Garden Update #2 ~ 6/26/15

Hummingbird in the Rain

      
It was an amazing sight watching this hummingbird play / bath in the rain. The video really doesn't do it justice, as I was filming from inside, sitting at my desk.

Take Me to Church- A Capella Cover

 

One of our beautiful daughters, with a beautiful voice!

Welcome to Our Resourceful Home

New Paint in Kitchen & Master Bath

     My husband and I had recently been discussing painting our kitchen and master bathroom walls. Although, we also discussed the rest of the home (and we will get to it), these rooms were where we wanted to start. Our kitchen walls were sheet-rock with printed, multicolored fruits and vegetables all over; our master bath was printed, multicolored flowers. We did not really like that.
     Low and behold, last week a very good friend of ours dropped by with 10+ gallons of interior paint and asked if we wanted it. (Of course we did!) It is all perfectly good paint, that was left over from cleaning up/remodeling rentals.  The owners wanted to clear out their storage and asked our friend to haul it off. He told them he knew someone that would take it, with their permission. The owners agreed. Win - Win situation!  We now have enough paint for every room in our home and 10+ gallons of paint saved from the landfill.
     Our project last weekend, of course, was to paint our kitchen and master bathroom. It also led to some minor crafty redecoration, which we will show in an upcoming video:  Our Resourceful Projects: Re-purposed, Re-used, Re-cycled - Pt 1. We couldn't be happier with the outcome: no more printed walls that nothing matches and the only cost we have in these projects is for a paint pan and roller.

     Kitchen

 Master Bath

     We are now deciding what this weekends project will be. Can't wait to get started!

HugMyMug - aka Joppa Mountain Pottery

Beautiful and functional hand made pottery from East Tennessee. If you are not already in love with pottery, you may soon be. We have several pieces from this studio and treasure them! We use them daily (you may even see some of them in our videos), as they are very sturdy. Ranging from kitchen wares to decorations, you are bound to find something you fall in love with.
They are amazing artists and great people! If you have ideas on a custom piece, just contact them, they're very easy to work with.

You can find their etsy store here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HugMyMug

You can find more information about their studio, the artists and photos of other items (past and present) by visiting them:
on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/joppamountainpottery
or their website: http://joppa.homeip.net/Joppa/

REFASHIONED 2XXL SHIRT TO SMALL TANK TOP

This shirt was originally given to my daughter and it was way too big for her, not to mention she really didn’t like the print.  I, on the other hand, loved the print and decided to see if I could alter it to fit me. Although I love to sew and do several sewing projects, I rarely do clothes unless it is a refashion. I thought this would turn out to be a challenge considering the shirt started as a size 2XXL and I wear a size small. It turned out to be much easier than I anticipated and I love the resulting tank top. So, I will try to explain my process.

I first cut the sleeves off and tried it on inside out to try to mark where I needed to bring in the seams. My original thinking was that I would only have to alter the side seams and hem the sleeves.

I quickly realized the neck and shoulder lines would be way out of place. The only solution I could think of was to turn it into a sleeveless tank top.

Leaving the shirt inside out I laid it out flat,  took one of my tank tops that fit me well and used it as a pattern to mark the larger shirt down the sides and across the shoulders. (I would recommend a marker, chalk or pencil made for fabric, but in a pinch you can use what you have on hand, just keep it small so it will be easy to hide with the stitches.) With a little maneuvering I was able to bring the shoulders down and the v neck up while still being able to line up the main neckline.  I cut ¼’ outside those lines and then pinned along those lines down the sides and across the shoulders, leaving out the arm and neck openings. When I stitched this on my sewing machine I stitched onto the pattern marks that I’d made. Then I turned in the edges along the arm openings and hemmed them.

 

 

This was my resulting tank top. I love it and still wear it. Although it started as a long sleeved fall shirt, it's made from a cotton, t-shirt type material and is very cool and comfortable.

 

I did this refashion project about a year ago, before we decided to do diy videos and blogs. Because of this I do not have many photos of the project, so I tried to fill in the gaps. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.