And other stuff too....

Of course I've been sewing too, can't help it!  We've actually been so busy in so many ways, and I haven't taken the time to blog.  But I decided that if I waited till I had time, I'd never get it done!  So hopefully there's more to come shortly, but till then here's a few recent photos I love. 

Doesn't he look like a pro?  This was at the Walker's house, guess we'll have to find him one!

I'd better get to bed, I need to get up in 6 hours!

But I did finish Beth's striped challenge quilt, all in a day!  I thought and thought about it for days, was intending to use sleeves cut from Tyler's shirts, then decided to just do a small one to get it done with and try something bigger later.  I've been working very hard at doing things I say I will, and this was supposed to be done by September, I believe. 

The rule was that you had to use lots of striped fabric. 

I learned that stripes are great for binding, but for quilt tops I prefer them to be mixed with lots of solids, other prints, etc.  More as an accent.     (the back)

Finished measurements are 24 x 24 inches.

The back is a "candy" flannel, and front is pieced from part of a  Moda Jelly Roll (Quilt Diva) that Marlene gave me.  I was determined to not buy anything for this project, and it worked!  Breanna is very pleased with the results, perfect for dollies.  =)

The rest will have to come later, what have you been working on?

"Going Green" and a "Face Lift"

You probably never guessed you'd see those two expressions together, but they fit our house right now!  It's been 1 1/2 yrs since we bought the place, and it's been since then that I had a vision of what it could be; so this is very exciting!

In the beginning (actually not completely, there was an ugly brown metal door before- but I couldn't find an old photo).

And the back; we tore off most of the porch, but are temporarily leaving the overhang for a dry place to paint window trim.  It's been a very rainy July!

And the T1-11 we had to replace after a minor "incident" one Saturday evening when my sweet husband accidentally backed the Jeep into the gas meter and shoved it into the house..... Just a warning, service calls on a weekend are highly valuable to the natural gas company!  =)

After adding a gable to the left end of the house, a small covered porch, removing the cedar lap-siding, and replacing the windows and trim; we started adding hardy-board siding.

He also squared off the part underneath the window seat, and the new siding is making dramatic improvements!

Caulking the siding/trim with his big helper.

Siding and caulking are finished!

Time to mask and prepare to spray.  I was really hoping the flowers wouldn't be completely smashed, and they did great!

I had rolled a coat on the back and sides as far up as I could reach with a small ladder, to get a good base coat.  This made some of the spraying go faster.

Someone from the garage sale came back to get the rest of the cement pavers we took out, the kids were quite excited to carry them out of the way.

They really are fun, and enjoy helping out with whatever we're working on.  Aunty Lindsey came out for the evening and gave the kids quite a treat!  She took them to the school to ride bikes, then to McDonalds for ice-cream and french fries while we painted!

And now:

Any better than this?

It hardly looks like the same place, we're getting closer to finished! 

Still need to paint the trim white, the fascia brown, install the interior window trim and paint it, replace the downstairs door, finish re-shingling the roof, and LOTS of dirt-work; but we are getting so much closer.

While we have been out working lately, so many have driven by and stopped to compliment us on the improvements, honk the horn, or give us a "thumbs up", we're hoping this means we'll have a very easy time selling it.  It's been a lot of work but so worthwhile!