Crafting, Baby Things and an Update

First off, hello! It's been a while. We have been busy working over here on a number of projects around the house. The biggest being the "room switch", which involved painting, new furniture, lots of lifting, lots of selling things that won't be used, and of course, crafting. We decided to work while the kids slept, so we had a lot of late nights as well.

I was able to sneak in a couple baby projects along the way too. The photo above has a quick and easy playmat sewn from leftover fabric in my stash, and an odd piece of new organic batting I found at a thrift store for $0.50. The directions to make it can be found here. I still need to quilt it - I've been putting that off because I really have no clue what I'm doing in that department. I also made some matching burp cloths out of more fabric scraps and one of Chris's old T-Shirts. They are in the photo too, on the left. I love them! They are big enough to actually do what they were intended for (unlike so many others I had for my other children - I always just used their receiving blankets for that), oh, and they are just soooo soft. Each one took about 15 minutes to make, love it! You can find simple directions for them here.

Thankfully, we were able to finish all of the painting a day, yes, one day, before we lost power. The power was out for four days, and unfortunately there are still so many local residents without power. It's most definitely not the end of the world, but after a few days, it can get very frustrating. I was proud of my children though, they handled it like an adventure, and had a pretty good time. It was amazing how much time we had on our hands too - it really made me realize how much I take for granted with modern conveniences. And don't you worry, there was plenty of candle light knitting taking place - can't stop that, hehe....

I had a mental checklist of things I wanted to pick up for the girls' room and play area before the baby came, and to my delight, I found almost the entire list at ONE garage sale. I hadn't even planned on going garage sale shopping for these things, but just happened to stop by one on a whim. And I'm so glad I did! First, this table and chair set. The whole thing was $4. It did look pretty beat up when I bought it though. It was colored on, scratched, dirty and had about 100 stickers on it. But, after a quick wash down, some Goo Gone, and two layers of paint (yes, it's the same paint we used on the walls), it looks like new. Hannah loves it and can't wait to have tea parties with her baby sister. I don't have the heart to tell her it may take a while for that.

She added this cute pink linen table runner to it, and I think she did well.

At that same sale, I found a child's wooden rocking chair. It's white, but looks like mine, and my little girl just loves my chair but has trouble getting in. Now she has her own to rock her babies to sleep. And last, but not least, my favorite find that day - a handmade, wooden complete kitchen. When I say complete, I mean it came with a refrigerator that's huge, a separate sink with a food prep area, and a separate oven. Three pieces all together, all handmade out of wood, with moving fixtures and hinges. All of this for $20! Yup, that's it. I think it might just be my best find ever. I can't decide if I want to repaint it or not, and I want to add a few girly touches to spruce it up, and then I will share photos.

I hope you all are doing well!

I will be back here again soon,

Lisa :)