MAKING A LITTLE PROGRESS...

I have made some progress on the "little guy's" quilt.  Although I have a "general" idea in my head of how I would like it to look...a lot is being dictated by the size of the shirts that I have to work with.  The supply of clothing I was given runs the gamut from newborn to 2T.  I still have quite a bit of clothing to go through.  In addition to utilizing the "cute" part on the front of the shirts, I am cutting out plain squares of the back of the shirt to place between the 4.5" squares.  The charm packs at the bottom will be used to make pinwheels to fill out the quilt to a double size.  I think I am going to use dark blue as the color for the sashing and the background of the pinwheels.

This quilt has been a LOT of fun so far! 

Hmmm...I just realized that the photo above is backwards!  Don't quite know how I did that.  Talented, I guess!

Stay tuned as I make more progress in the coming weeks.  Fortunately, there is absolutely NO time frame on this project so I can work on it at my leisure.

Toodles...

IT'LL GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER!

My sewing room is a MESS! 

Sorry I have been away for so long.  Things have been CRAZY in the cottage for MONTHS with multiple members of the family having health issues involving hospital stays, ambulance rides, outpatient procedures, doctor visits and UGH...too much!  The health issues have definitely caused more than a little stress for this girl!  But, Dear Hubby and I have just returned from two weeks of heavenly vacation in a warm southern climate; and the change has done us good!

So, I am now back to the mess that is my sewing room.  How did it get this way?  Simple.  I have begun purging through our almost 26 year old home in earnest.  It needs it!  Over the past 30+ years of marriage and 25+ years in this house we have accumulated way too much STUFF!  As our health has been declining, dealing with all of the things "in" the house have made life much more difficult.  And, if we were to need to sell this house and downsize, I don't want to have to deal with "the purge" when our health may be even more precarious.  If we were independently wealthy I could just pitch anything we didn't want to keep.  But we are not wealthy and the idea of throwing away perfectly good items goes against the grain.  So I have begun the purge through the house and subsequent listing on eBay or relegation to the garage sale pile.  In addition, following the creation of our new "spa" master bath, we are beginning the redo of our master bedroom this week...necessitating pulling everything off of the walls and off of the furniture surfaces.  Our wonderful son moved many of the things that we could not handle while we were away.  Thankfully the painters will move the furniture to access the walls.  The items that really can't be salvaged or reused in our bedroom redo have been tossed in the trash and the remainder is making its way into my sewing room for listing on eBay. 

And seeing as the above mentioned nutsy-ness isn't enough...I have finally decided that I AM going to sell off all of the living room furniture and move my sewing room and some items from my expanded sewing room down to our never used formal living room.  Having my sewing room on the main floor will save me SO much running up and down stairs.  I've grown past wanting the "picture perfect" house and am ready to make our house a "home" that works best for our lives as they are now.  Wish I had realized that little nugget of truth years ago! 

Moving my sewing room means...you guessed it...purging through my sewing "stuff".  As I come across items that I no longer feel the need to keep, I will be posting them for sale here on my website.  Stay tuned for more "good" nutsy-ness to come!

NOTHING MUCH...

...is happening here at the cottage.  I have not really "sewed" or "created" anything since before we went away on vacation in June.  BUT, a special little guy asked me to make him a pillow cover out of this fabric.  I was more than happy to do it! 

His mommy asked me to put in a zipper to keep the pillow in the case and also allow for frequent washing.  Eeeekkkk....I've never made a pillow with a zipper before!  I was happy with how it turned out, although I realized when I saw this picture that I should have ironed the zipper better.  It has already been given to the little guy... so there is no ironing now.  Oh well, he won't mind and I'm sure it is getting more wrinkles as he snuggles down into it. 

Hopefully life will be calming down in the next few weeks and I can once again share some projects.  I HAVE started a quilt for the same little guy made from his baby clothes.  It isn't really far enough along to show you anything, but stay tuned!

Toodles...

A HEAVENLY SHOWER...AND A TA-DA!!!

Remember the before picture of our bathroom?

Well this is the finished shower (please excuse the reflection of the toilet and vanity...a photographer I am NOT, LOL!).  This morning was the first time that we were allowed to use it due to the silicone around the glass needing to dry properly.  Oh. My. Word!  To take a shower in that much space felt truly luxurious!

Then you add in the rainfall shower and finish it off with pulsating jets, and yes...it was HEAVENLY!

Our Master Bath Redo is completely finished with the exception of hanging a mirror above each sink.  The frames that match our vanity are currently at the glass store being fitted with beveled mirrors.

On the wall to your left when you enter the bathroom is our linen closet.  We have lived for 25.5 years without a linen closet...and I love this huge storage space ALMOST as much as our shower!  This space occupies almost the entirety of the space of our old shower, so it is quite large and those shelves are DEEP! 

Next you come to our shower.  Since you have already seen the most luxurious part of our shower, let me show you the necessity part of our redo, the idea that sparked it all.  The BENCH.  The area where our shower is now located used to be the area of our large soaking tub.  Neither Dear Hubby nor I have been able to climb in or out of it in years.  So we decided to get rid of it.  Because of Dear Hubby's orthopaedic problems and my balance problems, we really needed something to sit on to make showering safer.  The most important part of our whole redo is the really large bench to make cleaning our lower legs, feet and tootsies safer! 

On the other side of the room, across from the shower, you come to our toilet.  Okay, it's a toilet. BUT, it is a low flush toilet that saves us money!  And most importantly?  It's two inches taller than the usual toilet, which makes it much easier for someone with orthopaedic problems!  Don't worry though, it is just fine for me too!  It is typically the type of toilet you find in a 55+ home construction.  My parents are so used to their higher toilet that they feel like they are "falling" every time they come to our house and use the bathroom! 

Next is our vanity!  I chose a Corian top and a real wood base with soft close drawers.  Oh how we LOVE those drawers!  Easy access to our every day necessities.  Since the basic shape throughout our bathroom is rectangles in the tiling, I just HAD to go with Kohler rectangle undermount sinks.  Before now I never knew it was possible for a sink to be beautiful...but it is!

Above the vanity are our lights.  And, speaking of lights...I wanted it BRIGHT in the bathroom so we went with two fixtures that could use three 100 watt bulbs EACH.  We could have 600 watts of light!  Fearing that may be a bit too much we opted to put in 60 watt bulbs and the amount of light is perfect.  (We are still waiting for our mirrors, LOL)

Our contractor also installed a light above our shower and a fan/heat lamp combination fixture centered above the main floor area.  It was SO nice and warm this morning! 

And last, but not least...the final decorating piece that really ties all of the shower tile, counter, vanity and fixtures together...the floor!

So there you have it...our INCREDIBLE new master bathroom!  We had a WONDERFUL  contractor (who will be used again and again in the future as we make over our 25+ year old house) and his subcontractors who handled the Corian, shower stall glass and plumbing.  They were all fabulous and made this home improvement FUN!  Next job?  Our Master Bedroom!  Stay tuned...

BACK TO SCHOOL SALE...

"Back to School" time is arriving quickly here in the U.S.  If your "school year" is anything like mine was, you will be spending WAY more time in the car and on the "sidelines" than you did during the carefree summer months.  When my son was young I always had something with me to pass the time during music lessons, games that went into overtime and after school activities that always ran late! 

In case you are looking for a cute little carrier to hold your hand stitching, I'm temporarily reducing the price of my EPP/Sewing Kit Pattern on Craftsy.  I've dropped the price by $2 during this sale!  I remember the huge outlay of cash on school supplies every August and September.  Everyone's budget could use a break right about now!

Unfortunately, this sale is open ONLY TO THOSE WITHIN THE UNITED STATES due to shipping/tax laws. 

If you are interested, heck out my Craftsy link on the right sidebar.  Have a wonderful rest of the summer!

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS...

When I last stopped by my little blog, I showed you the "before" picture of our Master Bath.  WOW, things have REALLY progressed since then!

Here it is, all gutted!  I am SO happy that we chose to do this project NOW, as we found three different areas of water damage!  I shudder to think of the mess I would have had in my kitchen below if we had not caught the problem when we did!!!

Here is the bathroom with the wallboard started.  It's getting exciting...

The shower system has been installed, including a wonderfully big bench to make cleaning our "tootsies" easier!

Here's the little "niche" that will hold our soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc.  I am LOVING this big shower!

Yesterday our wonderful contractor started the tiling.  I can't believe how quickly things are moving along.  I could show you some "in progress" pictures of the tile, but I would rather save them for the big Ta-Da! (grin).  Suffice it to say I am in LOVE!!!  I took a big chance mixing tiles from two different "lines", but they have turned out beautifully.  My choices seemed to "gel" really well in the store, but I was really worried that once on the wall I would see that they did, in reality, clash!  Whew!  All that worry for nothing!  

In other news, all of the annoying, WORRISOME, pain in the buttocks medical testing has come back...NEGATIVE!  I am SO thankful.  It has been a scary couple of weeks with heart testing as a result of a change in my EKG and breast testing as a result of an abnormality seen on my yearly mammogram.  I am sick and tired of being "sick and tired" and told my Dear Hubby that nobody had better suggest any further medical tests for quite a while now!  Those unexpected tests, in addition to my normal testing, have meant a full month of running to and fro...all medically related.  I need some time to get back into the swing of things here in my home!

So today I have spent the morning "frugaling" my little heart out.  I have added to my "points" on five different websites, downloaded 3 free embroidery patterns and 2 free quilt patterns and entered 24 different contests!  There is so much available for free out in the world wide web if one just takes the time and makes the effort to acquire all that is possible!  I also needed to buy some ink for our printers.  I made what I call a "triple play" at Office Depot with my purchase.  I placed my order at Office Depot through the MyPoints website.  That will give me 3 points on my MyPoints account for every dollar spent and 2% back.  I had two coupons that I could use, one for $20 and one for a $15 gift card.  The one for the gift card was not working, so I called customer service and they entered a $15 discount on their end.  I have a rewards number at Office Depot and earned 10% back on my purchases.  AND, I dropped all of our used ink cartridges into a gallon zip-lock bag to return to Office Depot for more credit!  In my mind it has been a GOOD frugal day and I am more than happy to be back in the swing of things!

Toodles...

MOVING PAST THE MADNESS...FOCUS ON FUN !

Sorry I have been away so long.  Life has been totally crazy, and a call from the hospital yesterday just added to the madness!  More tests and more worries to come.  Sigh...  I won't bore you with the details of all that is going on, but suffice it to say...I'm ready to let the good times roll!  Life is meant to be LIVED! 

Soon (hopefully as early as Monday), I will shift my focus to updating our home...beginning with our master bath!  Now THAT is something FUN to focus on!  Our home is over 25 years old and the time has come to begin the overhaul.  Our master bath has held up pretty well, I guess.  However, a water issue behind our shower tiles and a huge soaking tub that we haven't been able to use for several years means it is time to bring this room up to snuff in function and decor! 

Stay tuned as I bring you along for the ride with "Before", "During" and "After" pics.  Let the good times roll!!