Almost forgot

I DID actually do a teeny bit of sewing this last week. I made some cloth wipes to go with my cloth diapers. I knew there was a reason I had all this flannel laying around. The sizes are odd because I mostly used up scraps of what was left after I cut out bibs, but I figure it doesn't matter all that much. I could easily gone the cheapo route and cut up some old towels, but I bought some terry from Hancock's just because I wanted to see what it was like. It washed up super duper soft, and I kind of like that it's thinner than a regular towel.

They were pretty easy, although a wee bit more time-consuming than I thought they'd be, but only because I'm anal retentive and had to iron and topstitch and all that stuff. Yes, I'm becoming a total sewing nerd. I'm going to make some more when I get a chance.

Handy beats crafty

I haven't had much time to craft or to post this week since my in-laws are visiting from out-of-town. I just have to brag for a minute on them because while I know many people don't get along with their ILs, mine are wonderful. My mother-in-law is really great with the baby, and I totally trust her to watch E without having to hover nearby. We are pretty similar, personality-wise, and get along really well. An my father-in-law is super handy, can fix or make just about anything, and he always does some big house project for us whenever he is here. I usually feel bad putting him to work when he's technically on vacation, but T insists that he enjoys doing it.

So this time, we decided to tackle the big project of painting the kitchen. Sounds like a simple task on the surface, until you realize that the entire kitchen is covered with two layers of wallpaper, one of which is painted flaming red with some weird brown streaks for "texture." I forgot to take some 'before' shots, but here's a couple from not long after we moved in.


When we first moved in, the red didn't bother me so much. But after a while, it becomes really overwhelming, almost claustrophobic. I've been dying to change it, but we really didn't want to slap another coat of paint over the red, we couldn't afford to pay someone to do it, and we weren't up to doing it ourselves, especially since I had already stripped the painted wallpaper in our bathroom and knew what pain in the butt it was. Enter my awesome In-laws.

In case you've never dealt with stripping wallpaper before, let me just tell you now: it sucks. And the geniuses who put it up in our house decided to just go ahead and stick it directly to the drywall, which makes it more complicated. I won't go into too much boring detail, but let's just say that it's a multi-step process which involves stripping, sanding, and priming. Bleh.

Add to all this the fact that the idiots who decided to paint the kitchen screaming, fire-engine red did a really sloppy, half-ass job and got red paint all over the ceiling, cabinets and trim. This led my FIL to declare that painting the ceiling was necessary. Here's a couple shots after he finally got the ceiling done and the walls primed.


Originally, we were going to texture the walls to cover up any imperfections left from the stripping/patching process, but I think we were all a little nervous since no one had ever worked with texture before. We ended up deciding to just start painting on one wall and seeing how it would look without texture. Here's the "after" pics.


For a 4-day project, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm still not 100% sold on the color, even though I'm the one that picked it out. I struggled for a long time with what direction to go in, since I didn't want it to be another bold color, and it also had to coordinate with the yellow in the next room. In the end, I decided to go for something that would be kind of a warm light brown/tan neutral; something that wouldn't overpower the woodwork. The color on the chip was called "Warm Cappuccino," but it turned out to be much more peach-y and flesh-toned than I thought it was going to be once it was up (it looks almost pink in the pictures, but it's really not). But everyone else likes it, and I think I just need time for it to grow on me. I will say it makes my kitchen look SO much bigger, which is always a plus. Now if only I could convince T that we need new counters...

quickie update

Once again, I've fallen woefully behind on projects. I started working on a romper that is giving me a huge headache (stupid crotch gussets), so I've temporarily put that aside to go back to the bibs I've been meaning to make for ages now. Although, I have to say E very rarely tolerates a bib these days, so I'm thinking I may use the rest of my stash of flannel and make some cloth wipes to go with my new cloth diapers. I almost bought some, but when I realized that they are just a layer of flannel and terry or velour, I figured I'd save some dough and make my own. Of course, mine won't be all pretty and serged, but I think I can live with it. I'm too tired to take any pictures right now. I'll get some up later this week.

I should also mention that my fabric stash is starting to get out of control. While my friend was here, I managed to buy a few more pieces (I couldn't resist the apples & pears print), and then last week, another mom offered up some fabric for free, so how could I say no?

Getting it all in order

For months now, I've sort of unofficially co-opted the dining room and been using it as my office/craft room. But then my sewing started spilling over into the kitchen, and my yarn has been scattered all over the house pretty much always. So a few weeks ago, T let me officially take over the dining room on the condition that I keep my stuff contained to that room. We bought a bunch of shelves, rearranged furniture and got some bins...and now I have my very own craft room! I'm so excited. I have a desk for the computer, a separate table for my sewing machine that I can also use as a cutting table. A huge shelf for storage, and even room to keep the ironing board out. Just for sake of babyproofing, as well as space, we kept our shelves of CDs, as well as the mini-fridge in the room too, but they don't really get in the way. So I've been working on getting it really organized and I think I'm almost there.

Last weekend, my best friend came to visit and we managed to get a couple small projects going. She is also crafty and Asian, but way better at sewing, so I got to pick her brain a bit on some things that I'd been wanting to try. First up, we made a little diaper pouch, similar to the "diapees & wipees" ones I've seen in stores. I always looked at those and thought, "I can't believe they're charging $20 (or whatever) for those things when it's just a little reversible pocket!" Well, now I know why. Those things are a pain in the ass to make! Way harder than I thought it'd be, although granted, we kind of screwed up our pattern, which added extra steps. And yes, I know the birds are upside down on the flap. But grrr...so...much...ironing!! Why didn't anyone ever warn me how much ironing was involved in sewing? Still, I think next time I see something like that, I may not be so eager to be like, "pfft...I could make that myself..."

The irony of this project is that I'm sort of in the process of switching to cloth diapers - at least part time. And there is no way I can fit even one of them into this little pouch. And really, I need something that's sort of waterproof for a cloth diaper. So you can bet your life that I'm going to be buying a zipped waterproof pouch (known in the cloth diapering world as a wetbag). $15 is going to be a bargain.

Skull dress!

I made another little shirred sundress, this time for a friend's daughter for her 1st birthday. I actually finished it last night, but didn't want to ruin the surprise of the gift. I originally bought the fabric to make a dress or top for E, but had enough for two. And as much as I love it, somehow it's not striking me as being quite E's style, so I'll probably give the other one away too, once I make it.

The shirring process on this one was just a little more involved than the first dress I did. I think because the fabric was slightly heavier in weight (the first was very lightweight seersucker), I had to do more manual pulling of the threads to get it gathered just right. But overall, these are definitely getting easier to make. I'm thinking that E is going to spend the summer in little dresses. I mean, hey why not? They're easy to get on and off, she'll stay cool, and they're super freaking cute!

I just got some new fabric to make a few more dresses - gingham and seersucker were on sale (at Hobby Lobby and Hancocks, respectively). I'd also like to try to make another halter dress with the seersucker, this time without using ribbon for ties. And I still want to try my hand at making matching shorts/spankies, although I just bought some cloth diapers the other day and they are so cute that I probably won't bother putting anything over them. Hmm, I sense a new obsession rearing its ugly head - but I'll save that for another post.

My Rockin' Friday Night

That title is dripping with sarcasm, just in case you weren't sure.

Last night, after T got the child down to bed, he pretty much went to bed himself. This was at the very late hour of 8pm. So since I'm not 70 years old, and I still had some energy to burn, I decided to work on some projects.

I had originally intended to run out to the fabric store (yes, again) and pick up some elastic so I could make some matching shorts for the sundress I made last week, but I was disappointed to discover that they close at 8pm on Fridays. Odd, huh? Instead I ended up wandering around the nearby Dollar Tree and then onto Target, where I found some cheap packs of cute ribbon. So I decided to fire up the old glue gun and try again at making some hair clips for E.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute; way better than my first effort, one of which is at the bottom of the picture. I think I've almost got the hang of the glue gun now, so there's not as much glue glopped all over the edges. It's hard to get a small bead of glue on such a small object, and then get the ribbon on there before it hardens up.

These are also way cheaper to make than buy. The cheapest ones I've seen are sets of 2 pairs for $10 at Target, but usually they're like, $8 for ONE clip at places like Babystyle. I'm also not a fan of the overly frilly ones that I see in most places since it just isn't my or E's style. Is it nutty that a 1-year-old already has her own look and style? But I digress. The ribbon came in a pack of 6 different little spools, but of course, since I found them in the Dollar Spot, there's only like 18 inches on each spool. Still, I can make at least 2 clips out of each spool, so it's not a bad deal for a buck. And I'm realizing now that scrapbooking ribbon is the way to go. The designs tend to be more varied and funky then the standard fare you find in the hobby/fabric depts. I'm definitely going to make some more.

Almost forgot to mention: I realized after my first try that the fuzzy side of the velcro wasn't really working, so I tried the grippy side instead. They stick really well now, even in my super straight, slick hair that doesn't hold anything.

This has nothing to do with crafting, really

But how freakin' cute are these shoes? I saw these the other day at Nordstrom Rack and had to buy them. They're a little big for E's feet still, but she can manage to clomp around in them a bit. Now, my burning question is, why don't all kids' shoes have the little tab at the back to help pull them on? These were not easy to get on her feet.