Living Room Face Lift

Ok, so nothing has happened in tiny town this weekend….but I have been working on my real house! I finally put up the painted curtain in the living room. And you know I love before and after pix, so just sit back and enjoy this show!

Living room wall before

after!! it doesn't look that awesome in the pic, but it really rox this room! its just not the same.

mirrors before (check out our white trash back yard and deck...don't be jelous.) these were side mirrors on a wrecked mac truck that i salvaged. i took the mirror part out, and kept the outter holders and polished them up too.

i made the corner holders from cut up coat hangers. i have one on each corner and ribbon holding it all together on the back.

mirror after!

old fake antique mirror i snagged from mom. she was going to trash it.

mirror after! there's nothing that spraypaint and lace can't fix. i have told mom she isn't allowed to trash anything until she clears it with me first :)

close up of the "curtain". this was a nasty old brown bamboo curtain that my boss had hanging down at their dock for years and they were going to trash it....it sat rolled up in my living room forever and i gave it a nice coat of white paint in the early spring. the paint isn't really even so it gives it that nice shabby beach look.

pic before. i also nabbed this from my manager at work a few years ago. i knew i could do something with the frame. if you couldn't tell, 1/2 of the stuff i own came from my boss and her fam. at work. thanks guys!!! saving money never looked so good ;)

pic after! yes, this is the cathedral window WIP from the winter. not what i was originally going for, but i love this a lot more

i L.O.V.E. crackle!! i am far from being good at it, but i still love it. 

so that is the tour of my real life living room decor from this weekend. i am actually working on the tiny house some now. i have 1 glue stick left....so i need to get all my ducks lined up before i plug that bad boy in. ahhhh......hot glue gun....every house should have one, right next to the ductape and zippies.

hope yall enjoyed the show!

and Happy Memorial Day!

Bummer

so, as you can tell with the lack of a new stash picture, floyd fabric funtime was a flop. it totally was not what i had expected from all the hype, but then i tend to have high expectations. i didn't buy not one thing. not one! which i guess was a good thing. we did have a nice drive up there and back with beautiful scenery. I guess the TN quilt shops just spoiled me :)

SO, onto happier things

i am still house flipping. and speaking of the Dollhouse-a-long,

guess who up and got a blog for just this occasion?! Speckle!!

check it out yall, she will not disappoint!

speaking of disappointment! check out this poor thing. as you can see i have tore the whole thing to pieces. i have started painting the walls and the exterior. i am a little sad with the exterior outcome as i spray paint primerd the exterior in hopes that it would cover up the brush strokes for the first paint job, but alas, it didn't. so i know that i would have to sand it to get it smooth...and quite honestly i am not going to be doing all that! it looks ok. so i will deal. i am going to be re-doing all the exterior trim and what not from balsa, using the original pieces as my template. i also started on the wood floors. i am using pop sickle sticks (thanks to speckle) and i have cut the rounded tips off and saved them for shingles. pretty ingenious hu? lol. i am trying to set me a goal of getting the interior of one room finished this weekend, along with the exterior painting. we'll see how that goes. 

and as always, it's chicken time!

here she is at 5 weeks! and thanks to BYC the hub has found out that she is a she! we think we have 3 hens and 2 roos. which rox. and i also wanted to share another chickie roo that we have (1 of 1 million)

isn't he adorable?! this is a Frizzle coachin. he is fat and cute. i love to watch the coachins run; they are short and fat and fluffy and waddle as fast as they can. he is about 2 months old? maybe 3? i dunno, somewhere in there. don't tell hanna, but he is my new boyfriend!

have a happy and safe weekend!

see yall in TN! ;)

sneaky peaky 2

I may have a surprise for you guys!!!!
well i deffinately will, but it has 1 of 2 out comes.
i am super excited and i am crossing my fingers ;)
here's a close up sneakie peekie

1 more day till FLOYD FABRIC LAND!!

and a really empty wallet :)

Tiny Time!

and it starts.... i actually was trying to figure out how to add ruffles to a quilt and how much material i would use, for my new quilt project... and, well, that turned into an up-all-night sewing bazaar for the wee house. how cute is that?! as if no one could tell, my blog is more or less for me to shout: "hey look what i can do" its really fun, i urge everyone to get one :) it does wonders for the 'ole self-esteem

^this is my favorite part! i had some material that i salvaged from an old shower curtain and it still had the tag on it. i thought i was very fitting. of course this would be like us having a tag on our comforter the size of our head, but who cares?! is cute! i still have some hemming to do and a few glitches to fix, but i couldn't wait to share :)

and the best part:

TINY MATERIAL!!!! the woman of the house is loaded. so she will just have bolts of fabric lying around. i made these from scraps (shocker) and the "bolt" is made from the cardboard squares that come with the charm packs.

and yes, that is a 1:12 scale Moda layer cake. complete with the signature ribbon and "logo". not that you can read it, but you get the colored dots. the feature is Millhouse Inn by Fig Tree & Co.

i am most proud of this little guy. it look so real in person. ykwim.

and last but not least:

our baby polish at 4 weeks.

the image on the right is her "seductive" pose.

lol. that plume is comeing in rather nice :) actually, i do believe that "she" is a "he". i like to think that i can tell by the faces....but this has proven to be WRONG every damn time. "his" plume is much larger than all the others, so i figure it must be a boy....if not, then we have 1 hen and like 6 roo's out of that hatch......  muy no es bueno!!

Flash Back for Festival!

Amy is hosting a blogger quilt festival (thanks Amy!) and I thought I would bring this one out for my entry. This isn’t my favorite quilt in terms of comfy-ness, but I do love it. Something about the crisp white and bright colors.  I like to try something new with each quilt I do, and since I am rather inexperienced they don’t come out the way I want them to, but for the most part I figure it out as I go. Just like life. This is my 3rd quilt and my first attempt at free-motion quilting. I LOVE IT! I thought leaves would work best since they themselves aren’t perfect in nature, so it wouldn’t show if I messed up :) Always finding a way to cover your mistakes is what makes you an artist. ha!  I still have a lot to figure out with keeping the backing flat and not to have it travel on me. And the most obvious: row line-ups! Haha.
But none the less, my favorite part is the photo shoot afterward (and the sence of completion).

Thanks again for such a great show! Can’t wait to check everyone out and get more inspirations.

:P

i HATE blogger set up......
i preview it to make it look all pretty and then *BAM*
publish it and it looks worse than ever.

there has to be a better way

Flip this house

NEW PROJECT!
I present to you
the beginning of the
Dollhouse-a-long project.
So in case you are wondering
about The “should I, shouldn’t
I” dollhouse Cliff hanger…
guess what the answer is?
Yup. So I went rooting around
in Mom’s basement and, TA DA!
This is the house my MawMaw
made for me (the very same
MawMaw from this post)
Turns out she made this from
scratch! No pattern or
anything.

Turns out she made this from
scratch! No pattern or
anything. She was wicked
good At wood art. She had her
own jigsaw and Made all kinds
of things, she made Ninja
Turtle Wood cut outs and painted them for me and My cousins. Rafiel was my favoite; he was Always such a smart ass. ……side bar much?……..

Anywho….speckle and myself are going to Make dollhouses together! I am stoked that Mawmaw’s house is about the right scale for Most dollhouse furniture, so I can restore it To its original beauty…except for that pink >:P I am trying to get my gurl to fire up her blog So we can be geeks in true form *wink wink, nudge nudge* She got a house on eBay that is BEAUTIFUL!!!! (I'm kinda jealous) I can’t wait to see what she does with it!

So, while I was digging around in the
Rent’s basement, look what else I found:
Kirsten, my American Girl!!!!!!!
She needs a flip too. I had no idea that mom
And dad got me so many outfits for her.
I washed them and her today.
Unfortunately I have lost one shoe and
I cut her hair  :( no es bueno.
I used to cut all my dolls hair. So I am
Bummed that she has lost some of her
Value, but I don’t plan on getting rid of her
Anyway.  She will accompany me in my
Sewing room.

See you round the hobby shops!

Bringing Hexy Back

member this? from like 1000 posts ago?
Its making a triumphant return!
since i now have too much material to know
what to do with, and patterns that i want
different material for... (isn't that how it always goes?)
i picked this back up. it has been occupying the
corner of my desk long enough.

......total side bar: i was playing around in EQ and
began to cuss under my breath....the hubby says
"Let me guess, not enough material?"
can you believe after buying
2 layer cakes, 1 charm pack, a batik strip bundle,
1 scrap bag, 13 FQ's, 2 dif. 1/2 yardAND the Amy Butler FQ bundle, Heather Bailey
charm pack, green Nicey Jane Colorway,
and civil war charm pk as an anniversary present...
and a "welcome back to work - sorry its monday"
suprise charm pk of Frolic from my dear
speckl * thank you!! :) *
that i STILL don't have enough material?!
sinful.
i totally copied a pattern i saw this weekend
and tried all my material with it......
but they just don't work .....
you know what does?
Nature's Chorus.

ANYHOW, i plan on having this done this weekend.
I just finished the table runner top this evening.
and i plan on giving the kitchen table a fresh
coat of paint to accompany this dining set.
as long as i get it all done by June, that is my goal.

I made this last weekend too.
i LOVE it! it looks like a real piece of art
or something. this is a piece of the batik
stip roll i got on the "mother/daughter quilt outting"
i also LOVE batik, but it is WAY too much per yard
for my wallet. i just snatch up all the FQ's on sale and
remnants till i have enough for a whole project.
if we have learned anything over the last week,
it is that stash building is VERY important.

next stop: JoAnnes remnant bin!

I've been thinking....

i know, scary isn't it? ( me thinking, not the mini trailer) 

which is just about the coolest thing i have ever seen.

now if they made a VW camper van like this,

i'd be in heaven.

i digress..

so my aunt is AWESOME and she hooks me

and mom up with old quiler/crafter magazines, and

one that i particularly fell in love with was

Mary Englebreit's Home Companion.

it had this whole article on dollhouses.

so i have been thinking about making one.

these are just some pix from the net that i thought were awesome.

yes, that mini trailer is a dollhouse kit. like i said, the coolest

thing ever. i had one when i was a kid but it was barbie size, and

i didn't really care for it....but i think my grandmother made
it for me. so now that i just said that out loud...i kinda want to
"flip that house" or at least make it into this:

i think that would hold my Moda stash :)

anyhow, i would love the challenge of making

tiny things and designing the ultimate how of my dreams,

but what the hell would i do with it? where would i put it?

how would i keep it dust free? it really is impractical.

but so cute! and fun! i mean, check this out:

a mini bedroom!!!! this is from

Liberty Biberty. you guys HAVE to

check her out, it is UNREAL. she is a major inspiration

on all things wee and crafters everywhere.

so any one have any thoughts?

is this just about the most preposterous thing for an

old quilting gurl with 90+ chickens?

while we were in TN there was a place that had these

balsa wood dollhouse kits on sale, wicked good deal, but i just

couldn't bring myself to do it. there was too much fabric
i had to buy. that's rite, HAD to buy.
like gun to my head and everything.

anyhow, lemme know ur thoughts!!!

perhaps i will run into you at the auction; ebay that is.

Garden Geese

The goose has landed.

this one actually disapointed me :(

i had big plans for quilting it but i couldn't get it to

fit in my machine comfortably with the

thick batting, i tried but ended up picking it out

cuz it didn't meet my standards. so was really bummed.

but now that it is done, i am happy.

I took mom out today to some area quilt shops!

it was actually fun! i may have bought more stuff.......

like Recipe for Friendship layer cake, and a killer deal

on a fat roll of batik strips, and maybe a few FQ's.

lol, i spare nothing when i am on "Vacation" :)

mom even got some natural cotton batting!

she doesn't ever buy anything "fun" for herself,

so i am VERY proud of her :) it was a grand

mother/daughter day out!

and here is our little polish *gurl* at

3 weeks old. CUTE!

she was actually very well be haved during her

photo shoot. i think she knows what the

deal is when i start reaching thru the cage

on a saturday afternoon.

that doesn't mean she doesn't FREAK!!

but she is a good sport. ;)

welp, off to EQ6 me another project.

see you round the quiltshops!

Tennessee is the Place to be!

The great smokie mountains! the view from our porch.

we rented a cabin for our 1 year anniversary and it was great!

believe it or not, we actually had more neighbors there than here :(

but all the decks were pointed out so we never saw the other

cabins unless we walked out back. it was really nice to

just sit around and have nothing to do....actually

randy got cabin fever...but i had no problem being lazy.

and how awesome is my husband of 1 year?

he found me 3 quilt shops to take me to! as you can see,

i loaded up! when you are on vacation, money is 

not an object! lol. the 2 charms on the rite there are

for my mom :) she LOVED them.

her very first moda ;)

can you imagine a life without moda?!

if you call that a life :P

one of the stores we went to was the Cherry Pit 

those ladies were having way too much fun!

they were just awesome. i HIGHLY recommend

a visit to these lovely ladies (not to mention

the amazing smokies) in the event you

ever wonder thru TN.

anyhow, vacation is awesome! i am home, but we

took the whole week off. my goal is to finish

Garden Geese this week. Monday is gonna suck

something horrible. no amount of coffee can make that ok.

not even starbux.

the siggy swap over at the Q&N is going great!

i LOVE LOVE LOVE getting mail, especially

material mail! all the ladies have done a great job

i can't wait to see how they all turn out.

see you in the chicken coop!

1 whole year

we will be Mr. & Mrs. for a whole year tomorrow!!! i can't believe

that i actually got married, and i can't believe how lucky i am!

and my mr. wonderful got me these beauties as an

anniversary present!!! is that Nicey Jane in the front there?!

IT IS IT IS!!!

i rushed to show my mom and she about ran off with

the civil war fabrics back there.

luckily she was attached to the dog so she didn't get too far. :)

he also got me a bunch of different pens...i LOVE pens.

i have a whole vase full of ones that don't work, i just loved the so much

i had to keep them. its really funny watching the hubby

trying to find a pen that works. it will get to a point where

he just throws them across the room till he gets one

that still has ink in it....maybe that's why he got me pens?

and here is our little polish, 2 weeks old. he is getting quite

the top knot going. don't worry, he'll be allot cuter

in the next few weeks. :)

It lives...

.....barely.

so i get home today and decided to mow the trim work around

this hizzou, and what did i see? My flower that i FORGOT about

on the front porch: face down, passed out.

she barely made it a whole day people!!

so i frantically got her some water and sat her in a water dish and

thankfully she perked right up. i got her a nice lime green pot

(you seriously didn't expect another color, did you?)

which may be too small.....but its hot so she will have to deal.

and here we have our family.....

minus about 80. i actually washed my car today...

first time in about 3 years..... i rely on mother nature.

and i made this forever ago, and just got around to putting it on.

married. with. chickens.

says it all.

May Flowers

My first flower! lets see how long till it dies. i am not exactly a green thumb.....i guess i could be but i don't really like to take care of things. i prefer "auto-pilot" plants, you know, like weeds... (auto-pilot anything really). we went to the green house today for tomatoes & peppers... got a few varieties (you'll have to ask the husband on that, i just stand around and look pretty. lmao) anyhow, i saw this little guy and fell in love and my sweet hubby got it for me <3. it is a Figaro Dahlia and apparently if you dig the bulb up in the fall it can be re-planted next year, and so on. thats my beef with flowers, they are too fussy and then they die and then you have to spend more money next year. its just a waste of $ and energy. SO we will see how i do with this one. perhaps i will allow myself more next year and have a flower bed in front of the house.....highly unlikely.

i killed bamboo...seriously....if this flower makes it thru the night we will be lucky.

i thought it would be neat to share with yall how fast chickens grow, and how freakin' cute they are! so this little polish here will be our pick. "she" is a week old, this is the same one from last weeks post. i want to post all of them on here, but i think that may be a bit much. and the polish are the coolest ones to watch grow. their "teens" are adorable!

and last but not least, MY TOP IS FINISHED!!!!!!!!

dude, i hauled balls on this one. 8000000 squares!

(i may be a little overly dramatic on that number....i said  a little.)

it is better than the last, all my pinwheels line up....
it's the rows that need a little work.

i only had one row actually work out, but thats better than i can say
for the last one. i have decided that i am going to completely
quilt this one, but use the pattern on

the whole block and not separate it into the 4 smaller ones.

now that will take some time.
BUT i finished my goal and i also cleaned the kitchen!

so if anyone would like to throw me a parade,
i totally deserve it. when i am on a quilting binge the house
goes all to hell. Quilt or die! we have dishes again!
and apparently i have counters!!!

oh what a weekend it has been :)