M4M Nina | Week 1 | #52wonderfilledweeks

Happy New Year! I have so many "drafted" blog posts, but I never hit post because I am a perfectionist...and I have TWO kids now so time is a very precious commodity.  Having said that, I love to write and I love to share what I am creating.  I did a lot of creating over the holiday break (the big kid has been off for four weeks!) and I enjoyed myself so much I thought I might *try* and challenge myself in two ways, 1) create something, anything, every week, 2) blog about it, share links, write a tutorial, whatever time will allow.  Speaking of time I am only allowing myself to write Sunday mornings and whatever comes to the page is what you'll get (I still have to feed and keep two kids under 4 happy and work a full time freelance horn career). I am hopeful this self inflicted, eh, imposed, challenge will force me to be better about putting stuff out there without all the time and worry over every little detail and possible punctuation errors.  I know it will help me feel like I am accomplishing things and if you could bottle that feeling you'd be a millionaire! So I have some UFO's (unfinished objects) to complete, some new and innovative ideas I've had floating around, some home DIY's in need of attention...so much more...so let's get this #52wonderfilledweeks going!

January 7, 2017
Week 1

Project 1 | Sewing 

I got two things done this week I'd love to tell you about.  First I finished up a dress for P.  I was really excited about this as it is a new pattern for me, Made for Mermaids (M4M) Nina Swing.  New patterns tend to take longer since I have to print, tape, trace and cut out the pattern piece before I ever even touch the fabric.  I used some Girl Charlee Knit I bought over two years ago.  I love the print, and had initially thought to make PJ's.  The dress turned out cute, but I keep thinking it looks like a nightshirt...fabric choice is so important folks.  At any rate, P loves it.  I have a matching vest cut out for Bubba D that I hope to finish in the coming weeks and I made myself a Relaxed Raglan (with the off the shoulder hack) last week.


Project 2 | Home DIY

We have an unfinished basement.  We've talked for years about "pseudo" finishing it, read, paint the floor and get some new lighting and window treatments.  But we made the decision a few months ago that we actually want this space to be completely finished someday.  So it makes very little sense to spend the time and money to paint if we're just going to cover it all up in a few years.  Let's be real, the basement is totally usable as is.  It's clean over all well lit (especially during the day) and it has both heating and AC.  But it just didn't feel cozy.  We talked about getting some large Berber rug remnants to warm up the space but when we went to look this week we didn't find anything we loved...then there was the issue of having to rent a truck to get the large pieces back home, dealing with two kids while trying unload it, etc. you get the idea.  I had thrown the idea of carpet tiles around before but Mick wasn't a fan.  Long story short we bought 105 tiles on Friday (Mick spent over 2 hours at Menards searching through the piles to find complimentary ones in a warm palette). We laid them out, actually downsized our original plan, limiting the carpet to the "entertainment" space and my craft area/studio and viola! It instantly warms the space up visually AND with subzero temps here in the Midwest it actually made it warmer physically!  Some of the tiles has sticky backs but we didn't want to adhere anything the floor so instead we put two tabs of duct tape on the under side of each mat, taping all the pieces together, making one giant rug.  It doesn't slip or slide and if we need to replace or clean a tile we can still do that easily.  The best part is that we did this project for under $150! Yah you read that right, two large (10'x12' and 14'x12") area rugs for under $150! Love it! 


CRAFT AREA BEFORE

CRAFT AREA AFTER

ENTERTAINMENT AREA BEFORE

ENTERTAINMENT AREA AFTER

***this week's watermark font is BlowBrush









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