Chair Success

Sewing has taken a back seat to house sprucing up lately.  Inside and out.

I consulted my long, long list of things I wanted to have done by May 30th and decided to go ahead and finish those dining chairs.

After taking off the old striped fabric and finding even older tapestry fabric underneath, I decided to use the yellow and coral fabric that has been around for years.

It was just a matter of making myself get started because it was so easy I should have done it a long time ago.

Mike took off the seats and the outer fabric, and I placed the fabric and decided if I wanted the same pattern on each or just random flowers.  I was lucky enough to have 6  repeats of this design so I cut the first one and then laid the other 5 on top of it and matching up all 4 sides.  It worked pretty well.

I wasn't really concerned with centering the design but just placing each one in a pleasing pattern.

The hardest part of the stapling was running out of staples and having to find a YouTube video on how to change them.  It went fast and was very satisfying to see 6 neat little seats appear.

I like them.  Unfortunately, the dining table is one of our staging places for the vacation, so I can't see them in their place yet.

We're getting closer to painting today.  I went back and forth over those shades of green on the wall and finally settled on Restful.  And then today I found on the closet floor a folded paint sample with the color Rejuvenate on it - which was a shade lighter than the Restful.  So without even getting a sample and trying it, Mike is on the way to Home Depot to get it and bring it home.

He caulked and muttered and scraped and stomped around and muttered a little more yesterday but got the trim and doors painted and most of the flaws hidden, and I think it is ready to paint.  We pick Mama up tomorrow, so we better get most of it done today or we'll be sharing a bathroom tomorrow.

We also go to the counter top place in Birmingham to bring home some bigger samples (to try to talk people into helping me make up my mind) and check out the sinks.  I can see painting that kitchen before the summer is over.

The back yard is pretty at twilight.  I can't decide if I like it better then or early in the morning.

 That poor maple tree has been rejuvenated so many times and lost another limb during this past rain.  It's doomed, I'm afraid, but I want to hold onto it as long as I can for a little bit of shade.

Soon it will be harvest time.

There are so many squash and almost big enough to pick.

It will be awhile for these little tomatoes.  These are Roma ones, and we have some Better Boy in a pot with about 3 tomatoes on it.

The banana pepper babies are so cute.  I wonder if you can kill them by looking at them in awe several times a day and maybe touching them.  Same with the tomatoes.  Maybe they'll feel loved and be delicious.

The pet barrier worked at first and still works for Darby.  I saw her jump into the bed and get her feet tangled and jump out quickly again.

But Stella/Molly with her delicate tread likes to check out the new seedlings.  I should plant them some catnip.

A silly picture of Darby.  Her DUH look.  She's always in trouble this spring for digging.  She's never done it before, but I think all this new soil is too tempting for her, especially when a lizard or a bug is around.

I don't have any new pictures of Graysen in the past few days.  I need to start whining about it, I guess.  Maybe we'll skype today.

I can't remember which pictures I've already posted, but there are a few I got last month.  Some Easter ones and some from a fun day out with Mom and Aunt Karen.

Green is a Hard Color

And is driving me crazy!

I've about decided on green for Mama's bathroom. for several reason.  It will probably go with the fixtures and shower curtain I already have.  It will go with the neutral colors we have planned for the hall.  It's one of Mama's favorite colors - green and peach.

But it's not that easy.  I finally picked out 4 shades but couldn't narrow them down enough to buy the actual paint, so I went to Home Depot and had them mix four that I liked.

Got them home, Mike painted samples, and I don't love any of them.

From the above pictures, #3 looks like the winner, but on the wall, it is just too mint-y.

So he went bigger.

The last one is the one I'm leaning toward now.

This is an old picture from Roy and Eleanor's house, and the mat is probably faded by now, but this is the color I want in the kitchen when we paint it.

If I could find it, I would buy it today, but I'm about to lose hope of finding it.  We painted our sunroom in Meridian Lima Bean Green and loved it so much.  It may be that anything was beautiful after pulling down the grape arbor wallpaper, which is how I'm going to feel about this magnolia stuff.  

I think we'll have to get away from Behr, although that's what we seem to always use because it's so convenient to go to Home Depot, and we have our own coffee cups there.  Not really, but we are recognized from the paint section to the countertop section.  Is that a good thing or not?

After doing a few Google searches with the names (Celtic Gray, Restful, and Valley Mist), none of them look bad in rooms that I've seen.  I ruled out the darker color and probably the mintier one and will choose between Celtic Gray and Restful.

This is progress.

Beach Sewing

 I found a set of 4 little colorful bags at I think Hobby Lobby years ago, and they've been sitting around in the sewing room.  It's the perfect size for packing a few beach toys and shoes for Graysen.  This is an old whale design from Embroidery Boutique,  I notice they have some cuter ones now - on sale.

Here is the finished Children's Corner Frannie Baby.  I love how it turned out and will make this pattern again.

Instead of ribbon under the arms, I just unsewed some of the lime gingham purchased piping and refolded it.  I wanted to use that to cover the button on the back, but it was a just a teeny bit narrow, so I had to use some green gingham I had that was close enough.

Now keeping fingers crossed it will fit.

Another dress I just finished was this Monkey Tails blank that I got at My Kids Attic.

I liked one bird but liked the tail of another one, the Swirly Bird from Applique For Kids, so I merged the two and got this.

It's perfect and just what I wanted, but I made 2 mistakes.  I thought the designs was going to be too big, so I ran it around the side a little, and it ended up being too far around to the side.

The other mistake was not using more of a contrasting color for the tail.   It shows up better in person.  I thought the stitch was going to be thicker, but it was a good learning experience.  I'll use it again and do better next time.

Here we go again with wallpaper stripping.

This is Mama's bathroom, and I'm still puzzled why someone thought this was an attractive wallpaper.

I think it's supposed to put you in mind of an old European city - or something - but I still see collared pigs running every time I look at it.

Mama hasn't complained about it and probably never even looked closely at it.  I asked what color she wanted, and she said something light - not red or blue.  So no primary colors, I guess.  I have a gold shower curtain that I'd like to keep, but it's already so neutral in there that I might try a different color.  It would be easily re-paintable later on if it doesn't work.

I used to love to listen to audio books when I did mundane things, but I've gotten behind times on CDs and players, etc.  I have been enjoying (too much) The Good Wife, another Amazon Prime free offering.  I'm on Season 3 - with 5 more seasons stretching in front of me, so it was easy enough to set up my computer to listen (and watch a little) while I worked.  You really miss a lot not seeing facial expressions, especially in the court scenes, so it's not ideal.

Today is my favorite baby's birthday - 15 months.  She's having so many adventures it's hard to keep up with her.  She rode a ferry and picnicked on Bainbridge Island yesterday. 

With her little sand bucket and shovel, she's getting ready for the Gulf of Mexico beaches.

Morning Pretties

I love getting out first thing in the morning and grooming and talking to the plants before it gets hot.  So peaceful.

I'm enjoying this little group of pots.  The maple just makes me smile every time I see it.  so graceful.

Elise and I discovered portulaca (moss rose) when we lived in Greensboro.   I want to get a few cuttings and root them so I can put them in flower beds.  

This bed is coming along.  Sweet allyssum grown from seed along the bricks with purple petunias behind them.  The hostas look healthy so far as well as the daisies.  The only thing that's not thriving is the dianthus, but I think it just got trampled at first by pets.  There are 2 clematis plants at the trellis that have put out some new leaves, and the herbs are already needing to be harvested.  I'm glad we kept this little bed when we had the patio put in.  It's a little damp in that corner right now, but we'll figure it out.

And vegetables!  Squash blossoms!

This is the little hospital where we're nursing a few struggling vegetables. 

I'm not sure we need the extra 2 squash, but it's important to me for them to survive.  The banana peppers are about to bloom, and the very leggy cucumber and zucchini I got yesterday are going to be watched to see if they do okay.

I've never grown (or eaten very often) edamame, but I thought it would be something different.

And this is the nursery. (with pet guards).  Little baby marigolds, asters, and cosmos.  So exiting!

Darby likes getting up early too and making her rounds.

I went to Opelika Sewing Center yesterday for a class and ended up learning some new things and meeting some nice people.  But the best thing was a 30% sale on fabric.  No way I could leave without some pretty things.

Time to get ready for another countertop discussion.  I'll be glad when we make a decision and get something going.  I'm afraid it's not going to be easy though.

One Project Completed

Started and finished in the same day, which is unheard of for me..  They are all the same size.  This was before they had that last side sewed up.

This is not one of the 30+ projects on my list to get completed by the time we leave for the beach. Of course not.  This is a brand new one that has been kind of sitting in the back of my mind, the idea I  would do pillows for the patio chairs.  But I had seen some of the prices, anywhere from $15 to $40 apiece - and our chairs aren't that uncomfortable that we have to have a pillow.

But as I walked into Joann Fabric yesterday, I happened to glance at one of the bins outside and saw pillow forms.  I checked the price, and they were $7.99 for TWO.  So less than $16 for all 4 forms.  Granted they are small, but I knew it was this or nothing, so I went to look at their outdoor fabric.  Lots of choices, lots of really pretty patterns.  And it was half price.  The cutting guy and I did a little math and realized I could get 8 sides out of 1-1/2 years, so there you have it.  Four pillow for less than $30.  No piping, no zipper, nothing fancy - just a pillow envelope with the 4th side hand sewed shut.

This is one project I should have done instead  The dining chairs that belonged to Mama and Daddy from the 1950s, I think.  I've seen them in pictures back that far.  I'm sure if I ask Mama, she will know the date they were bought.

About 15 or so years ago, I helped Daddy cover the chair cushions with this fabric.

It was fine.  It worked, they liked it, and it's still in good shape.  It's just been in this dining room for 7 years, and I'm tired of it.

With the new dining room colors, I wanted to find something to brighten it up.

Before,

After.  I had plans for a little more color but wimped out and just went all toasted marshmallow.'

  Going along with my plan for keeping expenses to a minimum, I pulled out some fabric I had bought years ago for something and thought it would add some brightness to the room.

When Mike took off the top fabric, he found the one before it which I had forgotten about.  It has a tapestry feel to it.  I really like it as well and now have to make a decision on which one to use.  It may be that some of the chairs' fabric is not in good shape, thus the reason for recovering them.

Either way, it's better than the tired old stripes.

It seems like we can't leave things along even in the yard - especially in the yard.

This is the ugly side of the house - really ugly and the first thing you see when you drive up to our house.  We've vaguely discussed planting some evergreens to hide the electrical boxes, but it was always a "one day" project.

Until this weekend when Mike just decided he was going to redo the whole side yard.

I had to hurry to get before pictures.

It's going to be one long curvy bed from the side door to the front bed, and I can't wait to plan what to put in it.  I know it will be a big improvement.

So we have those projects done or underway - and still have my list that hasn't been touched.  We keep dragging out more stuff.

We have 27 days until Ryan, Emily, and Graysen arrive for their week's visit and our trip to the beach.  Graysen's getting ready.

Smocking and sand bucket.  Check.

Sunsuit and sandals.  Check.

Cute swimsuits.

 

Practicing playing in the water.

Sure can't wait to see this sweet baby.