{ my first ever sewing project }

I guess to be perfectly honest, I DID complete my 8th grade sewing class...because it was required.  But even that was pretty sad. 

I was one of those girls that thought sewing was SO NOT COOL.  And I wanted nothing more than to NOT be domestic.  So, with my awesome 14-year old short term thinking, I absolutely avoided ANYTHING that could be even remotely related to domesticity.

I never learned to cook.

Or clean (until I lived on my own.  Then helloooo neat freak!).

Or sew.

Or budget.

I think you get the picture.

When we found out we were expecting our daughter (and had gotten past the "danger zone" of miscarrying), I started looking around at bedding.  NOTHING was jumping out at me.  And the stuff I did like was SOOOO expensive.  So my sweet hubsters, Ben, suggested I make it myself.

Um....what the wha???  Do you not know me at all?

We'd been together for 8 years and yet you haven't realized I can't sew a straight line?

But he had confidence in me.  So I thought I'd give it a try.

Not by myself.  Not that brave.  But my sister-in-law's mother is uh-maze-ing!  So, I got her to figure it all out help teach me the basics. And lo and behold, I COULD do it!

Who woulda thought?! (certainly NOT me)

Well, now that my baby girl is almost 2 (seriously? It's crazy!), it's about time to get rid of the crib, so I thought I'd post some pictures of my first ever sewing project (that I was secretly SO proud of myself for creating) before we get it all changed out.

Ta-Daaaaa!

Her adorable little crib:

 The bumpers.  Um, can you believe I didn't know that people MADE piping?  Yeah, I might have been pretty excited about that... :)

Inside of the bumpers.  I did not make the sheet though - that's all Target, baby!

Crib skirt.  Obviously it doesn't really poke out the slats like that.  Just pulled it out to show you the detail.  I'm nice like that. :)

The window valence. This is one thing I will definitely do differently in the future.  My Taelie-girl needs it dark to sleep, so her window had been covered up with a blanket for the last two years.  A blanket that I take down in the morning.  And put back up for nap time.  And take down after nap time. And put back up for bedtime. It's ridiculous.  But otherwise it's either too dark or too bright.  New curtains will be a MUST for her new room.

Her rag quilt.  Probably my favorite item in her room.  After she got bigger, I moved it from her crib to the armchair in her room.

A little close-up :)

Terrible picture, but this is where we hung all her bows.  I added horizontal strips of ribbon across it and attached her clips.  It is defnitely too busy, and I will be making something new for her hair stuff for her new room.  I'm just not loving it, but it worked for awhile.

  

We painted the entire room and installed the faux board and batten.  We had no idea what it was called when we did it, we just liked how it looked. Yeah, we're decor-savvy like that.  It's pretty tall too, as you can see from the pic -- sits above the light switch.  I wanted it to peek out above her crib, and I love it.  :)  We still have that glider, but are planning on selling it, it never worked with her room, and we never used it, so I never finished it.  Her dresser is in it's place now.

I wanted to do the traditional name sign, but change it up a little bit, so I made hers out of the same fabric using a tutorial.  I love the font -- sooo adorable!

Close up of the letters and the adorable knobs I got to hang them from.  They were originally pink, but didn't stand out enough on her wall, so they got a quick coat of spray paint!

And finally...the view from her doorway. I know it's hard to see, but the chime hanging in the corner I brought all the way over from Ukraine, and saved it for years before it found it's home in her nursery. I want to add sparkle too it or even make it brighter pink, but I am worried about messing it up since I can't exactly run out and buy a new one if I do. Any pointers?

Whew! I'm pretty sure this was the longest post in the history of the world!  ha!  It's crazy to look at these pictures and see how much has changed and evolved since we first put this sweet little nursery together.  I will take pictures of the changes so I can document it and remember it after it "grows up".

This is still my favorite room in our home.  I wanted to be a mom for so long that the first time I was able to cuddle my baby in her own room was a monumental occassion for me.  Everytime I walk into her room, I'm reminded how lucky I am to be a mother.  Her room totally symbolizes that to me. :)

I am SO glad I got passed my "fear" of domesticity!  Now I love all things having to do with it and only wish I would have learned earlier because now I am desperately trying to make up for lost time!  I should have listened to my mom when she told me one day I'd want to know how to do these things.  Moms seriously know everything. :) (Hopefully my kids feel the same way one day.)

What is your favorite room?  Have you ever taken on a project like this, having no idea how to do it, and loving the results?  I'd love to see your creations!

Linking up to:
Between Naps on the Porch:Metamorphosis Monday
C.R.A.F.T's:Making Monday's Marvelous

{ love me some color }

I don't care about resale value.

At least right now, anyway.  We don't have any intentions to move anytime soon, so why should I worry about what future owners will think of my home?  Since we are the ones living here for the next foreseeable future, we paint and decorate for US.  We don't worry about what others will think of it.  If/when the time comes that we decide to sell, if we need to, we can always slap some paint around. 

But for now, our home is for us.  :)

I had always wanted a bright, fun bathroom.  I feel like bathrooms are one of the rooms in the house where you can really go crazy with color and fun.  It took some convincing (2 years!) to get my husband to agree, but, I was finally successful, and even better, he is happy with the results too!

Here is our guest/kid bathroom before:

(please ignore the inspiration studio lettering on all the photos, apparently I deleted my original pics (ah!), so this is all I had to work with)

Nice STARK white walls...

Don't you LOVE how the shower curtain blends right into the wall? :)

I had known what I wanted to do in here for a long time.  A long looooong time.  Once the hubsters was on board (okay, okay, even before he was completely on board...), I got all gung-ho over this project.
I may or may not have started experimenting with paint colors all over the wall while he was at school one day.  Obviously when he came home and saw the wall all splotched up like that, we couldn't just leave it.  People see this room, for crying out loud!  So, clearly, we had to paint it.  That night.  :) (Ah, I just love that man! He puts up with so much! :)

Just a few hours later, we had taken the blindingly-white, boring-beyond-belief bathroom to this little beauty:

Ack!  Could you just die?  I LOVE it!

Since I just kinda sprung this project on my husbad, we were trying to keep it at low-cost as possible.  So we took the towel rod, hand-towel holder, and toilet paper roll holder, light fixture, and some accessories all down and spray-painted them a nice sleek black.  Then, using extra paneling from when we did faux board and batten in Taelie-girl's room, we fashioned a quick frame around the mirror and glued it right back onto the mirror.

Hung the same decorations back up.  But with the new wall color, it makes a WORLD of difference!  Look how that shower curtain pops now!  It's hard to tell from my spectacular phone pics, but the green stripes match the rest of the green in the bathroom perfectly!  And, when I couldn't figure out the best way to fix that annoying fun little gap above the shower curtain, I had a sweet suggestion from a fellow blogger to add some trim to the bottom of the curtain and raise the whole thing up.  Genius!  Of course, I have yet to do it, but I can definitely visualize how awesome that will look when I get to it. 

Also, I am 99% sure I am going to paint the ceiling too.  My hubs wasn't convinced that we should, so we agreed to live with it for a little while and see how we felt about it.  Everytime I pass it though, I can't help but think how much better it will look without that obvious contrasting line between the wall and ceiling, so I'm itching to get 'er done! (I am totally a tiny bit nervous about it, although I've seen many others that have done it and it's looked awesome, so I'm trying to be brave. :)

So, once again, the boring before:

and the beautiful after:

What do you think?  Have you gone big and bold with color before and loved it, or do you prefer a neutral palette?  Are you a "go big or go home" kind of decorator, or does the sight of bright purple bathroom leave you shaking your head?  Share your thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

Linking up to these awesome parties:
Thrifty Decor Chick's Before & After Party
It's a Hodge Podge Life's Hodgepodge Friday
Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday
C.R.A.F.T's Making Monday Marvelous
Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint Party


Head on over there and check out these super talented bloggers!

{ the kitchen: in the beginning }

When we bought our condo almost 3 years ago, (eesh! Has it really been THAT long?) I was so thrilled to have a kitchen large enough that more than one person could actually fit in it at one time.  Now, keep in mind that our condo is NOT huge (only about 1300 sqare feet.), and the kitchen itself is only about 500 square feet.  But compared to the teensy basement apartment we had lived in -- it felt like a mansion!

Here is what our kitchen looked like when we bought the house:

(pic from previous owners)

I know it's terrible quality.  Please forgive me.  When we took these pics, I didn't realize I would ever need to refer back to them.  Oh, how wrong I was!

Before we moved in, we painted all the walls in our house a yummy toasty tan - just to get rid of the stark builder's-white paint that was there (and to cover up some other rooms in the house...but that's a story for later!).

After moving in, our kitchen turned into this:

and this:

I have loved the dark brown in there, but sadly, it's going to have to go.  Not all the way, but it's definitely getting changed up.  I have big plans for our condo come fall time.  We will be doing a major overhaul (I seriously can't wait for it!  Squeal!)

  I am trying to convince my hubbs to let us do a backsplash -- three years of just a painted wall is MORE than enough -- but I have been unsuccessful so far.  He seems to think there are plenty of other projects already in the works without starting another huge one.  pssshaa!  Does he not know me at all?

Overall, I think the paint transformed this little space quite a bit.  It always amazes me how much a little paint cant change the look of a room -- easiest & cheapest too!

What about you?  Any rooms in your house that you've fixed up with just a little bit of paint?  Even if it's something you know you're going to change later -- paint makes SUCH a difference, and I'd love to see your projects!

linked up to Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint Party!