Ruffled Bed Coverlet – Again?!
Sewing . . . sewing . . . sewing . . .
Man this is turning out to be a boring project – I sure hope it turns out well. It would actually be a great project for a beginning seamstress since it’s just miles and miles of sewing straight seams. Although it’s so tedious a beginner might give up and never sew again!
Ruffled Bed Coverlet – Part 2
It turns out that we’ll be doing the bedroom redo this weekend, rather unexpectedly, so I’ll be working frantically to get my projects done before then. The headboard is actually more of a priority but it didn’t get above 50 degrees today so I couldn’t paint. I’m holding out hope for tomorrow though!
Tonight instead then I’m working on the coverlet. I can see now it’s going to be a slog with a ton of sewing. Here I’m working on the first strip. One down, twelve to go (seriously).
Edmonds Waterfront Photos
It was such a beautiful day today that I decided to drive down to the Edmonds waterfront this afternoon during preschool. It was so gorgeous on the water, with the blue skies and ferries, and the darker rain clouds lurking over the Kitsap peninsula. There was even a train idling on the tracks to keep my little one entertained after his nap, with the bonus that it was hauling airplane fuselages behind the engines!
Ruffled Bed Coverlet
On to the next project for the bedroom; I’m starting on this one because it’s too cold to paint the headboard tonight. I’m making a ruffled coverlet for our bed. Tonight I’ve cut the base fabric and all the strips for the ruffles (which took close to two hours), tomorrow night I’ll start sewing.
Crib to Headboard Transformation: Part 1
When my daughter transitioned into her ‘big girl’ bed we were left with a white crib to store in the garage, and it turned out to have been a recalled crib, so we couldn’t sell it. To complete the recall we had to send in all of the hardware, which meant now we had only the frame pieces of a white crib in our garage. Well, it turns out that the headboard and the foot-board of the crib together are just about the width of our queen bed. By painting them black to match the other bedroom furniture and joining them together I’m creating a headboard for our bed; just another step in transforming our bedroom from college-dorm to chic and modern.
First I needed to clean off the garage gunk from a few years of storage (yuck). Then there were two bolt holes (one on each piece) that needed to be filled since they’re on the front of the headboard (there are a lot of holes on the back side of each piece, but since they’ll always be against the wall I didn’t bother to fill them). Finally I gave the back side a primer coat while I let the patches dry. I used the entire can of paint – I can tell I’ll need at least 3 more cans to give it a good even coat on the front.
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| I love the image left on the plastic after painting the primer coat! I didn’t love that the plastic billowed up and stuck to the crib – I’ll paint the front sides laying down on the ground. |
Using Beach Pebbles to Create a DIY Decorative Mirror
Last summer we spent a wonderful week on a family vacation at the Oregon Coast. The house we rented was right on the ocean, on a great beach with only one slight drawback – the 20 yards of rocks and beach pebbles between the steps down to the beach and the smooth sand. After walking back and forth over those rocks countless times during the week, I had an inspiration on the last day – to make a mirror ringed with the small smooth pebbles scattered among the larger rocks. I grabbed a handy sand bucket and started sorting through the beach pebbles, ending up with about half a bucket full. My plan was to use a round mirror and hang it in the bedroom as part of our master bedroom redecoration.
Tonight I finally got around to doing this:
(Edited 3/26/2012 to add a shot of the mirror on the bedroom wall):
Bedroom Gallery Wall
Tonight I’m working on the gallery wall for our bedroom redesign. I’m using a variety of frame shapes and sizes, but all the frames are black and the images are in sepia or black and white. Once I have all the frames ready with photos I’ll finalize the layout so that on ‘move in’ day we’ll be able to hang them with all the aesthetic decisions already made.
I’m hoping we’ll get the bedroom done in the next 6 weeks so I’ve been prepping what I can in advance – after the gallery wall is done my major projects are a mirror, window treatments and some kind of bed treatment.
Sunset in Pixels
As I was browsing Pinterest this afternoon, looking for something to do for today’s project, I came across this pin, which led me to this post on Wit & Whistle about pixel painting. The basic idea is to scale a photograph down to just a few pixels, and then paint the resulting image onto a grid using watercolors. What you end up with is an abstract of the image that retains the feel of the photograph. Here’s the original photo I used:
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| January sunset at Rockaway Beach, Oregon |
I rescaled it to 11 pixels wide by 8 pixels high, and ended up using a grid of 1-inch squares – that just happened to be what would fit on the paper I was using (and made it super easy to draw the grid). Then I painted the image, square by square. Here’s what I ended up with:
TV Tickets
My kids watch too much TV. Of course they think they watch not quite enough TV, and would I kindly please turn it back on again thankyouverymuch? But secretly, they know they watch too much TV as well.
For awhile now I’ve been using a system that works reasonably well. Every morning I make up “show tickets” that are worth a half-hour of TV watching or playing games on the computer. They redeem them for the shows they’d like to watch, and when the tickets are gone, the TV / computer goes off. I’ve been giving them 2 tickets each, with the possibility to earn a ‘bonus ticket’ at the end of the day if they’ve cooperated and been good listeners. I’ve gotten tired of drawing up the tickets every morning, so I decided to create some on the computer so they’re easily printed out ahead.
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| TV tickets for both kids – I had to add the box at the lower right corner of the ticket so that I can check off when the ticket is used, otherwise they find them around after they’ve been redeemed and try to re-use them! |
The best part about this system is it gets them to ration the viewing themselves – they have to choose which shows to watch, and to turn the TV off if they’re running low on tickets that they’d like to save for a later time. I haven’t really let them save them up for another day yet, but I suppose that’s a possibility. The hardest part is holding firm when the tickets run out and they’re still whining for TV, especially when its late and dinner needs to get on the table and I could really use the distraction! I know this will be an ongoing battle, and it will probably only get worse, but I hope that if I can get some control over it right now, it will make things easier later on. Fingers crossed!
Rag Doll Bunny – Pattern
Okay, the pattern is done! I made both the body and head more egg-shaped than in the sketch (I like the subtle Easter tie-in) and the proportions are a little different. It will make a pretty big doll, but I think that will make it easier to clothe it and add facial details – plus turning it before stuffing should be easier too.
Now I just need the fabric. I’m going to use scraps for the ear lining and the clothes but I’m thinking I’ll use a muslin or something similar (any suggestions?) for the body. Now when’s Easter again? Stay tuned for bunny updates!
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