UFO 10: Hemmed jeans

These jeans have been on my list since late last September. And they only took me about 30 minutes to finish, so what the heck have I been waiting for? Especially since these jeans will serve me much better now that I can wear them instead of just letting them take up space in my drawer... especially since my favorite jeans have now official been relegated to "work only" jeans (you just can't save them after they've sprouted holes in the side seams and knees).

I found them for $9 on clearance last September. They were a nice color, a good fit (at least directly after washing... the joys and downfalls of stretch denim...) and you can't beat $9! But being only 5'5", I'm on the short end of the "normal" jeans length range, which means that these things were nearly 4 inches too long.

No before photo, but here's the after photo

Can you tell they're hemmed? If you look closely you can see the fold... I used a method that keeps the original hem intact. You can find a tutorial for it over here at Sew La Tea. Worked well... I haven't trimmed the extra off yet, but I'll probably take it off with my serger. Easy, peasy, done. :) What have you finished or gotten off your list lately?

Somebody's 2!

I can't believe Carter is 2 already. Its been kind of a crazy 2 years for our family too. I mean, 4 homes and moving nearly 4000 miles makes for a crazy few years. Here are a few pictures from his big day.

He was thrilled to find out that having a birthday meant you got to open presents... Allison really couldn't stop helping, but what do you expect from a 3-year-old?

He was REALLY thrilled with the Buzz LightYear doll

And the non-girly trike was a big hit too.

He loved being the birthday boy, and kept asking us to sing "Happy Birthday" over and over. And may I just say that its amazing what a year will do for a kid's ability to eat cake neatly. :) Compare...

This year

Last year...

Oh! And I nearly forgot... his cake. Can you guess what this kid's favorite sport/activity is? :)

UFO 9: Quiet book

Let me preface this by saying that this was 75% done before I started finishing it up last week. I organized a quiet book page swap in my ward last fall, which is where all the pages in the before picture came from.

Before:


After:

This has been a UFO since mid-December. It took me about 12 hours (major guess... I didn't really keep track and I worked on it pretty distractedly when I did work on it) to finish it up.

And can I just say that if I ever add more pages or do another book, I will DEFINANTLY do it with heavy-weight non-fusible Pellon and not felt. The pellon elimates a lot of steps taken to keep the felt from getting destroyed quickly. The pellon was SO easy. I found mine at Walmart for $1.77/yard. You draw on it, color with crayons, cover with absorbant paper and run your iron over it. The iron and paper will remove the wax from the images leaving only the color behind. Cut it out and use it! Velcro glues to it beautifully and it doesn't require any extra stabliazation. I used the pellon for the make-a-face and counting snake pages (see them below).

Love this page! :) Not all the pieces are showing, but you get the gist...

Yay Spring!

It has been a LONG winter. And we have been cooped up inside ALL winter (hello... 174 inches of snow this winter! Thats 50 inchs above normal season's average!). I think we've all gotten a bad case of, as my 5-year-old self would have said "cabinet fever." The kids have been going crazy, and took me right along with them.





Luckily, its been nice weather this week. High 40s and sunny. Would I call it spring? Not really, but I'll take it for now! Warm enough to let the kids play outside! And, today, windy enough to let Allison fly her first kite!

UFO 8: Grapevine Wreath

Its about time I got the Valentine's wreath off my front door! :)

Before

After

This hasn't been a UFO long... maybe a month or 6 weeks? I got the grapevine base fairly recently and have just been waiting for I don't know what to get it done.

It took me about 3 hours to do, that that included a lot of time fiddling with the placement of everything to make sure I liked it before I glued anything. I wasn't sure it the felt butterfly was too... something. Too much? Too big? Too whimsical? Too "doesn't go with the flowers"? But, looking at it from the end of my driveway, I acutally like it a lot... what do you think? Is it too... something?

What are you workin' on? Finished anything up lately?

UFO 4, 5, 6 and 7...

I've been working...

UFO 4: Pink stripe skirt

Before

After

I spent about 3 hours finishing up this skirt, but SO much longer trying to find the rolled hem plate for my serger so I could roll hem it. I never did find it and I got tired of waiting, so I resorted to a machine blind hem (I'm lazy). And can I just say that my machine's blind hem is completely backwards from what I think it should be, which drove me pretty crazy. Just one more drop in the "I want a new machine" bucket...

This skirt has been a UFO since before Allison was born. I'm gonna guess about 5 years. Amazing that the thing still fits me! Acutally... I had to take it in, which was way nicer that how my other skirt turned out...

UFO 5: Red slinky knit skirt

No pictures. Why? It was an epic FAIL! I got this 90% done and decided that there was absolultely no way I was ever going to like this. It had been a UFO for a little over 7 years now. I started this skirt before Brian came home from his mission. And my body now doesn't even begin to resemble my body then. So, I delcare it to be finished... even if finished means it hit the trash pile. Because at least it no longer physical and mental clutter for me to sort through, right?

UFO 6: Fit Allison's black skirt

Again, no pictures, but you wouldn't even be able to tell what was done if I had taken some. I had this cute skirt for Allison which would not stay on her behind-less body. I took two little darts in the front and now it doesn't fall down. Success! It was a UFO for maybe 3 months. Took me all of 10 minutes to do, and that included convincing Allison to stop what she was doing long enough to try it one... twice. Its done, and she's worn it 2 of the last 3 days... and has it laid out to wear again tomorrow. I think she's pleased...

UFO 7: Line Carter's Curtains

Before

No white lining...

After

Pretty, white, light-blocking lining! Yay!

This one has been a UFO about a year, but its been a low-priority project. We have a (ill-fitting, girly) black-out drape up in his bedroom, but these ones fit the window and are much more boy. It took me about an hour to line them... 90 minutes if you count pressing time.

How about you? What are you working on?

Indecision Part 2

So I got some color samples... Brian and I picked 2 colors that we liked together and yesterday I tossed some more color squares on the walls (never mind that there are already THREE... Five is totally better, right?).

Here's what we ended up with...

Carter insisted on being in the picture (Want say cheese, Mommy!). While both colors are nice, the grey reads really far to the blue end... even almost purple in our space. And the pale creamy yellow I think is just too much of a non-color. So I started looking again and found a combination of two colors that I like and I think would be fine with the carpet, but the swatches are TINY, since its in one of those interior colors brochures. And they don't make chips for these colors in any other format. And, since I'm so sick of buying paint samples and FAILING with them ($12 in on paint I don't like already...), I went to Behr's website and played around with the colors I've been thinking about. Here's what it looks like.

This is obviously not my dining room, its one of Behr's sample rooms online (read: no paid subscription required). I picked this room because it has a chair rail like my room. And I would love to put beadboard up on the lower half of the wall someday. Anyway, the floor is an approximation of my carpet color (not too far off, right?) and I picked the trim color to approximate the current wood-toned trim in the house (which we will eventaually paint or replaced with white... another someday).

I figure that with this scheme its neutral while still being enough of a color to satify me. And when we get around to replacing the carpet I'll have more leeway to play with the colors from the light fixture in the accents of the room.

So... what do you think? How's it look?

UFO #3: Easter Baskets

I remember having these neat, reusable, fabric Easter baskets when I was a kid. I always thought they were so clever. I even still have mine (its the green one in the before picture), and I've wanted to copy it for my kids of a while now. This was a UFO for just a few weeks when I started cutting fabric, then got a little distracted.

Before:

These were UFOs for about 2 weeks (a baby UFO, if you will). It took me about 6 hours to finish both of them.

After:

And look... they collaspe flat for easy storage! Love it!

I used plastic canvas inside to give it shape, and I'm a little disappointed at how flimsy it is. If I did it over I would use a heavier/sturdier plastic canvas or used thickish cardboard like my mom used in ours. But, overall I'm pretty happy.

By the way, can you tell Allison picked her own fabric? Doesn't pink with pink flowers just scream "3-year-old little girl"?

What have you been up to? Finish any projects lately?

UFO #2: Peeps Wreath

This project fell into "I bought the stuff and haven't touched it" category and was major mental clutter. I'm glad its done... turned out cute!

Before:

After:

I love that its silly and whimsical. I roughly followed the tutoral posted by Gerbera Designs on Tried and True. I opted for glue in addition to the toothpicks

This went unfinished for either 3 or 11 months. I bought the peeps on clearance after last Easter, but I didn't get the wreath form until around Christmas time. Take you're pick. It only took me about 90 minutes to finish it, and that included indecision about where to put the bow. :)

How about you? What have you been working on?

The ABCs According to Carter

He's trying to hard. I think its cute...

Indecision

Ever wonder what indecision looks like? At my house, this is what it looks like right now...

I've GOT to get that pink painted over, but I have NO idea what color to go. We have this deep wine colored carpet that we're not changing right away, so it can't clash with that, and that probably limits me a lot. What color would you paint? Do you like any of those paint chips?

Edited to add: this is my dining room, but I also need to paint over these same two pinks in the hall, stairwell, upstairs hallway and living room. And here is a picture of the light fixture in the dining room that I do like and I don't think we'll replace... might help you give me some ideas. :)

And here's the darker pink of the wall under the chair rail and the carpet. Its pretty close to the acutal color... not quite since I'm working in artificial light with a flash, but not too far off. I also want to paint or replace the trim throughout the house (white), but that is a project for another time.

UFO #1: Nauvoo Temple Cross-Stitch

Here's my first finished project for the month!

Before

After

*Wow! Its amazing to look at the before and afters! I was never sure this would end well before the detail backstitching was in!*

Getting it framed will be another project (maybe someone should host a "get it framed and on the wall" challenege. I can't tell you how much stuff I have that needs frames...).

This was a UFO for nearly 8 years. I don't remember when I started it exactly, but I was 20 and in Nauvoo when I bought it and I'm pretty sure I started it around that same time (I must have been tired of crocheting). 8 YEARS!

It took me maybe 10 hours to finish it. I worked on it during prime time TV mostly. Made me feel less useless during that time... haha! Looking at the picture I realize that I forgot the put the words in at the bottom... I'll do that during Grey's tonight.

What have you been working on? Happy finishing!