Amanda's Blog

Spring is here and it brings with it beautiful colors!  The grass is green and ours needs to be cut.  We have one spot in our yard that is turning purple with wildflowers growing there.  Spring brings warmer weather, which means that more people spend time outside, which means that Sammy has much more to see and bark at out the window.  Spring also brings spring cleaning.  Especially since there will be a baby shower for my cousin at my house in less than 1 week!

But back to the colors!  Here are some fun colors that are around my house.

The prettiest laundry ever!  Pre-washing all of my Anna Maria Horner fabrics.  I have a half-yard of the Good Night palette that will hopefully become a cuddly quilt for the bed in my sewing room.  Then I have three Little Folks voiles that will be a skirt, a dress, and a handbag at some point.  Hopefully before the summer is over.

Then we have my bookshelf makeover!  I don’t have a before photo but it was a mess – half full of books and half full of random things we just shoved in there.  This is our only bookshelf at the moment and it is actually a china cabinet made by my father-in-law.  I took a picture of the cabinet both open and closed because the doors cover some of the books.  And, well, because I am a nerd.  Everyone in blogland has been organizing their books by color so I decided to follow suit and I love it!  That’s the only spring cleaning I have actually finished, but it did involve going to the basement and digging through some boxes to find enough (really more than enough as there are still boxes and boxes of books down there) books to fill the shelves.

And finally, we have some lovely little spring critters living in our backyard.  The other day I saw three huge bunnies just hanging out.  But they just didn’t want be caught on film.

Those bunnies can sure hop fast!

Happy Easter and Happy Spring to everyone!

Filed under: Everyday Life by Amanda
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I’ve been a silent blogger.  I think I am going to try to blog again.  I might be changing blog names and addresses though but if that happens I will let you (whoever is out there reading this) know.  I will see if I can update this one again before I commit to a new blog web address.

Anyway, for those of you who are interested in what I have been up to here is a brief update:

My inspiration photo to help me design an invitation to a baby shower.  I designed everything but I had a little a lot of help putting it all together in photoshop.  I am going to try to learn Photoshop and Illustrator though.  It should be fun.

Here are my sketches of a rubber duck that I drew and the redrew until I got a good one and Dusan traced the image in Photoshop.  There is the top of the invitation peeking through.

I’ve also been up to making my first ever quilt!  It is close to being completed!  It is for my cousin’s baby who will be here sometime in June!  I appliqued his initials on the back of the quilt and took a picture of part of the process.

That’s pretty much what I have been up to.  Hopefully, I will blog again soon and have more to say.  But we shall see!

Filed under: Random by Amanda
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Total finished projects = 45

1: Shelly’s Curtain, 2: Mom’s Purse, 3: Baby Pillow Case, 4: An Apron For Dusan’s Mom, 5: Pants, 6: Elizabeth’s Handbag, 7-14: Napkins & Placemats, 15: The Pug’s Pajamas, 16: Christmas Present 1, 17: Sofia’s Birthday Dress, 18&19: Matching Aprons, 20: Bathing Beauty Tote, 21: Maggie’s Purse, 22-33: Bean Bags, 34-39: Award Ribbons, 40: Spider Halloween Costume for Mom, 41-44: Recovered Kitchen Chairs, 45: 1 Guest Room Curtain Panel.

Total Started Projects = 1

Christmas Gift for Elizabeth and Stephen’s Baby.

Total Projects Left = 54

Christmas Present 1-26, 6 Curtains for a total of 14 curtain panels, Jelly Roll Bag, Halloween Gift for Mom, Baby Pillow Cover, Christmas Apron for Dusan, Jingle Bell Hop Projects 1-5.

Total Projects Accounted For = 90

Seems like I might go over my goal!

Blah!  It’s been so long since I’ve written that I don’t even remember some of the projects that are on my list!  I’ve been busy painting, trying to take wallpaper down (it’s the devil), and all sorts of other things.  One thing that I have decided it that I want to open an etsy store and sell some things that I make.  So watch out for more details on that!

Filed under: 52 Things in 52 Weeks, Everyday Life by Amanda
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Well, it’s been a while.  Moving from Canada to Kentucky, unpacking, trying to organize, paint, and many other projects plus issues with the cable/internet company means I haven’t had a lot of time to update.  And I promise that I will try and catch everything up!

But for now a lovely kitchen chair makeover.

Before:

A set of 4 metal chairs (only 2 pictured but the other two are the exact same) from the thrift store.

Add 2 coats of spray paint and 2 yards of fabric.

After:

Pretty new kitchen chairs!

A close up of the fabric (although the colors are a little bit deeper in real life – not quite so bright).  I used Denyse Schmidt’s County Fair Home Dec weight fabric.  This is also the fabric for my curtains.  The striped fabric will be the living room curtains and the floral fabric will be the kitchen curtains.

Total Cost: $16.50 per chair!

Now to work on all the other projects I have.  Also, to think of an actual blog name.  Any one with any ideas let me know – if your idea is good enough I might just give you a present! 

Filed under: 52 Things in 52 Weeks, Our House by Amanda
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We got the house! And now we are working on moving in. But for now, no internet. I will be back though!

Filed under: Uncategorized by Amanda
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by the end of today we will officially live in Louisville and in the US!

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Because of the craving I had for ice cream that melts, Dusan and I decided to try our hand at going to Dutch Dreams one last time.  Now, I was a huge fan of Dutch Dreams until all of a sudden they never had raspberry sorbet and it is still listed on the menu.  But we decided to give it a try.  This is how the experience went.

Dutch Dreams Girl (DDG):  Can I help the next group please!?

Me:  Do you have raspberry sorbet?

DDG:  No, we have watermelon.

Me:  Okay, Dusan, you go ahead and order.

Dusan:  I would like a scoop of Dutch chocolate in a waffle cone.  Oh!  and no whipped cream but fruit on top.

DDG:  (goes to get the ice cream)

Me:  (to Dusan) Of course they don’t have it.  I guess I’ll just get butter pecan.  Hmm, (looking at a flavor named pistachio almond crunch) I wonder what that flavor is like.  Should I taste it?

Dusan:  Sure.

DDG:  Here you go (hands Dusan his cone and looks at me)

Me:  Can I taste the pistachio almond crunch please.

DDG:  Sure, you can taste the watermelon sorbet too it’s close to the raspberry.

Me:  No, I’ve tasted the watermelon before, I don’t like it.  (taste the ice cream it’s okay but not super good)  I’ll just take a waffle cone with butter pecan.

DDG:  (goes to get ice cream)

Me:  Oh!  no whipped cream on that.

DDG:  (what she thought was under her breath and in a very sarcastic tone)  Of course not. (then she scraped off the whipped cream she had just put on my ice cream.)
So yeah, rude ice cream people and they never have my flavor.  Good thing we will not have to eat there again.

Filed under: Fun in Toronto by Amanda
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As of Saturday I will officially be living in Louisville!

We might be able to close on our house next week!  (It will be before September 10th though.)

The Red Sox game was tons of fun and they beat the Blue Jays!

I got my pattern making rulers from MacFab so after I finish making Christmas presents and the curtains for my house I am going to refocus on making clothing.  But I might take a break to try to make a quilt to, but the main attention is on apparel.

I am very excited that we will have a house very soon (as long as everything keeps going the way it’s going).

Project Runway started again which is cool, even if I can’t start watching it tonight because I am in Canada.

Our couch is gone.

I hope everything fits into our car and if it doesn’t I’m not quite sure what we will do.

I am excited about visiting Dusan’s parents soon.  It will be fun!

I am excited about the new furniture Dusan’s dad is building for us.

When we get settled in our house we can start having people over for dinners and things again.  And sewing parties – that’s what I am going to plan with my mom and anyone else who is interested!

And swing dance!  We will get to do that again too.

We will not have TV, phone, or internet tomorrow.  We are turning in our cable box.  So tomorrow night we are going to hang out at the mall.  And eat Greek food.  Yum!

I wish I knew where to find ice cream in Canada that melted because I don’t trust the stuff that doesn’t melt.

I guess you can tell that my brain is full of lots of random thoughts.  And I really need to finish the cleaning and the packing.

Guess I’ll go do that now.  Maybe I’ll put up some more blog posts tonight since I’m not sure when I will have access to the internet again.  It could be a while.  I’ll figure something out though.

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Filed under: Kentucky by Amanda
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Total finished projects = 20

1: Shelly’s Curtain, 2: Mom’s Purse, 3: Baby Pillow Case, 4: An Apron For Dusan’s Mom, 5: Pants, 6: Elizabeth’s Handbag, 7-14: Napkins & Placemats, 15: The Pug’s Pajamas, 16: Christmas Present 1, 17: Sofia’s Birthday Dress, 18&19: Matching Aprons, and 20: Bathing Beauty Tote.

No pictures of the tote yet and I am 8 items behind.  But I have been busy!

Total Started Projects = 5

Maggie’s purse, Bathing Beauty Tote for Mom, and Christmas Presents 2-4.

Total Projects Left = 47

Christmas Present 5-26, 6 Curtains for a total of 11 curtain panels, Jelly Roll Bag, Halloween Gift for Mom, Baby Pillow Cover, Christmas Apron for Dusan, Jingle Bell Hop Projects 1-5.

Whew, I think that might be all I need to do.  I made a detailed list somewhere but it is in KY with all of my sewing things.  If I make all of this I will be over my goal!

Total Projects Accounted For = 72

Filed under: 52 Things in 52 Weeks by Amanda
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