Almost Famous

Last Friday night was a night to thrill any mom's heart.  After an awesome day spent with my bestest friends ever, I got to jump in the car and head down to Tacoma to watch my oldest son's film "The Match Girl" on the big screen.  The film was a selected film in this year's Tacoma Film Festival. 

Notice the ticket stub :)

It was such a fun evening.  The first thing that happened was that my daughter and I stood in line right behind the actress that played the grandmother.  I recognized her and introduced myself and we had a really nice conversation.  I even asked her for her autograph for a little "mom"erabilia.   

Then we noticed that my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were in line ahead of us (too far ahead to visit with but we at least waved).  And then my budding superstar filmmaker showed up with his friends and fellow filmmakers and I got a huge hug and an introduction to the executive producer of his film.  He was the one who believed enough in the film to shell out money for post production costs. 

After the film, one of  Alex's other filmmaker friends somehow recognised me as Alex's mom and came up and introduced himself to me.  That was fun.  :) 

I was hoping to post a pic I took of Alex and friends after the film but I took it on his phone and he didn't get it sent to me before he had to leave for Seattle for a paid shoot.  If I ever get the photo, I'll post it here--he looks good all spiffed up.  Black shirt, black pants, white tie, blond hair sticking straight up.  :)

Leaf Love

Even though I've been a whiny girl about the rain this month, I'm glad to see Fall here.  I love when the leaves start to turn colors.  It makes me want to do a happy dance!  :)

I was driving home from errands today and the sun just happened to be shining and I happened to have my camera with me and I just happened upon a beautiful tree with leaves of orange and gold and as it happened, I took some photos.  :)

Beauty happens.

Studio Progress

Thought I'd better try to get a few pics up since it's been so long since I've posted anything.  :)  I now have a roof for my studio.  Yay!  It came with a bit of suffering for my sweetie though.  He smashed his finger really badly (I had to take him to urgent care where they stitched him up and put a splint on it) and then he had to keep working because the weatherman was predicting rain.  And man did it rain!  Not just the typical Northwest misty rain, but a freakin' deluge.  Made me really glad I hate heights so much.  Other that going out to encourage everyone and check on progress, I got to stay inside because there was no way I was getting on that roof.

Anyway, everything is weathered in and my floor has dried out and I'm so very thankful for all the help we had getting it done.

Yuck!  What a miserable day this was.  The floor got swept about 5 times and each time there was a good 1/2 inch of water on it.

Roofing day was better...only intermittent rain and lots of helpers so it went really fast.  Thank you God!

I'm hoping that maybe I can be all moved in (or everything can be ready for me to move in) by Christmas.  I don't think it's gonna happen sooner than that.  I'm missing my books and my cutting and sewin table a LOT, so I will be a happy camper when it's finally finished.

New Guest Room--Phase 1

Well, the priming and painting is done, and the bed is set up so I will have a place for people to sleep this weekend.  Right now, the room is pretty boring because there's nothing on the walls and the quilt I want to make is still just pieces of fabric in the garage but the room is definitely on its way.

(Ignore the quilt on the bed--it really doesn't look that great with the wall color but I needed the warmth of another blanket.)

The color is prettier than the photo shows.  It's a light greenish yellow called Summer Resort.   I laid out the quilt fabrics I bought and I like the way they look--I really like the orange and lime green ones the best so I might change directions with the quilt and go with only those two colors.  Another idea is to go with aqua and green--there is a nice quilt at Target with those colors that I think would look good and then I wouldn't have to make a quilt...decisions, decisions.  Too many to make right now.  :)

Wish I didn't hate returning things so much because then I'd just go buy the quilt at Target and try it out in the room to see what I think.  I might do it anyway, since I have to go to Costco and get party food tomorrow.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything.  It's been an insanely busy summer and I have to admit I've been too tired to do anything creative lately.  Hopefully I'll get inspired soon and can blog about what newest thing I'm making.  I did make a skirt for my daughter to wear to a wedding next weekend and boy did it make me miss my studio.  I haven't had to cut out a pattern on the dining room table for many, many years and I'd forgotten how hard it is on the back.  I'm getting antsy to have my studio back!

 Thankfully, DH has been making very steady progress.  Yesterday morning, it looked like this...

by late afternoon, I had a real subfloor that I could walk on...

Today I got walls...

All I can say is whoo hoo!!!!!!!

I was busy today too.  Since we're having a big party here in a week, I figured it was about time I tackled painting the "soon to be" guest bedroom.  When we first moved in 2 years ago, we painted it bright, bright lime green for one of my sons and, although I really love the color, it is a little too intense for a guest room so I'm having to repaint.  I've painted one coat in the closet so far and am headed up to start priming the walls now that the kids have taken everything out of the room.  

 I just hope I can find my painting mojo again--I usually like painting but I'm pretty much hating the whole process today. The best I can say is I'll be glad when it's done.  :)

What Do You Get When You Combine Goodwill Silverware, a DSLR, a Lightbox, and Photoshop? Magic...

I was looking at a home dec magazine the other day and fell in love with some black and white photos of silverware and I thought... hmmm... I have a light box now, I should see if I can take some shots like that.  So this afternoon, I got my light box and clamp lights out of the garage and set everything up on the dining room table and started clicking away. 

I had to do some tweaking in Photoshop to get the really high key look I wanted--I'm not sure I could do it all in camera or not.  I'll have to do some more reading and experimenting to see if I can get the look a little closer in camera than what I managed today.   I still have so much to learn...
  

 I can't belive how good this stuff looks in the photos compared to real life.  Ah the magic of product photography.  :)

Gotta say that shooting these photos was a lot of fun.  I can't wait to find some more cool silverware and utensils at the thrift store.  I might even print some of these and frame them.  :)

Have I Ever Said I Love Blue?

Azure, cerulean, cobalt, peacock, turquoise, periwinkle, navy, teal, midnight...I love them all.  So, I've been trying to figure out how to add some more blue to the kitchen and to the living room.  I thought about a valance for over the kitchen window but I really don't like valances so I had to think of something else.  Ideally, I wanted to find some cool metal grates or registers that I could paint blue and hang up but I didn't have any luck finding any today when I went to Goodwill and the local junktique store.  But, I did score at Joann's.  I found these cheap coasters and buttons and put them together and voila...some new color for the kitchen.  

I think it looks pretty good although ideally, I'd still like to find some cool metal grates or something more industrial that I can paint blue and hang up.

Here are close ups of the coasters.

I also picked up some dye at Joann's and dyed my living room and dining room curtains.  I figured that I didn't have much to lose since they were originally cheap Walmart sheets that I bought when we first moved in.  The color is about the same as the edge of the coasters or maybe a shade lighter.  I don't hate them, but I don't love them either.  I'll give it a day or two (and some daylight) and then I can decide.

Maybe it will give me the little shove I need to go out and find some curtains/curtain fabric that I love, although the search for curtains (and bedding, and towels, and lots of other stuff) usually ends up being very frustrating since the colors I like are brighter than what the majority of people like...