The Guest Bedroom Is All Prettied Up!

Whew!!!

Two weekends and I’m finished with the guest bedroom painting and most of the re-decorating.  There was a lot of re-purposing and re-using most of the items already in the room.  I’ve only made a few purchases and I think the end result came out quit nicely if I do say so myself!

Einstein was a big help.  He really thought he could paint.

I’ve changed his name to “Einstein NO!” after a few instances of him sneaking into the room and getting close to the paint tray!

I had paint chips up on the wall for several weeks trying to decide.  I eventually thought I’d just keep the color in the same family, as all the artwork could still be used and one of the posters is a Georgia O’Keefe I bought in Washington DC at an exhibit of hers way back in the 80′s.  It’s one of my favorites.

I pulled it out of the old poster frame and switched with the other Georgia O’Keefe that was in this frame. I like it!  The frame cut off the extraneous wording from the museum exhibit at the bottom and it looks quit nice.  The wall color is kinda interesting for me.  The whole time painting I kept thinking it looked like the inside of a green minty oreo or a green peppermint patty.  I had some doubts but the color is really picked up from the painting.

I picked up some of the other colors by purchasing two yellow pillow shams from Target, a throw pillow from Target and two damask throw pillows I found at JC Penny during a curtain rod sale.  The bedspread and sheets are ones we had in the closet.

I did purchase a new side table, this one from IKEA.  It went together very quickly.  I’m almost a master IKEA assembly women.

The curtains were recycled from some I’d made for our living room about ten years ago.  I’ve had them in the room before but on different rods…actually they were just hung on valence rods!  I picked up the new rods at the Presidents Day sale at JC Penny — wow!  Hadn’t shopped there in ages but I was pleasantly surprised with what I found!

The purple sheet is actually a sheet that came from my days in the bedding industry.  It’s a King size sheet, so not exactly the right size for the bed but it picks up more colors.  The lamp is the old one.  I’m still looking for some that will work in the room.

I moved the Singer 201 as a side table and the other painting is one I did in a water color class…which will eventually get hung up.

I re-purposed an old chair and the quilt is one I found at an Estate Sale.

Other than looking for those lamps as I said before I need to just work on a solution for a headboard and find an area rug and I’m finished!  Isn’t it pretty?

All told I’ve spent:
Paint $45 – I bought two gallons
Pillow Shams $40
Throw Pillow $15
Bedside Table $75
Curtain Rods $80

A total of $255.  I know eventually I’ll find those lamps, pick up an area rug and figure out a headboard… and still be under $500 for the whole room!

I’m off to shop!  Talk to you in a bit!

~Cathy

The February House Maintenance Project

As you have guessed, I’ve been laying low, trying to figure out what we are going to do about our big leak/broken attic issue.

Jim had contacted our homeowner’s insurance and they will FINALLY come out tomorrow to take a look.  It doesn’t look like they will be able to do much other than replace some drywall where the leak shows staining.

Unfortunately, the moisture levels in the basement have gone out of control and we have a bloom of grey dusty mildew growing around where the water was pouring in!!!

I haven’t posted in a while mostly because of this pressing issue.  We have to re-mediate this right away so I’m most likely going to be working on this for a while.  Seriously, I was a little sick to my stomach just thinking about an ugly MOLD monster coming to destroy my house.  Nightmares!

But all is good.  We have some clean up but it looks like it isn’t as bad as my nightmares make it out to be.  We went to SEARS and purchased a de-humidifier to lower the moisture level and after the patching and fixing takes place we should be dry to the bone again.  Whew!

I’ve already wiped down a few areas but stopped after my nose started itching.  Jim told me to do some research and make sure I get one of those ventilator masks and wear some clothes that covers up everything and can be tossed out or washed in sanitizing water.  Seriously?  Well…that’s where we are at with this.

So guess what the other project I have going on while my basement dry’s out?

It’s another February Painting Project!!!

Here’s the before pictures.  We have my brother coming to stay with us for a few months and after a couple of exchange students the room needs a makeover!

These are the before shots before the color of paint went on the wall.

I know it’s messy but we removed the bed linens and moved everything to the center of the room as not to get it covered in paint!

I’ll show you the after pics this weekend as I finished the painting last Sunday and have been putting the room back together.

I’ll post more later!

~Cathy

Houston?

Remember Snowmaggedon?

Well the other day when I was sifting and tossing and re-organizing my scrap fabric I was going up and down the stairs to the basement.  On one of those up and down trips I noticed there was a spot of water at the bottom of the stairs.

I seriously thought I had just spilled my water or something and totally thought I was just being me…a dryland idiot that occasionally spills stuff, ya know?

Well…drip.  Then drip!  What THE?

I look up and there’s water.  Jim actually found the drip and traced it on up to the second floor and then into the attic.

The warm weather has melted something in our attic.  Do you know what that something is?

SNOW!!!! WE HAVE SNOW IN OUR ATTIC!!!!!!!

I could hardly believe it.

Apparently the blizzard blew up into one of our vents, broke some kind of seal and tossed up a big pile of snow.

This is what it looked like after Jim crawled in and took the picture.

It was a whole bucket full.  And just think…this was TWO weeks after the storm.  My goodness, for two weeks this has been seeping down the walls and into the house!!!!

This is what it looks like after the insulation was removed (we removed everything and tossed it to the trash).  It doesn’t look so bad, but we have our insurance guy coming to do an inspection.

We think we’ll have to pull off some drywall and have some major repairs done.  I’m a little sick just thinking about it…but oh so glad we found it!

~Cathy

Scrap?

I’ve been cleaning out the basement and pulling up boxes of scrap fabric.

Any suggestions of what to do with all of it?

Let me know your thoughts!

Meanwhile, I’m going to look through my ‘Idea’ book…

~Cathy

A fearful, frigid night on iconic Chicago road – Yahoo! News

A fearful, frigid night on iconic Chicago road – Yahoo! News.

 

What a crazy situation!

Mr. Einstein at 10 Months – Does this carpet make me look fat?

Here he is.  I haven’t written a monthly report in a couple of months so I’m totally overdue!

Einstein will turn 10 months old on the 5th.  He’s such a great dog!  But I got the dreaded fat lecture the other day.  I know, who likes being told you’re fat?

“He needs to trim down about 5 pounds.”  Those were the official orders.

5 pounds!  Yikes!  He’s been called Moose for 10 months and now he’s no longer Moosey, he’s FAT.  That’s Capital F, Capital A, Capital T!

~sigh.

Anyway.  I guess it’s appropriate here on my blog…we do deal in larger sizes here!  How funny!  And just so he doesn’t have to suffer alone I’m going to try and lose a little myself.  It will be a team effort.

I certainly could stand to move a little bit more.  So much more I enrolled in a Zumba class!  Whoo Hoo…but that will have to be for another post.  Zumba.  Me!

I’ll post more later…still working on the Roll Roll Cotton Boll Quilt and it looks like tomorrow is going to be a complete snowed in day!

~Cathy

The Scrap Car Organizer is all but Finished!

Well friends, here is a closer look of the car organizer I made from scraps using Simplicity 2553.

These photos show a little bit more of detail of the scraps.  Oh yes, and you all will also notice that I hand stitched the outer bias tape.  It was easier that way.  I wasn’t sure if I could master trying to get the tape sewed on and have it look good.

This entire bag is made from scraps so there are some discolorations in the bias tape, you are NOT seeing things…it really is discolored (but not sure if you really can tell from these photos).  I guess that is what happens when you pull something out of the bin that is probably about 20 years old!

The thread was some tri-colored quilting thread…so at least that color change is supposed to be there.

I also found some scrap webbing in the basement while I was clearing out some old clothes.  I think it is a belt strap for some long forgotten waist pack, who knows!  I’m going to look for some alligator clips to attach it to the bag and then I’m done!  This was a simple and fun project!

Snowmaggedon is coming!

 

NOAA map of Snowmaggedon 2011!

I’m watching the newscast this morning and for all you’d think we are headed towards the end of life as we know it.

 

This should be interesting.

Wish me luck!

I’m headed out for my trek to work.  I’ve got the shovel, a blanket, water, food, the dog, dog food, cell phone, boots, hat, gloves, rope, knife, flares,

Oh, almost forgot, need to pack the search light, the snow shoes, skis, compass, dog sled (just in case, already have dog), two way radio, gas powered flashlight…

Can you think of anything else?

Oh yeah…a sewing project maybe?

Talk to you soon!  Once again…wish me luck!

~Cathy