The Guest Room / Office

We have family coming in from out of town, and since my sewing room is temporarily in the second bedroom, we changed a few things around in the office to make a guest room.

I know I've only shown a few "in-progress" photos of this room, so here's a little recap:

The Before photo (dark mauvey pink carpet, yellow walls and ceiling, and oak trim):

And how it looks now with Orla Kiely inspired wall painting, hardwood floors, Moda's Wonderland fabrics, Ikea furniture, and new crown moldings and trim:

We decided that we really didn't need a desk, since we both use laptops, so the desk was moved to the basement. We did need the file cabinet, though, and were able to find one at Ikea that could double nicely as a side table.

Hubby outfitted the closet with shelves and outlets to hold the printer, cables, phone station, and wi-fi thingy.

The room is quite small, and since we rarely have over-night company, we went with a sofa bed. Again from Ikea, this one opens easily into a queen size bed. And with the addition of a pillowtop mattress pad it is really comfortable!

That's about it for this room. Still trying to get the living room into a workable arrangement. I'm not really happy with it, yet, but I did cozy it up a bit for fall. As soon as I can get some decent pictures, I'll share it with you. :-)

I'll be sharing this room make-over at Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday.

Vintage Floral Velvets for Fall

Vintage printed velvets from the 1970's become new zip pouches. They are in pretty fall colors and have fun poppy and daisy floral designs. Available on Etsy and the website... more coming soon. :-)

Framing Fabric and Master Bed & Bath Photos

The walls in the master bedroom and bath were still pretty bare, but I couldn't really find any wall art or pictures that I liked. I did, however, have numerous fabrics that looked fabulous with the wall color and originally thought I would be sewing lots and lots of throw pillows.

Instead, I decided to frame some of those pretty fabrics to use on the walls. A lot faster than sewing and it fills the empty space...a win-win!

But first, lets take a look at what this room looked like when we began...


And this is where its at now...(Ikea Pax closet, Olympic's Blue Shamrock paint on the walls) I purchased a couple of Ribba Frames from Ikea and taped squares of fabric to the matting. So easy! In here, I framed one of Amy Butler's fabrics above the chair.

Click here for a previous post to see more photos detailing how we removed the old closet wall and installed the Ikea wardrobes.

I also picked up the new green lamp on the dresser up there at Pier 1.

I made the pillow on the bed using a lovely orange leaf fabric by Vicki Payne. While it was on sale, I bought several more yards to use elsewhere in the room...maybe for a new slipcover for the blue chair. Or possibly to edge the curtain panels.

And in the master bath, I framed a graphic yellow fabric by Premier Prints. I love this fabric and have it in several colorways!
And here is a Before picture of this room. Not a lot of changes in this room, yet. But a new vanity and flooring will happen eventually. For the wall color in the bath I mixed the same Blue Shamrock as the bedroom, with equal parts of white. The room is so small, I wanted something just a touch lighter.

Oh, and the little curtain in the bathroom is about the only thing I've had time to sew lately. I used a fun and colorful Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet print, orange grosgrain ribbon, and the white fabric left over from the bedroom curtains after I hemmed them.

I'm sharing this transformation over at Between Naps on the Porch.

Hope to be able to do more sewing projects soon. Have a great week, everyone!

Rustic Apple Tart and Blackberries

I know I should probably be making something with the fabulous peaches that are now available at the local orchard, but I was craving an apple dessert. I decided to keep it simple and throw together a rustic Apple Tart.

I used one of my favorite go-to ingredients, puff pastry (I always have some in the freezer). It makes a wonderful flakey crust. Remember the Cherry Cream cheese Danish?

Well this one was just as easy.

1. I just thawed the pastry and rolled it out a bit, placing it on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

2.Peeled, cored, and sliced 2 grannysmith apples and layed them in a pretty pattern.

3.Rolled up the outer edges of dough.

4.Then sprinkled the apples with a 1/4 cup of sugar and dotted with a 1/3 stick of butter. Because I had some beautiful blackberries from the garden, I added a few to the center.

5. Baked in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes.

6. In a small pan, I heated a couple of tablespoons of apricot preserves thinned with a little water, and brushed the top of the tart when it came out of the oven. (you could also use orange marmalade).

We had ours with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

And here are those gorgeous blackberries. They were on the property when we bought the new house. There are so many, we've been freezing some of them.

I'm sharing this recipe over at The Shabby Creek Cottage link party.

Tiny House Porch Addition

There has been so much going on lately that I completely forgot to share pictures of the Tiny House's recent face lift. The project started last summer (before we purchased and even found the new house) and it was something I had wanted for a long time...a front porch!

This is what the front looked like before. Your typical 1960-70's brick ranch, complete with the obligatory yew hedge.

Just a small stoop and no overhang to protect guests from the elements.
The blacktop driveway had seen better days.

The first stage of the project was to have a new concrete driveway and porch slab poured. The front hedge came out and a we installed a jar bubbler fountain under the window.

Then the porch was built and we started laying out where we would lay the paver walkways. A local garden center drew up landscaping plans for us (many places offer this as a free service knowing you'll likely spend lots of money on the plants).
We love the craftman style and tried to incorporate a little of that into the design of the porch supports. We gave the drawings to our contractor and he did a wonderful job building the structure.
And here it is now. We finished up the painting ourselves to save on money and put in the rest of the landscaping.

I'd still like to get a few more plants in and a couple of chairs with pretty pillows on the porch, but its a definite improvement. I'm a little sad that I never got to enjoy it while I lived here but,we've still got a bit of work to do before it goes on the market and we're just a few minutes down the road, so I plan on sitting out on my new front porch every chance I get. :-)

I'm sharing this project over at the Shabby Creek Cottage link party. And at Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday.

Its HOT!

It is crazy hot around here! 98 degrees with a heat index of 110. I'm not doing much out in the yard, but I did capture a few fun pictures.

This first one is of a large hawk that hangs out in our front tree from time to time. The robins and hummingbirds get so mad, that they gang up and chase him away before long.

I was also pleasantly surprised to discovered that the bush by the deck blooms! I think it might be Crepe Myrtle. If anyone recognizes it, let me know. :-)And the butterfly bush by the back door is a favorite hangout for both butterflies and the many hummingbirds we have in the area. I haven't been able to get a picture of the hummingbirds yet...they're fast!

I'm spending a lot of time right now at the tiny house filling nail holes, painting, and doing what I can to get it ready to sell. Most of the big projects are downstairs and require Hubby's construction skills, so they will have to wait until he has some free time. But, all of this work is seriously cutting into my blogging time. I hope to be able to catch up on all of the fun summer projects going on in blogland soon.

Stay cool, everyone and have a great week!

Feedsacks and Fabrics from the Flea Market

It has been a whirlwind of activity around here this summer. Besides having two fairly large yards to keep maintained, we have also had a baby shower at the new house, a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" get-together thrown by our sweet new neighbors, a big yard sale, a trip to the antique flea market, and hubby has completely disassembled and sold via Craigslist our large 225 gallon saltwater aquarium that was built into the wall of the basement family room of the old house. Whew!

Anyway...back to the main subject of this post...I found some wonderful feedsacks and vintage fabrics at the flea market in Lawrenceburg a few weeks ago. A couple of fun calicos from the 1970's.

A cute red and white gingham and a kind of boho floral, also form the 60-70's.

And these gorgeous feedsacks!

This one is my favorite; pink daisies, red polka dots, and an aqua background...could it get any better? :-)

The fabrics can be found on the website here .

And the feedsacks are available on the website here.

I have several projects I want to share including a painted cabinet make-over, as soon as I get some pictures taken. I am also going to need some help figuring out what to do with this living room arrangement. I'm stumped and in need of some serious Candice Olson magic.

Have a great weekend!