cricket it is

Did you guess the color?

Well green it is,

Cricket more exactly.

I know it seems to be a non popular way to go: dark wall color!

From the blogs I read I see a lot of light colors.

But with 3 huges windowns, I felt it would be OK.

So after 5 hours this is what it looked like:

 and I like it!

It looks great, with the white of the windows

and the built-in.

It even make the hard wood floor look great.

No down side yet!

Our IKEA furniture looks good with it too!

(we still do not have grown-up furniture!)

Now I need to deal with those large windows,

they are huge, almost 100 inch wide!

But that is for another day.

Happy day!



new house: the main room

While I still have no real idea where

I went to take the outside of the house,

I am ready to take care of the inside.

So let me introduce you to the main room.

It is a large L shape space,

off the kitchen.

(this door is the back door, to the deck)

As you can see, in the back there is a huge built-in,

with a large opening for TV (older, smaller TV).

Originally, since our TV did not fit,

we thought we could make that part of the room,

our office/computer area. 

While I liked the look

(just remove the mess/boxes, then you can see it,

maybe squint a little, then look again!)

the other side of the room did not work at all,

too many couches, not enough walls!

and a huge brick fire place

(the picture came with the house)

I like the old, retro vibe of the fire place,

so square and rough!

We had no option but to move furniture around,

it felt like those puzzles where you move one piece a little so

that you can move another piece, and move it again....

It was a very crowded place,

with nothing in its proper place

and 2 big dogs under foot

(worried, are we moving again?

they will need therapy!)

This is where we settled, and found our marks.

The office/computer desk is now across the fire place,

with the 2 cigar chairs.

The TV was mounted to the wall,

and sticks out a little of the rectangle opening,

but within acceptable parameters.

And the rest of the furniture found its place.

Do you see that weird looking wall on the right side of the picture?

Well I think it is a cool feature,

but you will have to wait a little longer to see it!

Now that we are happy with the placement,

it is time to address color and window treatment.

I am not a fan of rods attached just outside of the window,

I like them close to the ceiling,

and I like them bigger than those little white things!

I am I guess "a curtain snob",

well since it is my house (in 30 years)

and that they are on every window,

I took them down,

every single one!

And this is what you get,

after unscrewing these rods,

plenty of little holes and paint marks everywhere!

Oh well, nothing some sparkling cannot fix!

And since I think that yellow does not look good with the fire place bricks,

I will be repainting anyway!

Guess what color I chose?

Happy day!



new house

I liiiive!

(think Mushu from Mulan!)

I have been very busy setting up the house,

there will be no sewing for quite some time!

This picture is where my craft space started,

but soon we realized that Miss C.'s bedroom heater

was not really working,

so we play the switch room game,

and



it was all crazy messy all over again!

I am sure I will be able to keep warm!

I do not like the color of this room,

but painting will have to wait.

First let's go back to the beginning

and have a look at the new house!

It was built in 1966,

much older than our previous house in the Midwest,

but a little younger than our first house

in the southwest.



I am not sure if it is the boxiness,

the power lines, or all the trees that surround us,

but the new house feels like home,

a lot more than our previous mac mansion!

(not that we could have a house like that here!)

The outside lacks personality,

like it got its foundation on,

but forgot to put mascara and lip gloss!

But at least it has some make-up,

here are some pictures of the similar houses au natural:

Not that they are bad, but I like not seeing all

the different materials that have been used in the house.

I also enjoy the new double pane windows,

it has been cold here!

The door color needs to change,

and it definitively needs some accent color,

I am not quite sure what would work yet,

also it has to be a cheap make-over,

we lost so much money on the previous house!

Any suggestions?

boxes, more boxes and a missed anniversary!

Thank you for all your kind words

and thoughts for Miss C.

she is doing great and has recovered fast,

she has been back to her old self for the last 5 days,

running, dancing, jumping,

a healthy 6 year old!

The move went as well as possible,

and since I was at the hospital when the house

was been packed, I did not get too stressed about it!

It was our first time been moved professionally,

a little weird but so much easier.

We are all getting used to our new location

and house, the kids like their new school,

the dogs are doing well with a much smaller yard,

probably happy to be done with the torture of moving.

If you have dogs, you need to read this article:

"dogs don't understand basic concepts"

it is so true, I laught so hard, I cried,

well it could also have been the stress!

 

 I have been unpacking boxes after boxes....

I will admit, I might have a few too many crafting supplies!

Space is here a lot tighter than in Ohio,

I better get creative in my organization/storage.

As I was making crepes for la chandeleur

(late, I could not find any pan!)

I realized I created my blog a year ago and

totally missed the date....oh well

there is always next year!

Happy day!

quick update

The last few weeks have been crazy:

getting ready to move,

snow days

and just this week end,

Miss C. had emergency surgery!

She had a fewer on and off for a few days,

but on Sunday it became obvious that something was very wrong,

so we rushed to the ER at 4 am.

She had appendicitis, and had surgery at 4 pm.

She is doing well now,

but it is not easy to rest when the house is being pack,

we will be homeless tonight.

We should move in our new house sometime next week.

We are planning to take 2 days to do the 9 h drive

to our new location to make it an easy as possible

for Miss C. to rest.

Hopefully in a week from now,

life will be more "normal"!

doll bed, finally!

Remember the doll bed I was working on?

well I finished the bedding on time

but I did not get to paint it

for a while!

So here it is finally,

all together!

It turns out that it is a bear bed,

not a doll bed!

Larry, Miss C.'s bear, was in need of some better

sleeping arrangement,

so dolly agreed to give up the bed....

it is usually best to not argue with bears!

The quilt turned out really cute.

It took a while to sew all the little squares together,

but it does not require too much thinking,

so perfect sewing with a movie!



I used the same off-white fabric for the back and

binding.

I quilted simple straight lines on the plain fabric,

making a simple diagonal design.

Just right for a country bed!

Happy day,

I mean sleep!

baby, it is cold outside!

Yep it is snowing again!

and the babies are going to be cold...

fear not, Santa sent some nice winter knit!

My mom was very busy last fall,

knitting winter clothes for Miss C.'s babies.

She made 2 complete ensembles for the big baby/little girl.
The dark blue one even has booties and a beret!

The light blue one has a scarf and cute butterfly buttons.

She did not forget her big girls

and so she also knitted this cool coat:

with a matching bonnet and scarf.

And of course the tiny baby got one piece outfit

with matching hat and scarf.

He is quite fashionable with his jacquard jump suit!

We can all agree: my mom has so serious skills!
Best and worst part: she makes up the patterns!!

We are all ready,

bring the white stuff!

Happy day!







ten years ago

ten years ago,

in the land of enchantment,

my little boy was born!

He was a very happy baby,

with little crying and lots of smiles.



first valentine's day

and I was/am a proud mom.

with his best friend, both of them young!



and now they are both 10 years old!

Brick master grew bigger

and Black dog grew greyer!

but they are still best friends.

Happy Birthday my son,

I love you!

3000 lbs to lose

yet you read it right,

I need to lose 3000 lbs!

Right now you are looking at my picture,

and start thinking:

"OK I can see she could lose some weight,

may be 30, but not 3000

so really it must be a typo!"

It is not a typo,

the house got fat!

The upcoming move is paid by my husband's company,

but up to a certain amount,

and apparently we are way pass that number,

so it is major cleaning time.

We started strong:
Brick master gave up 6 years worth of old Lego catalog (26 lbs!)
Miss C. gave her board books to the neighboors' little girl
(I could not move the box so it was heavy!)
I gave up my old magazine collections of
Threads, Stamping and other craft,
it was quite impressive.
Mon cheri gave a old desk he made out of oak,
and the dogs, well they do not have much,
so we are not counting on them!

It is a good beginning
but still a long way to go!
I am going to do the unthinkable:
not keep some of my older fabric!!
I know it is sad....
but I have "too much" and some of it is a little old,
and dare I say it, some I do not like anymore...
So I will bring a few bags to the school
and retirement homes in our area,
I am sure they will find people willing to work with them again!

Happy cleaning days!

bonne annee 2011

Je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse annee 2011.

I wish you a Happy New Year.

To celebrate this occasion,
I made one of my family's favorite:
Panna cotta.

It is a pretty dessert, but not a very healthy one,
just cream!
I like to use this recipe from Epicurious.
The only change I made is to use a little more gelatin.
I also drive the extra miles to Wholefood to buy a pasteurized organic heavy cream,
it is much tastier than the ultra pasteurized from the regular grocery store,
since it is almost the only ingredient, it is worst it!

After the cream is done, it is really up to you to serve it your way:
easiest: in pretty glasses, or with fruit inside
easy: unmolded with some sauce/fruit.

Happy day!

pillows

During my Sister's Christmas visit,

she put me to work!

After sewing some coasters

and place mats

as Christmas presents!

Well what is a big sister to do

but to sew some more for her little sister?

She saw the pillows I made

a while back with pictures from The Graphics Fairy.

She liked them so much, that after looking through some pictures,
she found 2 pictures she really enjoyed,
and we went to work!

 

Because of a certain lack of time,
I simplified a few things and forwent the ribbon around the pictures.
As with the other pillows, I just printed the images on muslin
with freezer paper in the back.
I sewed a 2 inch black border all around,
and for the back I used the back and white cotton

that you see on the middle pillow,

which I also made!

It took just a couple hours to make these 3 pillows,
and my little sister was happy!
But her suitcase was very full!

Happy sewing!