Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Obsessions

I've been obsessing about the color I want to paint the walls in our bedroom. I guess obsessing about not making a decision about the color. I'm really bummed out about it and can't decide. Tonight my cousin and I and Eddie are going to either Lowe's or Home Depot to get some paint. We've pretty much narrowed it down to a brown/beige color scheme. I want something neutral that I can work with as far as curtains, etc.

So, as a result, I've been escaping from the bedroom ordeal by thinking about doing some kind of crafts to get my mind off of the bedroom. This is what I've been thinking about lately. Hat pins, pin cushions, and small crazy quilt purses.




I've decided that I want to make some hat pins to put in a pin cushion to go in our bedroom when it's finished. I also saw some pretty mirror back covers that I love and would like to make to go in our bedroom too.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a girlie room. I guess Eddie will have to look elsewhere in the house for his man room.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Sunrise and Bluebell Socks


I love these socks. You can buy them here, or you can have fun making your own. They don't match and it's perfectly okay. It looks like a great way to use leftover sock yarn. I love lots of color, so these would be really fun to make.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Flowers

I just thought I would share some photos of some of the flowers I have at home.

Hens and Chicks
Hens and Chicks
African Violet
Hydrangea
Coleus

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Redecorating the Bedroom

I haven't really been inspired to do much of anything lately related to crafts. I'm knitting a pair of socks, but other than that I haven't really done much of anything productive. I've been planning to redo our bedroom. Right now it's white and has been for the last 8 years that we have lived there. We have maroon Priscilla type tie back curtains. I'm not sure, but I think those went out of style some years ago, didn't they? I think I just get so used to everything being the way it has always been that it almost becomes invisible to me. In other words, I never see just how ugly something is until one day I notice it, or go to someone's home who really has done some redecorating. Then I come back to my home and realize how awful the bedroom really is.

I'm thinking about doing a Faux technique on the walls. I've been wrestling with deciding which color to put on the walls. Finally, my friend, Susan, said to just use a neutral color that I can do anything with. She suggested a light beige and then sponging (or some kind of technique) on a darker beige. I'm actually leaning toward a Tuscany look, but I don't want it to be too orange or rust looking. Actually rust or dark brown might not be bad. I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" one night this week, hoping to get some inspiration. I remind myself of the commercial of the woman who has gazillions of paint sample sheets from the store and she can't decide what color to use on her walls. She's about to pull her hair out. I think it's a commercial for TrueValue hardware store.

Then I've been wrestling with the type of curtains I should hang. Do I make them or buy them? My cousin, who is going to help me paint the room, suggested using my lace curtains and dying them and then hanging them like swags. Sort of drape them over a rod, something like the picture below, and instead of using the metal discs, just make fabric rosettes and put them at each corner. After I saw this idea in a decorating book that I checked out from the library, I actually made a sample fabric rosette and it came out really pretty. I think I'm going to really like that.

It's probably what I'm going to wind up doing. It's about the easiest and most inexpensive way to go. We don't really use a bedspread or comforter on our bed. I make quilts, so we usually use them for a bedspread. At any rate, I'd better decide pretty soon because my cousin and I plan to paint the room over the July 4th weekend. We are both taking Friday, June 30, and plan to work on it that weekend. I found some Roman shades at Tuesday Morning and I really like them. They are an eggshell color with a pretty design going through them sort of like the design in Damask fabric.

This week the Riverbend Festival has been going on in our city. It's basically a music festival that goes on for 9 days straight. Eddie has been going just about every night, but not me. I go some nights, but not every night. It's just too hard to stay out late and then have to get up the next morning to go to work. The nights that he goes to Riverbend and I say home, I usually read or watch a movie and/or knit. It's a nice, restful way to spend an evening.

Today at lunch I went to a used book store and bought a series mystery. After reading about it on Willa's blog, I remembered reading the first in the Dead-End Job series awhile back and never got around to reading the rest of them. I love those kinds of mysteries. They are what a friend of mine and I call "cozies."

Friday, June 02, 2006

New Purse


I've been really lazy lately. I haven't been interested in doing anything much. I did see a purse I wanted to make, though. I was in the Hobby Lobby fabric department one day buying fabric and the lady in front of me asked me if I was making a purse. I told her that I made tote bags and sometimes purses. She said that she made purses and she had one with her that she had made. It was really cute. She had made it out of comic book fabric and it had some fuzzy fur around the top. I asked her several questions about it because I knew that it was the kind of purse that I would like and want to make. She said it was from either a Simplicity or McCall's pattern, she couldn't remember which, and she told me that she had gotten the purse handles right there at Hobby Lobby. I thanked her for the information and I went over to the pattern department and started looking up the purse patterns. I found the one that I thought it might be in the McCall's pattern book. It's M4885. I waited until Hancock's had a sale and I got the pattern for 99 cents. The one I made is view B, but I really like view F too, and may make one later on like that.

I found some really pretty black and white toile fabric in the sale bin at Hobby Lobby that I thought would make a cute purse. I bought some black handles and I was in business. I think the purse came out really cute. It was a really easy pattern. If I made it, it must be easy because I'm not that good of a sewer. I have another one started, but haven't begun sewing on it yet. It's a pink toile. I really want to make one with fall colors, but I haven't found anything yet.