I've Been Tagged!

I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law this morning saying I have been tagged. I'm not totally sure what that means, but I do know that I now have to tell facts about myself. So here we go....

Ten Amazing, but true facts about Morgan

1) If I was on Death Row, my final meal would be a brick of cheddar cheese, Ritz crackers, and an assortment of cold cuts.

2) Sexuality fascinates me! I would love to be the next Dr. Ruth.

3) The event that made the greatest impact in my life was when my sister invited me to stay with her for a month one summer.

4) I often do things to make other people happy.

5) I wish I was rich so I could give away my money.

6) I want to go to Africa and do humanitarian work.

7) 99% of the time I dislike the human race.

8) I absolutely love shopping for swimsuits. I currently have 6!

9) I can make something out of anything.

10) I don't know how I will face life without my parents if they die before me.


So there you go! I tried to put things that I thought no one knew. I guess now I am suppose to tag other people. I won't be doing that, because the only people I know with blogs have already been tagged.

Give Me a Marathon Anyday!

Back in January we had a huge storm that took down the fence between us and the neighbors (not to mention a few other things). I wasn't surprised that it fell down. It was pretty much on its last post anyway. Here are a few pictures of the damage.

Our neighbors have a dog, and even though I love her dearly, she has destroyed our yard. So a new fence needed to be built pronto! One thing I miss about renting, is that I now have to fix something if it breaks. Neither Jim nor I have ever built a fence, but thankfully Jim's step dad lives close by and is more than willing to lend a helping hand. On Saturday we bought all of the supplies.

Sunday was the day of hard labor. Let me tell you, I have never worked so hard in my life! I thought building our patio was the worst. Getting this fence started takes the cake! Give me a marathon any day. At least you know the pain will be over in four hours.

First we had to rip down the old fence.

Next came the worst part. We had to dig up the old concrete and posts. That was pure torture! We all took turns breaking the concrete with a sledgehammer and digging it up with this long, extremely heavy pole with a point at the end.

By the time we got all of the concrete up, I could barely lift my arms. The next part was easier. We had to mix the new concrete and put the posts up.

Once we got all of the posts set, there was nothing more we could do for the day...Thank God! The next part will be to put up the 2x4's and start screwing on the pickets. That will take place this weekend. Too bad I have to work all weekend : )

P.S. I am still sore!

A World of Miniatures

Since I have pretty much finished up my craft room remodel, I have decided to start on the project of remodeling my dollhouse. I plan on re-doing the house itself, mounting it on a board, and then landscaping it. I want to make most of the things myself. I have been looking at different places where you can buy miniatures on the web to get ideas. So here are two things I have made so far.

A long time ago, my dad got me a sewing machine and a dress form for my birthday. I was tired of seeing the dress form naked, so I made a mini replica of my wedding dress to put on it. It's not perfect, but the point is made.

Now the next thing I made is my favorite. I am still in shock at how good it came out. It took me about an hour and a half to make. It is constructed out of balsa wood and hot glue. My plan is to stain it, or paint it. I am going to make a green house and this is going to go in it. It is a potting table. later I will put pots, soil, mini tools, etc. on it.

So that is all I have made so far. There will be plenty more to come. Hope you like it.

Room Re-do Continued

Well my room has been coming along rather well. I'm sorry it has taken so much time to actually post pictures. The room is not 100% complete yet. I am still looking for a chair, side table, and rug. Once I find those, then it will be done. But here is the progress thus far. I am very excited at how it has turned out. It is pretty much exactly what I envisioned. Which normally doesn't happen for me. So to start, here are some before pictures. You will see I have a lot of stuff packed in a small space.

So here are the after:

I have two work surfaces. The one in the far corner is for painting, cutting fabric, etc. The other one is for sewing. I have my sewing machine on it. The TV is in the middle, and I can see it from either station which is what I wanted. I made all of the covers and curtains.

WORK STATION #1:

I wanted to put a curtain around this table because I have a crate of all my important documents underneath that I wanted to hide from view, but have easy access to. I was running short of fabric at this point, so I had to piece a few together to make it work. I attached it to my table using dots of Velcro. This seems to be Rusty's new hiding place. He loves to go behind curtains for some reason.

WORK STATION #2

This is my sewing station. I wanted to be able to leave my sewing machine out, so I decided to sew a pretty cover to hide it and keep the dust off. The curtain in front hides a small shelving unit that has all of my office supplies. I got a cheap cafe curtain rod at OSH and attached it to the front of the desk. The chair was originally maroon, so I made covers to give it a make-over.

TV

As you can see in the before pictures, the TV is pretty ugly. It's an old school one that Jim's mom gave me. All I use it for is to watch movies, so I don't mind its age, but I hated the sight of it. That was easily solved with yet another cover. Now it is no longer an eye sore when not in use, and it stays dust free. I think I am most proud of the shelving unit it sits upon. The shelves are a dark brown and covered in stickers from Jim's bachelor days. I knew painting it was not going to be an option (Jim made that VERY clear). I decided to get creative. I had loads of black fabric left over from my wedding, so I put it to work. I made a runner to cover the top and the sides. I then made a curtain to cover the front. I attached the curtain rod to the front and PRESTO... a new "black" shelving unit.

I got the shelves above the TV at the thrift store cheap. They were originally brown, but a can of black spray paint fixed that:

I wanted all of my supplies and fabric organized and easy to access. I was able to accomplish that with a few plastic containers and a shoe organizer:

I went with a no-sew curtain design. The pictures are not very good, but you get the idea. I used safety pins and straight pins to get the shape I wanted. This way I can change the design any time I want:

Last, but not least, I wanted to do something cool with the switch plate and outlet covers. At first I thought about painting them, or covering them with that clay you bake. Then it came to me. I decided to cover them with fabric. It was very easy. I cut a square of fabric and hot glued it to the cover. I used an exacto knife to cut out the holes:

So that is pretty much it as of now. I plan on putting up some of my black and white photography on the other walls. Here is how much I have spent so far:

Paint - $5

All Fabric - $30

Curtain rods - $5

Shelves - $7

Plastic Organizers - $25

Shoe Organizer -$3

Total: $75

My goal is keep it under $100.

The Make-Over Begins

Ever since I moved into my house, I have re-decorated each room one at a time. I started with the kitchen, then went on to the guest bathroom, my bedroom, and then my bathroom. I have now arrived at my craft room. Originally this room was an everything room. Anything that didn't really fit anywhere else pretty much ended up here. I really wanted to change that. I wanted a room that was organized and functional, but at the same time, classy and relaxing. Unlike, the other rooms, I really took my time to think about how I wanted to do things. I also really needed to keep things as low cost as possible.
It all started with a paint color I found by accident. One day I was at Home Depot waiting for them to mix up paint for the outside of our house. While I was waiting, I decided to look through the "oops" paint. I ended up finding a great shade of light blue. It was a gallon of Behr paint for only $5.00! What could be better? I bought it right away and began thinking of what colors I wanted to go with it.



I spent a great deal of time one day at Joann's trying to get ideas. Originally I was leaning towards a blue and brown combination, but was having difficultly finding just the right shades. As I was walking around the store I noticed a black and white sewing box. The moment I saw it I knew that was going to be my color combo. Light blue, black and white. I looked through the black and white quilting fabric and found everything I was looking for. I picked 4 different fabrics.
So today was the big day. I was able to get the entire room painted and I love it so far! Because keeping costs down was important, I needed a way to change the look of my burgundy office chair. I found a great black and white striped material that I used to make slip covers for the chair. It was pretty easy and turned out exactly as I envisioned. For the top part of the chair I created a tube the size of the top part of the chair. I placed the tube over the top of the chair and then used pins to outline the chair shape. I then took the tube off, and sewed the top up by following the pin outline. After placing the tube back on the chair, I ran a piece of ribbon along the bottom, cinched it tightly, and then tied a small bow. I did the same thing for the bottom part too. So now I have a new chair for only 5 bucks. I will keep you updated as I progress. I'm excited to see the final product.

Chili Pepper Dish Rag

One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog more. I got so busy with the holidays and I got away from it. So here we go for the new year. For Christmas this year I gave everyone hand knitted dish rags. All of them were pretty basic. Mostly all knit stitch. I came across this pattern for the chili pepper from one of the links my sister sent me. This was my first attempt at really following a pattern. I have to admit my first attempt was not successful and I got a little worried, but the second time was a charm. I made this for my mother-in-law because she likes peppers and has a southwest kitchen. I used a solid red cotton yarn and a #9 needle. The border was of my choosing, but I can't remember which stitch I choose. I was pleased at how it turned out. It is a little too big in my opinion for a dish rag, but I'm sure it will still work.

Merry Christmas From Florida

When I went to Florida in April, I was mesmerized by the white sands and the abundance of seashells. I literally brought back 10 lbs of sand and shells. I wanted a way to display some of the prettiest ones I found. I went to Michael's and got a box of do-it-yourself glass ornaments. I choose the cube shape because I wanted a shape other than the traditional ball. As you can see, I filled the ornament with sand and my shells. Because the trip was for our 1 year wedding anniversary, I decided to include one of the "love" charms from the champagne glasses at our wedding. I took some ribbon scraps, also left over from the wedding and hot glued it to the top. The words are just written with a fine point sharpie. Presto, a memorable Christmas ornament!