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. 

Freebie.

Free mirror from Grandma Mary + white spray paint , chalkboard spray paint, glaze (all on hand) =

I hope Mom likes it.

Adjusting to the new school year

Mary started pre-k on Monday! I am so excited for her. She's going daily from 8:30 to 12:30. It has been a crazy week here. I was looking forward to not breaking up fights for 4 hours a day. Now I just have to listen to "where's Mary?" all morning. Hmm. Yesterday Ellie picked up the toy phone and said "Hello, Mary Elizabeth? You come home now, Mary Elizabeth?" I thought she'd like having more time with me, but I was wrong.

Please note she's looking at her reflection in the deck door. She's also growing her bangs out....again. I hope it sticks this time. The last time they got into her eyes, and she refused to pull them out of the way. I cut them because it drove me crazy.

I'm working on my August to do list. I have the last little bit of wall decoration/art almost done for the dining room. I've touched up the paint. John is going to put the doorknob back on for me this weekend. I've painted the living room and hallway bathroom windows. I have NOT lost 10 pounds. Ugh. I've worked on Mom's mirror, and can finish it up with a coat of wipe on poly this weekend.

I'm thinking about knitting something. It has been many, many months since I actually knit. Longies season is just around the corner too. I was hoping Ellie would be nearly potty trained by now, but she isn't. And her legs must have grown 3 inches this summer because the last pairs of longies I made late last winter are now capris on her.

Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight to avoid picking up the toys.

It's Buddy!

Turns out a stray cat doesn't stay wild too long when he gets three meals a day. We've named him Buddy. He's super sweet, but also a dork. The first time I thought I saw him hunting, it turned out he was killing some weeds. There's a patch of grass by the front porch that's hard to get with the mower. He attacks that too.

Today we went out and fed him mid ice cream sandwich. He tolerates the girls pretty well, but does better being petted by them if his head is in the food bowl.

I actually got something done!

I've had this small project in mind forever. We had a row of black and white photos of Mary in our hallway. There were 5 of them. I took them the month we moved in.

Mary Elizabeth 17 months old

Mary Elizabeth 4.5 years old

I took the two physical photos and held them up as I was taking the old one out of the frame. I couldn''t even believe that the two are the same person. We thought Mary was so big when I took that old picture. And of course now I think she was just a baby back then and is so big now. I can't imagine what she (and Ellie) will look like in two more years when I get around to replacing them again.

Eleanor Ruth 23 months old

I love this picture of Ellie even though her face is obscured. I didn't hang it in the hallway though. I used this one instead.


What sweeties.