Handmade Holiday Season

Making some handmade gifts/decor this holiday season was good for my heart. I stretched myself and tried a few things I wasn’t really sure how to accomplish (thank GOD for YouTube). Here are some of the fun projects (and their tutorial links) I completed over the holidays.

First of all, I went a little yarn crazy. I had every intention to make blankets for pretty much every person we know but my steam ran out at blanket number six (I didn’t even take a picture of number six).

This basic granny square pattern was new to me – I was intimidated by it. Turns out, it is one of the easiest stitches in all of crochet-dom. This is the pattern I followed to get granny’ing.


The pom pom border on this blanket is my favorite. This tutorial was my FAVORITE (plus, her accent is charming).

This blanket’s starburst pattern and scalloped edges were so fun to put together. This is the pattern I followed.

This hexagon pattern was the most challenging blanket I’ve done – I’m glad it was just a little baby sized guy. The tutorial I watched to make the hexagons can be found here.

My friend Megan and I went to Boise’s Wintry Market this year and walked away feeling totally inspired to bust out the sewing machines and start making some handmade gifts for our kiddos.

I ended up stitching together these sleeping bags for Ivy’s buddies. She carries around two Doc McStuffins dolls (Big Doc and Tiny) as well as a host of other tiny figurines. She also really enjoys wrapping all of them up in blankets. I thought she would really like this idea; she has shown zero interest in them. Oh well. I liked this project. This is the tutorial I watched.

While I had my sewing machine set up, I decided to go the handmade route for a gift for my MIL.


This apron was really, really easy to put together (as most aprons probably are…don’t judge me). I wanted something that was lined and adjustable. Low and behold, CraftyCaroline was standing at the ready to teach me how to whip this puppy up (watch the tutorial here). The best part of this project was picking out the fabric – chambray, muslin, and that sweet floral pattern.

The following was inspired by a pattern I saw on Etsy. Here is the inspiration image (and a link to the pattern):

Here is my best “I’m too cheap to buy the pattern” attempt:

I also wanted to crank out some stockings for our family. “It’ll be easy,” someone said. So easy, I thought, that I wouldn’t need a pattern. Thank goodness I bought more fabric than I needed because I had to start over numerous times; I also became very proficient with my seam ripper.

They turned out alright. Here is the tutorial!

This felty garland kept catching my eye on Pinterest so I gave it a shot. Cutting out those leaves took me and my tired hands about three hours. Worth it. This lady tells you how to get the job done.

These projects were an excellent outlet for some of my crazy this year. I don’t know that I’ll be picking up any crochet hooks or stomping on any sewing pedals anytime soon but at least we (the hooks and the pedals and I) had a couple months together.

-Layne

Our New Addition

Nope. Not pregnant.

We live in a sweet, little neighborhood in Boise. We have great neighbors. We also have two kiddos and a relatively small house. We tossed around the idea of selling and moving to a bigger home but the square footage we wanted in the area we wanted was way outside our price range. So – why not stay put and build, baby, build!

For a couple months, we’ve posted pictures on social media of the pretty unglamorous updates we’ve made to our home (it should be expressly stated now that I, Layne, haven’t lifted so much as a screwdriver to make any of this happen – I’ve been watching over the children ((an equally arduous task…but still)). Adam has been working like a d-o-double-g to prepare for our new addition. He’s done things like reroute our meter box (a huge undertaking), unearth what seemed like our entire backyard to replace our sewer line and bury our power line (with the help of our trusty friend, Travis), install a new breaker box in the garage, cut down the old cable lines, and other things that I am still not sure I understand. All these things had to be done before the fun stuff starts.

15493250_10154808450724819_8734207082378215125_o

I present to you: The Fun Stuff.

floorplan

Everything with a blue background represents our current footprint. The rooms with the white background represent what is in the works.

Here is the breakdown:

screen-shot-2016-12-13-at-9-31-24-am

In short: we wanted a big, carpeted room for the kids to play in. That turned into thinking about how nice it might be to build a master bedroom up on the main floor so we would all be on the same level. The bonus? We’d end up with a really nice guest suite in the basement (our current master suite) and a little extra space for some of our hobbies.

We started dreaming this project up in the late summer and are just now getting to the point where we’re about to break ground on the foundation.  We’re contracting with Foothills Construction (the team that helped us with this) to do things like pour the foundation, frame the walls, install the roof, and a few other tasks. Adam and I (mostly Adam) will be responsible for the demo and finish work including the electrical, plumbing, drywall, painting, tiling, and trimming out the doors, windows. Adam is also building a deck off the back.

It will be a busy winter/early spring (maybe) but we think staying here and enjoying this home will be worth it.

I’ll be posting some mood boards in the next couple weeks to help bring some life to the ideas we have for the new spaces including killer built-ins, lighting, and pretty bathroom fixtures.

Hip, hip, hooray!

-Layne

Something Blue

Boise / ID / United States - 11/5/16

Our front door needed a facelift since the day we moved in. We have white siding and, for a time, loved (at least the idea of ) the classic red door. As time wore it down, it became more and more drab and less of a classic statement. John Petersik (of Young House Love) once noted in a post that the front door is the smile of the house; if that is true – there has been a veritable sprig of spinach in ours for quite some time. Additionally, when the homeowner of the home directly across the street decided to remodel, they chose white siding and (you guessed it) a red door. We were no long able to direct our friends and family to the “white house with the red door” as we no longer had the corner on the white house/red door market.

Enter hours of Pinteresting to search for door color inspiration. The colors that jumped out at me the most were emerald greens, happy yellows, and two different shades of blue: a slate blue and a creamy, aqua. The photo that sent me over the creamy aqua edge was this one:

wythe-blue-door
Source: Cottage and Vine

The door color pictured here is Benjamin Moore’s Stratton Blue. When I saw that swatch in person – I opted for a lighter color in the same palette: Wythe Blue.

Here’s how it all went down.

On Saturday morning, I got busy sanding. This poor old door has been through a lot. I didn’t bother to strip the layers and layers of old paint off – though some might have advised me to do so. I roughed up the surface with our belt sander and some 220 grit sandpaper.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/5/16

Next came two coat of primer. I originally purchased a quart of Benjamin Moore primer but ended up using it for another project. Adam picked up a can of Zinsser primer (we’ve used this brand in the past for some furniture painting projects). It took two coats of primer before I was confident that the new top coat would go on smoothly.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/5/16

The paint professional at Boise Paint and Glass suggested this particular paint for the door project and I really enjoyed using it – it smoothed on like a dream. I opted for two coats of color.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/6/16

No project goes unsupervised – Ives kept close watch while I applied both coats.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/6/16

While we were at it, we also decided to update the hardware, mailbox, and house numbers. They all looked 1.) weathered, and 2.) the nickel finish on the door handle was the odd man out – it was time to get all matchy matchy.

Whilst wandering down the spray paint aisle at Home Depot, I remembered a Young House Love tutorial on updating hardware (you can read it here) so, naturally, I just bought all the stuff they recommended.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/6/16

I sanded, deglossed, primed, and painted (two coats) our sad old handle.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/6/16

I let it dry for about two hours before reattaching it to the freshly painting door. I was skeptical about how well the application would go but I pleasantly surprised with the end result. Time will tell whether or not this is a long-lasting hardware improvement solution.

Without further ado, here is our happy new door.

Boise / ID / United States - 11/6/16

Boise / ID / United States - 11/6/16

I can’t help but take a deep breath each time I look at it. Ain’t nobody gonna steal your shine, Wythe Blue door.

-Layne