Before and After

We have five windows in our living room.  Three are right next to each other, in a "we wish we were a picture window" formation at the front of the house.  Two are more independent.  They always have been, ever since day one.  They're willing to do their own thing, and they're not about to apologize for it.  This weekend, though, I got those two windows to team up.  Here's what we did:

We said good-bye to these boring, dusty, and did I say boring blinds... 

And we welcomed these cheery new cloth shades!  They're not perfect, but they're an unbelievable improvement.  No offense to the person who selected our old shades 39 years ago, of course.  I used this no-sew tutorial, and it was truly pretty easy. 

Do you want to know the strangest part?  Karl and I have been wanting to add some color to our living room for the longest time, and we were waiting for these chairs at Target to go on sale:

Can you believe I found the exact same fabric, on clearance?  It was a total accident!  I didn't even realize it until after I made the curtains.  Don't worry, we're not going to get the chairs now.  That would be red floral overload.  I cannot wait to take down the big set of blinds on the panel of three windows!  We've got regular cream-colored curtains to put up.  Not exactly original, but I think they'll be a breath of fresh air. 

Quiet Book Sewalong: Page #7

Okay, it might look boring, but trust me... it's going to be fun!  The left side is a pocket, just the right size for a few sheets of stickers (on my shopping list!).  The right side is a clear plastic sheet, perfect for sticking, unsticking, and resticking the stickers.  I see many busy hours in this page's future!  For the plastic, Carissa suggests using freezer paper, but I am secretly pretty cheap (plus I knew I'd use one little piece of the freezer paper roll, put it in the drawer with the tinfoil, be constantly annoyed at the number of boxes in that drawer, and finally throw it away in like 27 years) so I went to the thrift store and grabbed a cheesy stationery set.  It's the kind that usually comes with round gold seals, except there were no seals in this one.  Just some old envelopes and a mediocre-looking notepad.  You know how a lot of times those sets come in clear plastic envelopes? Sometimes with velcro closures?  Well, I hacked up the clear envelope and used the biggest piece for this page.  It was about $2.25 cheaper than the freezer paper, plus I got the notepad as a bonus.  And the space in the tinfoil drawer, of course. 

2012 Resolutions

Six short months ago, we welcomed 2012 with high hopes.  How about a little resolution check-in now that half the year has passed?  My resolutions were:

1.  Practice my banjo for 100 hours.  Here is the little timer I use to keep track of my practice total (and my fingerpicks and the supersweet pink wristband I wear because believe it or not, I'm allergic to my banjo):  

I'm almost a quarter of the way to my goal... not the worst, but not quite what I had hoped.  Oh well, I'll just change my goal.  My new resolution is to practice my banjo 50 hours this year. 


2.  Organize all of my photos into albums.  To be honest, this was also a 2011 resolution.  But take a look at this:

All of my photos are in albums!!!  They're even in chronological order!  This is basically a miracle.

3.  Buy nothing from Amazon.com.  This was an easy one.  It's way easier to avoid taking action than it is to take action.  I don't hate Amazon-- I just like our local places better.

There you have it!  Now I have six more months to practice 25 hours, tie up a few loose photo ends (like sending the extras to people-- maybe you!), and keep avoiding Amazon.  No sweat. 

I'd Like to Buy a Vowel

Every year, I volunteer at the Wisconsin Public Television auction.  It's a fundraiser for WPT, but mainly I volunteer because it's fun.  This year, I scored a really awesome package at the auction, and I wrapped it up to give to a very special someone who loves a certain game show.  The package included:

 a hat

mildly creepy talking keychains of Pat and Vanna 

a smaller keychain in the shape of the wheel, a pen, a large signed photo of Pat and Vanna (trust me, it's in the envelope), and four VIP passes to a taping of the show (in the butterfly wrapping-- can you tell these photos were poorly planned?)

and of course a tote bag.  Go green! 

Quiet Book Sewalong: Page #6

Okay, I admit it.  I skipped a page.  And I totally changed another page.  But I think it turned out pretty cute! 

Whoooo could resist unzipping the tree trunk and playing with these two little owl finger puppets?  I'm secretly thinking about not attaching them to the page with ribbon or string.  I imagine that all those strings are going to be completely annoying to the parent who ends up untangling them all.  And if the owls fly away, who cares?  Just zip something else into the tree trunk. 

Garden Update

I have never been much of a gardener.  Typically, I plant things and then they wither almost immediately.  But this year we've worked really hard, and this morning I was thrilled beyond belief when I saw a litle green bean in our terrace garden:

Do you see that?  A green bean!  A green bean, people!  It's like it just popped up overnight.  And the real magic is that we planted the green beans from seeds. 

We also have a lovely fairy tale eggplant that is flowering.  It's supposed to bear mini eggplants!  Cute, huh?

The butternut squash- also from seeds- are thriving.   

And take a look at these beauties!  One of our tomato plants is loving life right now, and the others are pretty happy, too. 

I'm also proud to report that we've frozen one batch of kale, and we had many delicious salads straight from the lettuce patch. 

Quiet Book Sewalong: Page #5

What's this little suitcase doing here? 

Oh I see.  It has all kinds of little disguises in it!  A party hat, a crown, a pig nose, a mustache, glasses, and a bow tie!



Plus it's lined!  What more could you ask for?

Well, you could ask for a mirror, to see yourself wearing the disguises.  I'm working on creating a facing page with a mirror, so quiet book readers can look at their reflections and put the disguises either on their reflections or on their actual faces. 

More of Carissa's sewalong is here!