wise craft

The Great Bedroom Redo of 2006

I gave myself a deadline of May to finish my quilt, so I thought it high time to show some more progress pictures (I get giddy at the recordkeeping aspect of blogging).

Not looking all that done is it?  I'm not looking for props here, really.  Just sharing what it looks like today.  I have patiently basted, basted, and when I thought I'd basted enough...I basted some more (that's the contrast thread for anyone unsure).  I got suggestions from you guys about backing it with a king-sized sheet (remember when I had that backing dilemma??).  At first I thought, nah, can't do it, it wouldn't be big enough.  If quilting how-to books tell you that your backing has to start out bigger than your quilt top, in Blair's world it would need to a lot bigger than the quilt top.  It took a while until it occurred to me to buy a king sized sheet and a twin sized sheet to add adequate room for the total size, geez!  After searching around for a sheet sale, for about $30 later, I have myself a nice robin's egg blue solid quilt backing.  Whew!  How long would it have taken me to figure that one out without you?  Too long I fear.  I'm apparently too close to this project to apply the needed "stand 10 ft away and squint" mentality.

The neatest part (for me anyway) is the tiny off-white quilting stitches in the first photo.  I am entirely new to hand quilting.  A real rite of passage for me.  I am sure I will, after 36 17"  handquilted squares later, have refined this skill.  This will be excellent sitting and watching TV stitching.

Now, for rambling about the other details of our bedroom, where this quilt will eventually live.  The room itself is very....well....er...beige.  Khaki beige.  This is a tough color for me, but its a lot of room to repaint, so I've managed to work around my dislike.  So, on to what goes with beige.  Easy you say?  Hmmmmm, let's just say our unconscious color choices led us to add....more beige.  Why?  Because Peter and I can't ever agree on anything decor-wise and should probably live in separate houses on the same patch of land for this very reason.

We are not beige people.  We are colorful, happy, peppy even, at times.  Not...beige.  (In a bit of defense of beige, I've seen it work very well when intended to ground or frame a room.)  We have managed to add nice color to all the other rooms of our house, but our bedroom has been neglected.  Till now.  In addition to our quilt, what has turned into the great bedroom redo of 2006 has started already with new curtains to frame our really bland (but nice enough) roman shades.  There are 6 windows in this room, three are grouped together.  That's a lot of off-white canvas roman shade-ness.  I consulted stylist extraordinaire  Alicia.  She has the yummiest curtains in her beautiful room, so we conversed a bit.  I've never found anything...anything at all that felt like the right thing to add whatever these windows needed (in 5 years of looking and pondering).  She suggested going to Urban Outfitters and look at their cotton bedspreads.  Eureka!

A quick trip to Urban and nagging asking Peter to help hang, I now have a lovely set of curtains from two $34 bedspreads.  The pillow is new too, originally it was two $4 cotton napkins from Anthropologie.  I think this is only its temporary home, I'm already thinking brighter color is needed here.  I will keep you posted on my progress.

What would I do without you guys to consult on these dilemas??

How my garden grows

Thank you all so very much for your kind words about the party bags.  That bag pattern is extremely fun and satisfying to make, I love looking at them on my craft room wall (although one is already out the door).

I did it.  I weeded- a little.  This subject has been such a monkey on my back this season, usually I love to weed, but I haven't been the slightest bit interested in it.  But I finally put forth a little effort on one part of the yard.  Our house came with a large back yard (one of the compelling reasons to move, we didn't have a back yard at our previous house), and although we leave most of the yard grassy for playing, there are a few areas that get planted.

This is the patio off the dining room.  During the summer, we eat dinner out here almost every night, I really love this spot.  When we moved in, the beds surrounding this patio were completely empty.  We were, as always, on a tight budget, so most the plantings were cuttings from our neighbors, as we have the unbelievable fortune to be surrounded by amazing gardens.  As for all other plantings, a few were bought, others were moved in from other areas of the yard.  Originally I was sure I wanted all white flowers in this patch.  I love white flowers especially in the Spring, their nightly glow.  However, I do not have a talent or energy for knowing what flowers bloom when.  I actually attempted to make a chart to try and plan it out on my own, but even my attempt made no sense when I looked at it again later.    Low maintenance ground covers and shrubs had to be the answer, and if I was to completely honest with myself, I did not have the time to nurse a garden.  The goal had to be tidy, oh, and interesting up close, since we would be sitting out there.    As I planted, I the contrast between light and dark plants grouped together made me happy, so I expanded.  I am happy to report that my vision is still developing in the garden, not entirely lost to the weeds.

There are no flowers in the garden, unless it blooms on a shrub.  But a certain 7 year old has asked for flowers because the fairies would like them, so we tucked a few in here and there.  Unexpected little peeks of flowers have proved to be lovely.

The bed below is what I see outside of the new craft studio.

So, the patio is on its way now.  I'll get to the washing off of the table and chairs.  I have some planters I hang on the shingled walls, I refill the strawberry pots and plant tomatoes in a large pot on the patio, but I'll get to all that.

If you could only see the weeds I cropped out of these photos.

This book is on my mother's day wish list.  Any favorite black-sh or chartreuse green plants of yours?  I'd love to hear about it.

Pieced and pressed

A new patchwork bag, "Koko".  This one is going to someone special in Denmark.

I was hoping there would be more patchwork bags to show. They are slow coming, I'm just not feeling huge amounts of inspiration in this area.  I'm sure I'll find it somewhere (like in some new Japanese fabric... Jen???).

These fabrics were last week's thrifting score.  Such bliss to grab a coffee, head to the nearest thrift haunts *by myself* (for I am a thrift shop loner), and wander the aisles while silently singing along to all the 80's music overhead.  I can't completely be on board for use what you have for this very reason.  These upholstery weight cottons said printed in England, couldn't really read the manufacturer.

Don't they just feel like...iced tea...garden bench....straw hat...finger sandwich...party bags?

A closer look here.  They are available in the shop.  The top right bag is made from a set of vintage napkins I've had in my stash for quite a while, so happy to see them made up into something.

meme of five things

A necklace I couldn't resist from Glamscience.  I saw Daria's lovely line of goods at Urban Craft Uprising last Fall in Seattle, but was frozen with indecision because of the amount of people swarming around.  That crowd kind of freaked me out.  Last week, in the privacy of my craft room I was finally able to decide on the red/orange glitter necklace (sorry D, my photo does not show these cuties to their fullest).  Daria sent along the clip and a sweet little gift card too.  Thank you, I'm wearing my necklace right now and I love it.  Daria is a creative genius with just the right amount of glitter.  I'm not flashy by any stretch of the imagination, but this weekend I loved catching the little sparkle coming from my neck when I'd walk past a window or mirror.  Be sure to check out her super cute blog too.

On to today's business, I was recently tagged by Leslie and Robin.

1.  Five minutes to yourself: how would you spend them, ideally?
Fulfilling my ultimate fantasy of time management...finish a sewing project, reading a good book, folding a load(s) of laundry, all rolled into a glorious five minute chunk of time.  I'm also thinking of that scene in "Clueless" where Alicia Silverspoon and her friends are looking for something to do and she says something like "Why don't we drive around with the top down pretending we're in a J Crew catalog"...that sounds fun, but I can't explain why.

2.  Five bucks to spend right now: how would you spend it?
Some new music from ITunes... maybe a magazine- depending on my mood, an interiors one, or maybe just some brain candy like a... cough cough...People.

3. Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already? (In other words, cull the junk, mentally at least.)
All of our wedding crystal.  We have tons of it, have never used it, and I've never really liked it.
Our living room sofa (as Michael Kors says...."its farty").
Most of the junk in our junk drawers.
50% of the toys in our house.  Fewer toys usually get played with more.
The yucky food in the back of the fridge.

4.  Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house?
Family photographs
my children's artwork
paintings done by my extended family
Emma and Ian's "blankies"
Any jeans that fit.

5.  Five words you love?
Ones my kids have made up-  "Fluffybuns", "Soulpuppy", "Midwell"- windmill, "Callerpittar"- caterpillar

and my all time favorite word...cake

Whoever wants to take the baton and meme yourself, feel free.

Buttons and Bows

Felt flowers...

for girly hair...

bowl of buttons...
 

bracelet for mom...

Pretty things to share

I am so inspired by Spring this year.  Maybe because I can actually see it from my workroom now.  You may have read in my list of 40 things that Spring and Fall tie for my favorite season.  I love to watch the change unfold.  Dependable change, the cadence of it.  It makes me happy.

I celebrated my birthday by grabbing a few new things off etsy, one being this lovely pin by Pink Milk.  I was clicking around one day and somehow ended up in their shop.  Their avitar struck me as very cool (aren't we all just buying time till we find the ultimate little tiny picture to identify ourselves with on etsy and flickr?), as did the story of their collaboration.  I loved the name of this pin "Old Ladies Have The Best Buttons".  How true.  I seem to be a little light in my button stash these days, probably why I fell in love with this. 

And seriously, doesn't every girl need a little something-something from Paris tied up with pink ribbon on her birthday?

A swap package came from Adriana just before I left for vacation.  She had posted about giraffes she had made, which I fell in love with.  I've always loved her blog, her photos are beautiful and I would have her over any time to cook for me.  Especially these.  She suggested a swap and the rest is Christmas, so to speak..for me anyway (she's still waiting for her swap package from yours truly).  As we unwrapped her package, the bounty of goodness just kept on coming.  Not only do we now have the sweetest giraffe named Azucena, but because Adriana didn't want Emma to feel left out (or me for that matter), I got my own set of her very adorable crocheted teacup cozies, some lovely fabric (which is already being used) and she made the sweetest, fluffiest bunny for Emma.  She also sent Japanese snack containers and coin purses for each of the kids. 

Her packaging was brilliant, although we don't take photos of much of that around here, for reasons you can probably guess.  Trust me, it was every bit as great as what was inside.

Adriana, your package is in progress as we speak and will soon be safely on its way.

Upon arriving back home, I had a package from Denmark.  Denmark has always been one of my very favorite places, but now I have another reason to love it, dear Kristina.  We had been planning to do a swap for such a long time.  Even through endless email problems, we persevered on to swap.  She sent me so many pretty things.

I finally got a funny lady!  And she is me to a "t", the way I throw my hands up in the air and say "ahhhhh" when I walk into my new studio.  And Kristina knitted one of her wonderful stuffed animals.  She said in her note that it struck her as funny to be giving a stuffy to another adult.  I say, what's a stuffy between craft bloggers??  I love him, the colors were handpicked and he was handknitted for me.  No one has ever knitted me anything (now Mom, before you call, the lovely scarf you made for me was crocheted, remember?)  Anyway, Kristina made amazing collages for me, Emma, and Ian.  A matching game for the kids, chocolates all around, and a wonderful Dutch interiors magazine, resulting in a blissful afternoon for all.

Doesn't he remind you of this picture?

Thank you so much Adriana and Kristina.  You girls should feel complimented, Peter is very jealous, he said he's on the hunt for cycling blogs so he can do some bike part swaps.  I say, good luck with that.

And then today, a package arrived at my doorstep (a girl could get used to this, I'm starting to get mad when the postman only has mail, not packages) from a sparrow, with birthday goodies.  An adorable kitty with her perfect little stitches (someone just removed his cute little collar to get a closer look at the fish on it), an eyeglass case crocheted by that said sparrow, and some lovely fabric.  I am such a lucky girl.  Thank you so much Toni.

Stay tuned for more finished items by the end of the week.  I kind of had a computer free day for most of the day today, so I'll probably post on Friday.  I have plenty to do between now and then.

 

Learning curve

I've been working hard today on 4 new purses.  I had such a routine in my old craft room, a subconscious turning left for this, reach up here for this, pull this out of this drawer...its a whole new game up here for me.  A very frustrating, unexpected learning curve.  I'm taking a purse break to play with Ian.

I really love the fact that I have Ian here at home with me for a few hours each day.  Just the two of us.  I sometimes feel that I never fully experienced a four year old because, well, I had a one year old that was keeping me very busy.  But now, with just the two of us, we have fun.  We have lunch, we play, we snuggle, we read.

I think I'm going to go play Playmobil.  I have a swiss ski chalet to put together. 

But purses definitely tomorrow...

   
   

If you need me, I'll be here

I've worked wandered around my new little room, putting things in drawers, sorting colorful things, daydreaming of the podcasts I'll be able to listen to now that I will be crafting in the same room as my computer lives in...you know, all the important organizational things. When I came home from my trip East, Peter had not only painted the room that was to be my craft room (it took three coats of the Martha Stewart "Celedon" I chose to cover the red) he had also been to IKEA and bought storage for me, two armoires and a matching bookcase.  This was completely unexpected. Happy Birthday to me!  It was originally going to be purely a use what you have room.  Other than a coat of paint, it was all going to be pulled from around the house, which was fine with me (I watch HGTV).  I rationalized that at the end of a day of sewing, there would be the usual mirage of pins and threads all over the floor, and with the added discord of fabric swatches and scraps thrown around, so why have new stuff?  But I guess now I'll be rethinking that a bit.

This is the sewing area (here's a tiny before glimpse of where the sewing machine is now).  A large, long wooden kitchen table top-type thing from IKEA.  I now get to look out a bright sunny south facing window into our back yard.  I feel a part of the human crafting race again.  My old craft room, in the basement, with no natural light to speak of, felt a little like a casino (minus the open bar), easy to lose track of the time of day, not to mention everything looked terrible in that dreadful overhead lighting.  The dust cover I've been using over my sewing machine is a lovely embroidered piece that Jackie found second hand and sent me in a swap package, it looks so much nicer than the big herkin plastic cover that came with my machine. (May have to click on the photo to see it.)

We have a lot of bamboo shades in our house.  In the summer, when the sun is so bright and hot, we can lower the shades, but still get a wonderful breeze through the shades with the windows up  (I don't personally know of anyone in Seattle that has air conditioning).  I look forward to that. All the window and wall trim was stained dark brown by the previous owners.  Although I don't know if I would have chosen this originally, but we could never bring ourselves to paint over it and now I really like it.

These wooden drawers were more IKEA storage from my old craft room.  Using what I have I covered the fronts of the drawers with paper.  Now I'm looking at my tired old ironing board cover thinking it should be spruced up a bit.  Oh, Cath Kidston, where are you?

Now, ribbons, thread, bobbins and bits are all within easy reach of my sewing area.

These prints (which still need frames) are from Emily Martin/The Black Apple.  I am such a fan of her work.  I love the doe-like look of the eyes, the dreamy quality of the of her art. Whimisical little girls with dresses and kites blowing around, the colors are beautiful. (Have a look at her etsy shop, as well as her blog that I only recently discovered).  They are what you'll see when looking through the doorway, on the opposite wall.  What do you think?

Continue touring the room here.

confusion...

Ian: "Mom, today is stuff day."

Me: "Oh yeah, well what's stuff day?"

Ian: "It's when the stuffbunny comes and hides your stuff in a bush....a maaaaagic bush."

Me (looking perplexed): "Oh, I see, I think."

Ian: "Where's your stuff Mom?"

...Ian's stuff

Happy stu.. er... I mean Easter.

Tired but very very happy.

Ah, nothing like a day of nine hours of air travel with the two apples of my eye to really make me remember what being tired feels like!  All those other times I said I was tired, I was lying.  I am silly tired.  I am unable to lift my teacup tired.  Hoping to recover soon....I need to be able to lift that teacup.  I got a lovely new one for my birthday from my dear friend Sarah, a barn owl Emma Bridgewater mug.  I'm not quite an E. Bridgewater collector, we have some pieces that Jen gave us, but I could be, I love it all so much.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, I truly enjoyed reading each and every one of your comments.  Even though I had no formal celebration, I felt quite celebrated this year.  I have to admit that I don't know what being 40 should feel like, but I am still completely unbothered by the fact that I've entered a new decade, a little excited even.  Sweet pea said 40 is apparently the new 20, I'll take that (although I'm hoping to use that theory when I enter my 50's too).  Everything I do in my life now is much more thoughtful.  Not that the spontaneity and impulsiveness is gone, its around.   Peter started off my birthday by writing me a letter listing all the reasons being 40 is cool (he's 43).  Through happy tears I agreed with it all, but if only I'd known in my 20's what I know in my 40's, then my 30's would have been, yadda yadda yadda....

I had such a nice visit with my family in North Carolina.  I bring back to Seattle a head of hair that is much curlier thanks to the southeastern humid air, a temporarily renewed southern drawl (this comes and goes), and warm thoughts of family.  Peter worked very hard on my craft studio, its painted and outfitted properly, but now its up to me to organize it all.  Its....well, its just beautiful.  I will hopefully get it finished up over the weekend. 

I have so much to share with you.  Ideas are swimming in my head, fun swaps to work on.  I got some wonderful mail while I was gone, but they deserve their own post.  Let's just say I feel very spoiled and lucky!  More soon.