sneak peek and some quilty inspiration

Here's a little peek at a quilt I've been working on. I think it's going to be realllly pretty, I can't wait to show you the finished product :) I'll share a little more about it when it's all finished, of course. My Christmas sewing list is getting longer by the day, so I wanted to go ahead and get this one off my plate. We've been enjoying some blizzardy weather today, so sewing time was more plentiful than usual.

I ran across this pattern recently and L-O-V-E it. It's called Another Brick in the Wall and you can find it in online shops everywhere. To me it looks like stacks of books.
Also, I saw this quilt on a bed in Crate & Barrel while on a date with Casey several months ago. It looks especially cool on a bed, since the uneven strips drape over the sides. Pretty cool, I think I can copy it :) Use up the bucket of strips I've been collecting! (I wish I could make these pictures bigger, sorry.)

I've decided to go ahead and reopen my Etsy shop! Thanks to those of you who offered encouraging words. I wish I could open it up before Christmas, but that's not gonna happen :) so I'm shooting for the end of January. I'm excited! My goal is to start selling fabric there eventually, so I would so love to hear input on what kind of fabric Etsy shoppers would like to see there, as well as ideas on how to make my shop stand out among all the other fabulous fabric vendors in cyberspace :)

yet another girls' room revamp

Remember my girls' lovely room? About a year ago, it looked like this:

Yeah, the awesome tent lasted a good couple of months. It really wasn't the kids' fault, the thing was just too dang heavy and I repaired it several times before giving up on it. *sigh* It was fun while it lasted. Then, the bed started falling apart. About a month ago, yet another slat holding the top mattress up there broke (while Casey was outta town, of course) so I had to haul that top mattress to the ground myself and Layla slept on the floor for awhile. We sold the bunk bed. I was not bummed, because what a pain it was!! Changing the sheets! Even singing to girl on top was hard!

So, I started painting the wooden day bed that was my cousin's growing up and I also started looking for another wooden bed on Craigslist. And I scored! After being too late on 4 other beds, I finally got one and for only $40.

So, here's that sneak peek painting project from my last post revealed!

I painted them a beautiful light turquoise color and love, love, love the new look! But, if I may say so myself, the quilts are really what make them great ;)  The girls are super excited too, after a few months on mattresses on the floor. They have actually made their beds every day! A novelty that will wear off soon, I'm sure :)

I have some ideas for wall art and toy storage, since the walls are pretty bare right now. I'll be sure and share the progress!

Easter Sewing

I've been Easter sewing up a storm! Well, that makes it sound more frantic than it's actually been, cause I started several weeks ago. Here's a sneak peek!

After three attempts, I finally made a winner for my own Easter dress. It's the beautiful rayon on the left. I'll post specifics about all these dresses after Easter, when I have photos of us wearing them!

I had a couple of vintage bunny prints that were given to me that I thought would be perfect for nightgowns for the girls, so today I dug them out and whipped some up to put in their Easter baskets. Rather than deal with a pattern, I made them pillowcase-dress-style. They turned out sooo cute, especially after adding these eyelet trims, which I think I got a whole bag of, with several colors at a thrift store.

I made these pretty much from memory, but there are tons of instructions for pillowcase dresses around the web. I'm going to JoAnn's this weekend and if they have any cute knits for boys, I'll put some p.j.'s together for Kelby too :) I spent $15 on the fabric for my own dress, but the girls' dresses and the nightgowns were all from my stash and were all given to me by my dear older friend at church! A couple zippers and a roll of ribbon later, and I think I'm down $25 for FIVE Easter garments!! Not bad.

Speaking of JoAnn's, the new Simplicities are out and on sale this weekend! I have picked out a few from the new line.

I like the lines of this one a lot, especially with those pockets! I'm a little concerned about the width of that neckline, though. It looks like a regular bra would show. And, I'd only make the short sleeved version.

I'm on the fence about this next one. The lines are really cool, obviously, but I don't know how this would flatter the hips. I've had mostly good luck withe Cynthia Rowley line, though, so I think I'll give it a shot. Any thoughts?

This one's kinda cool. I'm not sure about the cut-out, although I have recently seen something just like it on the cover of some style magazine or another, but I do really like the ties around the waist. Plus, the shape is a tried and true one for me.

Have you noticed all the asymmetrical hems this season?? I have a fabric that would suit this style perfectly and thought I would have to wing it, until I saw this pattern. (And there's that cut-out thing again on the top. What do you think about this cut-out style?)

This is adorable for the girls. I love every view. It goes up to size 8, so I'm in luck.

The only thing I like on this last one is view C, the little top with the cute pleats and sleeves. Natalie would look adorable in it. And maybe the shorts. Maybe. Okay, and maybe the dress, I guess. But those pants are awful. I haven't been a big fan of the Suede Says line. Usually the styling is so bad that it's hard to even see the lines, but this one could work. Natalie's style is getting a little more grown up (*sniff*) so I'm going to grab this pattern.

Have you seen the new simplicities? Which are your must-haves??

Bathroom!!

We finally got our hall bathroom all fixed up! This is the first of three bathrooms to get a make-over. I won't keep you waiting :) Here's the before:

The bones were good--although I wish I'd gotten a picture of the really ugly light :)  But, the mirror was already there, as were the shutters and the vintage countertop. Here's what it looks like now:

This may be the smallest room in the house, but I think it took the most work! I removed wallpaper (I don't want to talk about it) and Casey installed bead board. I then painted the walls and bead board, replaced the fabric in the shutters and spray painted the mirror. Oh, and Casey installed the light, which we got on Craigslist (I know, surprise, surprise). It's such a happy room now!

I need to get some new hand towels to match, but that hand towel holder is an old mail slot we found at the Salvage Lady. We were looking for an old door handle or something but found this instead and it's perfect! And, much cheaper than a store-bought one. (Anyone else think some things are just way overpriced?)

Since I finally got around to painting the girls room over the weekend, I couldn't help sharing a sneak peek :)

See that pink cordless drill up there? Yep, that's part of my new pink tool set that Casey got me for Christmas. I LOVE it! Use it all the time--it makes me feel so empowered, haha.

Before and After...the first of many!

Well, the first little area of our new house is ready for show and tell! It's just the entryway, but hey, it was quite a bit of work :)
Here's what it looked like before:

Here's a little closer...

And this is what is looks like now!

...and a little farther away:

What do you think??? I think it looks really pretty, I love the colors we chose and really couldn't be happier.  The linoleum is going to stay for now, but someday we'll replace that with tile.  Surprisingly, the new decor kinda just makes it blend in, which is good :)

I'm still busy on the kitchen, it should be ready to show pretty soon, and here's a little sneak peek of the living room:

That beautiful photo up there was taken by my friend Becky.  She had it printed big and framed it, but during a move, she was getting rid of it so I snatched it up.  Whenever I look at it, it makes me smile, because it was taken by such a friend.  I think art should always mean something to us, don't you? Still working on that Charley Harper coffee table book, haha ;)

yay! finally :)

I made my sister a quilt for her birthday (which was yesterday.) I've had it all done for a month and was SO excited to give it to her. She called yesterday when the box arrived and so I got to be on the phone with her when she opened it. She really loved it and I'm sooo happy about that of course :) I'm also happy that I can finally blog about it! I gave a sneak peek here and another little one here on accident, but I don't think she noticed ;)

This pattern is called a "Snowball" quilt. I bought the bird fabric first, after Jana and I received the same the same JoAnn quilt flyer in the mail and she told me how much she liked it that fabric. Then I came across this design and thought it would really showcase the birds without having to chop them up. I bought all the other fabrics to coordinate with the birds.


I happened upon this backing fabric on clearance at JoAnn! I had already done a once-over and didn't see anything that would work, but then came across this fabric stuck someplace weird :) It was perfect, it has all the right colors!