Bring on the New Year!

 

WARNING: MAY BE THE LONGEST POST EVER.

I am so excited to start out this year with a fresh start! This last year has been a roller coaster and we are very excited that it came to end as well as it did. We learned a lot from Brandon's accident and the events that led along with it. When times are rough it only brings you closer together!. I think it will be a very exciting year for us! We will have an addition to the family in July, which we are super excited about! My goals for 2010 include:

*Cutting my work schedule back to 2 days a week after the baby is born!

*Making sure to get out and do one super fun thing once a month with the whole family!

*House Goals- Complete the upstairs décor as soon as we find out the sex of the baby!

*Repaint the downstairs living room!

*create a Pottery Barn inspired collage on stair wall!

*Paint the garage floor and organize the garage!

*Finish the gravel, the pavers pathways, and pour a patio and curbing!

*Possibly build a playhouse!

*Catch up the kids scrapbooks this winter while it is cold and I can stay inside!

*Finish the kids café.

*Expand the blog!

My Christmas is all down and the house feels much less cluttered! I love decorating for Christmas but usually jump the gun on it so by the time it is over I take the décor right down!

Here is the progress I have made since…

DIY Sweater Vases-

These were inspired by one of my favorite blogs. You can find the link and the tutorial at Under the Table and Dreaming! I found the vases and sweaters at D.I. (our local thrift store). I filled them with some of the filler that I took out of the Christmas tree!

 

Burlap Table Runner-

 

The kids and I stayed the night at my moms for New Years Eve and had craft night since Brandon had to work! It was fun. We didn’t get a ton accomplished that night but did make some progress yesterday!

The kids have taken finger nail clippers, silverware, and other things and distressed the top of this table for me. Wasn’t that nice of them? lol. I ordered touch up paint from the manufacturer and it didn’t even match. It kind of fits in with the rest of the décor but thought it would be nice to find something that covered most of it! This table runner was so easy!

I left the burlap the original width because the edges are finished and I didn’t want them to fray.

1-If you want to make a more narrow one you can cut it down and iron stitch witchery (available for $1.40 at Walmart) to hem it without sewing.

2- Cut four 5” strips off of the muslin.

3- Sew two strips together for each end.

4-Fold the edge of the fabric over and then iron it and run a straight stitch along it to hem the edge.

5-Finish hemming the ends.

6- Pin the ends of your strip to the ends of your burlap. Find you center and pin it down to the center of your burlap.

7-Work your way in pinning and pleating the fabric.

8- Using a walking foot, sew it using a wider seam allowance.

9- Iron.

10-Enjoy!

Vinyl Sign-

Remember this antique store find from this previous post.

Antique store finds

I found this window at a yard sale this summer! I want to turn it the other way and build a cabinet behind it to go above the toilet in the bathroom. Brandon and I are still a little gun-shy of the saw . I like it here for now.

I love the crystal branches out of the Christmas tree in the arrangement for winter!

Building up inspiration for my next project…

I am going to start re-painting my living room soon. Here is some pictures of it now.

I still LOVE my blue furniture. I have been in-love with grey for a while. I just wanted to find somewhere to incorporate it in my house!@ I think that it compliments blue very well. I have had this vinyl on my wall since shortly after we moved in and am over the idea of an “accent wall”. I want the whole room to be grey and calming. I also want to keep a vintage feel and maybe keep my brown curtains. I kind of feel like I have too, but if they clash they are out!

Don’t you love these colors together? Do I really want to get out of my pjs and brave the negative temperatures to grab paint today? We will have to see…. maybe another day.

I love handwriting fonts. You can find the ones I have used today @ http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/!

Bye for now! AManda