One More FL Peek

Yesterday was IKEA assemble day. Look at my studio..... assembled just in time for my departure. I've documented it's existence as encouragement for me to be eager to return. (Like I'd need this encouragement: ha! The aerobic line-dancing is enticement enough.)

Farewell Happy Florida

Well I'm all packed up and ready to leave the sunshine of FL for the clouds of OH. I wanted to share the evidence of my happy collage now hanging proudly on the wall of the living room. We screwed together our new little red IKEA chair and now the room is complete!! Just in time for me to head north. Allen assures me it will be here when I get back next winter! Funny, tho, it's intriguing that he gets to stay here for several weeks, yet. Hmmmmmmm.

One Day Project #10

Field trip, Orlando IKEA. Dateline amazing. How many IKEA boxes can be packed into the back end of a Ford Escape you ask?? It all depends if you need to put people in there, too. Since Allen was an engineer in an earlier life & a puzzle designer previously -- we were able to get all of our purchases inside the car. Fortunately they provided twine for those who couldn't get said car doors to close completely and off we drove.

As you can see..... we chose the pow-red bookshelves to complete our little entertainment nook. They were quite straight-forwardly assembled following the simple picto-graphs. I'd gotten the quilt pieces staple gunned to their frames and voila it's nearly complete. We decided that there's sufficient room for a second 'narrow' shelf on the left, so my dear hubby will pick that up next week, when he drops me back at the airport. Whooooohooooooo.

One Day Project #7

Raw ingrediants: one black IKEA photo collage spider-web, 15 brilliantly colored napkin rings from Bed, Bath & Beyond and lots of thread from my mom's house...... oh, and a needle to strap said rings onto those little whirlie circles. This little conversion took more patience than you might have expected. The thread very easily got wound around the whirlie circles, especially at the beginning when getting started with lots of thread. But persistence is my middle name -- With cheering from my extended family the mission was accomplished. The only thing remaining is to affix it to the wall in question. The last photo was taken against the pink nappie-blanket for night time cuddling. Whoooohooooo.

Company at our HOUSE!!

My mom & dad came over to spend the night at our new little place. Mom was so clever & such a good planner that she brought the perfect top to wear in our bedroom. We're thinking about submitting the first photo above to IKEA for use by their PR firm. I think it would make an incredible ad. "Get happy in your IKEA home." Or how about, "Every GREAT-grandmother's idea of GREAT curtains." .......... that sort of thing, feel free to write your own caption.

I'd also like to document that I prepared all three meals of the day. This is the first time in recorded history that I have contributed such a monumental effort -- and quite possibly the last time as well. Let it be known hence-forth, that it happened on Thurs. Feb. 12th of 2009. I have witnesses!

One Day Project # 6

Here's our happy dining room:

Now it's got curtains, too!

With more IKEA fabric........

I know just what to do.

(We're searching for the 'perfect' -- and affordable light fixture. Something bright & colorful that's quite possibly asymetric. The building code required that something be installed & this was the least expensive fixture available. LOL. We're planning a field trip to the new Orlando IKEA next month. I'm already excited!)

One Day Project # 5

Progress! MORE progress! I just love this project-a-day progress. Here's today's effort in our bedroom. Curtains, yes, more curtains. I had to track down the additional grommets back in Ohio, to match the sliding-glass-window topper. After measuring numerous times and getting everything cut, I was amazed to find that I had two hunks of about 6 inches of fabric left over, from the 11 yards that I purchased at IKEA last fall. Such a thrill to get these up tonight. Allen was so patient in the hanging of the rods (as you can tell.) You can see a tad of the refurbished dresser, too. The window blinds are our big splurge: custom-made from J.C. Penney, during their BIG sale..... my favorite part is that they can be pulled either from the top down or the bottom up. This way we can let plenty of our golden sunshine into the room, yet keep the golfers out of our line of vision. Whooo Hooo! Things are coming together.

One Day Project #3

Whooooohoooooo. Starting to get some color into our black and white living room!! Well, at least theoretically. Technically I 'kinda/sorta' did this project in a day. The first picture is the UFO that I mentioned earlier. I created that block as an exercise in learning how to "paper-piece" and did it some time ago, back in Ohio. The rest of the piecing was undertaken in a day's time, however. I even have the quilt bat and the IKEA frame upon which to stretch the piece. Unfortunately I didn't think to bring my free-form quilting foot..... so I've decided to be patient and do the machine quilting as another day's project. It will have to wait a couple of weeks till I can get back to Ohio to pick up the machine foot. Now who's gonna remind me to pack it and bring it on my next journey for returning down here??

I have two more IKEA frames. So this is wall hanging #1 in what will ultimately be a series of three, which will eventually hang above our TV set in the living room. My. I CAN plan ahead!!

Have Sewing Machine.......

............... will travel! I've had this idea in my head for years, literally YEARS. A couple of years back I fell in love with these grommet kits at JoAnn Fabrics -- in the curtain area. From time to time I'd remember how cool I thought they looked and I'd attempt to invent a project to use them.. Then this fall when I was visiting at Noelle & Zac's they had curtains across their very w-i-d-e windows and guess what..... they had grommets!! And when the sun came up, Noelle would whisk back the curtains in a flash, and we'd all bask in the water's edge view. Speaking of that trip, on my way outta DC I made a delirious and unsupervised stop at their IKEA, after I had literally "studied" the web site. I indulged my every black and white desire and bought a LOT of their Scandinavian fabric.

Wellllllllllllll, the day had finally arrived. Today was: make-new-curtains-for-the-sliding-glass-door-in-our-bedroom-day. And guess what?? It was also learn-how-to-use/make-grommets!! Anyhow, all in one day I got everything all measured, cut, ironed, sewn, ironed again, lined, hemmed and ironed once more for good measure. I picked out the curtain rod yesterday and Allen installed it during his lunch break today. I'm so tickled with the way they turned out!! (I'm sure that the early morning golfers will be just as delighted, not to have to avert their eyes any longer.) Now that this project is outta my brain, I wonder what new project will wander in??