you know, I don't hate Mondays

It's odd, isn't it, that I don't hate Mondays.  I mean, everybody and their mama hates Monday, right?  Well, not this mama.  To me it's fresh start, a new beginning, a week full of possibilities.  Like starting that first cup of coffee, holding a fresh uncut yard of fabric, cracking the spine of a new book or opening a new bottle of shampoo.  You just never know great it can end.  (Did I lose you on the shampoo, part?  I can't be the only person who loves the freshness of a new bottle.)

Mondays are my wash the sheets day, so I know I'll sleep good.  Mondays are my clean the house day, so I know that the short time between the baby nap and the kids getting off the bus my house will be clean.  Mondays are my putting together a new plan action for the business week so I can pretend for now that I will find the time to sew fabulous new things, blog everyday, and make loads of sales.   Right now, I'm feeling just giddy thinking about how great this week will be!  

Of course, come Friday I may be thinking that I'm glad this week is over.

Do you like my picture of my cleaning cloths?   I thought I'd show them in all their washed, but highly stained, glory.  I made them with leftover cloth diaper materials and I looove them!   Not only am I being a good steward of God's beautiful earth, but I'm also being a good steward of my money.  Score!  Go to this post at Simple Mom for more ideas and reasons to switch to cloth instead of paper.

Two bright ideas!

I admit it. Sometimes my brilliant ideas tend to fall... a little flat at times. But we're not going to talk about those. :) Instead, lets focus on my great ones!

First is a storage solution. I don't know about your home, but here we have a problem with shoes. Typically, everyone comes in through the garage into the kitchen and takes off their shoes. I hate for shoes to be on the carpet. I hate for the shoes to pile up in my kitchen though. No matter how many times I would have the family put them away in their closet, the next day the shoes would appear again usually with a couple extra pairs in tow. I felt like I was tripping on shoes all day long.

The worst part came when the little man began crawling. Like all babies, he's drawn to everything nasty and dirty and loved to chew on shoes. Think walking to school, think playing in the yard, think boys school bathroom! YUCK! To solve the situation, I looked high and low for the perfect solution that would be affordable and durable and pretty. Durability and prettiness being key. This is what I found.

It looks great, it has a ton of room inside, and it's comfortable to boot. Love it! I know most people would put this at the end of their bed or to use as a foot rest in the living room, but I needed it in my kitchen.

Next, was a communication solution. I painted my kitchen cabinets a couple of weeks ago. They were a deep stain from the dark ages of the 1970's and I brightened them up with a nice coat of white. (Not fun.) I have one tall cabinet end that I painted with chalkboard paint to use as a message board. (So fun.) Now, the kids know what's for dinner, their daily chores, and how much allowance they have earned so far. Makes my life simpler, plus they have a great place to draw. That solves the artwork being thumbtacked around the house when I'm not looking, too.

loving my new pillows

You know you're loving them, too. I came across the fabric at Joanns and KNEW I had to pick it up. I'm a lover of polka dots and whenever I find a GOOD polka dot fabric, I have to get it. I made a simple envelope pillow because with children you need to be able to wash it. Think spit up, dirty hands, and spilled bottles of milk.

I then simply appliqued an H to the front for a little something, something.

All my free time has been spent hanging out in Washington with a little coven of vampires...

I am probably one of the last readers in America to finally have read the series. LOVED it! But, now that I'm done reading the saga, I have all sorts of time on my hands to sew.

Speaking of beasts, I finally finished my fireplace cover.

Well, almost finished it. I still need to quilt a couple of big circles over the second half. And yes, it's a different color than when I first began. I'm not one of those gifted seamstresses who have the ability to never make mistakes on a project. So I don't want to rehash all the trouble this thing caused me. Even still, after starting over, I'm not going to show a close up shot... Maybe one day soon, I can post a tutorial with how it should be done, which is really quite easy if you avoid all my mistakes.

Did you see the pretty flowers my husband gave me? It was a rough day in Mommyville yesterday, and he wanted me to smile. Just love him. I love that he picked out something I would have picked out myself. I prefer my flowers to be all the same, I don't care for many different types of flowers in one bunch. My fabric I love to mix and match, my flowers I love for them to stay with their own kind.

Sometimes simplicity is best.

i haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

I swear, I haven't! I've just been so incredibly busy. But the kids are all in their rooms "resting", yeah right, so I have a moment to spare. The big thing I've been busy with is going through our home reducing our amount of stuff and just making sure that everything in here is something I love. I've also been creating things for our home which I hadn't done in ages due to being so busy with Etsy. I started in our foyer since that is the first thing people see when they enter my home. I replaced a bulky black dresser with a smaller open table that I painted white. I just picked it up at one of those unfinished furniture stores. Love those! Then I made this little table topper from my scraps to go on top. I wish it had came out a little larger, but oh well, I still really like it. Plus, it was a great way to get more practice in machine quilting. I'm still new at stippling. I used this pattern except I made it with smaller squares (2.5 x2.5 inches) and I only used one randomly placed line of ric rac because I didn't find my stash of it until I had finished the quilt.

Don't you love the little birdie!

Then I started going through the front closet trying to weed out everything I didn't need. The plan was to sell the stuff on Craigslist. Well, I posted things, and I had some nibbles but no bites. I started mentally to get bogged down in the whole process that I had trouble finding motivation to finish. I finally decided that I don't need the $20 I MIGHT be able to make off my old prom dress. I have no sentimental attatchment to the thing. I don't need to the $5 I COULD make off the plastic thread organizer I never used. Or the ugly tablecloth I was given or the one that I bought a long time ago and have no use for.

So, I told my husband it's not worth me trying to sell this stuff. I'm just going to give it all away.

And, ahhh, it feels so much better now.

I can move on to other projects now that I don't have the mental block against getting rid of any clutter. I just give it away to Goodwill and I move on.

Snow!!

Finally, we got a decent snowfall! We ended up having a good 6-7 inches. It's so beautiful.

the dining room is done!

The dining room is complete. :) It look so much fresher than the before. Two great things we learned when painting:
1. If you have to stop painting for a day or so but don't want to waste a paint roller, wrap the roller in a plastic bag tightly and it will remain wet. Then when you're ready, you can get right back to painting.
2. Place a line of caulk where the ceiling and wall come together. This is esp. important is you don't have crown molding. It really smooths and conceals any uneven lines. Seriously, do this the next time you paint.

recovered dining room chairs

I hated this old fabric on my chairs. I don't know why I ever put it on. Well, I do remember actually. My husband didn't like my first choice but he did like the swirl. I kept thinking I would grow to love the design. But I didn't. So finally, they got worn out enough to justify recovering them. I didn't even know Joel Dewberry had a home decor line . But I love it.

I'll have to do a final photo once I get the dining room all complete. It's only the second room that will be redone since we bought this home a year ago. But, hey, at least it's getting done.

baby oak trees

We have thousands of them.

I had so much fun playing with the different settings on my camera today. I've never really played around with all the settings. The pictures came out so much better once you stop doing everything on "auto". Plus, fall is so beautiful. It's my absolute favorite time of year. We have some awesome color on some of our trees, I just had to capture them.

vinyl decals

I now have lovely little birdies fluttering about in my laundry room. I needed something to dress up the plain white cabinet doors and when I came across those sweet little birds I knew I had to snatch them up!

scaling back

I mean, I had only just started trying to come back after the baby when I had to come to a tough decision. I'm going to have to scale back on my etsy shop for another month at least. My house needs some love and attention. We never really got settled the way I want to to since we moved in back in February. With the fatigue from the pregnancy I never got to create the home I wanted.

Home should be a haven, a rest stop, a safe place to land. Mine is none of those things. Paint needs to be complete, pictures need hanging, pillows need sewing, chairs need recovering, organization needs to take place. I want a place I feel proud of, and right now I hate for people to come into my home. It doesn't reflect me or my personality. And I don't want to live that way any longer. I'll have to update the progress as I go along.

******
A Scene from the Breakfast table.

Mom: Ok kids, I'm going to get into the shower. Do you need anything?

Kids: No

Mom walks to the back of the house and gets the shower hot.
Screams of bloody murder erupt in the dining room where the kids are eating breakfast. Mom, fearing the worst, runs through the house and finds her 4 yr old screaming and crying hysterically. Assessing the situation, she sees the 7 yr old boy looking alarmed and Mom realizes he hasn't done anything. The girl is not bleeding or hurt, she's in fact sitting at the table in front of her breakfast where Mom left her.

Mom: Natalie, what's the matter?

Natalie: (crying) The butter melted on my biscuit! I didn't want the butter to melt on my biscuit!

Mom: For crying out loud.

And then she realizes that is in fact what the child did.
*******

clean craft space

So tallgiraffe on Etsy created a challenge for us to clean our work space. And, mine really needed it! I spent 45 minutes cleaning it up and that was about my limit. It needs more work, but the before and after is pretty remarkable, I say. Check out my pictures on flickr.

I can't believe I even posted those before pictures! But, now I feel so much better.