Spring Spruce-Up

Nearly two years ago, we blew $200 on This End Up couches from our favorite thrift shop nearby. The cushions were old, and somewhat, shall we say, eye-catching:



But we thought, hey, we'll get covers for them, the sunflowers will be gone in a month, tops.

Fast-forward to two weekends ago, when I happened to look into the Last Chance bin at Ikea - and got $500 worth of couch covers for $30! Sure, they were meant to fit different-sized cushions, but I thought I could make them fit ours. So, one panic attack (at the thought of using scissors on such gorgeous fabric - I made the first cuts while on the phone with my Mom, I'm so glad she was home or I might not have had the guts) and a whole lot of thread later:


Bliss. One tiny corner of our tiny home has been tamed.

Sewing Up Some Fun

Halloween around here is kind of a big deal. So, I was excited to find a book of how to make costumes in a nearby library; I just bought it at Better World.com, because it's the coolest book ever. It gives straightforward directions for making about 75 different costumes, some of which are pretty darned complicated.

I feel like Harry Potter must have felt when he started to use the Half-Blood Prince's potions book - suddenly, I'm making complex things like tunics and hats, with ease and very little clothes-making knowledge! I'm a quilter, so I know my way around a sewing machine, but any clothing I turned out before this book came into my life was unwearable. Truly.

However, I'm not the only one making costumes this year! Luke browsed for a while, chose to be Robin Hood - and asked me to teach him to sew.

I only realized later how much I'd been hoping that at least one boy would want to learn this skill... I'm not going to have any daughters, and sewing is such a cool thing to be able to do in any case that your gender shouldn't matter.

He did really well, and loves it - no surprise, since there is a small element of danger in using a sewing machine. Plus, it has similar appeal to some of our outdoor tools (it's a Huskvarna, and they also make things like chainsaws), and it has some pretty cool features that Luke got to try out, like making different stitches, winding a bobbin, and going in reverse.

Finally, at the end of all his hard work, he's got the important parts of a Robin Hood costume! I did one seam on the hat, because it was a complicated bit of sewing, but besides that, Luke did all the sewing and helped with the pattern pinning and cutting. Independence in a nine-year-old is a nice thing, that's for sure!

Late Fall Amusements

With a turn of bad weather upon us recently, we have been more indoor creatures more than outdoor ones. We've found several ways to keep busy, luckily.

First of all, I've got a place to quilt again! After so many non-sewing months, I can finally stretch a part of my imagination that I'd nearly forgotten about. Also, for the first time since we moved into this house 3 years ago, my fabric is out of boxes and set up so I can find what I need to make stuff... and so can my guys:

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

In case you were wondering, Owen is making a blanket for Darth Vader. Because you just never know when an evil Sith lord might need a cozy blanket, do you?

At the world's best thrift shop, I found one of those paint-flinging-spinny-whizzy-things for 75 cents! Only instead of paint we've used markers (saving paint for a day when poor Ben's not home to see the disaster until we have had a chance to clean it up). Luke and Owen love this thing:

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

It makes really cool pictures, no?

I've saved my own current obsession for last: The Twilight books. I borrowed the first one from my sister-in-law, waited for a whole month for the second from the library (torture, extreme torture), and borrowed the third and fourth from a 13 year-old friend.

Because the thing about this series is, it appeals to girls young and... well, not so young, I guess. They are so well-written, and funny, and poignant; they make me remember what it was like to be in love for the first time.

I cannot stop reading these books, and even when I do I still end up in them - while teaching an aerobics class this morning, I told the ladies that I was there physically, but otherwise still in the little town of Forks, WA, with the vampires and werewolves.

And I got a good laugh when I realized that a high percentage of them were right there with me!