Sew, Sew, Sew

So this weekend my mom and I made the curtains for the kitchen and dining room. I have been wanting to get the fabric since we finished the living room ones last year, but knew waiting until this spring made the most sense. This time I went with a repeat pattern in the fabric. No big deal you are saying, right? Wrong! This repeat pattern meant we had to watch when and where we cut because the pattern repeats every 9 inches. In addition to this, we wanted to make sure that the top of all the curtains started in the same place. Only a few things to consider before cutting!

Curtain sewing area / Preview of Before

We made 4 86" panels and 2 valances. The one valance was almost 42" and the other one was 80". The second valance required that the pattern be matched and seamed. Overall though, the rooms look great!

Work in Progress

All Finished!

Looks so pretty with daffodils! Thanks Mom!

Love the valance! Guess we should take out the trash. This is not normal, I swear!

Making it homey

Scrub A Dub Dub

One of my goals this year was to take a new approach to presents for friends and family for birthdays and other occasions. This year I wanted to make the presents. One of the presents I have started to make are sugar scrubs. I reviewed a bunch of recipes on the Internet and Pinterest and finally settled on this:
2 1/2 cups cane sugar
1 cup coconut oil
Essential oil scent (20 - 30 drops)

I have lavender and eucalyptus scents currently. I found mine in the grocery store in the organic / high end lotion section. For a very small bottle, they cost about $5 - $10, but go a very long way.

Since coconut oil is a solid, I place the jar in a pot of water on the stove. I let the water get close to simmering, but never boil. From there, you can pour the oil over the sugar and then I use my eye droppers for the various scents.

When the scrub is first used, it can feel a little scratchy, but the oil hydrates the skin completely. The water will actually bead up on your skin because of the coconut oil. I will promise you though, your skin will not be greasy. It will be the opposite; your skin will feel soft and silky.

I have given these away as gifts several times now. So far, no one has had the courage to tell me if they don't like them. Rather, I have gotten lots of thank you's and often a day to day account of when they will be used and then emptied. Not sure, but that could be a request for more!

Curtain Time

Last weekend marks a year my mom and I tackled my first curtain making project. I wanted floor length curtains with grommets. I fell in love with fabric at Joann's, however it was $50 a yard and I needed 21 yards....OUCH!

My mom had told me about a place near where I grew up called The Barn. It is an upholstery shop and you can buy fabric there as well. When we arrived, they were having a sale...$6.95 a yard. I ended up buying fabric for the living room and master bedroom.

We planned a different weekend where my mom came out and basically all we did was sew, and sew, and then sew some more. While we were constantly sewing, we managed to make 6 curtains for the living room which are lined with grommets as well as 5 curtains for the master bedroom with grommets. My mom is quite talented when it comes to sewing and I have to say, the curtains look fantastic.

Here are a few photos....

Work area

Finished product!!

Grommets, never again!

 Now you may be wondering why I am talking about this. It is time to make more curtains! Stay tuned and you will see this weekend's project of curtains in the kitchen and dining room.

Where Are You Spring?

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I am ready for spring. We had a snowstorm that covered the ground with 4 - 5 inches of snow Wednesday morning. It was beautiful to look at, but the snow made my itch for spring even worse. If this wasn't bad enough, I feel like I'm in a rut. I have no motivation to do anything at night. Sleeping has become my new nighttime activity beginning at 8 p.m. Talk about not getting anything accomplished! My hope is that being able to get outside in the sunshine and fresh air, I can shake my rut and feel more like myself. Come on spring!

Results Are In

So for the month of February, I said I would not spend any extra money outside of the basics. I did really well for the most part. I did not visit the mall, Starbucks, or go out to lunch when I was working, which is where most of my downfalls are. However, with doing all the house projects, I found I was missing things and would have to go to the local hardware store or Lowe's. I did go to lunch and dinner with friends on two different days. I have to say lunch was great, but it did blow up the budget some. It is amazing how easy that is. Now, the caveat to this is that I have not seen this friend for 9 months so I feel it was justified. I would have been in under budget for the month, but the basement had a few other ideas, more on that later.

I guess the great part is that by not shopping, at least I did not blow the budget. Now the part that is even better are all the things I completed around the house.

Here are some of the items on my list for February:

• Paint first floor bathroom (had $5 off coupon at ACE for January, so I bought some paint)
• Clean baseboards, fill in nail holes, recaulk where necessary, and repaint in kitchen
• Clean baseboards, fill in nail holes, recaulk where necessary, and repaint in guest bedroom
• Clean baseboards, fill in nail holes, recaulk where necessary, and repaint in master bedroom
• Clean baseboards, fill in nail holes, recaulk where necessary, and repaint in office room
• Paint master bedroom closet (don't ask!)
• Paint guest bedroom closet
• Paint basement bathroom shelves
• Re-grout kitchen tiles
• Clean and paint walkway into kitchen
• Sew place-mats for dining room table (one out of four completed)
• Make cards for various upcoming occassions
• Read some books
• Clean, fill in nail holes, and paint steps to the basement 

I would like to think that is not too shabby for 3 weekends. With spring around the corner, I will soon be working outside in the garden and flower beds. At least the inside has been cared for now because once it warms up, it will be neglected!

Mellow Yellow

Time does fly quickly. My plan was not to miss a week of posting, but it appears as I have. Well the weekend with three projects left me exhausted and then I traveled to see my family, so I have been a little busy.

I guess I should show you how the new accent wall in the living room turned out. I think it looks great. I guess it should after two tries.

Tan color when we first moved in

Sunglow yellow

Is it too bright?

Benjamin Moore's Straw

Much calmer yellow, but still nice effect

Not so Holiday weekend

Let's just say, completing three projects in an extended weekend sounds like a great idea until you do it. Boy, do I feel old! I could barely move the past two days. Since I am one of the lucky people who have off for holidays like President's Day, I decided to paint the accent wall in the living room, including touching up the baseboards, paint the master bedroom closet (again) including baseboards, and remove and re-grout some kitchen tiles. Among here, there was a small plumbing issue, or so I thought, Sam managed to fix it instantly which I still have not decided if I am happy about or not. Not that it wasn't fixed, but that it was so easy for him and not for me!

For this post, I will tell you about the master bedroom closet. After I had bought the house, I set about cleaning it. I had planned to hire a cleaning crew to save me time, but the previous owners said they were going to do that, so not to bother. Well, they never held up their end of the bargain. So not only did I have painting to do when I first moved in, I had cleaning. One Saturday morning, I went a little overboard and gutted the master bedroom closet. I then had to learn how spackle as I made a few errors with removing shelves. I also insisted on priming and then painting the closet with two coats of paint prior to moving in. I mean, my clothes were not going into any space that was less than immaculate of course. But I couldn't move in as I had not shelves to put anything on. So to make a long story short and after numerous tears were shed, Sam built me shelves and made the master bedroom closet something I was happy with.

If you notice, there is not a stitch of men's clothing in this closet. Yes, I monopolized the entire thing. So a year and half goes by and now I no longer like the off white closet, I think it needs some color. I fell in love with the Benjamin Moore's Baja Dunes that I painted the first floor bathroom and had a half gallon left. After a couple of hours, I had it all painted on the walls.

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the wood had never been painted and I wanted it to match the trim. I still had almost a full gallon of the original off white so I used that to paint the shelves and trim with on Sunday. If you are curious to where all the clothes went, I can show you that. We slept in the guest bedroom in our house for 2 nights. Awkward!!!

When it was time to put it all back in on Monday, I decided I should put back in only what I wear. Since I no longer wear suits to work, I thought it made sense not to hang them and continue to gather dust. If you are related to me, I suggest you sit down before you continue reading. It is astonishing how many clothes I have and do not need!! Yes, I did say that. I do not need to go shopping for a while and I was kind of sad at how much stuff I had. The closet continued over to the dressers and I am proud to say, that I have consolidated back into 1 dresser and I could now share my closet!