Sun + Daughter

We just got back from the beach. And it was glorious. And, too short.

Annie basked in the sun. All week. She dug in the sand. She ran toward the ocean. Straight for the waves. Fearless. Blonde hair got blonder. Wobbly legs pittered and pattered along the waterline.

Man, I love that kid! And that dad!

...More pictures to come soon.

The Master Bedroom

So there was this one time when I went out to buy fabric for Annie's daybed and came home with nothing of the sort. Instead, I had in tow four new fabrics to redecorate our bedroom. Whoops. But it was Nell Hills and walking through their rows of fabric bolts is like walking through the pages of Lonny Magazine. I get giddy. I start to dream of a five bedroom English colonial house in the woods near a river where I can use six different prints in every room and where the beds each have ten pillows. It's a problem. And while there's a whole library of fabrics at Nell Hills that are way beyond our budget, there's also a whole slew of fabrics with prices I can deal with. For all of you graced with a non-ministry salary, you can buy the pillows they've had their seamstresses already sew. But for anyone cheap like me, you buy the yardage and make it yo self. BAM.

So welcome to our bedroom.

LUCKILY, I did not listen to the silly man at Hancock Fabrics who told me to abandon my plans to put zippers in the pillows. Because what this silly man doesn't understand is that I have a brother who sticks trash between cushions, a daughter who vomits without hesitation, and a husband who - less than 24 hours after arguing our way through putting the newly-washed, newly-shrunken slipcover back on the couch - spilled his cup of hot coffee everywhere. And off came the slipcover once more. So whipstitching a seam permanently shut on our bedroom pillows and hoping for no accidents is a little too ambitious for this household. You hear what I'm saying? We're a mess.

Anyway, after years of sloppily sewing pillows, I poured all my attention and effort into making these babies look good. And I'm super excited about it. You'll probably think I'm kidding, but I have to be honest. I actually got excited the first time that I saw a stain on one of the cases. Zip, Zip, UN-Zippity, Zip I did.

So here's me showing off my zippers. And I'm only gloating because sewing them required more brain power than my college senior paper. Something about thinking your way through an inside out pillow with cording AND an invisible zipper is rather complicated. And I'm real bad proud that I made it to the other side.

Frankly, I'm just real bad proud that I made a fabric purchase AND completed the respective project in successive days. That's rather unlike me.

So there it is, the bed. The pillows. The zippers.

P.S. I finished these pillows in the late summer and only just now shot the pictures. But it was the same week that I made these curtains for Annie's room and made this cornice board for ours.

Impatientitis + A Nice White Wall

We're not there yet. There's still work to be done. The base board hasn't been bought, cut or installed yet. And despite having just painted that wall, it needs touch up due to the disease from which I suffer. Impatientitis. It's chronic and painful. It forced me to hang that mirror alone while John was gone. And indeed I did drop it. Thrice. The evidence remains: tread marks against the white paint, a few knicks and a couple straight up dents in the wall. That mirror is a beast. A BEAST, I tell ya!

Anyway, this is the wall that once had the entertainment center built on it. (Posts here and here) It's the wall that looked like a battleground all summer long while we waited for an electrician and drywaller. It's even the wall that was hidden by a hanging rug for a good few months. 

And now, this wall, is nearly finished. 

I had another flare up from my Impatientitis tonight and snapped this picture in the dark. I was just so darn excited about my new antlered friend underneath the mirror that I bought today at Twig Interiors. Had to share him with the world. But once I settle down, I'll straighten things up and take some pictures of the whole living room.