Guest Bed Makeover

I started this post a year and a half ago, when I actually started this project. Now that we're moving in a week, I thought it would be the appropriate time to share :) 

This is the bed that our landlord provided for the extra room in our apartment here. 

Lovely, huh? Blue pleather headboard and gold balls. Clearly we weren't having that. My original plan was to paint the balls black, take the blue headboard off, recover it, and then put it back on. But the screws were so rusted & stripped that taking the blue pleather off was impossible. 

So instead, we took the bar & balls off, and just recovered the whole thing, metal frame included. 

Thanks to Hannah's sweet staple gun skills, it worked really well

I saw this fabric at a bedding store, and absolutely loved it. Any fabric in a bedding store here is really, really tacky, so it really caught my eye. 

I had a euro & 2 standard shams made. I love them so much, that I am taking them back to America with me. 

The bedding is from Ikea (of course). 

I made the bed skirt myself with grey fabric I bought at the fabric market. Since the bed is against the wall, I only made 2 sides, and stapled them to the ply-wood bed slats. 

And that is how we transformed our guest bed from this: 

To this: 

Joyfully Transformed,

Hannah's Tote Bag

For Christmas {yes... Christmas, and just sharing...} 

I wanted to make Hannah a fun tote bag.

I bought this fun pink & purple flower fabric last year knowing I wanted to make her something, and finally got around to it in December. 

 I've made lots of simple bags before, but I wanted this one to be lined and to have a zipper. 

the zipper...

and the green polka dot lining.

I came up with a general size {i wanted it to be big enough for a computer} and cut everything out...

And got to work. 

I used this strange stiff webbing stuff I found at the fabric market in place of interfusing. I sewed all of three layers of each panel together, and then began attaching everything. 

I tried my hardest to sew the zipper as best I could and I did an okay-ish job....

Unfortunately I didn't quite get the zipper lined up with this seam. 

But it works! 

I wanted to make a little pocket on the outside with the green polka dot fabric it is lined with. 

So I made the pocket & the top flap, and put a magnet inside of both to keep the flap closed. 

I like to think I'm pretty innovative.

And that's my first complicated-ish bag I made. 

Doesn't Hannah look cute with it? 

It's definitely not perfect and I made plenty of mistakes that I hopefully won't make next time. Here's to overcoming my fear of not sewing perfectly. 

Joyfully sewing,

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Several weeks ago....like in April, we had days of WONDERFUL weather. Over the last month we have had THREE, yes 3 days with NO RAIN. Looking at these pictures reminds me of how stinkin beautiful this place really is.... regardless of the seemingly BLAH weather lately.  

This park at the foot of the mountains, that opened less than a year ago is right across the street from our neighborhood, and we have so loved enjoying it this year. 

This is the view of the park entrance from our neighborhood....

The view of our neighborhood from the park entrance. So close! 

Hannah and I have enjoyed almost weekly walks & talks through it over the last couple of months. 

This particular day, fields of these flowers were in full bloom and all was well here. 

So, what better day to go fly a kite? 

So we met a bunch of friends who happened to have new kites in the park, and sent them soaring... up in the atmosphere...

Up where the air is clear. 

We had a variety of fancy kites from squids...

To smiley faces...

To Hello Kitty...

And even some complicated trick ones that got tangled in the trees. 

There were also lots of super cute littles hanging out like this darling guy...

This sweet girl with her buggy crocs...

And this little tushie bearing split pants wearing doll.  

This cotton candy man was out, making cotton candy with his bike. He stands there and spins the pedal, which in turn makes the drum spin and makes tasty cotton candy. 

This is the "100 Steps Bridge" across the river {that actually is 100 steps}

It is currently impassable as the water is flowing over it after all of the rain we have had. 

But if the rain is what it takes to create this, it's worth enduring. 

I could make so many spiritual connections to that metaphor right now that are quite pertinent to my life, but I'll let you ponder on it yourself. 

I can't get over how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful, unique place. My friend who came to visit from another {extremely large, heavily polluted} city in the fall calls where we live "Pleasantville". 

When I instagramed this picture from our day:

She commented, "Plesantville showing off again."

And I'd have to wholeheartedly agree. 

AND one more reason why leaving this place in less than 3 weeks is going to be so.stinking.hard.

Joyfully soaking it all up,