Victory!

As part of the flurry of home-improvements that have been made here at Chez My Parents, we are getting new kitchen counter-tops installed this coming monday. This is very thrilling, especially since it necessitated some demolition on my part!

In preparation for the installation, I had to take out (intact) two decorative columns that sit on top of the buffet portion of the counter. The whole process was actually quite cathartic, and only involved one major injury on my part (don't worry, I'm fine now).

The very attractive metal pipe I revealed:

What's interesting about this particuliar project is that I've realized that I'm not really a "right tool for the job" kind of girl. I find myself more to be a "whatever metal thing I find in the house" sort of person. I've included a photo of all of the things I used to pry apart the columns.
for general consumption.

I don't even know what all of these tools are:
(but I'm pretty sure one is an "over-door hanger" for increasing closet space)

If I were a pop star, my name would be:

Linoleum!!

I think my projects may be getting to me ... either that or the heavy-duty cleaning supplies necessary to prepare the floor are making me a bit loopy.

Here's a quick update on the project that will not die, aka the re-flooring of the Laundry room. The Linoleum is bought, and cut, and laying in place in the room now (after what seems like weeks of effort). Now all that remains is to glue it down to the existing floor!

The new floor and the old floor!

(I presume one can distingish which is which, but if you need a hint, the word "groovy" doesn't often enter our vocabulary)

Also, Instead of covering over the stairs, we* decided to rip up the existing stuff and start afresh. This proved more difficult that it initially seemed, and involved lots of water and soaking, and in effect was more of a guck-scraping endeavor than anything else.

The lovely stairs (fortunately there are only two of them) in their pre-guck phase:

*my mother

Seat Covers...

Avoiding projects?? I would NEVER avoid projects … and I would definitely not avoid them by actually doing other completely unrelated projects. Yep, I would never do that.

Except, um, now. Don’t worry, the Ao Dai is not permenantly on hold, however I’ve been having a hard time getting up the courage to get started (cutting is just so … final). In the mean time, I may have laid my hands on some fabric that was just perfect for making covers for my set of Ikea folding chairs. The chairs are pretty cute on their own, but I think they'll benefit from a little dressing up. I decided to use two types of fabric: a casual fabric for one side, and a more dressed-up fabric for special occasions (I know I know, how special can an occasion be with a folding chair? Just go with me here).

So far I've gotten a start on the seat cushion portion of the project, and when this is completed I'm going to move on to matching covers for the seat back!!

Here's the fabric (including the new table cloth)


I learned to make my own cording!
I wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, but still sort of a pain


Here's the casual side of a finished pillow:


And finally, the more classy side to the seat cover:

Let the sewing begin!

Courtesy of my friend Inoui (who inspired me to continue sewing, and even got me the pattern), here is my new project!

This will be my first sewing project without Inoui's help, so I choose a relatively simple pattern. However, the exotic nature of the costume will definitely be a challenge ... I'm counting on my friend Stacy (who is half Vietnamese) to make sure I stay on the right track!

Ao Dai Pattern:

Color Choices: Green for the jacket, and traditional white for the pants:

*note: I inadvertently got a LOT of the green fabric ... so if anyone wants a pale green Ao Dai jacket, let me know!

I haven't been idle!

I've been so busy with projects that I haven't had time to document them! The following is a little sample of the kind of work that I have been doing for my parent's house as their "indentured servant". Although there are many projects that need to be completed (the laundry room must be re-tiled, portions of the living room floor need refinishing, etc) I decided to start my rennovation work with painting.

I've always enjoyed painting, and the results are particuliarly gratifying, probably because they are instant. Almost the entire interrior of the house had been painted in a nice unifying off-white, and it has been that way for years. I decided that this was completely boring, and have decided to introduce COLOR to the house! But let's not get crazy ... not too much color ... just some nice muted tones to give the rooms more interest. Below are two examples.

Look Look! The dining room is slightly yellow!

And the hall!! It's green!!

Christmas Decorations!

This year, my mother and I went truly crazy and decided to bake and decorate gingerbread cookies to add to our tree decoration. They turned out rather well, although I underestimated the amount of time these suckers would take to make. I think between the two of us we spent at least 5 hours just adding decoration with white icing. But it was worth it, the tree looks great (and smells really yummy too).

Two of the ornaments ... I included the ice cream cone because I think it's cute.

The Victorian Evening Gown phase 2 is completed!!! Thanks to Inoui's (and her very understanding husband's) support the dress is finished! Now of course I'll have to complete phase three (trim) on my own .... we'll see how I manage :) 

Productive weekend!!

Look, I'm twins!

We test the fit of the skirt... and then start fitting the bodice!!