here.  I'm not sure if it's because we want things a little nicer at home for when our friend Beverly house-sits.  Or if it's because it just seemed wrong to ignore the things our home here needs done when we're planning to travel 2,000 miles to work on the house in Marquette this next month.  Either way, it's good, and I'll go with it. :)

So I've been slowly working on the paper pile, sorting through to decide what to file and what to toss.  Oh!  What a delicious feeling, to get rid of those ever-present piles of paper, my nemesis! :)

And I don't know about you, but I have a growing pile of things to mend... kids' pants in need of repairs, clothing of mine that needs altering to fit better, buttons to put on a shirt for Matt.  You know, the miscellaneous odds & ends you just put into a pile and forget about most of the time.

So I say, not any more!  I sat down with my sewing machine on Friday and made some progress.  It feels really amazing to get some of those things done. :)

This patch in Jesse' jeans will hopefully extend their life a bit more. 

I actually hemmed a pair of cut-offs!  (I think the first one ever)  We're definitely into shorts weather now, so Joshua is glad to add this pair to his repertoire. :)

Another patch for Jesse's jeans.  Seems we have lots of holes around here...

And a fun project, which honestly was sitting in the mending pile, too.  Really.  I stayed up *way* too late Friday night sewing this... but it was fun, and it pulled another item out of the mending pile.  Which was the point, after all. :)

My old favorite skirt, which I guess you could say I "shrank out of", since I've lost some weight (hey, I just noticed that's what I'm wearing in our family pic in the blog header up there).  I didn't want to donate this skirt as I had so many other items, since it had been such a part of me (does that sound crazy?).  I thought it would be fun to make a "slouchy bag" out of it and was trying to find just the right pattern online for it.

Enter Marissa's *cute* Goodwill bag.  She got this bag out last week to take somewhere, and I realized it was the perfect design for my bag! :)

I found the floral fabric in my crafty stuff and realized it might just be the perfect liner.  As it turns out, I ended up lining all the denim parts with floral fabric and vice versa, so it's fully reversible.  (I think I like the "inside" better than this outside part!)  I'm going to make a few pockets, so it's not fully done yet, but it's just what I wanted. :)

And I can't remember when, but randomly one day, we were sitting in the living room discussing one wall that leads to the upstairs.  We were talking about how it needed painting and Matt suggested we should paint it a color.  I can't remember how, but between the two of us and Marissa (our personal design and fashion consultant), we came upon orange as the color.  I think Matt was thinking a brighter orange, but when it came down to it, I picked more of an orangey-brown.

Wow, does it look different on the wall than the creamy white we had before!  But it's just right, and the color going up the stairwell on one side, leading to the upstairs hallway, really adds a nice pop of color in a previously very boring area.  :)  It's actually hard to believe we used to be afraid of bold colors when you walk into our house now.

Matt starting in on the painting on Saturday, while Marissa taped off the edges.  They were a great team! :)

Marissa, the taper-off person at work on Saturday.

Matt, playing his guitar on Saturday after getting most of the painting done.

Matt also has been painting doors & trim with bright white, semi-gloss paint.  It's a very nice improvement after 4 years of wear & tear on the old, creamy-colored satin-finish paint we had before.

Today, I'm going to paint the girls' room.  Marissa has been very carefully mulling over all the design elements in their room for several months, and has settled on some things now.  So we're beginning to implement them.  It will be fun to see how it all turns out. :)

And just in case you were wondering, I haven't forgotten my previously mentioned curtain project.  Turns out, it wasn't really *anywhere* on Matt's important list.  So I've demoted it on my mental to-do list and will get to it when I get to it.  That feels much better than where it was before. :)