Daunting Choices

One of the hard things about our new house is the many choices I've been having to make. I love Interior Design and Home Decorating, but I have to confess, that on occasion I feel a little overwhelmed by it all. We're having an electrician come to add some lights to the house as well as add/move switches and outlets. For some reason builders here haven't figured out just how essential lighting is here in the Pacific Northwest. Our 18 year old townhouse had lighting issues (aka: one little 20W spotlight in a large room with a vaulted ceiling . In our new 33 year old house the front (formal living) room has no lights. It has one outlet attached to a switch and that is all. I can't even get both lamps to turn on and off with the switch. Boo. This is a fairly large room with a vaulted ceiling too. It has lots of windows to help during the day and it is open to the entrance which has a dimly-lit chandelier. But at night, there's just not enough light in there.

After much thought, and walking over toys each night to turn off the lamp, I have finally decided what we'll do to make the lighting situation better.

1. We're going to do about 4 recessed lights in the vaulted ceiling. This should create a significant amount of extra light with-out detracting from the chandelier in the entrance.

2. We're going to replace the dimly-lit chandelier with a slightly larger and much brighter one. It will be able to take large bulbs instead of the little 7 watt ones.

I was about to call the electrician and have him over this week when suddenly I realized I still hadn't chosen a new chandelier. After trips to 3 different stores without success, as well as perusing several sites, I finally found some options that my husband and I both liked. We still have to choose our favorite. Which one do you like best?

Chandelier Choices by maggiemuggins on Polyvore
*If you click over to Polyvore you can get links to each chandelier.

We would install this ourselves but seeing as we're having someone come with scaffolding to do add lights to the room, it will actually cost less to pay him to install the chandelier than to rent the scaffolding ourselves and take the time to do the work.

Quilting Again

I am working on a quilt. I bought it as a kit at last year's Sew Expo. I started it right away and was over half-way through the blocks when I realized my seam allowance was 1/8" instead of the standard 1/4". I'm not sure why it took me so long to notice it. It took me a long time pick everything apart. Then for some reason it was left alone for months. (I blame moving.) Anyhow, this is part of the reason I've been offline a LOT more lately. I started finally setting up my craft room and this is the first thing I'm making in it. I'm so excited with how this is coming together. I've finished the top and have to work on the back of it now. I should be beginning the actual quilting one evening very soon.

When I finally get to the quilting I'm going to be testing a new product I have. I'm pretty excited for it. I'll be letting you know how that goes.

Re-purposed Glass into Spring Vase

A long time ago we went to The Rainforest Cafe and for some reason I didn't even look at the price of my drink. It was some sort of raspberry slushie (non-alcoholic as always) and apparently came with the glass. Woops! So for a long time this thing just sat at the back of our shelf. Unused.

A few years later and I suddenly realized this was my go-to vase. It was wider than anything I had and a good height, plus it had a unique look to it. I would just turn the glass around so the logo was hidden. I attempted removing the logo a couple different ways without success. Then one day I decided to cover that logo up. It really wasn't a sentimental item at all, so I didn't feel guilty doing it at all.

I used Cosmo Cricket's 2" Glubers. I got them on sale at Ben Franklin Crafts. I followed it's instructions for making a flower, then I added a little extra triangle cut piece on the bottom to extend the flower just a little more over the logo. (Next time I would cut and adhere that part first, then twist and make the flower.)  This was actually something I did last year, and some of the buttons have fallen off but the flower never has. It's been wet a few times even, despite me being careful.

Glue gun's don't work well on glass - that's why the buttons fell of. I knew it but was too lazy to look for my good glue. I will glue them back on with a better glue (E600) the second time around. I wanted to show you this project now though because this is really great for spring!

St. Patrick's Day Printable {Free Download}

As you may have noticed I've had the Blogging Blah's. It seems like it's been too long since the last time I shared something with you. I have TONS to share, but lately I've had little time to do so. But, with one of my favorite Holidays soon to happen I just have to share a few things with you.

St. Patrick's is just days away and my boys are anxiously anticipating the arrival of the Leprechaun. He visits and plays mischief in our house. This morning he scattered green shamrock coins on the stairs. Who know what he will do tomorrow. He usually tips chairs, dies milk green, leaves things lying around, and is so mischievousness that we try to catch him. We've built a few good traps throughout the years, but he's always outsmarting us and getting away. I looked through my photos so I could show you - but I can't find any. Must document it this year.

This year we're planning to try to catch the Leprechaun once again. I have a St. Patrick's Day Pinterest Board - and this is what I'm thinking we'll try this year. (Of course, the playground will be to lure him in, not to make peace. We're not ready to try that yet.)

Source: oneshetwoshe.com via Maggie on Pinterest

I have to confess I'm pretty excited. I'll probably make some treats again like I made last year. Or something else from my Pinterest board.

Last year I made this artwork for in my Dining Room. We're still not all set up at this house or I would have it up somewhere already.

Just because I love all my readers, especially the ones who send me sweet notes, I'm going to make this available for you to download! If I reprint it I might try it on craft paper to see how it looks. This would be cute to print on the front of a card too!

FREE FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY - By downloading this file you agree to the following terms: This file is for use in your own creative projects; not for commercial use. Please do not sell or offer this download as your own. Please do not distribute this file to others, but refer others here to download it for themselves instead -- my files are given freely for download from my site only. Thanks for your understanding! If you have questions about the use of a file please contact me through email.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Enjoy the file. If you use it please send me a photo or share the photo in my Flickr Group here.