Work In Progress

Here are the pictures of the basement from the beginning to end...and by "end" I mean "with carpet" because we have not gotten all of the furniture set up yet. I will post the actual finished product when it is all cleaned up and organized. This basement has added a TON of space to our house...and we are middle-school-girls-at-a-dance giddy over it. Especially Graham because he now has a "movie room"...we watched our first movie down there today. He kept saying "IT'S JUST LIKE A REAL MOVIE THEATER!!"...and I am all "If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?!". He is, as we speak, planning the ceremony.

Workin' the drill back in February...this was the sheet rocking phase

This is after the mudding and painting had been done...

And then the ceiling tiles went up...as did the frame for the screen

Then the CARPET came!!

This one step took the basement from unfinished to finished...it was amazing

And Bear completely approves...he hates the hardwoods and will probably be spending the majority of his time in the basement.
I am never ever ever moving out of this house. Far too much work has been put into it by way too many people...and I just LOVE the place!!

Q as in Quilt

I am projecting again. First off, I took a quilting class at JoAnn's yesterday and I am hooked. It was awesome. I began making my first quilt, a basket-weave pattern. Here are all of the fabric strips sewn together. The next steps are to create the pattern, sew on each of the borders (there will be 3), put on the backing and batting, and then snuggle with it. I love the colors and I am so excited to see the finished product.Today we went to the Coventry Farmer's Market (the highlight of my week) and they were having a fiber festival. This is when people from all over, who make their own yarn, come and sell it. It was amazing. There were so many beautiful things to choose from and I finally settled on this verigated yarn. It is going to make a great scarf. I learned so many neat things from knitters who are more experienced than I could ever hope to be. The extent of my abilities are scarfs and hats.

Well, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I am off to start my new scarf!

Projection

This week Graham and I have been taking part in some major projection...the act of doing projects, that is. We have resolved never to paint another room again. I don't think we are particularly talented at it; as it took us four (yes, four) coats to get the wall to stop looking streaky. Our dining room is now exactly how we want it; which feels so good. It went from red-horrible-floral-wallpaper-border to red-on-our-terms. Here are some pictures of the process.

Before...ugly wallpaper

I was in charge of peeling off all of the old border

and Graham was in charge of sanding

The end! TA-DA!

Then we got these candle holders at Target to put on the blank wall...we like the candles the best...does anyone want to stick up for the flowers?

Coming Apart at the Seams

Before our big move my Grandma surprised me with one of the most thoughtful gifts. A sewing machine. I have been trying to teach myself how to use it without patterns...and on smaller things this has been fine...but today I had to un-seam my very first project. It was sad; heartbreaking really. I would have just thrown it away (in my frustration) but I wanted to keep the fabric and try something different.

Here is what is left of your birthday present, La :) But don't worry. Something much cuter will be coming your way. This just goes to show that, in life, sometimes we would all do well to follow a pattern. As one of my professors puts it "Don't re-invent the wheel." Until I get a little bit more experience under my belt I think I am going to be a little less proud about taking help from patterns.