Sewing Slipcovers

~::~sorry, don't know the image source...but my slipcovers are supposed to look something like this!~::~

I stayed up late last night sewing slipcovers for our dining room chairs. My awesome husband just recovered the cloth seats and I scotchguarded them liberally, but with my rowdy crew I knew they needed an additional cover.

I've read about so many cool projects using painter's drop cloth, so I decided to give it a try. It's durable, already "distressed," and somewhat spill resistant. Besides, I can get a 9X12 for $25. That beats buying fabric by the yard!

Of course, the one night that I forgo doing dishes, laundry, and picking up in favor of sewing, and then get up and put on scruffy painting clothes, is the morning that my sweet, gorgeous friend calls bright and early to say she's dropping by with a gift of fresh fish! Well, the good thing about that is that we got things picked up in record time--and then she didn't even come in! So funny how that seems to work out.

I finished all the edges, hemmed the ruffles, and stitched the gathering threads. Now I can gather and pin the ruffles in the evening when I'm talking to my husband or watching TV. Hopefully I'm on the home stretch! This has been a much bigger project than I anticipated. Pictures to come.

Now I'm off to prime and paint a giant bunk bed! If anyone's reading, I hope you are having a happy, busy day too!

Beautiful Bicycles

While I'm posting pictures of bicycles, how about these beauties I stumbled on at
Katie's Rose Cottage?

Oh my...Total perfection...

I had a bike that got ruined...We moved and I didn't realize that it had gotten left in the rain and humidity for several months until it was too late...I was so crushed. I have been pregnant or with a new baby for so much of the past few years that I hadn't been able to ride much anyway, but I was excited about being able to again. These photos have me scheming...I'm pretty sure there is a bike in my future...Somehow!

P.S. These images apparently originally came from the BEG bicycles site.

Functional Beauty

lovely picture from sweet paige at simple thoughts

As I’ve collected inspiration pictures, I noticed that every living room picture I loved had white furniture. I mean EVERY one.

I know people talk about how easy white is, you just throw it in the wash.

I wasn’t convinced. I could just envision pricey white slipcovers, stained in a week.

I tried an experiment to see if I was mistaken. At the little camp we own (just a teeny cabin—our dry spot) I covered the futons with white sheets.

again, from paige

Nope. We are only there a few weeks out of the year, and after a couple visits they already sport evidence of art projects, contraband snacks, and brightly colored play-dough. I wash them several times a week when we are there. Five rowdy children will do that, I guess!

Still. I adore white and as I slowly decorate our home, I try to incorporate it in other ways.

But in spite of my dreams of white couches, I’m learning to love more family-friendly ways of decorating too. (If your family can sustain white furniture, then bless you. Mine can’t!) When I looked at this picture…

I thought…I really love our living room! Although it’s not very evident, my patterned couch and jewel-toned books are in the background. It’s warm and cozy. And there are touches of the white I love.

In my last post, I talked about what I wanted to get out of blogging. If I collect any readers, here is the encouragement I want to share, the gift I want to give to you…You can have a lovely home in spite of a houseful of little rowdies! We don’t all have to have few/grown/perfectly trained children to surround ourselves with beauty!

My kids are a work in progress, just like my home. It’s far more important that I invest in my relationships with them than worry about a stain on a white slipcover.

My house is a long, long way from being the way I want it. And although it’s the perfect size for our family and very functional, it’s as ugly as all get out on the outside and some of the inside. Lots of blog fodder, I hope?

So I hope you will join me as I create a nest for my family, in a way that’s most helpful and encouraging to them.

May you be encouraged too!