What have I been up to?

We've had so much stuff going on lately that the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I started school with Jude after Labor Day and we've been slowly plugging along. Homeschooling is not easy let me tell you, not even if it's only preschool/kindergarten! Last year Jude LOVED school, he would sit at the table and do school work for hours if I let him. I prayed and prayed that it would last! No such luck. It's not like pulling teeth or anything the novelty has definitely worn off.

He still loves helping fold the laundry though!

School work and laundry aside, I have done a few small projects around the house. I decided that the new shades in the boys room were too plain so I added some fabric to them. Here they are before with just the trim.

And with the fabric:

Much better! I don't know what I did though, maybe cut off too much of the vinyl shade, but the other two shades will not roll up now. Thankfully I saved the left over shade that I cut off. I'm hoping that if I add some length back that will fix the problem. 

Almost every Saturday morning from July to September my Mom and I load up all three of my boys in her car and hit the garage sales. The Jude and Phin watch a DVD, Isaac sleeps and we get some awesome stuff!  I got this cow(?) skull for a dollar one morning.....I do live in Montana after all. It sat in the garage for a few weeks until I decided it needed to be silver, so last week I spray painted it and hung it the living room.

One of the Saturdays that I missed, my Mom went out with my brother and his wife. She found a pair of  these awesome chairs for five dollars each. 

 They came with a small table, also five dollars, that I have in the basement family room. I knew that I wanted to either make new covers for them or find some sheepskins to lay over them. The next day I was at Target and found these faux fur rugs on sale for fifteen dollars each. They work quite well I think. They are just sitting on top of the cushion and  I have them pulled up rather high so they don't fall down but I hate seeing the cushion peeking out at the bottom. I'm planning on stitching the rug to the cushions at the top so they won't fall down and that should cover the cushion at the bottom.

This last weekend I found these vintage black and white photos at a garage sale, a dollar for a set of three. They are kind of creepy but I love them!

Here is a close up of  the third one in the set (it's a long panoramic type shot like the other one above). I can't look at it without thinking of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm going to give it to my horror movie loving brother. 

Yeah I definitely can't have that on my wall.


With new art I figured I should rearrange everything on the TV cabinet (of course!), here's what it looks like now. Any bets on how long it stays this way? 

 A couple weeks ago I finally sewed the drapes for our bedroom from this David Hicks for Groundworks  fabric.  I've looked online but I can't find it in the black colorway that I have, except for this remnant for $69.00, if you're interested I did find it in Moss or Tan colorways. I got mine from fabricguru.com about two years ago on clearance for $7.95 a yard. I didn't even know that it was a David Hicks or Groundworks fabric since it was just listed as "Pomegranate". I liked the pattern so I ordered a yard. When I got it I couldn't believe the quality (a beautiful linen-it wasn't even listed as linen.) and since it said "David Hicks for Groundworks" on the selvage I looked it up online. After I knew what it was I ordered quite a few more yards, to say the least. 

Here is one of the panels hanging in our room. I'm planning on reupholstering our headboard in this fabric and I have just enough left over to upholster a headboard for my parents guest room-pictures coming soon of that makeover. 

Oh and that pink is not a paint color it's the old wallpaper we still need to strip. I couldn't handle the dusty mini-blinds for another day so I threw them out and put the drapes up. We'll just take the rods down when we strip the wallpaper, which may be happening soon! The hubs is trying to take some vacation time before the holiday rush hits, he manages the meat department at a local grocery store and things are CRAZY from November to January! We have quite a few projects we want to tackle around here while he is off. The living room carpet needs to get ripped up first, I can't wait to get that done!

So, what projects have you tackled recently?