Home is Where the Heart is: September 2012

Sunday, September 23, 2012

~She was Free!~

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a glorious weekend. We sure did our daughters and families were over on Saturday for the last swim of the summer. I was in the kitchen cooking up homemade spaghetti sauce Italian style. Gary is Italian and we raised our kids and their friends on our spaghetti. This is a staple in our home. What is your families favorite comfort food?.
So this week I wanted to share the wonderful "freebee dresser" I was given. The story behind her is this; Miss Freebee once belonged to a roommate of our daughters , the roommate left her behind when she moved out Miss Feebee was not wanted :( so she stayed in the garage until she was moved along with all the household belongings to our daughter Desire' new place. Miss Feebee was not wanted once again and was put aside until decided what her fate would be. When I saw her all alone I asked about her and Desire' said they were going to get rid of her..get rid of her I said..Oh no I will take her.
So Desire's sweet boyfriend Paul brought her over to our garage.

Miss Freebee was a bit dinged,chipped and will worn but I knew with a little Annie Sloan Chalk paint I could give her new life. The drawers inside were in perfect condition, just her outside was beat-up. I used wood filler for around her feet where pieces of wood had chipped out. I did do a light sanding on her first and a good washing, then I began the painting process.
Two coats of paint then sanding until smooth. I did not use wax I really like the flat smooth look. The handle's were brass so I went into my handy dandy paint cabinet and found some black spray paint and sprayed away. Since one of the top knobs was missing I went into my stash of cabinet pulls
(yep I have a lot of extra knobs) and found two I liked and painted them along with the brass ones.

And here she is I think Miss Freebee is happy with her new look and now has a home with us in the guest room.

Miss Freebee sits along side
the quilt rack Gary made for me that was also painted with Annie Sloan. I think the guest room is going to be full of freebee's and home made! I love a good freebee don't you ?

Enjoy your week everyone!

PS. There is a sister blogger who's name I will not mention because I have not asked her if I could and she has not said anything on her blog about her surgery this week...but I thought it would be nice if we could all send a little extra prayer out for her that all will go well. I know I will be praying for her, she is someone I think a lot of us know. I only wish we lived closer so I could help her she is a real sweetheart. Lets all send love and prayers her way OK.

Joining in on the following link parties:

Mary-Boogieboard Cottage Masterpiece Monday

Susan-Between Naps on the Porch metamorphosis Monday

Kathryn-The Dedicated House Make it Pretty Monday

Alderberry Hill Make the Scene Monday

Kathe With an E You're Gonna Love it Tuesday

Kim-Savvy Southern Style WOW us Wednesday

Honey-2805 A Potpourri Party every Friday

Courtney- French Country Cottage Feathered Nest Friday

Sherry-The Charm of Home Home Sweet Home Party Fridays

Monday, September 17, 2012

~ Re-Cyclying Shelving & Doors~

Happy Tuesday Everyone! We were away all last week traveling to Arizona to visit family. I can't wait to share a few highlights of our trip. Gary and I drove my Mom and Dad and my Brother and Sister n law followed behind us, it was a mini caravan. It was a trip for my Dad to re-visit his home Jerome Arizona. I have missed reading many of your posts last week and I am trying to catch up with you all. I so enjoy reading what you all have been up too.

So anyway I just have to tell you what happened last night while I was trying to prepare a post and upload photo's, I received a notice that I had run out of "free photo space in Google" and I had to buy more storage space, so I did but it wouldn't let me upload for 24 hours "drats" so anyway I had to wait until tonight to post. Darn google, I wish it had let me known sooner that I had used all the "free space". Has that happened to you?.

Any who back to what I wanted to share with you this week. While cleaning out the garage I found an oak shelve, brackets and a curtain rod that was just being stored. Being the thrifty girl that I am and always trying to find a way to re-purpose and reuse. I started to stared at the shelve for a while and then asked Gary if he could make a quilt shelve for me for our guest room, I told him I had an "idea" so we put our thinking caps on and a nifty and cool way to recycle an old oak shelve into a quilt rack was born.

I went to my paint cabinet and brought out the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White. It took three coats, after drying I sanded until smooth and distressed. Gary brought out his handy dandy drill and made holes on either side of the brackets.

We slipped the curtain rod through the holes,the rod was the perfect shade of white and I love the finial design. We hung the new "quilt shelve" in our "in process guest room "

It hangs two quilts very nicely.

On the top of the shelve for now, I always say for now because you all know I love to change things around. I have my Guest Cottage sign made by Paul from Castle & Cottage and a crochet potholder wreath made by Judy from her ETSY shop 20NORTHORA. These two ladies are so talented and I enjoy having their creativity in our home.

The little chair was a free bee that I painted , added rosettes to and made the pleated seat cover. I posted about here way back in 2009.

Just moving things around and playing with the shelve.

Close up the fun and creative crochet potholder wreath. I really love this!

Also while cleaning the garage I ran across the doors that we have used in two of our homes. They have lived as shutters and were originally part of an old cupboard and now they are are headboard for our trundle bed in the guest room.

You all remember this quilt, pillow case and side pillows right. I made theses awhile back they are now on the guest bed. Gary and I enjoy filling a room with home made things and re-purposing. It just makes us feel good to now that nothing goes to waste or is through out without trying to fix it or give it new life.

A close up of the head board..

I hope you all enjoy your week, keep creating and re-purposing!

Joining in with the following Link parties;

Mary-Boogieboard Cottage Masterpiece Monday
Susan-Between Naps on the Porch metamorphosis Monday

Kathryn-The Dedicated House Make it Pretty Monday

Alderberry Hill Make the Scene Monday

Linda-Coastal Charm Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Kim-Savvy Southern Style WOW us Wednesday
Honey-2805 A Potpourri Party every Friday

Courtney- French Country Cottage Feathered Nest Friday
Sherry-The Charm of Home Home Sweet Home Party Fridays

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Two Quilts

I missed wishing you all a Happy Monday, so Happy Tuesday instead.
This week I would like to share with you two Hawaiian inspired quilts that I just finished, using the fabric that was purchased while in Kauai in May.
For my Grandson Ty who is 7 1/2 in mind I choose these happy and colorful turtles swimming in every direction they are red, blue and green..
The quilt pattern I used is called the Disappearing 9 Patch that uses 10 different fabrics.
I took the photo outside hoping to capture all the bright colors, but I think there was to much glare.
(I'm not the best picture taker, but I try)

I had my quilter top stitch with swirls reflecting waves.

The Disappearing 9 Patch was really a joy to make, you can play with the squares and make any pattern you want with them.

For the back of the quilt I choose surf boards, Ty thought it was " so cool".

The second quilt was a parchel kit, it came with the pattern for "The Yellow Brick Road" quilt and six colors of hibiscus fabric. Again this is a pattern you can play with using any direction of placement of the squares. I prefer the Disappearing 9 Patch pattern because it gives more play and has
a better outcome. That's just me though, I like the Disappearing 9 Patch better.

This quilt will be put away for a future baby girl, I thought it would be fun to make a few quilts (just planning ahead) and I really wanted to use the fabric, I love the colors of all the hibiscus fabric.

To brake up all the print I decided to sew white rick-a-rack into the binding. I really like it and I think it brings a bit of sweetness for a baby girl.

For the back I used white cotton and pieced a strip of all the colors used.

I went to my stash of fabric and found the perfect red for the binding.

I had my quilter top stitch in hibiscus's, I used the hibiscus also for the "Hawaiian Post Card Quilt". I really love this pattern and will probably be using it a lot :) for top stitching.