Carsen's Quilt: Inspiration

Up next in the big girl room is to make a quilt, bedskirt, and window valence. I've decided to make, rather than buy, a bedspread because Carsen has a daybed (as you can see here). One side of the bed is against the wall and the other side has a railing so she doesn't roll out. That leaves no room for a regular twin-sized bedspread to hang over the sides so it would be all bunched up on the bed. Instead, I thought making a blanket that fit the surface of the bed would work better... and be cheaper! Here's a preview of my inspiration, fabrics, and plan!

I am not a quilter, first of all. Rather than following an intricate pattern, I am much more likely to eyeball something, or see a picture of something and make up my own way of achieving that final product. I also have pretty simple taste when it comes to decor. Especially for a child's room, I don't want anything fussy. I'm not entering it in a quilting bee at the state fair, I just want something cute and functional. So when I set out on a Pinterest search to find inspiration for a DIY quilt, I was really happy to find a rag quilt that seemed to be exactly what I had in mind.

This is my inspiration photo... 

{Tutorial found here}

I like how the mixture of fabric patterns makes it casual, yet sweet. The rag seams also give it a casual and handmade look. I am making a couple of adjustments to this pattern. I've decided to use one single fabric on the back side of the quilt while using the different fabric patterns on the front, I only selected 4 different fabrics to use instead of 7, and my dimensions will be a little different from the tutorial since I'm making it to fit the surface of a twin-sized bed. The great thing about this tutorial is that it's easily adaptable. You can take the basic idea and then customize it however you'd like. 

So here are the fabrics I chose held up to the wall in her room. It's a really gray day, so you'll have to trust me {or check back here} that her walls are not that dull of a color.

Since my mom is more serious about her sewing and has some quilting tools, I'll be measuring and cutting my fabric strips at her house this weekend and then assembling my quilt next week. I am so so so excited about completing this piece of the room. Not only do I really feel like it will help tie things together and give the room a more finished look, but I love that she'll have a blanket handmade by me. Hopefully my craftsmanship will endure for many years to come so she can take it to college with her and later force her future husband to respect her desire to feature it on a rocking chair in their bedroom or something... hahaha :) A mom can dream, right?

The {Mostly} Finished Big Girl Room

Well here it is! The "Big Girl" room is finally done, save for a few small minor decorative details. OK, so yes that basically means it's only painted. But if you recall, that was my main goal for now. It may have taken a little longer than originally planned, but if you consider a handful of unforeseen snags in addition to working around a toddler who uses that room, I don't think I did half bad.

Just as a quick refresher, we started with plain walls. I added a board & batten wall treatment that I assembled myself, and then painted. I'll give basic tutorial info with each photo.

First things first, I went to Lowes and had them cut a 4'x8' sheet of MDF into strips. I asked for 8 strips 4" wide, and about 20 strips 2" wide x 39" tall. Lots of tutorials for this project that I've seen online were very reassuring that Lowes will do all of your cuts for you making your project a breeze. Ok, well as I was standing there after showing the kind gentlemen my diagram of how I wanted the 4'x8' sheet cut up, I noticed a sign that stated, "The first 2 cuts are free, for bigger jobs we sell saws in the Tool Department." Eeek! I felt horrible. The guys were super nice though and didn't even charge me. My advice though: don't go into Lowes assuming that they're happy to make 692 cuts for you because they're really not supposed to even if they will :-/  

I began by mitering the bottoms of my 2" vertical strips so that they weren't a blunt square edge where they met the baseboards. Then I went around the room and measured out where each one would go. This is when I did my leveling and just made a simple pencil mark on the wall so that when it was time to do the application it was pretty quick and easy (I did double check and re-level at that time though). Once that was done, I applied the strips to the walls with some adhesive (like Liquid Nails) and 3 brad nails each. Then I placed the 4" strips horizontally across the tops of the vertical strips to make a chair rail-like border around the room. After all the wood was applied I used wood putty and a molding caulk to fill in any gaps.

I used Lowes zero-VOC paint + primer in a semi-gloss white for the woodwork and below. I gave all the woodwork a first coat of paint since it was completely unfinished to start with. Then I did a second coat over everything with a roller.

Then of course, all that was left was to paint the top half of the walls in our mixed paint color. I also used the zero-VOC paint + primer for that and had Lowes color-match it to Sherwin Williams' Open Air. It looks plain blue in this photo, but it's actually quite turquoise.

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Here are some photos once the room was reassembled. You'll notice the lack of 'finished' details. Try to keep in mind that I'll be adding a bedskirt to hide the trundle, a coordinating quilt, and valence over the window. Since her absolute favorite color everything is PINK, I'll be doing all of those accents in varying shades of pink.

We're also still using an Ikea end table to pile some of her favorite bed time books on, for now. We'll be replacing that this week with the Ikea spice-rack book holders of Pinterest fame for a nice thin profile (as you can see, its a small space so maximizing is important). We'll also add a bean bag chair or other type of cozy seat to make that a perfect little reading corner for her.

Our girls' rooms, side-by-side!

So there we are! 

And the baby-prep to-do list continues :)

8 Weeks Out

Well, here we are at the 8 week mark already! In my last post I predicted finishing Carsen's big girl room right on today's self-imposed "deadline." I am a little bummed to report that it is not totally finished. All that's left is paint, and the color matcher machine thingy at our Lowes is still broken. I think I'll probably just go to the next closest store which is only about 15 minutes away and buy the paint there. I could also go to Sherwin Williams and pay more for the paint, or to Home Depot and have them color match it to one of the brands they carry. I hesitate to do that only because I know that Lowes has a zero-VOC paint+primer in one for a very decent price and I don't know if SW or HD have a similar product for a similar price, and I don't feel like doing the homework to find out. So we're a couple of days over our deadline, and I have to make a 15 minute drive to get the paint. Whatevs.

Additionally, while we've been held up with the paint issue, you may recall that we will be hosting Josh's friends for a Super Bowl party this weekend. That means I am in power-cleaning mode during nap times this week with a detailed list of what needs to be cleaned/straightened/tidied/etc. before we have company. I love the fire-under-your-tail that having company provides! My house always gets whipped into shape faster than you can say Martha Stewart when we're planning to host company. Why, then, it does not look like that all the time is explained simply by the fact that I'd rather play with my toddler than wipe down baseboards. Just sayin'.  Point being that some of the items from farther down my Baby Prep To-Do List are getting marked off early. For example, I did a pretty thorough deep-clean of the kitchen today that should require very light weekly maintenance from this point. Now I don't have to worry about doing that in a few weeks. Tomorrow I'll be tackling the living room, and later in the week I'll be doing a good cleaning of the floors. This is not to say that things won't need cleaning for the next 8 weeks (I wish), just that doing a thorough deep-clean in those rooms now will leave me with just easy maintenance for the weeks leading up to Reagan's birth and those shortly afterwards.

I'm also making decent progress in the baby-book overhaul (working on that mostly after Carsen goes to bed at night). I'm excited to share that when I get things a little more put together. Stay tuned!

Big Changes in the Big Girl Room

Things are coming along quite nicely in Carsen's big-girl room and it looks like we'll be finishing it up right on the 8-week mark (Tuesday)!

So far we've bought wood, cut the pieces needed for the wall treatment, and applied them all the way around. Next up we need to sand some edges, fill in any gaps in the woodwork and walls (since neither are ever perfectly straight), and then paint. I'm anticipating the wood needing two coats of primer + paint, and the walls taking one. We have the white paint we'll be using on the bottom half of the walls but the color matcher at our Lowes has been broken so we haven't picked up the mixed paint which will be going on the walls above the woodwork. The color we're using is called Open Air by Sherwin Williams (swatch below). I'll give details on how we did the wall treatment in a later post!


Paint will be going up over the next couple of days and then we'll just have textiles, decorating and accessories left to do in there. While important, I feel like I can get those things done over time without an imperative deadline. She has bedding on the bed and shades on the window, they just aren't necessarily related to the new color scheme.

Say tuned for the mostly-finished product in a few more days!

Oh, Why Not

It's 11:00 on a rainy Monday night, I'm eating peach pie, and I thought you should know this. Well, this and the fact that I am multi-tasking my pre-baby#2 to-do list (lots of hyphens...). As of tomorrow we are just 10 weeks (ish, because you never really know) away from the arrival of our new baby. I might be having some slight internal stress over that. I think having the holidays right in between "too early to worry about that stuff" and "OMG we're running out of time!" has kind of thrown me off. The items I'm trying to work on simultaneously right now are Carsen's room and her baby book. Seems kind of an odd to-do list as we're preparing for a second baby, but both are actually re-do's that I'm worried won't get done after the baby is here. I hate planning projects that never get done.

Carsen's room, like I've mentioned, is planned but I need the time to get it done (that is, not when she's sleeping in it and not when she's awake and running around my ankles. You tell me when that is). It's small, so I'm hoping it won't take too much time. I am insisting we go to Lowes tomorrow for some supplies I need so that is not a hinderance when I'm ready for them. I may also delegate some of the textile work (quilt, bedskirt, window valence) to my mom if I start running out of time.

The baby book re-do is actually going well. I think since she was our first, when I sat down to make it originally I tried to include too much (like half a million photos). Then I also had a store-bought baby book that I used more for recording milestones and such and I really just want that stuff in one book. I've decided to try to save myself some time by printing a lot of the page labels with some cute fonts I downloaded. Too many times I get annoyed if my own handwriting doesn't turn out perfectly, or it looks different one night than it did the night before. I can't stand that, plus hand writing everything takes a lot more time. So I'm working on typing up all the little labels I'll need on the pages, then I'll assemble the pages and fill in the photos. I'm limiting 1-2 photos per occasion to try and be reasonable and efficient. The plan is to use the same layout/template to put Reagan's book together, hopefully much more easily.

In other getting-ready-for-baby news, we're now officially on the 2 week schedule for doctor visits. I think that has also contributed to my sense of urgency. We have our next appointment Wednesday. So far everything has looked and sounded perfectly on schedule. I passed my glucose test with flying colors also, which was a relief since last time my sugar was somehow low and I had to go back for the 3-hour test. At this point I don't think I need any other testing or blood work! I've been feeling really good other than starting to run out of room for bending, reaching, sitting, and breathing. That's kind of annoying at times (shoe-tying is the worst) and much more of an inconvenience since I have a toddler to take care of this time. It's getting pretty hard to bathe her, dress her, put on her shoes, help her use the potty/wash her hands, lift her in/out of the car or high chair, and pretty much anything else that requires me to bend in half at the waist. I've also switched to eating small, protien-based "meals" 4-5 times a day. Sometimes it's an apple and peanut butter, or cottage cheese and fruit, or a hard-boiled egg. I just can't fit a big meal in there and I get super uncomfortable if I eat too much at a time. It's nice not ever getting super hungry though. I may even keep up that pattern once she's born. Lord knows you never get a hot meal with an infant anyway ;) The up side to getting bigger is that I can feel Reagan moving around almost constantly which is both fun and reassuring. While I'm somewhat uncomfortable at night I still feel like I'm sleeping pretty well, I haven't had heartburn or many of the other issues a lot of people experience later on in pregnancy. I'm just hoping my energy stays up over the next 10 weeks so I can get all the things done that I need to!

I should probably start by getting to bed....

Where to Begin

So the Christmas decorations are packed up and put away. Christmas gifts have all found their new homes, and plenty of older, unused/no-longer-needed items are bagged for donation. I've also sold $50 worth of items I cleaned out of my closet- woot :) 

Now that the holidays are over and cleaned up after, it's time for baby prep! We are just 10 and a half weeks away from our March 26 due date and starting the process of making our house ready for Reagan! You wouldn't think there'd be much to do the 2nd time around but there is actually a decent to-do list. Pretty much the only thing we don't have to do is put a nursery together and make big purchases. Though we do have to put Carsen's big-girl room together which involves paint/wall treatments, making a blanket (I'll explain why when I blog it), making a window treatment and matching bed skirt, adding book storage and some kind of seat (I'm thinking just a bean bag) for a reading corner, hanging photos/art/shelves. So that mostly makes up for not having to do a nursery. Some of it doesn't have to be done before Reagan arrives though, so that helps.

To get ready for Reagan, we need to do things like...

- Pull out, clean and make a place for baby equipment like the swing and pack & play

- Pull out, clean and set up the bassinet

- Install the infant car seat base

- Pull out and wash clothing, blankets, bibs, burp cloths, etc. then stock dresser & closet

- Clean the nursery since it's not currently being used

- Make plans for Carsen for when we go to the hospital

I'm certain there are some others that I'm forgetting because it's late. I also have a non-essential list that includes getting a playlist ready for the hospital, making the baby book, and changing out the photos & accessories in the nursery that were Carsen's for ones that will be Reagan's. 

For all of the essential items I am in the process of creating a week-by-week check list to make sure things get done in plenty of time. There are some things that can be done way ahead and others that I'd rather do closer to the due date, so the weekly list helps keep me from forgetting something until the last minute that I should have done earlier on. I'll share that list when it's done. 

Right now Carsen's room is priority 1. We need to buy our supplies and find a good time to work on it. Since she is already using her room I can't very well work on it while she's napping, and when she's awake... well, that would be impossible too. We might have to call in Nana to come over and play while I work. It's a small room so it shouldn't take a lot of time, I just need some kid-free time to do it. Once her room is painted I can work on the textiles easily during naps and after she goes to bed at night. I plan to have the progress posted as soon as things get underway! And for those of you who recall the major paint indecision I went through when choosing a color for our main level, let not your hearts be troubled. The color for her room is chosen :)

Cheers!

Welcome, 2013!

I seriously love that "clean slate" feeling you have on January 1st. It's not as if anything has really started over. No past events have been erased. It's just a new day like any other. Yet for some reason it feels like one book has been closed and you're just opening the cover of a new one, fresh-ink smell and stiff pages. I love it. The calendar is clean and wide open, save for those handful of usually happy events you have planned well in advance like weddings, births, and vacations. Who doesn't love a calendar with only those great things on it?

We have a few things on our new clean calendar already that we're very excited for. The first of course is the birth of our 2nd daughter in March. Now that the holiday season is officially winding to a close, we'll be kicking the baby-prep into high gear for the next 12 weeks. Luckily her nursery is already complete from when Carsen used it, so that will just need some standard cleaning and filling back up with tiny baby clothes. We are planning to finish/decorate Carsen's new big-girl room though and definitely want that taken care of before the birth. Most of that planning is done though, it's just a matter of finding time to do the work.

After the baby arrives, we'll be settling into a new routine and adjusting to life with a toddler and newborn, but I'm hoping that within a couple of months that will include some time for me to start training again. Not only do I want to get back in shape post-baby, but I am making a second attempt to run the Baltimore half marathon in the fall. I had to stop training this past summer when I was hit with first trimester all-day-sickness and then decided to put off training until after the baby was born. Beginning my training in early summer will hopefully give me plenty of time to train at a steady pace and be ready in more than enough time for race day in October. Visions of my two girls and sweet husband cheering for me at the finish will certainly provide all the motivation I'll need :D

We are also in the planning stages of a family vacation with my mom, my sister and her kids. We try to do a big family vacation together every other year, and since Josh and I didn't take a vacation at all in 2012, we're especially excited for this one. Not to mention that Carsen really loved the trip we took in 2011, so with her being 2 years older this time I'm sure she'll have even more fun. We'll definitely be looking at the Outer Banks, NC as our location but haven't determined the details or dates yet.

While I'm not so much one for "resolutions" I do like to set some goals for a new year. Running the half marathon is my first for 2013, but you know I also have a list of house projects that I'm trying to accomplish! We shall see what gets done ;)  I'm trying not to fill my plate too full, but at the moment here's what I have in mind...
 - Finish Carsen's new room
 - Make new covers for our couches
 - Paint the kitchen cabinets
 - Harass Josh enough that the tile (now going on 3 years old) finally goes down!

While we're at it, I have a couple of crafty projects planned too!
 - Re-do Carsen's baby book (I have both a scrapbook and a store-bought 'baby' book and I'm not happy with either. I'm hoping to merge them and make one book I'm happy with!)
 - Pre-make pages for Reagan's baby book (at the same time I do Carsen's, maybe?)
 - Put files aside monthly for our 2013 yearbook (I'm terrible at this and am several years behind on yearbooks as a result!)

Since there are only 12 weeks remaining before we add a newborn to the mix, I'm not going to hold myself to any unrealistic expectations and will be re-evaluating along the way what might actually get done and what will have to wait. I know that training will take up a good bit of my time, and from experience I know I've tended to either train or work on projects - rarely both concurrently. In the past I've used Carsen's usually 2.5-3 hour nap time to either run or work on a project but who knows what things will look like with a 2nd baby around. Everything will have to be kind of up in the air and determined along the way. I'm ok with that though. Less can go "wrong" when your plans aren't set in stone anyway, right? That'll be my optimistic mantra for when something falls by the wayside ;)

What kind of fun do you have on your calendars so far for 2013? Anyone else tackling some home or craft projects? Training for a race or competition? Fun vacations in the works? Do tell :D

Mission (finally) Accomplished!

Dishwasher Installation Success!

Forgive the horrible taken-over-the-back-of-a-chair-with-my-phone-while-eating-lunch photo, I was just that excited. Hey, if you had been hand washing dishes for over 2 months with not one but TWO dishwashers in the middle of your kitchen floor you'd be excited too :)

Allow me to give you the brief recap of our dishwasher drama...

-February 16: Dishwasher & stove ordered

-March 22: Dishwasher & stove finally delivered after 3 previously scheduled-then-delayed delivery dates

-Next few days: J disconnects the old dishwasher with confidence he'll be able to hook up the new one

-After 83 trips to Lowe's, we discover that the type of valve that connects the water line to the dishwasher under our sink is not standard. It will connect to the old dishwasher pipe which will not fit the new dishwasher. The new pipe that came with our installation kit connects to the new dishwasher but doesn't fit the non-standard valve.

-Weeks pass while we ponder how to get around this. J worries about disconnecting the valve. I decide to just call a plumber.

-Two weeks later the plumber comes. He takes a quick look, says he sees what's going on with the valve, we just need a new (different) one. Plumber writes up the sales slip for standard installation + valve replacement for a grand total of $494. As I'm talking it over with J (who is at work), the plumber suddenly says he's "not supposed to do this but..." he would do the work for $290, final offer. Really? Two minutes later and the price is $200 less? How does that work exactly? Since we only paid $400 for the dishwasher itself and he seems to be less than trustworthy, we tell Mr. Plumber "thanksbutnothanks," and send him on his way.

-J goes in for yet another attempt on his own, armed with the new correct valve. A few hours later things are looking good. The dishwasher goes into it's new home, everything else gets attached appropriately, and a test wash is administered.  Success!

I have since been excitedly loading it with dirty dishes in eager anticipation of it's maiden wash cycle! Who knew one could be so thrilled over a kitchen appliance? We are still awaiting the maiden wash since not that many people live at our house, but we will finally re-assemble the kitchen when we see for sure that there aren't any leaks or issues. Meanwhile, some things are still out of place in the kitchen, and there's still an old dishwasher in the corner, but I'm not wasting time standing at the sink washing dishes, and that's what's really important in this story :D

This concludes the "Appliance" portion of The Great Kitchen Upgrade of 2012! We only started at Christmas and it's June, but who's in a hurry? ;)  So our upgrade list looks now like this...

Paint

Upgrade appliances

Paint cabinets

Lay new tile

*Over the past few months I think I would also add crown molding around the room and to finish off the tops of the cabinets, but those are less of an immediate necessity. 

Since we've had our tile for something like 2 years now, I'm guessing I'll be painting cabinets next! I think that will make such a huge difference in the whole look of our kitchen. Don't get me wrong the appliances certainly do their part for making things look much nicer, but the cabinets take up a lot more visual space. Having them painted white should really brighten and clean up the look of the entire room. Have you seen the difference it made in John & Sherry's kitchen on Young House Love? So excited!

Have you done anything fun to your house lately that you were seriously over-excited about? Do tell!

Pinterest Challenge

Today I am so excited to be participating in my first ever Pinterest Challenge! Not sure what a Pinterest Challenge is? Well it's simple really- you just choose something that you've pinned on Pinterest and actually make it! It's not an official "thing" created by Pinterest, instead it's an idea started by two other bloggers (Katie Bower and Sherry Petersik) that I first read about here.

The project I chose to do is one that has been on my project list for about six months. It has just taken a back seat because it is much more of a just-for-fun project than a necessity, and as you know I've been working long and hard on getting our kitchen in shape. So not much time or money has been going into things that don't have to be done. Anyway, I decided to just go for it so the supplies weren't sitting around my house staring at me anymore!

So without further chatter, I give you...

DIY Camera Bag

My inspiration for the DIY Camera Bag came from this blog post, but I decided to make a few tweaks to my project to hopefully avoid a few of the issues she experienced. My plan and vision was to create a protective & organizational insert that I could drop down into a store-bought purse to make it into a cute yet functional camera bag without permanently altering the purse itself (just in case!). 

Mission: accomplished! Here's how...

First things first- supplies needed are:

   1) A bag or purse you want to transform into a camera bag. One that is pretty roomy and has a flat    

       bottom works best.

   2) Scissors and tape measure/ruler

   3) Fabric of your choice

   4) Some type of foam or padding to protect your equipment

   5) Cardboard to make templates

   6) A sewing machine and thread

I'm going to do my best to explain how I did this step-by-step and will keep captions/descriptions above the photos I'm referring to.

STEP ONE - Choose a bag and fabric

I bought the adorable Nine West purse from Amazon for $30.  Not really a steal, but it's super cute and a quality bag that isn't going to fall apart on me. Then I chose a fun fabric to create my organizational/protective insert.

STEP TWO- Create pattern and templates

I pulled the lining of the purse inside out so it was sticking out the top of the purse. Then I used a simple tape measure to measure the seams 1) down the sides, 2) length-wise across the bottom, and 3) width-wise across the bottom. With those measurements I could create a pattern for my fabric and make templates for the protective foam padding.

I used the cardboard templates to trace onto a piece of foam and cut out the right shapes and sizes I'd need to cushion the bottom and sides of the bag, as well as make some protective dividers to place between different accessories in the bag. You don't want your lenses banging around in there!

The foam I used was just one big square of foam that would be used to make a seat cushion or something similar. I used utility scissors from my tool kit to cut the shapes out. They were somewhat imperfect but would definitely do the trick for this project.

STEP THREE- Draw, trace, and cut out your pattern

I used the measurements I took of the seams in the purse to create a pattern on regular paper. Then I pinned the pattern to my fabric and cut it out. My fabric was folded in half, so I only had to trace and cut twice to get four identical layers of fabric. Two would make the outside layer and two would make the inner layer... I promise that will make more sense later :)

This cut-out piece of fabric doesn't exactly match the pattern above. I had to make an adjustment because my measurement was off. I needed those little notches at the bottom corners to be the same length. To add that length (on the horizontal line) without taking away from the overall length across the bottom of the bag, I simply cut on an angle as you can see below.

STEP FOUR- Start sewing!

Once the fabric was cut out, I first sewed the bottom corners (basically closing that triangular gap), then both sides. This made sort of a bucket, which would become the outside layer of my organizational/protective insert.

For the fabric that would be the inner layer, I did the same exact thing, except I left one of the sides open. That's important later so you can stuff the foam pieces inside and still have nice finished seams :)

This left me with two identical bucket-shaped pieces of fabric. One with the printed side out (outer layer) and one with the printed side in (inner layer).

Now that I had my two pieces, it was time to attach them to each other around the top edges making essentially one big piece (that kind of looked like conjoined twins... just sayin). It's kind of hard to see, but notice on the twin that's on the right side, you can see that open side seam at the top. It's about to come in handy! Also notice the way these two twins are put together. Both have their printed side out so that when I nest one inside the other (there's that outer layer-inner layer thing I've been talking about!) the printed side will be visible all around.

STEP FIVE- Insert foam padding

I very carefully stuffed the foam pieces (I had one for the bottom and one for each of the long sides of the bag) into the open side seam. I line them up and placed them as carefully as possible using the seams because once I closed up that open side seam it would be much more difficult to shift the foam into place. I decided to put the bottom piece in first, followed by each of the sides. Once that's done you should have something that looks like this! Now you can easily see the whole inner/outer layer thing :)

**Side note:  it would also be possible to make individual covers/sleeves for each of the foam pieces and then just place them down into the bag or use their seams to attach them together rather than making one big insert piece like I've done here.

STEP SIX- Close it up!

It's time to close the side seam that I left open back in step four. It's not super easy to do, but it can be done. Basically you have to fold down a tiny edge of the fabric, pin it together and sew a seam. 

Once the seam was closed up, I stuffed the insert down into the purse to get an idea of the fit. I had some extra fabric on the inner layer (it should have been cut slightly smaller to account for the foam) but tucked it down between the bottom and side pieces and it looks fine. I could also pull it tighter around the bottom of the insert and pin it or sew a tack to keep it snug.

STEP SEVEN- Protective accessory dividers

These were as simple as cutting out squares of fabric (two layers at a time) and sewing around them. Again I left one side open to stuff the foam in, and then folded it down to create a seam. 

Once they're done you can simply place them down in the bag between your accessories! In this picture (top to bottom) I have my external flash, an extra lens, and my DSLR camera itself. The foam dividers do not attach to anything (it's an option, but I couldn't come up with a good way to do it, and I'm a commitment-phobe who likes to have options), but they sit nicely between my accessories to prevent them from bumping into each other. They're also great because they're soft enough to mold to the shapes of the items I place in there. You can also tell there's some spare room in there. I could probably fit another lens in there, and easily a few smaller items like an extra battery or remote.

And with that, I have a camera bag that looks like this!

I am so excited to use it on my next photo shoot and hope that I've "Pinspired" someone else to give this a try! :)

Also-- don't forget to check out the projects made by Sherry, Katie, Cassie, and Erin - the girls of the official Pinterest Challenge Team! Thanks to them for giving me the friendly shove needed to stop pinning and start doing! (Not that I'll ever stop pinning... ;)

All It's Cracked Up to Be

Ah, home ownership :)

I've gotten the majority of the kitchen painted. Yay! The current speed bumps we're working around are some drywall cracks. There are three and they're all in corners. Two of them in fact are on either side of the semi-wall between our kitchen and dining(play) room. The third is along the same side of the house, in the back corner of the kitchen. We have similar cracks on our second level as well, but that's a different project!

I think the problem is really that the walls were just not done properly. We've long suspected some water damage on this side of the house (all along our far left wall). When we first bought the house one of the conditions in the contract we presented was repair to what was obviously water damage on that wall in the dining room. The upstairs bathrooms are right above the dining room and kitchen on that wall and whenever water is running upstairs you can hear what sounds like dripping if you're on the main level. We have yet to see any visible damage from said dripping and are honestly just too paranoid to open up the drywall and investigate. All of this is to say that I'm pretty confident that the walls along that side of the house have been repaired/replaced since the house was built. At that, they were not done very well. It's possible that the owner prior to us (we're not exactly sure how many there have been, but the house was built in 1999) repaired/replaced the drywall only when they were ready to sell. The entire house was spray painted - poorly - all one off-white color in a flat finish (which hides imperfections) and I kind of doubt anyone lived like that.

It appears to me that in some spots drywall tape may have been used without any drywall joint compound. In other places it looks like compound was used without tape. To be honest, it doesn't even look like drywall tape. I don't think I'd be at all surprised if it turned out to be blue painter's tape. Gah.

 Dining(play) room -- clearly some tape, but what kind?

 Corner just on the other side of the wall from the photo above. Also some visible tape (see that wavy spot?). This makes me wonder if it's painter's tape and not actual drywall tape which should have been scraped down onto joint compound then covered by joint compound. I think that's just tape with paint over it!

The back corner of the kitchen (so, damaged left wall of the house meets back wall of the house). I can't even tell if there is any tape here. The crack is directly in the corner with no visible tape edges.

So we're going to pick up some tape and compound and get those corners patched pronto so that the painting can finally be finished! I can't wait to put the kitchen back together. It's pretty much a nightmare. On the bright side of that, I have sold a bunch of stuff we don't use/need anymore and made about $100! I'm just using the cragslist-like board that my school district has and listing stuff on there. It's nice because I can meet people at the schools where they work and not have to worry about strangers coming to my house or going to their houses. Plus you have to pass a background check to work for a school system and that makes me feel better too (not saying there aren't any weirdos working in school systems, I've encountered a few of them myself).

Also, our appliance delivery has been pushed back to March 14. Apparently Best Buy didn't properly account for the number of appliances they would sell during their Presidents' Day sale. But we have a dinner meeting tonight with our architect and tile guy! Hopefully it's all good news and we'll have a tile layout and possible install date by the end of the night. Hooray for some progress :)

Living Room Paint

Since the transformation is mostly complete, and the kitchen is just a boring mess right now, I decided to go ahead and give you the before & after pics of our living room with the new paint color.

I'll start by telling you about the color choice. As I type those words I can feel my stomach start knotting up again. Boy, am I glad that is over with. So after all the agony of millions of samples, we ultimately chose (drumroll).... Halo by Benjamin Moore. Sound familiar? Yes, that was the original color I had picked and loved and posted about before all the second-guessing began. I know, I could slap my own self. But there's no point in that now. The color is on the walls and we are happy! J and I both realized that amidst all the other samples we had all over the place, that one proved to be the balance between gray and beige that we were looking for without being too dark, too drab, too warm or too cool. When I finally went back to the Benjamin Moore store to pick up the sample strip of it I had another moment of palpitations. Halo was the lightest color on the strip, but the darker two were distinctly green. We were not going for green whatsoever and I definitely didn't want to get the paint on the walls and have it read green. I really gave it a harder look and studied it in its various splashes on our walls. I couldn't get any green from the swatches we'd painted, even against our blue walls (which would certainly highlight any yellow undertones as we discovered with all the warmer tans we tried out). With that, I bit the bullet and bought three gallons of paint. I'm thrilled to report that I haven't had a millisecond of regret since then. Whew.

It took me just over a week of working through C's naps and after she went to bed at night to finish the entry way, living room and play room. There are still things we intend to change so I wouldn't call these rooms a finished product just yet. We will be replacing our switch and outlet covers, door knobs, lighting fixtures, and most definitely the vomit-covered living room rug (a result of babysitting a little one with an undiagnosed milk allergy). And as you know, the kitchen is still a work in progress.

Living room before...

Play room before

And the new and improved living room...

This is to show contrast with our trim/interior doors (neither of which is a true white). Also that's the edge of a soffit on the left of this photo, not a crack in our wall :)

A matted black & white photo to also show the color next to some true neutrals.

So there it is! It's probably so much less dramatic and interesting to any of you than it is to me, haha. The space is definitely warmer though, even though the paint itself isn't super warm. I actually love that it can look so different in different parts of the house or different lighting. Sometimes it looks ivory, sometimes it looks gray, sometimes it looks beige. My main goal was a soft, neutral back drop to highlight our furniture and decor, and I feel like we achieved that. I'm still undecided if we're going to go with brushed nickel or oil-rubbed bronze for the outlet and switch covers, door knobs and lighting fixtures. It's a big commitment for all of those things. We have some satin nickel and some elements of oil-rubbed bronze in the room now. We also have primarily black picture frames, shelves, coffee table and credenza. That decision is a different post for a different day though. I'm also undecided on the material for a new area rug. I can't decide if I want the simplicity of wool, or the real coastal charm of sisal. I just worry that sisal will not be comfy for future crawling babies and toddlers/preschoolers rolling around playing. Also another post for another day!

For now it's time to hit the road for Sunday dinner at mom's :)  Tonight is my night to cook. We're having teriyaki chicken and I'm pretty excited. I hope it's been a great weekend for everyone else. We have another fun week ahead of us including story time at the library, another play date with our friends from P&B, and more kitchen prep/painting!