Bags, Blankets and Boxes... Oh My!

Recently I've been feeling much more inspired to get down to my craft/sewing room and work on stuff. Here's a little of what I've been up to:

This is pretty rough but LP is in love. I took the box that our new bathroom vanity came in and turned it into a "train" with a craft knife, some painters tape, a sharpie, and a solo cup stuffed with batting for the smokestack. LP's only issue? That the train is "broken down" and won't go. My issue? That it's in our living room. But it'll probably make a trip to the recycling center pretty soon....

I also got a hankering to have a new bag for the fall. I came across this free pattern and tutorial for the Tohoku Tote and decided to whip one up. LOVE it and am so happy with how it turned out!

My final "just for fun" project was to finally finish up this little quilty throw that I'd started a while ago. It's baby blanket sized and pieced out of all the little scrap fabrics that I can't bear to throw away. I pieced them together randomly, cut them into squares, and then made them into a quilt.

This was also the first time I was brave enough to try free-motion quilting on anything larger than a potholder and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It doesn't really "match" our living room but I love looking at it so that's where it stays for now. The thing I love most about it is that because I used scraps they all remind me of other projects- like the stockings I made my brother for Christmas, or the little outfit I made a friend's daughter for her birthday....

I have a few other projects in progress in the basement (fall sweatshirts for LP and I- not matching!) and will share them soon!

I'm so glad that I'm back to being creative- fell into a big rut for a while there and I definitely feel more energized and relaxed when my creative juices are flowing!

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Checking in....

Thought it was time for a little update on the projects we're working on at Casa LeBaron. In living room news, our fireplace is almost finished! The new tile has been grouted (no pictures yet) and all we have left to do is seal the grout and install the new fireplace doors. Then I have to figure out how I want to style the mantel- I usually just throw a bunch of frames and things up there but am not sure if that's the way I want to go right now... Here's how it's looking (or, here's how it was looking before we grouted the tile): Below is a close up of how we fixed our cabinet doors. Originally they were oak with horrible brass hardware. The panels on each door front was cracked and they were U-G-L-Y. So we popped out the panels, painted the frames, and used my handy dandy glue gun to inset new panels. The new panels were made from one sheet of radiator screening that we cut to size and sprayed with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. We added new handles and…

11 Days, 2 Parties, 6 Cakes, and 600 Miles...

Phew! The past two weeks have been pretty hectic and LP and I are just starting to recover!

We started last weekend with a big bbq bash at our house. We had about 30 people over (about half were under the age of 3- yikes!) and made a ton of food. Grillmaster Paul smoked 3 racks of ribs, made pulled pork (which he started smoking at 7 a.m.!), grilled chicken wings, and made all of the various rubs and sauces to go with each. DELICIOUS.

Unfortunately, I only got one photo of the whole thing:

A few days later it was Paul's birthday so his parents came over to celebrate over a big meal of Paul's favorite pasta dish. It's a dish he ate while we were on our honeymoon- the restaurant chef was nice enough to send me the recipe so I could recreate the meal for our first anniversary and it has since become the go-to dish for Paul's birthday every year. Yummy smoked gouda, pancetta, and artichokes tossed with pasta- delicious!

He blew out 9 candles on his cake (I didn't…

Things to Remember: Eliza Rose, Age 3

Today our sweet little Eliza Rose turns three. Like all moms, I'm sure, it's hard for me to believe that she's already out of toddler-hood and becoming a preschooler. It seems as though we were just preparing for her to join our family yesterday and now, of course, it's impossible to imagine what life would be like without Eliza around.

Eliza might be the smallest person in our house but she has the largest personality by far. Shy in public, she's boisterous and energetic at home- running all over, squealing with excitement, bossing everyone around and trying to take charge at all times.

She's stubborn and sensitive, sweet and sassy, and over the top spicy.

At three Eliza's favorite things are her brother, her doggies, mermaids, stories, and princesses. She loves to play tea party, help in the kitchen and go swimming. Sometimes she says she's "Eliza BaBaron"- other times she's a "puppy doggy" or a "mermaid with a pi…

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