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3.27.2019

Learning New Skills: Dyeing With Avocado Pits

I've been reading about natural dyeing and decided to try out dyeing with avacado pits. You guys! This is seriously one of the easiest DIYs and it is perfect for a beginner! I was a little intimidated at first, but it couldn't have been easier. I collected pits over a couple of months. I put some in a bag in the freezer and some pits I would wrap in a damp paper towel to try to grow some plants (jury is still out on that process). I had a couple free hours one Saturday morning and started a boiling pot of avocado pits.
1. Boil pot of water and 10ish avocado pits for about 30 minutes... or until water is dark red.




2. Remove avacado pits, reduce heat to a simmer, and put in fabric. 

3. Let fabric sit for about 10 minutes to achieve blush color. I let the second batch of fabric sit a couple minutes longer so it is slightly pinker.



Some tutorials say to wash with specific types of soap. I just rinsed with cold water and hung it to dry.


This was such an easy DIY! I have started collecting avocado pits again and wracking my brain for what else I can dye.

3.21.2019

Dining Room : Slow Upgrades

There are a lot of changes since I updated our dining room progress a year and a half ago.
Now let me tell you about one of my favorite things about the town we live in. There is an exclusive-to-our-community Facebook group called Freebox where people list whatever items they want to give away for free. When you see something you want, you claim it and pick it up from the person's porch. It's a great way to declutter without leaving your house and an even greater way to get things you want/need without having to pay for it. I saw this chandelier (similar to what I'd been looking at) go up on Freebox, but it was already claimed by a friend of mine. I quickly commented I'd be second in line if she changed her mind. A couple days later, she messaged me to let me know that her husband wasn't feeling it and that I could have it. After switching out the lights, I listed our old chandelier and it was snagged within minutes. It made me happy to see our new lighting (that we got for free!) and know that our old one was going to a home that would appreciate it.
Another new addition to our dining room is our sideboard/buffet. I always call them sideboards, but after a quick google, it's called a sideboard if it's in your living room and a buffet if it's in your dining room. I was using large wire shelving from our old house for all craft and overflow storage. It was not the prettiest solution and was getting to be difficult as Ida was more mobile. I was looking for any and all buffet solutions, and we lucked out with our old friend Craigslist. Ben is our Craigslist guru and will always look up options for me, reach out to seller, negotiate prices, and generally do the pick up. He sent me about 10 options that I was able to quickly narrow down. My favorite piece was already sold so I landed on this one. There was actually an identical model that was painted also for sale for slightly more. This one is slightly damaged, but we were able to work out a great price with the seller. Ben picked it up and reported back to me that she had an amazing old house that she did a lot of work on herself. She had tons of pieces in her house that she purchased on Craigslist and was only selling this one because it was her mother's and she had no room. He told me it was a meet up that I probably would have loved.

We got the sideboard in our house and it fit so perfectly in it's spot. The finish matches the dining set that I already own and it has lots of storage. I love when things work out perfectly like that... especially when I fail to measure dimensions.
I had one project on my list during Winter Break and it was to paint this dining room. Golden beige is not my favorite color, so I was itching to get this space painted. We picked out paint one day then Ben had to go to work. The girls were begging for a lazy day so I put on some movies and spent the rest of the day priming and painting solo. Ben was able to come home for just enough time to cheer me on and tell me to keep up the good work then headed back to work.



When I finished, it was pretty late and I started to stress that we picked too dark of a paint color... until the following day and all the natural light came in and realized it was actually the perfect color for this room. I hung up our cuckoo clock and set up the girls' coloring area. 


Now that the walls are painted. I have turned my attention to the fireplace. It needs some work. It appears that it chipped a lot previously and the previous owners just painted a coat of white paint over it.  I have scraped and patched all over the place. We're still bouncing around ideas for colors, but haven't landed on anything yet.

MY TO-DO LIST:
+ Pick a new light fixture
+ Paint walls
+ Paint and recover dining room chairs
+ Patch, sand, and paint the fireplace
+ Declutter

3.01.2019

Weaving For The Girls' Room

An ongoing goal for me over the last 6 months has been working on finding projects I can work on in teeny tiny increments (think 5-30 minutes). Back in October, I felt the urge to get back into weaving, so I got to work. Cora was hanging around when I started this piece, so she picked this pink color and asked if this could be for her room. I worked on this in 30 minute increments over a week or so, then finished it up in January. Because I was working on this mostly at nights and during the middle of winter, the picture quality is all over the place... but that is not my biggest priority.  I always love seeing people's progress pictures, so here you go...


This is when I should have been finished according to my 'plan', but it just didn't feel right to me. I let this sit for a couple days before adding the black stripe on the top...then let it sit for a month or two before I decided it was for sure finished. 

Since I finished this up during the middle of winter, I wasn't super excited to head out and look for a stick to hang this on. During a walk in January, I decided to keep an eye out and found the perfect stick in front of our friends' house. I cleaned off the stick, trimmed it down, and attached the weaving.


Cora loved the final piece and kept mentioning how much it looks like a dress. I found the perfect spot in my favorite little corner of the girls' room.



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