jane's apron

400 square feet

Doing something major to your house is easy if your brother-in-law is an architect and your sister is an architectural designer (with a connection to a guy that knows how to make the plans into a space).  

These are the almost befores just after work started.

The hard part is convincing my mother-in-law that the space will be lovely and less lonely.  And that letting go of a lifetime of possessions is exhilarating.  Very hard.

I am working on the lovely part with the help of a new pinterest board.

belated

Ellen and I went to my mother-in-law's house yesterday to help her find a home for some of her items that she no longer wants or needs...but still wants to take care of. Punch bowls, platters, goblets, sugars and creamers, and other pretties.  Ellen is now eating her lunch on a cute platter/punch cup set (what are those things called?). Me?  I love this little round glass dish with two pierced hearts.   I even thought how fun it would be to share a picture on my blog for Valentine's day.  And then I realized it was February 18.  

So...the mother-in-law quarters project is keeping us busy around here.  Lots of the major decisions have been made and construction has started.  I am taking pics and will post some befores.  This week.  This is the last full week of February right?

5 x 5 {january}

The idea is that I would create something on a 5x5 base...every month this year.  Maybe it would lead to new ideas, new techniques, newly-found use for my craft stash.  This one is the one I made in January.

I tore pieces of scrapbook paper and glued them on top of each other (so the torn edge shows), cut the finished piece into a heart shape; painting and distressing as I went along (charcoal pencil, watercolor paint, black marker).  I used a brown silhouette flower decal and teeny-tiny red button to finish it.  

Not that much out of my comfort zone but it's a start.  

thrifty u-turn

My thrift store rearranges their floor space all the time...like they have a marketing/merchandising team or something.   They recently went back to one of my favorite arrangements...the one where the aisles of "littles" and the end-caps are visible as you drive by.  

Plaid catches my eye every time.  When I saw the picnic case on my way home I did a quick u-turn back to the store.  The cute case had a perfect thermos and a perfect red box.  Score.  

And then I also found this.

And only $1.01 because it was half-off Christmas stuff.  I already have two punch sets but this is the best...slightly more 1960s, more hipster.  Score.