2009: Year of the Quilt

While I was reading everyone's fun posts about all the sewing projects they accomplished in 2008 I began thinking about what the heck I did during the entire year.  I certainly wasn't making quilts.  It's not like I didn't do anything.  I finished the quilt for my friend's baby, Owen, and I made a tree skirt and stockings.  I finished a quilt top and I at least made a valiant effort to finish my quilt-a-long blocks (some day I'll finish, I promise!).   I also made an apron that I never wear.  Thruthfully, I don't like it.  That is why I never posted about it. 

Then it dawned on me.  I spent the first half of the year planning my wedding.  Then I spent the summer going to 5 other weddings.  Then I spent the rest of the year decorating my home.  First was the bathroom, then the master bedroom.  Finally, during my "Christmas Break" I spent a large chunk of time painting our living room and kitchen. 

I also made some curtains.  See?  They're not quite done yet. 

 
But this year, I tell ya, I'm going to do some quilting.  I have two in the works now.  That will be for another day though. 

The Cause of Crafty Burnout

 

No, our home is usually not this messy...

Missing from this picture, the bookshelf that used to be my dresser...

In addition to having an incredibly busy summer, I have been working on tackling the task of turning a very white bachelor pad into a wonderfully decorated home.  This picture is of our bedroom.  Since we were so busy and gone almost every weekend this summer, this project was a weeknight only project.  I realize now that I was pretty ambitious. 

Shortly after we got married we purchased a bedroom set.  We were told that if the furniture was in stock or would be 4-6 weeks and if it needed to be built it would be 10-12.  Not a very specific window there.  What it did mean was that I needed to get moving on painting.  I had ths initial idea of putting up a chair molding instead of the brown band around the room, but that got nixed in the early stages.  So I set off on making our bedroom a white, blue, and brown wonderland.  Devoting a couple hours here and a few hours there.  Six weeks later, we got the phone call saying our furniture was in.  Naturally since we hadn't finished painting.  The heat was on- we had 4 evenings to finish our painting.  The night before our furniture was supposed to be delivered we finished up all of the touchups and at last had a painted room. 

And this is how my ambitious, weeknight-only bedroom painting project left me wanting to do nothing that required creativity for awhile.

Home Improvement Project #1

A couple weekends ago Shawn and I started our first home improvement project: painting one of the bathrooms. Shawn bought our condo about 3 years ago and as with any good bachelor pad, there has been a minimal amount of decorating done since then. When I moved in, I was essentially gaining a blank canvas. So it is now my project to find ways to decorate.

When I was registering for wedding gifts I found this fabulous shower curtain at Crate and Barrel. I was quite excited when one of my coworkers asked me what I wanted specifically from Crate and Barrel. The practical side of me whispering that I should request the silverware lost and I am now the proud owner of the shower curtain.

From there I found some great bamboo bathroom accessories: soap dispenser, trash can, and Kleenex box cover. Also while registering, I became a sucker to the bamboo items. One of the women who helped us gave us this shpeel about how bamboo is a very renewable resource. Now I wouldn't claim that I am ordinarily an environmentally conscious person, but for some reason I got hooked on bamboo. It look nice AND was environmentally friendly. How could a girl go wrong?

And lastly, I decided to paint the bathroom a dark green. I thought the white shower curtain and the bamboo would accent nicely. We went to Sherwin-Williams and got some samples to test a couple colors. I finally decided on "Overt Green" but when I opened up the gallon we purchased I was nervous.

It was so bright and lime green looking. Thankfully it darkened up and turned out the color we hoped.

I'm pleased with how it turned out.