Ottoman Slipcover Project

We brought up this ottoman from a chair in our basement to use in the living room. I really enjoy having a place to put my feet up, but, boy, the color combination just makes me cringe. Since it is already slipcovered, I figured it would be easy to make one with a fabric that coordinates, since nothing really actually "matches" in our house ;)

So I made a long-overdue trip to Joanne's to find fabric and also some other things on my growing sewing list. I found a nice print on sale, and spent the afternoon yesterday putting together the slipcover. What a huge difference I think! And it was actually one of the easier projects I've done. Just a bunch of rectangles, some piping, fitting, pinning and done.

Of course, my sewing room has been neglected for a while now, but after Dennis and I spent a day a couple of weeks ago cleaning out the clutter and reorganizing, putting up shelves, hanging pictures, I felt compelled to use my nice space again! I'll give a little tour of my sewing space.

I love this wardrobe we kept from Dennis' mom's bedroom set. We sold everything else, but I held onto this. Dennis put some shelves in and it is the perfect place for my fabric! I've never had my fabric so organized in my life!

I keep my larger pieces in here, and in the drawers my notions. You can see in the above picture (of the sewing desk) to the left a white plastic storage thing...that holds my smaller pieces of fabric, loosely organized by color family. What I am now looking for is something to hold my many scraps...something I can dig around in easily, but also is easy to access. Right now, they are all in that plastic bag to the right of my sewing desk.

Here is a picture of the front of that wardrobe and also my little sitting corner. This is the chair that matches the ottoman, but the ottoman was always sticking out too far into the room, hence its move upstairs. It's such a nice, sunny little space...now if I can just keep it tidy I can get to that pile of mending I have stacking up!

Leah wrote a little story during church this morning. Just writing it down for posterity.

"Once upon a time they lived happily ever after. Ha ha ha. Just kidding. Ha ha ha. Ok, that was just funny and weird. I meant just weird. Ha ha ha."

I'm glad she's paying attention to worship!

Here there and everywhere

Besides battling the virus that has been going around for the past several weeks, we have managed to get a few things done around the house. I must say that I have enjoyed lots of time cuddling on the couch while my babes were not feeling well, doing some knitting (pictures to follow once all of the knit gifts have been given!) and doing some relaxed schooling. On the days that everyone has felt well, we have been able to squeeze in some valentine crafts and other art projects for school.

After reading about the mosaics on the walls and ceilings of the Hagia Sophia (in our history lessons) we made our own mosaics. We went with a small square of paper and the kids were so thankful that we went small. At first they were complaining that they couldn't make such a small picture, until they spent several hours covering their picture with squares of paper. It certainly gave new appreciation for the mosaics that covered entire walls with tiny pieces of tile!
I found this pattern for these cute hearts on this site and enjoyed stitching up a bunch of them to turn into garland. Literally, this is the most decorating I have ever done for Valentine's Day in my life. It must be said that I am not much of a Valentine's girl, but God has given me a little Valentine's girl who loves all things hearts and sweet notes and such. So, this heart garland was really for her. But we did end up having a fun Valentine's day despite my usual non-participation. I made heart shaped pancakes with a red-raspberry sauce for breakfast, and I helped Leah with some Valentine crafts from a book she has had for some time now. Of course, she hand made all of the cards she was going to give out at our co-op party with no help from me. That girl can get a plan in her head and carry it out all on her own!

My handsome boys (the younger two) played in a recital on Saturday. I was very proud of them both for playing so well, especially after missing 2 weeks in a row of lessons because of our sickness!

I have done way too much baking the past 2 weeks...I have made 3 batches of these Cream Cheese Sheet Cakes Squares (for our Valentine's party i topped each with a conversation heart) and also this YUMMY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake. Next up is a Boston Creme Pie for my mom's birthday. I think the mixer and I are going to take a break from each other for a couple of weeks after that.

Lastly I just had to include this picture of Leah posing with her foam curlered hair and her new pony dress and matching tights that her Granni brought back from Colorado. This was taken after a week of her being sick, and the night before she felt good after such a long time of feeling horrible that she wanted to take a shower and put in her curlers before bed. She was so excited to wear her new outfit and have fancy hair the next day!