I'm in love with the ruffles.

My not-so-new favorite thing is ruffles. I love them anyway I can get them. A little flounce at the bottom of a skirt. In rows on a cute pillow. Deep friend into potato chips. They are just divine.

I recently finished a shawl with an awesome ruffle on it. It was an easy knit. Pretty mindless really. Which is  a good thing. Because for this sleep deprived housewife easy is officially what's "in" this season!

Pillowcase Tutorial can be found at The Lazy Organizer.

I'm loving this ruffle apron. You can find the instructions HERE.

And once I get my husband home for more than two seconds I'll have him snap the pic of me in the shawlette!

A little floral design...

Um, so I have a rather insane amount of craftiness in me. I somehow blame my mother and my grandmothers before me. And the blogs. Oh, the blogs.

My grandmother was a florist. I grew up helping her out every once in a while. She taught me how to make boutonniers at a very, very young age. (I think I was 6 or so.) When my good friend Erika took floral design classes I was hooked again. Her and I started doing weddings down in California. This was probably 5 years ago.

When we moved up to Washington I got a job working as the lead floral designer at a small florist in my town. I loved working with the flowers. I sometimes miss working as a designer but my awesome hubby brings me a bouquet or two of fresh cut flowers home from work for me to play around with.

I don't know what it is about it. Maybe it's the same reason I scrap, or knit, or crochet, or just craft in general. There is something about putting together the right textures and colors and shapes to make something pleasing to look at. It's a sense of accomplishment that I made it. It's the fact that for a few hours out of the day I can be as messy as I want.

And then I have to clean it all up.

All these I made for an absolutely fabulous friends' baby shower. Welcome baby Molly!

It's Done, It's Done, It's Done!

Oh my word. I think I am the coolest person on the planet right now. I know that is prideful but I BUILT THIS. Me! Ok, my husband did nail in two nails but only because he wanted to play with the super awesome nail gun, too!

I'm in raptures. The first thing anyone HAS to see when they come over is the media console that I BUILT ALL BY MYSELF!

It's been a few weeks and I still can't believe I did this. Thank you, Ana at KnockOffWood! Your blog inspires me. It made me do something that I probably wouldn't have considered doing for myself. I feel like I can do anything if I just have the right tools and a plan!

This picture was photographed by Shawna. You can check her out at Sweet River Photography.

The rush to finish.

My friend Kelly's baby shower was scheduled to be at my house. I can't have a baby shower with a tv sitting in a box in the middle of the floor.

And to top it off we had gotten a bedframe that needed to be stained. And we switched couches with my friend Allison. She took my tiny loveseat. I took her futon. Which I promptly decided also needed to be stained.

Who in their right mind has three projects that NEED to be stained in a week? Oh, that would be me. Because you know, just having a baby can't possibly be enough. Did I mention I have two other children as well?

So, we move the console again. This time to our house in our garage. In between being a mom and a wife I put on my work pants, my work sweatshirt and grab my plastic gloves, the stain and a paintbrush.

Bombay Mahogany for the couch and bed.

The bedframe before...

A picture of all three... the piece in the front is part of the futon. The frame is to the right. And the media console is in the back.

Aegean Blue for the console. We love this color. It took three coats of stain and I believe as many polyeurathane coats as well.

Have I mentioned the awesome workout this is? I've dropped at least five pounds and my legs are looking awesome!

Do you like the TJ's shirt? Thanks, Honey!

Media Console... a few days later

So, it's incredibly time consuming trying to build something with a 3 month old nursing baby. Pretty much it's a two person job. The baby still needs to be held and changed. So, any building time that I get happens when my husband is around. Which isn't often because the guy works 50 hours a week. And an hour away. But hey, it's Trader Joes so he makes up for it by bringing me home yummy goodies.

Because I needed some extra hands (the thing had gotten too big for me to manuever by myself) we decided to move it to the in-laws house. Lots of people there! The only downfall... no garage. So I'm on the backporch working. It's a beautiful, if cold day. Then it starts getting clowdy. Then it starts sputtering snow. Awesome. But it was the only day I had to work on it. So I powered through. I needed this thing DONE. There was a very big tv that had my husbands name written all over it sitting in a box in our family room.

The last picture is after one coat of stain. Looking GOOD!

Day 2 in the Furniture Making Experiment!

We head over to Allison's bright and early this morning before James had to leave for work. I get all the tools needed out. Allison shows me how to use the circular saw. I take a deep breath and make the first cut. Man, is that first cut the scariest!

I get most of the pieces cut out. There was a lot of measuring involved. I didn't want to make any mistakes. I'm a tad bit on the perfectionist side. Now for the fun part... a nailgun borrowed from a friend. Oh man, I must stop right here and proclaim the awesomness that is the nail gun. It's awesome. It's beyond awesome. It transends awesome.I think I'm in love.

So, I get to putting it together. I take another deep breath and put the nail gun to the wood and pull the trigger. What a rush! About 15 minutes later I had this...

Not too shabby for a few hours worth of work!

Day 1, part two

Ok. So the tv not fitting in the armoir was a snag in the plans. I would say it was a bit of a dissapointment but that would be a blatant lie. You see I have recently discovered the awesomest blog on the face of the planet called KnockOffWood. Ana has the coolest plans for furniture inspired by the pricey stuff at PotterBarn and other equally expensive retailers. I frequent this blog daily. Numerous times. Much daydreaming has ensued. I really need end tables and I was going to start there, but the whole rv not going in the armoire changed that.

So we went to Home Depot.

With our plans.

And the 3 month old baby.

Three hours later (!!!??!!!) and several pit stops in the patio furniture department (to nurse said 3 month old baby) we load up the truck and take all of the goodies to my friend Allison's house. She has tools and a garage. Sweet deal.

Day 1. Monday sometime in February

Oh man. Our tax return is came today and woah nellie do I have a hole burning in my pocket! If I was a truly smart person we would put that money into savings. But the fact of the matter is that for the last six month we have added a whole lot of broken and needs to be replaced things to the "wait until the tax refund gets here" list.

Our TV is on the fritz. Which is mildly annoying seeing as how we only bought it 6 years ago. What happened to the good old days when TV's lasted 20 years? I have spent a good few days looking at all the awesomenss that is the world of TV's these days. I know that I wanted it to be 1080p and 120hrz. And not cost an arm and a leg either. I researched TV's and found the one that I wanted.

Now, nowhere in all this tv and blu-ray player buying research (the dvd player died many weeks ago much to the dismay of the kids) did I actually measure our entertainment unit. Yep, you guessed it. The totally awesome new flatscreen tv doesn't fit.