Spring has Sprung!

It’s the time of year to show off spring projects and blooms again!

This is a path I laid a couple of weekends ago… we put a dog kennel in last fall, and the path to it quickly became mud. This is my remedy, plus it frames the garden well. The bed to the left is my last remaining bed that needs to be dealt with. I planted onions, chives, and iris’ there many moons ago, but it has basically been on its own since we bought the house…well that is going to change this year! Once done I’ll of course post some pics…

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And the entrance to the path…(the dogs had turned this corner into a mud hole from turning and running on a 90degree angle so much). We used the Texas paver Dude bought last time we were down there (6 years ago?), and gathered random stones from around the yard and behind the garage.. imagine it with grass or ground cover growing around the stones…is going to be way cute!

Oh, and the cement plugs we used were in the yard when we bought the house. We have dug up and re-used them all over the place. These were stacked behind the garage from a previous re-landscaping we did. The bricks were salvaged from a house down the street from us a few years ago. They were left over from a project and stacked on the side of the road with a ‘free’ sign on them. We pulled over, loaded up the back of the Land Rover with as many as it would hold, and have had them stacked behind the garage waiting for a project. Nice to have that storage space back there!

So total cost of the path? My LABOR! Not bad, eh? 

Now for our new flower containers! We bought a few pansies, daisy’s and other plants to brighten up some containers in the yard. I found the basket, macrame holder, and basket liners in the garage, remnants of a similar idea a few years ago. Put it all together and wah lah!

This is a darling copper teakettle I found at Savers for $3. It really isn’t a heavy, high quality item, but I instantly thought “planter!” when I found it. Turned out way cute with purple daisies planted in it!

 

While making one of my shopping excursions to Ikea while working on the basement hallway, I came across these cute aluminum pots. They were about $1.50 each, so I bought half a dozen. Turns out they look great hanging on our little lattice garden fence full of pansies!

The boys each planted of the taller ones, we cant wait until they all start blooming!

Another Texas yard accent… Dude bought this at a garden store in Texarkana for his mom before she died.. when we went down for her funeral, his sister gave it back to him. We’ve been potting various flowers in it ever since.. it’s a cute yard accent!

This cool milk bucket was an award to my store when I was managing West Marine. It was full of cookies when we got it. Once again it has been a cute planter since then! I had it in the house until this year, but I’m loving it on my front porch!

All the pretty flowers from the top!

Now for the stuff in the yard, my flowering Forsythia bush…

Some still blooming Crocus’

Cute miniature Daffodils…

 And this plant (can’t remember the name) with the red upside down flowers that is just waiting to bloom…

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!

Downstairs Hallway

Okay, this is going to be a long post with many pictures so bear with me…

I’ve been working on this project for about a month now, and although it’s still not completely finished (some trim work and decorating left to do), it’s time I got this post up!

I repainted the walls, ceiling, doors, floor, stairs and hand rail. I also pulled down some ugly cardboard paneling in the freezer area.

Brace yourself:

 

Here we have the view from the kitchen down the stairs before and after. Notice the bare cement floor? It’s been that way for at least 4 years (probably longer)..very sad and ugly, I know. Now it’s painted with cement/garage floor paint. Much better! Closer picture below…

Now onto the stairs. These things are old, original to the house (1965-ish), and in bad shape. I was going to replace the treads altogether, but after pricing them at $8.00 – $15.00 a piece, I decided to see what alternative I could come up with. I decided on a major ‘distressed’ look (hey, if it looked awful I’d just have to replace them anyway... might as well try!) So Drew and I took a hammer to them and beat out our frustrations (not really, we had some fun hammering the crap out of the stairs!) The flash of the camera shows a glare, they actually look a lot darker than that, but you get the idea. I painted them with a couple of coats of brown, then dry brushed a thinned black over them. I finished them off with 3 coats of polyurethane to protect the finish.. Not bad! I still have a piece of transitional trim to add up at the top, one of the few finishing trim works I have left to do…

The picture on the left show you one of the two major cracks in the stairs. I nailed the sides and front of the stair to the riser below almost a dozen times. You can still tell there’s a crack when you walk on it, but the squeaking has stopped! On the right you see how it nicely blends with the distressed look! Yay!

This is the hallway leading to Dude’s office. Before shows an old cheap bookcase I bought at Office Max when I was about 15. It’s been holding books, catfood, and misc. crap for years now. I cleaned it all off and left the bookcase on the curb. (One nice thing about living in West Valley, you don’t have to haul anything to the dump…just put in on the curb and someone will come along and take it!)

After shows the cool new shoe cabinet I got at Ikea and one of my new rugs. The boys each have 2 bins for their shoes now, freeing up all the shoe clutter that was in a basket in my front room. I still haven’t decided what’s going on the wall above.. a mirror? Art? Photos? I’ll post it when I finish it.

This is across from the shoe bin, under the upper flight of stairs. Our freezer hides out here, and before the remodel, a shelf above (full of junk of course) was as deep as the space and butted up against some UGLY old dark brown cardboard paneling that was nailed at an angle down the back of the stairs. I didn’t think to take a picture of it before ripping it down (this is mostly because I was on the phone with TC when I got the idea.. I went ahead with it before thinking about photos.)

The wall behind the freezer (bottom 1/2 of photo) is actually the door to access under the house. It’s been plain pressed plywood since I installed it a few years ago. It looks much better painted!

The left picture shows the shelves I built under each step of the upper stairway. I used leftover bamboo flooring pieces from our main floor to make the shelves. They are holding the books that used to be on the old cheap bookcase. The layout now really opens up the space and makes the whole hallway feel bigger.

On the right is a picture of the basement bathroom door and the glass blocks I installed above it earlier in the fall. I don’t think I ever posted them, so I’ve included them here.

These shots show the before and after of the floor… slightly different locations, but you can see the difference! The paint system has you etch the surface, then paint two coats, and finally (if you choose to) sprinkle little multi-colored plastic pieces into the paint. The plastic pieces hide any imperfections INCREDIBLY. Both the boys room floor and this floor had some major dings, gouges, etc. You can’t even see them with the sprinkles on the floor. Way cool!

And one last shot showing the wall heading up the stairs. The new coat rack for the kids stuff, with the newly repainted blackboard TC gave me a few years ago. The blackboard is going to move, I’ve made a second coat rack, intending for it to go above the shoe bin, but after making it, I found out that it’s wider than the wall above the bins! (I used the tops of two old West Marine display racks I had in the garage, already mitered and finished edges, just had to paint and add hooks). Oops.. so I’m going to hang it above this one for the extra storage. The blackboard will find a new home somewhere else.

That’s it for now, until I get all the trim work and decorating done!

Taaaa Daaaa! Much better!

Kitchen Window Valance

 

I had some left over Urban Cowgirl from my sewing room sideboard  project, and have been eager to make something else pretty with it!

 

I was planning on using it for pillows to compliment the Urban Cowboy star quilt (did I mention I LOVE this line?) I’m working on, but then I had this idea, and wah-la! Totally darling kitchen valance!

 

I used up every last scrap of the 1 1/2 yards I bought for the two projects! How perfect was that?

Now I get to look at my pretty curtain while cooking, cleaning, doing dishes, kids homework, and on and on... Let’s just say I’ll be appreciating it A LOT!

The beginning of quilting…(in my world anyway)

 

About a decade ago my Mom, Sisters, and Sister in Law started a Quilting circle. We each made 6 copies of one block each month (maybe? could have been more like every 2-3 months…) and distributed them to each of the participating members. This was to be my very first foray into the quilting obsession. Yup, this innocent little project started it all…

I pulled them out the other day for a different project (down there at the bottom of this post), and found myself admiring some of the work I’d done, and cringing in horror at some of the others I’d managed to completely mangle.

The log cabin block above was the very first block I did for the group. I may (totally) not choose the fabrics now that I used then, but notice how the block LOOKS pretty decent? Of course I chose one of the hardest blocks as my first attempt, but I actually pulled it off…

I realized that I’d started out difficult, so I switched to a simpler block for my next shot. Can’t get more simple than a 9-patch…

Another 9-patch which may or may not be mine… I recognize the fabric, but that doesn’t mean I made it. So sorry if I’m taking credit from one of my fellow blockers…

Ok, back to more difficult.. This one turned out 'ok’, but the seams need some help, and the final shape is in no way ok…

Another ‘ok’ one, still not perfect, but passible.. (again, I ‘think’ I made this?)

Somewhere in there I decided I’d make a quilt for myself. I grabbed every random piece of fabric I had and just started sewing them together.  Very  I n t e r e s t I n g….the best description I can come up with at the moment. It’s so “interesting” that I just might turn it into a table runner as a reminder of how far I’ve come…

Now, the longer the project went, the more horrible my blocks became.. isn’t that supposed to work the other way? Aren’t you supposed to IMPROVE as you go? I must not have gotten that memo. I do love rust colors, but this one is ‘cring-able’.

Saved the best for last.. oh the horror…oh the embarrassment…did I ACTUALLY give my Mom and sisters one of these? Ack! I don’t think I could ever look at this one without gagging, so it’s never going to see the light of day again… can’t bring myself to chuck it, so it’s going to live in a dark little box, in a dark little corner…always there to remind me that my quilting COULD and HAS been worse.

The project that started this whole journey down quilting memory lane, is this one. I needed a mini quilt for my little black board, but didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it right now. (painting and re-building hallway and stairs and all…), so I dug through the blocks we’d traded to find one for a cute, fast mini-quilt. There are a few others I’m definitely going to do the same thing with, but this little pretty is the first.

I’m not sure which of us made this one, but I love it! The close up is for identifying purposes.. I’m assuming someone will recognize the fabric and fess up to making it.. My little black board thanks you!

Too bad I won’t be hanging any of MY old blocks on that board.. nope.. can’t make me…

February Projects!

 

I haven’t posted many of my projects lately….so let’s catch up shall we?

First, an Altoid tin hack! My sister and I made these while I was up visiting her. We used scrapbook paper, ribbon, the charm, mini pom-poms (around the edge, not really visible in this picture) and Dimensional ModPodge to make this. So cute and fun I’m sure many more will be coming soon!

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Next, my new Urban Cowgirl curtains for my sewing rom sideboard!

Aren’t they soooo much better than the open shelves? And I LOVE THE FABRIC! From a new line by Urban Chiks called Urban Cowgirl. (I actually have a quilt almost finished using the line also, but that’s another post.) One of my favorite prints ever! And they compliment my painted hutch and shelving perfectly. I LOVE them!

Finally, I’m in the middle of re-painting and re-purposing my downstairs hallway. Pictures of the before and after will be coming soon!

Ruffle Skirt!

My sister and I went shopping today, and I found some AWESOME ruffle fabric!

I bought 3/4 yard ($24.99 yard…ouch!) and some 4” elastic for the waistband.

All you have to do is sew it up the side, and add the elastic at the top! 30min. project for an AWESOME skirt! Now all I have to do is find the right top for it…..

Valentine Mini Quilt

 

I needed a Valentine themed mini quilt for my mini quilt display board I made.

So I found a cute heart block on Pinterest, and this is the result!

I’m not sure I’m in LOVE with it, but I’m liking it ok!

I do love the fussy cut heart…