I'm sorry it been so long.....

I've been telling myself I needed to get my camera out for a few months, but never actually took time to create another blog post.  I have sewn quite a few things, but don't have too many pictures.  They are mainly small things that I've found on Pinterest and wanted to try.  I'll post them eventually.

For now, I do have one major project to show.  You'll remember when I was so excited I found two desks at The Caring Place (thrift store here in town) for $10 each.  Here they are:


Then I added the bookcase to the top (my Ikea hack):


The thought has been going through my mind to try to paint the desk and bookcase so when Todd's Dad was healing from surgery and I thought I had lots of time at home, I decided to take the plunge.  One morning I decided (as I often do) to start.  Ran to Home Depot and spent $120 on paint and supplies.  This was the first painting project I've done for quite a few years, but I'm very happy with the end result.

You can see in the bookcase that it's painted pink, as is the inside of the drawers and the left compartment.  It was hard and took a while, but I'm pretty happy with it. 

 I took the handles off and found some brass cleaner and scrubbed for a LONG time, but they look lots better.  

The hole in the back of the bookcase is just some foam board I had and covered it with fabric (that is also on the bottom of the drawers) and nailed in each corner.  Not as sturdy as a bulletin board, but works just the same.

Another project - BINGO Bags!   I saw a lady had one while we were at Bingo a while go so snapped a picture.

I decided to search on Pinterest to see if I could find a pattern.  Didn't find an actual pattern, but enough information for me to make one.  I made one for Sam first.  Used my new sewing machine that has lots of different stitches.

You can't tell, but there are dogs between her last name. :D  Hers is a little larger than mine, it holds 10 daubers.

And mine:

 I made is so ti only holds 8 daubers.  We went to Bingo last Saturday night so I had to buy enough daubers to fill it up and Sam forgot hers!!!  lol

And as you may know, we have another grandbaby!!!  Hudson was born on March 9, 2013

We finally got to meet him last month.  David and Megan are back from Hawaii for good (sad we can't go visit them again) and they were here for a few days over Father's Day.









For each grandbaby, there are a few things I make.  I've already made him an afghan, so I decided I needed to start his name quilt.  It's just his name appliqued onto the sandwich, but I do hand quilt the lines.  So it's in the middle of our living room right now.  Hopefully it will be done by the time Todd makes it home again.

And finally!!!!!   I decided to splurge and replace the curtains that were in the living room by the kitchen.  While at JoAnn's a few weeks ago, I noticed they had their Home Decor fabric 50% off, plus I had a 10% off entire purchase coupon, so decided to get some more fabric that I made the curtains for the sliding glass doors in the living room.  Anyway, the fabric for this small window cost over $80 - and that's at 60% off!!!!!  I made them the same as the others and it looks MUCH better!

The bad part is that Todd now wants me to make some for the two LARGE windows we have in the dining room and front hallway.  Those windows are about 4 times the size as this one, so we'll have to wait until we build up some more money until that's done.

I have more pictures of my garden that I'll post on my other blog soon.  The problem I have is I've been using Photobucket to keep my pictures and I'm running out of room.  I need to either pay for more storage space (and I'm to "frugal") to do that, or delete some photos to free up some more room.  Soon I'll need to go through them and decide what to keep and what not to keep.

After three (and a half) trips to Nebraska, I'm finally home for a while!

It's been so busy for me, but I finally got home a couple of weeks ago.  My FIL had surgery on April 19, 2013 to correct his Aortic Aneurysm and it went very well.  I stayed with him to recover, then he had an Eye Dr. appointment at the VA Hospital in Omaha on May 1, so decided to stay to take him to that.  He also had a follow-up appt with the surgeon on May 2, so once he got a clean bill of health, I headed home again.  That trip was two weeks, so I was very anxious to get home!  I didn't take Brute with me this time, since we were going to be had the hospital and staying with my parents a few nights, I just thought it would be best to let Samantha keep him.  I don't know who was more excited for me to get home - me or him.  I missed him SOOO MUCH!!!

I did get to spend a little time with my family in Milford, and my sister on the last trip.  (Saw my parents on the other visits, but it never worked out to see her.)  Anyway, she wanted me to make a coat for her grand-dog (her son's dog, she doesn't have grandKIDS yet).  (I had made one for Brute and our trips to Nebraska, so I'll need to upload those pictures and do a separate post.)  They are fans of the Chicago Bears, so I found some fleece to use.  Here's the finished product before I sent it to her:


The inside:


And the picture she sent me yesterday after she received the package:

His name is Zeus.  lol  A really nice pit bull.

I'm so glad it fits.  She sent along the old coat they had for him so I used that as a pattern.

Oh, and this was the first thing I made with my NEW SEWING MACHINE!!!  Not that I needed another one, this is #6.  I put three of the old ones upstairs and whenever the girls are ready, they can have them.

I'm itching to get back in the office to do some more sewing so keep checking back!  I'm going to try to get back to posting blogs more often!  (We have a trip coming up to Las Vegas, so if I make anything for that I'll make sure to post them)

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

I've just been neglecting my blogs.  lol

We had an absolute WONDERFUL time on out trip to Hawaii.  It was so nice to see Megan and her family and our beach cottage at Turtle Bay Resort was HEAVEN.  I really don't think I've ever been anywhere so beautiful.  I'll do a post with pictures on that on my other blog one of these days.

In the mean time, I have been sewing some things.  I'll work backwards - today I made a pencil case for Alyssa (our oldest granddaughter who turned 10 in February).  She needed one to put in her binder, so I looked on Pinterest and found this tutorial.  (You have to log in to get it, but it's a good tute.)  As usual, I didn't make mine exactly like the tute, but the only thing I changed was how I did the zipper.  Mine is how I make cosmetic bags and I think looks a little better.  Since I don't have a really fancy sewing machine (yet) that does cool names, I just used the Bernina that was my MIL's.




It turned out pretty good.  I think she'll like it.  The only thing I should have done differently is make the buttonholes on the bottom a little bigger.  But I can always make them bigger if she wants me to.


I had to make a quick trip to Nebraska to see my FIL.  He's been diagnosed with an Aortic Aneurysm.  Since he's 78 and pretty hard of hearing, we thought someone needed to go to his Dr. appts with him.  Since Todd's brother and his wife both work full time, and Todd's our only breadwinner, I thought I better be the one to go.  I was there a week so decided to make myself a flannel pillowcase to take along!
 
I had bought the fabric at JoAnn's a while ago and didn't know exactly what I'd make with it.  (I do that a lot - expecially with sewing themed fabric.)


While emptying Todd's truck one weekend when he was home, I noticed that his blue jean comforter is looking a little ragged, so I made him a new one.  Used lots of old jeans, then also added a few squares of clothes that were his mom's and grandmother's that were left over from the Memory Quilts I made back in 2010 after they passed away.

This one is REALLY heavy!!!  But that's good, since he goes through lots of snow in the winter.

And finally, I made some more belly bands for Brute.  The first ones I made I used velcro to close them, but he figured out that he can go underneath the couch and get them off.  So I had to figure out how to make some that he can't do that anymore.   I made them long and used elastic and buttons to close them.  I had some plastic that was sandwiched between flannel (so they don't soak through), so layered that and old towels or terry cloth.  I figured out that it was much easier to make the inside layers, sew them with my serger, then make the covers a little larger and slip the inside layers inside.  I topstiched all the way around to keep the inside layers from turning.   I also used a different flannel for the side that goes to his body so it's easy to identify.
These are the first ones:




Then I did a few that are a little longer.  (But these need the buttons adjusted - they are too loose and he gets out of them, too.)
Outside:


Inside:

I now have enough that I do a load in the washer when almost all of them are dirty.  He'll be celebrating his 12th birthday in August, so he's getting old.  :(

One last project isn't a sewing project, but an addition to my desk in the office.  It's an "Ikea hack".  I saw some of them on Pinterest and decided that was what I needed.  I purchsed a plain "Billy" bookcase, but had Todd cut it into three different pieces.  We put each piece together, then put the largest piece on it's side an attached it to the two smaller pieces and ended up with LOTS more storage!!!!   I'm hoping I have time sometime this summer to paint both the desk and the bookcase so that they match.

(I know, what a mess on my desk.  You'd think I'd now have room for everything so I could clean off the top, but I'm waiting for another phone call from my FIL and I'll have to leave to go to Nebraska again.)

Anyway, sorry it took me so long to get another post done.  I do have a few more projects that I've made but haven't taken pictures yet.  So keep checking back!!!!!