Curtains = Saga

Here are the new curtains for the bedroom.

I really, really, really like the fabric.

I like it so much that I talked myself into going to Joann’s to use my coupons

with my four kids

even though I had an inkling that maybe I shouldn't

which I promptly disregarded

and I was so distracted trying to keep my children from unrolling all fabric on rolls

that I neglected to translate feet into yards

and purchased substantially more fabric {substantially more} than I needed

and then promptly went home and called Bryce who I commenced to cry to

but who couldn’t talk because he was going downtown with some friends

and I hung up and cried some more

and spent the night thinking of 500 different ways to use a whole bunch of home décor fabric

that I bought with money that I didn’t have

and then I realized I measured my curtains too short

which is ridiculous considering how much fabric I have.

Happy Spring Break.

My sisters are here visiting and I really do like the fabric.

Katie

Finally-Finished Pillow

 

Years ago, my grandma taught me how to cross-stitch. {She also taught me to not take such large bites while eating, to not say ‘ya’ – it’s slang, to tie my shoes and to put lotion on my hands so some future boy will want to hold them…some of this counsel I remember better than others.}

I went to visit my cousins in Utah one summer when my mother could not tolerate me for one more day and shipped me off. I was 12, and I am still humiliated by this fact

My patient and generous aunt had me cross stitch my name and some flowers on some fabric which she turned into a pillow.

I then showcased this pillow at a talent show where one of my youth leaders saw it and talked me into making one for her….

16 years ago.

I am happy to announce that I finished the pillow this week.

I would like to clarify that I’ve had the cross-stitch portion done for about…16 years, it was the pillow part I was hung up on.

My sisters are coming to visit next week and I will send it home with them to my mom who will hand deliver it.

So, if there is something that I told you I would do for you, apparently it doesn’t matter how long ago, now is the time to make good on that promise.

Have a good weekend.

Katie

Master Bedroom….

Before.

After, striped.

Other side.

(I accidentally deleted the picture where the laundry baskets were removed, our sad reality. However, I saw some nice wicker baskets at the store the other day and am thinking those might be a good alternative.)

I have new fabric from Joann’s all picked out, just waiting to be paid for.

So, um, what do you think?

Mom, don’t comment.  I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like it, unless of course, you actually do, then you’re welcome to tell me how proud you are….

Katie

P.S. Taking down painters tape is way more fun than putting it up.

Stairs

 

I thought about doing a vertical stripe down both sides of the stairs.

I decided against it when I thought about all the measuring and taping involved. Don’t love measuring, don’t love taping.

Instead I went ahead and painted a piece of trim under the tread.

It’s the same yellow that I used for the border on the front porch. And now it looks like stripes, always a fan of stripes.

I painted the treads using a black enamel for durability.

Hope you’re having a great weekend.

Katie

{Painting Thoughts}

• Some things actually do go bump in the night.
• It could just be a loose spindle that you’re painting that echoes in the quiet, old house.
• If it’s dark and raining outside, if it’s dark and quiet inside, if you’re up late painting, every episode of Law & Order: SVU will replay in your mind.
• You will think of every feasible reason why all of those episodes are completely inapplicable to your situation.
• All the same, you refuse to go near the basement.
• You will wonder why there are fake pine needles on your stairs.
• You’ve probably vacuumed the stairs 26 times since Christmas.
• You realize this is a lie.
• Everyone knows what kind of house keeper you are, even if they just met you.
• You would only vacuum that often if you lost some sort of bet.
• You would never enter into some sort of bet where you knew if you lost you would have to clean your stairs 26 times.
• You wonder if people in solitary confinement have silent conversations in their heads like you are doing now.
• You wonder if there is some sort of painting program at prison.
• You realize if you ever did go to jail, you would get eaten alive.
• You console yourself by knowing you will never go to prison.
• Even if you’ve been driving around Oregon with a Colorado license for well over a year.
• You take back any time you ever thought or said anything about Bryce never doing anything around the house.
• It was untrue.
• You start thinking of potential blog post ideas.
• You wonder if you should do a post with painting tips.
• You talk yourself out of this because no one wants to read a post about painting from you, who is no perfectionist.
• You think maybe it’s time for another giveaway.
• You rack you mind for ideas and come up with nothing.
• You wonder if perhaps the readership will come up with their own suggestions.
• You look at the time.

The stairs are almost done so look for a post tomorrow or Saturday with the final pictures.

Katie

Lovely Spindles

{Spindles before.}

{Spindles after.}

{Please tell me you can see the difference…?}

{More spindles.}

{Did you know it takes 3 minutes to paint every.single.elaborate.decorative spindle?}

 

 

{Spencer talking to the chicken, Josephine'…isn’t she ugly?}

So here’s the skinny on the spindles.

I’ve been waiting for Bryce to go out of town to work on the stair case.

Why?

Because I have to paint it at night so that no wandering hands will touch it during the day.

Bryce doesn’t love to paint.

He especially doesn’t love to paint tedious projects.

He really doesn’t love to paint tedious projects at night.

So, I knew it was my project.

I didn’t want to do it while Bryce is home because it would go something like this:

Bryce: What are you doing?

Me: I’m going to paint the stair case.

Bryce: Right now?

Katie, instantly defensive: Well, when else am I supposed to do it?

Huff about getting things ready.

Bryce: Do you want me to help?

Me: No, it’s fine.

Bryce continues to watch TV, play video games, surf the net, read a book, or something else more fun than painting spindles.

I paint spindles.

Bryce does not paint spindles.

I go to bed mad.

See?

It’s just better this way.

I hope to make more progress today and have it done by Monday.

Katie

How To Get Rid of Text Enhance

Text enhance is this new way of free advertising for blogs.

Except it's super annoying and invasive and automatic.

Here's how to get rid of it if you have a blog.

Scroll over the underlined/Text Enhanced word.

Click on the question mark in the upper right hand corner of the dialogue box.

Find 'Support' at the bottom of the page.

Read through the jargon till you find the blue highlighted phrase mentioning opting out.

Click on that.

Click the box that says, yes, you want to opt out of text enhance.

Type in the words.

Press enter.

It will tell you if you've been successfully opted out or not.

It took me a couple of tries and I eventually had to start all over because I couldn't successfully type in the computer screening words.

This will get rid of text enhance for your blog and other blogs you pull up.

Good luck.

Hope this helps if you have this problem.

Katie

Envy

Cause to envy me:

• I get to spend three uninterrupted weeks, by myself, day-in and day-out with my four children, fifteen days. fourteen nights. Just me and them. Yup. Lots of quality time.
• Elizabeth gets to use her new boots that I thought were a silly purchase with it being March and all. But it snowed today.
• I am on a first name basis with Oregon Custom Roofing. Our roof that we had put on last year, is leaking, again. All I have to do is say my name and I can hear an inward groan.
• Adeline is only napping three times a week now...it used to be six times. I'm learning a lot about that dear, sweet, sleep deprived child.
• I'm really good at taking care of baby chicks. Thirteen of them. All in our kitchen. (Only seven on them are mine.)
• I'm a really good friend. I will raise your chicks for eight weeks for the cost of feed. I may never want to speak to you again, but you will have nice healthy chicks.
• I can take four children to the library in a disheveled, food stained, mismatching mess while Meg runs around like a crazy person and I show no outward sign that it even phases me.
• I got Spencer's birthday present done. That statement is really more of a brag than the rest of them, if you didn't catch on to that.
• I may have saved my marriage by telling Bryce that I would probably be doing some painting in our master bedroom while he is gone.
• I will not be gaining any significant weight in the next three weeks. There is not an ounce of chocolate or other sweet reward in our house and the chances of going to the grocery store to get anything is pretty slim.
• I will have plenty of opportunity to scrutinize the cleanliness of our bathroom as I may be tempted on more than one occasion to lock myself in there.
• No one on the face of planet will probably be supplicating the heaven's above to send down some patience more than myself.

Katie

Porch!

Have a great weekend.

Katie

Happy Thursday

All I know is I should have bought her some goggles a.long.time.ago.

Thanks for all the really nice, really honest comments about the porch.

I have some more to show you but haven’t had a chance to get out there and take some pictures….maybe this afternoon?

Katie

Fishing

 

OK, so this is totally going to sound like I’m fishing for compliments.

But, I’m not.

Unless of course you want to leave one, then by all means...

Medford’s had a couple of nice days so I could get some painting done.

So, I’ve been working on the porch…

And the floor is done.

It’s grey with a yellow border.

I really like how it turned out.

It’s exactly how I had it pictured in my head.

But, Bryce isn’t sure if he likes the grey/yellow combination.

And someone else came over and didn’t really get ‘the whole border thing’.

What do you think?

I know that if I like it that’s all that should matter…blah, blah, blah.

I’m just wondering if I’m completely off base with the whole idea.

Let me know.

You should know that I read all of your comments and try to respond when possible.

This statement was said to encourage you to comment.

Katie

More Sewing Projects

Sunday morning family picture.

I have this chair that I’m going to use for the sun room so I made a cushion for it using an embroidered dish towel that Bryce’s grandma made.

I had an extra down pillow so I made a case for it and tied the ends. It will be for the day bed.

I have been getting lots of sewing done as the weather has been miserable, like, really awful, and I can’t go outside to paint some projects.

Although I have all of the paint, five different colors, just staring at me, aching to be used.

Have a great weekend.

Katie

Thanks for all the comments, they are fun to read.

I Am A Finisher…

 

Bath Night.

 

I may not be a lot of things: patient, good looking, a perfectionist, a clean-freak, tactful, sympathetic, etc.

But I am:

a finisher.

I cut out this white fabric to make a skirt….YEARS ago. 

Which is probably evident by the major crease that I could not iron out from the skirt being folded for a really.long.time.

{Maybe I should get some encyclopedias to lay out on it….}

I’m going to take a guess and say that I’ve had this skirt cut out for at least four years.

I finally got to it yesterday.

I used bottom-weight fabric for the skirt.  It is a bit thicker than most calicos and has a good stretch to it.

I put a band of thick grosgrain ribbon on the bottom

and

a thin elastic at the waist band

(which you should be aware that I didn’t even make a casing for….I just folded the top down and sewed the elastic on….see? not a perfectionist)

And made some embellishments using some old vintage yo-yos.

I like  yo-yos, can you tell?

There may come a day in the future when I will look at my house and my wardrobe with a bit of disgust and wonder what was I thinking?

Yo-yos?

Really?

But,

today is not that day.

I have a cute mint green button up shirt with white polka dots and some red high heels that I have all picked out to wear with this skirt.

Whenever it stops: raining, snowing, slushing, blowing, muddying, overcasting….

Have you finished anything lately?

Katie