Amanda's Blog

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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While preparing to make 9 dozen cupcakes I made matching aprons for my mom and I to wear.  However, I hired models for the photograph.    Adam and Denielle where waiting to take the last batch out of the oven and Adam deemed it necessary to wear the aprons while taking one tray out of the oven.  Haha.

These aprons were fun and easy to make.  The main difficulty was using Mammy’s sewing machine and not being able to figure it out.  But I got to hang out with her for two days while I sewed which was fun!  The fabric was picked out by my mom at the Happy Hearts Quilt Shop.  It was on the clearance section.  The pattern is in Kentucky right now so I don’t remember the name of that either.  The buttons were bought from MacFab here is Toronto.  They have an awesome button selection.

When making the aprons I thought it was a pretty nerdy idea that my mom came up with but they proved to be very useful.  I had cocoa powder all over my apron and I was very happy it wasn’t on my clothes.

Here is what we made while wearing the pretty aprons!  Although there were a WHOLE lot more cupcakes than shown here!

Filed under: 52 Things in 52 Weeks by Amanda
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Here is the sun dress that I made for Sofia for her birthday.  She even wore it to her birthday party!  I’m a little late in posting it though but better late than never!

I made this with Alexander Henry fabric that had a cute fairy print on it and I used a pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.  It was my first time using elastic thread and it was amazing!  I highly recommend trying it.  And I want a dress like this in my size!

Filed under: 52 Things in 52 Weeks by Amanda
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