Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Weekend of Full of Fun and Antitquing


Dining








I had a great weekend filled with shopping for treasures and antiques. I found some really neat pieces and ate some really great food. My friend and I stayed at the Wellspring Bed and Breakfast! It is the best place to stay. I have posted some pictures of Wellspring and of Round Top and Warrenton. The breakfast is fantastic every morning at Wellspring. Linda Brunson is a great host and a great cook! She recently added on a huge dining room and we were the first guest to eat breakfast in the new room. We shopped really hard on Saturday and we were very tired. We had dinner Friday and Saturday night at Royer's Cafe in Round Top. This is a wonderful place to eat but you really need to make reservations in advance because the wait is very long. I had the Pasta and the grilled Red Snapper. We also tried the Buttermilk Pie and it was scrumptious also. We also had lunch at the Legal Tender Saloon and the bbq sandwich was to die for.





Everyone kept saying the crowd was down this year possibly because of "Ike". I didn't think there was as many people or vendors at this show compared to the spring show.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Back in School and back on schedule after Ike


We are back on schedule with school and work. We are blessed that Ike was not as bad as Rita for our small southeast Texas towns. Some places are still without power but most in our area are back in school and back to normal. I finished another quilt project last night and now I can begin a new quilt project. The name of this quilt that I just finished is "At Home in the Woods" by McKenna Ryan. I love her quilt patterns! They are absolutely beautiful and when finished they are like a work of art.

I am looking forward to my trip to Round Top this weekend to shop for bargains and treasures! We will be staying at the same Bed and Breakfast in Round Top as we did in the Spring. It was such a neat place and everyone there was so nice. I will try to remember to take my camera and post pictures this time.
I'm ready for a little cooler weather and colors of fall!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Storage and more storage









I have been working on the sewing room today. There is so much to organize and arrange. I bought a neat storage drawer set. As soon as I find a desk that I want to purchase for my sewing/craft/office I am going to set this cute wooden storage unit on top of the desk. I finished a cute vanity stool today and a white tray. I bought a cute black and white print of oil cloth fabric and covered the bottom of the tray with it and it turned out nice. I love the curved legs on the white vanity stool. These two items will be for sale in my shop soon. When the walls get painted I want to put black shelves on two of the walls. I'm not sure yet where to purchase those or if I am going to have make those myself. Well we are getting ready to go to my parents house to eat White Perch! My favorite kind of fish to eat!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Organizing the Sewing Room with Elfa




I am constantly trying to get organized! So therefore, I'm constantly searching for ways to help me organize. The sewing/craft room is the hardest room to organize for me. Last winter I bought Elfa systems to organize the laundry room, my kitchen pantry, and a couple of closets in my house. They are so easy to assemble and the people that work in the Container Store that help you in that department are so helpful. You need to have all your measurements for the project before you go to the store. You can go online to their website and they will explain exactly how to measure whatever you are going to organize. Once you have your measurements the Elfa advisor will get on a computer and help you design your project. They will ask you questions about what you plan to store such as books, shoes, sweaters, etc. Then they suggest different designs for your needs. They also have units set up in the store so you can get ideas about how things look when you have them installed.



When you get the design that fits your needs they print off the installation instructions and the blue print of your design. It's really neat because the program prints a top view and a front view which makes it easier to read when you begin installation. When I went in this time I told them I wanted to design a sewing/craft room. The guy that helped me designed the wall that I wanted in my sewing room. I couldn't decide what color I wanted to use so I decided to bring it home and think about it before I buy. But I did buy a drawer unit. I LOVE these! I have two in the laundry room and one in the computer closet. They are easy to assemble and very functional. I put this one together last night and have already started organizing my sewing/craft items. I wanted it to fit under my cutting table and to have wheels so that I could move it about. I could roll it in the closet if I wanted. I could also have several of these in my sewing room. They would easily fit a the end of my sewing cabinet to store items. I've just started organizing this sewing room that I moved from upstairs so I will keep posting other things that I do in this room.


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Painted Furniture







I painted a chest of drawers shabby pink and a vanity shabby green. These are both going to be put in my antique booth space. Those terrible black bugs that we get in southeast Texas are still here and right now painting is almost out of the question. I worked on my space at Samples of Yesteryear today. The roof came off of the other antique store and I am having to move my things from there over to my other booth space. It may be a month before the store gets repaired.



As soon as the bugs are gone I am going to paint some of my other pieces of furniture.



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Black and White Curtains




I made these black and white curtains for Linsi's new place. The balloon shade was made for the window on the kitchen door and the other curtain was made for the doorway that leads into her office that is off of the kitchen. She painted the kitchen a pretty robin's egg blue and we thought the black and white would look nice with this color. We found this cute piece of Waverly fabric at Jo Ann's Fabric store. I have made curtains many times for my house but this was my first time to make a balloon shade. I plan to make one for my kitchen when the kitchen project gets finished.


I made it back home today with no problems. There were several towns that I went through that were without power. There were quite a few trees that had blown down and the gas lines were very long. Most gas stations were out of fuel and closed.


Our school is closed until Monday. I haven't decided what projects I will work on while I'm out of school! I have so many to choose!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Storms and Shopping

The Before Picture of the dining Chairs

Before


After








After




















Well "IKE" changed his course and I once again fled to another town out of storms way! This time I went to Austin to visit Haley and Matt. We were released early from school last Thursday and it took me 6 1/2 hours to get here because of all the road blocks before the storm. I found a new place to buy fabric and it has beautiful fabrics for decorating and the prices are very good. I bought several pieces for pillows and possibly curtains. Haley wants a few floor pillows and couch pillows for her apartment so I am going to make those when I return home. I plan go back home tomorrow. I have been worried about the roads that are closed and the delay of returning but I think it should be safe to return now. I've eaten at all my favorite places since I've been here...Chuy's, La Madeline's, Dirty Martins,and Houston's. Austin has the best places to eat and such a good range of whatever you are hungry for. I brought my tool box and drill and hung Haley's shelves and pictures for her apartment. Accessories make such a difference in a place.
I've posted a few "Before" and "After" picures of some of the furniture that I painted black for her apartment. The dining table and chairs were her grandmother's. I recovered the cushions and re-stained the chairs. I took the chairs to a place and had them dipped. This took all the finish off of them and left them bare wood. My mom, my dad, and me re-stained them. The table was in good shape so I didn't have to refinish it. I used Howard's polish and it looked fine. The black painted furniture really turned out nice. I replaced the wooden knobs with clear glass knobs.

Haley and I went all over Austin today looking for her a cooler for the Red River Shootout. We went to several Targets and several Academy's and they were sold out of ice coolers for some reason. Come to find out the Evacuees from the storm were buying all of them! So we finally found one further out on Southwest Parkway. Her room mate Nikki is decorating it for her and it is really cute. The OU/UT game is such a big deal at UT. She's really excited about going this year

I hope the Hurricane Season is over for us and we can get on with our daily routines. We have only had one full week of school so far!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Quilting Again and finishing projects!

I have moved my sewing room into one of my spare bedrooms downstairs and I'm loving it! I have finished one quilt that I had started several years ago and I am almost finished with another one. I'm not finished setting up my sewing room but I am working on it and I have a long way to go. Our kitchen is still in a mess and I'm so tired of it. It seems we can't move on with this project and get it completed.
Hopefully "Ike" is not coming our way as we thought at first. I sent Linsi her curtains yesterday by mail and as soon as she gets them she is going to take pictures and I will post them.
They turned out really cute. The balloon shade was very easy. If my kitchen ever gets finished I am going to make me one for my kitchen window.
I am so ready for the dreaded black "love" bugs that we have here in East Texas to be gone! I have several painting projects and they are everywhere under the barn where I paint.
Have a great afternoon!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Back Home

I am back home and ready to go back to work in the morning. I helped Linsi paint a couple of pieces of furniture and since I had to leave today she is going to finish them up. When she sends me pictures of the finished furniture pieces I will post them. We painted her vanity white and the high boy black. We also covered her vanity stool with a pretty brown fabric and painted the stool white. I bought several short yardages of fabric from Calico Corners in Dallas. They have beautiful fabrics for decorating. I am going to make a curtain for a doorway in Linsi's house and a balloon shade for the kitchen door that has a window at the top. Another project! When I got home today I started organizing my new sewing room. I am bringing things from the upstairs room down to Haley's old room. So far I've moved the cutting table and one sewing machine. The other sewing table is really big and heavy, so I am going to try and move it tomorrow. I want new flooring in the new sewing room but for right now I'll have to deal with carpet. I hate carpet in a sewing room! I think I am going to shop at Elfa and see what I can come up with for my new room. They have some really neat storage units and last spring I changed my laundry room, kitchen pantry, master closet, and computer room closet into Elfa closets and storage spaces.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Detour to Canton Trade Days......

Well I made a small detour to Canton and picked up a few treasures on my way to Dallas! I arrived in Canton around 2pm. and it was extremely hot there. I found a few neat things and then headed north to Dallas. Linsi and I unloaded our things and went to Chuy's Mexican Restaurant. My favorite Tex-Mex place. I always order the deluxe chicken enchiladas with the deluxe green tomatilla sauce....yummy! Today we are going to the mall and to Tuesday Morning to do a little shopping. Linsi is still shopping for things to decorate her house. It is really coming together and looks so cute. It looks like the storm is hitting New Orleans as I write and it's down to a category 2 but winds are 110 miles a hour so still not good. Have a safe Labor Day holiday!