Loving this

I just love the ideas on Better Homes and Gardens Site. Tutorial here

P.S. You still have time to enter the giveaway

New Shower Curtain

Remember this photo?

Just in case you didn't read the wordy post from yesterday some repeat photos :) .....

I started cutting out circles by hand and then decided to speed things up and bought this.

Had Brett fix my already cut circles while adding the steam-a-seam

Then we, mainly Brett, cut out the rest. I just laid the fabric on top of the square adhesive sheets and cut them both out at the same time.

We did various sized circles with 5 different fabrics. I laid the shower curtain out flat on the living room floor and flung the circles like frisbees hoping for a random layout. I liked how it looked so I pined them in place and then got to work attaching them to the curtain. First with the iron (for the steam-a-seam) then with the embroidery floss.

I love it and so does Colin. Brett is a little concerned about the goldfish named Robert looking at him while he uses the facility :)

It was supposed to be a lazy Sunday

Instead it was very productive.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Thanks to Ikea we got some great stuff for the kitchen at really good prices. Our old light had a socket that went bad so we only had two bulbs in it. Which was not enough light for our kitchen. The new light fixture is not my dram fixture but for $20 it works wonderfully.

The hanging system under the cabinets works really well. I got some stuff out of the cupboards (I need to make room) that we use every day. I need to go back to Ikea and get some longer hooks to hang the ceramic holders on so I can fit some cooking utensils in them. For now they are housing Colin's forks (which there is also no room in the silverware drawer).

Some of my goals this year are:

*to simplify our life/house

*to slow down and enjoy the time we share together

So far we are off to a great start. We cleaned out the garage and a few cupboards in the kitchen.

Happy Monday :)

What a weekend

We had a busy weekend and got a lot of projects done.
I got the carpets cleaned. Sorry no before and after pictures :)

Finally got my Christmas present from two years ago painted and hung up. My grand father in-law made it for me, I think it's great and the paint matches with the rest of the bedroom set. I still need to get all of my jewelry put in it and I am thinking it should be moved to another wall. My husband, of course, wants me to wait a week in hopes that I will like it where it is. So I must keep an open mind about where it is hanging now. Unfortunately I don't have a before picture, I thought of it a bit too late. I used an antique black paint kit, the pictures don't really show the antique look but it looks great.


We use our old wood kitchen table and chair set for our out door furniture. It works great except here in the northwest we still get a lot or rain during the summer, especially this year. So the set is not looking that great. I talked the hubby into sanding it down and painting it. We had some left over cans of spray paint, espresso color, and the in-laws had some left over clear varnish for out door use. After we got started I thought it would be really cool if the top of the table were painted with the chalk board paint. Then we could doodle and keep score while playing cards right on the table. But we are not to sure on how well it would hold up being outdoors (only during the summer of course). And I would hate to put a lot of work into it to have it turn look like it does now. So if anyone knows about using chalkboard paint outside please share your knowledge because I would love it if we could use it. As of today, Monday, we have one coat of the varnish on and we are going to apply several more so for now I have a picture of the table with it's new paint and no varnish. Please ignore the sad looking flower pot in the background it used to be so beautiful but it's the end of summer and at its nearing its end life. We still have to do the four chairs, we haven't even started on them yet. We ran out of sand paper for the electric sander, hubby is supposed to pick some more up today. So hopefully I will have an updated photo with the complete set all done shortly.

I have been working on some cloth booties for Colin, pattern from here . Maybe it's just me but I have heard this from others, Amy Butler's directions are difficult to read and follow. I could be that I am a beginner but I have to read the directions over and over for each step. Especially since there is two booties each one consisting of an outer layer and a liner. I am now at the sewing part and I tried to sew the two layers together only to end up ripping the seam out. I am awful, truly awful at following curved lines. Normally I do everything in my power to avoid them, which is not good because I will never learn how to sew them if I avoid them. My new plan of attack is to mark out my 1/2" seam line then trying following that, since I am incapable of just following the edge of the fabric. If any one has some helpful hints I would love to hear them ;o)

Hmmmm..... what else was there?

Congratulations to me! I won my first giveaway. I am so excited and grateful for the great stuff that is going to be coming to me via snail mail ( I love mail espcially when its not bills). I won the linky love prize you can see it here.

And of course I tired out a new recipe featuring my moms home grown zucchini, Fried Zucchini Coins, from food network. You can get the recipe here and of course I added a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese.

We borrowd a jumper from our dear friends Rob and Sarah and I am pretty sure Colin likes it.
And I also have a picture from when we went and visted the sometimes crafter, the sometimes crafters mom, and healing techniques. We had a great time and I thought I would share is adorable picture of Sheila playing with her grandson. She is one happy grandma, too bad I didn't get the front of Brice's face he was having as much fun as grandma. I am really hoping that we can all get together at least one Friday a month for some crafting.