The name says it all! My fabric, my family and other fun things in my life!
It may have been last August or September that I decided I would eventually go mobile with my computing abilities… the time has finally arrived!
Now I have 3 weeks before Quilt Market – and the list of things that HAVE to be done before I venture out of town just keeps growing. (I can’t imagine the workload of the people who actually have a booth at Spring Market!) Lots of work to do….but now I can do much of it outside. 
Do you feel like we need to go to lunch and catch up? I do!
Well, we have to start somewhere – right?
We poured concrete to extend the patio area in our backyard. It wraps around to our side yard now too.
Then we added a playground for the kids….
Moved some dirt around, put in rocks here and there to give the ground some character (besides flat)
Still to come:
lot of plants
another tree
cork or wood chips (under the playground)
grass (of the fake variety)
stain the concrete (has to completely cure)
more rock
fire pit
And by the way, I did none of this. It was all my better half
You may notice the little addition to my sidebar. I’m joining Heather Bailey’s March of the Tools. Don’t you think it’ll be fun?
Speaking of tools – look what the hubs and bil worked on this weekend….
It’s the beginnings of a work bench. A nice little addition to his work area in the garage where he stores all his tools and works on various projects! I’ll post a picture on flickr when he has the whole area finished and organized!
And I’ll be back this month with more posts on tools – crafting, cooking, home improvement – who knows!
Technically, the front room in our house is supposed to be a formal living room. In reality, the front room has become the location of sewing parties. (BTW, if you are in Tucson, we’re getting together Monday night this month due to other obligations.)
My husband desperately wants it to be a game room with a pool table. I’m not so keen on the idea….until I found these awesome pool tables that have a wooden table top – so it turns into a regular table. Perfect for the sewing parties!!!!
I also want to have floor to ceiling curtains that go over the sliding glass doors, roman shade on the small windows, an awesome fireplace, family photos and more. Have ideas for me? Wanna help?
It’s that time again, isn’t it? Time to reflect on the year that ended. Time to contemplate the year that just began.
With the end of 2008 came the official end of this too…
I knew that the end was coming – and I’m not sad about it. I learned so much and would not be were I am today if it weren’t for this adventure. Etsy already closed my shop due to inactivity and now I have closed down my business account at the bank and license with the state. All that is left is to redo that website to reflect this official change.
My current business will be one year old in a matter of days! Plans are being made for the coming year and I’m excited to try out a few new ideas. I’ll share them with you when the time is right.
Another old thing from 2008 that had to go was this….
It was yucky and gross and not my style, plus the padding was so thin that I had to put tea towels under the cover to prevent the little metal grid pattern from below showing up on my fabrics. I feel much better now that I have this….
I used this fun print from Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden Collection. (After I was done, I thought I should have taken pictures for a tutorial. Sorry!) Whew! Now I feel like I can make it through the year. 
I can also survive 2009 now that my 20-something brother-in-law no longer has plates that blow mine out of the water on the coolness scale. His plates are really really cool – and mine….
yeah, they were definitely not so cool. BUT lucky for me, I found some plates at Ross’ that I think are fun and cool (and were also inexpensive – everything at Ross’ is cheap!) So now my plates can hold their own against his cool plates!
I found 5 colors (yep – only 3 pictured here) – so I have 2 of each color (and one mug in each color) but I’m hoping that a 6th color will appear one day. I feel like I need to have 12 – is that weird? I know that orange and purple also exist – but I need to find 2 plates, 2 salad plates and 2 bowls plus one mug….so I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Hoping that 2009 is filled with new wonderful things for all of us!
The best laid plans…..right? I thought I was so awesome posting on my blog this month – and then I lost it again. *sigh* Things have been great around here. I FINALLY feel like we are catching up or settling down or something like that! We’re arranging (and rearranging) rooms, hanging up pictures, sorting the last of the boxes….just getting things done. It is such a nice feeling! It should be even nicer when I actually feel caught up
My office/crafting room is not finished yet – so I don’t have an overall picture for you to see, but I have made a few improvements! The back of the shelves have this fabric. I adore it!
The bulletin board also needed some updating – so I added this fabric to it. I love the randomness that isn’t really random at all – and I love the green. It’ll be such a great inspiration board, don’t you think?
Other boring things have been happening too – like finishing all my business accounting from January through November. It’s a HUGE relief to have it all done and ready for taxes (sans December, but one month will seem like a breeze now!) I have a few sewing projects in the works too…and I never showed you some of the awesome Christmas gifts I made. Oh well – the best laid plans of mice of men often go awry.
You already know this – my husband rocks, literally – as in he puts up rock! (he he) We used some Christmas money to buy the rock to finish off our fireplace. WOO HOO! I love how it looks.
It’s actually fake rock (matches our fake gas fireplace?!?!?). I think it’s like El Dorado Stone or something. I’m not really sure, but we had to special order it. Anyway, he did an awesome job. Don’t you think? That husband of mine is amazing! Now we can finish the baseboards next to the fireplace too. We didn’t want to put those in until we knew exactly where the fireplace rock would start.
At some point, we will buy a TV to go in the hole. A lot of people thinks it’s wierd we didn’t make the hole bigger for a big screen TV – but we really wanted to to be symmetrical with the fireplace. Is that so odd? I think not!
Next up is the backyard…..
Remember me saying that I only wanted pretty things in our house? Well, the bedroom furniture we bought after we got married was starting to look pretty bad. This picture is from 2005 – it’ gone down hill from there – I suppose the 6 moves in 8 years we’ve been married has not helped, but let’s be honest here, it is CHEAP furniture. Like super cheap. We were broke when we got married. Went months with just an air mattress….until my friend prayed us into a bed. (That’s another story!) 
So here we are in our pretty house with furniture that just doesn’t seem right. Buying new furniture is not really an option. So what’s a girl to do? Buy some paint – that’s what! Then talk her darling husband and brother-in-law into painting the whole bedroom set. (For the record, the BIL did most of the painting.)
In total – we spent just under $30 to redo the furniture. I also got a new “Bed in a Bag” on clearance – I’m not sure I love it, but my husband doesn’t hate it – so that is good. And now we have a new bedroom that I can live with for a bit longer.
We have a room upstairs I call the loft. It is supposed to be the fun room for reading, playing games, watching movies, etc. etc. etc. And that is why the Gum Drop pillow was the perfect choice for the loft! I plan to make one for each of the kids. They hardly utilize real furniture anyway.
Honestly, I was terrified of the pattern – although I’m not exactly sure why. BUT it turned out to be SO easy! Really – I’m not joking! Haley likes the pink fabric. It’s from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng line. Actually the boys like it too – I need to get 2 more made pronto to minimize fighting.
It just so happens that patterns and home decor fabric are on sale on my website too. Well isn’t that lucky for you?!?!?
I have so many blasted things I want to do now that we’re in the house. Probably, however, I should concentrate on getting all the boxes unpacked first. We’re getting there. I can’t understand how we have so much stuff – and we have gotten rid of a LOT too.
The other day I showed you little bits of a couple projects. These were things I could do quickly to give me a little break from the boxes. Now I’ve taken proper pictures of the finished results – so I can share them with you!
My hubby built me this cutting table. It is GREAT because I don’t have to bend over to cut the fabric. We used a desk top from a discarded desk and some 2 by 4′s. So it works like a charm but it doesn’t look so pretty. Or I should say it didn’t! (I’m going to be honest…I now only want pretty things…so an ugly cutting table is a problem in our pretty new house. Silly? Shallow? Probably – but that is where I am right now.) What a difference a little fabric can make. My sewing machine was dropped during the move and is now out of commission. 
Good thing my serger still works! I serged all the edges and stapled it to the underside. Now my cutting table has a nice pretty skirt. Makes me think that she’ll be able to stay in commission for a bit longer.
You may recall that my husband (the rock star) built these totally awesome closets. On a trip to Ikea, I found these little boxes. I thought I would buy one to see if it would work as storage in the new closets….but again – it’s not very pretty. So I jazzed it up a bit with some mod podge and a charm pack of woodland bloom fabric. Now it’s a pretty box for someone’s closet. I have a better idea of how to do it next time, and since we have LOTS of little nooks to fill with boxes, I should have plenty of chances to practice until I get it perfect.
There you go! A couple of my quick projects for the new house. Now – I must return to unpacking boxes!
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