The second half!

And this is the part the little boys in the house just can't get over!  The rest of the surprise DH bought me!  Last week I showed you this:

The lovely pot that holds my cotton yarns now!  I kind of don't want to finish the project that is sticking out. I like it there!

The rest of it was this:

please excuse the floor!  we had no idea what we were doing when we textured the ceiling!

Yep...my wonderful husband bought me an antique chair!  The finish matches my furniture pretty well.  It's my spot to take off my shoes, since DH and I are on different schedules. When I sit on the bed, I usually end up waking him up.  But the part the boys can't get over is this

I won't quote the kids here, but they were surprised that, well, there was a time before indoor plumbing. And that someone actually donated it to the auction.  The silent auction ladies were surprised that someone bought it!

I was surprised no one saw the potential.  If I were into the shabby chic look a little more literally, this would be beautiful in the chippy white.  But with 4 kids, there is no way that would work any where in this house :)   Some bleach and furniture polish and a little wood glue, and it's beautiful as is.  The seat cover even matches the green in our room.  While the chair had humble beginnings, I'm sure that's doesn't mean it's unusable FOREVER!  What I would like to find is something to tell me how old it is.  And how many shawls and sweaters I can fit in there.  One cannot have to many sweaters and shawls and cardigans on the NOP. 

Sharing this at Shabby Art Boutique's Shabbilicious Friday

I actually finished something!

I haven't had an OPAM finish in a while.  BASH kind of took over my life for a while there, and then I spent a week trying to get the house stuff caught up.  But now, finally, I had some time to sit down and sew.  My first finish was a hotpad.

Not too exciting, but still it's DONE!  And in my house, we never have enough hotpads.  These have stood up rather well to the wear and tear they get.  Much better than the store bought one we have.  Which I am so very slowly replacing.

Next I finished a cute little basket.  I'd like to think I'm really ahead for next year, but the reality is that this has been sitting for a couple of years in a state of almost finished.

I had made several of these for the teachers a couple years back, and wound up cutting out extras.  You know how you get on a roll when strip cutting?  So as I finished them and stacked them up to be filled with goodies, I had an extra.  So I put it away since I was on a deadline and thought I'd finish it the next weekend.  All I had to do to finish it was sew in the lining and add the trim.  D2 decided it needed trim and picked it out for this, since I have more than enough trim to last a lifetime and need to start using it!

I'm not sure what I will accomplish this week.   My plans are small and few.

The first half of a wonderful surprise!

A huge part of this week has passed by in a haze as we recovered from the days and hours of BASH prep.  The fundraiser did AMAZING and the rumor right now is that we had a record breaking year.  I found one "must have" in the silent auction.  Now, whenever I find a must-have treasure, we almost never have the money for it, even if it's something we need anyways.  But when this item came in for silent auction, I saw and started thinking I can use on of those.  I can keep yarn in it! My stash is somehow not getting smaller.  Well, knowing it wasn't in the budget, I told DH about it anyway.  He thought I was nuts, which is ok. I probably am. 

The night of BASH came, and DH calls me from the gym's kitchen to ask if I really want this item.  I went down a little later to supervise clean up, and the live auction had not started yet.  So I helped the ladies that where closing up the silent auction.  And the thing I wanted was bid on.  I usually don't bid. I'm a buy it now kind of girl.  I get no enjoyment out of the "did I or didn't I".  Turns out, no, the bidder didn't win, someone had paid the buy it now, but it wasn't my husband.  Now I'm not heavily emotionally invested in this thing.  But sometimes if items don't go during the auction, we can buy it at actual value after wards.  You just need to let someone know if you're interested in something.  Now another reason BASH was success this year, all but 2 items went that night!  There were some staging reasons why those 2 items didn't go, and it's something we can work on for next year. 

So we get home.  We lock the van, and go to bed.  Sunday morning we are piling in the van to head to the church, and there it is.

A large stoneware urn.  Perfect for holding my cotton yarns.  And while I didn't think I had enough to go in it, I was obviously wrong!  I have to hide my wool yarns from the cat, so I can only have the cotton out.  I haven't been able to find a year for it yet, so I'm not sure how old it is.  Just that it is really old. 

See those lovely, real, age marks?   And cracks?  Which is why it is holding yarn and not flowers :)!

I love the little detail on the top of the handle.  Just little fluff to make a useful thing beautiful!! There is another piece that needs some TLC before I get any photos for it.  Hopefully DH will have that done next week.

Sharing this at Shabby Art Boutique's Shabbilicious Friday!

BASH is over!

Finally!   BASH is over!  And I have my computer back!  I am feeling a little lost this morning, since I have spent so many days at the school, that I don't quite know what to do.  I want to sew, but I need to clean, and it all sounds like so much work.  So I'm not sure how far I'll get today, but I figure if I just do a little bit at a time, I'll be caught up by the end of the week.  I've had a few projects floating around in my mind that I've been dying to start, so those are second on my to-do list. The first is my house.  No one can find anything, and while they did a great job keeping up on the dishes and trash, it was all the detail stuff they don't think about. Like dusting, sweeping UNDER things.  So off to dig out some fabric and thread, and maybe find some more coffee!

My puter is back!

So now I can do internet things again! YAY!  I finished nothing for OPAM in April, and as the decorations chair for the kids' school fundraiser, I see nothing getting finished in May either.  I have no idea why I said I would do this project, probably because no one else would.  But who knows, I may be able to sneak at least one thing in.  And I need to take photos of March's finishes!  But I need to empty the sd cards first.  Oh my goodness, you never know what you have til it's gone, and that applies so well to computers!!!