thinking out loud... for all to see...

Do. Good. Emerge Group...

So proud to sew along with a great group of quilters who are making a difference in others lives through quilts. The Emerge. Do. good stitches group sews a set of blocks each month and then one of the group members takes those blocks and makes a quilt for a charity group. Our charity is Youth Emergency Services here in Omaha. They do such amazing work and I'm so excited to provide quilts for teens who are looking to improve their life with a little help from such a great organization. Here's the quilt we made together...

What an honor and a privilege to sew for such a worthy cause... You can read another post about do. Good. HERE. ;)

A Pressing Matter...

I love a pretty space. Always have. Always will. In fact, if I have to choose between pretty and practical, I will most likely choose pretty. *sigh* It's just who I am. But I love it most when practical and pretty collide and I can have both. My sewing studio is a mostly organized and yet very pretty space. I love it up here. It truly is my happy place. This afternoon, I went up to put away a rather large amount of fabric that I picked up in Houston at the International Quilt Market Sample Spree sale and I decided I had to clean up and organize before anything else could happen in the space. And so I started with my pressing surface. I know. What?!?!? There are piles of fabric, and stacks of this and that all over the place and I started by tearing into my stained and no longer pretty pressing surface. ;) I'm daring like that.

And so, I tore off the stained and stiff as a board fabric and batting and recovered it with an out of print canvas that reasonable people would have hoarded for a "special project" deserving of such a cool piece of fabric. Not me. My days of hoarding a piece of fabric just because it's out of print or highly desired are over. I'm using what I've got and enjoying being able to look at it every day as I work in my space. Would you like to create a pressing surface of your own? The one in this space is custom sized to fit between my machine and the end of my sewing desk but I have directions written out to make a 24" board that can be mounted on top of a Raskog Cart from Ikea. Here's a LINK to the tutorial... EnJoY! And tag me on Instagram @scrapstudio or #quiltingkeepsmesane and share what you create!

The Peanut...

For almost nine months, that's what we've been calling her. Her "real name"? Annette. (or "The Net" or "The Nut" if you're under the age of 4)

She arrived 11 days early and we were so not ready. But that's ok. She's not really upset that her room isn't quite done (she really prefers being close to her mommy and daddy anyway). She's getting LOTS of love and squeezes and hugs. She's content to be held and drug around and just goes with the flow... just like a third baby should. ;) We're pretty sure that she is the cutest one yet and that's quite a feat if you've seen the older two. Perfection. I love being Gram. What a blessing to get to love these little people. I'm pretty sure I'm just about the luckiest girl in the world...

Annette Kay was born June 23, 2014 and our world will never be the same.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I have a dresser to finish up, walls to complete and a nursery to arrange. She can't sleep in mom and dad's room forever...

Remember when...

we used to talk on semi-regular basis? I would blather on about something I thought was thought provoking and interesting. You would read it and occasionally respond in the comments? I liked that. A lot. Then I got a little distracted. There was a big move to a new house (which we have now lived in for just shy of 6 months). There were several holidays- including but not limited to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter, etc... There was LOTS of decorating going on (pictures soon!). There was the announcement of Grand Baby #3! And the recent announcement that baby 3 is a GIRL! There were lots of appointments to look at bigger houses for my favorite daughter and son in law (and grands). There was an offer made (and accepted) to purchase a house less than 1/2 a mile from our house. (yay for grands around the corner!) And there's the upcoming move in less than two weeks. There's a NEW BUSINESS that is keeping me busy and happy! Whew. See, I told you there's been a LOT to be distracted by.

So, here's my plan. (subject to change of course- but I have good intentions).I'm going to try try again. We'll see how that goes. But for now, know that I think of you fondly and I think of you often. I hope you think of me and are still peeking in every now and then to see if I have emerged from the shadows. Let's get together soon, shall we? :)

we are h.o.m.e.

It's not very often that I stop and think about the fact that I might be doing something for the last time or at least not doing it again for a very long time. Normally when we move I can settle our things into a house in a few days or a week at the most. I put things in a place and move on. This house feels different. I've been wanting to take my time and really think about where and why I am putting things. It feels more like home than any place we've lived since we moved from our house in Waterford in 2008. I love it here. I'm enjoying putzing around a placing things here and there and then moving them to this space or that corner. It's a wonderfully unrushed pace and I'm enjoying it. BUT. There are guests coming next week to visit and spend Thanksgiving and something tells me the guestroom needs to be readied for them. I stacked all the studio boxes in the guestroom as we were moving in so that I could keep boxes from being slid all over my newly finished wood floors in the studio. Great idea, yes? Well, yes, kind of. Now I have a room FULL of boxes where my guests need to sleep so I better get up there and get on that. For now, here's a picture of the house on the night we closed.

It's got some pretty great curb appeal. :)

And here's the great room and it's new draperies that got installed last week.

We/re missing some furniture for this room that hasn't come in yet and I've yet to hang a single picture or mirror in the place but it's coming along. I've got a LOT to do before company arrives next Wednesday so I guess the putzing around better go by the wayside and I better step up my game. After all, I've got years to move things around and find the perfect spot. YAY!

I'm pretty much...

feeling all sorts of good feelings as of late. Thankful- for so MANY things- health, love, family, new adventures. Excited- about the new house, about new business ideas. Happy- with the general direction things are headed, that I've got two grandkids who are just about the best thing ever. Content- with what I've got, with where we're headed. Ready- to move ahead, to get ready for the holidays, to just see what's next.

I had originally thought I'd try to do Cathy Zielske's 30 days of gratitude with a complete album and everything. It was a really nice idea. But with the move getting pushed into November and life headed towards a bit of a whirlwind, I have decided to make my list of the 30 things I want to celebrate being thankful for and maybe morph it in with my December Daily album when we're settled in and ready to think about actually sitting down and being crafty. ;)

This week is all about the packing and getting ready for the move which hopefully will happen on Saturday. SO excited for things to get polished up at the new place and to get to see what it all looks like when there's actual furniture in the space. I'm having trouble sleeping because my brain wants to decorate all night. Ah yes, the joys of new places.

So the stacking and piling and packing continue. I'm hoping to be done by tomorrow evening and have a little impromptu sale/give away at my house on Wednesday. We'll see how that goes down. If all else fails, I'm pretty sure I can get everything I want moved out over the weekend and have a quick "come and get it" open house early next week and get rid of the rest. Here's to getting all done and ready. Ready, set, GO!

31 Days of Art and Accessories- Day 31

Here we are. The end of the road. Well, the end of 31 Day of Art and Accessories. It's been fun to pick through my Pinterest boards and the interwebs to show you some of the things I love. I hope you've enjoyed it too. Today I'd like to share with you one more piece of word-y art.

(link to the pin when you click on the picture)

All my life I have loved decor. I grew up in family that didn't have a lot of extras. We always had enough but rarely had an excess. But even so, the home I grew up in was a pretty space. My dad could  build or fix anything and back in the day my mom was quite the decorator in her own right. I grew up thinking that a color deck and a book of wallpaper samples was the ultimate in inspiration for a whole new world full of beautiful spaces and incredible rooms. My parents were proof that you didn't need a ton of cash to have a well put together beautiful space. I'll always be thankful that they let me choose my own room decor and somehow managed to pull it off on a limited budget. I'll never forget my literally closet sized room wallpapered in the most perfect pale pink Holly Hobby wallpaper and the sweetest pink shag carpet. (Hey people, it was the 70's. Shag was SO COOL.) They thought nothing of me deciding that my barbie townhouse (a gift for Christmas) should always live right in the very center of my tiny space (even though the only reason it HAD to be there was so I could hide the glue stain from my "sewing" maching that used glue to sew. Who thought that a gluing sewing maching was a good idea?!?!) And so it was. I thought that great taste and a good eye could make any space charming and home. I still do. Today, my life is a little easier. We don't struggle to meet the month's obligations like we did when I was growing up. There are way more choices with a little more cash. But I still get a thrill in figuring out how to get a look without spending the whole budget. I'm amazed at what a few gallons of paint and a couple of changes here and there can have in almost any space. I thrill at before and afters that were accomplished with ingenuity and passion. And that's where I'm headed. I want to help people see that a well thought out choice can be worth more than all the cash you could ever hope to throw at a project. I'm going to call this endeavor An Inside Outlook. It's coming soon. I can't wait to tell you more about it.

31Days of Art and Accessories- Day 30

I wanted something to go over the millwork we designed for our fireplace. With 18' ceilings, I opted to make the fireplace surround top out at 10' which left us 8' of wall space above it. It looks great and makes the room seem a little more home-y and approachable. My original thought was to cover that 8' of space with tile or another texture to keep it from getting "boring" but when the fireplace surround was installed and painted, I decided I liked the open feeling of just the paint and that maybe I'd look for something to hang up there as an accent. Enter the longhorn idea.

Isn't he lovely? He hangs out at a local restaurant in town and I adore him. I looked around for one that was like him but in the end I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. A few minutes into our Junk Bonanza adventure, Becky and I found these:

It took me all of 2.2 seconds to whip out my wallet and snatch these babies up. I'm SO excited to place them above the fireplace. Their bleached out goodness is just the bit of subtle-over the top-ness that I was looking for and I think they'll be perfect. :) Sometimes the best ideas evolve. When you can't find what you originally had your heart set on, keep an open mind and look around. I'm betting there's something great just around the corner. One more day and we'll be done with the 31 days series. I think I'm almost ready to start showing you the house. The landscaping is going in and the wood floors are being finished and all the little details are getting nailed down. We're almost ready to close and start living in this beautiful space that we've spent just about a year creating. I can't wait to show you around...

31 Days of Art and Accessories- Day 29

I'm in love with Jennifer Moreman's art. It's graphic, colorful, and just says "fun" to me. I'd love to have an original like this one:

Maybe one day. But until then, I might just have to give in and buy a canvas. They're decidedly less expensive. I'd rather have an original but sometimes a good open edition of the artist's work is not such a bad compromise. :) I might have tried to make an art piece inspired by Jennifer's work. It also might have been a total and complete disaster. I might have been better off just to have invested the art supply money into a canvas in the first place. Live, learn and pass it on. Go ahead, buy one. Unless you're already an artist, I can pretty much assure you that you're going to wish you'd just clicked to add it to your cart. ;)

31 Days of Art and Accessories- Day 27&28

Two for the price of one, again. ;) Sundays are always busy around our house and yesterday was no exception. Let's revisit the idea of making the perfect out of the less expensive, shall we?

Yesterday I spent an hour and half turning my bargain blue mirrors into the perfect white mirrors.

They need a couple of days to fully set up, but I'm pretty sure they're going to be stunning in the master bath. Score one for 3 cans of spray paint and this:

Not sure I'll ever spray paint again without one of these (link when you click on the picture). It was pretty quick and painless and my fingers weren't killing me when I was done.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Today they start the FOUR DAY process of finishing our wood floors. I can probably sneak in today and tomorrow while they're sanding but I won't be able to come near the place on Wednesday and Thursday when they do the actual finish. We chose hickory floors with a matte "magic oil" finish that should wear fabulously even with Roscoe the wonder poodle trapsing about. Can't wait to see them done. It's the last big hurdle before all the final details happen. YAY!