It's been CRAZY busy around here this summer. Things got way out of control at work. Ok, not out of control, but OH MY GOSH, so much work! Which is a good thing, because, I kid you not, come the end of July? My work came to a screeching halt. So, good thing I made two months worth of money in one month, because I haven't had any work to speak of this month.
But, that is ok, because I have a lot of things I need to catch up on. I wanted to make some cute t-shirts for the girl, I needed to finish a couple of christening dresses I've been crocheting for my friends' twins, I have a lot of home improvement stuff I've been wanting to work on, and so forth.
So, yeah, a slow month isn't always a bad thing.
So, here is a little rundown of what I've been up to.
First thing-
The Small One fell in love with some t-shirts she saw at the Gap. They were on sale for $10 each, but that is still way outside of my price range for clothes for the child. Heck, I'll hardly spend that much on a shirt for myself.
So, being that I'm a DIY type girl, I figured, I could make some myself. So I did. I bought a pack of Hanes boys tshirts and recut them for the Small One. She is skinny and long (which is one reason she loves gap t's, they are skinny and long), so I cut them narrower and recut the sleeves to make short puff sleeves. Perfect. Then, I got out my fabric Sharpies and went to town. I rather like the results. Here they are.
She was rather pleased with them and can't wait to wear them. I won't let her wear them until school starts Which is soon. GASP! I don't like that. I assure you, I will be one of the crying mothers at the door to kindergarten. Oh well. I'm a sucker for my girl.
I've also been slowly working on stuff in my house, starting with my bedroom. I am kind of a scattered person, so I have to restrain myself. One of the rules I have set for myself is that I have to finish a project/area in my house before I can move on to another. So, since I started with the window alcove in my bedroom, that is what I am working on. It is nearly done and I LOVE IT.
So, here a some pics from that project.
This is an old piano bench I've had for years. Not old enough to be a worthy antique, so I didn't feel bad about painting it.
And here it is painted and distressed. I got the inspiration from my friend Amanda Pierre who refinishes furniture BEAUTIFULLY.
Then, I got it in my head to strip the paint from the window frame in my room. Yikes. That is some work, let me tell you. That part of my house is over 100 years old and the window frame is original. So, it has at least 60 years of paint on it. That's a lot of paint, y'all. And, because the wood is old, it has cracks in it. And there is paint in those cracks. Oy. What a pain. But, oh, the window is beautiful.
Here's a shot after I got the major paint off part of it. You can see, on the very bottom what it used to look like. So much paint that the detail was lost.
Here is a pic with most of the paint stripped. At this point, I oiled the wood because the stripper dries it out a lot.
The little blue dresser is another one I painted and distressed. It used to be a brown sewing cabinet from the sixties.
And, the last thing I've done at this point is my chaise. You can see it there in the pic above. Just a basic brown chaise, upholstered in a textured Herculon. Nothing great, nothing inspiring. And definitely not what I am going for style-wise. So, obviously, I'm not going to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on the chaise I really want. I have to make do with what I have. And, among the things I have is a pretty good collection of decorating fabrics. I buy fabric more often than I should, and especially if it's on sale. I've been in the same color scheme most of my adult life, so nearly all of my decorating fabrics match. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm extremely partial to blue, and I love it paired with cream, tan, gold or brown. So, those are the colors of the large majority of my decorating fabrics. Off I went to raid my stash and find something that A-I had enough of and B-looked good with what was already in the alcove.
And behold! I had what I needed.
So, after much effort and wrestling of this largish piece of furniture and it's accompanying cushion, here is what I ended up with.
I confess, I am very pleased with the results.
This was my inspiration (thank you Pinterest!)
