As I was informed by Gretchen, today is National Delurking Day. Meaning, if you read a blog but have never left a comment, “delurk” and say hello! I’d love to hear from you!
And have a happy weekend. We’ll be doing lots of celebrating around here. My boy’s 1st birthday party! Oh, and someone else is turning 31. But we don’t need to talk about that. 😉
Not an uncommon sight in my house. The kids OR the laundry drying/piled in the background. 🙂
“Thanks, Mom. I feel much less…exposed.”
(sniff) A bittersweet post for a mommy to write, I tell ya. Markus Scott, you turned one today! You are such a joy to us. I cannot get enough of your sweetness. At one year old, you:
More photos and love here.
One of the traditions I have kept up for Anja is making her a new handmade (and reusable) birthday decoration each year (hers last seen here, as I sadly didn’t get a 3rd birthday post up in 2010). For Anja’s first, I made her a cloth banner to hang from the ceiling (visible in the 4th and 6th pictures here).
I decided to make Markus the same thing for his first birthday with a couple tweaks: boy colors and only one shape instead of multiple. Anja’s banner had circles, flowers, rectangles and triangles, whereas Markus’s just has large triangles (more manly, right?). 🙂
I began the process this time with a tune-up of my sewing machine, since I haven’t used it in probably a year or two. I was so so so proud of myself for watching some YouTube tutorials, reading the manual, and saving myself the cash and hassle required to have it professionally cleaned and oiled. If you’ve never tried it yourself, it is absolutely doable!
My sewing machine is very old–it was my grandmother’s, in fact. My mom learned on this machine when she was a girl. I feel so blessed every time I use it, remembering the little dolls and clothing I used to craft with Grandma. That said, I had to read the manual for the cleaning/oiling, since the layout of my machine was dissimilar enough to the tutorials I watched to require it.
Thankfully Grandma was meticulous; she kept every little piece of the machine kit in its box.
If you are an imperfectionist like me when it comes to crafts, this is just the banner for you. I don’t mind if the edges get a little raggedy. It adds character!
Here’s a quick step-by-step if you’d like to try one (And they by no means need to be 50-footers like mine; even a few pennants strung together would hang marvelously over a door or a hearth.):
1. Make a template out of cardboard. The side of a cereal box would work just fine. My triangles are about 6″ across the top and 9″ long, she guesstimated without measuring.
2. Pick out some fabrics. I picked five fabrics within the color scheme I had planned. Fat quarters at the fabric store are a good place to start, but buy a yard of each if you want to make a long banner. Get a coordinating thread if you’d like, just some all-purpose if you’re using light- to mid-weight cotton.
3. Trace the template onto the fabric and cut. A rotary cutter is a nice tool for this, but I used a scissors for most of it. It’s more portable that way.
4. Sew! I don’t stitch the edges of mine. I simply place two fabrics right side out, back-to-back, and start sewing about 1/4″ to 3/8″ inch from the edge across the top. When I reach the end of that triangle, I place the next triangle onto the feed dogs (those little teeth that pull your fabric under the presser foot and needle) so that it’s just a millimeter or two after the previous triangle. The whole thing will be held together with that thread. Anja’s banner has made it through three birthdays (and hung over some pretty long distances) without breaking once, and even if it does break, all you do to fix it is stitch between the two disconnected pieces again.
5. Hang and enjoy. One thing with storing a banner sewn in this method: you will want to lay the pieces in a container neatly, with care. If those threads get tangled, you will not want to take the time to untangle them the next year. It only takes me about 3 or 4 minutes to lay mine back and forth nicely in its box after we take it down each year, and I think that amount of effort is worth it to save so much frustration later. If you make one (or have made one prior) let me know! I’d love to see it.
Finished Markus’s banner today, just in time for his first birthday tomorrow *stifles a sob*.
Thank you all so much for your input on stainless steel appliances. You helped more than you know!
I was also able to find a kitchen that has virtually the same colors (cream cupboards, beige countertops, the same green we’re using on the walls in an adjacent room) and stainless steel appliances, and I liked how they looked.
Unfortunately, the space for the fridge is very small, and we are limited as to what will fit there. I have found two stainless steel fridges that I think will fit the space (this or this), but I can’t tell if either of them is brushed stainless (the only option I’m willing to deal with if we do stainless, since I can’t abide the thought of the constant. fingerprint. wiping.). Would they say “brushed” next to finish if they were? Both of them say “smooth.”
Art edition!
Su Blackwell’s Book Art – I cannot even describe how much I love these (Husband likes them, too!). So, rich friends, feel free to chip in and commission one for me. 🙂
Mary Temple – Interesting, subtle work. Not probably something I would do to the side of my house, but I love the concept nonetheless.
Let Your Home Be Your Canvas – Chatting at the Sky
So. We are in the market for a new refrigerator, since the one in our new home has issues.
As you can seen in this post, we have cream cabinets, a white microwave, a black stove, and across from the stove, a black dishwasher. Talk about a mish-mash. The fridge is the first thing we’re replacing in the kitchen, and I don’t want to get stainless steel unless we plan to eventually buy all stainless steel appliances. Here are my reservations:
1. I don’t know that it will go that well with cream. Most of the colors we’re using on the main floor are softened blues and greens that go well with cream. To me, stainless doesn’t seem like it would go well. But…I don’t know that white would, either, and “bisque” varies so much from company to company that unless we buy all one brand at one time (which we don’t need to and can’t afford), our appliances could be very mis-matched. Here is an example of a kitchen where I think the stainless doesn’t fit successfully:
2. My style is not modern. I love the look of stainless steel in a sleek, modern kitchen with black or white cupboards.
But we are more “casual farmhouse” than “urban industrial,” and I don’t want something completely incongruous. Here is one kitchen in my style that I think pulls it off successfully (though the cabinets are white, not cream):
3. Stainless steel has been “in” since the early 2000s, and usually decor trends that have been around that long (chocolate brown, anyone?) are soon “out.” I’m not that concerned about other pieces of our home, like wall paint and carpet, because they get changed more often (at least, I sure hope!) than something like a refrigerator. When we were house searching, my husband was definitely drawn to kitchens that had stainless appliances, but I think that’s usually because they were all newer homes, or had recently had the kitchens fully-renovated. But will stainless steel’s appeal fade over the next few years? Would we be safer going with a more timeless color, like white?
4. I realize that every Tom, Dick and Harry on HGTV is still using stainless steel (and I think that’s partially what has made it so popular), but how much longer will that last?
5. I’m not sure I like the clean-up that goes along with it. I hear many stories of constantly having to wipe fingerprints, and one more thing to spot-clean doesn’t sound great to me.
What is your experience with stainless steel? What are your predictions regarding its fate?
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Side note:
Thanks to John and Sherry’s post about their washer and dryer purchase, I was able to score the same pair they purchased at 43% off. I bought white ones.
A conversation from today when the sirens were tested.
Me, dramatically: What is THAT noise?
Anja, matter-of-factly: It’s the psycho.
Me, doubtful that she knows what that word means: Oh really? What’s a psycho?
Anja, again matter-of-factly: It’s the truck that picks up all the psychos.
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I even asked her if she meant cycles, but she insisted: psychos.
It’s been a long month with Husband working overtime and the holidays. We’ve made some slow but sure progress on the house, thanks to the help of some friends!
First pic is the living room, which is in quite a state of disarray! The walls to the right have been primed and mudded (is that a word?) by Husband and a kind friend. They were poorly done before, with some weird, unintentional texture and bubbling paint. We’ll be glad to have them smooth again!
The kids’ room is painted, thanks to two other kind friends! It is similar in color to their shared room here. I heard somewhere that keeping color of walls and layout the same can help kids transition better. I wasn’t completely happy with the wall color of their room here and was hoping for a more greenish-grayish blue this time around. In the right light it is the color I wanted, and I think it will only look better once we get the trim up.
Husband removed the trim from most of the house, and he has also taken the carpet out of our bedroom in preparation for wood floors. Buh-bye allergies (I hope!). 
Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening painting the ceiling and starting the walls in the kitchen. Husband got sick and went home, so we want to finish that up later this week. 
My first project yesterday was finalizing a paint color for the kitchen/dining (they adjoin). So I ran to Hirshfield’s (for like the 5th time this month) and had them mix up some pint-sized samples of Benjamin Moore Sweet Caroline and Benjamin Moore Nantucket Breeze. Sweet Caroline is on the middle of the wall facing us, and one the top over to the right of that same wall. Nantucket Breeze is below SC on the right. I ended up thinking both were too light and went with Benjamin Moore Dried Parsley, sight unseen. From what I painted so far, I like it. Not too minty, but the perfect spring green for a kitchen. And it will hopefully coordinate well with Wythe Blue (the darker blue on the adjacent wall), which is what we’ve chosen for the living room. And by “we,” I mean me. 🙂
Markus and Anja had to come with us yesterday, so we locked them each into a room downstairs for naps, then had Anja gated into their room (which she climbed over in about three minutes) and Markus stationed in his playpen. Not the most fun evening for him, but we figure he won’t remember it when he’s older. Ha! 
Here is the large section of the living room which Husband and friend patched with new drywall and mud. Husband had never done that sort of work before, and it was so helpful to him to have a friend available to show him how.
We have high hopes for what we hope to complete in January, as we would like to move in by the end of the month or early February, Lord-willing.
Minnesota Mom 
