Halloween swap 2015

Wooohooo!  Halloween swap time. I still love my crazy pumpkin men from last year.

Let's face it - I love them all.

Details:

I will leave sign ups open until we are full or Sept 7, whichever comes first.

There will be 13 spots open. You will make 13 Halloween/Fall themed projects and send them to me by Oct 1 along with $5 to help cover the cost of return shipping. I will divide them up and you will get back 13 different ornaments. Please do not sign up if you are not serious about following through! Everyone else will already be crafting for you and that is unfair to everyone.

What can you make? Here is a link to my Halloween tree pinterest board in case you need ideas. In general it is *nice* if they can go on a tree, but I am not rigid about that. We have had other very lovely decorations in years past that do not go on my tree. Use whatever materials you want, be creative! 

Don't have a tree? You can spray paint any kind of small Christmas tree any color you want, or you can use a branch like Queen Martha has done.

To sign up:
 Email me directly at makinprojiks@gmail .com, include HALLOWEEN SWAP as your subject.

 Don't worry if I don't reply immediately, it takes me a bit to get everyone's email into a group form so I can email everyone at the same time.

Now go get your pumpkin on!

 

Flea market Sundays

So, we spent yesterday painting and making over grant's room. 

If you are counting that's the seventh room in eight weeks. 

Plus I redid the pantry (no paint) and cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and touched up some paint in there too.

I am dead.ass.tired.

We still need to get our basement steps painted (desperately), but I would really like to try and hire that job out.  And our bathroom ceiling needs repair, but that has to wait until fall because we need all new drywall there.

Anyway. I had to drag myself to the flea this morning (quite literally) because I had arrAnged for a dealer to bring me a mirror I needed for the living room  makeover. 

I managed to buy 11 yards of amazing vintage fabric while I was there. I have not had a good fabric score at this flea in years! Happy dance there.

And the mirror I needed for the other side of the living room window.

We are transitioning grant to a twin bed from the crib, so things might be hairy this week (after a very bad night last night he is currently napping in said bed), but I hope to be back tomorrow to open the Halloween swap.

Happy Sunday to you!

Project paint: a more mature space for Jack

Room five on the finish list was an update for jack. At first he expressed NO interest in having a room redo, but after Sammi's room was done he wanted in.

His first request was for lime green paint (!!). We compromised with grey paint and green stuff.

I made him a pillow with a Mollie makes constellation kit in the center.

Moved his bed to the corner to free up floor space like we did for Sammi.

Linens are all stuff we owned. I saw some cute stuff in target, but he is particular about what he sleeps with and declined any changes.

Dave made a little book house for him above the bed since he lost his end table.  The old drawers are holding the beginnings of a Lego architecture collection.

Never mind the dirty laundry. For awhile he used this enamel table top as a desk. It was always, always messy. He does homework in the kitchen, so it is up as a magnet board.

He traded the desk for a bean bag chair. 

I made him curtains with some fabric he loved at Walmart (which are a few inches too short, the ones u the bed are too skinny Bc there was not enough fabric in Walmart!). And we moved the fish tank in there for him.

The kids have really done an amazing job purging stuff from their rooms. Jack mentioned yesterday that it is so easy to keep his room clean all the time now. This room was a good first step in 

Letting go for me. Most of the choices were his and his things are placed where he wants them, not me.

We finished painting the living room this weekend and have it put back together as far as we can get it until the IKEA opens here in town in about six weeks. Then we spent this morning (four ridiculous hours!) cleaning up the playroom. We got rid of another full van load of junk from there too. That room is nowhere near the "can the kids clean this up alone in ten minutes" rule, but we are going to live with it for a month and go from there. 

Beyond that we only have two more spaces needing paint! 

Flea market Sundays

I have no kids for  few hours on Friday mornings, so I am trying to hit garage sales while the season is still on.

Last week was one of my best linen weeks EVER.  Just two sales yielded a ton of treasure! 

Pumpkin crepe paper streamers. (Almost Halloween swap time!)

The blue and green blankets on the right. I already had the purple (and have sold the green in the past).  Now I just need a pink one to have a complete collection!

A sweet tablecloth for me.

Some vintage fabric scraps.

And then the feedsacks. There are two of each pattern. 

Dots!

A pile of tablecloths to sell.

And more! The green is a keeper for now.

I am slowly changing my quilt collection too. Getting rid of some that are the wrong era, more suited to cutting, or just are ready to move on. That makes room for new ones to love - like this fabulous blue star!

Such a beauty.

Back tomorrow with Jack's finished room. Yesterday I emptied the living room. Onward with project paint!

First Day of School

Honestly, the pace of life right now here is totally freaking insane. I keep thinking oh sure, today is the day we slow down! But no.

We went to KC with the kids this past weekend to see their grandparents, so I am trying to catch up on things like the house and the blog and the shop. (I am committed to listing things every.single.day since I organized my inventory last week.)

The kids started school last Wednesday.

Sixth grade (and middle school) for Jack.

Another PDO start for Grant. He needed a haircut which I didn't manage to get until Thursday.

And Pre-k for Sam. Her last year at home with me already. I've arranged their schedules so that Sammi is home alone with me on Wednesday mornings. I am hoping to use that time to do some crafts and work on some preschool topics with her.  (I only had one photo left before my camera said it was full, so she does  not look very happy! The mosquitos were attacking hard core.)

I am still trying to get my living room emptied.  We bought a new loveseat at IKEA in KC, and yesterday Grant and I bought the living room paint. I need to restore order to this darn house and soon!

Flea market finds

Last Saturday night I had been up half the night in pain. After an hour of being awake sammi came wandering in saying she had to throw up and then I spent the next two hours with her in the bathroom.

By the time morning rolled around I was not sure I would live, much less make it to the flea. But I needed a break, so off I went. If you can't get your behind out there by six am you can forget about buying. I still visit with all my favorite vendors though.

The grand haul?

A super sweet old pair of kitchen curtains. (Too bad these never fit our huge windows.)

An old metal towel bar.

And a maybe old, maybe not old huge drug bottle. The label says it treats lumbago among other things. When I was a kid my grandpa would always ask if you had the lumbago if you were sick, so home it came.

Yesterday the kids started school and I was still thinking I would get to slow the hell down. But I had a bunch of small projects to finish for Jack's room, then the washing broke while full of water and dirty clothes and on and on. I might be silly enough to think I could sit down today but grant needs a hair cut, there's the laundry mess from yesterday and the floors are covered in food. (But vacuuming means cleaning up toys. Or more accurately driving more toys to goodwill. Lol)

An organizing detour

Last Friday I started working on Jack's room as the next phase of project paint.

Then, exhausted, standing in the pantry hunting chocolate, I saw a moth.

I nearly died. I was so tired and all of my inventory is stored in the pantry.

I am still working on the finishing touches for Jack's room (he starts middle school tomorrow!), but the moth problem would not wait.

Two exhausting days later:

Inventory side before.

Food side before.

Inventory side after. I have one different bin there because my shelf is too short, but I am too tired to care about it right now.

 Food side after.

Side by side.

So, I've uncovered loads of unlisted inventory, Donated a whole car full of stuff, updated shop inventory, donated a whole trash bag full of personal care items and samples that had never been used  to the food pantry, and filled the entire trash toter with random who knows what.

I've been doing the same with every room I've painted too. I have not read this mythical kon Mari book,   And every year I find the need to own less and less, but this time I have been doing some serious gutting of things we've held onto for various reasons.

 We still have a lot of stuff, but it's my dream that every room can be tidy in ten minutes no matter how messy the kids have been that day.  I will be bluntly honest and just say it feels like a complete waste of my life to have to spend it cleaning up all the time. (And yes, I make the kids do it, but they have to be managed too.)

Anyway. I'm tired and need a break from it, but it's also an obsessively motivating transformation that's taking place room by room.

P.s. Grant asked me today when I would paint his room.  Send reinforcements, or painters, or the goodwill truck, okay?

Instagram vintage quilt sale

I will be selling off another pile of quilts tomorrow evening on Instagram if you are into that sort of thing. Buying there is easy (just have a paypal email address). The pile is actually a little larger than this! Hope to see you there.

A first for Sammi - a haircut!

Sammi's hair is still so baby fine despite my hoping it might thicken up a bit eventually. She has become quite the pain in the rumpus about combing, so one day one when we were carless we went on a VERY long walk to get her hair cut.

She had been asking to go to the beauty salon for awhile now anyway (she got the idea from her American Girl catalogs).

It was a little nerve wracking, but I decided to just cut it all off.

She loves her spunky short hair.

I love not battling over a very messy head every day!

Hard to believe this coming year is her last year of preschool too. Where is the time going?!?!

Flea Market Sunday

School starts in nine days and I am starting to think about getting the shop running full force again.

I am partially spurred on by my desire to completely redo my living room - which is going to take cash. But also, I feel like the whole summer is over and I did virtually no junking!

Dave and I went way out in the country to a little town with 148 people to hunt inventory.

Most of what I bought was for the shop or the kids (I scored HUGE on tons of Gymboree for the little kids), but a few things for me managed to sneak in.

This super wide silk ribbon is pure perfection. It's actually double this width. I am sure it was sashing for dresses? 

Sort of a crummy photo because the glass on the frame part is convex. She is really lovely and headed for the foyer mirror collection.

This cutie pie puzzle has shape pieces - a heart, an ice cream cone, a bird. Already in Sammi's room on her shelves.

The old sugar eggs are so hard to find! I am always amazed that they survived.

I haven't bought glasses in FOREVER. I will have to get rid of something in the cabinet to make room for these beauties.

Suddenly I am like the home for wayward lard cans. This one is half the size of the one we are using as a trash can. The blue enamel is the most gorgeous blue color. It's homeless for now, but I have my eye on a blue living room rug, so maybe it's destined for there.

This quilt. I saw a bird quilt sell on instagram for a lot of money a few weeks ago. At first I dismissed it, but I was SO HOT and thirsty I absolutely could not think. It's machine quilted and appliqued and not what I would usually buy.

Then I Started second guessing and thinking well, that quilt is totally saleable. It's more than I pay for things I am trying to sell, but aim high Sarah!

So I went to get more cash and went back and bought it. As I unfurled it for pre-purchase inspection I felt it - that oh no! I am in love with this quilt flutter. Hurry up and run away with it before anyone else sees it!

So.  For now it's mine.

And I am completely utterly torn!

Okay, I have been working all morning, my house is a hundred shades of torn up as we are desperately trying out furniture arrangements to find something that REALLY works in the living room and I need breakfast! Happy Monday to you.