I'm not dead.

I am not dead. I am busy. And tired. I sort of forgot about my blog.

I've been knitting pants for Ellie. And I have hat yarn. And scarf yarn. And I worked on my log cabin blanket some more.

I've been decorating for fall too. I've never decorated for fall before, so I'm mainly using what I have.

My sad little mantel, if you can even call it that. I think that's a tiny camel on the fireplace there. Oh well. No time to pick up when you are busy hot gluing fake leaves onto a wreath form. I switched out my Fiesta to some fall-ish colors and bought some cute little gourds from a local pumpkin farm.

I put some stuff out in the dining room too.

See the top book? I think it's from the 1940s. It says pregnant women shouldn't gain over 14 pounds. It also had tons of....interesting....info about nursing a newborn. About how they should only have sugar water for the first day or so in order for the mother to rest up and until her milk started to come in. And the pumpkin art? I did that.

Then I made this wreath. I'd seen something similar online. We have tons of sticks in our yard. But somehow it seemed much smaller when I made it out in the garage. Oh well, I do like it despite its size and it was free. I can always compost it later. 

I haven't given up on the entry way. It's just slow going. I'm holding out on pics until it is completely done. But let's just say that it is to the point in the project where last night I had a beer in one hand and a paint brush in the other...............

New bed!

I love it! John said it was nice, but didn't really match the room. Silly John. He did say it looked good with the quilt (which was the idea). I love that quilt and the walls will eventually be almost the color of the little brown pillow in the front. The trim will all get replace with more substantial trim and will be white. It's on the to do list for sure. Maybe.....next summer? I want to do Mary's room first, then Ellie's (so I can kick her out of our room. Her bed is still in our room), then ours. John said last night that we could have the girls' rooms done in the next 6 months. He regretted saying it as soon as it came out of his mouth. I'm holding him to it though.

The bed came out just as I had imagined it. John even custom fit it to the size of the wall for me. Yippie! I am so glad that I have a husband that puts up with me:)

(And, for the record, the bed NEVER looks like this. It is usually unmade. There's a thing that goes on my side to keep Ellie from falling off the bed....it's sort of like a pool noodle that goes under the sheets. I never have the sham pillows on the bed. And the other two pillows go on the rocking chair that's in our room. I just wanted to see it fancy one time though.)

various stuff

I'm in this crazy busy phase. I have a million projects going at once. I guess it's better than sitting around doing nothing? It also keeps me from going completely insane after refereeing the girls all afternoon.

Here's the ironstone platter all cleaned up. I love it. I painted a 50 cent thrift store brassy basket, put some dollar store candles and some fifty percent off berries in it. I had the pine cones which are just from the yard. I think it turned into a nice fall centerpiece. I'm thinking I might cut the handles off the basket though.

I've also been working on the bed. I got it painted all white.

I knew I was going to distress it. I sanded down all the edges and roughed up the seams a bit. I was set to go last night. I wiped on the first bit of stain and almost cried. I tried to wipe it off, but of course that wasn't happening. I even got a scrub brush. Nope. So, I decided to just go with it.




After I got it all done, I sanded it a bit and the paint started to come back though, which lightened it up a bit. I could sand more. Sanding damp stain just gums up the sandpaper so I quit. If I sand it more and don't like it, I might try lightly dry brush some more white paint on it. I wanted it super distressed. Maybe I'll just try to live with it. It needs a coat or two of poly on it then we can put it on the bed.

I've been knitting like mad. I have no idea how big I'll make this blanket. Maybe it will be just a like a lap blanket. I'd love to make it bigger though. Right now it is about 20x20.

Back, forth, back, forth. Turn the corner, change color. Back and forth again. I've put it away for now so I can make some longies for Ellie.

John just took Mary to a play. Ellie's sleeping. I should clean or something. It sure is nice to just sit here with the window open listening to a gentle rain though.

Birthday money and projects galore.

Yesterday morning I went to the big antique mall in the next town over. I had $45 from Mom. And I got 2 hours to myself. Perfect.

Milk glass jar and a little hen for the hutch.

Three ironstone butter pats and two tiny oval plates. These will go on the wall of white plates as soon as I get them cleaned up. They are pretty dirty. I have them soaking in peroxide to clean up some of the discoloration on them.


The hutch is coming along nicely. I need a plate to stand up on the bottom shelf and maybe a few other little things.

I also bought a HUGE oval ironstone platter, but didn't get a decent pic of it yet. It's so heavy. There's no way I would trust it on the wall. It's going to be used as a centerpiece.

Thank you Mom for the money, and thank you John for letting me have a couple hours to myself.

On the other side of the dining room, I made something to hang on the wall.


Over the chair in the corner there, on the right side, I hung these:


I did the frames a long time ago using this tutorial, but never could figure out what I'd put in them. I ended up using some left over drop cloth from the curtains, and embroidering them.

The dining room is almost complete! I am so happy with it.

To celebrate being done, I started ripping up the entry way flooring last night. It's glued down. I might have the adhesive removed before my next birthday. It is going to be painfully slow going. Not to mention my hands and arms are super sore today.

And a have my huge knitting project going.

AND!!!!!

John's making a new head board for our bed. I am so excited. He's almost done. Then I get to do my thing....painting, distressing, and glazing it. Woot! I am seriously so excited. It's the Farmhouse Bed from Knock-Off Wood. That lady is amazing. She uses furniture from Pottery Barn, etc for inspiration and makes free plans for anyone to use. I think the Pottery Barn bed frame was $600 maybe? More? And I don't even like or want a foot board. So John's just making the head board. I think he said he spent $60 including the bolts, etc.

Busy, busy, busy around here. Life is good.

1744

When it's Friday afternoon and you have a million things to do....

like figuring out how many guests are coming for a birthday party the next day

or maybe cleaning the house

or cooking the lunch you are going to serve for those guests

or making a birthday cake

or wrapping gifts

or finishing up any of the projects you've already started

you should drop everything and go to the sale at the local yarn shop.

And buy.....

1,744 yards of yarn!!!

And then start knitting. And stay up until 1am, knitting until you can't see straight.  Even if the cake isn't ready, the food isn't prepared, and the house is still a mess.