Playing With Colors

No big post here except to say that everyone should check out Kuler.

Image borrowed from incolororder.blogspot.com, a great blog that lead me to the site

Stupid spelling aside, I am impressed so far.  I just read about it on another blog and I think it might be a great tool for sewing and decorating.

I'm trying to decide how to redecorate (or, well, decorate in the first place) our bedroom, but I've been completely stumped when it comes to choosing colors.  I want to make a quilt, but need to have inspiration first.

This could be a total time suck.

Collecting and Arranging

It's been such a busy few weeks around here that I haven't gotten much done.  Work's been going very well and I've gotten such kind feedback following my promotion, even a few rounds of applause!  Last week was the busiest of busy, with four client meetings, an event with a senior Member of Congress, and another event with a member of the President's Cabinet.  Not bad for the first week on the job!

While I do enjoy being busy, it doesn't give me a lot of time to blog or things to blog about.  I have gotten one thing accomplished, though!  I think our wedding photographer had given up on us, but we've finally made some progress with our wedding album.  As part of our contract, he's creating an album for us and we have input into his photo selections and layout.  That's awesome, right up until the time we're supposed to actually make those decisions.  We kept putting off that task until early December, when we made a bunch of revisions which included formatting that he was able to understand.  Then Tom and I both got so very sick and then school and then work and then, well...you know. Suddenly it's March.  I realized over the weekend that if we didn't get this done soon, it would be another busy wedding season and our photographer wouldn't have time for us.  So, I spent last night arranging and rearranging.

creative mess

I loved looking through all of our beautiful photos; laughing at some, shaking my head at others, and smiling at many.  However, I did not love making decisions.  Fortunately, I had some help.

Hopefully I'll also have some help putting away this mess tonight.  Fingers crossed I'll have a beautiful album to share soon!

In Progress

We'll be headed to Connecticut in a few weeks to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday.  I don't recall ever having a birthday party for Gram before, but everyone is excited that she's consented a celebration this year.  As I understand it, there will be a party with all of her friends and neighbors on Saturday afternoon and then our family will go to brunch on Sunday morning before making the long treks homeward.

I always have such a hard time deciding on gifts for Gram.  There is just so little she needs and I always end up going back to the standbys:  book, scarf, or journal.  We don't always agree on books, though, and how many scarves does one person need?*  As for journals, though I always thought she enjoyed writing down her thoughts, I recently learned that she finds them too intimidating. 

For Christmas this year, I decided I would try to do the retired home ec teacher proud and made her a robe.  She had made robes for all of her grandkids years ago, so I thought she'd enjoy one of her own.  Verdict's still out on that one, but I have a feeling she didn't like the fabric choice.

So, all this long-winded background is to say that I wanted to find a good gift for her birthday this year and I optimistically think I did it. 

Important background:  among the millions of other old things she has laying around her house, Gram has four framed silhouettes hanging in her dining room.  They look something like this:

photo from a site called antiquesandfinearts.com.  Those are not my ancestors.

The people in silhouette are ancestors of ours, a man and woman and their two daughters.  I think of of the daughters is a great, great, great grandmother.  Gram has always really liked these prints and often points them out.  I got to thinking about them and realized that she'd probably appreciate similar prints of her family.  I quickly realized that it would take a whole wall to have individual prints of all of her kids and grandkids; however, miniatures would work. 

So that's how I came up with this:

family silhouettes, a work in progress

Using Photoshop, I've been able to outline and fill pictures of family members in profile.  As you can see, I've got a ways to go and lots of tweaking necessary, but so far I'm pretty pleased.  Fingers crossed that I get pictures from everyone else and that it all comes together soon.  And that she'll like it!

*Classy lady that she is, though, she always wears them when I'm around.  See photos of my bridal shower for evidence.

Molly's Quilt Completed

Molly's colorful quilt

This was a fun quilt to put together because all the fabrics are so soft and cuddly and it's pretty different from many of the other quilts I've made. I went with vibrant colors because Molly's nursery has a ladybug theme and I thought they would tie in nicely. I also added some leftover white seersucker fabric from my stash which I think adds some nice texture to the quilt. The back is a very soft flannel. It's about 40" x 40", which will hopefully be a good size for laying out on the floor and, later, a crib.

Molly's Quilt

I started a new project last night. Not for my overachieving, aggressive friend, but for a sweet new baby, born today. Baby Molly will be going home to a nursery with a ladybug theme. I couldn't find many fabric options with ladybugs, so I stuck with pretty primary colors. I hope she'll like it!

Frugal Style

First of all, you should know that  Mandi has an awesome apartment.  Andimay, we loved the neighborhood.  So cute and so walkable!  I would love to learn more about the area and some of the old buildings.  Probably a great history!  Also, I really am impressed by how much space you have for a city apartment and I think you've done a great job at finding furniture that's comfortable and "you."

So, yes, the walls are bare, but you'll find the perfect things soon enough.  Bare walls will always beat the hell out of soulless Target "art." As promised, I'm posting a few pictures of some of our decorations that we've done for super cheap.  By super cheap, I mean big coupons at Michael's for the frames.  The fabrics are ones that I had laying around.  You are welcome to my fabric stash, but you can also get your own for less than $8 per yard.

So, let's have a quick little tour, shall we?

You've probably seen this fabric before.  

This hangs above our bed.  We hung it there in the old apartment because there was so much wall space above the bed and we couldn't afford any big paintings or prints.  In our new apartment we still have a lot of wall space above the bed, but here we have the added headache of a cable jack positioned about two feet above our headboard.  My "art" solves that dilemma too.  I sewed together 5 in squares of various fabrics into rows and sewed those rows together.  Iron and then you're set.  Pretty simple. 

Our newest wall hangings are in the living room, where we've been completely stymied on decorating.  

I'm not sure if these will stick around forever, but at least they add some color to the wall.  Again, cheap frames made cheaper by a coupon at Michaels.  The fabrics are the same ones I used to make the pillow cases.

As for the Steelers decorations, well, they were cheap too, but they won't be sticking around too long.

Filling Up (Other) Walls

I have found a few things for my office.  Love this new painting I bought from a fellow G'burger!

While the view is nice, it's just so gross and gray this time of year.  Please feel free to send some of your massive snow piles here.

PS:  I should definitely work on the photography skills...

Filling Up the Walls

Tom and I have collected tons of photos and prints and inexpensive art over the years.  Six months ago, we were living in an apartment that had completely run out of wall space because of this collection, and my office was also filled.  Six months later, we're living in a new apartment and I have a new office.  Somehow, the walls are practically bare in both places.

I've gotten really sick of looking at blank walls, especially in my office.  One wall is almost entirely windows and the view is terrific, but the other three walls are very, very beige.  It's awful.  I've started trying to find new decorations for the office.  Somehow, I stumbled on this poster, which I really like:

Created by Ork Posters (they also have a Boston version!)

It arrived a few days ago, and I think it's perfect.  Unfortunately (for my office), it was snatched up for apartment use before it even made it to the office.  Oh well, I'll find something else for that blank wall.

Using Up Some Scraps

I'm really trying to use up some of my old scrap fabric (this is an open invitation for requests!). Unlike many quilters I see online, I try to avoid stock pilin fabric. We just don't have the room. However, even if I'm being careful to only buy fabric I need, there's always some left over. It's not the worst problem in the world. I like looking at the pretty colors and remembering what I used them for, but if I'm not careful, it will get out of hand. Plus, I always want to get some new stuff.

Gram Would Be Proud

I was so happy when I finally finished this project a few months ago. This rocking chair belonged to my Grandma Swanson. She bought the chair when she moved into a new apartment after my grandfather had died (I guess around 1993) and she was so proud of it. I think it was pretty symbolic for her. It definitely wasn't something Grandpa would have chosen; it wasn't a Lazy Boy and the original mauve cushions were certainly not his style. But it was perfect for Gram and her new apartment that was filled with shades of old lady mauve.