Anyone have an itty bitty baby girl? Mine is too big for this free pattern. : ( But, oh, it is so sweet! Looky here. The Creative Daisy made itsy bitsy shoes to go with….

Her red and turquoise Flickr pics make me smile.

Rebecca snagged some great Polish Pottery this weekend. Can you believe I spoke with her by phone last night and she didn’t even mention this?? All she could do was inquire about our health. Noone will EVER accuse her of being as shallow and materialistic as some of her close friends….. (you know I am pointing to moi here right?) I wanted to share with her some of my pottery since it always takes me back. Well, ‘share’ in the sense that you can look at it, girlfriend. Not that it’s moving from here lol!

We had wonderful friends in Utah who had just relocated from Germany. They had travelled to Poland while there and filled their van with Polish pottery. Ann said the little minivan was sagging lol! She had a distinct decorating style which I will never be able to mimic. Her home was traditional, yet crisply minimalist. She had deep, jewel toned upholstery and mission style dining furniture. The kitchen cabinets and china cabinet were overflowing with gorgeous cobalt and forest green pottery. Before we moved she gifted me with a few pieces that now grace my china cabinet. Polish pottery forever says ‘Ann’ to me. Ann, if you are out there, we love you! I will never be half the housekeeper you are.

I am forever plagued by love of too many things and an unshakeable cheap streak. Hence my china cabinet is a mishmash of Blue Willow, pink transferware, and yes the Polish pottery. Truth be told we set our everyday table very simply however. I have a full set of sand colored Corelle that looks every bit like the high end sets it imitates. It doesn’t have that odd see-through quality some Corelle has. We pair these monochromatic pieces with generous cottage style goblets. I have found that these simple place settings coupled with serving pieces from patterned sets give the illusion of a full set. We have also employed baskets lined with foil and cast iron accessories.

Speaking of which, check out the candlesticks. They were 79 cents at Goodwill last week. Seems my decor is influenced most by what is currently available at Goodwill! Another find there was the embroidered piece tucked into the drawer of the cabinet. You can see it peeking through the chairs. I am trying to use these linens rather than keeping them folded away.

Oh and while we are at the table let me share the tip I gave to Genevieve. When we invested in our dining room furniture about five years ago we had a piece of plexiglass fitted to the top of the table. It has saved our table which is still pristine after seating ten plus on a daily basis all these years. It photographs funky though. you don’t really notice it in person. A friend swore she had seen our table a million times yet couldn’t recall the plexiglass topper. It was an extra expense but well worth it.

Here is the antidote to tired nursery themes. Ohdeedoh injects punch into children’s rooms. Great colors, no clutter. Many of these rooms are very small if you look. Many use refurbished pieces. You don’t need a lot of money, just a lot of imagination. And a paint brush

Another great source of inspiration is the website for Cookie Magazine. They have a section of house tours of child friendly homes. If I have linked here already forgive me. I am still reading…

Speaking of which our bedroom/nursery redo is crawling along thanks to a surprise bout of bronchitis. We are getting there though and hope to post the finished pics before long.

So this was fun. We sat and watched an episode this afternoon. Today’s couple was Modern Organic which I really liked. Based on what we actually have in the house right now the quiz pegged my style as Sophisticated. I had to post that. It’s not often I find my name coupled with that adjective lol! When I took it the second time basing the answers on what the furniture I daydream over I came out Rustic Comfort. Yeah they probably both apply to various rooms here. They don’t apparently have a moniker for stinky-shoe-teenage-boy-room or not-quite-organized-craft studio-decor.

Find your style here.

I am all about semi-handmade. : ) It is a lifesaver concept for overtaxed moms who wish to infuse handmade, heartfelt touches into their homes without necessarily reinventing the wheel at every turn. The idea is you purchase the inexpensive, easily mass-produced parts of the project and then you personalize them in ways that make them unique and all you.

I found the directions for these hangers here. (gotta scroll way down) I think this could happen. Course we need to finish spray painting all my bedroom furniture before I start. I hear Rebecca’s voice echoing in my brain saying “finish what you start, one thing at a time”. I am trying Rebecca. But they are cuh-UTE!

Paint faster kids! We can do it!

Quilting muse has an entire pattern book uploaded here.

Oops I take that back. There are multiple pattern books uploaded. Check the left top sidebar when you get there.

I need to go to bed. I really do. Instead I sit here slack-jawed over the Western Passion site. If you wandered over here by accident don’t get excited. It’s not that sort of passion, though decorating geeks like myself can and do get every bit as worked up over bedding sets and table runners. I am most definitely scouring the western fabric sites however. A $600 bedding set is not in my future. Ah, but for the vision – do visit there!

Because I can, in fact, change gears faster than a 1985 Camaro I bring you the latest home improvement project. Our guest bathroom has been in sorry shape from day one. When we got here it had the ugliest mirror I have ever seen. Several inches of fake frosted glass and pink flowers framed the nasty fake brass and unidentifiable wood. Over the years the frosted/painted finish had flaked off with each cleaning til it was a pock marked mess. The matching light fixture wasn’t a heckuva lot better. The brass trim extended to the fixture’s shell motif which matched the shell- shaped toilet seat. Cute. (Matchy matchy is bad enough when it is attractive. Matching ugly is another story.) The walls sported a white primer layer and nothing else. The towel bar had long since bitten the dust.

I had put off addressing the bathroom since bathroom fixtures add up to a considerable investment. We had started off small by replacing the toilet seat and installing new towel bars. What we could do was pretty well defined by the existing oak trim and Spanish tile which was quite nice. Large charcoal and terracotta tiles formed a checkerboard around the tub and lined the separate shower. We replaced the white linoleum tile with one that meshed better with the wall tile.

The rest sorta hung over my head ’til that fateful day when the mirror hardware gave way and it toppled onto the counter in big chunks. Darn. ; ) Seemed like a good time to press on with the remodel. Except that Allen was out of town. Except that I didn’t want to do the job halfway. Except I didn’t want him to come home to a mile long to do list. Except I didn’t know what I was doing. Asher and I put our heads together and decided we could do this. Moreover we would do it 4 days before Allen got home. Cluelessness would not stop us lol!

We started with the paint which was tricky given those tiles. The first choice was waaaay too dark and made the room uncomfortably claustrophobic. We went back to the paint store and mixed a can several shades lighter but in the same color family as the terracotta tile. It was called Morning Glow. Granted it looked remarkably similar to Pink Fluff. We aren’t going to think about that. No, it is the color of the sunrise and that’s that.

Zach was here and did the ceiling for me which was a good thing because I am not sure I could have done that part alone. The rest of the room went pretty well although it took a LOT of coats. Probably could still use another, but it is what it is.

Fixtures required some serious comparison shopping. They add up to a small fortune, particularly the large mirrors. I ended up getting a bronze finish mirror at Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon. Woo hoo! It was gorgeous. Funny story here though – I always drive my ginormous van but on this day I had the car since Allen was gone and I was saving gas. You forgot how small a small car can be until you try to cram a 50 inch mirror into it. Didn’t really occur to me til the nice Hobby Lobby man who was carrying it out for me reached the car and gasped. I said well, we better hope it fits or you’re gonna have to follow me home! ; )

With the mirror selected we picked up two light fixtures in a similar finish – Tuscan bronze. Pretty snazzy name for a Walmart special eh? They were ridiculously inexpensive at $29 and $13 each and they looked like they were made for the mirror. They were electric however and I have never wired a dang thing. I knew enough to hit the breaker first and we figured we would tackle the directions and hope for the best. Asher took the ceiling fixture and I took the wall mount. With a minimum of expletives they were both up. We flipped the breaker and Asher’s fixture lit up. Not so, mine. Eventually we rectified the mistake.

We braced and mounted the mirror and framed and hung a print we brought back from the mission in Arizona last year. And all before Allen got home. The night before his flight he told me we needed to head into town when he got back since he didn’t want that bathroom sitting in disrepair indefinitely. We just smiled. He was more than a little taken aback when he walked in the door the next day. One room down – don’t ask me how many more to go! With nine children, a dog and far too many cats something is falling apart at any given moment.

All in all I am happy with it though the pictures do it no justice. It is in an interior part of the house and there was no good way to shoot it without the flash washing out the color. Wish you could come visit and see in person

Saturday was a lovely day. One of the ladies from church had a surprise baby shower at an incredible Orthodox-inspired coffee house in the old section of town. In a room painted a deep Merlot red, ringed by icons and matryoshka dolls, we celebrated with her as she prepares to welcome another little boy any day now.

Moira and I found some very cool deep blue cowboy flannel to make a bib for the new arrival. It has been a looong time since the sewing machine was dusted off! There were lots of mistakes but it felt ever so good to be crafting again. I am determined to keep plugging away at projects like these.

I recently read an article that tsk-tsk’d the current crafting craze. It encouraged moms to release all such pressure since this is just a fad. Perhaps. Crafting is enjoying a unparalleled heyday at the moment. I would say this is not a fad however but rather an acknowledgement of the deep need women have to make things and bless others with our hands and hearts.

It would be a lot more practical to run by the box store and grab something to go. It would have likely been better made! It would have been faster. It wouldn’t have given me an opportunity to create however, and Moira and I would have missed that time together.

Crafting is messy. It costs money. It is highly impractical, like all things we give from inside ourselves. I hope you make something anyway. It’s worth it. : )

This is a eyepopper. The site is full of bright cheerful fabrics and how to’s for everything from slipcovering a chair to making belts to easy baby gifts. There is a blog link as well.