Home Imporvements

I painted one wall in my house blue- it's about the same color as that painter's masking tape. I have been wanting to paint for a while but I couldn't decide what color, but just over a week ago I decided blue is what I want and just went for it- stayed up all night and into the wee morning hours (5am to be exact) just to get it done in one night. I'm quite happy with it- it makes me smile every time I look at it.

That project went very well so I decided to tackle another project I have been dreaming of for a while: an awning. My back deck has a roof over it that has exposed beams showing. These beams turn into a breeding ground for spiders in the summer so I usually end up avoiding spending time on the deck. Here's what it looked like before:


So I decided to order some outdoor fabric from JoAnn's and staple it to the beams. I loved the idea of a black & white stripe- it it reminds me of a restaurant awning.

I also love looking out the window of my blue wall at the striped awning.

Next up on my list of things to tackle: sand down my kitchen cabinets and paint them white and spray all the hardware silver (currently I have medium to darkish wood cabinets and brass hardware).

P.S. Again I apologize about the blurry photos. I am trying to track down my old digital camera until I get this one fixed but apparently I put it somewhere REALLY safe in one of my cleaning sprees.

Sewing Studio Update

Okay, I did a little straightening up. But I wanted you to see what it really looks like when I'm sewing in there- it never stays this clean. The best part of a clean sewing room is messing it up again right?








I apologize for the blurry photos- I dropped my camera the other day and now I can't get it to focus =(

Studio Tour

Sooooo... Here is a guided tour of the mess that I call my sewing room:

This is the view when you open the door

That cabinet you see with all the junk on it? That's my cutting table. And inside the cabinet?:


Piles of fabric and a serger that I've only used once or twice (the serger is in the red bag). And just incase you missed it here's a close up of the mess on top of the cutting table:


On the far side of the cutting table under the window is another shelf filled with fabric and a rack for my pressing pad and cutting mats in the corner:



Here is my sewing table- you can see my little helper pushing various buttons on my machine for me. When sitting in front of my machine my back is touching the edge of the cutting table:

Above my sewing table is a peg board that holds some of my threads and rulers:

To the right of my sewing table is my bookshelf:


The bottom 2 shelves are filled with quilting books, the middle shelf is patterns (I'm not a big pattern buyer) and some fabric and the top two shelves are all fabric. To the left of the shelf is a roll of organic batting that I bought but haven't used yet, so it's still in the box, and on top of the bookshelf (not in the picture) is a case of stuffing (for a puff quilt that I'm going to make someday in the future). The right side of the bookshelf buts up to the closet:


I took the doors off the closet for easier access. On the left is my Bernina ironing board with a built in vacuum so your fabric stays put (I almost never use this) and behind that is a cabinet with 2 shelves. The cabinet has about 6 yards of terry cloth that was for a robe I never made and the drawers hold various fusible webs that are probably dried out and brittle by now. The shelf/drawer system on the right is mostly filled with unfinished projects and the bottom area (mostly out of the picture) is holding 10 bolts of linen that I purchased to make quilts yet but currently are still in their plastic wrap.
And last but not least is a cabinet in Audrey's room that I never emptied out when we switched rooms (I used to have a much larger sewing room but for some reason that I'm finding hard to remember right now I decided she should have the larger room, so we switched)

This cabinet is mostly filled with fatquarter packs that are still wrapped up exactly as I purchased them. It makes me happy to see all those pretty little bundles though. I hope you enjoyed peeking in my sewing room- I can't wait to see everyone elses!