searching for shade

ok, so everyone is off growing babies and i’m left to the blogging…whoops, that was a bad plan!

i did take a few photos of one of this weekend’s projects – magnolias.  after paying someone with heavy machinery to take down our 50+ year old oak tree and a random olive tree in the middle of summer, hubs and i immediately went through tree remorse.  not one to wait around, we ran out and bought two 12′ tall magnolia trees to start the process of replacing what we’ve taken away.  it’s no comparison to the tree that spread like an umbrella over our entire house, backyard and garage, but…it’s helping a little!

here you can see the olive tree on the side of our house.  it was super ugly and the branches kept dying.  birds would sit on the branches and chuck little berries (olives?) at you like bb’s out of a pellet gun.  it had no redeeming qualities.

the olive tree enjoys its final evening

After removing an olive tree

two new magnolias, ready for growth spurt

so you may be asking yourself – what’s up with the stump?  were you too cheap to pay the guys to grind it out?  in what appears to be a mis-communication, we remain owners of this tree stump.  not one to get bent out of shape over little things, i’ve tasked hubby with creating something like this:

courtesy of this old house

i’m here and i’m back!

i know i have been mia.  and i really am sorry.  i haven’t been doing much…  except growing a baby.

so please join me in #4′s internet debut…ta da!  #4!

 

needless to say, we are all very excited in this house.  although no one as much as big sis e.  she wakes me up each morning letting me know how happy she is to be a “triple big sister”.  she has also already begun to clear the house of any small objects.  coins, pizza pieces, baby kai lan, and mr. fluffy have all been relocated to a shoe box until baby is big enough.  that’s my e.  very proactive.  baby is due 11/5/2012.

and as if by magic as i entered the 2nd trimester i started to feel like sewing again.  i have 2 projects lined up for this week so stay tuned!

missed you girls.

 

dwell studio bedroom, in progress

hey, where are you guys?!  i know you’re not sitting around, so please start sharing again!!

my next room decor project is focused on our master bedroom, mostly because we don’t have anything that actually matches and is functional.  i’m a firm believer in white bedding so that’s not going to change, but i needed to spruce up the place a bit.  i fell in LOVE with the new dwell studio line of fabrics, but didn’t want to pay the prices for their bedding, so i’m trying to be a little creative and find ways to incorporate the fabric into our room.  you may recall i also used dwell studio in the mudroom redo too!

dwell studio fabric samples

what you can’t see – we used to have brown curtains on the windows, only because they were left over from my previous home.  they were too short and, well, brown, so i’ve wanted to replace them forever.  i decided on white (white?!) curtains, and i actually like them more than i was expecting!

i’m definitely not done yet, but what i have finished so far is: recovering the lampshade, adding a bench from our dining room and recovering it, and making 2 pillow covers.  small changes but the impact has been big!

for the lamp, i used bella porte charcoal.  sissy and i kind of traced the lamp onto the fabric, which worked fine and all, however the pattern is a little lopsided.  we didn’t think this through enough obviously.

the bench used to sit in our dining room since it’s technically part of our dining room seating, however we never use it.  instead i brought it upstairs and recovered it in vintage blossom in grey.  actually, i can’t take credit for this project – my very talented parents did this bench and the one in the mudroom while i was visiting hubby in japan!!  how awesome is that?

after seeing the vintage blossom on the bench, i knew i needed more, so i ordered 3 more yards of fabric and made two king-sized pillow covers using this tutorial.  i love them!!  the one change i made to the tutorial is that i didn’t do the edge.

pillow pocket close-up

next up are a few euro sized pillows in the yellow & white zig-zag pattern (premier prints line).  maybe also some toss pillows for the bench in one of the other fabrics…at any rate i hope hubby likes it when he returns!!

go fish

i’m back!!  whew, the last few weeks have been a little crazy, but my house is empty again so i was able to tear up the dining room with all my sewing gear.  the day wasn’t uneventful though – about 80% of the way through this project i snapped a needle and couldn’t find the bottom half for a while…thought it was inside the machine…until low and behold i found it stitched into the back of my project!  well, happy that it wasn’t in the black hole of my machine.

anywhoo, another month of baby showers for me!  i was getting bored with the standard issue bib & burp so i decided to get a little creative with my first applique.  since this baby’s gender is unknown, i stuck with green, yellow and orange fabric scraps.  yeah, that’s right – scraps.  i bought nothing for this project, whoopie!

i did use the fish pattern from a mccalls pattern i had, but could have created something similar pretty easily.

oh, and check out the labels, copied from se!!!!

nippori…

…is where i plan to be exactly 24 days from now, and i couldn’t be more excited!  anybody want me to pick up anything??

oh, wait, let me back up…

23 days from now i will depart this wonderful country aboard a 14-hour flight to the land of the rising sun.  yup, japan!  turns out spouses really can go on deployment every now and then, and i’m meeting the hubster in tokyo.  whoo hoo!

…so back to nippori…i’ve had my plane ticket for a month and change and wouldn’t you know the only thing i’ve researched as far as tourist things are concerned is where to buy fabric.  ha!  nippori is the fabric district of tokyo.  yeah, you read that right.  a whole section of town dedicated to fabric, notions, thread, buttons…oh my.  check out this site describing a store called tomato.  it’s almost too exciting to think about.

http://www.askingfortrouble.org/crafts/2007/11/02/tokyo-shopping-guide-tomato/

it’s a good thing i have status on delta because i’m definitely checking multiple bags on my way home

cheers

Tempting New Fabric

When I was ordering the final fabric for my SILs baby present, I threw these 2 in from the Heather Bailey Freshcut line for Jordan. I can’t wait to make something fun. What should I make…what should I make?

 

simple layer skirt

and i do mean simple.  simple i tell you!  i think it took 30 min?  maybe less.  opens a world of possibilities for my girls’ closets…

1.  cut your fabric.  i intended to keep mine the full width of the original fabric (44 / 45″) but one piece was smaller than the other so i had to trim them to the same size.  so just pick the width you want.  for i would recommend a 1:2 or 1:2.5 ratio so it has some twirl to it.  (i.e., measure your recipients waist and then multiple by 2 or 2.5 to get the width needed.)  i also chose to have the larger piece be 2″ longer than the smaller piece.  for this skirt the larger piece is 11″ and the smaller is 9″.

2.  for the smaller width piece i sewed the salvage ends together, right sides together.  i just made sure my seam was inside the white part of the salvage.  no need to serge or zig zag stitch since the salvage ends won’t shred.  for the piece whose salvage i had to cut i sewed the raw ends together right sides together and then zig zag stitched the raw ends.  iron your seams.

      

3.  hem both pieces.  i opted for a small hem but you can use whatever look you like best.  i folded under 1/4″ and then another 1/4″ and top stitched.  (sorry no pictures!)

4.  put the smaller piece inside the larger piece with right sides facing up on both.  so the right side of the smaller piece is facing the back of the larger piece.  make sure your fabric is facing the right directions if you are using unidirectional fabric.  sew along the top with a 1/4″ seam allowance.  (note:  this step made me think for a bit to make sure when i turned it, the pieces would lay right.)

5.  open the skirt up and iron the seam to one side.  then fold the top over and press the seam.

      

6.  sew along the top with a 1/8″ seam allowance.  this will help the band stay up more.

7.  depending on the width of your elastic, sew a line the width of your elastic + 1/2″ below the top seam.  be sure to leave a 2 inch gab to thread your elastic through.  back stitch at start and finish.

      

8.   attach a safety pin to your elastic and thread it through.  (note:  the opening to thread it through is between the 2 layers.)  i cut my elastic the width of the recipients waist +1″.  zig zag stitch the elastic closed.

      

9.  pulling the skirt taught, close up the hole.

      

      

10.  done!  simple, right?

evolution of a craft room

when we bought the house the sunroom was a series of sliding glass doors.  it was a step down off of the kitchen and although it was open to the kitchen via a door with no door in it and a window with no window in it, it had no heat.  brrrrr…

immediately after we closed we began destruction and construction.  the floor was raised, the wall between the sunroom and kitchen was removed, a beam went up, the sliding doors came down, 2 large windows and 2 sets of french doors went in.

and it got a good dose of marshmallow spray (er…insulation).

some awesome plasterers worked their tails off to have the room drywalled and plastered.  on new year’s eve.  cheers.

all that work was so we could actually move in (and move out of my in laws apartment…).  the first of our furniture in our house!

after a series of trial and errors we settled on a soft green for the walls.  benjamin moore dried parsley is the official color.

and the room takes (some) shape.  i would call this sunroom version 1.

the introduction of the sewing machine into the space marks sunroom version 2 and officially denotes the sunroom as the craft room.

lack of storage posed some serious problems with my sewing supplies.  a quick trip to ikea to purchase these cabinets solved that.  rearrange the furniture some and you have sunroom version 3.

and just like that the cabinets are down and ledges are up.  sunroom version 4.

ledges remain but the chair is gone.  you may also note the salvaged door that was painted white and given legs to function as my new desk.  sunroom version 5.

all of that to bring us to sunroom version 6.  the current layout.

 

 

 

the desk has found a permanent home under the window.  the ledges are still (begrudgingly) there for now but are not final.  i am on the hunt for a large (huge) mid-century piece that will take up most of that wall and provide ample storage for both craft items as well as home office items.  the tv wall is just a placeholder as well.  the grand plan for that is to have an elfa media system on the lower half of the wall and mount the tv on the wall.  the 2 chairs are good (west elm slipper chairs) and will stay but i am looking for a vintage settee or sofette to upholster to compliment them.  the cowhide rug is from ikea.

that top shelf looks lame bare.  i spent all weekend cleaning it off since it is too high for me to reach anyway.  but something needs to go up there…  maybe art?  pictures?  this is where you are supposed to say, “no sarah!  don’t put anything up there because you will find the large mid-century piece for that wall.  you will!  you will!’

k.  thanks.

cutie pies

with so many flavors out there, there is sure to be a pie for everyone, right?  but who wants to make a bunch of full-sized pies and watch them taunt you from the fridge (“we really shouldn’t waste it”…”maybe just one more bite”)…and have you ever had a pie craving so bad that you picked one up at the grocery store, enjoyed your piece and then repeated the above??  yeah, me neither.

this is why i embarked on the cutie pie adventure!  first, of course, there is a cookbook.  and not just any cookbook, but a cute, colorful, miniature-size cookbook with bright illustrations of yumminess.  (i’m sure this is a word).

tonight i tried out two of the recipes, in hopes that they were awesome and i could make them next weekend when i head off to a dinner party with work people.  i mean, let’s be honest, nobody wants to walk in the door with a plate of brownies from a box…come on!

first, let me explain that this cookbook has multiple options for pie sizes – pie jars (using wide, stout mason jars), cutie pies (using a muffin pan), petite-5′s (using a mini muffin pan), foldovers (think the old mcdonalds apple pies), and pie pops (small circular pies on a stick, who knew!)

i will admit i took the easy route and bought premade pie crusts to save time.  however, i was also able to make 18 cutie pies (6 apple, 12 smores), in under 2 hours!  both pies were yum-mm-mmy, although i think the smores pies will not sell themselves…they look a little icky.

apple cutie pie

lessons learned: piecing the pie crust together doesn’t hold as well as using a single layer of crust.  the smores pies cooked up in the oven (due to the marshmallows), but once cooled shrunk down to nearly half their size.  next time, overstuff!!

smores cutie pie

Toddler Top

I’ve had this top pinned on pinterest for awhile now and finally made it with some scrap fabrics. Now I want to make a bunch more. It was easy and so cute on her. I need to get more fun snaps though to pizazz it up

I followed this tutorial from prudent baby, but decided to do the collar and trim in a separate print. Um, her nursery print. haha.

http://prudentbaby.com/2010/05/baby-kid/snappy-toddler-top-free-downloadable-pattern-2/