Jiggywinks!

When I moved into my own apartment and married, friends and family and family friends of both Ben and I blessed us with pretty much everything we could ever need or want in the way of household furnishings. Among the gifts were my parents' old sofa and loveseat, originally given to my little sister but removed from storage and into my living room as a gift from her :) They're lovely and in excellent condition. However, I needed something to pull the living room away from the grey sofa, brown carpet, brown'n'grey tablecloth that covers the beat-up coffee table, nondescript beige/grey walls, and the beige vertical blinds. It was all very nice, but in the words of my husband, "it looks like a hospital waiting room". So, Ben and I went to Wal-Mart and bought a couple yards of fabric, and I bought a 4 cheap pillow forms on Amazon. I measured the forms seam-to-seam, and cut out squares with a seam allowance, rounding the corners with a mixing bowl. A week and a ...

I finally have my plate wall! Most of them are the $1.25 variety from Goodwill, but there are a couple that were given to me and are a teensy bit more special. In the end, there aren't many that would inspire my heart to break if they ever did. I hung them using these disc plate hangers  from England (shipped from the business in Florida). They are excellent! Just follow the directions and let them dry thoroughly, and they'll be secure. I had a friend try to use command strips for her plates and a couple of them fell. No thanks! Of course, she couldn't put holes in her wall, and I could. Boy can I ever! As you can see, there are a couple holes in the wall left by the other tenant. I think I'll wait to ask the landlord to fill those until after we've finished hanging everything. My apologies for the lighting--our kitchen is essentially a cave, and the lighting is never great even on the sunniest of days.  On the left is a saucer from a little set my ...

My newest couple projects that I finished are a fall wreath for the door and a knit beanie for my husband. The beanie in particular is a project "of great vintage", as it's one I started for LAST fall. Somehow, in between moving and getting married and getting bored, I let it sit in various spots before I broke down and spent the remaining hour required to finish it. Come on, really? Also, I replaced my summer/spring wreath (which I made out of clearance flowers and a cheap  embroidery hoop for about $5) with a slightly more expensive one from Dollar Tree materials ($7 or $8). This one was so easy to do. I just wound the garlands around the wire frame until it looked bushy enough, and I shrugged my shoulders and said "yeah, I'll glue that". I find projects are always more easy if you're less picky. Also, glue guns are a gift from God and I don't know how I managed without one. After burning myself on the tassel banner for my wedding (pic...