porch makeover

The past few weeks we've been working on lots of projects to spruce up the front of the house. Now that the weather is really warming up, we'll be spending lots of time out on this porch.

It's a nice wide porch with lots of room for sitting. We've got quite a hodgepodge of furniture out there--the rocking chairs and metal chairs were inherited from my grandma's house and Matt scavenged the table and wooden sofa on the far end from the dumpsters in his old apartment complex. We've sanded and painted them all so they look bright and cheerful. Matt stained the porch decking a dark color which sets off the furniture and paint colors so perfectly. The outdoor rugs came from Lowe's.

OK, you might have to click this image and view it larger to really see the difference in the before vs. after. (But I've always wanted to do a Before & After photo!) The shutters and front door used to be hunter green, and they are now a lovely smoky blue. It took some experimenting to find the right shade of blue, not too bright but still a nice contrast for the mocha-colored house paint.

Here you can see the blue color better. Pretty! Of course, I wanted to add some fabric and softness to the porch, so I sewed up two cushions for the rocking chairs.

I love the bright pops of color on the dark background of this fabric. The piping adds a nice pop too.

For the wooden bench, I recovered the cushions in a pale green floral print, then made two new throw pillows as well. Natural linen and chambray is my new favorite combination.

We just planted the hanging baskets and pots this weekend, so they are just getting going. Matt put together the combination in the galvanized tub. We're going to have lots of color--blues and yellows but also splashes of red and purple.

One day we'd like to install ceiling fans out here, the nice big rattan ones that spin lazily on a steamy summer day. Ah, steamy summer days--they are coming!

and we have a winner!

I used the old-fashioned kind of random integer generator--I asked Matt for a number between 1 and 21. He responded with "16" so our winner is lulabelle's view, who is Laura and who has a most beautiful blog. Laura, send your mailing address to me at juliemarieblog (at) yahoo (dot) com. Hooray!

I am going today to cheer Matt on in some kind of extreme 5K thing--he says there will be both slogging through mud and jumping over fire involved. Should be interesting. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

5 + 32 = a giveaway

I've never done a giveaway before but this is a week for celebrating. Today the good old blog turns 5 years old, I turn 32 years old, and Twin turns 32 years old too (funny how that happens).

It's so funny for me to go back and read my oldest posts--how much things have changed, how much they have stayed the same. I don't think I had any idea when I started this blog how much it would mean to me. But when I think of all the talented, kind people I have met here, and how much the blog has inspired and motivated me to create and explore, I am amazed. And very grateful.

As a thank-you, I'll be sending a box of sewing goodies to someone. Three vintage dress patterns (size 12), some assorted fabrics, woven trim, vintage buttons, and a set of my gocco-printed cards. There is also a bag full of 2" square fabric pieces that I cut for a quilt and never sewed together. It all comes in a homemade fabric box.

So leave me a comment and I will choose a random winner this Friday, April 8. And now I will sing happy birthday to my blog:

happy birthday little bloggy
happy birthday dear sweet bloggy
happy BIRTHday good old thing you
and you smell like one too

xo

duvet cover

I finished the duvet cover! It's pieced from a mixture of solid linens and cotton prints from my stash. I had originally intended for the neutral fabrics to be more dominant, but I was not very careful with my math while cutting out pieces, so I ended up with more of the accent colors than I meant to include. That's ok. This duvet is very much inspired by one I saw in Lotta Jansdotter's book, Handmade Living.

My process was pretty simple. I wanted it to all be very random, so I cut all my fabric into 7" strips, then cut those strips into rectangles of varying sizes. I sewed all my rectangles into one very long strip, which I then cut into the 80" long strips I would need to accommodate my queen-sized duvet. I then cut the strips the long way into varying widths. Then I sewed all my strips back together. I hope that makes sense. I used an old, very soft organic cotton sheet that I scavenged from the linen closet for the back side of the duvet cover.

You are probably wondering why our bed is in front of a door. Excellent question. We actually have two doors in our bedroom (four if you count the bathroom and closet doors), plus one window in a rather small bedroom. I love our cozy little bedroom but it does make the furniture-arranging a bit tricky. We eventually decided that the bed was best situated as you see above, even though it blocks the door that connects this bedroom to the bedroom next door, which is my craft room. I've been trying to brainstorm an interesting way to hang art on this wall that would integrate the door somewhat and make it appear less odd. If anyone has any ideas, do speak up. :)

I also recently re-covered the headboard I made several years ago. I had this soft striped linen that has been sitting in my stash for years. I love it when a fabric finally finds its destiny. This linen was obviously waiting patiently for me to realize it would make a perfect headboard.

Scout seems to like the new set-up. After almost two years of living together, we two humans + two dogs have finally come to a sleeping arrangement that seems to suit all parties. An unspoken rule that no more than two bodies fit in one bed seems understood by both canines and humans. So, when both Matt and I are in the bed, the dogs sleep on their own dogbeds. If, however, they spy an unoccupied side of the bed, they will jump up and snuggle in next to the remaining human. And there really is nothing more peaceful than having a warm, contented dog sighing happily into sleep next to you.

I wasn't always a dogs-allowed-in-the-bed person, but I am fully converted now. I really do wish they would learn to wipe their own feet when they come in the house though. That would be GREAT.

go veggies go!

We have a vegetable garden! I think we built the Fort Knox of raised vegetable beds. We can use these well into our retirement I expect. We used the 10" raised bed corners from Gardener's Supply which are supposed to keep our corners nice and square for many a year. We edged the whole area carefully and laid down pea gravel, which just makes my little meticulous heart go pitter pat. We are starting out square-foot gardening style as it helps us think about quantity and variety. We have already put in lettuces and leeks, and sowed seeds for carrots, radishes, mesclun, and peas. We planted herbs in one galvanized metal tub, and potatoes in the second. (Um, please excuse the dog poo in the picture. I really should have picked that up prior to taking the picture.)

We also placed a Mason bee house next to our garden, tucked up under the rose arbor. Haven't seen any bees yet, but we are told if you put up a Mason bee house the bees will find it. (If you build it, they will come.) Anyone have experience with Mason bees? Anything else we can do to lure them to our garden?

The whole garden is waking up so beautifully. We have violets galore.

Outside the fence and surrounding the gravel driveway, we have the "gnome garden" which Matt tends with great care. There are four little gnomes who live here. They are not particularly industrious gnomes, instead they like to take life easy. They are surrounded by great clumps of hellebore, ferns, and daffodils. We received a White Flower Farm "Works Daffodil Collection" as a wedding present which was the most wonderful gift. The collection has a lot of variety in shape and color--and the daffs have came up so strong and beautiful. Awesome.

The gnome garden from the other direction. The hammock and all the bird feeders also live here. It's a most peaceful little spot.

The garden has been capturing most of my attention the past couple weeks (how could it not with spring emerging all around me?) but I do have some sewing projects cooking as well. I bought all four of the new Lisette patterns that Liesl has come out with. SO EXCITING. And I am sewing a new duvet cover for our bed. I am trying to finish the duvet before I allow myself to open the new Lisette patterns. Must. resist. new. sewing. patterns.

btw, there are still three more summer handbags in the etsy shop if anyone is interested!

summer handbags

I'm funny about handbags--I pretty much just alternate between two bags that I've had for about five years. I'll use one for about 6 months, then switch to the other one. Six months later I switch back to the first bag. This seems to be enough variety for me, since I like my two handbags very much.

But last week I got it into my head that I wanted a petite bag for summer that would be cheerful and easy to carry. Just big enough for my wallet, moleskine, keys, and maybe a paperback book. I based my design off of a bag I made a few years ago as a gift for my friend Suzanne. I scaled it down a bit, but kept the nice pleat detail. I also gave it nice long handles so that it hangs comfortably from my shoulder.

I lined the bags with batting to give them body but still keep them soft. At the last minute I decided to add lines of quilting across the top panel, then I added a pretty wooden button. I bought a dozen of these buttons on our last trip to NYC and I have been waiting for the perfect project to use them.

I sewed up the first bag in one evening, then decided I'd make a few more for the etsy shop. I'd forgotten why I stopped sewing for my etsy shop--making bags assembly-style is a wee bit time-consuming. But I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I hope there are a few other people who will enjoy these bags as much as I plan to this summer.

Check out the bags on etsy:
--Chambray with soft dotted print
--Chambray with blue and white floral
--Denim with yellow floral

two-tone tunic

I keep thinking one of these days I am going to start dressing my age, but then I get an undeniable yen to sew an uber-cute tunic in a retro floral. The retro florals, they always get me.

This is Simplicity 2922, which is one of the Project Runway patterns. I still can't decide about these Project Runway patterns. I think I like them. Some of them. You just have to get past the dreadful fabric choices and excessive embellishments in the drawings on the envelope. There are some good basic silhouettes in there, and the many variations they provide with each pattern really do give you a lot of choices. On this pattern, there were several options for the sleeves, and I really like the notched cap sleeve that I used.

This one sewed up pretty easily, and the only part I found tricky was the neckband. I can never sew neckbands like this without having the fabric pucker on me in a couple places. But it generally lies flat and the imperfections are not noticeable. The pattern called for a zipper up the back, which I decided was unnecessary in the shirt version (you can also make this as a dress). I just left the top bit of the back seam open and added a button and thread loop at the top.

The pockets are pretty cool though rather strangely engineered into the side seam. I had sewn the side seams as flat-fell seams, but I ended up having to open up the seams again with vents at the bottom to allow room for my caboose. (Twin is modeling in the picture and her caboose region is a bit slimmer than mine.) This was all complicated by the proximity of the pockets. Anyhoo, it was a hairy few minutes but it all turned out ok in the end. Phew.

Twin digs it.

three wees

Twin and I made three softies from Hillary's book. I've made several of her patterns before and the patterns in her new book are every bit as awesome as the stand-alones. Everything is very well-explained and there is a great variety of projects in the book--including some more classically-styled toys like the teddy bear.

I sewed the bear and I love him so much. This is one of those projects where I look at him and I think "I can't believe I made that." His cute little belly paunch kills me.

His button joints are very cool--they are fully posable and really help him sit up straight. I'd never used a doll needle before, but it wasn't hard to attach the limbs in this way.

Twin made the storybook doll as a gift for her boyfriend's 5-year old niece. She has grosgrain ribbon hair and a freaking awesome outfit.

And a very sweet face.

The 5-year old niece has a brand new little brother so we also made a little red monster for the baby. There was some discussion about whether this is a dinosaur or a monster. I think he's a monster. Regardless, he has awesome green spikes.

We had such a good time sewing these up. We also made homemade fettucine (so delicious and surprisingly not that hard!), watched some Downton Abbey (it's streaming now on Netflix--woot!), and ate a lot of chocolate chip cookie dough. It was great.

first posy

More hellebores, this time tucked in a little vase to welcome twin, who is coming to visit this weekend. Our brother has some twin friends who, though both married with families, insist on regular and frequent twin time--they call it "twineraction." This twineraction is highly respected by the husbands as vital for the mental health and happiness of the twins. Wise men. So we will be indulging in some quality twineraction this weekend. On the agenda is doll-making from the new Wee Wonderfuls book (I got it for Christmas and haven't cracked it open yet!), Sicilian pizza from our little local pizzeria, chocolate chip cookies, gift- and shower-planning for a dear friend who is recently engaged, and probably a movie or two that our male significant others wouldn't watch if we blindfolded and gagged them. Yippee! Hoping your weekend is full of lovely plans as well.

garden journal

So, not to rub it in for you northern folk, but spring has sprung here in North Carolina. ahhhhhh, bliss. We've got a crop of daffodils coming up and the hellebore are in full flower. We're dreaming up a new vegetable garden and planning new flower beds.

One of my goals this year is to be better organized about documenting the garden. As a beginning gardener, just keeping track of what comes up when, what tasks I do when, and what plants I stick where is tough for me. I tried using a pretty, hardbound garden journal last year, but found it a bit bulky and generic. So this year I decided to just design my own pages and store them in a 3-ring binder. The first section of the binder is a monthly journal, where I can jot down a short entry each week about the weather, what's going on in the garden, and what I do.

The second section has simple grid paper for plans and sketches. Above is my rough sketch for our backyard perennial garden. We're slowly bringing this garden back from the jungle-like state we inherited--it's still full of phlox and sedum, and I want to fill it up with hostas, ferns, and other shade-loving plants.

The last section will help me keep track of the plants I buy--including details about bloom time, sun requirements, and all that stuff. I tend to just go out and buy whatever strikes my fancy at the nursery, then promptly throw away the tag with the pot. Hopefully this will bring some method to my madness (or at least document the madness in some small way).

I uploaded a PDF of blank journal pages that you can download if you'd like. I plan to just print extra pages as I need them and stick them in my 3-ring binder. I'm hoping the simplicity of the journal will help me stick to it!

Our first big project this year was re-edging the garden beds with river rock. I love it. We also carved out a new sitting area in the middle of the garden. Abby had trampled all the vegetation in this section of the garden so completely in her quest for squirrels that we decided to just give up trying to grow anything here. We mulched the area and added a scattering of big flagstones. With the fire pit and two new Adirondack chairs, it's a lovely spot for sitting.

Wishing you happy spring plans for your garden!

weekender bag

The Weekender Bag is done! Now I need to make an "I survived the Weekender Bag" t-shirt. I just love the way it turned out though. It has such a pretty shape and I love the fabric Mom picked out. The piping and lining are a simple blue and white ticking which is a nice contrast to the bold print.

The construction of this bag really isn't that difficult--I don't want to scare anyone away from the pattern. The instructions are very thorough and easy to follow, and I really enjoyed the whole process. It gets a bit tricky in parts because the interfacing makes it so bulky and unwieldy. Sewing the main panels onto the gusset was, quite literally, a workout. I don't think I've ever broken a sweat while sewing before, but maybe sewing should involve more sweat (better than tears anyway). There is also a good bit of hand sewing to do at the end to secure the lining inside the bag, but it comes out looking so nice both inside and out.

At the last minute I decided it needed a little something, so I made a little silk flower using this tutorial (awesome and easy). I had bought a scrap of dupioni silk over the winter and this seemed like a great use for a little bit of it.

A beautiful bag for my beautiful mama. Happy happy birthday.

yoga mat bag

We celebrated Matt's mom's birthday this weekend with some great pasta from our little local pizzeria and then some antique shopping. It was a lovely day. Joan has been doing a lot of yoga lately, so I made a bag for her to carry her mat to class. I used the pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing, and it's a super-quick, very satisfying project.

The bag is constructed like a rectangular sleeve with a drawstring at the top and a handle down the length. Other bags I've seen are sewn as a tube with a zipper, and Lotta's version is so much simpler. Awesome. And it's got a cute little pocket on the front for your car keys or yoga accessories (socks?).

Speaking of bags for Mamas, I am also knee-deep in an Amy Butler Weekender bag for my Mom's birthday. This one is not a super-quick project, though it is an immensely satisfying one in its own way. It's a doozy: bias-covered cording, lining, zipper, pockets, and enough timtex to hold up the wall of China. I love it. And I think the end product is going to be absolutely awesome. I've had this pattern sitting in my stack of to-do's ever since it came out, and I'm so happy Mom gave me a kick in the pants to get it out and start sewing. So more on that soon, with pix. :)

a visitor

This is Rayley, or "RayRay", as Matt has nicknamed her. She's a 4 month old puppy we've been fostering for a short time. A friend of Matt's rescued her from a shelter with plans to transport her to a rescue organization in New York.

We don't know anything about her life before she came to the shelter; the only clue is a bite-sized chunk that is missing from her left ear. But despite any hardship she may have known, she is a very trusting, sweet, and gentle little soul.

It's interesting to compare her to how Abby was as a puppy. Abby has a seriously stubborn streak and has always resisted her position at the bottom of the "pack." She's scrappy and independent, and was very stand-offish as a puppy. Only recently has she begun snuggling up to me for a nap now and then.

This little puppy just seems overjoyed every time a human or another dog interacts with her. She chases along after Scout and Abby, no matter how roughly they play or how much they pick on her. She burrows in beside you every time you sit down. She discovers every new toy (and, of course, every other thing around the house that she thinks must be a toy) with delight.

It sounds like I've fallen in love with this little puppy, doesn't it? Maybe. I blame her sweet wrinkles. She must have some sharpei in her, since she seems to have enough skin to cover a dog twice her size.

We've considered keeping her. Questions rise up: How big will she get? Do we have enough time to give her the attention she needs, and still do all the other things in our lives that we want to do? One thing I've come to realize is that, like with any endeavor, the more time you invest in a dog, the more you get back. A dog wants nothing more than attention, exercise, love, and a sense of purpose.

I have been surprised, though, at how well the dogs take care of one another. It reminds me that dogs are indeed pack animals and are hard-wired to look after their own. No matter how much Abby and Scout appear to be picking on Rayley, or ignoring her with weary, resigned expressions on their faces, I know they are teaching her how to live in our family.

Whatever our final decision, I have an increased respect for all the kind-hearted folks who work to find homes for stray animals. There is such a lot of heartbreak in this work, and I very much admire the brave people who undertake it.

RayRay says "Happy Monday (and let's go play!)"

birthday season

Between late January and mid-February, I get to celebrate birthdays for one husband, two mothers, one uncle, and one grandpa. It's a lovely bright spot in the winter.

Mom got coconut cake last weekend, and tonight I'm making a boston cream pie for Matt. During Mom's birthday celebration last year, Abby (who was still quite a puppy in behavior if not in size) managed to eat about half of the chocolate birthday cake. She reached up and craned her snout over the side of the kitchen counter, licking furiously until she had sculpted the cake down to one half its size. One frenzied internet search later, we realized that the only likely effect was an upset stomach. She's only done this a couple times, and she seems to resort to these bad behaviors only when the prize is extra tasty. She's quite a gourmand. She did the same thing to a log of goat cheese I had sitting out for a salad, and another time she licked all the whipped cream off the top of a trifle.

Scout (above) is much too dignified for such bad manners. She just gazes and sniffs longingly.

On to the boston cream pie. Which I will not set on the side of the counter. ;)