the rainbow wheel

rainbow wheel

When we put up all of my new school room shelves I decided I needed rainbow quilts in the wall space above the desks since my books are arranged in color order.  What I had in mind for one side was this quilt from Purl.  I drew up a pattern to fit my wall and raided my scrap bin.  My mom also sent me a box of her scraps and I bought a few more.

warm

This is my first time piecing curves, so it’s far from perfect.  My seam allowances on my rainbow ended up a smudge less than 1/4″, so my top came out a bit ripply.  I could have ripped it apart and started over, I guess, but I’m more into getting things done  than I am into perfection.  I just made good use of my iron and quilted concentric circles to remedy the waviness.

rainbow wheel

I like it on my wall.  It is bright and cheery.

rainbow quilt in the school room

Who knows when I’ll get to making something to hang above the other desk…

finding that optimal arrangement

It seems I get to February every year and NEED to rearrange the school room.  (You can see past iterations of here.)  This year I needed more shelves so there weren’t boxes full of books to pull out and dig through constantly for school.  I also needed more work surface so that Brenna could spend more of her time downstairs with the rest of us.

school room in progress

We also needed more desk space so that kids weren’t constantly distracting each other, poking each other, spilling milk on notebooks, you know, the things that happen when they are all working around the kitchen table.  I certainly love the IDEA of harmoniously working around the kitchen table, but it just wasn’t my reality.  Now one child can be at the computer desk working on Khan Academy math, one can be doing English at a desk, another can be writing about history at the other desk, and the little boys can go back and forth from the block building table in the school room, to the art room table where they cut and tape to their hearts’ content.

It took a couple of trips to Ikea to get all that we needed.  We’ve got some Billy bookcases and wall shelves, some Vika table tops, and Jules chairs.  (I wasn’t present on the chair acquisition trip.  I would have insisted on a red chair rather than a black one, but oh well.  That’s what Jonah wanted.)

a corner of the school room

Can I tell you how much I love it that the books on these shelves are arranged by color?  I love it!  It makes me smile, and surprisingly my kids keep putting them back that way too.  It also makes me really want to make some mini versions of this color wheel quilt to put in those spaces above the desks.  Wouldn’t that be perfect?  and fun?  and beautiful?  Other decorations I have on the brain are pillows like these for the couch.  I’d need to learn to crochet, though.  Oh, and some time and energy.

I’ve made the bottom shelves for the littles– board books on the bottom, and a smattering of paperbacks (which I rotate from the stash) propped up with little tension curtain rods.  Other low shelves have a toy basket for sweet Eva, and some trays of wooden blocks and cars.

So, with the shelves coming in here, the piano had to move to the living room…

the front room with the piano

I still need to get art hung in here.  I also need to help my poor worn out furniture.  The cabinet doors have been broken and fixed one too many times.  They just need to be replaced.

poor, poor chair

My frayed striped wing back chair has seen better days.  I’m hoping I can get a washable slipcover made from this fabric I designed.  This year.  Sometime.

And so, with the piano moving in here, shelves had to be moved up to my room.

shelves flanking my bed

I’m loving how the shelves warm up my room and give us makeshift night stands.  I want to paint the cabinet doors brownish black to match my new dresser.  The pictures above our bed need to be rearranged still, and I’d really like to add a nice Boise Temple picture up there too.

new dresser!

Oh, Ikea, how would we live without you?  I’ve had this dresser in the master plan since before we moved here.  I love its smooth opening drawers, and how it looks with my Karl Blosfeldt prints above it.

While we’re at this home tour of sorts I’ll show you the entryway and stairs.

on top of the amoire

the stairs need update pictures

I really want to create a better gallery wall of family photos along the stairs and make new silhouettes of the kids now that we have a new one added to the crew.  I’d also love to add this letterpress print of the Salt Lake temple.

Well, that was a brain dump.  I’ve had all of this on my mind so much as I stare at my walls and move around my house everyday it’s nice to have it in writing and photos.  We’ll see how long I just dream these things up and what actually gets done.

carving out a corner

baby corner

Here’s Eva’s corner in my room– full of things that could each be a blog post in and of themselves.

a new moses basket and hand knits

There’s the new Moses basket I designed that will be my next baby gear sewing pattern (the SweetPod Sleep Spot maybe?), new handknit booties and hat for a fresh head and toes…

newborn diaper stash

the newborn diapers all freshly washed and waiting…

hexagon stripe quilt

a newly slip-covered rocking chair and a hexagon stripe quilt…

On Monday I had contractions every 10 minutes ALL DAY LONG– from about 7:30 in the morning until 9:30 or so at night.  While I could tell that it wasn’t quite the real thing yet I also felt like it could turn very real any second.  I was on a roller coaster of thought and emotion.  I wasn’t ready!  I need this one last week!  My shelves and refrigerator were empty– so a major grocery shopping trip was accomplished and eased some of the unready feelings.  We braved the new Ikea to buy that new dresser we really needed when the last baby was born so we could have a place to keep clothes and blankies.  I think my body was just trying to tell me to get with it, stop dilly-dallying.  There will be a baby coming next week, or the next.  My days with Hunter as the baby are numbered– as are my days of needing help rolling over in bed.

Last night, as the sky looked like this:

FULL rainbow!

I relished in the wonderful day I had swimming with my kids and stocked my freezer with 3 pans of Chicken Enchiladas.  Today is Lasagna day.

And I’m feeling ready– with each day a little more.

 

 

 

the loft bed

Welcome to Brenna’s room!  11 year old girl heaven complete with a (recently shingled) dollhouse, a non-pink quilt, and lots of dragon pictures and keep-out signs on the door.

welcome to Brenna's room

Yep, I’m finally posting about Brenna’s new bed.  I’ve referenced it several times– that it was in the plans, that it was in the works, that it was in her room… The thing is, I have been blessed with a daughter with the same room-keeping-tidy skills as I have (next to none) and so getting good pictures of her new bed in her room has been a little tricky.  We accomplished the mission today– and I learned that I’m not fun when I just nag and point out every last little thing on the carpet.  (Note to self– I really need to work on that and cut her some slack.  She knows just as well as I do that I’m just as messy as she is.  The thing is, there isn’t anyone living here to boss me around.  I just need to remember that no matter who you are it’s not fun to be bossed around.)

the turquoise loft bed

Anyway, we got the free plans for this bed from Ana White.  Her website is a pretty amazing and extensive resource for building your own furniture.  The plans we used are right here.  Barry did about 99% of the work with a little help from Brenna reading over the cut list, holding pieces steady as he drilled, and sanding.  Brenna picked the paint color and the two of us did most of the priming and painting.

You can see that the end near the ladder is missing the bottom brace to keep the legs square because the original plan was to build the big book case, but once we got it up in her room and were figuring out exactly how furniture needed to be arranged we realized that it would be either the book case or the doll house, we couldn’t fit both.  Quite naturally, the doll house won.  It is plenty sturdy and stable as it is– and so convenient to wheel the doll house table in and out the open legs.

the desk underneath

She already had a desk, so we didn’t need to build one.  It fits just perfectly under her bed and she loves to hang out there and draw, sort sea shells, read, type…  Her desk has actually gotten a lot more use.  I think it must be that everything seems more fun when it’s in a fort.

soul blossoms pillows

We made a couple of pillow cases that match her quilt and some cute throw pillows.  I was having fun making yo-yos from scraps, so there’s the rectangular pillow with lots of yo-yos and the round one (which I made using this pattern from Cluck-Cluck Sew) with little yo-yos in the center.

Now here’s how she really made her bed–

pillows and lovies

with all her loves– her baby blanket, the monster Jonah designed and helped make her this past Christmas, Julie (the doll I made a couple of years ago), and Buttercup (the teddy I made her a LONG time ago).

up

Now to get a crib and dresser and rocking chair crammed into that little room.

Did I tell you IKEA is opening here this week?