My Felt Doll Cont...

Some of the things I've been up to lately.

Savannah's "new" dresser. We have an old house with tiny rooms, so since Savannah was born we have had shelves in her closet for all of her clothes. It's been messy. We got this old used dresser a long time ago, it was an ugly brown color and I pained it yellow when Nolan was born. "Only a poor man can afford cheap paint" as my grandpa said. Well, it peeled. When I decided to use it for Savannah, I thought I would get the paint off with paint remover, 2 coats later, no deal. I bought myself a black and decker palm sander (best gift ever) it took 2 hours and I was ready to paint.

My go to paints lately have been Minwax polyshades classic black satin and Behr Acrylate white. I put these on all my furniture and the white is amazing for trim and high temp steam radiators.

She picked out the handles from Hobby Lobby. They are awesome, just not the color I was hoping for since we will be painting her room soon. (more drop ceiling work)

I have also been spackling and sanding the ceilings in my living and dining rooms, what a pain (seriously) almost done, then those rooms can finally be painted.

The Felt Doll pattern comes with a bear and Savannah just couldn't wait until I made it. So here she is. I custom made the dress. I had to pin it to the doll as well as glue the slippers to the doll because my children are little monsters. Nolan was already caught ripping out her hair.

This is a quilt I have been working on for a while, it is very challenging for me. The pieces are tiny and for someone who hasn't really had any experience in this area it's complicated. It is the Fancy Forrest Quilt. I have done the Bunnies, and the hedgehogs and I have to finish these owls before I can start anything new because once you stop with these it's hard to pick them back up, you kinda get into a rhythm and its easy to lose the pieces and forget which piece goes to which block.

I have a lot of things I want to do before Christmas so time to get to work.

Pillows

I guess you can' say I have been spoiling Savannah lately. My sewing has been all about her, but she is totally worth it. 

My house is a wreck with the master suite renovation still going on (yes is said still, 2 years and counting) so I have been updating things here and there. I've been obsessed with pillows lately. I made myself a bolster and a few throw pillows for my bed (forgot to take pictures) and I made a few for Savannah also.

I bought this My Little Pony fabric a few months ago and could not figure out what to do with it so I stitched up the quilted tote from the Fresh Fabric Treats book. I still need to put a stabilizer in the bottom.

When I was on the NJ Quilt Shop Hop I found this adorable Queen Coral panel at The Quilted Nest in Collingswood. It was so easy to make, it all comes on a panel of fabric with the directions written on the panel. You just cut, sew and stuff. She has a seahorse friend, pillow, blanket, skirt and mermaid tail. According to Savannah the tail is her Pajamas and the skirt is for the daytime.

Savannah named her Stella Bo

Now we move on the the Let's go Fly a kite pillow. This was a pattern I found at a quilt shop a while ago. The cover is envelope style so you can make several to go with the seasons. 

The flying geese blocks in the corners were so much fun to make, I had never made an actual quilt block before, the directions were very simple. 

I had two issues with this pattern. One was that there is no pre made pillow form to go with this size pillow so I had to make the pillow form (not hard just annoying) I saw a pillow at walmart the other day that was 17" X 36" So next time I will try to make the pillowcase to that size.

Next issue was the quilting. It's not necessary but suggested. I attempted free motion quilting and was not successful, so not knowing what I was getting myself into I decided to hand quilt. I drew traced the design accidentally using a non washable embroidery pen (why would that exist?) then used a backstitch because I didn't like the look of the traditional stitch. It took about 2-3 weeks. 

Lastly I made a large 24" pillow, and a standard pillowcase with more of the Moda Coral fabric I found.

A little about my life these past few months. 

I have been sparkling the entire new addition (it is a finished attic so think the whole length and width of the house) It has been taking forever, not only have I never done this before but i'm a perfectionist. I was enjoying the change of pace for about 4 weeks then it just got old. I am in the sanding process now and that is just messy and hot but i'm almost done. Jake has been working on tiling the new shower, it's nice to get to work with him. He is doing a great job, just finished grouting and it looks amazing (pictures to come soon)

Savannah "graduated" pre-school but not really because she is going back. It's not an easy decision to keep her out of kindergarten another year but we feel that it will be good for her. 

Nolan is potty training. He is 2 1/2 and had been asking me every time we were out to use the potty so we went for it. I started out just staying at home and reminding him every 30 minutes or so, then someone told me about the Potty Training 123 book. I didn't read the book but there is a short video on youtube that goes with it. It helped so much, I wish I had heard about it sooner. No he wasn't accident free after 2 days like everyone in the video said, but it's not so bad. 2nd child syndrome has kicked in and I just don't care as much this time about the accidents. I had Savannah in pull ups for about a year because I couldn't stand it and that just prolonged things. He was good through naps and night after 3 days but has since reverted. And only 1 or 2 accidents in the past week. He mostly tells me but I still remind him during play time. 

Organization tips, fall decor and crochet headband

Fall has arrived, the weather here in Jersey has been pretty cool and weather changes bring crochet desires.  

I made Savannah this double strand crochet headband. for the bow, For the headband

Remember that last tutorial? I decided to use the polyshades on this picture frame also. It was brown before.

My fall decor needed a little updating and Michael's was having a great sale so I made this outdoor planter for my front porch. I got the flower pot free, put in a green floral foam block and bought a whole bunch of artificial fall bouquet's and a bag of decorative pumpkins and gourds. The pumpkins and gourds are attached with a thin piece of copper wire. It cost less than $20 to make.

My husband and I have always been big on finding great clearance deals. He got this plant stand on clearance at Lowe's. It always drove me nuts because it was ugly and took up space. I has a glass top with suction cups that hold on the legs, it also had a tall plant light with a pot that fit on top. I gave away the plant light, covered up the table with a piece I made a long time ago and decided to use it to display some pictures in my living room that have never really had a home. This adds a great look to the living room.

If you can't tell I've been going crazy tying to get my house organized and looking a little more updated.

We have 3 closets in our house and this one shown is the biggest of the 3. They are not big enough for a decent shoe rack and don't hold more than 3 winter coats. Old house problems!

Jake found these awesome and strong little shelves at Target for around $17, they were meant for the basement but it fits perfectly in the nook of this closet and It holds the 3 diaper bags I have to have, my shopping totes, the boxes of crafts for the kids, and all my mailing stuff for eBay.

 This is another great organization tip. I keep gift bags that are given to us for birthdays etc... only the ones in great condition (those bags are expensive) and store them in this inexpensive rubbermaid tote. It also holds tissue paper and gift tags.

 Then I hung a large gift bag from a hanger for all the large gift bags and overflow.

I'm in the process of painting my outdated metal front and back doors. It's coming out great, will post again soon, Lord willing.

Electric fireplace makeover

 Jake got this electric fireplace on the side of the road about 2 years ago. What a great find! it was in perfect condition and even works. I'm not too great at the before and after stuff since I spontaneously re-do things. The center part was brass, it was an eye sore and just recently I have been getting better at decorating and figuring out what my style is.

 After:

 I wanted the wood to be dark and a friend told me to use gel stain. Just an FYI it is impossible to find gel stain. I stripped and sanded the wood and after all that work, Jake told me it was a wood veneer and it became so thin after all the work I put into it that the wood probably won't take the stain. I tried an espresso colored oil based stain, and that was just a waste of time.

 Then after going all over town looking for gel stain I found this amazing stuff called PolyShades at Home Depot. It is oil based polyurethane and stain all in one but works like the gel stain in that it covers more than penetrates the wood, but without the mess of having to wipe off excess. I only used 2 coats and it comes in many traditional stain colors and satin or glossy.
 I would say this is the best stuff to use on a wood veneer. You do not have to sand first.
 I used the classic black in Satin and I still got a lot of wood grain showing through.