Saturday, December 29, 2012

Winter Morning



It's snowing again but will probably stop soon. So far we've had no accumulation, just some very pretty snow showers.

I'm trying to savor every day that we have the children home from school. We are even getting on a late schedule, sleeping in till 8o'clock some mornings.

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Creating Cozy



I was inspired by the hot chocolate stations that I've seen here and there online, especially this one from Lemonade Makin' Momma, so I made one myself. It's really fun and my kids love something sweet and hot when they come home from school.

The paper cups came from The Dollar Tree and the hot cocoa I got at Trader Joe's. 


My husband was asking about my wreaths on the dining room windows, and made the comment that, "some things are just better if you make them yourself".  (I had bought them)

So yesterday I decided to make a wreath for our front gate.

I found this great tutorial at one hundred dollars a month . This seems like a neat blog, I haven't had time to fully check it out.

I didn't have a wreath form and was impatient to get started so I made a form with some wild grapevines that I had. Now the weight of the greens is pulling it down into an oblong shape.
I guess I should have bought a proper wreath.



These clippings came from our Leyland Cypress trees.



I didn't have floral wire, just used some twine that I had. It was actually pretty easy.

I just noticed that my gate is stained rather badly, oops!


I must get busy, I have a messy house to whip into shape, then shopping and baking!

Hope each of you have an amazing week with whatever is planned!

Enjoy God's gift of family and friends!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Thoughts




On this blog I try to record the best parts of our lives, to celebrate the excellent, beautiful things of life and family. I take pictures of eggshells, for example! I think they're so pretty! If this is odd to you then I'm sorry. :)

Friday afternoon I heard the news just before picking up my own two children at their elementary school. My first thought was, it would never happen here, we have such a nice school. But it did happen at a similar, nice school.

I spent the afternoon trying not to let my mind go there, and grieving for those families. It is an honor to weep with those who weep, to remember them in prayer.

This is one more thing in life that makes no sense to me. I used to have perfect little answers to life.

I guess that's part of being young, thinking I know everything. But, you know what, I'm okay with not having all the answers now. I realize that it's not my job to have it all figured out. I'm letting go of some of that and really focusing on what is put in front of me. 

Cherishing my family. Finding beauty in the small things. Loving God without understanding everything. 


"if you have love in your heart, let it show, while you can"





Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Wreaths



I've been trying to add some winter greenery to my rooms and was happy to find these wreaths at Trader Joe's. For six dollars each!

They are supposed to be candle wreaths, for on the table, but I really like them on the windows.



Friday, November 30, 2012

Coffee Sack Ottoman


I upholstered this ottoman a few weeks ago using a coffee sack. This picture was taken before the wrinkles were gone but I really like how it turned out!

And the best part, it hides ALL of the dirt.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Our Vacation



 We had an awesome vacation starting with an overnight stay at my Aunt's in South Carolina.
She has a lovely place near Charleston - I should have taken more pictures...

 After a huge, yummy breakfast, we drove around a while and ended up at Fort Moultrie.
The children enjoyed climbing around on the canons!























I just started using Instagram and am having fun playing around with it.








 Lido Beach was wonderful as always, there's something magical about the days spent playing and relaxing there!
















She had a blast with her surf board, and I loved watching her!









Treats from Starbucks!






They have been begging to carve pumpkins, and it has taken me this long to make it happen, luckily they don't mind being a little late.






And that's it! It was hard to come home to cold weather but I'm trying to stay busy and hoping for snow this winter.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week!


Friday, November 9, 2012

Sick Days

We've been a little sick around Cass House the last few weeks. The children started it off with coughs/fever and missed a good deal of school. Then, this week it has been my turn with a fever/chills. Maybe this would have been a good year to get a flu shot... 

We have an arsenal of medications stacked on the counter. I'm never sure what is most effective so we try everything! I have found that just like the adds say, Aleve does last much longer than Ibuprofen, at least for fever.

I'm grateful for my husband taking the children out to get some dinner when I was at my worst. I guess they would have been gnawing on crackers if he hadn't. And for making the juice, popsicle, herbal tea run :)


But enough about sickness! The sun is shinning it's brightest today - looks like we're in for a warm few days! And we'll be heading to Florida soon! I'm starting to day dream about those lovely beaches....
It's been a year since we've been there, or really had a family vacation and I'm so ready!!
Yay for sunshine!!

Today I'm thankful for a warm house, safety and electricity. I keep thinking about all the people in need because of Hurricane Sandy. Let's remember them in the upcoming months!

Have a happy, blessed weekend everyone!




Friday, October 19, 2012

Pink



I made this awhile ago and forgot that I hadn't posted about it. 

I just wish I could have hand delivered it - would love to see that little girl!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Punkins


I have heard, that if you wash them in bleach water they last longer. So mine all got a bath.

I love Fall, and I love Punkins!

Try saying it my way, it will make you smile and people will look at you funny :)

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sofa Restoration Part 3

This will hopefully finish up the details of the sofa project. I would like to say that I've been enjoying my sofa in my living room for about a week or so and I love it!


Here is the layer of horsehair, pretty odd right? The burlap around the edge is called edge roll, I think. It   helps to shape the edges and make them solid. Thank goodness I didn't have to remake this, I have no idea how it was done!
I loosely stapled this layer on around the edges, just to hold it till the next layer was put on.


The cotten layer, again just stapled it on enough to hold.


And the dacron! The dacron is in a sheet which gives it a nice, smooth, uniform look.


In these pictures I'm trying to arrange the back fabric. (Even though the original sofa had side seams on the back, I thought I could use one, solid piece of fabric. Boy, was I wrong!!)
The inside corner was at such an angle that there was no way I could stretch the fabric smooth.
My husband told me it wouldn't work, but I'm stubborn and had to find out the hard way!


I had to remove it, remeasure and sew these seams a few times to get it right, and even so, it was very challenging to get these inside corners smooth.
I'm sure it was luck that they turned out so well, I'm learning that sewing isn't my strong point!



This was my "Hallelujah" moment!


I guess I didn't get pictures of putting on the layers of the outside back. Here's what I did: Stretched and stapled scrap fabric tightly to the back. Then stapled the layer of dacron on top of that. I then just wrapped my layer of fabric and pinned it on. I worked from the middle stapling closely to keep it smooth. And then I trimmed it.

This was the easiest part of the whole project!!




 This is me trying to sew on my Mother's commercial machine. It was quite scary - like learning to drive stick-shift. The presser foot was extremely sensitive and I nearly sewed my fingers to the cord several times! It eats up the fabric!!
By the way, check out the child carvings on the base of the machine! I think we all carved our initials but, my little brother Stephen?!! what's up with the swastika? I mean really!!

But what was great about it was that the underside of the foot has these two grooves that the cord stays in, making a much more uniform double cord.



I hot-glued the cord to the sofa.
This fabric raveled rather badly so I had to spend a lot of time trimming threads at the end.



I also went to my Mother's for help with the cushion. It was down, which I loved but it would go flat fast and get uncomfortable when we sat on it. We used 2" foam, (which she happened to have - love that!) and I put it in the new form that I made. (same size as the old) The form fabric is actually drapery lining, I got it at my Local fabric store.

We put the foam in and then loaded the old down in around it. This is probably not the correct way but it did turn out great!

It made a huge mess, though.



It's snowing in September!!


My Mother suggested putting a zipper in the down form and I'm glad we did - the down has settled a lot and I may have to add more.



This is my Mother sewing the cushion. I love this picture because it reminds me of all those years that she and my dad spent trying to make a living, sacrificing to provide for us.

She has spent so many long hours turning out furniture. For me it's just a project, but she would upholster a chair in a day, a couch maybe in a couple days. Just trying to pay the bills and put food on the table. 
 This project brought back so many childhood memories, the sound of the staple gun, the sound of the machine, how we would run out to the shop barefoot and rarely get tacks in our feet. I still don't know why :)



The last step was to put cambric on the bottom. This looks and feels very much like interfacing.

It isn't woven so if you stretch it too hard it will tear. But otherwise, it was easy to put it on.





And... finally done! What a relief!





I want to thank my husband for helping me through every step of this project! 
He let me use his awesome shop space, bought me a staple gun, completely disassembled the frame, glued and re-assembled it, helped me haul the sofa around, and most of all, he was supportive and impressed with what I had done. (which meant so much)


And my Mother, she gave of her time and ability so readily. She's the kind of mother that would do anything for her children, I hope to learn from her example with my own children. I am blessed!!


The fabric came from UFAB, a local store that is, I think, quite wonderful. Their prices are much lower than many others and the staff is very helpful. If you are local, I would definitely recommend!

Thanks, you all for all your kind, encouraging comments!! It meant so much! I hope this can be helpful for anyone trying to sum up the courage for a project of their own!

I'm sure you are ready, as I am, to see something else other than a sofa on this blog!

Bye now,

-Melissa