The Summer To Do List

There hasn't been much DIYing going on over here lately. This winter has dragged on and on and on, and all this cooped-up-ness hasn't lent itself to many projects. There are finally a few signs of spring - daffodils, tulips, green grass, oh my! All the fresh air has me dreaming of new projects to tackle this summer.

Plan the Garden Last year, our resident bunny couple ate up pretty much everything in the garden. This year, I'm determined to win the war over these rascally rabbits and send them packing for good. Just don't tell E - I think she's become kind of attached to them. Any and all suggestions are welcome for how to rid our backyard of these pesky wabbits. I think it's going to be June before the garden gets in, but I'm already thinking of what yummy veggies to plant.

Elkhorn Flea Market - this is one of my favorite day trips each year. This HUGE flea market takes up the entire Walworth County Fairgrounds and hundreds of vendors sell pretty much anything antique, handmade or vintage that you could think of. I love wandering through the stalls and coming up with lots of ideas. Last year, I got the dresser in the bonus room and a side table that I plan to sand down and refinish at some point. Add it to the list! This year's dates are May 19, June 30, August 11 and September 29.

Garage Mudroom - I was hoping to have this done last fall before J was born, but it didn't happen. We did buy some stick-on floor tile when it was on sale, but it's still in the box in the garage. I really like this mudroom plan from Ana White and I may just be ambitious enough to give it a go.

Basement Layout - we're starting to think about talking about coming up with ideas for initiating plans to finish the basement. I'm sure it's still a few years down the road, but I would like to at least get an idea of what walls should go where and how best to use the space. First up is figuring out how to get that pesky sump pump to cooperate and stop flooding the basement during heavy rains.

Paint the Upstairs Hallway - I really should stop talking about doing this and just get it done.

Hang Pictures - The walls around here are pretty bare. And now that we have some great new photos from Lily Bella Photography, it's time to get some pictures up on the walls. Has anyone done the DIY canvases that are all over pinterest and would you recommend them?

Finish Window Treatments - another thing I need to just finally finish. Almost there!

Milestone Monday!

We've hit a milestone here - this little ol' blog of mine has hit 10,000 page views. Exciting! So thanks to all of you for reading my ramblings and sticking with me through infrequent posts, crazy projects and my sub-par photography. (And I realize it is not Monday as the title suggests, but Milestone Tuesday doesn't sound as great, now does it? And I did think of it yesterday.)

Honestly I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with all the projects that are unfinished around here - the mud room in the garage, the bonus room window treatments, the unpainted upstairs hallway, etc. And did I mention that the basement flooded again? That's the third time in seven years. Ugh. Fortunately we learned our lesson the first time and everything was off the floor or in a waterproof bin. And we caught it before there was too much of a mess.

Lately I've kicked it into high gear and am finally powering through some things that should have been done ages ago. Our bedroom is now painted and has curtains again, and yesterday I finished sewing the kitchen window valance. I'll post pictures once the house is not a complete disaster. Oh yeah, and the valance still needs to be hung up. Lucky you, tomorrow is cleaning day and my handyman (i.e. Bubba) is coming over tonight.

Because I have many projects going on at the same time, one of the ways that I keep everything organized is my house binder.  I like to have all the info about every room handy when I'm out shopping for stuff, because you never know when you'll wonder whether the fabric in the quilt is raspberry pink, bubblegum pink, or pinky pink.

I bought a small 7x9 inch binder from Office Max and some business card inserts and filled it full of paint swatches and fabric samples. Each room has its own page, so it's easy to find what I'm looking for when I need it. I love having everything all in one place!

Master Bedroom Painting

It seems like I always have multiple projects going on at once. I have a tendency to start projects and then let them hang on forever, either because of indecision, inability or lack of time. One of my New Year's resolutions was to finally finish painting all the rooms in our house. We've been here for about seven years now and there is still rough, scratchy marked up builder paint in spaces.

In the fall, when we stained the deck, I also got a few estimates for painting our master bedroom. The numbers were a bit higher than I wanted, so I figured I could do it myself. How hard could it be to paint the walls and ceiling of a huge bedroom with 11 foot vaulted ceilings and a ceiling fan smack dab in the middle? Well, I can tell you it was HARD work. Imagine me standing on tiptoes on top of a ladder, maneuvering between fan blades, using a small brush to paint a very large space.  It took a solid weekend and there were times I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off. But now it is done, nobody got hurt, I got a great workout and I love the color (Jogging Path by Sherwin-Williams).

Took me forever to get that tape around the light fixture!

Just starting out - this part took the most time!

The room already feels much cozier and homier. Now comes the fun part - new curtain rods, window treatments, lamps, pillows, etc. And here's a small confession. I'm not that great at pulling together all the coordinates. In fact, Ben is much better at it than I am. He can look at something and decide instantly and accurately whether it will look great or awful in the space. If only he shared my belief that you can never have too many pillows.

Half done with the ceiling!

Finally finished with the paint! Now on to accessories!

I've been loving the new Threshold line from Target. The other day I went on a buying binge (it's all on sale this week) and snatched up a bunch of lampshades, curtain panels and lamps. Now comes the part where I stare at them forever before deciding whether Ben is right (he usually is) about what should stay and what should go. The other option is using some of the newvstuff in the bonus room, which also has new paint but no accessories. I hope to have pictures of both completed rooms soon. I have lots of great ideas for the walls, thanks to Pinterest, so we'll see where we end up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It wouldn't be Valentine's Day without something yummy to eat. We have a weakness around here for the salty/sweet combo. This year, E and I whipped up some dipped pretzels. (Yet another idea from Pinterest.) We used some vanilla-flavored red candy wafers (about $3 a bag from Michael's or Hobby Lobby) and some Valentine's Day sprinkles for a fun and festive treat.

You just melt the candy wafers in the microwave, dip the pretzels in the candy and then dip again in a bowl of sprinkles. (I added a teaspoon or so of vegetable oil to the candy wafers after melting to get the consistency I was looking for, and I think it helps them not harden so quickly.)

Set them on some waxed paper for about a half hour for the candy coating to harden. Yum, yum! Super easy and a fun project even the 2-year-old can help with.

Fabric Bins for the Nursery

I am a huge fan of open storage. I like to be able to throw something in a bin easily and not worry about taking off or putting on a lid. (I'm lazy, I know.)

Both kids have the ClosetMaid Cubeicals in their closets to store books and other things. There are lots of storage options for these, but I've never liked how their fabric bins take up the entire square. It makes it difficult to just chuck something in, or to see what is in the bin from far away. I am both a slob and obsessive about organization, so I need something that can be organized chaos.

I found this great tutorial for fabric baskets and thought I could adjust the measurements to fit the Cubeicals. It was important to me that it was wide enough to fit a tub of wipes and a stack of diapers, and short enough to leave some room when put in the Cubeical. I also wanted something that could serve as a diaper storage bin for the top of the changing table when needed, but be able to be put away in the Cubeical when not in use.

Here are the measurements I used (replacing what is in the tutorial link above) -

Exterior Fabric - 2 pieces 11"x10", 1 piece 12"x29"
Interior Fabric - 2 pieces 11"x6.5", 2 pieces 12"x6.5", 1 piece 13"x14"
Interfacing - 2 pieces 11"x10", i piece 12"x29"

I used a combination of sew-in and iron-on interfacing, mainly because I didn't know what I was doing when I went to the fabric store. Having used both - the iron-on is a lot easier, but more expensive. The sew-in isn't hard, but takes a little more effort. Just make sure you baste it in so it's easier to take out if you screw it up. (This is experience talking here.)

I used some foam core I had lying around for the bottom piece, and some old ribbon for the handles. If I were doing it again, I would probably use something a little sturdier so they would stand up better.

I was only going to make one, but they were so easy I ended up making three. With basic sewing skills, I'd say this takes 3-4 hours each. I did the second and third simultaneously, which helped speed things up a bit.

 Want to customize this for yourself? Here's the formula I used to determine what size fabric I needed to cut.

For the exterior fabric:
2 of these: (Finished Width +1 inch) X (Finished Height + 3 inches)  (for the front and back)
1 of these: (Finished Depth + 1 inch) X (2xFinished Height + Finished Width + 5inches) (for the bottom and sides)

For the interior:
2 of these: (Finished Width + 1 inch) X (Finished Height - 1/2 inch) (for the front and back)
2 of these: (Finished Depth + 1 inch) X (Finished Height - 1/2 inch) (for the sides)
1 of these: (Finished Width + 3 inches) X (Finished Depth + 3 inches) (for the bottom)

Interfacing: Same formula as the exterior. 

The Perfect Quilt... and Mitered Blanket Binding for Dummies

I don't know about you, but I am thrilled it is January. We had a whirlwind November and December and we are all craving normalcy around here. Maybe because I haven't slept for more than a four hour stretch for the past two months? Just a thought.

But anyway, Mom and I have been working on a quilt for my daughter's room, and this past weekend, we finished it! I love love love how it turned out, and E does too. It is just perfect for her room. Ever since we put together her awesome baby girl nursery, I've been hoarding scraps of the fabric (from Michael Miller's Whimsy collection) to use on her big girl bed. Now the bed matches all the other pieces from her nursery - the window valance, rocking chair pad, doll cradle blanket and pillow and an additional throw pillow.

I only had a half a yard or so of about eight different prints, so we chose a chevron pattern so we could use all the different fabrics. Mom found a great white on white print to use as the base and used this triangle method to create the chevron. I should mention that Mom did 90% of the work here, maybe more. These projects always start with me saying something like, "I'm thinking of doing this... it looks easy enough" and end with Mom staying up until 3 a.m. hand stitching a blanket binding. So kudos to Mom for her sewing skills and willingness to participate in my crazy ideas.

Speaking of the blanket binding, one of the things that stumped us was how to do mitered corners that didn't leave seams somewhere. We watched and read quite a few tutorials online, and quite honestly, they were more confusing than helpful. But after much trial and error, we figured out our own way to do it. And since we both agreed that I'll probably call Mom with a crazy idea for another quilt in a couple years, we had better write this down. 

So here goes...

First, determine how wide you want your binding to be (we went with 2 inches) and quadruple it. Cut four strips, equal to the length of each side, plus a half inch or so on each end. Our strips were 8 inches wide.  First, fold over the ends about a half inch to hide the raw edge. Fold in half and press in a seam. Then fold the edges into the middle and press again. It should look like this.

 

The nice thing about our method is that you're not actually mitering corners. Instead, you're sewing down two edges, and then sewing on two more edges that have diagonal ends. So for two of the (opposite) sides, you stitch on the binding like you are putting on bias tape. Just make sure your edges are folding in so you don't have any raw edges.

Now, for the mitered sides. Take another strip and fold it like pictured here.

Place it on your quilt like this.

 

The right side is the raw edge of the quilt. Machine stitch the entire length of the binding in place from where you see the black pins (the fold on the far right).  Then turn the rest of the binding over on itself. You can see here how it creates your first miter. Hand stitch the diagonal in place. Mom says to use an invisible stitch.

Now flip the entire blanket over, and fold the remaining loose binding down on the other side. This will create the miter on the back side. Hand stitch the corner and entire length of the binding. (You could probably use the machine if you don't mind a visible seam on both sides, but again, mom and I are perfectionists.)

Repeat this three more times and you have a perfectly mitered blanket binding. Ta da!

Jonas' Nursery

We are now the proud parents of Jonas, a beautiful baby boy. During this pregnancy, I nested like CRAZY. Most of the madness centered on creating the perfect nursery for our sweet baby boy. Here's a few pictures of the (almost) finished room!

I chose Alexander Henry's 2d Zoo fabric for the main print in the room. It's the animal print in the crib skirt and the blanket (both came from myfrecklesshop on Etsy.) The crib sheet and changing pad are from Target and are a great match to the zoo print.

 

The talented Mary Johnson put together these awesome canvases for above the crib.

I put together these prints using Microsoft Word (and some scrapbook paper for the whale.)

The fabric bins also use the 2d Zoo print and are the perfect size for holding diapers and wipes.

And they fit in the cubeicals from Target!

 I'm still working on the art above the changing table, but the prints are also a Microsoft Word creation, printed at Office Max with some scrapbook paper animals that match the zoo print fabric. Eventually there will be something above the mirror as well. I'm thinking it may involve the chevron print from the letters above the crib.

I do plan to post some more about the individual projects in the room, but we all know how I am about getting things done in a timely manner! So look for them in the not too distant but still somewhat far away future. If there's anything you'd like to know more about, leave me a note in the comments.