Tag Archives: DIY

Kitchen, Kitties, and Some Quilting

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My husband and I are working hard to renovate this house. The newest finish is a big scratching post tree for our cats. It’s made out of pantry shelves covered in leftover carpet with 24’s, rope, and staples. Sweet, huh?! I love it when projects reuse things that were headed to the trash. Our kitties seem to like it even though most of them won’t cooperate for photographs.

newscratchingpostapproved

Here’s the kitchen those pantry shelves came from. Some of the top cabinets we removed will be mounted in the garage for storage. The refrigerator’s been moved to the other side of the room and we’re leaving the stove, sink, and dishwasher hooked up as long as we can. New cabinets arrive on Tuesday! We’ll install the top ones, demo the rest of the kitchen, put flooring tiles in, install the bottom cabinets, then start tiling the countertop. We might be washing dishes in the bathtub for a while. Throw back to our motel-living days! So grateful to be here. kitchendemojuly16When I’m not in DIY home renovations mode I’m working on this sweet baby quilt. The done so I’m quilting it all together from the back. This is an eye-spy quilt where each novelty print fabric (ladders, owls, pumpkins, etc) is used in two different blocks. So it’s great for a baby quilt and as the child grows becomes a look-and-find game to match the fabrics up. This one is big enough to snuggle under on the couch too.

cityblocksquilttop  quiltingfromtheback

With my new computer I’m now on Instagram. Are you? Let’s follow each other! I’m quiltartbymegan on there.

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Artist. Not just a quilt artist.

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I remember my purple bedroom with the hollowed-out-closet turned art studio. It was AWESOME! At five, this was waaaay better than a trip to Disney. I sat in there for hours at my little desk coloring, drawing, stamping, creating. I had to get permission for messy stuff like glue, paint, and clay but my parents made sure that I got to use them sometimes too.

My husband and I are getting an art studio ready for me in this house. It’s a bedroom that was a storage room. The things that were in there have sorted, organized, and put in their proper places so now it’s empty and ready for sprucing up. Yes, the row of shelving stays. I get to fill it up with fabric!

studio before 1We got rid of the smelly carpet, threadbare curtains, and popcorn ceiling treatment. The weird shape on the window is from the brown packaging tape holding it together. It’ll need to be replaced. We got rid of the 7The first things accomplished getting rid of the carpet, tossing the curtains, and scraping the popcorn treatment off the ceiling.

my studio minus carpet curtains and popcorn ceilingI had a circus party in the closet studio house. The invitations were tickets I made. I painted our windows (half dish soap, and half paint) with balloons, clowns, and animals. We made a train down to the basement playroom. Hands on the shoulders of the kid in front of you. No pushing! There was a face-painting station and a cake with a train on it. Such fun!

At 31, I can still taste being five years old. So I’ve decided to play! I’m joining a meet-up for art journalling in my area. My first meeting is this Friday morning. I’m hoping to make friends and to play. Not to make anything specific or become a world-famous collage maker or painter, but to play with other artists.

cupcakes and lollipops journal pageHere’s the first page of my art journal. I stamped the background with bubble wrap, painted with cherry syrup, glued ribbon, brushed glitter nail polish on, and added the lettering. Who says you can’t create without art supplies? I knew what I wanted to say and made do with what I had. 🙂 I will be picking up a tray of kids’ watercolors from the dollar store before my meeting though. 🙂

 

Linking up to Val’s sewing room link party. Check it out if you want some ideas for your studio.

 

Where’ve You Been?

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I’ve been neglecting to write for a few weeks now. What have I been up to? Well, aside from spending a lot of time getting un-sick (yuck) and with my kiddos at work (so cute) I’ve been working on the house. Here are a few new skills I’ve learned.

1) Replacing window screens. When I expressed amazement that my husband could do it, he showed me how. Now I’ve volunteered to do the rest of the screens in the house, starting with the back screen door, which has been attacked by vines.

2) Mudding drywall. Filling in holes, covering low spots, etc before we paint.

3) Using a paint sprayer. I’m pretty handy with a brush and roller, but the spraying bit was new to me. We’re rolling colors, but it’s very handy for white ceilings and hard-to-reach areas  like under the water heater in the garage.

4) Cutting and installing carpet. Okay, so we didn’t completely install it with tacks on the side, but throw-rug-style is just fine for the master bedroom for now.

5) Scraping popcorn ceilings down. It’s easy! Just wet it down and scrape. It flops right off and you sweep the gunk off the floor.

bedroom4

Oh, and I’m excellent at sorting through items. Initially, they’re in three categories: save, sell, and donate. Goodwill’s having a good donation year in my town.

I have not been quilting, but am excited to do some paper-piecing with friends tomorrow. I’ll post s’more about that soon. Promise.