Life & Blogging

Some of you may have noticed that my posts have been sparse and few.  I wanted to take this opportunity to share a glimpse at my life right now so that y'all know why I have not been around as much as I would like.

There are a few contributing factors.

Factor 1:  As many of you know I have three wonderful kiddos and a hubby that travels.  Mr. Whimsy's travels come in spurts.  Well let me just say that it has been like a whale coming to the surface over here these past couple of months.  Spurting in full!  He has been from one coast to the other and then some.  Keeping life running with three kids when he isn't around is a full time and a HALF job which leaves me little opportunity to spend time on my computer. 

Factor 2:  Little Miss Whimsy, all 70 lbs of her 11 year old mighty self is very involved in competitive cheerleading.  For anyone who doesn't know anything about this sport,  well let me be the first to tell you it is a time and a HALF job in itself.   Especially when you are crazy like me and volunteer to be a team mom.  The season is in full swing.  What this means is we are traveling  A LOT.  Usually two compeitions per month.  These are not around the corner. We are off to D.C., Atlanta, VA and the list goes on.  Mr. Whimsy comes home from business travels and Little Miss Whimsy and I leave for a cheer competition.  Whew!  Throw in 3 hour practices 3 times a week for her as well as me running around making things happen and meeting dead lines for her team as any good team mommy should and well I'm sure you are getting the idea here.

Factor 3:  My health.  Specifically my back health.  I have been suffering through some back issues the past year and half.  The back has been getting worse and worse.  I will be having surgery on my back March 9th.  What this means is........I am a mad woman.  I am determined to finish all the projects I have underway before I go into surgery.  Little Miss Whimsy's room.  Eldest Master Whimsy's room is another project I am currently working on as well.    I just don't know how or what I will be able to get done once the surgery happens.  I know that I will be taking it extremely easy for 3 months after the surgery.  I doubt I will be getting too many projects done after March 9th!  So I am in panic mode to make eveything that needs (translated as I want) to happen, happen before March 9th!

What this all means for my wonderful blogging family is you have not been seeing much of me and most likely will being seeing even less of me over the next couple months.   I will be trying my hardest to share what I have going on and hopefully after my surgery will be up and about enough to do some small projects.  Who knows maybe I will be on the computer more once I have this surgery.  Maybe it will force me to slow down a bit!  At any rate I want y'all to know I appreciate you.  I love reading your comments.  I love visiting your blogs and sharing with you.

Know that I will be on here every minute I possibly can over the next couple months.   Have a blessed weekend my friends.

Tween Project #5

This weeks project is really the result of being someplace and having a specific thought in your mind at the right time.  Sometimes plans change and it is a good thing!  I had planned on buying some bedding out of the PB Teen catolog that Little Miss Whimsy had chosen.  When she chose it I did cringe slightly knowng that she suffers from nose bleeds and she picked out a bedding that had a lot of white.  With all this on my mind I took a stroll through HomeGoods.  I had not planned on buying bedding there but rather I was looking for a lamp for her room.  The funny thing about places like HomeGoods is this, you never really go there and get what you went in hoping to find.  This day was no different.  I walked in looking for a lamp and walked out with a duvet set for Miss Whimsy and an idea that I thought might just work and save me about $150.00 and a few tears on my part after the first trajic nose bleed occured with the the PB Teen Bedding.

I found this duvet set for $39.99!!!  What a steal!  It had the black and white elements of the set she had chosen and with some fabric paint........well I thought I could make it happen.

Here is the set Miss Whimsy chose from PB Teen.  Now being referred to as the inspiration bedding.

Here is the sham from the set I bought at HomeGoods. 

Let the painting begin!  The shams were fun and easy.  I will admit the full sized duvet took some time and patience.  It was a lot of surface to cover. 

Some purple here and there and we ended up with a one of a kind custom painted duvet set.  Total cost with tax about $45.00.  What that equals is a mom who doesn't panic if her daughter ruins it with nose bleeds!

I am linking up to the following blogs.

You can find this metamorphosis at Between naps  on the porch as well as many others.

Make it Monday at cottage instincts

twice remembered

Tabletop Tuesday

Welcome to the 5th Tabletop Tuesday.  Today I am hosting for Barb over at Grits & Glamour.  Sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging......gasp! 

After I agreed to do this I realized I needed to snap some photos of vignettes for todays post.  Have I ever mentioned I no longer have a working camera?  Nope I don't.  I use my eleven year olds camera!  Today when I decided to take some shots I realized the battery on her camera was dead.  The problem was I did not know where she kept the charger.  That was a real problem! 

I needed a plan and needed it fast so I borrowed some beautiful photos from Martha Stewart.  Good ol Martha.  I even chose some in pink and red especially for the impending Valentines Day arrival.

As Barb was kind enough to mention I am new to the linky thingy so I pray this works for y'all!  I can't wait to see what everyone is ready to share.  Please share you link below and link back to me in your post.  Or link back to Barb whose post will link back to me?????  Yes the look you see on my face is pure confusion!  How about you just do your thing and I will visit and drool!  Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Tween Room Project 3 & 4

The tween room makeover continues.  This week I decided to take on some window treatments and some art work.

I found an incredible deal at Ikea on a pair of white on white panels for $30.  I know is your jaw dropping?  Mine was but not before I snatched them up and got them in my cart.  The fabric is pretty and they were 54" wide by 98" long and yes the price was unbelievable.  I figured I could make something out of them!  So this past week my sewing machine and I got personal with each other after a very long sebatical!  I decided since 54" finished width was much more than I needed and I did not want to really have to do an entire new seem down the side to remove some width that I would ad goblet pleats.  The most difficult part of a goblet pleat is making sure they are evenly spaced.  Above I have pinned out where mine are going to be sewn.

My machine was very kind to me this project and I am happy to report we ummmm did not share one cross word with each other!  Once I had my goblet pleats sewn in place I decided to add some black pom pom fringe to bring some fun and contrast to the windows.

Pinned and ready to be sewn!

Usually when you do a goblet pleat you will use a nice crinoline in the header of the panels to make sure they keep their shape.  Since I was dealing with a pre-made pair of panels I used an old trick.  I stuffed the goblets with batting!!!  After installing my drapery hooks on the back side of each pleat the panels went up.  Below is a shot of panels all packaged as  I purchased them from IKEA.

Here they are complete and up at the window!  Fun and fun and perfect for the room.  Although I am noticing a bit wrinkled!  I may just have to break down and pull the iron out if they don't relax on their own!Here is a close up of the pretty white on white printed fabric.For my next project I did some puppy art work!Little Miss Whimsy has been asking for this puppy poster for some time.  I am not a huge fan of posters plus her room doesn't have a whole lot of wall space for them either.When I was in IKEA I found these black frames for only $2.99 each.  I grabbed 8.

Taking the poster she wanted I simply picked out 8 of these puppies in Converse shoes and cut them to size to fit in each frame.

On one I added the word "Woof" for some whimsy.

Eight framed puppies.  The black frames pull black over to this side of the room.  Just what it needed!

I hope you enjoyed my projects for this week.  I am linking to the following blogs this week.

Susan at between naps on the porch.

Make it Monday at cottage instincts