so...

John and I went to Las Vegas for a business conference on the 19th-22nd. We had a blast! We've been to Vegas quite often, stopping though on our drives down to L.A. to see John's brother. Since we've been often, we've seen a lot and it was relaxing just going to see a few things. One of the things I have wanted to do, and we hadn't yet, was go see the Phantom of the Opera. We finally got to go and it was so fun dressing up (not that you have to, but I found a cute dress on clearance I wanted to wear). John even rented us a limo! I've never ridden in limo before, so I thought it was pretty neat. I should have gotten a picture of it. Oh well.

We went to the Bellagio and walked through their conservatory. It was decorated for the Year of the Tiger.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Bellagio Fountains. This was one of the few times it wasn't raining while we were there. 

  

  

Paris Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe

 

In Front of Ceasar's Palace. I took this specifically for my sister. When she and I went for her birthday last March, there was no water in this fountain and apparently she really likes it. :)

 

John and I after the Phantom of the Opera. 

 

  

Margaritaville. We sat under the airplane. Their food is AMAZING. Loved it! 

And on our way home, we ran into snow in Utah. It sure was pretty. :)

Since we got back, I've been trying to get back in the groove, doing school and keeping up on the house. You know, everyday things. lol But I have projects I'm ready to work on now, like the other sweater re-fashion. I still have to post the first one. lol Painting my bedroom. I bought some sheets on clearance today that I am going to turn into curtains for my laundry room and get rid of the blinds that are in there. So that's what my plan is for the week everyday after school is over. :)

Fishing set tutorial

I know everyone has been waiting for this! lol

For Christmas, I made this fishing set for my 7yr old nephew in CA. My BIL says he loves it. :)

What you need is

• thread and needle
• felt
• embroidery thread or black permanent marker
• Fish coloring pages (link below to the ones I used)
• scissors
• magnets (I used super heavy duty ones so they'd work between the layers of felt)

So the first thing I did was do a google fish coloring pages to use for patterns. I used this one and this one for the basic fish shape and the inspiration for stripes and spots on the fish. I copied the image then pasted it to a word document and enlarged it until I got the size I wanted. (I had seen a similar set on etsy, but it was much smaller than I wanted.) After I printed it, I traced each piece onto blank paper, labeled the pattern pieces, and cut them out.

Next, I decided how many fish to make and I picked out the colors for the different fish. Then I pinned the pattern to the felt.

Next, pin the different embellishments to the right side of the fish.

Sew the fin facing the mouth first then

fold it back and sew it again.

Next, sew the eye to the spot, if you decide to do this. Then sew the eye and other embellishments to the body.

Do this to both sides and then turn the right sides facing each other and pin them together.

Sew the right sides together.

 

Remember to leave a spot open to stuff the fish!

Turn it right side out and

put a magnet in as close to the mouth as possible

and stuff it!

Pin the hole together and hand sew.

Almost finished!

I forgot before I sewed the eye on that I was going to sew the pupil of the eye with black embroidery thread using french knots, so I had to improvise and use a black permanent marker. 

I made 6 fish and a fishing rod. The little gray fish is upside down. Lol 

For the fishing rod, you need

• a glue gun 
• ribbon cut to the length you want
• 2 of the magnets
• a dowel ( I had a package at home already)

I hot glued one end of the dowel and wrapped the ribbon around it and held it until it cooled off. Then I hot glued the other end of the ribbon and put a magnet on it and side the same thing on the opposite side.

 

You can kind of see what I mean here.

So there you have it!

It's Tuesday!

No progress on the master bedroom this weekend. John has had a cold for about a week and went to the dr. Friday. The dr. said he had a mild case of walking pneumonia, so he took it easy this weekend. Hailey and Emily also have a bad cough, so off to the dr. we went this am. Found out Hailey is on the mend and Emily has a sinus infection. Poor girl. Maybe next weekend I can get started. :)

I was working on some mending earlier tonight that was long overdue...like 3 years overdue. I enjoyed it so much (after my thread stopped breaking, still have no clue why that happened) that I am going to attempt my first re-fashion tonight. I bought a cute plum sweater at Goodwill in Nov. with the sole purpose of turning it into a sweater dress for one of my girls after seeing this tutorial. Then I found another sweater that was a bit too small for me in my drawer, so now I have 2! Funny thing is, they are the same style. After that I'm going to turn some tights into knee socks following this tutorial. Maybe with the top part of the tights I'll make this! Aren't they soo cute?!?  I'll post pictures later this week and post the fishing tutorial.

Mini Bedroom redo before pictures

Since I can't work on any of my outside projects, I'm starting inside. My first project  is my bedroom!

This is the view from the door. Love the duvet cover from my sister-in-law (which she made with 2 flat sheets). The quilt was a wedding gift from 10 years ago. Not really my style anymore. I envision a couple chocolate Euro pillows, a couple pillows with a brown and blue pint and a lumbar pillow with a ruffle like this one. At the end of the bed will be a beautiful blue throw. On either side of the bed I'd love to have two throw rugs that are a chocolate and blue print. At least that's what I see. :) Finding this stuff may not be the easy part.

 

Our closet. Doors are still in the garage, same as the girls. The handles and hinges need to be replaced on the cabinet above our closet.  Soon I hope to have 3 laundry hamper in here so we can sort our clothes before they go to the laundry room.

The recliner is in here because there wasn't enough room for it in the living room with the Christmas tree. I have a smaller armchair chair I got at Goodwill for $25 that is normally in here. Don't you love the wallpaper? The blank frame I am going to make into an earring holder, but I think I might put some sort of fabric behind the screen I will be using. Or scrapbook paper. The pink spots on the wall are from when this room belonged to the girls and I was trying to decide what color to paint. Do you notice how there are two different sized windows in here? I'd like to have chocolate drapes on both of them.

Love my dresser!! My sister-in-law gave this to me for Christmas a couple years ago. She bought it  and took the paint off of it and stained it. I've admired it since we moved back here in 2003.So when they got a new bedroom set, she gave it to me!

This is one of the few things on my dresser. Well when it's not piled with kid's art. :) I love it! My mother-in-law gave this to me after she moved. 

 

And our bed. The bedframe is one John's mom had. It's old enough that it isn't a king and it isn't a queen. I like it, but I am thinking of making an upholstered headboard. I'd love to have some sort of artwork above our bed, but I'm not sure what right now.

And there is the door again. (see I already taped that area by the door!) I primed and painted a creamy white behind the door that you can see. That was a slightly different color than the color we used in the playroom, which is the paint I am using. Oh an you can see our lovely light fixture in this picture too. I am hoping to replace it with this light from Ikea.

It's the Kristaller Chandelier. I love it! Love the price too, $39.99.

And this in my hubby's nightstand. Actually it is an end table from the living room that I currently don't have room for. It is yet another thing I got from my sister-in-law that I have admired since we moved back. It is one of a pair and I love the straight lines. On my side of the bed I have a milk crate turned on it's side with decorating books and my inspiration binder. Along with a small tub of paint chips and brochures we've picked up at Lowes and Home Depot. I have loved the Valencia Oval Bedside Table from Pottery Barn for years, but they're a little out of my price range.

I'd like to put up sconces too, but we'll see.

Anyway, I'm starting with paint. Mainly because I have a bunch leftover from the playroom and I am sick of the drab walls in my room. So this will probably be a slow process, but I'm okay with that. I'm looking forward to having a nice relaxing space to share with John. :)

Good Morning thoughts

This morning as I was trying to get up the courage to get out of my nice my warm down comforter covered bed,  I was looking at the wall by my door

and thinking, "I could paint that today. Just the wall by the closet and the door wall. Just put up some painters tape and plastic on the floor. Just to see how the paint from the playroom would look."

(the 'Emily' pegboard is left from when the girls had this room and I haven't taken it down yet)

I have an idea for that wall and it includes some floating frames  I bought on clearance a few years ago that I still I need to paint black,

and this sign I  also got a couple years ago.

Yes that is wall paper. In my bedroom. On one wall that has paneling under it. I hate it. And I really want to tear it down. All in due time. 

So my idea is to put in pictures of John and I and some quotes in the frames. I have 6 total. Then hang them collage style (if I can they're all the same size so I may not be able too) with the 'Love' sign above them.

I'm not actually going to paint that wall today...but maybe tomorrow after school is done I will. :)

Updated background and a 2010 list of things I'd like toget done

I updated my background with my fave colors right now courtesy of this post from The Background Fairy! I am planning a makeover of my bedroom with these colors, so finding this background was awesome! 

So some things I'd like to get done this year are (not necessarily in this order):

1. Finish our brick patio in our backyard
   
2. Edge our flowerbeds with remaining brick
3. Put up a fence around our backyard
4. Mini room makeovers for my room and the girl's room
5. Install baseboard trim under my kitchen cabinets and paint them all a creamy white (still searching for the perfect color)
6. Window treatments for all rooms!!
7. Build a new entertainment center (I'm already drawing up plans)
8. Take all of the things in boxes in our attic and put them in rubbermaid totes and move to our garage rafters (only things not affected by extreme temps)
9. Put in the transition from the dining room  to the living room

There's probably more...but I can't remember it all now! Happy New Year people! :)

oh I'm participating in Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party. Go check it out!

The girl's room after the playroom makeover and mini office

I spent part of yesterday afternoon gathering up the rest of the girls toys that need to be taken up to the playroom. Part of that entailed pulling our an enormous amount of clothes, books and toys from under the bunk bed! The trundle went under there, so I was surprised at how much I kept finding! lol

Hailey's 'daybed'

 

They all have the bright pink quilts on their bed, but Emily has hers under the lighter quilt.  

 

 

I am going to be buying a triple hamper so they can sort their clothes as they take them off. :)

And of course I need to paint their closet doors and get them reinstalled along with getting a cute area rupg for their room. I'd like to paint it and put in baseboard trim and crown molding. I'm just not sure what color to paint. I've been thinking of a light yellow or a light apple green. They're into horses right now, so I was thinking of doing some decorating along that line, but all their horses are in the playroom now. So, I'm back at square one. lol 

This is the mini office area right now. The wall above the desk is such a blank slate. John is going to build another bookcase for me. And once the tree is out of the living room, the couch will move forward a little bit. I have plans to get a couple canvas painters drop clothes and use them as drapes (I'll have to line them because our windows are old and a bit drafty) instead of the vertical blinds.