On and On

The weekend list has turned into a week-long list.  We decided we were less into getting everything done, and more into spending time just being together.  However, most of the list got partially done, if not completely.  And it's been added to, of course.  I noticed our front and back doors are a bit draft-y, so I will be making draft stoppers to help keep out the cold.  I have no clue what I'm doing, a cat who attacks everything, but I'm hopeful that I will come up with a plan to help our heating bill even more.  We keep it cold in the house in the winter, but hopefully it will stay a bit warmer if we can keep the cold out of cracks!

Any winter projects you're tackling?  I have a home to do list for this winter as long as my arm, but it's my most productive time of year! 

Updates

Hello!  God, it's been a slow week.  And I'm enjoying every second of it.  The highlights from tomorrow are as follows:  I bought brown corduroy (at 1/2 off....a lady walked up to G and gave him her coupon she decided not to use) to make a Molly Monkey doll for the petite princess (my niece) and buying an insanely large piece of furniture that we rented a Home Depot truck to get home.  We want to put it in our bedroom, and the question now stands, how on earth to get it up 2 flights of stairs?  We'll just have to figure something out!  

And I have updated my blogroll to the blogs I read frequently.  Some of the old ones stayed because I need to remember to read them (I did enjoy them before).  But now I've added the chic lifestyle type blogs that I read daily.  Check them out!  

I'm off to get ready for church.  The Baptists across the street can be heard above the rain.  And my husband woke me up with singing, tea and toast.  It's a great day already!

Awaiting

I am patiently trying to rest.  Unfortunately as much as I love settling into bed with a good book and whiling the day away drinking tea, the kitchen is two floors down from our bedroom and makes getting tea difficult.  Perhaps tomorrow I will make up a cozy nook on my grandmama's sofa (and yes, we call it grandmama's sofa, though now it is ours, we probably will always refer to it as such).  But I am fidgety as all get out and looking forward to being able to get up and move around.  We did head to Barnes and Noble tonight to look at quilting and sewing books and that about did me in.  I came in and finished "On The Banks Of Plum Creek" and am now watching Anne of Green Gables on youtube.  Neither are helping my desire to be up, cleaning, cooking, and sewing.  

Garret and I are discussing doing all homemade gifts this year, including for each other.  I never did finish the dolls for my niece last winter (and am quite ashamed that they're done, except for the faces and I'm intimidated by the thought of screwing them up after working on them so carefully).  However she's just now to the age of carrying around a doll (she'll be 2 in January), so I figure it's okay.  And when I bought the pattern for the one doll I also bought 2 others for her for later.  I think I will make them this winter and save them for later!  One is a Jane doll meant to be able to have a Jane Austen style look, and I cannot wait for tea parties with my niece and her dolls!

I am wanting to make a quilt by hand.  I'm looking at different sites online as well as books for the simplest way to learn.  I'm considering doing a tiny little one for my niece (with a matching one for her dolls that I can give her next year) as a start.  But eventually my goal is to make a stack of quilts for our home.  Their style is not really quite right for us, but there is no debating their warmth and comfort in the colder months!  We have an old one that is really worn on our bed right now that my great grandmother made.  My maman has a bundle of them at home and each child is getting one.  I've asked for the wedding rings one and am keeping my fingers crossed.  I also have a pink one in my closet that my great grandmother made (I got it because I'm the only girl), and I plan to use some old fashioned whitener to freshen it up and let it dry in the sun.  It's very delicate (hand sewn), but in great condition.  I imagine curling up with a daughter in it.  

I'm also planning to attempt sewing my own curtains.  I figure I will start with a simple cotton panel, but eventually I want to sew silk ones and velvet ones for our sitting room (to switch out between the cold and warm months).  And I also have on the sewing list a new butcher style apron for G.  He has a navy and white striped one we picked up at Tesco's in England, but he really needs at least one more and has asked me to make one (using the old one as a pattern).  

I'm learning to give myself time to learn these new skills.  I didn't learn to cook overnight.  I'm lucky I have the hand sewing skills I do, thanks in large part to a very patient grandmama who used to let me sew on old scraps, teaching me to draw designs with a pencil to embroider.  I know I don't have to be perfect at everything, I am just aiming to eventually do a lot of old fashioned things that will save my family time and money.  But sometimes I can be harsh on myself if I make a mistake or take forever.  I have more patience with others than with myself.  Are there any new skills you are trying to learn? 

Petite Goals

For this year of changes I'm coming up with a list of things I want to do.  Of course at the top of the list is become fluent again in French.  I love the language, and since I think in French so often (as well as the occasional dream) it should be fairly easy.  But I do have a few other goals that have come to mind that I will share here:

* Learn to knit well.  I can do a scarf, with one stitch.  Sure, it looks pretty, but in the end it's not very accomplished, and as the women in Jane Austen novels I wish to be accomplished.  I know there are some knitting stores here in Baltimore that have classes, so I plan on signing up.  My end goal is to get good enough that I can knit some alpaca and cashmere blankets for our home, and perhaps a sweater or two for myself.

* Take tap dancing classes.  I have no idea how to go about this, and perhaps I'll just have my brother teach me a bit, but I love dancing and think this would just be fun!

(Image from Style Me Pretty)

* Learn some basic cooking skills, such as making homemade mayonnaise, homemade vanilla, and hollandaise sauce.  I'm trying to learn to do these so I can make as I need.  For instance, we only use mayo to make deviled eggs, so a jar tends to get wasted in our home.  If I could make just enough for what I need then it would be great.

(Image from A Quiet Little Life)

* Learn to sew a pillow or two.  I love throw pillows for our living room and bedrooms, including frilly girly ones (God bless my husband).  Instead of spending $100 a pillow at some fancy schmancy store I want to learn to do it myself.  I also plan on making some silhouette pillows and painting some patterns for some as well. 

(Image from Love The Music)

* Save for a new violin.  I want to have my fingers fly again, and I want a nice violin on which to play.  I'm considering eventually playing for friends' weddings and such, so I want something that has a beautiful sound.  


*Attend a full orchestra opera in a ball gown.  I'm planning to buy G a tux for theatre and opera occasions, and I want a ball gown.  Thank God I know some designers who I am going to have sew me one divine!


*  Start an etsy shop.  I have so many antique and vintage items that I love but simply don't have the room for, nor do they fit into my home.  I wanted to stockpile them like a Martha Stewart store room, but I've come to the conclusion that perhaps it would be best to sell some.  Vintage pyrex mixing bowls in a rainbow of colors, British tea cups, even a spare vintage pram, I have a whole gamut of things.  What money I make is going into a savings account for when I want to purchase a big item.  


* Finish a few projects.  I have furniture to paint, jewelry to make, and dolls to sew for the niece.  I am the queen of partially finished projects I admit.  And I'm bored with it, so I need to just finish them.  Especially since it includes some furniture I am re-habbing to sell!  


This is only a partial list, it goes on and on and on.  But strangely I am not overwhelmed, just excited to see how things unfold.  And yes, J, I will be updating as often as I can (and I'm journaling to remind myself and keep myself accountable to such!).  I look forward to sharing what I learn as I go along.

Coming Up

Things That I Need to Do and Show You:

1. Paint furniture:  I have a tea trolley, 2 side tables, 4 chairs, a desk, a dresser, and a coffee table to paint!  The weather has really hindered my getting this done, but hopefully the sun will keep on shining!
2. Make a pair of curtains for my office area for less than $5!  (you are gonna want to see this!)
3. Organize my kitchen drawers:  Drawer space is at a premium here, so I need to buy some organizers and make it work.
4. Make my living room work for now.  Yes, my furniture will be here in April (and then I need to have the chairs completely refurbished) but for now I just need to make the room look presentable.  Currently it looks like a tornado went through and blew a lot of things that go elsewhere into there.  It's kinda been our drop off point after shopping.  
5. Organize my closet.  
6. Paint the mirrors I have lying around my house.  Yes, plural.
7. Unpack (sadly this might be on the list until we move out).
8. Buy or make a queen size bed and move our bedroom furniture down to the guest room.  
9. Paint the walls
10. Not panic because this list is crazy long, and there isn't even half of the things I need to do on it!

Have you been making lists and checking them thrice?  Do share!

Baby It's Cold Outside

The snow here is getting out of hand ridiculous.  It's now illegal for anything other than emergency vehicles to be on the roads, and the police are riding with the National Guard in the humvees.  To say we've got snow is an understatement, but the wind is causing so many of the problems.  So G's graduation scheduled for next week will have to be postponed, since he's most likely not going to have snow at all this week (even if they go back in session on Friday, we may not be allowed to leave the house.....and they're calling for more snow on Monday!).


So what to do?  Well, if you're in our house the answer is eat beef stew, drink so much tea you might as well buy stock in Twinings, catch G up on True Blood (we've now gotten through the first season and are onto the second) and finish the dolls I was supposed to have finished by Christmas for my niece.  I can admit I am a procrastinator extraordinaire!  However, I will share with you real quick what I made for my maman for her Birthday (it's a few days after Christmas).  I mentioned a while back being inspired by some etsy things.  And oh am I!  I saw this pillow here:

Image from PillowPalooza

The pillow is quite nice, but my mother is not the pillow type.  I love the phrase Queen of Quite A Lot....in fact my hairpins from my wedding (my hairdresser is superstitious and told me G had to be the one to take my hair down, and to keep the pins) are in a tin with this phrase.   So I decided to make a framed art piece for her office wall!  I hand drew everything, drawing inspiration from the pillow, but not using hers as an exact pattern.  I happened to have some honeycomb looking fabric, and found the frame at a thrift store.  (My mother is not a huge fan of gold frames, but I offered to paint it any color she wished and she turned me down).  Some purple felt, a lot of painstakingly careful cutting and glueing, and I had this:

                         

I quite like it, and my mother was really pleased!  I offered to make her one with a giraffe print if she didn't like this one (quite honestly I thought of keeping it for myself!  It looked so good in our living room!), but she said she really liked this one.  Eh.  I kept the letters that I used, so perhaps I will be making one for myself sometimes soon...

My New Baby!

On Sunday night my husband and I headed out on an adventure to Wal-Mart!  After having been cooped up in the house Saturday and Sunday I was a little bit excited for the trip.  We had a mission:  hunt down a new baby for me!
Here she is:

(With a free subscription to Martha Stewart Mag to boot!)

And once we got home I sat down to figure her out.  I ended up ripping apart an old baby blue t-shirt of G's because he's a skinny minnie and the size L drapes on him now.  Jerk.  Anyhoo, no bitterness here at all.  I made it into little bags for him when we travel (prepping for Christmas early).  Two shoe bags and two small bags for things like his watch and cuff links (because God knows he doesn't keep them in anything like the box that came with them).  I'm hoping to eventually put together a little travel valet for those things, but for now voila, the shoe bag (using the neckline as a drawstring on this shoe bag, the others are string-less currently, but that will be fixed this weekend). 

So...

After that last venting post I feel like I need to post something cheerier.  And I had just the thing in mind!  

Does anyone else feel like their niece or nephew were put on this planet for only 2 reasons? One to have an excuse to make cutesy homemade toys and such as a trial run before making them for their own kids? (and boy do I have a list as long as my arm of things to make!)  And two, so they can huggle and snuggle them to death?  

Because my niece is quite possibly the cutest thing since puppies and kittens.  I told my brother that she was the cutest little girl in the world but would lose her title once we had one.  He got pissed.  Doesn't change that she'll be the second cutest little girl in the world, and that's a pretty big title!

I went home this summer hoping not to get attached, since I think her parents are morons.  But in the end, this beautiful little girl who looks so much like me with my brother's eyes (yes, his eyelashes are long enough to reach the stars, and that bright grey blue), well, she stole my heart.  So here I am MD, knowing she'll be at my parents house this weekend, and wishing I could go snuggle in with her.  Did I mention I like to tell her she's too pretty to cry?  Or that she attached herself to me like velcro the first time I met her?  

Her mother said she was eating food. She wasn"t a big fan of it, and kept making this face!

This is my beautiful Grandmama with Alayna.

She's the reason I know I will be a good maman someday.  Because I never imagined I could love someone so much, and she's not even mine.  So she has her Aunt Kalee who loves her..... fiercely and forever.  

My mother bought her this hat...it's a tad big.

And Aunt Kalee will be making her a dolly for Christmas.  She'll be turning one the beginning of January, and my brother and I are determined to make her a girly girl (her mother is somewhat of a....hmm, what's the polite term?  tom boy?).  So I bought some doll patterns, and have some free from online, and will be making her a doll or five, we'll see how the first one goes.  I also want to make her a little blanket or quilt.  

Here's the doll I will be making.  It's from BitOfWhimsyPrims off of Etsy.

Cute right?

Here's some other dolls I am considering making for her over time.  So many patterns online for dolls and softies, you just have to search for them.  I'm also planning on making her a bunch of soft blocks, which might make a nice Christmas gift as well!

A Red Riding Hood Doll from The Long Thread

Doll from The Black Apple via Martha Stewart

A Nurse or Soldier Softie from Vintage Ric Rac.  I happen to think these are adorable, and you could definitely take this idea and run with it to create other softies.  

And one more....I love the Hungry Catepillar, so this softie from Craft Blog, with a copy of the book, would be a fantastic gift for her second birthday.  

I'm excited to do these for my niece, and it will be so fun for our future children to have these and many many more.  I'm working on my sewing, and we're saving for a sewing machine for me.  Someday maybe I'll even manage to make some clothing!