Playhouse Status Update

After a long battle with the playhouse kit, we are entering the home stretch. The only thing left to do is paint and shingle.
Jim did all of the building, so now it is my turn to paint and decorate. I laid black and white tile in the house and "stone" tile for the porch. However, in the hot sun today, the "stone" tile got very hot. Too hot to step on and it even started sliding off of the floor. I am going to pull it up and paint it white. Hopefully, that will keep it cooler for the little toes.
I got the table off Craigslist for a great deal! The top is a chalkboard, but I think I am going to look for a bigger one for the wall. My mom found the blue sauce pans at an antique store up north so I changed my plan for the curtains. I went with the blue and red vintage print to pull it all together. The white "cupboard" used to hang in our bathroom at our old house, but it is perfect for the vintage spice tins that I found at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago.
The girls played in it today and I am sure they will spend a lot of time in it tomorrow.

Coco's High School Open House

Saturday was the big day. It started on Friday when I shopped for all of the food, made all of the floral arrangements (thanks to Jenn at Modern Day Floral for hooking me up!) and got all of the candy buffet ready (thanks to Jodi for letting me raid the IAE storage facility). Then on Saturday morning we worked hard to get all of the food ready. It had been raining in the morning, but by the time we left the house to set up, the sky was clearing.
We set up all of the food, decorated the tables and spread out the candy buffet. It looked great!One of the fun things was the photo booth. I got a vintage sheet at the thrift store and put together a big box of hats, fans and mustaches for people to dress up in and act crazy. Boy, do we have some images. It was a blast.
The focus of the day was to celebrate Coco's graduation and we certainly did that. Thanks to everyone who helped. There were so many people who picked stuff up for me, loaned me items to use, made candy, and helped set up. You all know who you are and I thank each one of you. Thanks for making Coco's day special.

I Spy Pillow Instructions

I sent Beth the I Spy Pillow I made for the swap and her son loves it! She is interested in making one for a birthday gift and has had other requests so I thought I'd whip up some quick instructions.

Supplies:
Fleece
Clear Vinyl (found by the plastic table cloth at the fabric store)
Thread
1.5 bags of Plastic Beads for Fill (found in the doll making section of a craft store about 3.99)
Small toys, money, trinkets about 20 or so

Click on the image to enlarge it for detailed instructions.

Hope you enjoy making them for all of the children in your life.
Email me with any questions.

Vintage Pearl Giveaway

The Vintage Pearl is having a Giveaway Week!

I have purchased several necklaces from her and they are wonderful. I am sure whatever she gives away will be awesome. Be sure to check her out.

Norfab Lil Bear Playhouse

Dear Norfab:
We spent a lot of time looking for a playhouse for our girls. We poured over plans, checked out local builders and scoured the internet for the perfect playhouse in our budget. We reviewed the plans and instructions on your website before making the purchase. We settled on your cute house to grace our backyard.
We ran into several problems when ordering the playhouse from your "local retailer" who said they never heard of your playhouse and could not get it for us. We had to find the model number and let them know that it did, in fact exist. Then there were the delivery/pick up issues. I don't even have time for those today. But, that isn't even the beginning.
We were shorted studs for the walls, the end panels were cut wrong and the 3-5 hours of assembly time stated on your "instructions" has now entered the third week. Granted, we had to put everything on hold to wait for the studs to come in the mail, but we are far beyond that estimate.
Parts don't match up. Cuts are in the wrong place. The list goes on and on.
We will have a wonderful house for our kids when we are finished, but we will have made half of the cuts ourselves and have revised your instructions three or four times.
I would like to suggest that you do the same. Actually assemble one of your playhouses and write down exactly what you do in each step. See if your parts fit. See if you have everything you need. I think you will be surprised at how wrong you are.
We finally have all of the walls and the floor assembled. I hope to have a standing structure by the weekend. I will eventually get my garage back (it has rained here a lot recently and I didn't want all of the wood in the weather) and my girls will eventually get the playhouse they have so patiently waited for.

Crafty Mama Swap

A few weeks ago I joined the Crafty Mama Creations Swap. No specifics, just create a package for your partner and she will create one for you.
Here is what I got:
Adorable Journals for Lilly, me and Claire. The girls are carrying theirs around writing things down all of the time.This great table runner. Beautifully quilted! Everyone knows how I am preoccupied with quilting right now. I love it.
I also got a beach towel with a carrying strap (the girls are fighting over this one) and Courteney got a pillow case with her initial embroidered on it.
Great stuff, right? So, the pressure was on to come up with something equally as great.

Here it is
Beth as two little ones a boy and a girl. I sent one of my reversible aprons for Beth, an I Spy pillow for her son and a doll for her daughter.

This was a very fun swap and I hope to be involved in more of them in the future.

Tis the Season

There is a lot happening around the Settergren house lately. Last weekend, Coco had her senior prom. Tonight she graduates and has her all nighter. Next week is the open house. All while trying to assemble our playhouse and have house guests. (see why I need a night out Jodi?)
Anyway, last Saturday we got up and went to have Coco's hair done in a curly updo. While she was in the chair at the salon, I went and picked up her corsage. She has never gone to one of these dances with a boy, so her dad gets her a corsage. Kind of a tradition.
Once the hair was perfect, we went home and I did her make up. She went out to her friends' house in Rockford and we met her up there in the afternoon for pictures. Click on the picture for a larger view