Wednesday 28 October 2015

K's Birthday

Hi!

Where have the days gone? I can't believe it's Wednesday already!
Yesterday was K's birthday!


C had acting class, so we had the celebration after that. K's mom came up to visit. (K's dad is in Ontario visiting K's sister, so he wasn't here!)
We had a pot roast dinner and Black Forest Cake for dessert. 

Here's K with his mom.

And here's a picture of a tree in our yard! 
Hope you have a great day! :-)


Friday 23 October 2015

Dyed Quilt & Rug

Hi!
Happy Friday!

I mentioned in the front room bench post, that I used half of K's baby quilt for the batting on the benches and I did something else with the other half.

Well, what did I do? I dyed it!
 In real life, it seems to be more teal blue-y.
This side was white before.

Here's the other side, dyed. 

And before. 

Here's the quilt in the back room on the further chair.
The other throw is an afghan made by K's mom, given to us at our wedding.

I also dyed a cotton throw rug.



Which I'd painted with latex paint some time ago

It's by the back door to the breezeway.

I found one more rug I want to dye now and am looking for more things to dye...

Have a great weekend!
:-)




Wednesday 21 October 2015

Benches (Kreg Jig Project #3)

(Updated)

Hi!

I finally finished building my two front room benches!
Here's one of them
 Before I painted and attached the top fabric.
Here's the final result!


I based them loosely on the design of this bench from Ana-White.com
This plan doesn't specifically call for the Kreg Jig, but I used it anyway!

I cut to length all the 2x4's for the legs,

 the 2x2's for the aprons, and the 3/4"plywood tops.

I couldn't get the jig saw or the cordless skill saw to cut the angles out of the legs so K did that for me.
He used the cordless skill saw to score it multiple times to get thru the wood. He probably could've used the plug-in saw, but the cordless one was handy. And evidently, the jig saw needs a new blade.

 I used the Kreg Jig to put one together without the top. 


 I then realized that using a warped 2x2 for an apron wasn't going to work.  So, I replaced it with a straight 2x3.
I have a 2x2 and a flat 2x3 for the aprons. Here it is with the plywood placed on top.

The tops were from leftover plywood. I used spray adhesive to attach some foam, leftover from our red couch. 
The quilt above is half of K's old baby quilt I used for the batting. The quilt seemed to be two quilts sewn together and this half was quite stained so I didn't feel too bad about using it this way. I used the better, not-so-stained half for another project!

I draped the quilt and some fabric on top to try it out. 
Then I stapled the quilt on.

Unfortunately with all the cushioning, the bench was too high and too wide to fit under the lockers like I wanted! Haven't I learned to measure twice and cut once?  I actually hadn't thought of the width being a problem, but I did try to account for the height.  Oh, well, at least it wasn't too short.
So, I had to take off the cushioning and re-cut the plywood
 and the legs.

Once I was sure it fit,
I screwed the aprons on to the plywood, from the bottom. I didn't use glue.

Here's the other one I made, draped with the leftover fabric (cut in half from fabric that was on the cedar bench in our old living room).
With cushion.

Without cushion. 

Pushed under. 

Painted and upholstered.


Other side, with cushion. 

Without cushion. 

Pushed under. 

Painted and upholstered.


One more time.
Now I have to paint the legs!

Done!

Yay!
:-)









Tuesday 20 October 2015

Weekly Update

Hi!

What's up?  Here's what's up with us.
Our weekend snow has melted! Yay!

We added a "fitness area" to the back room.
(and a "sewing area"- but the sewing machine is broken...)

I moved the plants over to the other side. 

Here's C doing some exercise. 

We did a Halloween Craft- Bats! 
I discovered the idea here at MADE.

Except for the crazy bat above, they're flying from our vent,

thru the house,
and out behind the picture!

C is having a Halloween Party next Friday, so we're getting all decorated up for that!
There are only 3 days of school this week, with Thursday and Friday off for Teacher's Professional Development days.

I am working on the benches for the front room (Kreg Jig Project #3), but I have some adjustments to make before they're all finished.

Hope you're having a great week! :-)



Monday 19 October 2015

Fall Foliage and First Snowfall

Hi!

The leaves have started to turn red and yellow.
I took these pictures last week on my way home from Summerside.
This is on Allen Road.

Here's the little bridge coming into Tyne Valley.

 Our view of the pond.


Yesterday, we got our first snowfall of the year! 

Such big, pretty flakes. 

Pretty sky

It snowed some more last night and this is what we woke up to! 

Fall Foliage and Snow
This early snowfall has reminded us that winter is coming and we need to get ready!

Have a great week! :-)