two straight lines

Deck the Halls

Hope you all had a great holiday.  We spent most of ours hacking all over our turkey dinner thanks to a little bout with bronchitis, but all is well now, and I felt so great yesterday I decided to go ahead and deck our halls.  The tree is up, the stockings are hung, and I finished off our nature shelf and table with the addition of some pages torn from an old dictionary I picked up.  I bought it (the dictionary) in 2001 for use in the leaf print project, but was too afraid to rip any pages out.  I had at it yesterday, and the pages fit perfectly...no trimming required.  I like the texture it adds, and I had never really noticed the tiny illustrations throughout the book.  I wanted to show it to you before it gets layered with holiday crafts, Christmas cards and such.

Oh, and see those four stockings (from Hable Construction)?  I think I forgot to tell you all I found out a few weeks ago that I am expecting a baby girl next March...yay!  Lucky I picked up an extra stocking last year when Garnet Hill had their sale!  Elliot would like to name her Pino Firegirl.  Interesting, huh? 

Some Help Arrived

Just in time for the holiday.  And you can see he's got some fancy moves.

Scrap Balls

This fast and easy project is from Denyse Schmidt's Quilt-It Kit (It is not featured in her book).  These are 4 inch balls, the directions she has are for 2 or 3 inch.  I made these with fabrics from my stash, and picked up some golden fabric this morning to plump up the little collection.  This is the first of my home-made Christmas gifts, and the recipient is using this color scheme in her dining room.  If you cut your strips ahead with a rotary cutter, this is a GREAT in front of the TV craft.  So fun.

The Toyroom

Here are a few pictures of our toyroom. (click on photos for larger view)  This room is adjacent to our family room, which is also pretty open to the kitchen.  I really like having this arrangement with a small child, so that I can get something done in the kitchen while he plays, rather than having him off in the basement or something.  It is the same color scheme as the adjoining rooms.

I originally planned to have my father-in-law and husband make a play table based on a simple plywood one seen in Martha Stewart (Kids or Baby), and these rolling bins are the exact ones she showed in the magazine.  But, as we started to move in here last year and I realized that we had a mountain of projects ahead of us, I found these great tables at CB2.  They were called the Slim Coffee Table, and they were on sale, so bingo, I bought them.  They have a silver base and a white enamel top.  The coolest part is that the top of each of them slides open revealing storage inside.  We keep some art supplies in there.  The storage is maybe 3" deep the whole length of the tables.  Sometimes I put them together in the middle of the room as a train table.  FYI- I think these tables are long gone, but you could give them a call, of course.  Love Crate and Barrel (and CB2- the offshoot).  That's where I met my husband, after all.

The cot on the left is the one that I intend to slipcover as a little window seat.  But, I intend to do a lot of things, don't I?  I still haven't figured out how to treat those two odd windows above the cot-- as one window, or two.  Right now I have some IKEA curtains up there, and for now they are doing the job.  I hate that the windows aren't right together, and that is why I can't decide what kind of window treatment to use.

The big black wall on the right is painted with magnetic and chalkboard paint.  It doesn't take really heavy magnets, but I make thin magnets on my Xyron machine and they work great.  I got the little kitchen at the Pottery Barn outlet at a price I couldn't pass up.  It's great because it is so compact.

I love having a space like this because there is always a place for toys and it cleans up in about 2 seconds.  We try to limit the toys here to a few categories, so that it is easy to organize and really never looks too bad.  Some of my friends thought I was crazy for putting it right out in the open, but to me, this is what our house is for...family.

Nature Shelf- In Progress

A few weeks ago I began painting these shelves that I have been carting from state to state for 6 or 7 years.  My Mom picked this up at a garage sale-- probably with my grandmother since my Mom wasn't a big garage saler on her own.  As I remember it, they went to a sale and some of the goods were in the house.  This shelf was on the kitchen wall, not for sale.  My Mom asked if she could buy it, and the owner offered it to her for $6.  My Mom then counter-offered $10, and it was sold.  (Is that how you remember it Mamaw?)  My Mom was into shabby things before it was cool, so I'm sure she was somewhat stunned with the pricetag on this item, as am I.  The story actually makes me a little sad each time I think of it.  I'm sure the original owner saw it as something of function and not beauty, and was thrilled with a little cash to go get something a little more bright and shiny.  I would like to go back and give them a little more money for letting me have this thing in my life.

I have deliberated about how to used it for years.  Over the changing table?  As a plate rack (see the holes I drilled in it for dowels on the before picture)?  I finally have settled on using it over a console table in my family room as a nature/seasonal display.

Before

I thought I'd share my simple way to repaint old furniture.  I started off with the techniques in an old Martha Stewart article called "Paint It White" and have evolved slightly from there.  Basically, I paint several coats of latex paint, sanding between coats with more refined pieces, and not sanding until the third coat is finished for more rustic pieces such as this.  Then, I sand lightly to reveal old paint and wood color.  Finally, I water down brown paint (craft paint is just fine for this step) and rub it on with a shop rag until it the paint color is muted enough for me.  Finally, I apply a paste wax such as Briwax, let dry for about 5 minutes and buff to a soft shine.

I chose a paint color called Hummingbird from Martha's Sherwin Williams line for this shelf.  These pictures are before I have waxed, so that you can see the detail of the brown paint.  The place where this will hang is a sort of dark corner, so I don't think you could see the paint detail over there.  I will post more shots when I get it hung.

PS- Since a lot of people are interested in my playroom, I will post photos of it in the next few days...