boy!

He was 5 days late, 5 excruciating days, but now he’s here and part of the family. This second son of mine is modeling his “if I make it the baby will come” outfit that I made in that last week of pregnancy. I stole pants and hat idea from Made by Rae, because I literally could have no other thoughts that week besides, “it’s it time yet? now? now is going to happen?”The hat reverses to a pink stripe because we didn’t know if it was a little man or a little lady. The pants are from an old tank top that is  super lightweight because it’s August and should be hot, right? The Midwest has decided what the hell let’s have fall early this year.

The booties I actually started when I was in labor and finished up this past week. They’re from the same pattern I made for a friend’s baby and they are just so stinking cute. And now I have a whole Von Trapp matching family!

No baby yet (two days overdue and counting) but this is pretty damn exciting. I’m in a calendar! and I’m not naked in it! This is a pretty fantastic calendar, one I might even pick up if I wasn’t in it–and I’m pretty cheap, I mean I draw my own calendars monthly. There are so many fantastic projects in here:  two each week. It’s just the right amount because you could actually do two little sewing projects each week.  And there are so many fantastic bloggers in here like Ellen from the long thread, Alicia from the Mayfly, Dawn from UK lass in the US, and the listed of talent just goes on and on.  I’ve got 2 projects in the calendar: the tin can cover (hey look it’s on the cover!) and the post office bag, oh wait I found another in there, the half eaten gingerbread man (all my tutorials are here, if you are interested). I can’t believe I’m thinking about Christmas yet, but I am, and this would make a great gift for a lot of people on my list. I have no idea if it’s in stores yet, or what stores it will be in, but if I see it in one I will surely freak out and tell everyone I know.

There might not be much sewing going on in these parts, but there are little home fix-it things happening every day. Nothing like having a baby to make you fix the damn doorknob already (thank you, dear).  This little, vaguely eames, coat rack is in our bathroom–making it a towel rack really, but whatever. The idea is all Martha and it came from her book “Simple Home Solutions,” which I’m sure your local library has and you should check it out. I canceled my subscription to Living a few years ago because it seemed they just started recycling ideas over and over again. Turns out they picked the good ones and put them in this book and a few more might just show up here.

There were quite a few steps to make these simple looking hooks. When I bought the hooks at my awesomely helpful Ace hardware I asked them to hack off the tips of both the hooks (if you have a hacksaw you could do this yourself). Then I spray painted them white, because I didn’t know I wanted them white until after I got them home (they sell white ones, so I could have saved myself some inhaled fumes).  My husband helped me drill a hole in each wood ball–Martha doesn’t tell you how big the hole should be, but when you jam the ball on the end of the hook it should just fit. Then I painted and shellacked all the balls, fretted about the arrangement, and hung the suckers up. I have two more lower down for the kids that aren’t quite done yet, but they will get done unless I have this baby sometime soon. Yup, still pregnant over here even though I’m due today (hear that baby?!). Grannyma took the kids for a couple days, so all we are doing here is waiting. Quietly waiting.

Speaking of kids and Martha Stewart. This is project I wanted to do, but I don’t live near a place with lots of beautiful flat rocks and my local craft store didn’t really have that great of a selection. We actually bought our daughter dominoes for that “the new baby is here” present. Dominoes are a fantastic toy for preschoolers and I thought I’d share this project with all of you who live near a rocky shore, unlike us land locked Midwesterners.

This chair has had a blanket casually draped over it–hiding that big ol’ rip–for quite a while now.  It was getting pretty annoying, so I finally formulated a plan to fix it. I saw this fantasticly awesome patch job on flickr a long time ago and have been wanting to do something like it ever since.  You might remember the weird S&M vinyl sewing action here a few weeks ago, well it became a loooong strip of black vinyl hexagons (not paper pieced, I’m not that insane, you can sort of half ass hexagons on your sewing machine–see all those wrinkles? yeah, half ass).

and then using an obscene amount of glue I patched the hole. And it worked!

This chair was a trash pick by someone else and then a gift (to me!) when they moved out of town. It feels good to breath new life into it, for a few more years at least.

And for all of you who have so kindly emailed asking: no, no baby yet. I’ve been slowly loosing my mind the last few weeks and now I’ve just given up. I will be pregnant forever. Granted I’m not due until Monday, but all the signs are there and besides haven’t I been pregnant long enough? shesh.  Oh well, bring on the spicy food and sappy movies!

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything thrift related, so here you go. I found this great matching game at the (smelly) thrift store in my home town. It was pretty much the only good thing in the entire store. I’m sure it’s handmade: just cut paper decoupaged onto little wooden tiles. The box is, I think, made from wood trim.  My super talented friend made a set like this a while ago only it was painted, but they stuck together and got all messed up. I’ve always wanted her to do more (hear that Lily?) because they were so, so beautiful, but I’ll have this little set until she does.  Or rather my kids will.

This is just an ikea lamp, but one I’ve actually wanted for a long time. It’s called Jonisk and shesh! it’s 50 bucks at Ikea (no wonder I never bought it). I got it for 5 at my mom’s thrift store. I didn’t think there was really room for it in my house–these days the word is purge, not hoard–but I made a place for it in the dining room and it works quite nicely, thankyouverymuch. It’s indirect, glowly light and on a dimmer to boot. perfect.

And this is just some awesome faux cross stitch fabric that will be a skirt when I have a waist again.