Part 3: Color and a floor

When we first started talking about opening a quilt shop I knew that I did NOT want the walls boring beige.  I had been into WAY too many quilt shops that were  bland or dark. I knew for sure that I wanted our shop to be bright and happy. Not to be confused by Neon and disco-ish. [i know, that is not a word, but you know what I mean, right?]

Anyway, I picked out this green and we LOVED it.  {actually, Mom started painting it a very boring color and I had to stop her and insist on this one. LOL}

Once the flooring started going down we all knew we were in for something good.

We couldn’t have been more excited!  {oh, and isn’t my husband cute??}  Really, he is.

 

Part 2: More Progress

We knew that ‘eventually’ we would need more space in the shop, so we decided to use some of the space we had in the ‘garage’ area to make a classroom and another room.  It took all of us to frame the giant wall.  We also had a lot of work to do on the front boardwalk and have even more plans for that.  We had windows to replace and stucco to apply.  So much to do before we could even open the shop!

This was so exciting for us.  Our dreams of a family business were starting to form.

Progress…

This is a week about progress.  There is so much going on in our lives that I thought I’d like to focus on where we’ve been, and also where we are going.  I am driving to Hamilton for the week and am pretty excited about that.  I love being able to be back at the Shop, visiting-helping-working.  You know, the fun-busy-crazy stuff.

We {well actually, my brothers, Dad and husband} have been working on an addition to our shop.  We are making a room for a shipping department and that has me all excited.  I thought I’d show you our progress.  Since, we are going to talk about progress why not start at the very beginning, right!?!?

This is where we started…

Can you see the potential?? Just wait, it gets a lot better…

We bought this old building that was first a Car dealership (and repair shop) then later was an Antique Store.  We had a lot of work to do.  Ripping down walls, scraping wall paper and adding rooms.  We needed a furnace and flooring, paint and elbow grease.

Our family has always LOVED this sort of work. My parents {Jenny and Ron} have always bought old houses and we’ve all loved working on them together.  So buying this shop in the shape it was in, was a natural thing for us to do.

For the rest of the week, I will show you our progress on our little shop in Hamilton.  From start to finish.  {except that we are never really finished.  We are always growing out of what is done and expanding more than we ever thought.}

I’ll have more for you tomorrow….

What are you making progress on right now?  I’d love to hear about it.

Sarah

Red and White quilts Exhibit in New York {American Folk art}

Remember how amazingly Spring-like the weather had been?  Well, today we woke up to snow and are supposed to get 3-5 inches more tomorrow.  Yippee.  One last winter hoo-raw I say!  🙂  I’m actually fine with it, cause you see, I have a lot more to worry about than the weather right now.  (who knew, right?  Lately I’ve been a bit of a weather whiner.Lol)  Two days ago my husband had surgery, so I’ve been a bit distracted and focused on him.  Poor baby injured his rotator cuff skiing in January and it never healed right, so they had to go in and repair the damage.  Darn.  Everything though, went well and he is hoping for a quick recovery.  {literally, he thought he would be back to work the next day. Hahah, I’ve teased him endlessly about that!!}  If you knew my husband you would know that he is a go-getter.  Rarely will he sit still.  If he is at home he’s either working on something or pacing the floor till he finds something to do.

Anyway, enough of that mumbo-jumbo, I am on to having a TEENAGER!  What the?!?!!?  My daughter turned 13 today.  How insane is that?  I really can’t believe my little baby grew up so fast. I guess they all do that, don’t they?  Kinda sad really.  I always thought I would be the Mom of little babies…never really thinking they would grow up.  🙂

Life is just crazy like that…

Have you heard about the AWESOME American Folk Art Museum’s exhibit “Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts” in New York!??!!?  Oh my goodness! I wish I could go!  It sounds amazing!

I got this info straight from the website: “The American Folk Art Museum has dramatically transformed the Park Avenue Armory’s historic 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall with the installation of 650 red and white American quilts, all of which are on loan from the collection of Joanna S. Rose. It is the largest exhibition of quilts ever held in the city. As an extraordinary gift to the public, entry to this unprecedented event is free.”

Just look at the computerized renderings of what the exhibit will look like.  They were created by an amazing, award-winning design firm, Thinc Design.

Talk about breathtaking beauty!  Wow, I hope that if you are close to it, you go!  And please oh please, tell us about it!!  Doesn’t this make you want to sew something red and white??  I haven’t ever made a red and white quilt…Now I want to.  Really, bad!

If you still plan on sending a quilt to donate to Japan, you still have time.  We will be sending the donations next weekend.  Don’t worry, i will post a full report and take some pics of the quilts we are sending!

I wish you all the best weekend and we will see you back on Monday!  I have some fun stuff planned next week, so stay tuned!  🙂

 

~Sarah

Wednesday-DIY Wreath!

 

Happy Spring!  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this week.  I know, I know, I am so spoiled.  🙂  It is always amazing to me how the weather can totally alter my mood.  {and my neighbors mood-my kids mood-my husbands mood- you get the idea}

Anyway-  I figured since the last wreath I did was for Valentines Day and it was still hanging on my front door, I should do a little something-something for spring.

I’ve seen some really cute wreaths out there already, so I just had to try something  myself.  I started with a plain grapevine wreath (you probably have one in your old box of seasonal decorations already.  I had to buy one at Michael’s for $4) and then I bought a bag of moss.

I made some rolled fabric- flowers and used a hot glue gun and this is what I came up with!!  There are a million and one tutorials on how to make the flowers, so I won’t do that.   But, here is a tutorial for the flowers if you’d like to make them.  I just LOVE rolled flowers, ask my sister. I am mildly obsessed.  I love them on headbands and pins and hair clips and purses and on and on.  Anyway, I do want to add a bit more to it, but I’m happy with it for now!

I feel better just sprucing up my front door!  I am just dying to plant some flowers, and start a garden.  A little early I know.  So I’ll stick with the fabric flowers a little while longer.

What are you doing to put some ‘Spring’ in your step?  I’d love to hear about it!

~Sarah