We were looking for a large coffee table for our living room. I was originally thinking of something wood and chunky. Rustic yet clean-lined. But we walked out with a flat file. And the kicker of it is that it will work for both!

Now I know what you must be thinking. “That dirty icky thing?” Keep in mind. I haven’t cleaned it up yet and random stuff has been thrown on top. I’ll give it a good scrubbing soon but I love combining rusty old treasures with modern and new (who am I kidding. next to nothing is new at our thrifty house) newish things so there is no plan to shine it up or paint it. To deal with the one missing little placard holder, I’ll try to move the top one down so at least the four that are still there are grouped together.

I’ve wanted a flat file for a very long time. To store my artwork from my art school days and Jeff’s maps (mapping is his profession). And it will be great for all the kids’ drawings that I just can’t bare to part with as well. Here are some other flat files I that are super cool.

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Well, I’ve got a new project now. Digging out all the dusty artwork from under everyone’s beds and start filling my new treasure!

Warmly,

The rosette totes have been sold out since Christmas so I’m pleased to have a new round of cream and grays for you to look through! And while you are viewing the rosette style, there are a few new textural creams in the solid tote section you might like too.

They make great gifts (as do all the totes). Would be fun for Valentine’s Day with the rose on the front.

Warmly,

I’ve got 2-3 more weeks to finish out the second trimester and then I’m into the home stretch. Seems like the time has gone fast the past few weeks! Time flies when you feel good I suppose. My pukey days are past thank goodness!

Baby is about 12″ long at this point and weighs between one and two pounds. I’ve gained about eleven so far which is normal for me. (Since our son and daughter were born in early/mid May as well, it has been easy to compare this pregnancy to my first two.) I tend to lose weight or again nothing the first four months but then play catch-up. The past month was always the “pop” and biggest weight gain month…interesting that it is going the same this time.

Running out of clothes! This weekend I went to Old Navy and found a bunch of regular women’s shirts (50% off the clearance price!) which I think will work even though they aren’t maternity. I love that longer and blousier is the trend these days. So much more will work this time.

I’m using all the tricks I can in order to buy as few maternity items as possible. Spending on baby things is more fun! Any tips on baby boy brands? I’m clueless…it’s been nearly 7 years! It being our third, I don’t feel the need to do a lot of buying but I do want to get a few cute clothing items. And am thinking of cloth diapers this time. Eeeks, is that crazy? I hear they’ve really changed and fit a lot more like disposables now days. We live in the country (no garbage pick-up) so washing diapers seems easier than trucking loads of stink to our trash place.

Any tips on brands and things you consider “must-buys” are appreciated. It’s about time I start doing a little planning!

Warmly,

Tiny legos and babies just don’t mix so I played the martyr and offered up my workroom for a new playroom. My workroom resided in one of the basement bedrooms. The basement is only partially underground. This room is not at all underground so the windows give a nice amount of light.

We’ve had the room set up now for a week and it has been a dream! My long work table works perfectly as side-by-side desk space for crafts and our homeschool days (the kids are home three days a week and at school 2 days due to being enrolled at a college-model school). The two chairs were found at goodwill by Jeff a couple months ago. Though we didn’t have a use for them at the time, they were too well-made, comfortable and CHEAP to pass up and I’m glad he didn’t! They are like plush directors chairs.

We hung chicken wire above the table and used mini clothespins that I already had to hold paper treasures, art projects, and especially well-done schoolwork (like perfect spelling tests!). Below that, my dad had installed a wood shelf at the same time as the worktable. Originally it was to hold my sewing supplies but now it works perfect for art supplies and necessities like a box of tissues.

Behind the workspace sits the lego table. Legos are the most played with toys at our house. Right behind playmobil. So the table gets lots of use for both. Next to the lego table (not shown in the photos) is a large baker-style shelving unit with bins for the playmobil toys, train set, star wars figures, etc.

Hmmm, that door (it leads to an attached bathroom) would look great with chalkboard paint on it. Adding that to my to-do list. Along with painting the window frames and putting up trim and baseboards.

The curtains are just IKEA fabric I sewed real fast into panels and hung. I like that the window sill is deep enough to put bigger school items like a globe and abaccus. They look decorative but the kids also use them every week.

Just outside the room (because it wouldn’t fit in the room) we have a yellow bookshelf for all the kids books. My dad probably cringes that the previously oak shelf he made is now yellow but I love the bright fresh color. Our school curriculum books and binders are contained behind the doors.

Score one for our first big organizing project of the year! Fingers crossed the organization in this space continues, though I’m going to try not to be too strict about this room. It will be their space to do what they like with (within reason!) and we can close the door and not worry too much about what it looks like.

The bonus is that we did this project with very little expense. Only the two chairs which were less than $25 total. All the rest was done by rearranging what we already had.

A final photo of the scholar’s hard-at-work during school yesterday…

Now to figure out where I’ll work…
Warmly,

So far it looks something like this:

Business:

• count year-end inventory
• finish 2011 accounting
• figure and submit 4th quarter sales tax
• complete business plan for 2012
• sew prototypes of new products for 2012
• photograph and list the new batch of 100+ pillows that are currently piled in the guestroom (email me if you are waiting on certain colors…photographing might take me a long time!)
• refigure wholesale terms and send out line sheets for 2012

Family/Home:

• start/sign up C and N for piano lessons
• paint C’s room (we gave her a new room makeover for Christmas)
• switch living room and family room rugs
• change sewing workroom to play/toy room
• sew baby gifts
• get a pedicure (yay!)
• find baskets for fireplace shelving
• reupholster Eames-style lounge chair/ottoman
• figure out where the crib should go
• make/purchase coffee table and sofa table for living room
• finish painting kitchen
• finish fireplace shelving
• take a family photo
• hang gallery wall in family room

All the business number-crunching, paperwork and business decisions have nearly done me in. Also, not feeling great today so it was the perfect time to take it easy. I pulled my sewing machine out of storage to sew for the newest baby in our family. I have a new niece! My sister, sister-in-law and I have all been pregnant at the same time. Exciting times in our family. My sister’s baby was born right after Christmas. My sister in law is up next and then my due date is at the tail end which works out well—I can enjoy creating for the other two while I still have time to myself.

First up, a simple little dress:

I pulled out a few fabrics leftover from my children’s clothing design days. All of which I’ve been saving for something special. The main fabric is from Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden line and I paired it with a pale pink polka dot. I must have gotten rid of all my patterns so I did a quick search and found a free dress pattern by Sew Much Ado. It worked a charm.

My only changes were french seams (since I sold my fancy serger), a pocket on the front and fold over elastic instead of cased elastic on the neckline and sleeves.

And because every girl needs to accessorize:

A matching blanket made of the softest pink minky on one side and more of the Pop Garden print for the other.

I do blankets in a very low-fuss manor. Simply cut the two fabric pieces the same size (mine are 45″ square). The minky is thick enough that quilt batting not needed in between. Pin the two fabrics right sides together and sew around the outer edge leaving a 6″ space unsewn for turning. Turn right side out and topstitch the space you left unsewn closed. To keep the front and the back from sliding around with use, you’ll want to at least tack it together in a few places. You could use the tack stitch on your machine every 6″ or so but I went a little further…notice the stitching in the picture above? It gives a quilted look and is nearly as quick as tacking or tying. To do the stitching, lay your blanket flat on your work table or floor and use safety pins through all the layers to keep the fabrics smooth and in position while you sew. I used probably 25-35 safety pins spaced every 6 -8 inches…use more then you think. Then put on your machine’s darning foot, disengage the feed dogs and simply sew along the design of the fabric. The darning foot works better than a standard foot as you can sew sideways, backwards, etc with ease. You’ll see what I mean when you try it.

Hope you are having a very productive January!!

Warmly,

I had them sew pillow covers in a variety of traditional African prints and offered them on my site and today I’m pleased to share that all the pillow covers have sold! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting this worthy cause. And a thank you also goes out to Amy of MSN’s shopping site glo.com for a recent feature which I believe helped sell the final pillow covers.

The director of the sewing school was very pleased when he received the first round of proceeds in the fall. Due to a miscommunication, he was told all the products had sold at that time so he will receive a nice surprise when I send over the final funds from the last batch of sold products.

Thank you, again!

Warmly,

This photo isn’t quite an “After photo” as we still need to put wood shelves in the niches on either side as well as figure out the furniture arrangement. The two mismatched chairs may find new locations and we may splurge and purchase matching chairs. For the shelves, we have purchased a 20 foot 2 x 12 and Jeff has started cutting shelves from it. We’ll roughen them up and stain them for a rustic look. What do you think? 3 shelves on each?

Also I’m on the hunt for two square lidded baskets to put on the bottom ledge of each alcove. A place for baby toys when that time comes! Maybe something like this basket below. The perfect baskets will be tricky to find as they can’t be more than 12 inches. Eleven would be perfect and I’d like them to fill the width of the niche.

Always fun to rearrange a little and do home improvements! We’ve already got another project in the works as well. More about that soon!

Warmly,

I truly hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well!

On a business note: All orders over the last 10 days have got out on time…I got on my computer just enough to do that! But I haven’t kept up on emails, questions, facebook contacts, etc. I promise to get caught up very soon now that we have resumed our normal school and work schedule!

Warmly,

If you haven’t quite completed your Christmas shopping yet, this would be a great time to buy for friends and family or for yourself! You will also find my market bags, hair flowers, and more!

Warmly,

Last December our heat in the living room/dining room/kitchen went out. We didn’t want to make a quick decision that we’d regret, so we decided to wait to replace it. Giving us time to really think about what we wanted for heat in the main rooms of our house. Brrr, it was a bit of a chilly winter. Especially in the mornings! (Don’t feel bad for us, we had heat in all the bedrooms and in the basement so we could retreat to those areas to be warm).

We finally decided that a gas fireplace would be the perfect choice so we started hunting for one that we liked. Who knew it would take so long to pick out! But we finally came to this point a couple weeks ago:

See it? The new gas line there by the floor.

We found a floor model fireplace at a local gas company. They were changing locations so they needed to sell it and we got a good deal. It took longer than we expected for it to arrive so the gas line was a bit of an eye sore for a few weeks but finally this day came:

Delivery day! It coincided with my parents being here (really Dad, we didn’t plan for you to work on this project! But are so thankful you did!) We were playing around with the angles of the top surround when I took this photo.

Originally, (when Jeff and I planned to do all the work) we were just going to do some very basic framing around it. Put up some cement board over the framing and call it “done-for-now” until we picked out tile or stone later this summer for a simple surround and mantel. But then I showed my dad this photo (found on pinterest):

I love everything about the fireplace in the phtoo but never thought for a minute we would have anything so nice. His response? “That’s no problem”. Yay, just like that.

The next day Jeff and my dad completed the framing. Even at this unfinished point it created an immediate presence and focal point that this room never had. I sat and stared for a long time. Ah.

The next three days:

It’s not quite done but soooo close. My parents flew back to Colorado yesterday so we’ll finish it from here. Very light drywall work, paint and wood shelves is all that is left. I think we can handle those details without too much procrastination. We hope to paint before Christmas so we can decorate the mantel with garland and stockings!

I’m so thankful that we’ll be warm in the kitchen and living room this year. I think being pregnant has made me less comfortable all around so being cozy will help immensely.

It’s exactly what I wanted for Christmas (and so much more)!

How about you? Doing any big projects as Christmas gifts to yourselves this year?

Warmly,