Happy Easter!

I hope you're doing something warm, sunny, delicious, and Easter-y with friends and family to celebrate!

Introducing: The Bafoon

Now I may find this funnier than the rest of you all... but really. What kind of dog sits like this on a couch? 

Allow me to introduce you to our short-bus riding ding-dong-dog, Bodie, whom I lovingly refer to as "The Bafoon" ... which, when I call him this, I receive a quick response from Parker telling me, "he's not a 'Foon. Mama." 

Despite the fact that I find it slightly humorous the odd positions he chooses to lounge in...

...he's a sneaky burglar and a master destructor and an escape artist. Every other day I come home to find trash eaten, toys eaten, firewood eaten, pill dispensers eaten, cookies stolen off of the cooling rack, fudge licked into the carpet, snacks eaten out of their bowls, sheets torn on beds, shoe and bra straps chewed... you get the point. We have even caught him in the kitchen garbage - 2 paws deep and head waaaay in there going to town on lord knows what. He stands in my way, staring at me, breathing his hot stinky breath on me, toots when he sits down, then burps, and walks away. It's fabulous. And every once in a while he breaks free and takes a long, self-indulgent, sniff-laden jaunt throughout the neighborhood. Trust me, our neighbors know him well.

However, he lets children party on him like a rock star:

He makes a good hat rack:

And he looks dang good against my peonies in the spring:

But ultimately, Bodie has been Parker's BFF since he was born and I could never take that away from him.

 

[ But mark my words... the cat and I are keeping a watchful eye on him (!) ]

Basement Window - before and after

So! We've been working on making our basement a little more pleasant and definitely more functional... so we bedazzled up the place with IKEA galore! We also completely rearranged the furniture, added a few things for organization, and hid the toys as best we could. I'll show a before and after shot when it's all said and done. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek on one change where we spiced things up a bit.

We have these oh-so-sexy typical forehead-placed basement windows that lets in a little bit of natural light:

I wanted to add texture, pattern, and a little color to the space to break up the never-ending BEIGE in the room. To help create more of a cozy feel, rather than lonely basement feel, I hit up good ol' IKEA's fabric area. Man! do they have some nice prints to choose from. I found a contemporary print on canvas that ties our new IKEA couch in with the new IKEA bookshelf-cabinet thingys - and made drapes out of it.

WAH-LAH! Here's what it turned into! I'll do a tutorial soon on how to make these drapes - I even got fancy with mitered corners, blind stitching, and grommets. (no, I didn't close my eyes to make "blind" stitching... it's actually the name of the stitch!)

I added two beat-up metal stools to the space that I got for $10 each from the Kane County Flea Market which we drag over to use as side tables when needed. I love mixing old with new and balancing masculine with feminine: old man stools / girly printed drapes. See? I only wish that the previous owners put in faux-wood floors rather than cream berber carpeting with specs of teal and mauve (clearance special, perhaps?!?!?). Sigh...

Have a great day!

Quilt Back - done!

 So I did it! I hunkered down and whipped up the back side to my first quilt (initially shown here). I used the remaining fabric strips from the front to create a colorful 14" pieced strip to put somewhere along the back. I framed the top and bottom of it with 3" of a solid grey to give a visual breather from the crazy commotion of all those fabrics. I knew I was going to use the solid brown for a large chunk of it... but I was puzzled with how to add one more fabric in there.

This is where a fabric stash can come in handy. I tried out several options for the upper print portion. I had to play around with the scale of prints: really large prints felt like they were yelling at me and smaller prints, like polka dots, seemed too busy and competed with the multi-colored strip. Then I tossed down this structured repeated floral from Amy Butler's "Soul Blossoms" line. The rusty colors complimented both the pieced fabric strips AND the solid brown. PERFECT!

Now comes the scary part: QUILTING. I have to put batting between the front and back pieces, pin them together, and somehow stitch all 3 layers together using a "free motion quilting" method that I've never done before. I'll let you know how that goes soon!