Home Again...Fabric...Tutorial...

I returned home last evening from a wonderful week with one of my son's and his family. They had a new little one join their brood a few weeks ago, so I went to help the family. So much fun! I miss them already. Here's an adorable photo of his older sister. She and I took a lot of walks together. It made me realize how much a two year old enjoys the journey. She hopped along picking up treasures and holding them in her chubby little hands loving every minute of the adventure. As an adult I usually set my sights on the destination, rather than appreciating the journey. It was a good lesson for me to learn.

As much as I miss that little newborn baby boy and his family, it was good to get home. These beautiful fabrics were waiting for me when I returned...

I have a lot of projects that I'm going to be working on this fall for Christmas presents. These will definitely come in handy. I ordered them at Fabric Bubb (Etsy shop).

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to publishing my tutorial for the Child's Play Tent that I posted about last week. It's such a fun, easy project that anyone -- regardless of their sewing ability -- can tackle!

Friday's Fabulous Finds...

I spy with my Etsy eye... 

autumn just around the corner.

Clockwise, starting top left:

Autumn Leaf Photograph

Pincushion

Pumpkin Felting Kit

Striped Pillows

Antique Book Set

Diary

Wishing you a beautiful weekend!

Waverize It!

I'm delighted to take part in "Waverize It!" a fabric challenge for bloggers sponsored by Waverly Fabrics and Jo-Ann Fabrics and Craft Stores. This challenge is in celebration of National Sewing Month in September and Waverly's 90th Anniversary! Participating bloggers were challenged to think outside the box and transform something in their lives through sewing, using Waverly fabrics. I love me a challenge...

Waverly's beautiful "Button Blooms Confetti" was the inspiration for my project. Its bold, vibrant colors reminded me of a meadow of wildflowers...

... so, I decided to plant a child's play tent in that meadow of flowers and let those blossoms climb up the sides of the tent!

Wonder-Under (a double-sided paper-backed fusible web) was used to adhere the "Button Blooms Confetti" fabric to the chevron print.

I pressed a long strip of Wonder-Under to the Waverly Fabric, then used scissors to cut around the flowers. The paper on the back of the fusible web was removed and the flowery fabric was positioned and ironed onto the right side of the chevron print.

I had a little fabric left over, so I made a coordinating pillow. I imagine this tent will be used for quiet times and for noisy play times!

I love how the bold, vibrant flowers in this Waverly fabric look like they are growing up the sides of the tent...

This Waverize It! blogger contest has been fun for me to participate in, but here's the good news. In September Jo-Ann and Waverly are hosting a

open to all consumers. This contest helps celebrate National Sewing Month in September and Waverley's 90th Anniversary! The grand prize for the Facebook contest is $1000 in Waverly fabric and a $250 Jo-Ann gift card! Start dreaming how you can Waverize something in your life.

Click here to enter the Waverize It! Facebook Contest 

Good luck!

Click here for my complete tutorial on how to make this tent!

Friday's Fabulous Finds...

I spy with my little eye some...
milky white.

Clockwise, starting top left:

Fingerless Mittens

Pillow Cover

Birch Wood Clock

Handprinted Notebook

Vintage Light Fixture

Felted Stuffed Toy

Wishing you a fun {in the USA: holiday} weekend!

Garage Renovation... Cabinets

Here's the last post on our garage renovation...

Last weekend we took advantage of a 20% off in-stock cabinet sale at Home Depot and purchased some Hampton Bay cabinets for our garage redo.  I wouldn't use these less-expensive, lower grade cabinets inside our home, but for the garage they were perfect. With the 20% off, we only spent $610 for a corner cabinet, three 36x30x12 cabinets, and one 30x30x12 cabinet.

My husband and I installed the cabinets ourselves. We'd found years ago when we installed some cabinets in our utility room that installing cabinets isn't difficult. (Here's a good tutorial on how to do-it-yourself.)

The hubs is very picky much more meticulous than I am when it comes to doing projects like this. It used to drive me crazy, but I've learned it's something to be admired. When all is said and done I can count on him to do it right, and over the years we've learned how to work well as a team. That wasn't always the case. The first time we hung wallpaper together it almost cost us our marriage. We made a joint decision after that, for the sake of our marriage and our little ones, that we would never wallpaper together again. It was a wise decision. A couple of years later, we added "tile installation" to that list.  Fortunately, "cabinet installation" never made the list. Here's a few photos of our cabinet installation and some tips...

1. Take the cabinet doors off the cabinets. This will make them much lighter as you install them. Especially if you have to rely on someone like me (whimpy) to hold them up while the other person is securing them to the wall.

2. Install a ledger board underneath the cabinets before you start. This board will help keep the cabinets straight and make it much easier for one person to hold the cabinets in place as the other person screws them to the studs in the wall. Once you have one screw in place you won't even need to have someone hold the cabinet up if you've used a ledger board...

3. If you're like my husband you'll use a level to check every conceivable angle on the cabinets. If you're like me you'll stand back, eyeball it and say "it's good." Experts recommend using a level.

We're really looking forward to the storage space that these cabinets will provide. My husband is going to resurface his existing work benches and fit them underneath the cabinets to form an "L" shape.

The rest of the organization of the garage is up to my husband. I'll gladly help him if he needs it, but this is his domain, and he's looking forward to working out the specifics for the storage of all our "essentials." I'm happy to be done with my part.

Garage Renovation Continued...

I didn't realize when we started this project that it would end up being as extensive as it has become. Among the many things I've learned, the most obvious is that a garage is a very large "room." Painting the ceiling and walls has taken me almost two weeks. I usually paint rooms in a fraction of that time, but with one coat of primer on the never-been-painted drywalls and two coats of paint it was a bit of an ordeal. The fact that we had to move all the items in the garage from one side of the garage to the other side two times to facilitate easier painting also added to the longer paint schedule. Last week I finished the painting though, so I am one happy camper. We've gone from unfinished walls that we insulated and ceilings that I primed...

...to drywalled and primed walls...

...to fully primed and painted ceiling and walls.

We chose to paint the ceiling with an eggshell finish rather than a flat finish like I use on the ceilings in our home. I wanted to be able to wipe cobwebs from the ceiling with a broom, and I knew if I did that on a ceiling that was painted with a flat finish it would leave marks. I chose Kilz Pro-X 330 Interior Paint Eggshell in white for the ceiling. For the walls I chose a silver gray color. I wanted something that wouldn't show dirt and scuffs, and I think I chose the perfect color -- Behr Premium Plus Ultra Eggshell in "Classic Silver." 

This color is perfect for a garage because the silver-gray has an "industrial" feel to it. Here's a photo that shows the difference between the white ceiling and the silver gray walls better...

The next order of business is to trim the door going out to our backyard and put in upper cabinets on the other side of the garage. 

We really lucked out one evening when we were searching for upper cabinets for the garage. We were at Lowe's and they had two floor model multi-purpose cabinets that had just been marked down. We bought them both. This one is normally $80 -- we got it for $20...

And, this one is a little larger and normally $120. We got it for $30...

Amazing deals! Plus, they were already assembled. {Yay} I've designated the smaller one to use for all my spray paint and painting supplies.

All this garage stuff has been great, but the big news at our house last week was the arrival of our 13th grandbaby -- a boy. We now have a baker's dozen! We are so thrilled that he arrived safe and sound and that he and his mother are doing well. I'm so grateful for these little ones in our lives.

Friday's Fabulous Finds...

I spy with my Etsy eye some...

adorableness.

Clockwise, starting top left:

Rabbit Art Print

Book Sling

Shark Pencil Case

Three Plush Pillows

Alphabet Wall Art

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Friday's Fabulous Finds...

I spy with my Etsy eye...

life on a farm.

Clockwise, starting top left:

Goat Print

French Bowl

Silver Napkin Ring

Ceramic Herb Markers

Honey Dipper

Barn Photograph

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Garage Renovation -- Priming Drywall

I'm learning some valuable lessons with the garage overhaul we're attempting. As I mentioned before parts of our garage had been drywalled twenty years ago when we moved into our house, and recently we had the other walls drywalled and taped as well. I've been in the process of painting the ceiling and those walls this last week, and I've learned that there's a reason there are a variety of primers on the market. One primer doesn't necessarily fit all circumstances.

First, let me apologize for the mess below that is currently our garage. It's no wonder we are renovating it. Usually it doesn't look {quite} this bad. We'd shoved all the stuff in our garage into this one corner for the reno, so it looked particularly deplorable in this picture. Anyway. You'll notice the twenty-year-old never-been-painted drywall had yellowed with age. There were also some water spots on it. The new drywall was a pristine gray color without any marks other than the putty used to tape it and fill in the holes.

When I asked the clerk at Home Depot, which primer I should use to cover my new drywall he suggested this...

It worked perfectly on the new drywall, covering it beautifully with a layer of primer before I painted the walls. However, when I used this product on the old drywall, it didn't cover them well and some water stains bled through the primer. I realized this Kilz Pro-X P10 is specifically mixed for new drywall and that I would need another stain blocking primer for the old walls. The water marks on the bottom of the old drywall were probably due to snow shovels, still wet, being placed against the garage wall. I went back to Home Depot and was pointed toward another primer that is mixed specifically to block stains and water marks...

I just needed one coat of this stain blocking primer on the old drywall. The stains vanished, and it worked beautifully!

This piece of advice is probably obvious to most, but I've done a lot of painting and didn't know what a difference the right primer would make, so I hope it helps someone.

Garage Overhaul...

This may be a boring and uninspiring post for many, but I'm excited about this project. Generally speaking, our garage has been my husband's domain. He's gotten many tools and other man toys to fill it up over the years, but we've never really had the inclination to organize it really well until now. A few weeks ago we were cleaning it and realized it was in desperate need of an overhaul. In Colorado the code says a contractor must insulate and drywall the walls of a garage that are adjacent to the house. For the 20+ years we lived in the house we'd never finished off the other walls, so we decided to start by having the framed walls in the garage insulated and drywalled. The hubs and I insulated the walls ourselves. I also applied the first coat of primer on the ceiling...

 

Then we had our handyman install the drywall. You can see in the photo below where the old drywall (that was never painted) has yellowed with age. I can't wait to get that covered with primer and paint! Here are the new walls taped and puttied...

This project is going to take some time because we have to move the items from the garage from one side to the other to complete the task. I don't think the neighbors would appreciate our moving everything in our garage to our front lawn while the project is getting completed. ;o) Today I put the first coat of paint on half the ceiling and primed half the walls...

Tomorrow I'll finish half the ceiling with the second coat of paint and paint the walls that I primed today. I'm using a silver gray on the walls of the garage. I'm hoping the gray color will be more scratch resistant than white because, after all, it is a garage, and it will get scratched.

I'll post about this project again in a couple of weeks when we we put up the cabinets.