and so it goes

Just when you thought your day couldn't get any more fun, your daughter empties the contents of an entire jumbo box of Ziploc bags onto the floor. Luckily, since we've been packing, there are plenty of empty drawers for me to stuff such things into so I can pretend it didn't happen.
Confession time... I've done a bad, bad thing. In a moment of creative weakness, I decided that I would love to make Estella a quilt. I found myself inspired by some other quilts on other blogs. The only problem is that I am not a quilter. I leave the quilting to my mom, and she leaves the toy making to me.
Quilter or not, it's too late to turn back now. The squares are cut, and I've started sewing. I really would like to actually finish this quilt...yeah, there are others in the "works in progress" box that live there permanently. I really love all of the orangey materials, so maybe I won't get sick of looking at it. At least I'm not completely insane and going for a difficult pattern...this quilt will be made of squares, and only squares. Simple.

The main thing I have going for me right now is that I've had some recent Fritter flops and I'm avoiding new ones like the plague. I need something to give me an excuse for my continued Fritter neglect, and this is just the thing!

there was a time...

...when I would have had to put her in a box for a cute picture. This time she did it herself. There have definitely been enough boxes around lately for her to play in and on!
This get well bouquet went out today to my Grandpa in New Jersey. He had heart surgery yesterday and I thought he would like a picture bouquet to brighten his day...GET WELL SOON GRANDPA!!!
I also had a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. This lovely piece of vintage material made it's way to me from California...THANKS CHASE! All that's left is to decide what it'll be turned into!
There's not much else to report...lots of packing happening and left to be done. Also Internet to connect in the new house...maybe soon I'll be posting from there with new pictures to share. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that I have an easier Internet experience than the last time!

we're heading west!!

Okay, so it's only about 25 feet west, but it's west none the less.

Yes, we're moving! I know it's only been about 6 months since I was last blogging about moving, but it's happening again. At least this time we intend to stay a little longer. We're very excited to be moving into a home that we can grow into, not out of. Of course, since it's almost twice the square footage of the current house, we won't have any furniture...I guess Estella and Peanut will have nice open spaces to run and play!

The chair is coming along quite nicely. I've had to paint about 80,000 coats to get it to a purple that didn't scare me. I think it's finally there. It's still a bit more purple than I had hoped, but if it's not in direct sunlight, it's a nice deep shade, only slightly offensive. I took apart the seat, and was a bit alarmed to find it was originally stuffed with grass...weird. I'm going to go tomorrow and get the new stuff to reupholster it...wonder if they'll have any grass for sale...

My fabric came today from fabricworm. It's very feminine, but it is so nice and it looks really good with the chair color. At least it's only on the seat, so the girliness is not quite so obvious.

Maybe I'll go tomorrow to try to find the next victim of my purple vision.

My little fashionista all dressed up for bed...what do you think she's trying to say with this outfit?

that's my girl!

She's truly my daughter! Look at that cutie sitting quietly reading a Martha Stewart Good Things for kids magazine...how could I not be the proudest Mama ever?

Usually when I'm cooking or sewing, Estella takes the unsupervised occasion to pull all of my craft books out and flip through them. I figure it's all of the great colors and images that she's drawn to, but secretly I'm hoping that if she looks at enough craft books, she'll be begging me for craft time someday! Nothin' like startin' 'em young!

Since the couch is done, it's time for a new project:

I've decided that I want to have all different and unique chairs, all painted the same color (to unite them), for our future dining room table. This chair is the first victim of my vision. It's a little grandma but it'll be very funky when I'm done... I've decided on a really deep purple (sroll all the way down to "Hotel Room"...it's way at the bottom) for the base color of all of the chairs...yes, Walter okayed the purple. It's really so dark that it's only purple looking in the right light. I also am hoping to find some of this fabric for the seat cover.

We don't actually have a dining room table to put these imaginary different and unique chairs around, but some day we will. I'm being really picky about the table because I have in mind exactly what I want and I don't want to settle for a table I'll end up being unhappy with. So, keeping that in mind, if any of you have a table like this, or this, or this, feel free to send it to Vermont!

Happy Fall on Monday !

Oh happy day

Estella has a cold. I feel like it's a bit early in the year to start being sick but as it turns out, there's not a whole heck of a lot I can do about it.
On a lighter note, she has taken a liking to my new purple shoes. You can sort of see in the above picture that she has them on over her sneakers. She's actually gotten quite good at walking around in them...I think she looks like she's snowshoeing... very funny!

I've been doing some experimenting lately, and therefore have had multiple crafting disasters. I decided that I'd better make something that will come out as planned to boost my crafting-esteem...body parts in process.

This week I started Estella's name book for a Christmas present. It's slow going since I have very little Estella-free time, so it's a good thing I started it months ahead!

I'm excited about it, but I've also had the sinking feeling that by Christmas time when she gets the book, she may not be all that in to little kid books. I don't know. I'm trying to make it fun and sort of interactive so she will have parts to touch and play with. I'll post full pics when I'm totally done, but for now, a sneak peek...

I guess that's it around here...tomorrow is the big house appraisal day and stress levels are running high. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for good news in the next week or so...

sea of green

I attacked my huge pile of wool this week and got all of the covers sewn. It was a ton of really boring sewing. I sewed each seam twice and then did a reinforcing over stitch on every single seam...lots of pinning and sewing straight lines.
This is my couch before. Really worn and raggedy and looking a little sad. It's not the greatest couch in the world but it's really comfortable (I should know, I spent my entire pregnancy sleeping on it!) and it has tons of storage underneath the seat cushion. We didn't want to replace it because we do actually like the couch, but it was looking sad, don't you think?
Today while the monster slept, I was able to get the arm rests completely redone, and I put the seat and back rest covers on the see how the whole thing was looking. I'm really pleased with how it's come out so far. And Peanut seams to approve!
So, all I have left to do it to staple the seat and back covers on. It's not happening today since I'm apparently too much of a wimp to use the staple gun for more than an hour...it really hurts my hand! I also need to figure out how to attach the skirt-flap-thingy to the bottom of the seat. Considering I have no idea what I'm doing, I'd say I did a pretty good job...pat, pat on the back... The color's not quite as bright as the picture makes it seem. It's a heathered olive green that does border on that offensive vintage pea green but whatever...I like offensive vintage so it suits me just fine. And Walter even gave the approval this afternoon! (And yes, we do have two different rugs in the living room...)

Obviously my week has been consumed in green, so no other craftiness to report.

On the Estella front, she's very into names this week. She'll sit in between Walter and I and point back and forth saying, "Mama, daddy, mama, daddy..." and when we point to her, she says "baba." Apparently she thinks her name is "baby", so we're working on getting her to say her actual name. She's also managed a "neenut" for Peanut and "e-o" for her friend Leo. One of these days we'll be doing everything in our power to shut her up, but for now, we'll enjoy listening to her baby babble.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Just one of those brilliant ideas

Sorry for the crappy pictures today...no excuses, I'm just having a photographically challenged day...

While away, I bought two discontinued couch covers from IKEA. I've liked the material and color since they first came out but since we don't own the Kramfors couch, the covers are sort of pointless. Anyhow, I bought the covers, figuring that I would use the material to cover our current couch. I've spent many hours ripping seams, and even more hours marking out the parts to the new covers. Now I think I'll spend many hours trying to figure out if I was actually sane when I came up with the idea...it's sort of a daunting pile of wool, no?
All frustrations aside, it'll give me something to do for many more hours I'm sure. I'll try to keep the process updated.

Estella finally has enough hair for me to torture her with hair accessories. She's not entirely convinced that having her hair pulled back is a good thing but there's time...

She actually left the pigtails in for most of the day, and enjoyed giggling at her reflection in the oven window.

we're back!

Estella and I are back from our New Jersey adventure! It was nice to have a few days away and to visit some relatives...
Estella handled this trip much better than the last time we were there. Last year, she was getting her first teeth and wouldn't let me out of her sight for a minute...not so relaxing. This year she was more than happy to hang out with her Great-Grandpa and share her Pirate Booty.
She also had tons of fun while vising her Great-Grandma...there was a playhouse on the walking path near the nursing home and it was just her size...
My mom and I also went on daily adventures in search of fabric. No luck at this particular store, but you have to appreciate how old and cool the signage is.
Finally on the last day, we had some luck, but all in all, we were not fabrically satisfied. I already plan to do research for next years trip so that we know where the (crafting) fabric stores are!

I have finished another Fritter. That's Lini to the left. She's very cute in person, and all tagged and ready to go into the shop. My intention, time and energy willing, is to have a small update tonight or tomorrow, so be sure to check them out in the shop so you can see other views of them and their accessories!