What I've Been Up To

I love summer. We can stay up late, sometimes sleep in, work in the yard and do all those projects that are better done in the warm weather.

We've had a busy, yet laid back summer. Carter and Isaac played baseball and they're taking swimming lessons. Carter is also learning to play the clarinet this summer so that he can play the sax in band in the fall (he played the trumpet last school year). Since Kaitlynn's wedding I've had a number of projects. When each of my children have gotten married I've made them a queen size flannel quilt. When I made one for Marissa and Levi I pieced it because I had lots of scraps left over from other projects. When I made one for Jenna and Ryan she wanted a pieced one too. So, of course, Kaitlynn wanted a pieced one as well. Each time I've done something a little different. Kaitlynn and Garrett's quilt is king size and it  was the most aggressive pattern yet (it's a disappearing nine patch). Here's the finished project.

Since we had new family pics I wanted to use some of them in my bedroom. I bought some old frames from DI and spray painted them orange and green and made this arrangement in my bedroom.

When Kaitlynn moved out, Carter took over her old bedroom so we painted it blue (at his request). We used red as an accent color so I painted the headboard and the frame around a mirror in red. We haven't finished hanging everything but the room now looks like Carter.

Carter's room

Now that Carter's room has been painted, Isaac wants his painted too. Blue is also his favorite color. I let Isaac choose his own quilt and then we matched our paint to the blue in the quilt. The two rooms are very close to the same shade of blue but still different.

Isaac's room

We have a old church bench that my dad bought at an auction when our church was remodeled years ago. We used to use it in the kitchen at the back of our table so that 3 of the kids could sit on one side. Later we used it like a couch. When we moved to the house we live in now there just didn't seem to be a place for it so we put it on the porch. After some recent redecorating in the living room I've once again found a place for it so Terry sanded it down... again then I put 5 coats of poly on it and Terry reupholstered it again (the original was just a hard bench). I think it looks really great.

When we moved into our current home which was my grandparents we inherited some pieces of furniture. There were 2 kitchen chairs that were painted to look like wood. I'm not sure why they were ever painted because from the underneath side you can tell they are wood. Anyway, those chairs were my next project. I painted the chair and made a cushion that matches the bench.

Before

After

So now if this hasn't been enough, today I helped Terry lay a yard of cement. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be but the end result was beautiful! Terry is so amazing. He is good at so many things.

Now I can finish the table topper from the quilting class I recently attended.........