Baby Ensemble-a twist on a classic

Earlier this year, a couple of my dearest friends announced that they were expecting their second child.  I waited (as I am sure they did) in anxious anticipation for the gender announcement so that I could get myself started on some kind of creative project for the coming child.  We were all thrilled to learn that they would be expecting a girl. (Their first child was a boy-one of each!) I was on a mission to find and uber adorable outfit to make for my new "niece". **Quick tangent story-My Grandma likes to tease me because I didn't know until my older sister got married, that one of her good friends ,whom I called "Aunt", is in fact not related to me at all. Hahaha, and now I myself have been given and "honorary Aunt" title*

 

I found this adorable baby outfit pattern during one of my 5 for 5 dollar pattern sale raids at JoAnn and have been waiting for the opportunity to use it and this was my chance! Next came the search for the perfect fabric.  This pattern is so classic that I really wanted it to stand out with a bolder fabric choice. While chatting with the Mom-to-be about my outfit adventure a brilliant idea crossed my mind! When first pregnant with baby #1, she had asked me if I could assist her in making some maternity dresses for her.  We had picked out some fabric and had started sewing but I was fairly certain, from previous conversations, that she had not completed the dresses.  She confirmed that she had indeed not finished them and that if I wanted the fabric for the baby outfit, I was welcome to it. The fabric was perfect and exactly what I was looking for!

 

 

 

Due to the fact that it had already been cut and partially made into a dress for Mom, arranging the pieces was a bit tricky and I ended up needing more fabric.  I found some solid pink fabric that paired nicely and made a lovely accent to the pink crossbones.

 



 

I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out! :) Its, luckily, a bit big for her right now, so hopefully she will be fitting into it right as early spring arrives. Although quite honestly, it was in the mid 70's here on Christmas Eve so I'm not sure it will be too long before she needs some cooler clothes around here.  Gotta love Cali sunshine! The baby was born at the beginning of the month and after a whirlwind month and some unforeseen travel, I was able to meet this beautiful little girl on Christmas Eve.

 

She is so relaxed and alert! Only a couple of weeks old and already tracking people across a room with her eyes. She turns her head towards the sound of Mommy's voice. Such a little angel! She is a wonderful addition to a family that already means so much to me! I am so excited for their amazing family and all of the adventures they have ahead of them.

 

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and enjoy your New Years!

A great man- Remembering My Grandpa

 

 



The world lost a patriot and a great man this past month.  He impacted many lives with his generous and caring heart and he will be greatly missed.  Though there was no story on the news of his passing, no parade or statue erected in his honor, to my family and those who's lives he touched, he was far more valuable than any of those things. This man was my Grandpa.

My Grandpa was born and raised on a farm in Nebraska.  He and my Grandma moved to California, when he was stationed here, after joining the United States Marine Corps where he served in the Korean war.  He and my Grandma raised 6 boys who went on to give them 21 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.  He worked hard every day of his life, doing everything from meat packing and running his own meat delivery route, to working parts delivery for local Ford dealerships. 

My Grandpa LOVED Fords! It was a huge passion of his and he loved working on cars, driving cars and just looking at and/or talking about cars.  He was a Godly man who instilled strong values into his children and taught them the importance of Family.

As my siblings and I travelled back to Nebraska this past week for the funeral, we reflected on the many good times we shared with him.  My Grandpa could always be found in his typical "uniform" of Blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt, or a cowboy style shirt with pearl snaps.  I remember as a kid sitting on his lap and staring at the multi-colored reflections in the faces of the snaps.  I remember fondly how he smelled of a mixture of  car grease, bacon, lava soap and the orange scented cleaner he used to remove car grease from his hands.  I remember him giving us "tours" of his massive garage and being in awe of all the magnificent Fords in his collection. I remember my siblings and I each picking our favorite one and arguing over who got the best ones.  I remember taking turns riding with him on his riding lawn mower in the backyard.  I remember the pastel colored mini marshmallows he would give us as a snack whenever we would come over.  I remember his amazingly classic and subdued sense of humor.  He would insert the funniest things into normal conversation but was so serious when he said them that it made it ten times more hilarious.

He was one of the good ones, one of those classic old-school guys people just loved to be around. A reminder of a friendlier time, from a generation who's ways we have left behind and forgotten in so many ways.  A generation that knew that family and hard work are the only things that matter in the end.

In preparation for heading out for the funeral, I thought of something nice I could do for my Grandma.  I had recently seen some Ford Mustang fabric at Jo-Ann's so I grabbed some (along with some red fabric with white hearts on it) and made her one of my mesh tote bags. My Grandpa loved his Fords so much!  I thought she might enjoy the pleasant reminder of her sweetheart of almost 60 years.

My Grandpa will be missed by so many, in so many ways.  I know, however, that he lives on inside me and all of my family members.  He taught us all and influenced who we have become in so many ways.  The world could use more kind and courteous souls like him.  During my Dad's talk at Grandpa's funeral, he mentioned one of the many influences of my Grandpa, his deep rooted value of common sense and courtesy.  I had called my Dad a few months ago to share about an incident involving one of our pet peeves.  My Dad always taught us that after you press the button to summon and elevator, you move away from the doors to allow any current passengers of the elevator to be able to exit without you being in their way. I expressed to my Dad how bugged I was that as I was trying to leave the elevator that day, someone else was already on their way into it as I was exiting, and how frustrating it is that no one seems to have common courtesy any more! (I even jokingly said to him "Was everyone not raised by my Dad and taught these things???") After my Dad re-told of my frustrations to the rest of the funeral guests, he turned to me in the crowd and said "That wasn't me who taught you that, it was Grandpa, because he taught me."

My Grandpa put high regard to walking through this life not just for yourself but for those around you.  In everything he did and taught his boys, it all came back to not going around as if you are the only one that matters and that being cognisant of others makes the world a better place for you and those around you.  I think we need more people in the world like him!  I only hope that I can raise a family of my own and carry on the virtues he taught my father and him to me.  Thank you Grandpa for the wonderful memories and the Amazing family I am so blessed to be a part of. We love you! Rest in peace from a life well lived!

Christmas card display

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house.  With the help of some dear friends, I got my Christmas tree into my living room and got it decorated!

 

Years ago, my sister gave me a gorgeous Tinker Bell tree topper.  I LOVE Tinker Bell and this piece has proudly topped my tree and inspired the overall theme of my tree, complete with my collection of Tinker Bell ornaments,ever since she gave it to me.  My Mom and Dad gave me a Han Solo ornament last year and my Mom said "Well, if anything can be an exception to you Tinker Bell tree, it should be Han Solo!" Oh, how well she knows me! So, this year, Han is enjoying his place of honor amongst the many Tinker Bell's on my tree.

 

 

 

The one thing I have always struggled with, Christmas decor wise, is where to display my Christmas cards.  I usually end up settling with any place where I can tape up some ribbon and hang them.  They inevitably end up falling down a million times! I decided that this year would be different and I would create an actual and official method of display for them. Ever since I was a kid, I loved looking at all of the Christmas cards as they came and I really wanted a nice place to display cards at my house for the holidays.

 

I scoured Pinterest and google searched for ideas.  As tends to me my method, I ended up combining aspects of a few of my favorite ideas into the perfect concept for my space.  I started out with trip to The Home Depot where I picked myself up a  1x6 plank and had them cut it for me into three, two foot sections. (The other two sections to be used for a couple other projects I have planned.) When I got back home, I set up a work space on my balcony and hopped to it.  I had a sponge sanding block in my toolbox leftover from a previous project and used it to go over my two foot plank to even out the ridges and soften up the edges.

 

 

 

I had some light green spray paint left over from an old project so, I threw a quick coat of that on my newly smoothed wood and let it dry.

 

 

 

I found a holiday letters Martha Stewart stencil set on sale at Michael's along with some red and green acrylic paints and some holiday ribbon.  Once the spray paint was dry, I carefully stenciled on the letters one at a time.

 

 

 

I put the letters purposefully at staggered heights so that I would not have to stress over making sure everything was straight. I added some stencilled holly leaves to the corners for some added visual interest. Of course, I realized as soon as I got home that the green acrylic paint I got was almost the same color as my spray paint, so I added a bit of black paint to the green and made a darker green to use for the holly leaves.

 

 

 

While my letters were drying, I put a quick coat of red paint on one side of some mini clothes pins I had also gotten at Michael's. These will eventually be used to clip the cards onto the ribbons.

 

By that time, everything was dry.  I slapped some command adhesive strips onto the back of my sign. (love those things! SUPER great for apartment living when you don't always want to hammer a hole into your wall) For the next step, I pulled out my roll of Christmas ribbon. (I bought the kind with wire in it so that next year when it gets brought out of storage I can bend it back into proper shape) I used a staple gum and attached three strips to the back of the board.  I left a long length for each strip so that I could cut it to proper length once I hung it on the wall.

 

 

Once hung, I trimmed the ribbon to the proper length and bent the bottoms of them strips into curls so they would look a little nicer until its filled with cards.

 

Then, I clipped the cards I had so far onto a strip of ribbon with one of my new red mini clothespins and VOILA!!

 

 

 

I'm actually pretty thrilled with how it turned out for being such a simple project. I think it will look even better when its filled with cards! (That was your hint to get those Christmas cards out family and friends ha ha) Also, I love how wonderfully it fills this space in my entryway that I am never quite sure what to do with.  So, at least for a little while this spot feels complete. :) Now I guess I need to start thinking up a project for this spot for after the holidays....hmmmm......  :)

Marshmallow World

"Its a Marshmallow world in the winter,

when the snow comes to cover the ground.

It's the time for play, its a whipped cream day.

I wait for it the whole year round."

 

Well....its not exactly a "marshmallow world" here in sunny So-Cal, although the temp did finally dip down into jacket weather this week. (44 degrees on my way home from work!) For all of you out there who get to experience actual weather during the holidays, I am slightly jealous.  None the less, Dean Martin captures wonderfully the magic of a snow filled winter in this, one of my favorite Christmas Season songs. Oh ,how I adore me some Dean! Since we don't actually get snow here, I thought I would get started on some holiday projects to help usher in the holiday spirit. I wanted to make some wintry treats and decided I would start with Marshmallow pops. These versatile yummy goodies can really be made for any occasion and can be as simple or as fancy as you like.  They can even be made ahead of time as well if you wanted to get them out of the way early.

 

 

It all began with a quick trip to my local Target for some supplies.  I grabbed myself a bag of large marshmallows (not the UBER big ones, although I am sure they would also make some pretty awesome pops) some melting chocolates in a few colors and a container or Christmas sprinkles.  I found a really awesome set of sprinkles with 6 different kinds in one pack. I grabbed some candy sticks, cellophane bags and twist ties at my local baking/party supply store but they are also available at any Michael's or JoAnn craft stores. Once I had my supplies, I threw in my "Christmas with Dino" CD and got to work.

 

 

For the first step, I rolled out some waxed paper on my counter and lined up my marshmallows. I then pushed a candy stick into each marshmallow, being careful not to push them all the way through.  Once all of the marshmallows were given a stick, it was time to melt the chocolate.  I decorated using one color at a time to avoid each color cooling too much between pops.  I melted the chocolate 15 seconds at a time in the microwave, adding one teaspoon of vegetable shortening for smoother melting. I then poured my desired sprinkles into a bowl, next to my bowl of melted chocolate.

 

 



I dipped the top of each marshmallow into the melted chocolate. You can, of course, dip as much of the marshmallow in chocolate as you want or even dip it at an angle. I chose to dip just the tops straight up and down. 

 

 

 

Immediately after dipping the tops in chocolate, I moved them over the sprinkle bowl and lightly poured on some sprinkles. (please excuse my blurry picture. I discovered that taking a picture while holding a marshmallow pop AND dropping sprinkles on all at the same time is in fact a lot more difficult than I had originally anticipated)

 

 

Once they received their sprinkles, I set the pops in a juice glass to dry.  They dry relatively quickly and can then be placed in cellophane bags and tied with twist ties.  Your treats are then ready to be enjoyed! They can be given out individually (great for kid's school holiday parties)

 

 

Or, bundle them together with some ribbon as a wonderfully wintry treat bouquet or as part of a hot chocolate gift set for gifting to families.  So cute and so simple!!

 

This was the perfect holiday project for me to start with, especially this week! My sister came out from Arizona with her daughter Charlie to visit.  We had some great family visiting and they got to have some great cousin playtime too.

 

Charlie also got to meet my Boyfriend, which was pretty hilarious! She was very interested in his facial hair. I'm pretty sure he is the first fully bearded man she has met, and we all know how much babies love grabbing fist fulls of hair.  Imagine discovering someone with hair, long enough to grab, on their face for the first time! :)

 

 

We had a very nice visit and I am glad I also got to kick of my Christmas festivities!  This week will include Christmas tree and present shopping. Only 19 days till Christmas, AHHH! This is my favorite time of year! I love the cool(er) weather, the sparkling lights everywhere you go, the music, and most of all, the time spent gathered with family and friends. I hope you all are enjoying you holiday prep as much as I am! Happy Holidays everyone!

Living room picnics and pajama pants

In an effort to avoid the Thanksgiving grocery store rush, Monday afternoon I swung by the store to grab the few items I needed for my contribution to Thursday evening's work potluck.  As I bent over to crawl into the bottom shelf to reach the last few cans of yams in the back, my phone rang.  Having possibly pulled a muscle in my shoulder, but successfully grabbing two un-dented cans, I tossed them into my cart and rooted through my purse for the phone.  Seeing the picture of my older brother on the screen, I promptly answered.  Imagine my surprise when, instead of the grown man voice of my brother, I instead hear the sweet voice of my 3 year old niece Eva asking  "Auntie, can you babysit us?"

That was all it took! How could I ever say no to that?! From the moment these little girls were born, they have had me by the heartstrings! I adore these little ones. My older brother and his wife are in the beginning stages of starting their own business and needed a bit of kid free time to make some good progress.  When the idea of going to Auntie Janelle's house came up, apparently my eldest niece was more than happy to place the call, and of course I was more than happy to oblige.  Immediately after my niece got the answer she wanted, she practically threw the phone back to Dad.  We hashed out the details, I grabbed a box of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and headed for the checkout line.

Once they arrived, we started off with the favorite Auntie's house past time....scare the living daylights out of the cat, otherwise known as laying on the floor saying "here kitty kitty kitty" in their sweetest voices possible in an attempt to coax, Tinker Bell the cat, out from under Auntie's bed for playtime. 

 

 

Now, you should know that Tinker Bell is a bit of a jerk and is also super anti-social.  She has never, in the three years my eldest niece has been alive, heeded their sweet pleas and come out to play.  But never fail, begging her to come out is the very first thing that must be done when we get to Auntie's house.  Sometimes there are multiple attempts throughout the visit.  After that, we had a play-doh tea party, made cookies, painted with water colors and one of the other most looked forward to events, the "living room picnic"

 

The living room picnic was born out of necessity.  I don't own a dinner table any more as I live alone and the table I used to have took up too much space.  So, when my nieces started coming over, I invented the living room picnic as a means of both protecting my carpet as well as making for super easy clean up.  Best of all, my nieces love it! So, we settled down to watch Disney's Tangled and feasted on dinosaur chicken nuggets. (Which I had to assure Eva were merely shaped like dinosaurs and not made of them. I think she thought she was getting a much more exotic dinner than she had anticipated)

 

 

Audrey, my brother's youngest, enjoyed the movie from my lap for a bit.

 

 

This was her first time staying at Auntie's without Mommy and Daddy.  Eva has always been little miss people person, but Audrey has taken her own time getting comfortable without Mom and Dad. She is a bit like her Auntie Janelle in this regard and likes to do things on her own terms, when she is ready. :) She did so well! She had a minor breakdown when they first left, but quickly recovered and joined in on the fun.  They are both adorable and polite girls and I love when they come over to visit!

 

I know, I know...you're wondering about the pajama pants.  Its really a totally unrelated matter. (other than that the adventures with my nieces left me worn out and slightly unmotivated to come up with a cool new project) Ever since I started my etsy shop, and word got out that I could sew, several people have approached me with things that they would like me to sew for them.  I try to say yes when I can, but it generally depends on how quickly people need the project and how much work I have for etsy stuff and making sure to schedule in some me time as well.

 

When a close family friend approached me with a Christmas project I couldn't help but add her request to my list.  My friend Jill has known me since I was born and though her kids are a hand full of years younger than me, we have all grown up around each other.  When she asked me if I would make her four children each a pair of pajama pants in a print that each of them would like, I of course said yes.  A few weeks ago, the two of us went shopping and picked out fabric prints for each kid.

 

 

The following week, I got them all cut out and was just waiting on measurements for each kid so i could get started on the actual sewing part.  I was cracking up when Jill text me saying that she hadn't forgotten to get me the measurements, but was still desperately trying to locate her missing tape measure.  I had to laugh and tell her that that exact problem was the reason I have so many tape measures in my own house.  When I would purchase another and then loose one, I would purchase a replacement and then of course, would find the one I had lost.  It is both frustrating and awesome to now have at least 5 of them in my house, HaHa. It will be some time (hopefully) before I have that problem again.

 

Tuesday became pajama pant assembly day.

 

 

 

We chose this McCall's pattern.  Pajama pants are, I would say, one of the more simple clothing items to sew and most patterns for them are pretty much the same.  We chose this pattern mostly because it was on sale.  But seriously, the hardest part of these pants was turning the drawstring tube to the right side out.  Tuesday I got 3 of the 4 pair done, with the help of "Everybody loves Raymond".  I like to have some background noise while I sew.  My usual go-to is FRIENDS.  I know each episode backwards and forward so it cuts down on my distraction level when I am trying to actually accomplish something. Anyways, "Everybody loves Raymond" (along with my new blue-ray player that plays back to back episodes of TV shows automatically on Netflix) is my new jam!

 

 

After running some errands on Wednesday morning, I came home and set out to finish the last pair.  I finished all but the hem and threading the drawstring before my boyfriend called me to meet him in half an hour for a showing of Catching Fire, which I have been DYING to see.  So I decided that was a good stopping point and headed to the movie theatre.  So, once again, I leave you with an only mostly finished project. :(  But such is life....at least in my world. I am really happy though that this project will be done well before Christmas so I won't be in a huge last minute rush to get them done as it gets closer.  I have a couple custom orders from my shop to do this week as well, so one more project out of the way is definitely a good thing! And, despite the craziness of it all sometimes, I am so thankful for living room picnics and pajama pants and I wouldn't trade them for anything. 



 



There's no place like home....for my patterns

As often as I have wished I could simply click my heels and magically transport my ever growing pile of sewing patterns to their own organized home, it became ultimately clear to me that I was going to have to solve this disorganization dilemma the old fashioned way.  So, I began searching for potential storage options.  Of course, there are a plethora of choices out there.  What I really wanted was something that would be uniquely mine and not just a generic box.  Never one to shy away from endless lists of projects, this one jumped right to the top!

I concluded that the solution for me was not only simple, but budget friendly and ,surprisingly enough, found at my local Office Max. When turned to one side, their half size hanging file folder boxes are the perfect size to fit patterns. Who knew?

 

They are available in a 6 pack for around 12 dollars and come in options of either white or craft paper brown.  I went with the white ones as I thought it would better showcase the decorative additions I had planned.  The boxes assemble easily (and come with easy instructions for the spatially challenged crafter like myself) and within no time, were ready to be decorated.

 

My plan was to take them from boring plain white to fantastic by decopage-ing old pattern pieces to them. (Don't worry, for all you vintage pattern enthusiasts out there, they were all orphaned pieces from incomplete patterns that needed a new purpose in life)  As cool looking as the pattern piece collage  alone would look, I felt it might need an additional pop of color.  I decided it would be adorable to incorporate the pattern envelope images from my favorite clothing era as well.  I adore 1940's-1950's fashion! It has such a classy simplicity to it and I cannot get enough. I found a fellow Etsy seller from whom I purchased the orphaned pattern pieces and envelopes. My Mom also sent me a few envelopes she had found out her local thrift store. Wyoming thrift stores, we have discovered, are far superior to those here in So-Cal and it has become commonplace for me to ask my Mom to search for things that are a rarer find here. Once all my pattern supplies arrived, it was time to get started.

 

To begin with, I sorted through the pattern pieces and gathered up a good variety of sizes and paper shades.  For some of the larger pieces, I cut them into smaller sections, or kept the most visually interesting sections.  Since patterns do tend to have a fair amount of negative space, I stuck to sections that had more writing on them.  It was important to me to maintain the obvious pattern look rather than end up with a tan colored box.

 

Many of the pattern envelopes had a fair amount of damage.  In an effort to preserve the pattern envelope look while getting rid of some of the damage, I decided it would be best to trim them.  Not trusting myself to take scissors directly to such wonderful vintage treasures, I cautiously traced cutting outlines for myself first. This also allowed me to get a better visual on what my cut out would look like PRIOR to any actual cutting.

 

Once I had all my envelopes cut out, I gathered up the rest of my supplies.  A jar of mod-podge and some sponge brushes (available at any craft store) a paper cup for easier mod-podge "painting" and some scissors.  I spread a few sheets of waxed paper on my sewing room floor (I figured this gave me tons of space and easy clean up) and began.

 

 



I picked a side to start on and a grabbed a suitable pattern piece. I found that the best method was to spread a thin layer of mod-podge in the general area of the piece then press the piece down with my fingers.  Much like, say putting a screen protector on a phone or computer screen, its best to start at one end and work your way across the piece, making sure to flatten out as many wrinkles/bubbles as possible.

 

 

 

Once I had a piece sufficiently flattened, I went over it with a topcoat of mod-podge, making sure to anchor down all of the edges. I continued adding pieces, overlapping each piece slightly to cover all of the white areas.  At the top edges, I made sure to leave some excess and wrapped it over the edge, into the inside, and anchored it down with a coat of mod-podge as well. 

 

 

I used the same process with the pattern envelope images once the entire box was covered with pattern pieces.  I did find that a thicker top coat of mod-podge was neccesary for them. They are made with a much thicker paper and I was concerned that edges might be more likely to pop up as they dried. Since mod-podge dries clear, I was not too concerned and went ahead and gave them a thicker layer. For the holes in the front of the boxes, I simply cut the insides of the circular hole into triangles (like cutting pie slices) but left them attached on the outside. Then I pushed the triangles through to the inside and added a dab of mod-podge to secure them in place.

 

 

My classic beauties of  the pattern storage world now live quite happily above my new fabric hutch.

 

 

As you can see, I have only finished 3 of the 6 boxes (sadness!) The rest I plan to finish this week (fingers crossed) but due to a custom order from my Etsy shop, I had slightly less time than planned for this particular project.

 

 

None the less, my sewing space is coming along quite nicely.  Each new detail I add brings me one step closer to the sewing room of my dreams!





"It won't take forever!"

That was my smarty pants response to my boyfriend when he declared that my latest adventure would take us forever to finish. Well. . .a little less than 4 months later, I am happy to report that I was only sort of wrong. (yes, I said the "W" word. . .shhh don't tell him!)

In early August of this year, I began a search for the perfect fabric storage system for my sewing room. I was not quite sure what I wanted but I knew that I wanted it to showcase the fabrics themselves. While being given a "tour" of my boyfriend's Mom's sewing room, I absolutely fell in love with her storage solution. She uses an old china cabinet and I just adore the way her beautiful stacks of fabric are visible. It really brings such a warmness to her creative space.

I decided that this was it. I had to have something like this too! Once word got out that I wanted a cabinet of my own, a friend of mine told me that that antique store by her house was selling a china cabinet that had been painted a beautiful aqua color. This was particularly intriguing to me due to my fascination with the color aqua. My vintage Singer sewing machine is a fantastically retro shade of aqua that I have been in love with since the day it was given to me. So of course, as soon as I had my heart set on this aqua wonder, it was sold to someone else. Major bummer!

Determined to have my aqua china cabinet, I pressed on and along with my best Internet searching friend, began scouring the pages of Craigslist in search of a suitable replacement. We succeeded! We found one in great condition, not too far from my house and within my price range. After giving it a good once over, and hearing about how it was hand made by the owner's grandfather, I was sold. Now came the fun part!

We promptly moved it into my boyfriend's parents backyard to begin the real work. (this option offered way more working space than my second floor one bedroom apartment balcony) Step one was to sand off the old stained surface in preparation for painting. Even using electric sanders, this took us several days and was quite the work out! We got it all rough sanded and then went over everything again with a fine sand to finish it off.

During all this sanding, we noticed that there was a pretty detailed trim piece that connected the top part of the cabinet to the base. By the time we noticed this piece, neither of us really felt like breaking out the hand sander and sanding all the intricate grooves of this piece. Lets just say it didn't take much twisting of my arm for me to agree to rip off the old trim piece and buy a new section of trim that was already ready for paint. I was already chomping at the bit to get to the REALLY fun part of painting anyways. So, we found a suitable piece and my boyfriend's Dad cut it to fit. We nailed it on, filled up the gaps with some wood caulking and we were good to go!

I had gathered a handful of paint chips ahead of time to try to match the perfect aqua with my sewing machine. Suddenly I thought, rather than search for a close match with an already existing color, why not create an exact match? So, we lugged my 40-some odd pound sewing machine to my local home depot and had them make paint that matched my sewing machine EXACTLY! I was so happy! I chose a coral color (Behr light sandstone) for the inside shelving area to add a pop of color. And since my dream job has always been to be a color namer, (for nail polish or paints- come on, you have bought a nail polish just because you liked the name at least once right?)I decided to call my newly matched color "1950's kitchen appliance aqua" (clearly we now know why I am not a professional color namer)

While at The Home Depot, I also picked out some new hardware. I was not crazy about the metal accent pieces and didn't know how well they would mesh with my "1950's kitchen appliance aqua". Also, I am totally a silver girl when it comes to metal. So, before sanding, I removed all the metal accents. I wanted hardware that was clean but not too simple and yet, fancy enough to be feminine and still not distract from the feature of the piece. I thought these pieces fit the bill perfectly.

Painting took a few days as well. The inside was a little too tight of a space to use the roller efficiently, what with all the rungs for the shelving getting in the way. So, I did the inside with a brush. It was slightly more tedious but I thought it would look more consistent than having both brush strokes and roller marks. The outside however, I did exclusively with a roller.

And last but not least came the doors. The glass in the door frames was very old and warped. When we pulled the pieces out ,to make painting easier, small pieces of glass flaked off and it was sooo thin! We decided that due to my extreme tendency toward clumsiness and general safety for my nieces etc, to go ahead and replace the glass. I took it to a local glass shop and they had them good as new the next day. Once that was done, there was nothing left to do but move it in! (oh and keep my fingers crossed that my fabric stash would fit inside)

Don't you just love it? I adore the fact that I can see all of my fabrics, and am impressed with myself that there is still room to grow my fabric collection. It certainly took a lot of help from friends to get it finished but I couldn't be happier with the end product. Was it worth it, you may ask? Well, lets just say that to have a finished product that is exactly what I wanted in every way, even if it HAD taken forever, I would have kept at it. :)