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Archive for the ‘Home’ Category

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The Last of the Red Curtains

In Home, Sewing on May 30, 2012 at 6:00 am

Goodbye red floral curtains. You will not be missed.

I still have 2 more panels to sew of the sheer curtains, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer. It was with glee that I took the old red curtains down and cut into them with my sewing sheers. I hope to reuse the fabric when I make Noodlehead’s Go Anywhere bag. Perhaps I’ll make some pillows too just to remember the curtains by.

With Dan’s help and perhaps Elly’s help too, the new sheer curtains were hung.

Now as much as I love the new sheer curtains and I especially adore all the light they let in, I am on the hunt for new home decorator fabric that can layer overtop. Our front room faces south and gets blasted by the sun all day long. By noon, it’s like an inferno in the living room. The old shades provided much needed protection from the sun by blocking it out. The sooner I can find new fabric and line such fabric with flannel – for that is the key to weather protecting curtains – the less often we will have to run our AC.

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Yard Sale Find

In Home on May 27, 2012 at 5:18 pm

Check out my find at the local yard sale!

Curtains for the guest bedroom.

Long have I hated the old curtains, especially after I repainted the room in a cream color a few years ago. The old curtains were just too dark and too formal and so not me.

These curtains are a touch fancy what with all the embroidery, but for $2 I’m not complaining. They save me from having to sew yet more curtains for this house at a time when I want to focus on our party dresses.

I bought 3 panels, but have only hung 2; 1 per window. I figure I can use the 3rd panel to make pillows or to make a valance. In the meantime, I’ll add it to my stash. It’ll come in handy eventually.

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Ready for Stripes

In Home on May 10, 2012 at 4:51 pm

The walls beneath the chair rail have been primed and painted a boring white.

Elly helped. Remember how I recommended a shower cap for your young helper?
Well, a shower or painter’s cap is recommended for you too.


(That’s white paint in my hair. I don’t have quite that much white/grey in my hair yet though I’m working on it.)

I never needed a hat before Elly insisted upon helping. It’s clear I could use one now.

Back to my crazy stripe project.
Several of the stripes will be left white while the others will be painted yellow, green and orange.

I can’t wait to start painting the stripes. The thought of all those bright colors makes me deliriously happy.

Lots of prep work has to come first. Stripes have to be measured, drawn and taped. A painter’s cap must be obtained.

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Painting with a 2 year old

In Home on May 9, 2012 at 6:00 am

It wasn’t my plan to let Elly help me prime the dining rooms walls. She was just that insistent. Even my pulling out the trump card, a Tinker Bell movie, didn’t hold any sway. Elly didn’t want to watch a movie or any TV show for the matter. She wanted to help me paint.

And so she did.

It didn’t matter that Elly dripped paint all over the rug because the rug is ugly and way past the date when it should have been tossed in the garbage. In one corner, we are holding it down with duct tape. In another spot, the carpet is unraveling. And in several other spots, the carpet crackles when you walk on it. It’s that old. Goodness knows, you don’t need me to elaborate on its ugliness. Just look at it, would you?

I kept Elly in front of me on the wall we were working on. That way she could draw ‘c’s, ‘o’s and dinosaurs to her heart’s content. I followed with a paint brush and evened everything out.

It also didn’t matter that Elly dripped paint all over herself. It was easy to just toss her in the bath afterwards.

Though if your 2-year-old offers to help you paint and you just happen to own a shower cap, put it on her. Even after a long bath and a thorough brushing, Elly still has paint in her hair.

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Trashing the Old Curtains

In Home, Sewing on April 27, 2012 at 6:41 am

Goodbye formal pinch pleated curtains in a much too dark and too floral fabric.

Though the rods were trashed quite quickly because they were falling apart, the frugal side of me couldn’t bear to part with the Waverly fabric. It has been washed and added to my fabric stash.

Hello sheer curtains.

They are simple rod pocket curtains with a 1 inch header. This style can be purchased from Target for a few bucks. So, why did I purchase 15 yards of organza from Fabric.com? It wasn’t to save money. The price of my fabric was comparable to the ready-made drapes. No, I opted to sew curtains so I could get exactly what I wanted.

Case in point, I didn’t want curtains to open in the middle of these windows. Rather, I wanted the curtains to be one continuous panel that could easily be pulled to one side and out of the way of the AC or the incoming breeze.

It does feel a bit formal which concerns me because Dan and I are so not formal people. It takes a momentous effort every Sunday to get us out of our pajamas. You do that too, right?

The fact that I love everything else about the curtains keeps me from getting the feeling that I am living in a stuffy magazine. The shine of the fabric, the ability to see right through the fabric and the oodles of sunshine pouring through the fabric makes me smile and twirl in delight!

This isn’t the complete window treatment for the living room. Come winter we will need another layer of heavy home decorator fabric to block out the cold, but I have yet to fall in love with a fabric. I was trying out the square of yellow fabric that you can see taped to the mantle, but I don’t think it’s quite right.

Of course, I still have the large picture window in the living room to make sheer curtains for, but I couldn’t resist showing off what I’ve already accomplished. Plus, I have to boast that I hung the hardware for the curtains to the right of the mantle. It’s the first time I have done so. Dan has always done it. But after waiting 2 evenings for Dan to hang the hardware for the right curtain, I just couldn’t wait any longer. I wanted it up now. Tell me, my side looks better, right? grin.

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Redecorating for Free

In Home on April 18, 2012 at 6:45 am

Mantle before

Long have I wanted to take down that oversized mirror. The main thing that gets reflected in the mirror is the ceiling. It looks ridiculous. Yet, I’m pretty sure I will have to paint the wall once it comes down and I’m just not ready to tackle another paint job.
Instead, I took one of my favorite paintings down in the dining room since it won’t go well with my new striped color scheme and leaned it up against the mirror.

Mantle after

I love the painting over the mantle! It blocks the majority of the ceiling view. It’s big enough to demand attention and not get swallowed up by the fireplace. The light brown border even complements the brick work. Why I might never take it down.

Dining room before

After moving the large painting to the mantle, the dining room walls looked stark. So, I went shopping in the guest bedroom and living room for more artwork.

Dining room after

The Peale Family used to hang in the guest bedroom. I’m not sure why I never tried hanging it in the dining room before. It fits better here. The Peale Family is gathered around their dining table. It only seems right to hang it next to our dining table. Did you notice that the Peales have a red-headed daughter too?

To fill the remaining walls in the dining room, I gathered up my entire angel collection and hung them in small groups.

The wall over the hutch could stand to have a few more angels, which is just a lovely excuse to go visit my favorite thrift store in town.

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5 Years to Paint 1 Dresser

In Home on April 16, 2012 at 6:51 am

Maybe it was 6 years. I don’t recall when I started this project. All I know is that I became dreadfully bored with painting the dresser white and found a million projects to keep me busy instead. So, the dresser looked like this for at least 5 years.

It might have stayed like this forever if Dan hadn’t teased me about it.

Even after pulling all the drawers out and moving the dresser downstairs, I had to give myself more than one pep talk to knock the priming and painting out.

I just don’t like painting things white. Give me turquoise or red and I’ll jump for joy, but white bores me. After a while, it even depresses me. It’s no fun at all.

And to think I have several doors and radiator covers that need to be painted white. I hope it will take me considerably less time to finish them all.

Do you have any home DIY projects that you are dragging your feet over? Do share!

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Too Many Projects

In Blankets, Home, Knitting, Sewing on April 13, 2012 at 10:23 am

When I told Dan about my desire to paint the kitchen walls orange, he laughed at me and told me I had too many projects. Maybe he is right. Here is my current to-do list.

1. Sew a party dress for Elly and me – deadline Sept 22nd

2. Plant tomatoes, zucchini and more carrots in my vegetable garden - deadline Mother’s Day

3. Paint stripes in the dining room – deadline asap because the carpet is falling apart which is no surprise since it is probably 50 years old

4. Paint the door white in the dining room – asap – see above

5. Paint the rad cover white in the dining room – not essential as the radiator can just sit bare

6. Finish knitting the hexagon blanket before the weather gets warm – approx May 15th deadline

7. Sew sheer curtains for the dining room and living room – deadline Thanksgiving Day

8. Sew slip covers for the wing back chairs – deadline Thanksgiving Day

What’s on your to-do list?

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A Bigger Dining Room

In Home on April 6, 2012 at 6:00 am

In the before shot, you can see the bakers rack.

It was a gift from my father-in-law. It worked great in our old apartment, providing much needed storage in the kitchen.

It has never worked quite so well in our home. For starters, it doesn’t fit in the kitchen. So, I stuck it in the dining room. The dining room is a small room and it is made smaller by the bakers rack.

Though the shelves are full, they are full of stuff that we rarely use. Not being avid wine drinkers and being the proud parents of a very curious daughter, the wine rack is empty and will remain that way.

Yet the driving force behind my desire to relocate the bakers rack to the basement was my upcoming striped paint job. If I’m going to go through all the trouble of measuring out and painting stripes, I want people to see them.

Once I moved the bakers rack, I noticed that the wall adjacent to the kitchen doorway was long enough to house the hutch. So, I moved it. Well, now look at the room.

There is so much space!

The dining table can actually sit underneath the ugly retro chandelier. I can walk around the entire table!

And look, I have the entire long wall to paint stripes on. Oh, I’m a lucky girl!

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Stripes in the Dining Room

In Home on March 30, 2012 at 7:00 am

Dan vetoed beadboard wainscoting.

Source: CTMLS, Inc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Searching for ideas on how to decorate the dining room, I fell in love with this striped idea.

Source: The Family Handyman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you picture stripes of yellow, olive green and orange in our dining room?

With Elly’s help, I was able to try out the idea in crayons.

The green fabric is what I’m using to slip cover the two wing back chairs in the adjacent living room. The fun and vibrant fabric will be curtains for both the dining room and the adjacent living room. Isn’t it great? I have become a fan of bright and cheerful colors. I can’t help myself.

Oddly enough, Dan is not opposed to my new plan. He thinks I’m nuts, because painting stripes is a whole lot harder than just painting it all one color. He is also slightly concerned about me adding green back to the walls when it had taken us so long to get rid of all the green in each room. The original homeowner must have loved green. It was everywhere. It’s still the dominant color in the basement.

I refuse to worry about a few green stripes taking over our house. Besides, I’m just giddy to begin painting another room. This house is starting to feel like our home and not the old home of the Elliott household.

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