What the heck? Yep, I've had the P word...pneumonia. Scott took me to the Doctor Friday and I never even thought I had such? But it all made sense, I suppose. Thanks for all of you that have been checking on me and well wishing...I'm pretty much all better...except for the coughing. Sara and Abby were wanting to go do some school shopping today so we FINALLY got out of the house...very refreshing. Of course we were all exhausted after lunch and that was our first stop! LOL! But we had a very nice lunch- Sara had our shopping day all planned out and she wanted to go to Olive Garden. Sounded good to me! We hit the mall to try to stay out of the heat--its H-O-T! We found a few deals and marked a few things off the school shopping lists.
Since I've been down with the sickies-- all I could think about was sewing and decorating. I've got this gorgeous stockpile of fabric and its just been calling me. I picked up an April Cornell tablecloth (used) at a store called Especially Lace a few weeks ago when I was at the Farmer's Market in Des Moines--and lets just say-- we're not tablecloth people (much as I'd love to be). Sew, I decided to reinvent the tablecloth so I'd be able to enjoy it all the time. My kitchen/dining area is going in sort of a fresh vintage looking direction--I don't know what to call it, really, but when its all done here's a visual: crisp celery walls with cream wainscoting/beadboard and crown moulding, med-dark quartz countertops (omgosh these are SO expensive!!! I'll be saving for a while for these!) with tin backsplash (here's a peek--man I love this stuff!)
I dream of the fancy undermount sink with a vintage looking faucet, a new cook top would be great and one of my ovens needs repaired...I'll have one little counter area that will be a thick butcher block for baking/dough etc.--I'm excited about this! My cream painted cabinets will remain as is but updated with a tea stain glaze and new hardware. What a dream! The decor of course will be splashed with red (my signature decorating color) and some black accents. Okay...I'll quit dreaming now...back to that tablecloth...Scott said to me Saturday-- "why don't you work on some decorating?" Yes, this is a totally off the wall and weird comment coming from MY husband...or probably any husband for that matter. The thing is-- that its just not that easy...between all of the things left on our rennovation of the area and the fact that I am being very deliberate about my decor choices in this house (we've only lived here about 9 months)-- its just hard! But I had been thinking about the tablecloth and how I might recreate it--so Sara, Abby and I proceeded to create this little bit of wall art:
I got these old wooden embroidery hoops at an antique store (you can buy new wooden hoops at Hancocks or other stores, I'm sure) --a couple of them had the burlap in them already, so I decided it broke up the pattern and left it in the one for now. The girls really enjoyed helping with this project. It was fun and so easy-- I've seen this hoop idea done several different places. I do think there's almost too much of the same rose thing going on, so later-- when I find it-- I'll probably change out one or two of the fabrics in the hoops.
[Oh and kudos to my talented hubby...he did all the woodworking in our kitchen/dining-- the wainscoting, trim, etc...I sure do love it!]
Then I just made a super simple valance with the other half of the tablecloth-- just sewed a pocket and hung it over the kitchen window with a tension rod. Since this is an older house, the windows aren't pristine, and well, this one looks into the garage? Weird, but still glad to have a kitchen window! And this happy little window covering is perfect!
Lately, I have tried to commit to the reduce, reuse, recycle mentality---and that is what is one of the deliberate things about my decorating ideals. Rather than run to Hobby Lobby to get portrait frames, I've been finding some gorgeous antique frames on ebay and elsewhere. Dirty, cracked and chipped and loved by someone else for a long time...so cool. Searching for the perfect little accent pieces that have character and stories to tell. Rather than buying mass produced wall art and that kind of thing...its my little way of being green, I suppose :)
My next sewing adventure was yesterday...I've been wanting to make THIS SKIRT for so long. I am a HUGE fan of Tanya, the designer of Grand Revival and LOVE her patterns and ideas. Wish I had some of her fabric!!! Luckily, I have some almost equally gorgeous fabric so I finally got a "round tuit" and made both girls the skirt...they loved them! And dressed like twinkies today when we went to town. Too funny, when we were in Limited Too a couple of girls commented on the skirts! (made me feel good inside, you know :) Here's Sara modeling hers...
Tonight, I was perusing my couponing blogs and clipping the last couple of weeks' coupons from the paper--yes, I'm still addicted to the Q's and going through withdrawls since I haven't gotten to grocery shop much over the last couple of weeks. Clipping coupons is like scrapbooking...without all the decisions! LOL!! I'm so mad I missed out on some really great deals last week...darn it! hee hee! I've decided I've GOT to start making a menu for the week...this is highly suggested for saving money and shopping smarter. So tomorrow, I've got to get to work on this...Mama wants those new countertops and I've got to save save save!
So basically, I guess I'm just feeling really domestic lately? Does that make a lick of sense? Having so much fun with my sewing, knitting, baking and decorating. Sometimes I so wish that all I had to do was dote on my family-- what a lovely, simple thought. Scott says that I couldn't do it--he's certain that I need my creative endeavors to keep myself sane...probably so. :)
