A New (old) Sewing Machine (Or Two)

Seth found this 1956 sewing machine at a salvage shop for just $15 and bought it for me for Mother's Day.  It is so darling!  It is currently brightening up my laundry room, although I do want to try it out to see if it will actually sew something.  Wouldn't that be a fun machine to sew on?

The guy at the salvage shop said he had another one at home that we could have if we wanted it, so when we went back so I could check out the shop, we brought that one home, too, for just $5!  It's the same brand, a Morse, but newer, probably from the 60s.  I cleaned it up and have been trying to get it to sew.  It's in good shape and seems to work, except that I can't get the upper and bobbin thread to connect, so it won't actually make stitches.  I've been trying to look for possible solutions but haven't figured out what the problem is yet.  Hopefully I can get it to work!  =)

My Helper

I love that using just vinegar and dish soap to clean means that it's safe for my baby to join in on the fun!

On the Line...

I've been loving the warm sunny days we've had lately, and even just the non-raining days, since they all allow me to dry some laundry the good old fashioned way!  There is something so satisfying about clean laundry hanging on the clothesline - I love bringing in the fresh-smelling dry clothes, and knowing they were dried for free!  =)  After a few days of using the line, I realized that taking several trips into the house to bring out a few more things to hang was just a bit impractical.  Fortunately, I thought to check our local thrift shop first and scored with a like-new laundry basket for just $5!

Not only does it make my laundry-hanging duties even easier, but somehow it is more fun to fold laundry out of a cute basket, than from a big pile on the couch.  Although by far my favorite way to see it is like this:

Easter...

Linen Closet Makeover

Every small improvement we make on our house makes such a huge difference!

I spent some time last week fixing up the linen closet. Originally it had a plastic, accordion-style door, which I had just been leaving open because it was so ugly - the contents of the closet looked better. Then Seth took down the door and that helped a lot! For months now it's looked like this:

I planned to eventually hang up a simple curtain in place of the door. After the success of painting our dining room, I was inspired to do more, so I decided to freshen up the inside of the closet with a coat of white. It made a big improvement over the dirty gray and bare shelves. Then I got the curtain made and hung, and I couldn't be more pleased!

The Evolution of a Wall

This project has been in the works since before we moved into our house, but, because it wasn't urgent, has been on the back burner since then. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I made it my priority.

When we bought out house, half of our dining room wall was covered in ugly wallpaper. Like this (only imagine it all intact - we had already started ripping it off in this picture):

I was able to easily rip off the top layer of the paper, but the bottom layer remained stuck on the wall, with a few places where that layer came off too, revealing the paneling behind. It stayed like this until now.

I had briefly tried scraping the remaining paper off the wall, but it seemed like it was going to be very difficult, so I had stopped and tried to think of other ways to finish the wall - perhaps by just painting over the paper. But a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it another go, and to my surprise, it actually was coming off fairly easily. I spent a day and a half scraping, and was left with the bare paneled walls.

I debated leaving the walls like this - and just painting the trim (the black had to go!), but ultimately decided that the room was just too dark for me. So, the trim and bare paneling all got primed. My mom and sister helped with the priming and painting - which made it go so much quicker! =)

Then, finally, the top half of the walls got painted a sunny yellow, and the bottom and top trim got finished with white. And I was finally able to hang my tea shelf which has been sitting in my bedroom for months! I still need to get different paint to finish off the window and middle trim, but I love our cheery "new" dining room! The morning light is especially bright and welcoming! =)

Fun Bowls!

Yet another project from Handmade Home by Amanda Soule.

We tried the paper mache' bowls, and we love them! I made the paste recipe in the book, which worked great. Benjamin and Joanna liked playing with the paintbrushes, but most of the "work" was done by me - perhaps in a few years they'll be old enough to actually help! These took quite a while to dry, but they were easy and fun. They turned out so cool! I put cute tissue paper on the outside of the bigger ones, which made them pretty, but even the plain newspaper ones looked really neat. It was so fun to see pieces of paper turn into something useful! The kids have been using them for sorting, and I think they would be fun for a small "gift basket" type gift.