It was an honor to wrap up my Sewing with Oilcloth book tour at Quilt Market in Houston last month. I apologize for just getting this blog post up, I've been in home reno hell since I got of the plane. I really wanted to do the experience justice so I've been saving it for today.
My time at QM started with a round of Schoolhouses. Sweet Home Quilt describes what a schoolhouse is perfectly.
Sweet Home Quilt: The day before quilt market opens is always dedicated to Schoolhouse, which is basically an all day series of lecture/demo/infomercials from vendors, manufacturers and designers. It is a great opportunity to get a sneak peek at new products and glean ideas for the shop, but it is also exhausting…sort of like taking a full load of classes in college and having back-to-back classes all day…learning is hard work!!!
I couldn't miss Anna Maria Horner talk about the new ribbons, fabric and needlepoint projects.
She's just so cute!! And, oh so sweet, more on that later!!
This quilt is made out of the velveteen. Yum!
Laminated Cotton Rain Coat for kids! Love the Tart print more than any other!
I loved listening to Kathy Miller chat about colorways for all the new Micheal Miller fabrics.
She's just amazing! I didn't get a lot of great photos but my local fabric shop,
David Butler, aka Mr. Amy Butler, has a great new line of fabric Parson Gray.
I really want this on LAMINATED COTTON!!
I am stopped by to tell him that too. Aren't they a beautiful couple?
I stopped into see my fellow Wiley author, Karen LePage introduce her new book, Sewing with Boys.
Karen is totally cool, I loved hanging out with her at the Wiley book release party!!
And then it was my turn!!! Yikes! Oh my, this was crazy. You literally have 1 to 2 minutes to set up. Did I mention that during those few minutes you are working around the people that have just finished the previous Schoolhouse? Stressful!!
All day I worried that no one would come and see my little talk about Sewing with Oilcloth, imagine my glee, terror, and excitement when I looked up and the place was packed. OMG, how awesome that was. I am still in shock at how excited people are about oilcloth. Oilcloth Addicts unite!!
Here I am talking about the 4 top tips that make Sewing With Oilclotheasy and fun! You only need a:
I brought all the samples I could get on the plane!
I promise, I wasn't dancing!!
There were so many questions and a lot of note taking!! I just loved connecting with the fabric store owners. As I see it, it's my job is to help shop owners go back and sell this cool fabric!! Like I said earlier, Oilcloth Addicts unite!!
I am so excited to be attending the first Texas Style Country Living this weekend. You know it'll be big if it's in Texas!! Speaking of big, I have big news... I am going to do a presentation on
Saturday at 11:00 and signing books at 12:00. Your coming, right?
So here's what I'm going to do this year, since I won't have a booth
I'll spend Friday combing the fair for vintage goodies to rehab with
oilcloth, laminated cotton, and chalk cloth. I'll TWEET my way through the fair, so please follow me on Friday and hep me decide what I should buy up.@modernjune and follow #CLFair.
Then on Saturday I'll fix up my finds on the stage, it'll be my own
little trash to treasure show. But wait, there's more, I'll even be
raffling away a two of the projects to some lucky winners.
It'll be very strange to just go to shop and do a demo, I feel like a
princess crafter or something a little less silly. How can I just go and
enjoy myself and not be a vendor? We, (Junies and family) thought long
and hard about attending the show with all our wares like we've done for
the Ohio and Georgia CLFairs. Unfortunately, I just had to say no for
this year, 7 months of home reno and life with a teen and a tween just took too much out of me this winter. Basically, my family would have mutinied.
...Truly
incredible shopping is the hallmark of the fair and it's better than
ever this time -- an amazing, huge amount of antiques furniture,
industrial and primitives, lots of artists and artisans, and the
absolutely biggest selection of the cutest handcrafted jewelry you've
ever seen. Trust us you won't find a better fair for mother's day gifts
OR furnishing a home or apartment. AND there's lots to do in between
shopping too!
We've had a round of fantastic weather, we're talking 71 degrees!! So Sander, contractor of awesomness, had his crew clean up the back yard. I was very happy to take the afternoon off and help layout the slates. It was so nice to get my hands dirty.
Raccoon Tracks!!
It's a bit woopy-jawed (my fault) so I'm going to tweak the layout a bit and then plant some creeping thyme within the stones.
I can't tell you have much I love being able to get to the shed without jumping through the puddles. Five months with a plywood walk way is a bit much.
As you can see we've got a long way to go! We've got leaning posts, a missing shelter and a big orange earth mover to take care of. We won't mention the lack of grass. Really, don't mention it. Even though it doesn't look like much right now, it's just so much better and I'm ready for spring!!
I was thrilled that the guys helped me clean out the beds. Normally this is my job, a job that hasn't been done properly since Modern June got more intense. They removed all the weed trees that I was fighting a loosing battle with and I removed dozens of sticky vines. When the next round of nice weather comes along I'll dig out the brick boarder, that always helps tidy things up. (Even if your grass is junk)
The following day we had a lot of rain and my son enjoyed playing out on the second story patio. We're are all loving the new wood floor out there, it's a real treat.
Here you can see that our new bedroom ceiling and walls are all ready for paint. No more water damage, better yet no more Dr. Who cracks in the wall. I was really happy to have sleep in a semi-white room for a few nights. It got rid of my desire for a home with white walls. I gotta have my color!!
But...
...I am not feeling this color! Everyone says I used the same color as the studio but that's not the case, it's actually more green then the studio. It's sssssssoooooooo aqua. Don't get wrong it's a nice color, just not for a bedroom. But it's done and so am I! We'll see if I like it better once I get the drapes up and furniture in the room. Either way, it's not changing anytime soon.
The needed repairs in our bathroom are coming along nice and quick. The cracked ceiling has been sheet rocked with some fancy bathroom grade stuff (technical talk). This darker ceiling is really weird, I'll never paint a ceiling anything other than white. It's feels like the sky is falling.
Since we had to have the ceiling mucked with anyway, we invested in a much needed vent. How very modern for this 85 year old house. Believe it or not, I've never lived in a home with a vent in a bathroom, it'll be like a hotel bathroom. (rrrrrrrriiiiiiight!)
I have NO idea what color to paint in this room. I know I just said I didn't want an all-white room but I am thinking about it for the bathroom. I think I am just afraid, I feel like I messed up the bedroom and I am tired of making costly mistakes -- even if it's my insurance companies money.
We call the insurance money, Kelson's money. Kelson was our insurance adjustor. We've been saying things like, "If Kelson's not paying for it, we don't need it." We've told the contractor more that a few times, "When Kelson's money runs out, you have to leave!" I love Kelson's money, I loved Kelson and he loved us. He was happy that we didn't want more money than we were due. At the time all we wanted was the tree off our home, a proper roof and a sewer line that was actually connected to the city.
Oh well, even if we just go white, I know that I won't be sorry to see the Martha Stewart two-tone thing go away. It's been the same for 13 years, okay I am pretty sure that I repainted it at some point, tweaking the colors slightly. I can't believe that, we've been here so long. I swear we just moved in and remolded that bathroom. I think Maddie was about 18 months when we finished the room. Amazing.
Photo credit: West Elm
Here's my inspiration. I bought this nice shower curtain from West Elm that is citron and white. I intended to paint the walls a soft slate grey but now I am not so sure. Do you know what I really want? I want to fancy tile on the bottom half of the wall and then use a bright paint color on the top half. Or! How about a solid painted wall on the bottom and some big funky wallpaper on the top?
Oh hell, at this point I am just tired of thinking. I say we paint it all white and then when have the energy to commit I'll do it myself.
All the cabinetry is way past tired, we were so poor when we did the bathroom the first time. I think we paid $125 for the sink and both cabinets. Gotta love the big box special. I guess that it's time to start saving for a proper bathroom reno. At least for another round of big box cheapies.
I just picked this up for the bathroom today at Joannes. Our Joannes is moving so I got the rest of the bolt at 60% off. It's a canvas weight home-dec fabric. I am thinking of having my new stitcher make me a roman shade with this pretty tangerine print. Jonathan spent years working in the interiors business, so even though I've made a few shades myself, I'm 100% sure it would be much better use of my time and money to have him do it.
The last area with hurricane damage is the ceiling in the stairwell. I am pleased as punch to have the ceiling and walls professionally painted. This is the only way to fly my friends, the only way!! I'll take 13 weeks of plaster dust to have that stairway painted.
See why? Those dingy walls would have stayed that way for a very long time if it weren't for that mean old tree that just happen to fall and go boom on our house.
There's just a little more work left to get done. They say one more week, so I figure it'll be 2-3. : ) I've been teasing Sander that he'll be here to help make the Easter ham.
I am beginning to have mixed feelings about this whole thing being over and the guys leaving. I'll miss the crew when they are gone. Sander Altman has become a part of my daily life, he's become a family friend. Don and I text him more than anyone else, more than we text each other. Sander and I talk about life, parenting and food all day long. He brings my kids rice crispy treats for crying out loud!! And when I mentioned my need of a doughnut he brought us all some. I'll miss my new friend when he's gone!!! Poor Don's going to start getting some serious "honey do" lists when this is all over and I no longer have 1-5 guys in the house all day to do my bidding.
Every morning I find an email in my inbox that is filled with my Flickr contacts fun uploads. I just had to share a sample of todays summery fun! It's everything so bright and happy? I hope you are enjoying your summer!!!
1) Don't these summer sweets look yummy? Check out Queen Vanna Creations Etsy shop for a cool perpetual calender.
2) I'm totally green with envy every time I check out She Likes Cherries home reno pics! This weekend she off to the San Fransisco Renegade.
3) Vanna's summer sweets!
4) Kitschy Digital Keepsake queen, Danielle, has perfect summer digital scrapbooking kits. love the kitsch!
5) Melissa from Yummy goods just opened up a Zazzle shop and created some very cool shoes with designs from her own fabric line, Sugar Snap!
6) These notecards are to die for at Modern Motive!
7) Beth and her son are having way to much fun this summer!
8) Check out Modern Motives photos of Toronto, they are wonderful!
I cannot believe we are about to begin week 11 of our "a-stupid-freaking-tree-fell-on-our-house-5-months-ago-and-it's-still-not-fixed" RENO!!! Seriously? Seriously!
As if closing down my retail business 5 weeks before Christmas wasn't bad enough. We hit rock bottom when my kids started worrying about us not having a Christmas tree because the dining room furniture and 25 bolts of fabric was in the living room? What could be worst than all of that? Well let me tell you what's worse I'm getting kicked out of my bedroom. Today my husband and I having to remove everything from our bedroom into out dining room, one level below.
Told ya! It just got worse, didn't it? Who knows how long this will take, best guess 2 weeks. They guys have to board over the ceiling with new drywall and remove a plaster wall to assess the damage from the trees impact and fix all the water damage. Fun. Good times. I. CAN'T. WAIT.
Can you tell I've gotten a little surly. Hell ya I am, I am so totally over this. NO more lemonade for me. Today these lemons are rotten. Maybe tomorrow (or in two months time) I'll be back to seeing this massive project as lemonade. But today, it's just rotten.
The silly during shot.
It was a slow week here in reno-land, the guys just touched up the paint in the kitchen and dining room and put in 2 NEW exterior door in our bedroom!! Okay, all surly bad attitude aside, these two doors really rock my world. They are so strong and fancy. No rotting wood or broken glass. We won't tell the insurance company that a lot of that damage was there when we bought the house 13 years ago. Not that they paid for these beauties entirely, but every little bit helps. My hubby went the extra mile and told the contractors to make me happy and to put in the primo doors. I love that man!! The light that is pouring in is worth all the extra money we're paying.
I found some time to move some of our kitchen stuff around to new spots, I am making the most of that pretty window by making a useful vignette.
Since I moved the (little used) Kitchen Aide to the top of the fridge I was able to get the bread box my Mother-In-Law gave me a better home. It's needs some tweaking and some navel jelly but it's progress.
What's really exciting is that the studio is all put away and working out so nicely. Well mostly working out, I did a really bad job with the cutting tables finishing tape, that will have to be redone. Don't you think we need a pretty new cutting mat? A giant white one will have to be ordered soon.
OK, I stand corrected, there's some lemonade to be had!
I took some oilcloth and covered the backs of the cube book cases to make it all wee bit nicer. I love my stashed storage. A rolling rack keeps our scraps organized and the rolling filing cabinet is perfect. LOVE!!
Maddie and I hit IKEA last week so I could the chair bases for my fun red chairs. Don't you love them?
The best part of the week was the fact that I could open up the window when the temperature hit 60. Please keep in mind I have never-ever-ever been able to open a window in the studio before now. What a gift! OK, there it is, I am happy again. So the tree falling down wasn't but so stupid.
The back half of the house is looking good! The roofs are all done and totally water tight. I can't say the same for the brown door that you see on the balcony. We had a rainstorm that blew rain into the house. Let's just say we had a bit of a waterfall wall in the dining room below. Mother Nature also gave us a light show to with the water works. Oh, she's so clever. Enough. Already.
All they guys worked very hard to paint and trim out the back of the house. Of course, I catch Tacho sitting down for the first time in 3 months. love him, he sings all day long and always has a smile for me. I know that he thinks that I am a loco chica, and you know what, I am okay with that.
The window's looking fine! Just a little touch up left to do.
RIP Bliss Kitty! In the middle of all this chaos we've been trying to make the final days of our aging cat peaceful. I miss my furry friend of 16 years more than I ever thought possible. So, in a yard filled with mud is a pretty little plant for our pretty and extra big cat.
A mad dash of paint touch up before a they guys left for a well deserved weekend!
Framed and painted up all pretty like!
Home Sweet Home! I enjoyed doing some paperwork and cutting in the room on Saturday.
One horrible window gone! The old one was cracked and dirty, worst of all it never opened.
Good riddance!
Can't tell you how totally exciting it is that this stupid window is H.I.S.T.O.R.Y. Wahoo!
The Altman Contracting crew has too much fun!!
What a great smile Irving has!!
Framing it out!
OMG!!! We have window! We have windows that open. What more could a girl need?
No need to respond to that...
So that's why it's been so darn cold in the studio.
Creepy space about the studio.
Hey! Where is my roof?
We're missing some roof, but we have some windows!!!
New fascias will keep the critters out of my studio, now that is damn good thing!
Here was my big surprise for Don. I gave the guys the go ahead to add a really nice porch above the door to our bedroom. A nice upgrade from the nasty metal awning from the 1950's. That thing blew apart if you looked at it funny. Irving topped it with the recycled slate. Sweet!!!
Poor little sewing machine table, it's so darn lonely. My contractor, Sander, suggested that I take it in for a tune up while we where closed. That's one smart cookie. Meanwhile, what little sewing I've done it's been done on my home machine in the dining room.
It's so bright down there now. I can only imagine what it'll be like when we have lights again. The pot lights are going to be so bright that Nicole and I will have sew with our shades on.
I've got the guys bringing me a big sheet of plywood so I can finally get the cutting table done.
Won't that be a treat?
The backyard is looking divine, it's okay, I know your jealous!
It takes a lot of hard working guys to get your yard looking this good.
For the last month we have had five big guys on our roof so it was very sweet to have
some little hands helping out. What cuties.
Mud and tape cover up all the holes. Progress is a beautiful thing.
