Christmas mantle

We fell in love with and  moved into our house 8 1/2 years ago.  The family who lived here many years ago had 5 (i think) kids and many people I meet in town know our house as this family's house.  I like to let people into the house to view it.  Sometimes the house is messy and I apologize, but let them in anyway.  Last weekend I had a yardsale and cleaned and decorated the house for anyone I knew who wanted to see the house.  I decorated the mantle and I LOVE it!

 I usually decorate more for the kids, but this I did for myself.  I'll add to the decorations as the season goes on and add more for the kids, but here's the mantle and this is how it will stay.  

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Making Mercury Glass

I found a blog post about making mercury glass and decided to give it a try.  It took me a little while to get the spray paint and still didn't end up with quite the right thing but decided to give it a try anyway.  I wanted looking glass silver but when I tried the silver I had purchased it turned out more matte.  The supplies you will need are vinegar water spray (50/50), silver looking glass spray, glass containers, newspaper and paper towels. 

Once I had everything together, outside since the spray paint is smelly, I sprayed the inside of the globes lightly.  While the paint was still wet I sprayed the vinegar water mixture onto the inside of the glass.  The vinegar/water beaded up the paint and I took a paper towel at this point and dabbed off the excess paint. 

I sprayed and dabbed until I was happy with the results.

Once they were all dry I took them inside to the mantle and put some candles in them.  I would have liked black candles for Halloween but had to make due with little white ones. 

I think I could have taken off  a little more paint but the glow is very pretty.  I think I'll try again and follow the instruction of the blog post and see what the results end up like. 

Monday morning and back to work

It's Monday morning and the weather continues to be

 grey and rainy.  I have a couple of sewing projects in the works and a

 few that will be coming in - just waiting for fabric to arrive.  Today I am working on some

panels for a closet door.  It is hard to see the fabric in this grey, rainy weather,

but it is brown.  We are interlining the panels to give them a rich full feel. 

  

 I'll need to make a trip to the fabric store for more lining and interlining

but have enough to get started.  I never mind a trip to the fabric store. 

It's always inspiring to look at the new fabrics. 

On the project front I am working on some screen printing.  I purchased a

kit and made my first attempt last week.  It didn't turn out but I think

I know what I did wrong so I've started again, hopefully with better results.    

If this works out and I can screen print on fabric, I will make some pillows.  I already have several designs that I am excited about.  The next part should go pretty quickly. 

So now it is back downstairs to work on the closet door panels.  Have a dry day!  Kathleen

Pillow and cushion

A friend of a friend recently contacted me to make a cushion for her for her mudroom.  We had the hardest time connecting and never actually did.  She ended up dropping the fabric with a picture from a magazine.  I had a few questions for her such as did she want the buttons like in the picture, did she want welting, how thick did she want the cushion.  She answered all my questions and gave me some insight... I want it heavy, like an old boat cushion.  I knew exactly what she wanted. 

I stood in Joann's with the foam and cotton batting draping and wrapping.  I figured out just how much cotton batting I needed to get the "old boat cushion" feel.  I finished the cushion and got in touch with her to get the cushion to her.  It turned out that it wasn't for her house, but for her beach house.  She was just headed there and could I meet her there.  I always like to take my work to the house personally to make sure it fits. 

When we put the cushion in place it was perfect.   I did just what she wanted and she was very please.  She showed me around the house a bit.  I wish I had taken photos of it because it was stunning.  It is a contemporary cape (not my style but I could totally appreciate it) set right on the beach.  They had gutted and redone it in a modern beachy feel.  She said she has more projects for me so I may get back to the beach house.  When I do, I'll definitely take some pictures for posting. 

Here is a pillow I made for another client.  She had a piece of fabric and two pillows. 

She said to pick the pillow that fit the fabric.  I centered one coral on one side and two coral on the other side.  Pretty!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and a happy mother's day!  Kathleen

Dining room chairs

Here is a photo of my dining room "area." It's not it's own room, it's a part of our living room. Right behind me is the family room which I think was once the dining room. The woman who owned the house before we did used the family room as a TV room and we do the same. I prefer that to having a room devoted solely to the dining table which we hardly ever use, we eat in the kitchen. I'm finally getting the dining room to look the way I want it to. I posted once before about the dining room chair covers. I got the chairs from a neighbor after a yard sale. I painted them all white-again, prime dark wood when painting white!

But what I really did was finish all the skirts! Yah! I pretended I did in that last post but I had run out of white canvas fabric. I finally got some more and worked on them until they were done.

I used what I had for the top of the table.

I took the orange candles from the mantle-now I have to find something for the mantle...

I filled the glass hurricane lamps with sea glass-purchased because you can't find that much beautiful blue sea glass-and the orange candles. I added a star fish to the metal shell bowl-also purchased because we don't have big beautiful star fish here.

Here's a clean, lovely, decorated dining room!  Have a great weekend full of fun projects!  K

Springy project

As promised I told you I would tell you how I made my happy birds that I hung on some forsythia branches. I hope the branches bloom, but it may be a little soon to have cut them from outside. I try to bring some forsythia branches in each year and force the flowers. It is such a welcome to spring and it reminds me of my mother.

Here is the book I got the project from. I had seen it on some blogs and when I was setting up my list of books from our book of the month club I saw it and immediately put in in my queue. When it came it was like getting a gift. I was so excited and loved the all the projects.

(You can find this book here)

I have recently been an admirer of the Scandinavian style. I think it is how clean everything looks. All the white and the minimal look of things really resonates with me these days. Having four kids in different activities makes for alot of "stuff". I am constantly decluttering, organizing, weeding, to keep a handle on all the "stuff." Anyhoo...

I started by copying the pattern on freezer paper. I teach a sewing class at my kids elementary school and decided to make the pattern out of plastic. The pattern is easier for the kids to use if it is made out of plastic. I took a plastic container from the recycle and made the 2nd pattern.

Here it is placed on the fabric. I would actually recommend turning the fabric right sides together even before tracing. Just makes it a little easier when it comes time to sew. Trace and cut out.

Next I cut a length of ribbon - or rick-rack in my case to use as a hanger once the bird is done. I have tons of pieces of ribbon, trim, rick-rack and such and a project like this is perfect for the pieces. I adds to the charm using all the different colors.

Remeber to place the ribbon before sewing - yes I had to undo a couple of them to put the ribbon in and restich.

Next stich around using a small seam allowance and leave the tail area open.

Turn the bird right sides out - I used a chop stick for this. The tail opening is small so a bit of patience is needed for this step and for the stuffing step which is done once the bird is turned right sides out (no picture for that part but it is pretty self explainatory)

Finally, add some tail feathers and topstich the tail together pulling the sides out. This gives the bird a little dimension. Anything can be used for the tail feathers. Here we cut pieces of fabric with rick-rack. On another bird we used bits of ribbon. It would be fun with some feathers as well.

So, make a bunch of birdies, hang them up and enjoy! We are supposed to get weather in the 60's this weekend - woo-hoo! The bulbs are starting to push us and it feels a little like spring.

Have a great day! K

Snow, snow, snow...

We've had it with the snow here in Massachusetts. We got some beautiful snow again over night. It wasn't much, but... it's March!

I got some lovely photos of the snow before it warmed to the upper 30's,

rained and melted away. My lovely dried hydrangeas. I moved them from inside to get rid of them. I still like them but my family was not happy with the mess they would occasionally, okay, often make when touched - even by accident.

The bird bath undisturbed.

I love this photo of my gnome all covered in snow next to my cute little pine tree. I tried to clean the snow off his face to make him a little more "camera ready" but at that point in the day the snow was really frozen on.

So, to lighten my mood I spent the day inside sewing and decorating. I did a small craft project that I will reveal in full detail soon. ( sorry for the shadowy photo - I didn't get to it until this evening and was low on light)

Have a lovely day! K

Mont Tremblant

We took our annual family ski trip this past weekend. This year we decided to go to Canada. It seemed like a great idea back in the fall and it was beautiful, but...cold! Brrrrrrr! The Kids were excited to cross the border. They have each been to Germany to visti Oma and Opa, but for some reason, this was so different for them. We stayed at a beautiful hotel near the village of Mont Tremblant. One of the best features was the delicious breakfast each morning that was part of the cost of the hotel.

The day we arrived was a beautiful warm day (about 40 degrees) We visited the village and walked around a bit. We didn't do too much because we wanted to get back to the hotel to check in and the kids desperately wanted to go to the pool. Little did we know that the day we set aside for walking around the town would be so bitterly cold we wouldn't last very long. The kids enjoyed the maple taffy pops you could buy outside. Someone would pour a strip of hot maple syrup into a pan of snow and place a stick on the end. As the syrup cooled you would roll the syrup up to eat it.

The village of Mont Tremblant was very cute. There were fire pits around and lovely decorations. The gondela in the middle photo was a walk on that would take you from the bottom up to the top of the village where the ski area started. There were tons of slopes. There is a north side and a south side and areas we never even made it to. The views at the top are beautiful.

I usually get some pictures of the kids skiing but it really was so cold
I hardly wanted to take my hands out of my gloves.

Now the kids have a few days off but I am back to work sewing.

Happy Day! K

Bieber Fever

Okay, I'll admit it...we have MAJOR Bieber Fever here!!!

(Justin Bieber)

I took my youngest and four friends to see the Justin Bieber movie on Friday

as a belated - very- Birthday party. I decorated the car inside with balloons and a happy birthday banner, and wrote on the outside of the windows. I took snacks and whoopie pies along for the car ride. The girls laughed and sang.

It was so much fun to see those five 7 year olds having so much fun.

I got into it and had a great time. That Justin Bieber is a talented and amazingly confident 16 year old kid! We got the seats the girls wanted - almost at the very back.

Did I mention it was in 3D and it looked like JB was reaching right out to us?

I have to say, I am toatlly encouraging my youngest's Bieber-i-fying!

(Before)

(After)

She is still perfecting the swish over to the side.

Have a great sunny day! K

Valentine's decorations

I don't do much decorating for holidays, other than Christmas, but I usually try to do a little. This corner cabinet is one of the first things you see when you enter our back door. It's an easy place to decorate and lets me move some of my favorite stuff around. The other day when we had snow and I had nowhere I had to go, I puttered around and did a little Valentine's decorating.

I made this cute heart banner a few years ago. I embroidered LOVE with my nifty sewing machine before I cut the hearts out and stitched them together. I sewed some ribbon on either end so I can tie it on. It's one of those small things that makes me smile:)

Last year I took the old candy canes, glued them together as shown and made little hearts. I think I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. Very easy. I kept mine from last year but it is easy enough to do each year. (See my favorite square Petit Fleur platter in the background?)

This one still has the ribbon to hang it, but I just leaned it up against the birdhouse one of my kids got for Christmas. At some point I will probably take the birdhouse out and let someone paint it.

Even the glassed my SIL painted for me one year look festive in the corner cabinet. Behind the glasses my goodwill bowls with the red stripes.

Finally, I took any green candy out of the mason jars. I added some red twizzlers and that is my Valentine's decoration.

It's still a week away, but Happy Valentine's Day from KH Designs