The Yard That Ate My Life

I bought a little tree ~ a beautiful, delicate looking, Green Laceleaf Japanese Maple. It was an impulse buy. My thought, when I saw it was that it would be fabulous on my deck. I don't have a deck. Yet. We're working on getting one built this summer (that's another post altogether!). After I got it home I apparently blacked out, drove to Lowe's and purchased 8 tons of dirt, mulch and plants thinking that I needed to "spruce up" the front yard. Then I thought that I might put the beautiful little tree in the front yard where it could be admired by all.

And so began the project that became enormous!

I looked through ideas on Pinterest, which, I have decided is a huge black hole of time wasting enormity, but I found a post that said something like, 30 easy ways to beautify your yard or somesuch nonsense - hmmm, I like the sound of "easy" and I do want a beautiful yard.

So, after looking through the choices I picked this edging that showed a man simply plopping stones down with his little trowel. I loved the look of it and it was practical because you could mow without having to do any edging! (I have a serious hate of edging) - and the best news, Lowe's carried the exact pavers!

O.k, so after doing some sketchy math, I head back to Lowe's where I purchase 140 of these pavers and various other yard type tools and one really bad ass pick axe that my husband talked me into because we live on a shale bed and can't afford to purchase our own backhoe.

By the time I finished getting supplies it looked something like this:

I was seriously beginning to question my sanity! I'm old! I just had full hip replacement surgery! What was I thinking? Too late to go back... so off I went with my shiny (very heavy!) new pick axe and shovel. The first 3 feet took me forever, apparently there's a learning curve to using a pick axe. But I doggedly persevered and after only (ha!) four hours my yard looks like this:

In my head, I was going to have the pavers down and all the sod out and the beds ready to plant by the end of the first day. I would then happily plant the flowers etc... and my yard would be the envy of the neighbors. Instead it looks like someone detonated a small explosive and ran away laughing. I might have passed out on the front steps.

I get up the morning of the second day - of course its raining. I wait and putter around the house, keep checking the window, finally around 11:00 am the rain stops. I'm out there in a flash with my bad ass pick axe slogging around in the mud. I promise myself I'm not going in until the sod is all up and the pavers are all in place. The mailman comes by and says, "isn't that exactly where you were yesterday?" I told her I was stuck in the mud.

Seven hours later I look up and it looks like this:

What?! Hey, not bad!! I had to stop because I ran out of plants and mulch. I also changed my mind about putting the Japanese Maple in the front garden, I really wanted him for the deck so for now, he's gonna chill on the front porch and when the deck gets finished, he can move to his final home.

Once I finish the plants and clean up the mud I'll post some more pictures.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results - not bad for an old lady!

Creative Space - Part II

     Last November I did a post about our basement. I really thought that I would have it finished by now and I'd be down there every day creating up a storm. Didn't happen. Life intruded ~ it looked like this:

I had to have a total hip replacement ~ *sigh* ~

     It went really well and now I'm walking and climbing stairs and ready to rock-n-roll on the basement! When I last posted about this project we had just finished the drywall and had the carpet installed (you can see it here: Basement - Stage I). The next step was to get the lights up and hang doors. We used pre-hung doors - a little more money but such a time saver! They come already in the frame, you simply pop off the  back of the frame, slide them into the opening, level the door using shims and put the frame back on. We have five doors down there and the whole project was done in less then a day.

     Then came the fun part.... paint!

     Painting the doors is something that I really stressed over. I love to paint, I just really don't usually love painted doors or trim. I normally paint both with a bright white. I do this because I love color and I change my mind a lot. It's easier to paint a wall then it is to paint a lot of trim! BUT - I want the basement to be bright colors ~ really bright. I found a poster that I really loved and decided to use it as my color inspiration - 

The winning colors are  ~ Sea Frolic and Pumpkin Custard.

     All the doors are this beautiful bright orange!

     I'm really happy with the color and really glad that I decided to paint the doors, the color makes me very happy. 

     Now I just have to find a free day to get those walls started! Stay tuned for Part III....

Pillow Case - The Easiest E-V-E-R!

     Sometimes you just luck out and the project you need to get done literally takes less then 30 minutes! I needed to make up a pillow case for my DIL's niece, who is moving into her first 'big girl' bed. We found a remnant of Hello Kitty fabric - perfect for a little girl, right?

     Now to get to sewing....

     First you need to figure out the size of pillow you will be making. Since this is for a small child, we're making a 'standard' size pillow - for a twin bed.

     I started by measuring the finished dimensions of a finished pillow case. Mine measured

28.5" x 19"

     Then I measured the band for the opening of the pillow case - 4"

Time to do a little MATH! 

Length + 4" (band) +1/2" (seam allowance) = 

28.5" + 4" = 32.5" + 1/2" = 33"

Width x2 (front & back) + 1/2" (seam allowance)

19" x 2 = 38" + 1/2" = 38.5"

     Cut one piece of fabric 38.5" x 33" - This will be folded in half lengthwise to form the pillow case.

Turn down 1/2" at the top edge, press. 

Turn down 3.5" and press again.

Stitch close to the folded edge, stitch again 1/4" away from the first stitching. This will fix the seam in place and make it look a bit tailored.

Fold the pillow case, right sides together stitch 1/2" seam along the open side and bottom edge.

If you're lucky enough to own a serger you can finish the seam with a serger. If you don't have a serger, you can use your zig zag stitch to finish the seam. This will keep the seam from fraying in the laundry and during intense hugging!

Turn the pillow case right side out, press and slip over a pillow - done! This is the perfect project for a complete novice sewer. You need very little fabric, almost no skills and only basic sewing equipment. In very short time you end up with a finished project and you've sharpened your skills!

#MIRL

A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by

 4mulaFun, The Teacher Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork,

It's All About the Legs

     I have been looking for months and months for the perfect coffee table for the living room. I love Mid Century Modern patterns and colors but I'm not completely in love with all the furniture. I could see in my head, sort of what I wanted, but couldn't find it anywhere.

     I saw a table in a magazine that someone made that was soooooo close - and I decided, what the heck.... how hard can it be? The idea was simple, I would make and paint the top and purchase hairpin legs. I started smurfing around the internet for the legs and came across these...

   
     Are you serious? These came from Spiral Cone Legs - a husband and wife company. Each leg is custom made from welded steel and powder coated. It's the only place in the world that you can get them. I was immediately in love - and had ordered mine in about thirty seconds.

     Next step was to get the rest of my supplies which were pretty simple. I bought a half sheet (4'x4') of 3\4" plywood. I didn't get the top quality because I was going to paint the table and put a glossy finish over the paint. I used a big sheet of cardboard to make a template, once I had the size and shape worked out, I traced it onto the plywood and used a jigsaw to cut it out.

So far, so good! I spent the rest of the afternoon sanding the edges, mostly because I'm really not great with the jig saw and the edges were crazy crooked! I didn't want the edge to be straight, I wanted it to angle back from the top to the underside. I got a router bit and stood nervously by while my husband routed the edge. Maybe I'll be brave enough to rout the next project!

Then it was back to the sander....... I sanded the routed edge and the top of the table, filled in a couple of places with wood filler that were too deep to sand smooth and tried to get the top edge just slightly softened.

Now we get to the scary part... paint and putting on the design. Up to this point, I could pretty much sand out any mistakes - the paint was going to be harder to fix if I hated it.

I knew I wasn't going to need that much paint so I got a Valspar sample - $2.98 at Lowes - it only took one little tub to put three coats on the table top. The color is called Sea Mist - I painted the edge and the underside several shades darker. I played around with the colors and shapes for the design on paper until I was happy. There are hundreds of pattern references on the internet for Mid Century Modern designs. I wanted something clean, simple and sort of Sputnik looking.

I penciled the circles very lightly onto the table top and painted them using craft acrylics.

The black line work is done using a Sharpie brand permanent marker.

The legs were really easy to attach, they have tabs with holes for the screws. One of the tabs is longer then the others so that you can get the legs positioned correctly. The long tab should point outward. You can get these legs either straight or angled, mine are obviously the angled style. Thanks to the Spiral Leg guys for thinking of the details!

The legs are attached with a washer and 3\4" wood screws.

Final step was to put a finish on the table. I wanted it to be very glossy. I used a Valspar spray on varnish. It worked great and dried in about 15 minutes, but because it was an acetone based product I had to spray it in the garage with the doors open.

I love it when an idea works! Now I'm gonna try to figure out how to re-upholster that ugly little ottoman in the background!

Laundry re-Visit~

Last March I did a laundry project that turned out really well. If you missed the post, it looked like this:

It still makes me happy every time I open the door! If you have to do laundry, you should at least be able to smile while you work! This was done with wallpaper pieces. Easy and fast and it's holding up really well. The whole project might have taken me an hour and cost under $20.

So,  while I'm at home recovering from hip surgery, I have have a lot of time to surf and plan new projects. While I was following the blue links... or Smurfing as my son calls it... I found a really great idea for a laundry upgrade for almost NO MONEY! I had to add a link to share this great idea. The blog is called East Coast Creative and they do some awesome projects - definitely worth a look, even if you aren't recovering from surgery!

Here's a sneak peek at the finished project - to see the complete process, click the link below ~ Enjoy!

Snappy Black n White

Utility Apron

     I've been searching the internet for patterns - I've been wanting to make some utility aprons. I found a really simple pattern here: http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/
 Her pattern is very simple, but seemed like a good place to start. I wasn't sure about where I wanted the pockets, length etc...  I decided that I would figure it out as I went. What I ended up with is a practical apron for lots of different uses. It looks like this:

 As you can see there's a ton of pockets.  Small ones for business cards, narrow for pens and scissors, specially sized for glasses and cell phone or small camera. The pockets on the top are deep and wide, great for patterns, note books, your E-reader etc... My DIL actually used this one at a teachers conference she attended and it worked out great. 

     So, here's how it goes.......

1. Make a pattern ~ cause you know you can't just make one!

     Whenever I'm making my own pattern I write all the sewing instructions on the pattern as well as how many to cut and any tips that I figured out that I know will be helpful to remember.

2. Select your fabrics.

I always add interfacing to each piece - it helps maintain the shape and keeps your project sturdy.

3. Cut three sizes of rectangles, based on how large you want the finished length to be. You'll need 2 of each color.

4. Now for the easy part - stitch the fronts to backs wrong sides together for each color. Layer them according to size, decide where you want your pockets and stitch them in place, sew them together, fold the entire thing in half, right sides together, bringing the unfinished edges of the large rectangle together, sew up the sides, turn it right side out.

5. Make the ties the same way you make binding sew the ties to the apron encasing the top edge of the apron - Piece of cake!

These are great for all kinds of situations, cafeteria workers, sewers, crafters, conference attendees, teachers... the list is endless!

Gettin' Back to Business

     So the last year and a half have been a bit of a challenge, my arthritis reached what's known as 'end stage' - it had gotten to the point where I was having problems functioning day to day. So after much discussion with  my orthopedic surgeon we decided that it was time to build me a new hip.

     On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 my husband took me to Reston Medical Center. I got prepped, which included getting this fancy new outfit and being filled full of holes!

     I was whisked off to surgery - it only took an hour and a half - I was in my lovely private room by 6:30pm with one of these....

Then came the amazing part - physical therapists showed up bright and early the next morning. They showed me how to get dressed, climb stairs, manage the car and do my exercises - and they sent me home!! Less than 24 hours after full hip replacement!

     So now I'm home getting stronger by the minute and planning all the things I'll be doing as soon as these staples come out!

     Modern medicine --- what a marvelous thing!