Thursday, August 12, 2010

Yards and Shelves


These past few weeks have been so much fun! Paul, and I worked on a bunch of projects that we have been wanting to start for months. It feels like we got something important accomplished!

Our poor little yard is mostly sand and weeds, and we have been pretty overwhelmed with the idea of fixing it up. We started last week by clearing out part of the yard of all the weeds, then we got some seeding soil and grass seed and layed it all down. The best part is that the grass is actually starting to grow!!

The next project we tackled was building shelves in our kitchen. I REALLY wanted these shelves!! I really needed more storage for dishes, and cooking supplies. Every time I got a plate out of the too small cupboard I had to tip it diagonally!! I had the perfect spot for them too. There was a random bit of counter with lovely wall space just above it that wasn't being utilized at all! We have had all the supplies sitting around the house for months, but we hesitated starting because it seemed like a project that was a bit beyond our ability level.


We went to Home Depot and bought a powered circular saw to cut the boards, used a stud finder and my quilting ruler to hang the supports.



Then I painted them white in the garage. It took four coats to make it nice and even, but all the time was definitely worth it in the end. I love how much room I have for my small appliances now. The space in the cupboards is now much more organized too!! Wahoo shelves!

I'll post some pictures of a baby quilt I'm working on tomorrow. I hope that everyone else also had productive weeks too!





Friday, August 6, 2010

I always splurge on mermaids



So when Heather Ross first released her Mendocino fabric I fell in love right away. I had no idea at the time that I would grow to love quilting as much as I have, and spending eight plus dollars a yard seemed like an unforgivable extravagance...
Well, it turns out that I still love those enchanting little mermaids!

I found a shop on Etsy that still had some fat quarter bundles of this fabric, and I caved. On Wednesday I got five cuts of my very own!! Now I have been deliberating how to make the most of this little treasure trove.

I know it's going to a baby girl quilt (and I'm going to keep it), and I know that it's going to be beautiful, but so far that's it... so we'll see.