*Fairly* Recent Projects and Such

Around Easter, I was bit by the sewing bug and got to work on quite a few projects. Here are pictures of a few of them:

Baby shower gifts for a former co-worker who is expecting twin girls in the next month! (owl design from www.appliquewhimsy.com)

(Design from www.planetapplique.com)

Nursing Cover

Receiving blanket made out of a flat-fold (unused) cloth diaper and scrap flannel

Shirt and ruffle-bottom capris for my niece (kite design from www.planetapplique.com)

Embroidered onesie (design from www.planetapplique.com)

Appliqued onesie (design from www.planetapplique.com) and diaper cover (I sewed a skirt, too, but haven't gotten a picture yet!)

Embroidered shirt for a friend's daughter for Father's Day (design from Embroitique on Etsy.com)

Suffice it to say that I have gotten over my fear of my embroidery machine and have finally broken it in a little! It's a little too much fun to sew for little girls! Now if we could just finish some house projects that seem to be dragging on forever.

The landscaping in our front yard is still not complete and the weeds are taking over again. We had a patio poured out back, which I'll post pictures of soon. That is still a work in progress, too. Thankfully, the inside of our house is coming along quite nicely. I scored a set of oak end tables at a yardsale this weekend for $15. Nothing else in our house is oak, but for the price, I can paint or re-stain them down the road!
They are in our family room, which has probably undergone the biggest transformation of any room in our house since we moved in. For the longest time, the only thing in the room was Alex's computer desk. But, we bought a couch from some friends after Natalie was born and it has taken shape little by little ever since. Here's the before:




And now 3 years later, the after:


Looking back, I can't believe how much we've done to change how this room looks. It has probably become my favorite room in the house since staying home with Natalie. We hang out in there a lot. Well, that's about the extent of my creativity these last few months. What kinds of projects have you been working on?

Mantle Makeover

A few months back, a friend posted pictures of her baby nursery on Facebook. She had incorporated an old fireplace mantle into the design and positioned the changing table in front of it and put a cute lamp and picture frames on top. I thought it was a really unique idea and added a lot of interest to the room. So, naturally, I wanted to find a mantle for Natalie's room, but I wanted it be turned into a bookcase. One of my mom's friends happened to have one that she was selling, so we snagged it and hauled it home.


My father-in-law is quite handy and was looking for a project to work on, so he offered to work on the transformation for us. He stripped off three layers of old paint and sanded it smooth until voila!


At my request, he also added some shelves in the back on both sides for extra storage to make use of every possible nook and cranny:



I love to just go into the nursery and stare at it. Is that weird? Natalie has quite a nice book collection already and I've been looking forward to rocking her and reading the Bearenstain Bears and Clifford. The "It's a Girl" banner was made by a friend for our baby shower and looks perfect hanging there. Stay tuned for the final "Man Cave Makeover" post with more nursery pictures (they're already on Facebook, if you want to peek)!