The Winter Blahs

I think yesterday was the last cold day for southern Maryland.   Every day next week will be in the 60’s and 70’s.  Hurray!  I am tired of winter.  Even this squirrel that hangs out in my plastic chair every morning enjoying the sunshine is ready for spring!  When I see him, I bang on the window, but he doesn’t even bat a squirrel eyelash!

My sewing room makeover is almost finished.  In between waiting for the last coats of paint to dry I am working on this blog post.  I haven’t painted the ceiling yet, but that will be another weekend.  I have seen a lot of beautiful sewing rooms with white desks, shelves, and cabinets and I really love that look.  BUT…

My sewing room is dark.  The tables are dark, the shelves are dark, even my kids’ craft table is dark wood.  The only thing light colored are the walls.  I painted the them a really light grayish white called “Toasted Coconut.”   Here’s a really sad confession:  Our home is about 30 years old.  The walls in this room and our bedroom have never, ever been painted.  They are the white matte color that builders spray on the drywall. 

Anyway, I live with a man who would not appreciate me painting any of the shelves or furniture white.  So we are living with dark wood.

Here is one of the newest acquisitions in my sewing room, a glass front storage hutch from Ikea.  I picked it up at Salvation Army for $20 a few months ago and it’s been sitting in the garage until last week.

I had to have it when I saw the cool skeleton key in the front lock.  It works.  But I don’t keep the key in it because one of the kids runs off with it every time I leave it in the keyhole.

I spray painted the glass to look frosted.  I don’t recommend it.  But I read some reviews for the stick on kind and one person said it looked like she’d gotten drunk and glued saran wrap to her window.  So, I think this is pretty good considering.  It hides the clutter behind the doors.  My husband added new magnetic closures and braces since the kids keep leaning on the doors when they are open. 

I have some other treasure store finds to share once my room is put back together!

Makeovers

Warning: This is a long post.  Just skip to the end for the sewing part

If you’ve had any kids, you probably know what I mean when I say it’s sheer joy to drop 20-25 pounds in a week.  That’s what I did when I had baby #1 and baby #2.  I was close to pre-pregnancy weight within a few weeks of having them.  I never did get back down to the slimmest size of my life, but close enough!  Not so with baby #3…

I lost about 15 pounds in the hospital (she weighed in at 7) and that was it.  It has been a year now, and I still hover at the same weight.  Enter December Christmas parties. 

Nothing to wear, not feeling particularly attractive, countdown one week to first party, I went on a diet.  I basically ate turkey lunchmeat and water for Every Single Meal and –HALLELUJAH-- I lost about 5 pounds. 

Then I had to decide what to wear.  I still could not fit into any dress in my closet.  So, I went to Target, because I don’t plan to ever HAVE to wear this dress again.  Of course I always have kids with me, and it was taking me a terrible long time to pick anything out knowing that I would be committing to the dress without getting to try it on (since I had kids along).  Veronica (the baby) was getting fussy in the stroller, so since it wasn’t that busy, I let her out and she and Esther played peek-a-boo among the dresses. 

I was frantic trying to find something to wear.  I finally found something I thought I could live with when I smelled the most horrendous smell.  Yes, Veronica was up to her armpits in poop sitting in a display of dresses.  I wrapped her up in my coat, made a beeline for the shoes, picked out a pair and headed to the checkout.  I broke out in a sweat hoping to make it out of there before anyone realized where the stench was coming from!  She rode home in nothing but a diaper after I was through cleaning her up.

That night when I was trying everything on, the shoes didn’t fit!!!  I had grabbed a size 7 instead of 8.  (That’s another thing…my feet are a full size bigger since having kids…and my hair is no longer stick-straight, but wavy).  I called the store in a panic, and a nice woman put a pair on hold for me at the front desk.  While I was talking to her, I asked if she knew if there were any tights that matched.  She said she thought so but wasn’t sure, and when I got to Target a few minutes later, the shoes and tights (which I didn’t ask her to get) were waiting for me.  I love you, Target!!!

Okay, here’s where the sewing part comes in.  The dress was dowdy.  It had a high neckline (I have humungous boobs from breastfeeding) and I didn’t want to be flashy.  The hem went below the knees.  I wasn’t really happy with the dress at all.  Then, I had an idea!  Maybe I could hem it to make it a little younger and stylish.

I have never sewn knit fabric before, so I got out my machine manual and the book “Sewing for Dummies” (yes, I own that book) and got to work.  I cut off exactly how much I wanted, thinking maybe I should go a little conservative in case things didn’t turn out quite as I hoped.  But I kind of go by the mantra, “Go hard or go home,” so I went for broke and didn’t leave any extra!

Then I started sewing with the double needle as was suggested by my Janome manual.  It didn’t turn out how I’d hoped.  I had a really hard time keeping the fabric under the foot.  I think maybe I should have used a walking foot.  I have no idea, but I was getting nervous because we had about 15 minutes before we needed to leave.  So, I just ironed up the bad hem, and used a longer straight stitch with a single needle and it turned out okay!!!  There was some waviness to the (a little bit shorter than I planned!) hem, but I think it was much improved.

And the diet…I have stuck to it pretty well since that night.  We just made Christmas cookies yesterday, so I am going to take a break from it until those are all gone (which shouldn’t take long thanks to Bea and Esther who pretty much are eating cookies instead of real food). 

And speaking of makeovers…today our house is getting a new roof, shutters, and front door, all thanks to the hurricane that blew through here this fall and dropped a few trees on our house.