a new project ~ baby grand

we were semi-gifted a baby grand piano. 

john david's aunt needed to place it in storage and well, we had a place to store it!   

there were scratches on the top from it being in storage before...  

the wood underneath, once the finish was off, was in great condition.  the scratches were just on the surface and the wood was in good shape. 

 the pieces that can be removed have been taken off.  and this is what the room looks like while this is going on.  this might take a while. 

p.s.  one day while sanding the top in the garage, the children were riding bikes around the block.  it dawned on me that come school time, I would have lots of time on my hand for this project. 

so, I put it neatly away and will pull it out once school is underway. 

charlotte's web

the third grade just finished reading "charlotte's web" so we are getting ready to host the 3rd grade county fair.  each group of children had to come up with a game concept, create the game and rules and then host the game the day of the fair.  m1 and her two friends wanted to do a web toss.  so we made spiders and had bean bag lady bugs from another game that are going to be tossed through the web.   the girls also cut strips of left over fabric from other projects which i sewed together to create a girly web.  hopefully, the object will be to toss the spiders and ladybugs through the web.  if that does not happen we might have to change the rules for them to be tossed into the web.  it will be a county fair game day decision.  ps ~ you can be certain that i am holding onto this and m2 will be politely coerced into the same type of game when she reaches 3rd grade. 

hmmmm, what is this going to be?

the girls room

i realized i never posted pictures of the *almost* finished room.  the first picture is the shelf above m1's bed ~ not quite what i envisioned (bead constallation project? not what i would have put up there, but it is her shelf).  the second picture is m2's shelf; minnie mouse usually has a sock on her head, i guess she gets cold sometimes. 

m1's bed has a pink flower pillow and m2's has a yellow flower and ladybug.  the long patchwork pillow was one sham before i cut it in half and sewed it into two pillows.  it matches the blanket at the foot of the beds which was a queen quilt that i cut in half and sewed up.

you can see part of the dresser that took me a while to paint ;-) with fabric pulls because the original pulls broke once the girls started using them.  the chair was painted by sister for micadoodle's nursery (hard to believe that girl is 12).  i need some artwork for the walls, but for now i am considering this done.  

this little stuffed animal corral was also painted by sister for micadoodle's nursery ~ i think she put books in it.

new fabric

fun new fabric on the piano bench

these chairs were bought with the intention of recovering them (so i've had them like three years, i make snap decisions). found some modern fabric and got to work.
with the extra fabric from the piano bench i made matching pillows trimmed in the grey/white fabric. they look great with the sherwin moody blue walls.

when drawer pulls break

this could also be subtitled "why you should wait for paint to dry". so there is this dresser i worked on during the summer, sanding and painting, only to not like it in the room. so i started over again, sanding and painting. once the girls started using it, the antique drawer pulls just did not hold up ~ probably all that time in a hot attic finally got to it. so using fabric i had on hand i improvised. trying to decide whether i like the knot on the outside or inside (i think on the inside). any opinions?

the girls dresser

so much better than the first paint job.

before & after ~ i didn't like it

so many hours sanding, priming, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, taping and painting... loved the piece in the garage, moved it into the room and was not wowed. monochromatic does not make me happy. went out of town, hoped to come home and realize it was just what i wanted. did not happen. out came the paint wheel... again. did not even move back to the garage, sanded and repainted right in the landing upstairs.

a little more contrast (drawers have already been tried out in the room) and i think this is it. well, it better be because i am not painting it again.

before and after ~ a sneak peek

i found this dresser in my parent's lake house attic; it was previously in my grandfather's lake house. my camera battery died so i did not get a good before picture with the entire dresser painted blue. the drawers are finished except for a poly top coat. the dresser has primer on it and needs to be painted, but i ran out of sandpaper so that will have to wait for now. unfortunately laundry and cleaning is on today's list. oh, and little man's back to school class pool party.

because i have extra time on my hands...

i can organize the children's books according to color. really? my husband says there is professional help available for people like me... oh, and i built these bookshelves myself, months ago and for some reason never posted the process on the blog. that's what summer does to a momma.

made by me ~ a quilt

above is the quilt top in progress and below is the completed project. the back is the orange/white polka dotted fabric. i wanted to use a lighter color for the border with a small print but had a hard time matching colors.