Pinwheels and Ellie's bed

Last December, I bought these fabrics to make a Christmas table runner. I knew there was no way I'd get to it last year. I figured if I started now, I wouldn't be in the Christmas rush to get it done this year. I have the blocks done. I need to add a little strip of plain fabric between each block, then a border on the sides and ends. I'll free motion quilt it. I am not sure what kind of fabric to use for the binding. It might have to sit for a while after I get it quilted.


Ellie's bed is done and back in her room. I tried to wait for a sunny day to get a picture, but then gave up on there ever being one. Or course today is sunny, but I already have this picture. I spray painted it Krylon's Sun Yellow.

Paint job number one from last winter.

It looks better to me. Probably not worth the effort I put into it though. Gah. It would look better if the walls weren't yellow. But Ellie loves her yellow room. I'm done messing with it for now.

John's given me a list of miscellaneous jobs we need to get done around the house, then we can move onto remodeling the next room!

I never said "After"

Dining room last summer.

And I am certainly not saying it now! But, I could say something like "closer" or "another item off the list" or something else that gives me an out so I can change things up later.

This picture hides the hole that's still there from the old fixture.

This one doesn't.

Why on earth wasn't the old electrical box centered in the room? When the old chandelier was there, the person sitting on that side of the table would hit their head when sitting down or getting up. We took it out and put in a cheap flush mount fixture the summer we moved in.

Sick of this picture yet? Last June.

Old chandelier.

I really wanted to get a picture from this angle again, but the table that's in that corner is full of junk, plus it's raining AGAIN today. I took a picture but it was super dark. If the sun EVER comes out again, I'll take one.

It feels like a real dining room now!

The do-over.

Primed. Again.

The moment I moved Ellie's bed into her room (in December), I didn't like the color. But I had talked up the new bed, new room thing so much that I just had to go with it. When I looked at the paint for the bed next to the paint chip for the wall, the bed color seemed a lot brighter. It was paint I already had, so I was happy not to have to buy more paint. Once I moved the bed in there though, it was almost the same color as the walls. It was not what I had envisioned at all.

This week, John has been gone. I had the perfect opportunity to paint it. Ellie and I have been sleeping in Mary's room with her. I moved Ellie's box springs and mattress in there just on the floor. I moved the frame out into the garage on Monday. And there it sat. The only time I had to work on it was after the girls were asleep. I just didn't have the energy. So when Ellie was with John's Mom this morning, I finally got started.

Pictures of the updated color when I get it back into her room. I hope I like it!

Cat (and clean bedroom) optional.

Sometimes, I wish I could have fancy pictures for my blog. But let's face it, I don't have time or the energy. I really wanted to get some current pictures of my log cabin blanket. I managed to get the bed cleared off. It was piled with junk as John is out of town, and I sleep in Ellie's bed most of the time.

"What does a cat have to do to get some sleep around here!?!"

Maybe I would have made more of an effort to get a better picture if it hadn't been so cloudy. Most of the ones I took came out super dark. I tried to take a sweet picture of Momma Cat and she just looked like a ball of fur.

So, knitting. Yeah. I am going to finish this blanket in under a year. I started it in late August or early September. It now measures about four feet square. I was hoping that one more time around (all eight colors) would finish it, but now I see that I'll need to go around two more times. Holy cow. This last section nearly killed me. I think there's about 240-250 stitches per row. Twenty rows per section if you count the cast on and the bind off. So somewhere near4,800 stitches in just the off white section I just did.

I left it on the bed all day. I'm getting ready to take a break from it anyway. I loved walking by and seeing it.

"Thanks for the new blanket, now go away."

Fancy pictures to come on a sunny day when this bad boy is complete. Maybe we'll even have the bedroom remodeled and cleaned up by then.

A brown and yellow spring

I am ready for some leaves on the trees and some green grass too! I think this is the longest spring ever. About three weeks ago, it got really warm. Then it got super cold. Somehow my new daffodils survived.

I'm really excited about this area pictured above. In the middle is an old stump. It was the tree that knocked our power out (for 91 hours) in September 2008. John split all the wood but left it right there in a pile. All of the bark, twigs, and leaves sort of composted in place and now the dirt is excellent there. On Sunday I planted 2 rose of sharon bushes on the back side. I put in some stargazer lilies. This is where Mary had her zinnias last year, so we'll plant more there this year too.

I'm going to plant a row of giant sunflowers next to this part of the fence. The fence is basically our property line. The grassy part on the other side belongs to John's Dad. It was all weeds and thorny bushes until last spring when John decided to clean it out. It looks so much better now. John mows it now to keep the weeds from coming back. The first picture in this post is right out of shot here, up and to the left. The driveway turns and that's where the stump is.

Both the planter boxes by the garage are planted in daffodils. They just started blooming. Once they are done, I'll plant all the bulbs (150) in the yard somewhere. Then I'll buy more bulbs this fall for the planter boxes next spring. My dream is to have ten thousand daffodils in our yard. They multiply quickly, right? We've put in about 500 since we've lived here. Some single bulbs have already turned into 5-6 bulbs which could be dug up and divided.

Here's a close up. I really need to go outside when the garage door isn't open and take a picture. My car is in the garage, and if I take a picture of both planter boxes my license plate will show. I'm too lazy to edit it out. Maybe more daffodils will bloom in the next few days, and I'll remember.

See? It's brown out there. Maybe the grass is green and the weeds are brown? Or the weeds are green and the grass is brown?

The above area is this weekend's project. This area is the poppy garden. There used to be a dead tree there, but John cut it down and put in a new maple tree for me. I planted the hyacinths. There's a few daffodils in there too. Maybe I'll put more in someday. There are these little yellow wildflowers too that are just starting to bloom. John's going to dig up the "back" of this area, and we'll go over to our trusty tree line and get some daylilies. Maybe we'll move some other stuff too. I bought some perennial daisy seeds yesterday, but they won't bloom until next year. They will be in there too.

This fancy little guy came in a package of boring ol' yellow daffodils. Guess he didn't get the memo to be yellow, so I took his picture.

Ikea here I come!

I'm making a trip to Ikea on Saturday. It's pretty far away so I don't go often. Or at least I tell myself it is far away. I read about people who travel 4-6 hours or more to get to one. The nearest one is only about an hour and 20 minutes from here.

I want to get a couple of items for the bathroom, and then it will be done! So much for a quick and easy update. It does look much better though. I'm not sure what the next house project will be. Hopefully it will warm up and stay warm so we can work outside.

If I go missing, I've moved into Ikea and am eating meatballs and dark chocolate.

Random picture because I don't like blog posts without pictures!

I didn't want to clean today.

So I spent the morning taking random pictures.

An apple?

I've been working on the ledge shelves in the bathroom. I spray painted the frames a while back when we had a nice afternoon. I thought it would be fun to get some mat boards for the art. Well, they were $2 or $3 each. Dang. I'm not paying $3 for a matting to go into a thrifty frame holding a scribble. So I coughed up the money for a mat board cutter. I didn't even know they existed. I'm certainly not an expert on using it yet, but I can do a pretty good job. Now I can wait until the huge sheets of mat board go one sale at Hobby Lobby and cut several (10? 15?) in custom sizes. The cutter was $30 and the mat board goes on sale for (I think) $4.

DIY ledge shelves

John made me these shelves. They are three feet long. He made the same thing for my Mom for Christmas. Hers are four feet long, and she painted them white. Idea/plans here: Ana White Ten Dollar Ledges. Her site used to be called Knock Off Wood, and it is where we also got the plans for our headboard.

Remember the bird print from my Indy thrifting trip?


It was in the cheapest plastic frame EVER. It just peeled off the picture in one big piece. The front was real glass though, so I kept it.


I spray painted a gold frame I already had, cut the matting, and put the birds in. It's an odd sized frame though. I'm not entirely pleased with it.

It's a big improvement from when I bought it though, huh? I'll keep my eye out for a different frame for it.

I'm feeling pretty good about the stuff I bought in Indy. I've used the Easter eggs, the man's shirt, the thrifty frames and the one from Target. Oh, and the wreath.

Coffee filter wreath.

And the mirror for Ellie's room that I bought at Target that day.

It was the perfect size and shape.

I can't believe I paid full price for this and painted it.

I think the mirror was twenty bucks. Considering she has a free dresser and lamps, I figured it was okay to spend so much.

Busy me! I realized last night that my bedtime is no longer 10:30pm. I usually stay up until 11:30pm or midnight. It's catching up with me though. I've got to start going to bed earlier. Right after I finished my next couple projects. That sounds like a plan to me.