Laurissa's Project

My friend Laurissa and I set a date to get together and work on a project together.  So we met on Veteran's Day.  She wanted to make a fabric-covered headboard for her new place. We went to Scrap Exchange, JoAnn, and Lowe's (and Bean Traders) and spent that Sunday afternoon putting it together.  Check it out!

Laurissa made her own fabric-covered buttons, too!  She is on a DIY binge and has since mounted the headboard, and made four pillow covers for her couch cushions.

I picked up some fabric that day as well.  I couldn't leave JoAnn without finding something to buy.  I  made little quilted coasters.

David and I spent part of Thanksgiving week in Orange Beach, AL.  It was very relaxing trip... David said he stocked up on his zen for the year.  Now we are back in Durham and ready to get more L&L action going.  I have glittered-up some garland, so check the etsy shop soon for more decoration things.

Now it is time for MATTHEW to get here!!

fabric fantasies

OH boy.  Mom and I went to two fabric places recently.

Remnants and Textiles in Haw River NC

Wow.  Talk about fabric heaven!  I was overwhelmed by how many options were present.  I was also shocked at how many I actually liked.  I did not expect a creaky-floored, hard to find place in Haw River to have chic and modern textiles.  It was a pleasant surprise.  They were also very helpful, and I am excited to work with them when I decide on color/pattern/texture for the chair re upholstery projects.

Loomcraft in Burlington NC

Wow.  Another overwhelming lot of bolts and bolts and BOLTS of fabric.  More of a self-serve place, but so many options. I may choose fabric here for the Gunlocke chairs, or maybe pillows or other smaller projects.  They had a good variety of modern & trendy designs (chevron in every color).  Definitely going back here in the future.

Last week, we closed on our refinance of our mortgage (ouch! my savings account!).  So the re upholstery projects are on the back burner for now.  For now we are focused on the holidays ahead.  We have some trips planned and we are really looking forward to spending time with family.  We ARE keeping up with holiday decorations. Check out the ETSY shop... I am adding new things every week!

our website

Check it out!  David revamped our WEBSITE!  The pictures on the landing page are a bit out of date... but we will fix that.  We tend to focus more on creating new projects in the darker and cooler months.  We are stuck inside and we need to create. Expect lots more updates this fall/winter.

Be sure to check out our etsy shop in November... New stuff coming!  Holiday decorations!  Yay!

over 30 feet of neon.  wowsers.

how romantic

midcentury madness

I am a sucker for anything mid-century design.  IKEA has some new furniture.  The Stockholm collection is pretty great.

Stockholm Sofa Table

Preben Dining Chair

I definitely have my eye on the dining chairs.

David and I made a run to a local thrift store to make our usual clothes & things donation.  They had almost all of the furniture out in the parking lot, so this chair caught my eye.  Then as we were inspecting it, and deciding if we really NEED it, and how much work it is going to be to refurbish it... an employee let us know that it was half price furniture day!!  So here it is... sitting in out house.  I LOVE the legs, and it is actually comfortable.  The seat depth is perfect.

Although there are a TON of furniture upholstering how-tos out there, I think I am going to ask a pro to handle this one.

A couple of weeks later, I stopped by this same thrift shop as I saw the furniture out in the parking lot again.  I drive past this place on my way to and from work so I decided just to stop for a minute and peek.  Found a pair of Gunlocke chairs!  They have official stamps and everything.

They have seen better days, but the bones are good.  David is going to take them to Gibsonville and take care of the wood refinishing.  I HOPE we can salvage the wood underneath the seat back.  If not, we will upholster again.  But I am really hoping for wood.  The bottom part will definitely be recovered.  I can't wait to go hunting for fun fabric for all of the chairs!

new jewelry

Check out these new bracelets for Lowell & Louise!

Dainty bracelets perfect for stacking with your favorite arm candy.  These will be added to the etsy shop next month.  Just in time for holiday shopping!

I made these to send to Jaime for the Memphis Empty Bowls Project.  They will be part of the silent auction.  If you are in the Memphis TN area... go to this!!

bathrooms

The downstairs bathroom is finished!  I actually finished it a little while ago... but now it is CLEAN and finished.  It went from celery green, to way-to-bright teal, to this neutral light brown (Wicker).  I made the triangle pattern on just the back wall.  Same Wicker color, but with a higher gloss finish than the base paint.  We will put artwork up on the back wall, too.  We just have to decide WHAT pieces to go in there.

i know, i know.  We need another light bulb in there. 

subtle. 

so fresh and so clean.

Speaking of bathrooms... Mary and Ben have completely gutted their master bath.  Wowsers.  Here is what it looked like when I visited them in the spring:

there is a hole.  in the floor. 

And here is what it looks like now (well, about 2 weeks ago when I got the picture text):

the tub!!  this cell phone pic does not do justice to the wall color

Major progress!!  Can't wait to see it when it is all the way done. I should mention that while this project is going, they managed to put in a back patio and do a whole heck of a lot of other housework... and that is in their spare time.


So back to my house.  The downstairs office/guest room as been painted!  We are on the hunt for a love seat for that room.  We seem to keep finding chairs we like... but more on those later.  I plan on sprucing up the paint in the upstairs bathroom and the craft room.  I hope to focus outside for the nice days that we have this fall.  I am trying to clean out the back yard to prepare for our grand idea for an outdoor office/work space.  I have a few small projects to make the front yard look nicer, too.
Onwards!!

home on the range

Aaaand we're back.  David was traveling, then he was sick, and I've been sick for nearly 2 weeks.  So not a lot happens when systems are down.   The downstairs bathroom has been painted, and repainted.  The stencil was finished today, so this week I will be hand-painting the design.  The downstairs office is ready for painting so I will be doing that this week, too.

In the mean time, we replaced the range hood!  The old one was gross.  The new one works well. And it has a better light.  And it's clean.  Here is the before and after:

before: white, busted, dirty, old

after: clean, fresh, fancy, stainless

Over the weekend, we celebrated mom's upcoming birthday.  I made pretty garland!  And today I got a head start on some similar decorations for Jim & Jenny's wedding later this year.  

garland for Mom

JJ wedding

More projects and pictures coming soon!

more sewing

I mentioned in my post last week that I wanted to try a few new projects... so the next day, I DID.  This checkbook cover was really quick and easy.  I just used scraps from my quilt, and a little bit of some fun Marimekko fabric I got in Chicago.  Check it out:

I also worked on some pillows for Mary's house.  She has pillows that came with her couches that she wanted to cover.  She picked up fabric from IKEA and Joann and I made these:

Please excuse the one on the right.  It is not stuffed.

Great job picking the colors that go fabulously with my house!  Too bad I don't get to keep these.  They are twenty inch pillows with one type of fabric on each side, and an eighteen inch hidden zipper.  I chose a large zipper to make it super easy to stuff with existing pillows which have a cord trim on the edges.

omg. pom-poms.

I was able to use the leftover fabric to make a fun little 12 inch pillow with pom-pom trim.  Cute!

2 legit 2 quilt

Yes, quilt.  It is complete!  Great size for a first effort.  I think I will definitely be trying this again, and eventually going for a full sized version.
The longest parts were the very beginning and the very end.  Cutting the fabric pieces (so many of them!) and hand-finishing the binding.  The rest of it came together pretty quickly.

final measurement appx 35" x 30"

the binding

modeling with the back of the quilt

I finished painting the downstairs bathroom, and one wall of the downstairs office.  More painting & organizing, then some more sewing projects like this and this.

Flor on the Floor

Hooray!  The Flor is down and arranged.  We love it.  I think Pepper loves it the most.  It is just the right amount of color for our mostly-neutral living room.  I love that we could change the colors later without much cost, or we could switch up the pattern.

I have been working on my quilt, which will probably be completed within the week!  I have been very busy at work the past few weeks so not much else it getting done at the house.  I need to finish painting the bathroom, and then patch & paint the office so David can get settled in better with his fancy desk.

David and I also took some time last weekend to do a little fitness photo shoot!  It was fun, but a lot of work for just the two of us.  Here is a sneak peek:

More to come after David works with the images!  Stay tuned for finished quilt pics.

more flor

Our tiles have arrived!  We bit the bullet and ordered our Flor tiles to make a living room rug.
While we were in Chicago, we found a Flor store and got to look at more things up close & personal.  This was helpful for me since all we had were the tiny samples.  They also had a "look what our customers did" board.  This was GREAT for getting ideas!  Online and in the catalog they have sample patterns and ways to customize your own rug.  Somehow this wasn't quite doing it for me.  It was awesome to see what real people did in real houses.  So David snapped a pic of one idea I really liked.

Here are our tiles!  Pepper is in love.  More pics to follow once we decide on color/pattern/placement!

pillow party

I have a lot of sewing projects lined up, and I am excited to tackle them now that most of the major housework is done for this year.  I bought some fun new fabrics when we found a Crate & Barrel outlet on our trip to Chicago a few weeks ago.  Then BAM.  I broke my sewing machine.  I didn't know what to do with myself!
I took the machine to a repair shop, and the unfriendly old lady at the counter quoted me $90-$130 to repair it.  I said I was not ready to put that kind of money into an old machine, and that I could probably by a new one for that (or splurge a bit more to get a newer & nicer one). She promptly replied "NO.  Can't buy one for that." Alright then... I know exactly where NOT to go if I ever need repairs in the future.
Luckily, my parents have a machine at home that they are not using.  So we swapped out our machines and I am back on track.  I made 2 small pillow covers before my machine broke, and I made 3 on Monday when I got the new-to-me machine figured out.  Hooray!

I had also been working on hand-beading a little boudoir pillow for when the bed is made nice & pretty.  The beading took a long time, but it looks really good.  I tried my hand at a piping/border for this one, too.  I will need more practice with that for sure.

Next sewing project: attempting a tiny quilt!

summer sandals

 Thanks to the miracle that is Pinterest, I found a project to snazzy-up some basic flat sandals.  I wanted the tan-colored shoes, but H&M only had the black ones by the time I found this project and got myself to the store.  They were around $18 and I already have quite a stash of embroidery floss.  All I did was wrap the string around the strap of the sandal, making sure to hide the knots on the bottom.  It took me about 15-20 minutes per shoe, and I opted NOT to superglue anything to the shoe.  This way, I can cut the strings off and change the colors at a later time.  Booyah!

party party

We had some folks over to celebrate our finished floor project!  But I have a confession.  The floors are not actually complete.  The transition pieces are still missing!  Partially out of our control though.  These special transition boards were on back order for THREE WEEKS!  They should be arriving in the next few days.  Then we can be totally and completely and honestly finished.

Check out this OLD picture from when we first moved in!!  That kitchen light is so ugly.  The curtains are so heavy.  Theres a pony in the nook wearing my scooter helmet.  The kitchen is green.  And the floor... ick.

Here are some picture of our little party:

And here is a sneak peek at David's ALMOST complete desk project: