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. :)

before & after.

Just thought I'd post one of my "before" & "after" T-shirt makeovers from last week.  Since acquiring several ladies' cut T-shirts in our Goodwill ventures, I've decided I really like that cut & feel in a T-shirt.

I took a look in my dresser last week & figured I should be able to make over my unisex T-shirts.  So I pulled out my sewing machine and got to work. :)

Here.  You can see for yourself the first one I did. (Never mind the basket of laundry on the bed behind me.  Didn't "stage" this photo like I often do.)

Before.  Not too bad, but I wanted it to be a little more feminine. :)

After.  Overall, I would say the makeover was a success.

being creative.

A few months ago, I signed up for a "Being Creative" project started by illustrator Julia Crossland.  Every month, there is a different theme, and May's theme was "Home".  (I actually signed up as "ART by Amelia Kay"--my art blog--but I thought I'd post my project here for the check-in, since it isn't as "artsy".)

So here's a little background on the whole project, because when most people see what I made, they have NO idea what in the world it is... and you'll understand once you read my little bit here.  :)

We are working extra-hard at paying off our debts, and have been trying to think of ways to make a bit more income.  So last fall, I started collecting acrylic paints, canvases, easels, a few new paintbrushes and began painting again.  I'm still working toward my first sale, and along the way somewhere we thought it might help to sort of "tie into" something that's already working for us income-wise.  Which is renting out our Marquette house as a vacation rental. (Our former home, our "home away from home", which ties this all into the "home" theme, see?)  

So I'm working on some Beach House-related art to sell, and I got this (crazy?) idea that I could make pillows shaped like Michigan's Upper Peninsula to sell at the house and on etsy.  It really has been an obsession lately, and I finally have two pillows to show for it.  (Well, there were probably five prototype pillows, but I have two that I have deemed "sale worthy".)  So far, we've had a couple views on etsy and one "heart", so we'll see what happens there.

Anyway, here they are...

This pillow is made with the same fabric as the curtains in our Beach House's "Sailors Cove" bedroom.  The fabric is a lightweight canvas, and it makes the pillow SO soft and cuddly!  :)

Here's Marissa with a pillow made of a nice weighty upholstery-type fabric, which was a little tricky with stuffing the little areas, but it's nice & substantial and I love the little swirly pattern.  If you click on the photo, it will enlarge so you can see a little better.

Okay, so for those of you unfamiliar with Michigan, I'll help you out. Here's a map of the Upper Peninsula for your comparison. I had to tweak the shape a bit to make it more pillow-ish, so it's not exact.  :)

A map of the U.P. I just found online.

And even though it's not finished yet, I will post my main project.  I am hoping to get back into working on it today so that hopefully this weekend we can take it to the printer and have it scanned and have some giclee prints made of it.  (I know some of my readers are wondering what a giclee print is, so that's why I've put a link there.  I didn't know what a giclee print was until I kept seeing the word online and looked it up a few months ago.)

Here I am, a week or two ago in the midst of working on my current painting.  I painted a lot more of the tiny branches since I shot this pic and have taken a bit of a break to work on the pillow obsession, but I'm getting back to work on this one today.

Just had to post the finished painting, which I did indeed finish the day I posted this.  My "ta-dah!" post is over at my art blog.  Prints will be coming soon!  :)

making things.

Seems like I've been doing a *lot* of Making Things lately.  So here are a few pics of some of what's been happening here lately in that area. 

An army of tomatoes.  We got an amazing deal on Saturday at this program called "Market on the Move".  We got a LOT of produce for only $20!  :)

The tomatoes, along with Roma and grape tomatoes we also got.

Cutting red, orange and green bell peppers with my helpers, Jesse & Joshua.  Our freezer is stocked with lots of chopped & sliced peppers now.  :)

Marissa, my etsy model.  I've been obsessing over this Upper Peninsula pillow idea for a few weeks now, especially this past week.  (Try to imagine a new pillow design or redesign every day, all last week and you know what my poor family has experienced here lately!) I'm making more of these pillows to have in our Beach House and hopefully sell, both there and in my Beach House etsy shop.

My canning jar collection grew by leaps & bounds on Sunday!  I paid $5 for 13 pint jars at a garage sale, then got 35 jars for FREE from somebody on FreeCycle!  :)

Canning some whole tomatoes yesterday, my first batch ever.

I made a huge batch of tomato sauce yesterday, which simmered all afternoon.  I learned online that you really need a pressure canner when you're canning anything other than tomatoes.  Since this sauce has peppers in it, I froze it instead of canned it.  I'll be looking for an inexpensive pressure canner now...

Our freezer looks a little chaotic these days!  Last night, Matt & I went to get some milk and saw chicken breasts for 69 cents/lb., hence the chicken stuffed in the freezer door.

i'm feeling so domestic!

Ever have one of those days where your homemaking side really clicks in?  Yesterday was one of those days...

For lunch, the kids & I had fresh homemade bread with strawberry-pineapple jam I'd just made in the morning.  Yum!  :)

I just couldn't bear to have store-bought jam after our last batch of strawberry jam.  So I made another 25 half-pints Monday & Tuesday.  I figured out that for each jar, it cost us about 56 cents... not too bad. :)  Our fig trees are just coming into production, so we'll soon have fig jam, too.  And, since we won't have to buy the fruit, those jars of jam will be even more economical.  :)

Getting into my "getting ready for busy season at the Beach House" phase.  The start of yesterday's project.

Marissa with the finished product.  Doesn't it look like a giant Bible cover?  It's actually an ottoman cover for up at the Marquette house.  I brought it home with us last summer, but didn't feel like doing it until yesterday.  Finally completing this project really makes me wish we were going up there *before* the busy season this year instead of after it!

Just for fun, here's a few "before" shots of yesterday's sewing project...

Seam-ripping the old cover last July.

Here's a fun shot of Naomi, Joshua & Jesse playing with Duplos in front of the ottoman with its old cover (Feb. 2005).

Back in March 2005, I re-covered the seat of our Lazy Boy recliner.  The ottoman (for the other chair in the same room) will finally match, once I send the cushion up to our friend Jenn who takes care of things at the house for us.  I'd been planning to do it all these years and only just did it yesterday.  Better late than never, right?  :)

problem solved.

When I was growing up, we had a couple of those cool "Grandma's house" sorts of metal chairs for kids to sit on.  I always thought it would be really cool to have one, if we ever had another child and/or for future grandkids.  So a year or two ago, I found one at a garage sale and gave it a quick spray of green paint to match our kitchen/living room area.

Over time, look what happened to the corner of the wall behind it!  :(

You can't see it very well here, but the drywall is nicked by the back of the stool.

The close-up shows it better.

I thought what it needed was a cover to protect the wall, so I crocheted one for it.  Today I finished, and here it is.  :)  So now, we have to repair that drywall but at least the problem won't be getting worse.  And it kind of adds a little bit of style to the area, too.  :)

I've never seen anything like this before, but here it is.  :)

The lighting's not so great but if you click on the photo, it will get larger.

My Project... Partially Done.

Just realized I took this photo over a week ago and didn't post it.  Remember this post about my project a couple weeks ago?  

Well... here's the updated photo, with some of the little "jar jackets" done.  Still have a few more to crochet, but I've lost momentum after doing five in just a few days.  :) 

I also have to say that I *love* this system for the kids' writing utensils!  Now, instead of having markers, pencils, pens & colored pencils dumped out in the quest for exactly what they're looking for, they get the right container and neatly take out the ones they need.  Plus it just looks way cooler in the cupboard, too, doesn't it?  :)

Ta-dah!! :)

Ta-dah, you ask? Well, all Marissa's birthday presents have been made and/or arrived.  YEA!!  :)

The birthday girl standing next to the shelves she & her dad built on Saturday.   Last year, Matt's brother & his wife had a new closet system put in and they gave us their old shelving.  Notice Marissa is wearing her swirly twirly scarf and her wrist warmers (and pointing at her crafty basket).

Made:

• Wrist Warmers
• Swirly Twirly Scarf
• Cover for knitting needle/crochet hook holder (I got the idea here, although the one I made has a bottom to it, rather than just being a sleeve.  Well, and I used single crochet, rather than double crochet.)
• Shelves in the other half of the girls' closet (a gift from Matt)

Arrived:

• Knee-high toe socks  (finally!)

A couple closer shots...

The crocheted cover I made for the cardboard tube we put Marissa's needle/hook collection in.  I used the yarns from her wrist warmers, plus she had a couple other yarns she wanted included so it would all match her color scheme.  I crocheted this the other day while the kids narrated their school to me, and I am really pleased with how it turned out!  :)

Marissa's crafty basket, with new crocheted cover for the needle/hook holder, and all her other yarns added neatly to the mixture.

And a fun shot Marissa took of herself wearing the toe socks the other day.  :)

Finished!

Marissa's birthday was on New Year's Day, and a few of her gifts were crocheted items that I had yet to make, since I wanted her input on the colors and yarns. This past weekend, I made her wrist warmers (here's the pattern) that she was looking forward to wearing this winter.  (Our time for wearing cozy crocheted things is rather short here in the Valley of the Sun, so we take advantage while we can!)

Don't you love it when you make something for somebody and you can just tell they *love* it?  I am having that great feeling this week, ever since I saw the way her eyes lit up as she tried the first one on.  She has had those wrist warmers on almost continuously since I finished the second one Saturday night.  :)

It's Friday!

My cheerful dish person for the day, Marissa :)

Jesse reading a Hardy Boys book, Naomi working on school papers,
& Joshua crocheting something. Oh, and my painting is in the background
waiting to be finished.  Maybe this weekend...?

The only reason David isn't in my post today is that he did *not* want me to post any of the photos I took of him.  I said I wouldn't post them, and I can't go against my word.  :)

An Extension of the Birthday Celebration

We've been a bit old-fashioned on waiting a while for having our girls get their ears pierced.  Matt & I talked it over and decided last month that on her birthday, we'd tell Marissa that she could get her ears pierced if she wanted.

So last night we went to Claire's in the mall and she got her ears pierced.  She's pretty excited about it.  Little sister Naomi was so excited about the whole thing, you'd have thought she was the one getting her ears pierced.  She did ask, but we told her she has to wait until she's older.  :)

Anyway, here's a couple shots of the whole momentous occasion.

This was taken right on the "click" of ear piercing #2.  Believe it or not, I managed to click the camera at the exact moment each ear was pierced!  I said to the girl that she probably has lots of photography while she pierces ears, and she said, "Oh, yes!" and remarked on how I'd gotten the photos right when the piercings happened.  :)

Getting the ears disinfected after the piercings were done.

And a back at home, somewhat thoughtful look.  (Really, she's holding her head that way so we can see her lovely earring better.)  We paid a tiny bit more for the sparkly ones versus the plain metal ones that she didn't like. :) 

So that's part two of the birthday celebration.  Today, Marissa & I head out to get the yarns for the gifts I'm crocheting for her...  "Toasty Mitts" (wrist warmers), and "Swirly Twirly Scarf".  After we do school, of course... should be fun!  :)

Crochet Projects

Quite a while back, I posted a few things I'd been making.  Well, I hadn't been able to post my latest crochet creations because they were gifts.  But with Christmas behind us, they are fair game for posting today.

Three of the purses I crocheted for our nieces.

And three more... after I took these photos, I made another two purses.  But the camera battery was dead when I had to get them out in the mail to make it in time for Christmas.  

I have a few other projects I'm working on, too.  I'm making this and this for Marissa.  I just need her input on the yarns & colors.  I'm doing one of the twisty scarves in red for myself... would have been great for Christmas, but there just wasn't enough time to get it all done.  Oh, and I found both those patterns on this really great crocheting blog I found recently, Tangled Happy.  If you crochet, it's awfully addicting.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

That's all for today.  Happy day to you all, whoever happens to be reading!  :)

Four days 'til Christmas...

If you read yesterday's post, you know about the demise of our cloth baby Jesus.  So today, Marissa got out her stash of crafty stuff and made a new, rather Waldorf doll-inspired baby Jesus.

Isn't he cute?

The nativity set with the new baby Jesus.

A close-up of the new baby Jesus.  Hopefully Zoe won't think he's a snack, too!