Spring Clean Up and More Quilt Progress

We've been pretty lucky weather-wise so far this spring. With some unseasonably warm days last week (in the 70's in March?? Usually it's still snowy!), we were actually able to get outside and start cleaning up the yard a bit. So we raked up some leaves (9 bags full, to be exact), and unveiled some of the landscaping.

I knew we had a few crocuses, as they had already made there way up through the covering of leaves, and I was excited to see some daffodils popping up too. I think there may be some irises and lilies as well, but it's a bit early to tell since they are just barely coming up out of the ground. It will certainly be fun to see what else we have growing.

Then over the weekend we got a reality check when the weather went back to more typical March temperatures (40's and even some snow this morning!). So I decided to go back to my big indoor project of the rainbow quilt. Getting it all laid out was quite the task (1008 squares and no definite plan for how they'd fit together...what was I thinking?!?). I had to shuffle the squares around a lot to get the stripes even and blending together nicely. And of course I hadn't cut quite enough squares, and of course I didn't have quite enough of one of the colors, so I had to go pick up one more fat quarter to fill in the gap. But all in all, I'm quite happy with the progress, and also with how much of my fabric stash I have been able to use in this project.

Anyhow, I did finally get it all laid out and have even started sewing! Yippee!! And in the process, little g is getting her first sewing lessons. She was very curious about my sewing machine and iron, and asked me all kinds of questions them, wondering how they worked. I guess it's time to find a simple sewing project for her to do and start learning some mad seamstress skills. But for now, she's happy to help line up the squares after I've sewn them together. It's nice having a little assistant!

Playroom Plans

I love having a playroom.  I pretty much knew from the get-go that we would be able to have a playroom for the girls in this house, and where it would be.  At some point in this house's history, an addition was put on the back.  So straight behind the kitchen is a little laundry area, off to the right is a bathroom, and off to the left is this extra room.  Perfect place for a playroom!

So here's a few pics of the playroom in its current state:

While the color of this room is not intolerable, as you can see, it is a bit drab for a kids playroom. I feel a playroom should be cheerful and vibrant and happy, not dull and muted. So we will definitely be painting it soon. I was talking with little g about painting and suggested we get creative and paint grassy hills and blue skies. She loved the idea, and thought we should add a rainbow on one wall.

So here's a couple of rough sketches of what I'm thinking:

As for the rainbow, we're still debating whether to paint the entire rainbow, or only include a section of it. I think we're leaning towards a section of it. What do you think?

I'm thinking we will probably paint all the trim white as well, but I haven't decided for sure yet.  And I'd love to put in a new ceiling fan/light fixture and new flooring, but I have to keep reminding myself: one thing at a time...one thing at a time.  So for now, the next thing on the agenda will be deciding on the shades of blue and green.  Off to the paint store!

Quilt Progress

So I'm a few weeks into the rainbow quilt project now, and I'm pretty excited about the progress I have made.  There have, of course, been some setbacks (there always are, aren't there?), for instance, not being able to find my rotary cutter.  I looked in every place I thought I would have packed it, and I kept finding all these extra blades and even a couple of blade sharpeners, but no cutter.  So eventually my sweet hubby just ordered me a new one.

Once I got my new cutter, I could get to work cutting all those squares (1008 to be exact).  Of course, being that I am trying to use up a bunch of scrap pieces of fabric, I didn't really have a definite plan of how many of each color I would need.  So I just kind of winged it and started cutting away.  And of course I didn't keep track of how many squares total I had cut (what fun would that be?!?), so I'm at a point where I need to start laying them all out to see where I stand.  So for now, here are the rainbow quilt squares:

Oh, and that missing rotary cutter?  I just found it in my box of thread.  :\

Our Front Porch

When we first looked at our house last summer, one of the first things that I fell in love with was the front porch (seriously, the columns, the bench swing...how could you not??).  It's a beautiful porch, but it certainly has seen better days (note the dirty exterior and chipping paint).  We will definitely be needing to give it some love, but living in Maine, it's just a wee bit chilly to be doing much of that kind of work outdoors right now.   So as eager as I am to start sprucing up the front porch, I guess it will have to wait a bit longer until it's consistently well above freezing.  But I still wanted to share some photos of our lovely porch, so consider these the "before" pictures.

 

The Redecorating Begins

We were pretty fortunate that when we moved into this house there weren't any redecorating projects that we felt we would need to do immediately.  Sure, some of the paint colors and wall paper wouldn't have been my first choice, but they certainly wouldn't have been my last choice either.  So it was nice to just move in and get settled before diving into redecorating.  But now that we are getting more settled, I'm itching to get started!

I promised little g that her room would be the first room we would do this spring.  Since we're still a ways off from being warm enough to open up the windows and paint (it was a balmy 42 degrees today), I've been thinking about bedding.  She recently saw a quilt I had made for someone, and was fascinated by it, so I decided that I should make her a new quilt for her new room.  In typical me fashion, I scoured the internet for some ideas (collecting them on a Pinboard, of course).  After first she had said she wanted a frog quilt, then she saw one with ladybugs and daisies that she liked a lot, but then she saw the rainbow quilt.  She got really excited and said, "I want that one!".  So rainbow quilt it is.

So I started digging through my fabric stash.  I didn't really have a proper workspace at our last house, so my art/craft/sewing supplies were scattered around (a few things in this closet, a few things in that closet, some in a corner here, some packed up in the basement, etc, etc).  Now that I have everything all in one spot, all I can say is wow.  I didn't quite realize how much stuff I had accumulated over the years.  After the initial shock, I was pleasantly surprised at how many fabrics I found that could work for this project (using up my stash and saving money...can't beat that!), and I had a pretty good start on a rainbow:

But it wasn't quite complete, so we headed to the fabric store to pick up a few more fat quarters to fill in the gaps:

So now we have this:

Now that I'm looking at the stack, I'm not sure if I'll keep that dark green in there or not.  Looks like it might stand out a bit too much.  But all in all, I'm pretty please with the rainbow.  Now to start cutting!

Inspiration and Visualization

I'm always scouring the internet for ideas and inspiration.  When I came across something I loved and wanted to remember, I would always bookmark it for later.  But even if I kept my bookmarks well organized (which I've been slacking on lately), it was hard for me to remember which bookmarks were for what, and why I bookmarked them, without clicking on every single one.  Then I found Pinterest.  What a fantastic site for visually oriented people like me!  If you're not familiar with Pinterest, it's basically a way for you to create online bulletin boards to "pin" all of your bookmarks to.  So I can see at a glance what I have "pinned", and therefore remember why I saved it, without having to actually open the link (brilliant!).

After getting my Pinterest account set up and familiarizing myself with how everything worked, I thought what better way to start collection inspiration for some of our home improvement and redecorating projects!  The biggest project we have coming up will be to paint the exterior of our house.  This is going to be a huge job, so I want to give a lot of thought to the color we choose.  To get some ideas, I started out (as I usually do) with a google image search.  I found some houses similar to ours that I liked, and made a pin board to collect them all in one spot, which makes it super easy to compare the different looks:

When I was doing the google image search, I also happened upon this post, from another blogger who needs to paint her old house too.  She had a found this great tool from Sherwin-Williams where you can try out different colors on your house without getting out a paintbrush.  It's called the color visualizer, and you can find it here.  I'll definitely be spending some time trying out colors on our house!  In the meantime, I'll also be searching and pinning away, like ideas for redecorating little g's bedroom, and inspiration for our someday kitchen remodel (it's never too early to start getting ideas, is it?).

Home Improvement Project #1: New Dishwasher

When we bought this house, we knew that the dishwasher was broken.  Now, I realize that a dishwasher is not really a necessity, but after having lived with one for the past 7 years, it's definitely hard to go back to not having one.  So at the top of our list of home improvement projects was to get a new one.  Neither my husband or I have the time or the know-how to take on installing a dishwasher ourselves, so we opted to hire it out.  And I'm very glad we did!

When the installer arrived this morning and started trying to take out our old dishwasher, he hit a bit of a snag:  the ceramic tile was put down after the previous dishwasher was put in, so the floor was actually higher than the the dishwasher (ugh!).  But luckily, after much hard work on his part, he was able to tilt it up just enough to slide it out (whew!).  Installing the new one was a bit of a struggle as well, since the opening between the floor and counter top is shorter than it should be, but he did it (hooray!). 

Now to test it out on all those dirty dishes that have been piling up...