We (Kind of) Have Lights!
It took most of the day Saturday for us to figure out what the heck we were doing, but we (and by we, I mean Lee with a small bit of assistance from me) managed to put up 2/3 of the wall sconces and our new entryway light. It was quite a learning experience for us (and by us, again, I mean mostly Lee…). Something we have definitely learned over our 6 months in this house is that while the previous owner seemed to really love this house and it is really good shape for being 19 years old… he definitely did things the easy, sloppy way. This became quite evident while we attempted to patch up the much larger than they needed to be holes where the sconces go (And touched up the several colors of paint around the ceiling in every room. And looked at the very weird wiring. I could go on…). Anyway, here are some pictures of the lights installed! We are still waiting on one more - it arrived damaged - and some lightbulbs, but we are so happy with how they look so far!
Also, check out this massive chandelier we took out of the entryway.
And now, look at picture of my husband pulling down said chandelier. I was very impressed with his method. I mean, I was initially terrified of his method, but it worked, so we’ll go with impressed!
Other than that, not much new around here. Definitely looking forward to another weekend!
Green or Yellow?
I had an unexpectedly productive sewing weekend! I didn’t really plan on doing much of anything for my store, but things happen. Lee and his brother were planning to see a movie on Saturday afternoon and I was going to run some errands and go shopping, but when we went to leave, our car battery was dead… I suppose that is what happens when you leave the headlights on all night. Instead, Lee got a ride and I stayed home and completely prepped two sets of placemats and actually completed one of them. This super cute mini set is a custom order for my cousin!
I’ll finish the other set if I can ever find some green thread to match these to finish them up! At least I think it’s green. My husband says its yellow/gold. That discrepancy might be part of the problem!
I did something a little out of my comfort zone yesterday! I went to a sewing meetup nearby. We all made these little boxed zipper pouches. Mine turned out so cute; I am going to need to make a bunch more in different sizes.
Update on our living room progress: we painted the wall the right color!! It looks great! We also ordered light fixtures this weekend, so we are getting closer!
Be looking for all new pictures on my store towards the end of the week! I have a few projects to finish up before I start that process, but I want to get them taken this week!
Updates to Our Living Room
We’ve been in our house for nearly 6 months now and have only made a few minor changes. We wanted to live here for a little while and see how we felt before we really tried to make it our own. Our first larger project is our living/dining room area. We’ve been formulating a plan for a a few months and we are just now starting to put it in place. This room is at the very front of our house, so we want it to be welcoming and comfortable for us to relax in and also be a nice place to host family, our small group, etc. We got a hand-me-down dining room set from my grandparents from about 1970 a few months ago and have picked out some fabric to recover the chairs with. We are also starting to funish the living room area as we find things we like. Here is where we started:
We are also planning to replace some of the light fixtures with something a little more our style, and a couple of the blinds that are inexplicably a different color. The previous owner was an electrician and we think he got good discounts on leftover fixtures, so we are working with 3 completely different styles in this one room alone. We’ve been looking for months and are thinking about replacing the 3 sconces and entryway light with fixtures along this line.
Over the past few weeks, we have been attempting to paint (in our spare time - HA!). The 3 walls that mostly surround the space have been a beautiful blue for two weeks now, but we have been struggling to find time to paint the contrasting wall. We finally did on Friday night, and after weeks of staring at the sample swatch on the wall and just waiting for us to have an evening free to paint, it was the wrong stinking color: way way way too blue (we were going for a more neutral grey). We found a new color yesterday and should be able to paint it tomorrow night. What a mess.
On my sewing table right now are these awesome braided leather headbands that will be listed later this evening and the first set of curved placemats (for round tables) I’ve sold through my store!! I get a lot of great feedback on them, but so far I haven’t sold any, so I was very excited to receive that order on Thursday!
What a Week!
So my intentions to post a couple times a week went right out the window last week. I’m not sure what happened, but I was just silly busy in every part of my life. I did get several projects done though, including a set of 5 bibs for some ladies at a local nursing home and a custom laptop sleeve. Plus a couple of family birthday gifts, including the laptop sleeve below for my mother-in-law!
We had family in town this weekend for a combo Easter/birthday weekend. We had a really nice weekend and a surprisingly productive Saturday! Lee and I decided to spend a few hours cleaning out the fountain in our backyard that we had neglected for the entire winter. It looks so great now! We’d like to, at some point, knock out the center and make it a fire pit - we aren’t big fountain people - but for now, we’ll settle for it not being an eyesore (and mosquito breeding ground)! After we finished with that, Lee started on cleaning out the gutters, and my mother-in-law and I spent about 4 hours pulling weeds and trimming back the flower beds in our backyard! I forgot to take a before picture, but it is so much better back there! Oh, and our birdhouse has a bird nest in it!
This week I am playing catch up from last week. Finishing up projects for my sister and mom and playing around with a couple new ideas, plus finishing the flower beds out front, painting our front room, and a whole lot of cleaning.
My big win of the day was figuring out how to file my state sales tax for this quarter. May seem like a little thing, but I am seriously so proud of myself!
What I've Been Up To...
So the idea for this blog began last year, and the first post was written on January 1 when I asked my husband to help me out with creating a website. I should have known that my super-busy-with-real-work (web developer) husband would be quite the overacheiver :) (And take quite a while to finish the project, but I so happy with the results that we’ll forget about that part!) For now, I plan to add a couple of posts a week, but I am sure my vision will change over time.
Lee took Friday off last week and we went back to Dallas for a visit since we had not been since before Christmas. I think this is the first visit in at least a few years that wasn’t for a specific reason or event. We had such a nice time hanging out with our families without really having much of an agenda. Plus, I got an awesome hair cut and color from my super talented little sister Jessica and got to enjoy a pedicure with my mom and grandma. Great long weekend!
This past week has been a pretty big week for adding things to my store. There’s a link on the right side of this page and you can check out all my new listings! I’ve added some new elastic hair-ties, a few new headbands, a computer sleeve, and a set of placemats. Another new set of placemats should be up sometime this weekend. I am forgetful and missing the correct color thread to finish it up, so it won’t be today. Oops.
I’ve been ::cough cough:: really behind on other projects that I committed to, so the next few days are going to be very full! I have completed one set of curtains for my mom today (requested for her birthday last November… yes I’m embarrassed) and the second set is in the works. I’m also working on a backpack for my youngest sister Katie.
I am using this tutorial with a few tweaks and am really excited about how it will turn out! This is my “stretch” project right now. I’ve only made a few bags and this looks like a fun one to try out!
In other news, I’m trying really really hard not to get sick. Pretty sure it’s all just allergies – thank you Austin.