a bit of indulgence

Is it so wrong to devour a bit of chocolate so early in the morning? Before eating breakfast even?? Well, right or wrong, that's what I did. Gotta watch it though - it's a slippery slope!


Anyway, I'm excited to venture out in a new direction with my creativity. I got a book a few years back on fusion quilts called Fusing Fun! by Laura Wasilowski. I want to experiment with making some art quilts (I'll start small), so today I'm taking a trip to get the right supplies... I'm also going to sign up for a free motion quilting class at the local quilt shop - it'll be so cool!

What's that you ask? What about the laundry room? Yes, it's still there and I haven't made much progress. Most of the delay is due to our new floors getting installed and the massive amounts of dust that got scattered far and wide throughout the house! They'll finish up by Thursday, we'll move all the furniture back by the weekend and 'normal' life can resume. Here are some more photos of the progress.




Check out this 'goose egg' we got the other day from one of the chickens! It turned out to be a double yolk.

Tidbits and Inspiration

I haven't gotten to those pillows yet - there've been other little things I've been busy doing. I finally put up some curtains - yea! I love the curtains in my art room because of the aqua blue dingle balls - I think they're so cute. Luckily the cats are leaving them alone so far. I then got inspired to make some curtains for the laundry room.


I'll share my plan for that room in a little bit.

I also made a bed caddy for Nadine to have at her bedside or when she's lying on the couch (you can find the very easy tutorial here from SewMamaSew).



She loves orange and her carpet is green, so this fabric worked out really well. Nadine's doing really well right now. We had a little scare with blood clots, but that's all worked out for now. They still haven't named her cancer because they don't know where the primary site is, and they probably won't do any more searching for it because there's plenty to deal with in her liver. In a few weeks we'll see how her body and the cancer is responding to the chemotherapy.



I also made these cute bags for knick-knacky stuff. I reinforced them with interfacing and they actually stand up all by themselves.


So, for the laundry room....I've been struck by inspiration again and my accent color is: bright yellow!


This Martha Stewart tub is the source of inspiration. I'm planning on using these fabrics to pull the room together. The curtains are done, then I want to make a clothespin bag (I'll see if I can hang a small clothesline between the cabinets), a fabric box to put the dryer sheets in and maybe some more knick-knack bags - like for chicken scratch or gardening items.


I started painting(1st coat) this wall shelf to match the yellow tub.



I got these fruit crates last summer.


I'm planning on painting them the same yellow and distressing them, and then bolting them to the wall for storage above the washer and dryer. I'm so excited for everything to be done!

This week I'll have to confine myself to the art room or outside instead of the kids' work table because our flooring is finally getting installed starting Tuesday! It's going to make such an incredible difference in the overall feel of the room. I can hardly wait to put up photos for you to see!

One last little thing....as I was painting last night (hence the lowlight), I looked down and saw these two snuggling close together.

Aren't they beautiful?

It's not like I made them or anything, but I just can't help but be proud of our four hens' production. Yes, we started with six, but we lost two just a few weeks ago. We tried nursing one back from an injury, but she didn't make it. The kids took it well. I told them we could get some silkies in the spring.

Gavin's mom is doing better and it looks like she'll be able to come home this weekend. Yea! Her first treatment of chemo went well, too.


She loved the chemo cap I made for her, and I made another one that actually turned into quite a cute, stylish version because I added a little brim on the front. I got the pattern from A Design by Angie on Etsy.


I've made progress on the quilt - I added the border and pinned all the layers together. I tried the walking foot for the first time yesterday - so exciting! It's amazing how much easier everything is when you have the right tool.


Art Room Decor:




The other day I got inspired to organize a little more in my art room, so I hung some more stuff on the walls and added some shelves.




Then I got overconfident with the drill and tried to put up the toilet paper holder in the kids' bathroom (such a simple item that has gotten put off for a very long time), and it flopped! I didn't use wall anchors, and the whole thing was way too loose, so I took it down for now. Ugh! Just when you think progress is happening.....

I was looking at my past posts and realized that I completely forgot about making coordinating pillows for our reading nook. Seeing the fabric again was inspiring, so I'll put that on my to-do list for this week. Of course, as I add new things, the prospect of getting all the Christmas decorations put away is less of an immediate reality! I suppose it's human nature to put off the things we don't want to do. More photos to come when progress is made.