O H M Y ! ! !
This is my first time venturing into this forum on MDC and this was the first thread I opened. Can y'all say "serendipity"???
I have so many lists in my head and a few on paper and a few on the computer in various places of craft projects!
I usually start in an organized manner and I finish what I start, eventually. My challenge is generally in the middle of a project as soon as something unexpected comes up...like finding out I didn't
really know what I was doing or needing something at midnight and losing my focus and so on.
Off the top of my head...
SCRAPBOOKING:
~ 1989 Road Trip album - I think it is safe to say I am about 2/3rds of the way through it. I ran into a bit of trouble with expanding the posts beyond their capability and getting an official (read copyrighted) U.S. atlas shrunk to 5.5 inches. I solved both and need to just get back to it!
~ Life Journey album series - Thirteen years between graduating from high school and meeting DH... three LARGE albums. I *was* about halfway through it. Then I decided I really don't like the books I was using, so I think I am now about 1/3rd of the way finished.
SEWING:
~ DD's shower curtain - We moved out (90% of our stuff with us) for three weeks back in the Fall for home improvement projects. When we moved back in, I decided to try and finish the two upstairs bathrooms first since they were the closest to being finished. My sewing machine and serger were packed away until just recently (last weekend), so I just tossed the fabric we liked up over a rod temporarily. I think it is time to cut and sew it properly!!!
~ DD's bedroom curtains and bedding - Same story as above, except we haven't even come close to finishing her bedroom. It is fully functional and she has decent blinds and a valance and bedding. They just aren't what we really want. We already have the fabric. I need to take measurements and design my own patterns, etc.
~ Office curtains - Same story with house, but in this case I had pulled the old blinds down completely and threw them out (not literally, but they left our home for good) because I never liked them and they did not function well in this particular space. My desk is directly in the window alcove and blinds of any kind just don't work. I have to design some layers and decide how I want it to look. I think I want thin white natural fiber of some kind as one layer and yellow-green "pretty" cotton fabric as another layer. How to layer it all and block the sun in the WINTER and not in the SUMMER (yes, weird!) is my challenge.
~ Master bedroom window treatment - We have pretty blinds up, but I also want to add some softness and romance to the window. I think whatever thin white natural fiber fabric I find for the office window is also what I will use in a different type of window treatment in our bedroom.
~ Master bedroom duvet and sham and table topper - Our comforter has a plain sheet thrown over it to keep it clean and our body pillow we use as a backrest clashes with our walls and furniture. I also thought it would be nice to make a matching table topper for our new dressing chest to protect it and add a bit of color. I have the fabric for this project and have a design in mind. I need to do a LOT of work in order to complete it.
HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS:
~ Living room blinds - Our blinds in here are incredibly old and one set barely functions. DH & I could not agree on what to put in these two HUGE windows. I finally agreed with him that my idea of plantation shutters was not ideal. We want VERTICAL wood blinds now and I am having a really hard time finding these in person to see them and decide between real wood and "fake" wood.
~ Living room paintings - I designed our entire downstairs decor around my first two pieces of real art and I LOVE THEM! I could not find frames I like anywhere, so I want to make them. I have the moulding and need to get busy miter cutting it and so forth.
~ Powder room - All that is left in here is to make a frame for the third painting like the above two, but smaller... and to find some sunflowers to put in a vase I already have.
~ Kitchen - I need to figure out how to frame a scenic tile I love and am using as a picture. I also want to change the vertical blinds for some kind of natural fiber sliding panels. This room faces West and gets A TON of brilliant HOT sunlight all summer long. We have a retractable awning outside this door, but it still needs more sun protection. I am also looking to replace the old boring globe light above the sink with an art glass drop-style light. Something on the HUGE wall would be good, too.
OTHER DECORATING:
~ Master bedroom - I still need to figure out what other furniture we want and find it.
~ Living room - Once the bedroom is finished, DH says we can find a new entertainment center in the living room. I really, really want an armoire style to cover up the TV most of the time. We rarely turn it on and yet, it is still the focal point of the living room. I would much rather have a beautiful piece of furniture be the focal point or at the very least have a shelf above the TV with pictures and pretty things on it. Those will camouflage the heat register, too. Once I get the paintings framed, THOSE will become the focal point in the room. I also want to give away DD's "desk" in the living room since she is too tall for it now. That corner is begging for a large tree-type plant!
~ DD's room - We need to buy, cut, prime, paint, and install chair rail moulding in her room and rearrange her furniture and move some more pieces in there from our room and finish decorating the walls. Her room has a long way to go before being finished.
~ Office - We simply have too much stuff in here. It is truly a family office, which is really nice, but also very crowded! All the furniture in this rooms is what we want and is fairly new (within last 7 years), except a corner unit and a white laminate rolling unit. I am looking for a printer and paper unit for the area where the corner unit is now. If I can find something in the same Ikea finish as the rest of this room, then we'll get that and work around the rest.
~ Playroom - We're in the process of repurposing this room, but we're not entirely sure what we need it to be. It was our "garage" during all the construction in the last couple years and in the beginning. In between, it was my sewing room and DD's playroom. It also doubles as a guest room, but that need is minimal now. Just last weekend, we set up the sewing table again, but the other half of the room still resembles a garage. The sewing table is actually too big for this room, but we repurposed it and it is still in decent condition.
Sorry, I got going and wrote EVERYTHING out!
I guess now I need to copy and paste this into several tasks in Entourage and/or a Word document and print it out. GEEZ! It is both overwhelming to think of it all and satisfying to see how far we've come! Despite what it may look like, we are actually down to near the end of all the work we have done in this house since we purchased it (as a fixer-upper) nearly 8 years ago.
