slipcovers

It only took a few months of procrastinating contemplating but I finally finished the slipcovers. They are made of Home Depot painter's dropcloths which worked out to less than $2.00 a yard and covered both chairs.

Here is a tiny picture before:


This is a comfy chair but impossible to keep clean. Here it is with the new slipcover. Note: I have never made slipcovers before so this isn't perfect.



The arms are little sleeves held underneath by velcro so I can just take them off and wash separately as they get the dirtiest the fastest.

And here is the chair as it normally appears. I made the pillow out of some of my favorite Tina Whelan fabric.


The other chair is from the 60's and while I think it's kinda funky and fun, I knew it would be impossible to keep clean. So another slipcover.





This chair I slipcovered first and I had no idea how to do box cushions so they look off but not enough off for me to redo them! I ran out of fabric for the back pillow but it's covered up by a blanket anyway.





And how it looks most days shown with a pillow I made, a vintage crochet blanket and the footstool I made over.


I like the result but hope I don't have to slipcover anything for awhile!

stuff

We just got back from a vacation with our church at the beach. Everyone looks forward to it every year. We get to sleep in cabins with 2 bathrooms (1 more than we have at home!), get all meals provided all week (this year we had bacon wrapped steak), go boating on the lake and just hang out with our friends.

This year I came down with pneumonia 4 days before we left. Not on my list of things to do! My doctor put me on antibiotics, gave me an inhaler and told me to rest. It wasn't hard the first couple of days as I couldn't even breathe but it became harder as we neared our vacation. I needed to pack! Shop! Clean!

Anyway, I survived and feel strong again. Thank you God!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since my last post we have celebrated Ava's 12th birthday, Ellie's 7th birthday and Molly's 3rd birthday. Ellie also lost a tooth, Lauren is volunteering a few hours a week at the library, Ava will be starting horse riding lessons and we watched our first episode of Dr. Who. Wow!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun has finally made it's appearance in Oregon. Here is how we spent our "hot" 78 degree day yesterday. We put our play structure in a blow up raft/make shift pool.

Action shots!










Here is how Molly helped:

that time of the year....

It's the second most wonderful time of the year with the first being our church's Family Camp week long vacation.

Here is what we do at the beginning of June every year. Take the best fresh Oregon strawberries in the world and combine them with fun, laughing, mess, sugar and pectin and you get freezer jam.



Graedon was delighted to help this year. I gave him a sharp knife to cut up the strawberries and then left to go get some more bowls. When I came back in the room Maddie had given him a butter knife. I'm pretty sure having Grae close by with a sharp knife didn't make Maddie feel very comfortable.

Wow!


Yum!

what?

3 year old Molly has a knack for getting the words wrong in a song.

"Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so,
Little bunnies sit and die,
they are weak but He is strong."

"The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes that's the book for me,
I stand with you for a little while,
the B-I-B-L-E."

and Ava even does this (but on purpose). Original song here with a warning that it will play a bad midi version of the song: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/r/r076.html

"Rise up o' coffee beans.
My mom for you doth wait.
Her strength unequal to her task
rise up and make her great."

bleached

We're making over our bedroom and I have wanted this bedding from Pottery Barn for awhile. I did not like the price tag. After weeks of searching, I found it cheaper on eBay. Yay!

However, when it got here the color was golder than I had pictured. I was bummed out. Should I resell it or live with it? I lived with it for a few days hoping I would like it but I did not. So I decided to do a brave (or foolish) thing. I would try to bleach out the color a bit.

I stuck it in the hot wash and poured a 1/2 cup of bleach. I let it sit for 15 minutes and with fear and trepidation, I checked it. It was lighter! I went ahead and washed it and then rewashed it then stuck it in the dryer.

As I went to pull it out of the dryer, I was a little nervous. What if I hated it? I couldn't resell it now and I would have to live with it. Fortunately, I loved it and it is what I had in mind all along.

Here's a picture of it next to the original color (these are the shams that I sold).



It looks so good next to our turquoise blue walls. I still need to get some new sheets, sew a bedskirt, finish the curtains and sew some shams and then I can reveal the new look.

friends

Many of my friends who had older children would give me encouragement and would tell me that I wouldn't be stuck always giving orders and correcting my children. Someday, they said, I would be friends with my kids and really enjoy chatting. I must admit I didn't necessarily believe them. I was too busy spanking, wiping bottoms, getting snacks, tying shoes...

Now I believe them. My oldest is almost 15 and my second oldest is 13 1/2. It dawned on me the other day that I share my life with them. They understand jokes now, they understand situations, they understand there is more to life than just themselves. It's wonderful. We sit and chat about things for hours. If I discover something funny on the internet, I call them in and we watch and laugh. We have fun going shopping, even to the grocery store.

I was talking about this very thing to a mom I met at swim class. She mentioned that was great that my daughters liked being around me because at that age, most don't. I do see daughters at the store trailing their mom and all the while texting their friends (or boyfriend?). I find that incredibly sad. What a wasted opportunity to talk and teach and learn.

Sure I'm still their mom first and they must listen and obey my words but the biggest change is I can talk to them. Really talk. It's nice and I'm looking forward to growing our relationship in the years to come. Even though I panic slightly in realizing just how little time is left with them before they move on and get married or go to college. But that is part of life and what I'm ultimately preparing them for.

remember

I can't leave well enough alone. Remember I recovered this footstool a few days ago.

This was the after:


I liked it but it was still too tame for me. So I recovered it again with some cool red fabric. I sewed them into strips for interest. Now I like it and it feels like me.

After and a peek at the dropcloth slipcover I made (more on that later).




I'm finally getting around to redoing our bedroom. So far there is a new blue coat of paint in Benjamin Moore's Waterfall (a great turquoise). I'm making new curtains, we have a new Craigslist dresser. I'm saving for new bedding and a rug. I really wanted Pottery Barn's lamp sconces but the cheapest I can find them for was $139 for a pair. We have perfectly good lamps but I was tired of the boring look. So I fxed them up!

Semi before (The bases were a brassy metal before I spray painted them):


I recovered them in Amy Butler's fabric. There's a peek at our wall color. The color is more true in the before lamp picture.


I can't wait to post after pictures in the bedroom makeover. It's finally becoming the room that reflects me.