Strippin' ain't easy!

Strippin' ain't easy!

Well, at least the chemical kind...I can't really testify about the complex art of pole dancing. Maybe someday I can conquer the pole like Gma W (haha, inside family joke)

UGH! I got this stupid idea that I could re-stain our table and chairs this summer. A weekend project, right? Lets just say I finally finished this last week.

Don't give into HGTV's hype about DIY projects, so not worth it.

Anyway, Husbie and I inherited my childhood dining room chairs to help set up house as newly weds. They are great sturdy chairs except I wasn't in love with the light wood and couldn't stand the uncomfortable straw seats. If you were wearing shorts and sat bare legged on these seats you got this nasty skin indentation on your legs that looked worse than cottage cheese cellulite.




I bought some pads and cheap upholstery fabric ($3 to be exact) and covered the straw. My friend was nice enough to let me borrow her sander, but the only problem was the finish on the chairs was like a million coats thick. Unfortunately I had to go through the painstaking process of stripping and scraping it off. Well this didn't work the best because I would get all set up and start in on the process, then K would wake up from a nap and I'd have to go back inside. It turned into the never ending, dreadful project that wouldn't go away. A pain in me arse.


Husbie finally asked a month ago...so, when are we going to have a table again?

My other friend (yes, I have two friends, hard to believe, huh?) was kind enough to let me camp in her garage for the past two weeks so I could finish these dumb things and she helped watch K for me. Thanks so much!

For Mom

For Mom

I was talking on the phone with Mom while I was doing some Halloween crafting experiments and she wanted to see the results. So here they are, sorry it took so long to upload. Don't have any $$ so I made some quirky and eccentric Spooky Scary decorations.

Dead flowers

Zombie Barbies

Sinister Birds

Scary Goblets

Googlie Eyeball candy dish

Halloween Silhouettes

Here is where I got the ideas

I am in charge of teaching a craft for Super Saturday this year and I got assigned to making bows.
Bug ribbon bows and fabric flowers to be specific. I don't have a daughter to make the ribbon bows for, so I can't get to excited about them, but I am addicted to the fabric flowers. You can clip them in your hair, clip them on your shirt or sweater, clip them on a purse- Just clip them!
I have to turn in all of the displays early and have finished a handful of them. Here is a preview of what they look like and are quite easy to make. My camera isn't fancy, so I was having a hard time zooming and focusing in on them. Also, I couldn't get enough light either, thanks to whoever's brilliant idea it was to not have central lighting in our apartment.

Dress

Dress

Here is the finished dress/accessories for Baby girl Kelsey.

I had to turn my flash off of my camera to take these because the fabric is satin, which is a little shiny, so it made the pics have a huge glare. So without the flash they look a little dull and blurry, but I tried to capture pics the best I could.

Back Side (it is hanging kind of crooked on the hanger)

Front Side

Close-up of the back (I suck at tying bows)

Buttons

Bottom Trim on Edge of Skirt

Sleeve Close-up

Side view of Sleeve

Collar

Bodice

Bonnet

Close-up of lace on Bonnet

Ruffle Bum Panties

All of the lace matches on the parts and the material is Satin, which is washable, but probably best to have it dry cleaned after she slobbers and throws-up on it:)

This weekend I went crazy trying to finish up nagging projects that most definitely would not have been done until next Fall if I had postponed them until after the baby.

This is for you Ashley...I finally finished my quilt! So here is the final product. Actually, I have already bought material to start a new one, but told myself this one had to be done before I could tackle the new one.

Close-up

The back side of the quilt

Finished Project!

Finished Project!

For years I have been crocheting small things like hats, mittens, purses, etc. Well, this year I got bored with the same old same old and decided to take on an actual crocheting project....an afgan. Since it is my first I thought it would be wise to start small so I did a baby blanket. And NO this is not me trying to announce that we are expecting. But eventually we will have kids and thus I will need a baby blanket. Then I couldn't decided what color to do it in because what if I choose blue and we have all girls...so I chose white so that it can be used for baby blessings regardless of the sex. Well as of yesterday it is complete!

Here is a close-up

Now for my next project I am starting my own quilt, and doing real quilting. No yarn ties for me. No offense for anyone who ties their quilts.

Some Finished Projects

Some Finished Projects

I finally finished my crib bedding this weekend. I had taken on all of these sewing projects a couple of months ago and haven't had time nor the energy to finish them.

I wanted to pick a semi unisex material so that I could use it for future children, boy or girl. I saw a paisley material which is a little more feminine but the colors were boy colors, so I thought it was a good balance. I decided that I would just make the quilt in this material and then buy the bumpers and bed skirt.
Well, I couldn't find any bumpers that I liked or that matched, so I went back to the fabric store to buy some more material to make mine own. Bad news, the material was all gone:( Instead I had to go with another related material that had a matching patch of the paisley design on it...the only downfall was there is ONE flower square in the material, which doesn't make it totally unisex and slightly girlie...oh well. Anyway, it is finished, YAY!


My other project was this baby outfit. A couple of weeks ago I was at a thrift store shopping and saw this white jumpsuit, thinking I could turn it into a blessing outfit for K. It cost $5, so if I totally botched the project it wouldn't be much of a loss. The first feature that absolutely had to go was this nasty boat bib- gross. So I ripped it off and used the bib material to create a collar and tie.
Here is the end result.