A reminder for me.

I ran across a picture the other night, and it reminded me of something.

Mary's room, January 2011

I have a hard time remembering how far we've come with the interior of our house. Most of the time I'm busy thinking about when we can start the next project. Or when we can get this or that done. I have a million ideas. I'm always thinking. There's never enough time or energy. I can never catch up.

Maybe I just need to stop and appreciate what we've done.

The same view - today

I saw the picture of Mary's blue room and couldn't believe the difference. Mary's room painted. New trim. Doors painted. The hallway has new trim. Our bedroom door (in the background) has been painted and has new hardware. And of course a million other projects that have been done since the original picture.

This weekend I'm going to go get the paint for the hallway and the living room (they will be the same color). I'm going to try to paint the hallway soon. Knowing myself, I'll probably want to start it Saturday.

Today I primed and painted Ellie's ceiling. We had some electrical work done in her room over the summer. There used to be an exhaust fan in her ceiling. No idea why. There was no overhead light. It was really annoying. We had the fan removed and installed a light. But then there was this huge patch of the ceiling that wasn't painted right. And every night (in the dark) while I was putting Ellie to sleep, I thought about the ceiling. Yup. It's true. Ellie didn't notice. John probably didn't even notice. It wasn't even that the color was too far off, but the paint that had been covered by the fan was flat and the rest of the ceiling was semi-gloss. It's fixed now, and I'll sleep better tonight.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to take the day off from mentally going over the to do list. I'll be back to it on Saturday:)

Gourds.

I love making little felted gourds. I think this is my third year making them.

Fall centerpiece.

When I got mine out this year, I decided to put them in my $5 ironstone bowl for a centerpiece. I carefully arranged them by shape and color. Ellie saw them, "organized" them all, and then threw them back in the bowl. And there they are.

Kate's gourds.

John's sister Kate asked me for a set. At first I wasn't too excited about it. There's the knitting, the felting, the stuffing, knitting the tops, and assembling. The knitting is easy and fun. I don't really use a pattern anymore. I like mixing the colors and seeing them after they are felted. I like knitting the stems too because picking the right color yarn really makes the gourd. There are a couple I wish I could keep, but they are all ready to be packaged up and shipped off.

I found the paint chip for the hallway and living room! I'm hoping to get the paint this weekend, but the living room itself is going to have to wait until after the holidays.

I/we have another project in the works. It's an extension of the hallway I guess. One of my great ideas. It's more work for John, and I was surprised he agreed to it. It sort of reminds me of the time he just wanted to build some shelves for the basement, and I made him re-do every surface down there. I'm really excited about this next project. We just need to find the time to get started.

something crafty

I made a little quilted table topper for our kitchen table last week. It isn't very big as we eat in the kitchen, and I don't want to take it on and off daily. I'm also not into decorating for Halloween, but I'm thinking of making a bigger one for the dining room table. I have a lot of fabric left over. I'm pretty happy with this little one though, as the log cabin square reminds me of my knitted blanket.

I'm also making another set of felted pumpkins/gourds. I wish they were for me, but they are going to John's sister Kate who lives in Spain. I have a couple other small projects to work on, and then I'm turning my attention to Christmas stuff.

Today the girls and I filled the planter boxes with new daffodil bulbs. I got 96 bulbs in each box (29 inches by 29 inches)! They are going to be beautiful in the spring!

I couldn't even find the "new post" button

Hello there! I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I just felt like I had nothing to blog about. We've been busy. We've been sick. We've traveled. We've settled into the school year.

I haven't felt very crafty lately. I've been slowly plugging along on a project, and it is finally done!

baby for Ellie.

I want to keep her for myself.

For my birthday this year, John and the girls bought me the book Itty Bitty Toys by Susan Anderson. The girls each picked out a project, and they bought the yarn too. The doll was slow going. She was made in pieces and then assembled. Then I had to make the clothes. She has on knit underwear under her dress. When it came to the dress, I didn't care for the pattern in the book, so I just made it up. I love the way it came out. Ellie's happy with her too. I'll be starting on Mary's project soon.


And of course my life wouldn't be any fun without some DIY. I finally convinced John to work on the hallway. So a couple weeks ago, I was all set to rip out the old trim. I had my tools. I sat down to start the first board. It wouldn't come off!!!!! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were two nails on each stud. One at the top, and one........set below the current carpet. I had to split the boards and then pull them out. The first baseboard was about 12 feet long, and I was taking it out in 16 inch segments. Good times. I finally got it all though. Then John started in on putting in the new trim. Then Mary got a huge assignment/project at school. THEN we got really sick! Fun! John had Monday off work though, and was able to finish up. Now it's up to me to paint. There are SIX doorways in the hallway. Painting the trim is so slow going. It's taking about 2.5 or 3 hours to do one coat of paint. I have it all primed now, and a half coat of paint on. I'm hoping to make more progress this weekend.

before. be gone, dark trim!

this morning.

So many doorways! Ugh. And I'm too short to do the top of them, so I have to get a step stool. I pretend it's exercise. John hasn't even started sanding the last two doors. He hates doing it, and I hate painting them. We never even use them anyway. One is to the basement which is always open so the cats can get to the litter box. The other door closes off the hallway from the other half of the house. I need to paint the walls too, but I've misplaced the paint chip. I'm going to find it soon though. I'm also going to find time to make the 2 hour round trip to Home Depot so I can get their paint plus primer.

Hopefully I'll be back to updating on a regular basis. Maybe.