a little scissors case and a new puppy

Lately, it has been hard to sew,

and from the title you probably understand why....

there are cute pictures at the bottom of this post!

I managed to hand sew this lovely little scissor cover,

made of felt and Tilda quilting cotton (like my jewelry bag)

with a sweet little embroidery:

It is the perfect size for embroidery scissors.

I followed a pattern from Bustle and Sew magazine

as I have previously for this spring wall hanging,

my polar bear tea cosy and my fox pillow.

I guess I am developing a fondness for the magazine,

full of cute and interesting projects!

I made this one for my Mom for mother's day, but I feel like I will be making one for myself, if our newest family member leaves me some time....
Here is our new puppy: Bosco. He is only 8 weeks old, and 11 lbs, so just a little baby. According to the rescue, he is a hound mix,

which I think it quite accurate, well we will know more as he gets bigger. But right now, not much is getting done around here, just a lot of snuggling...

and enjoying the silliness!
Have a great Memorial Day weekend

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: the big reveal

This is the last week of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition. The reveal is not quite as big as I would like it, but I am very pleased with where I ended:

The new paint Palladian blue is perfect, from week Two, and so is the armoire transformation into bar, from week Four. And I have an olive tree (ok fake but so pretty!)

The curtains had a great touch to our large windows, from week Three,

and the update on the library makes it fun again to look for books, from week Five.

And I rehanged all of our frames, updating the big poster from an older Monaco print

to a vintage DC one, with some lovely cherry blossom,

just like on my inspiration board from week One.

Curtain fabric, poster, olive tree,  basket, chairs, Sideboard

This large room feels now brighter, lighter and more modern,

those curtains add a lot of personality!

I wanted to do one more project but unfortunately I ran out of time,

so hopefully I will have time to work on it over the summer...

Another real transformation happened:

Miss C. cut her hair! They grow up so fast.... Happy Mother's day.

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 5

This week five of the One Room Challenge: the living room. With only one week to go, one would thinks I made a lot of progress this week end, well one would be wrong!
I worked on little things that take a long time but might not seem like a lot.... like reorganizing the library!

I like it much better than previously, the top row needed some help.

So I decluttered and painted the top shelf blue like the rest of the room.

And just put back a few things:

I also reorganized the books, a few were given away, but most of them stayed. Most shelves have 2 layers of books, we have a lot! Mon Cheri was a English major, so that explains most of it, plus we need books in French, especially comic albums (nothing to do with super heroes!)
I also spent a lot of time sewing a little quilt for the couch, there is still a way to go....

but when I saw this book "Southwest Modern" by Kristi Schroeder , I had to make something right away! We spent many years there, and miss it. It might not be finished by next week, but the colors are perfect in the room.

So let's review all that I worked on so far:

- painted the large L shaped room Palladium blue

- sewed cool retro curtains

- transformed an old TV armoire into a bar.

I have all the new furniture from the inspiration:

Now I hope I really have time to tackle the fireplace...

and put everything into place!

Happy DIYing!

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 4

This is week four of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition.

The room is shaping up,
I painted the walls a nice blue color,
I made some retro/modern curtains.

And this is what I worked on this week:

a big armoire transformation.


I had wanted to update this large armoire
that we used to store alcohols and wine
into a cool bar for quite some time but never got around to it....



I would have loved to have one of this cool bar piece of furniture,
like those in the picture below:

Pics from PB and Pinterest,
neat right?!

But instead we had this large, old TV armoire (from 2002-2003),
one of our most expensive piece of furniture from Ethan Allen,
real wood and super heavy, so we are keeping it.
It had made it through all the moves,
and had changed rooms in this house a few times
(but no floor change!)

It had good bones:

I was inspired by this transformation by Shine Your Light,
and made this:



Much better right?
I still need to attach a back and some light,
and some extra details,
but it is already much more user friendly!

The shelf was built out of 1 x 12 (recovered from the tired down basement).
And like in my inspiration I used T molding from flooring transitions
to attach the glasses.

I also built 2 "trays" to hold the wine bottles in the cubbies below the main part:


very simply made, with 1/4 inch plywood, 1 x 2 and 3/4 inch square pieces of wood.
They slide nicely in the cubbies, keeping the bottles safe and sound.




It is nice to keep the doors opened instead of hiding everything inside,
but the doors can still be closed, especially nice when kids are over.

I am so glad this One Room Challenge is forcing me
to tackle projects that I have been wanting to work on for a long time.

Hopefully I can take on one of those project:
the fireplace!

Until next week,
Happy DIYing!