Plan B which should have been Plan A

Remember this post about our big dining room makeover? I bet you're dying to learn more about my plans for that lovely yellow window. Well, at first I thought it was too gold and not happy enough. I started to paint it a nice, sunshiny yellow instead.

The first paint went on, and my soul smiled at the happiness of the yellow. Halfway through, and my soul began to panic a little at the euphoria of the yellow. I squelched my feelings, but when I hung the window on the wall, the downright banana-ness of it all gave my soul a stroke. Nope. I mixed my original too-dark yellow with my new YELLOW!! yellow and got something nice and mellow-yellow. Which, in pictures, and probably most people's memory, is basically the old color all over again. What are you gonna do.

Mikayla agrees about the yellow, obviously. YOWSA!!

So we are basically here now, with a much toned-down version of the yellow above:

It looks lovely, but not quite finished. My hope is to add some touches to soften the look of it all and coordinate the dining room with our living room, since the space is open. Plan A for the window was to create an elegant wreath made out of pages from an old book. Once I got started, though, it looked like someone was just vaguely crinkling pieces of paper and pinning them randomly onto a big circle. Probably because that's exactly what I was doing. It looked a lot like a bad Kentucky Derby fascinator, I'll be honest. All you really need to know is it quickly spiraled into a whole a lot of ain't going to happen. 

Lovely idea, right? You don't even want to know how mine looked. On top of the sad appearance of my wreath, the straight pins I bought had teeny tiny heads and poked my fingers AND the papers pulled right off of them if I so much as looked at one sideways. I didn't make it past about five pages pinned onto my wreath before scrapping the whole thing. No, it wouldn't have gotten any better if I'd stuck with it.

I returned that failed experiment to Hobby Lobby, and left there with much better odds of success. So far, Plan B seems way more coherent and better thought through, for the simple reason that I didn't have my three small children with me as I navigated the glass-infested aisles of Hobby Lobby. Now that is a gauntlet if ever there was one. Have you ever tried to simultaneously brainstorm, visualize, make good shopping choices, and herd small children away from numerous breakable objects? It was a disaster waiting to happen, but we made it, albeit with a terrible project design. Bonus: my children only panicked twice thinking that I left them at the store. I guess the million repetitions of "mommy's going this way, please keep walking, I'm turning the corner, mommy's going this way," just weren't quite enough.

Anyway, so there I was on my return trip to Hobby Lobby (by myself!!! It felt much like twirling carefree through a feminine product commercial.) in hope of finding awesome ribbon to hang my wreath. Me: Gee, I wonder what cute ribbons Hobby Lobby has today. Hobby lobby: I hope you like chevron! Or maybe this medallion print in every color of the rainbow. Which, I don't hate Chevron, but it is so stinking trendy that I fear my wreath will look dated by September. No offense, but I hope to not redecorate my dining room again any time soon. Wait, who am I kidding? This is the girl who waited for her husband to leave town, and then promptly painted a piece of furniture, a window, a frame, and a vase, and completely rearranged the dining room. I dunno, maybe it is kind of like me to get bored with a space?

My revamped idea consists of a grapevine wreath, three nearly-white burlap dahlias (some of my favorite flowers!), a similar burlap rose, yellow lilies, gray twill ribbon and coordinating yellow grosgrain ribbon. This was to hang from my yellow ochre window frame, so the yellow lilies and ribbon were to be a pop of coordinating color, whereas the brown and white of the wreath and flowers would be the focal point. The gray ribbon for hanging will hopefully tie it in with our eventual gray living room walls, and the gray in my eventual bulletin board cover. Lots of unfinished projects right now. I don't know how I sleep at night.

Speaking of unfinished projects and lack of closure, how long do you think I can make this post without showing you my completed wreath?

Voila!

My method for putting the wreath together was to shove the stems from my fake flowers into the grapevine wreath and wiggle as needed, and then kind of bend the bendy parts into the wreath so they didn't stick out funny. It was highly technical and precise. The ribbon was added as an afterthought for balance, and to tie this in with my bulletin board, which will feature the same gold ribbon. I hung the wreath by driving two small nails through the ribbon into the top of the window, while praying that it was centered on the first try because NAILS. And you should have seen me trying to hang the whole thing back up while avoiding wreath shards and not crushing the flowers. The picture might look Pinteresty, but we all know the truth: behind every pretty wreath stands a bedraggled lady covered in craft debris and hoping it doesn't crash to the floor.

Also, I strategically moved all of my dining room mess out of the window reflection. I kept lining up the photo and going "phooey, you can see the Hobby Lobby bag!" "oh no, now there's me!" "oops, is that a half-eaten banana?" I didn't move the sippy cup because I am so into showing you (carefully censored portions of) my reality.

I'm purposely withholding the view of the whole wall, because I want to blog each piece and then do a big reveal at the end. Doesn't that sound like fun/a lot of waiting/slightly vain? Joann Fabrics is calling my name next week, and then I should have the next phase of the makeover ready to show you. Unless I get antsy and come up with a project in the meantime, but probably not. Nope, that's not likely at all....

An Almost-Before and Call for Ideas

You know what would be an important part of a good Before-And-After? A Before photo. Which, as I've demonstrated here and here, is not my strength. It's like I'm impulsive or not patient or something. YEAH RIGHT. Ok maybe.

This time was no different. A few days ago, we started kicking around the idea of moving our hutch out of the dining room to see if it helps make the space feel bigger. Naturally, that very day I reorganized the hall closet and kitchen cabinets to make room for all the items stored in the drawers, and moved everything from the shelves to our corner cabinet in the living room. It was great motivation to tackle a few things I've been procrastinating (feast or famine when it comes to motivation, I'm telling you; it's either X-Files during naptime for days on end, or DO ALL THE THINGS IN ONE DAY. I have no idea why you are flipping through your DSM-IV-TR to the "cyclothymic disorder" page.).

Here's the corner cabinet post-reorganization. It used to display my great-grandmother's china, which is gorgeous (thanks to my dear Katherine for setting it all out so beautifully when we moved in!), but as the months have passed, I decided it wasn't quite our "look". These pieces bring more color and a bit more of our style, which I honestly can't name. Casual elegant almost-country? No idea. We defy categories, people. Or, I am not a designer.

 I'd show you the corner cabinet "before" but, you know. In similar fashion, the following is the only photo I could find that even remotely shows the hutch in our dining room. I'm sure others must exist, but they are not contained on my phone or laptop. If you can somehow divert your eyes from the glory that is my royal jammie-clad children, you can spot the beautiful hutch taking up oodles of wall space in the dining room. Not the full effect, but you get an idea of the scale.

Now, I did think to take a photo after the hutch, and before all the finishing projects to pull the space together:

We are actually really loving the openness of the space now. The table is far more inviting for the kids to color, for a family game of Go Fish, and more, because the hutch is not there to bump into and squeeze around. Surprisingly, we don't miss the storage at all (the items inside haven't gone far - table linens to the hall closet, and serving dishes to a kitchen cabinet).

So here's the plan:
1. Console table - paint white to prime, and then when we paint our living room, we will paint it the same light gray color as our living room walls. The hope is it will help tie the two spaces together and still be neutral enough to work in the dining room. Worst case, I fall in love with it white, and finish it in white instead!

2. Gold window - paint it a lighter yellow color to better coordinate with the kitchen. Create some sort of something to make it a work of art - perhaps a wreath, maybe something else. Stay tuned. The creative juices are just beginning to flow on that one.

3. Chalkboard - paint this white, and possibly add a bulletin board where those silver plates are hanging on the far side, painted to match. The bulletin board, if I like it there, will probably be covered in a pretty fabric and criss-crossed with a bit of ribbon to make a photo board. The silver plates might go to the short wall by the glass door. One thing I can promise: this chalk board will never be covered in adorable bubble lettering and calligraphy while I am the lady of the house. Not my gifting.

Do you have any ideas for me, especially for that window, and maybe for making the bulletin board something worth featuring? I hope to hit Joann fabrics next week to shop for fabric for the board, and also to make some everyday cloth napkins because ours are about shot (and we don't have enough, due to tossing some of them that got super stained). Maybe coordinating or matching fabrics?

Pinterest me, people!

Bottomless Breakfast Buffet

Let's play a little game. (That feels like a line from a super creepy movie. Is it?) I'll list a breakfast menu, you guess which child ate which meal.

A) Two waffles, one apple, one clementine, one bowl of cheerios with milk, a partial pancake

B) Two pancakes

C) Three pancakes, one apple*, one clementine, one bowl of cheerios with milk

*Joel told me about the apple after I originally published this post.

Joel, do you see why I struggle with the grocery budget? I apparently started out with very little grasp of the quantity of food consumed by people under five years old. And still learning.

This also explains why breakfast takes a sweet hour and a half. If you ever roll up to our house at the crack of 10:00 and we are in pajamas, it's because people won't stop eating long enough to get dressed like civilized preschoolers.

I won't lie, though, there is something about filling your children's bellies full of delicious food that is the perfect mother's love language. The moods brighten, the laughter grows louder, and even if it takes all morning to get there, the "Thank you for breakfast, mommy!" and post-wipe-down smooches never get old.

Oh, the answers to the quiz are: A) Mikayla B) Oliver C) Isaac

Momma wolfed down two pancakes, two leftover clementine segments, and a cup of cool coffee in between refilling all the other plates and cups and peeling fruit. That caffeine is welcome to kick in aaaaany time!

Stay tuned, we've got some projecty goodness planned for you. A little painting, a little organization, some miscellaneous crafting. It's going to be a busy week, Lord-willing!

Refashion 201: Periwinkle Polyester Dream

This is a project that took all day, from about 9:45 a.m. when I settled on what I wanted to do, all the way til 7:30 p.m. when I sneaked back into my room after Oliver's bedtime to finish an accessory (AN ACCESSORY, I am so for real) to go with my project. The kids were so helpful, seriously. Not.  I'll try to hit the highlights as I blog the project.

First, a before. I could have put this one on, and in fact I did put it on in order to get a vision for a refashion. This is a bridesmaid dress from my BFF's wedding awhile back (I'm being kind by not doing the actual math, love you Susan!). I LOVE the periwinkle color, and I am a sucker for some flowy material. I still fit in it, which just continues to magnify my love for this piece. However, not something I am likely to throw on for church, so I have been thinking about how to get some more wear out of something so beautiful.

So, awkward. I don't actually have a photo of myself in my bridesmaid's dress from my best friend's wedding. Fortunately, she DOES have such a photo, seeing as how it was her wedding and all.

Hi, Ashley! Best maid and matron of honor ever, amiright? Do you see the fantastic asymmetrical neckline, one-shoulder design? Love this thing. This gem also has those long chiffony "wings" in the back, as seen in the next hacked-up photo:

 Chopped! I went in with my seam ripper the whole way around the bottom of the bodice, leaving me with this gorgeously shaped long skirt piece. There are three (THREE) polyester layers to this skirt because of course for my second ever refashioning project, I chose the most slipperiest and complicated garment in the closet. Thus, following my seam-ripping extravaganza, I had three raw, unconnected top edges that were only held together by the zipper. Yes, a zipper. Did I mention I picked myself a doozy of a project?

Cutest helper ever! If he's trying to measure his adorableness, it can't be done! Don't mind the sewing machine pedal and cord. Perfectly safe, I tell you. No babies were harmed in the making over of this dress.

Action shot of my vintage sewing machine (correctly threaded today!) making short work of those raw top edges.

 

Do you see the drape and flow of this material? Swoon. I would leave it this long if I weren't sure to break my neck hauling toddlers and babies up and down the stairs. 

I think it was at this point that yelling erupted from my young king and queen who were watching Cinderella in order to learn about how to be royal (parenting win). Mikayla was complaining, loudly and during Oliver's morning nap, that Isaac had turned off the movie. I dashed to help, and discovered that not only had he turned off the movie, but he had also used markers ALL over the living room hardwood floor. And both arms and cushions of the love seat. And when I restarted the movie, there was another little scribble on the TV screen. Seriously, you think you know a kid well enough to leave him alone for an hour and what does he do? I have never been so grateful for washable markers. And now you see why the ten-hour time frame for this little chop job.

Then I undertook the zipper. YOU GUYS, I shortened a zipper from the top! Cut the zipper to line up with the fabric, tuck it into the top seam on both sides, melt the top few (unused) teeth, and stitch a million times around to create a zipper stop. Ain't nothing to it! Except this is what I first ended up with:

 

That was some real good measuring there, folks. My method for that top seam was "I'll just fold it over about this much WHILE I run it through the sewing machine." That's unmerited arrogance if ever I saw it. The misalignment *probably* would have been ok, because you know what I plan to never wear this with? A belly shirt. Sweet heavens above no. But because I'm a perfectionist, and this was intended to be a learning project, I grabbed my handy seam ripper (which I do believe saw more action than the sewing machine on this project, bless). And I did get it to look just a wee bit better, with the encouragement of my cooing assistant.

My favorite part (which is not pictured because, well, read on) was trying to chop the length from the skirt. Picture me on my bedroom floor, meticulously aligning three slippery layers of polyester on my cutting mat, measuring and marking, rotary cutting - and all the while, Oliver is getting handsy with all of the things. So this step consisted of me straightening, flipping the baby away, smoothing, rolling the baby back over, making one fabric mark, rotating the baby toward his toys for the zillionth time. So much progress was made. It's a miracle the skirt has anything like a straight hem.

And the moment we've all been waiting for:

Ta da!! This might just be my Easter outfit, provided we don't still have five inches of snow on the ground trying to melt. It looks adorable with a white flowy cardigan - I took it off for the photo because it masked the true shape of the skirt just a bit.

And that matching scarf? Remember those long, flowy wings? Salvaged! I removed them from the back of the dress, ran a quick stitch to attach them to each other since they were already identical and the same width across - and I've got a lovely accessory to pull the outfit together. It's just a tad too long for my preference, so I might shorten it, but you get the idea.

I'm so tickled at how this turned out! This project definitely increased my confidence with a seam ripper and reconstructing a garment that already fit me. I'm looking forward to attempting this with a total fixer upper to see if my budding skills pass muster.

Refashion 101

I've been hording my old formal and semiformal dresses like they will come back into style my daughter will want to wear them someday. It's a lovely thought, and one that I'm sure my husband has appreciated as we are on our seventh residence in eight years of marriage. Full wardrobe box of momma's dead hopes and dreams? Check.

Except when I gave birth to my first daughter, these hopes and dreams received new life. Oh, it's been a long time coming, but she's finally four and interested in playing dress-up. And her momma has a thing about playing seamstress, so fueled with the best coffee in the world, I decided that today was The Day that eight years of lugging these dresses around would finally start to pay off.

Quick note on my sewing machine: It is an older machine gifted to me by my mom when they downsized last year. I've used it a couple of times now, but each time I have had to call her for some reason because it isn't working properly. Picture the two of us on the phone, her trying to remember using the thing (it's been awhile since she was regularly cranking out Halloween and school play costumes) and me trying to compare it to the portable model I had before, which is at least a couple decades newer in age. No, neither of us has the manual. Today I apparently couldn't thread it, despite having successfully done so several months ago. How many Grovers does it take to correctly thread an old Kenmore? Two, people. Two. And their iPhones.

So naturally I was looking for a "before" photo for each dress. It's not like I was going to put them on at this point, after all. You guys, I had to scroll so far down in my Facebook photos, I could practically smell their servers smoking as my page slowed and slowed. Suffice it to say, if the last time I wore these dresses was that long ago, the odds of me ever fitting into them, let alone looking age-appropriate, are slim to none (and Slim left town, as my dad would say). And here I was, in all my skinny, unmarried glory:

 Yeah, no full-length shot of this one. Sorry!

Happy (dating) anniversary to us! 

Let's just say I took the "va-va-voom" out of this one for my son (yes, my son) to wear for dress-up.

There's not too much to tell about the pink and white halter dress. I took in the back and stitched down the extra fabric instead of cutting it off, so that it can grow with her a bit as she gets bigger. And I took in the halter so as to hold the dress up appropriately. Oh, and stitched closed the bust so that it isn't hanging off of her awkwardly. Stay tuned for the "after" below.

The red dress, though, I am excited to show you. It is a really nice stretchy, clingy fabric (hey, why do you think I wore it for our anniversary?) and used to be a wrap-style dress with a silver ring closure, seen in the photo. My first step was to deconstruct it completely, to see what shape the actual fabric was.

This was better than I could have hoped for - vaguely cape-shaped already, and the halter style gave me ties for the neck. I just needed to remove the silver ring and then close up the seams. Also, I took in the center seam so that it wouldn't be SO big around his neck, and I stitched right up the outside edges to eliminate the ragged and irregular fabric that resulted from the deconstruction.

 Removing the ring, I had to cut through several layers of seams. Notice the poop on my thumbnail. Yup, poop. Not mine (that goes without saying, right?) I noticed it while texting Joel, obviously after I took this picture. Sigh.

 It got ugly, y'all.

But it was nothing a quick pass through my correctly-threaded sewing machine couldn't fix!

The headless seamstress models the almost-finished cape.

In the above photo, I hadn't taken in the center seam at all. You can see how wide it is; this would fit, well, around a grown woman's back. Once I took care of that, though, this little man was over the moon for his new Superman cape!

(Seeing it on him, I think I will go back and straighten the outside edges just a bit more. I thought the slight corner might be cool but it just flaps over his shoulder not as cool-ly as I had hoped.)

"Ok guys, look like a superhero and a princess!" 

She insisted I didn't need to shorten it because Cinderella's dress drags on the floor behind her, too.
Notice that Isaac's cape matches his Lightning The Queen socks.

I can't get over how the red dress made the PERFECT red cape, with the way it hangs and drapes and such. Also, I didn't try to do anything fancy, but I think the shape of his neckline turned out pretty cool for a cape. And I like the gathers in the back of her dress. They are caused by my stitching down the extra fabric on the inside - the dress is a sheerish layer over a white slip, so they didn't sew perfectly smoothly. Accidental ruching. I guess I'm kind of an amazing seamstress.

So, there you have it, my first refashion attempt! I have some pieces in my closet that I'd like to try to refashion, and I'd LOVE to do an all-out thrift store refashion from like a caftan or something. As a friend told me recently, though, the first step is just to get in there and try it. This was a confidence-building project, for sure, especially since I wasn't going to be too picky about the final product as dress-up clothes. My next project will either be to alter a clunky brown cardigan, or update an old formal gown for more casual wear. We shall see!

What projects have YOU been inspired to attempt lately? Does being stuck inside make you want to get creative, just to break the monotony?

Diastasis Gonzo

Looking at my blog, I'm realizing that the new background I picked looks an awful lot like the kitchen curtains I sewed at our old house. Obviously I like the pattern but it's a little weird.  To completely change the subject, I wrote a little while back about healing my diastasis recti. This is a little update on that, but without photos because ain't nobody want to see a mummy tummy if they don't have to.

I've been wearing this belly splint almost 24/7 for a couple of weeks now, with breaks to shower (so, like, I've taken it off about 3-4 times? bahaha) and once in awhile just because it fights with a jeans waistband like whoa. No problem when I'm at home in my yoga pants or jeggings, though! Fashion, comfort,  AND they accommodate your abdominal support garment, which is clearly legitimate medical equipment and not a medieval torture vanity device. Win, win, and win.

Anyway, I've gone from just over a two-finger diastasis down to barely a one-finger separation basically just from wearing the splint. It reminds me to engage my core while doing routine housework/toddler lifting/stair climbing ad nauseum, so maybe that's part of the reason. But I've fallen off the core workout bandwagon ever since I had my turn with a nasty stomach bug (my abdominal area was dead to me, people). I do think, though, that wearing the splint while sick helped keep my diastasis from getting worse due to the...muscle strain. Yeah, that.

So when I take off the splint, my tummy looks trimmer at least for a little while. I do still have some core strengthening to do in order to maintain, but there's no doubt that connective tissue is healing up.

By the way, when I say "belly splint", I don't mean anything fancy that I ordered off of diastasisrehab.com. No, this is a back brace wrap thingy I dug out of our hall closet and pulled the hard back support board out of it. It's slightly not the right size and rolls on the sides just a bit when my posture lacks. We are talking fancy times over here, not to mention the weird dirt stain across the front of it that I should probably wash but haven't yet. (What? It's not like I've suddenly become a paragon of cleanliness and possessor of oodles of time for extra housework since three paragraphs ago, people.)

All I'm saying is, if your tummy is like "What do you expect of me after growing and expelling THREE HUMANS IN THREE AND A HALF YEARS??" then maybe a splint/wrap is something you should consider. I actually really like how I feel when I'm wearing it, like my midsection isn't going to roll over and give up when I reach into the crib for the baby. My lower back appreciates it, too. (And just think, on a rough back day, I can put the lumbar support board back into my wrap! Double duty!)

Also, think about that whole "three humans in three and a half years" thing. Maybe instead of avoiding my tummy like an awkward ex, I should be buying it flowers and chocolates and ice cream because that is amazing. Oh wait, that is exactly what I usually do...#partoftheproblem

Oh, and I tagged this under "workout diary" just because I feel like that label is getting a little lonely and gathering dust. Bless. In my defense, I did use the word "workout". Gotta run, the baby is eating paper again!

Chef Pablo

Sorry for the blogging silence, y'all, it's been quite a month around here. Lots of health issues with the kiddos and weather and I only just started drinking coffee last week because....? But my hubby's home-roast has newly empowered me to do ALL THE THINGS, so here I am!

The lunch dishes are even in the dishwasher and it's only 12:52. BEHOLD the glory of java.

The 2:00 p.m. crash is real though, as I've discovered. My kids giving up naps has come at a really inconvenient time. But I digress.

Mikayla announced at breakfast that she wants to be a waitress when she goes up, and Isaac declared that he will be a chef. I told them that they could open a restaurant together, and their eyes lit up.  I asked what they would serve at their restaurant, and Mikayla said, "I will just give everyone their menu!" My further inquiry yielded some real gems. For you, dear reader, a sneak preview of the menu at "Chef Pablo".

Spaghetti and meatballs
Ice cream
Grilled cheese
Gummi bears with decoration ice cream (??)
Coffee

And that's it. Clearly, their priorities are in order. Mikayla says she wants me to write, "Chef, make all of the food!" Isaac, better remember your place.

Also, if you are looking for an investment opportunity, this is shaping up to be the young, hip Friendly's of the 2020's. With decoration ice cream!