A Little Something For Our Home

We kind of live in a fish bowl. Which is nice during the day because it's SO BRIGHT! But at night, or in the early morning, it's a little less nice... especially since we're surrounded by old people who like to spy on us. heehee. j/k. They are all so nice and wonderful. We love our neighbors. But we would still like a little privacy.

SO I finally bought some fabric for some curtains! Yeah! I am so excited! :)

We have mostly green walls in the kitchen/dining room, with one white wall. I was originally thinking Amy Butler. For some reason I've wanted an Amy Butler kitchen for a long time.



We first decided on this.

Amy Butler Lark Dreamer Sparkle Midnight Blue

 

And this for the window above the sink

Amy Butler Lark Dreamer Treasure Box Ocean Blue

But then I decided on No.
I pulled out some Field Study by Anna Marie Horner

This would seriously awesome against the green walls!

Mind's Eye Jazz Navy

But against the white wall, it would have felt like a huge dark pit. I was excited to go bold, but I really like light a lot better!

So here's what I finally decided on:

Specimen Dreamy Blue

It looks way better in person and I think it is going to look amazing! Plus keep the light airy feel of our big rooms and big windows. :) Yeah! Neil really likes it too, which is good.

We thought of this one by Amy Butler in the dining area too, but decided this would look better in the living room, where we have three HUGE windows in the front and a bunch on the side. I already have some curtains on the side windows, that are a cream color with a burnt orange backing, whatever. I'm going to keep those for now, but I think these will all look good together. I'm SO excited to have some awesome curtains!!

Amy Butler, Lark collection, Ivy Bloom in Cinder

LOVE! :)

I am excited for some style, and Neil is excited that he'll be able to walk around in his underwear in the mornings. lol. ;)

Now I'm just waiting for all this good stuff to arrive! I ordered the Field Study from Fabric.com LOVE shopping through Ebates first - you get 4% cash back, and then of course you can always find a coupon online.) and the Amy Butler from Three Dolls Fabric - she responded super fast when I asked for more yardage and had the best price on Etsy. :)


So now my question is, do you have a favorite method or pattern for making curtains??? I've made them a number of different ways, but I don't know what I love. I'm not going to put backing on any of these, so hopefully the fabrics to don't fade from the back... oh. I didn't think of that. :( Any suggestions?

My Christmas Project

I haven't really thought too much about Christmas sewing until tonight. I've been having the boys use their place mats a lot more lately (and I really want to make them new ones!!!), and as we sat down to dinner tonight I thought about how fun it would be if we all had a place mat... and if they were all Christmas-y! That we each had our own that we used each year! a new Christmas season tradition!

click on the picture to see all the links to the creators

Then I started thinking about what I could put on each of them! Neil said he wanted a Santa, but Hunter couldn't decide. I said I'd look for pictures and let him pick something. That's where the trouble began. There are TOO many ideas! and I feel like I haven't even begun to find things. Anyway, I made up a board on Pintrest where I'm putting most of my inspirations (I have a lot in my favorites on Flickr as well), some aren't my favorite, but in some way or another they are inspiring. I want to make each placemat specific to each of us so we can love them forever! ;)




Anyway, I'm super excited for this! So besides a few Christmas presents I want to make (most excited for the boys capes! I think they will LOVE them!) I want to make place mats this year. :)

I thought it would be a quick thing... but now I'm wondering if this is going to end up being a big project?! I always seam to make things bigger than they need to be! ;)

A few notes for me to remember that I want to include:
 - each one has a different picture (santa, trees, presents, etc.)
 - put our initial or something on it so we remember whose is who's (??? did I do that right?) :)
 - although I'm tempted, don't ticker tape them! piece them! I think they'll be easier to keep clean if there aren't a bunch of raw edges.



I can't seem to pin this link, but it has an awesome candle that would be fun to piece!
http://coloringbookfun.com/christmas/imagepages/candle.html


Dad - Santa
Mom- trees w/star
Hubert- train with presents
Jacks- snowman w/wonky trees
Mabes- snowflakes???

Wedding Present

My step-sister got married a while ago, and I didn't get the binding put on her gift until last week. I don't know why... but it seems like I work my tail off to finish something, and then once I miss the deadline it floats around in unfinished project land for eternity. Well, not that long because now it's finished and I sent it last week, and she should have received it by now and I sure hope she likes it. :) and and and. Sometimes I have the worst grammar I think. It adds personality right?! uh, not so much. I'm sorry. :D

I asked her mom what her colors were for her kitchen and she said they tend so stick to sage, blues and browns. This is what I had in my stash and I sure hope she likes it!!

I was really tempted to paint my toenails to get this picture, but I haven't painted my toe nails for YEARS, so I decided not to. But I really love it! I don't love it as much looking at it close, or any where other than on the floor, but when it's on the floor (where it is meant to be) I LOVE it and I want to keep it. :) I think I'll have to make myself one. :)  (Update: I didn't realize that I never said what this is - a kitchen floor mat, for infront of the sink - and my sister thought it was a placemat and was a bit confused when I started talking about standing on it on the floor... lol! too funny! So just in case you were also confused... it's a floor mat/rug/whatever. :) )

the back

Anyway, I made a little hot pad to go with it. :)

 

Congrats! And I hope you are happy together forever!

I'm so glad we're sisters!