How to … use my new sewing machine and other stuff

Well I finally got my new industrial sewing machine set up and working. The studio space is still a mess but at least I can sew. So I finished (almost) my 1st project last night – a pair of pants for Lilo’s Halloween costume. They are almost finished since I need to try them on her to make sure they fit – I think the waist is too big. I’ll post a picture after the Jimmoween party this weekend.
But the machine worked awesome – it’s so smooth and made sewing over the bulky seams a breeze. And to Rob’s and my suprize it wasn’t that loud, at least he couldn’t hear it from outside the room with the door open. It does have a good hum to it when the power is on so I can’t hear anything going on outside the room – but that’s ok.

So, I will admit that I didn’t meet my deadline. Lilo’s 2nd birthday has come and gone and her room is not done. I have gotten a few more things for her room and have primed her furniture but haven’t painted her room yet.
I don’t feel too bad though. 1. She doesn’t know I was planning to have it done, or what done is. 2. We got other things done around the house that needed to be done.

We have finally moved into our master bedroom. Yes, it only took 2 months. The reason we didn’t move in right away was because it needed to be painted, badly. It was a beautiful pink with purple sponge painting with a gorgeous boarder around the top. We bought primer and paint right away and were going to do it before we moved in but then we (Rob) decided that we should removed the stucco ceiling. So that got started but not finished.
Then we realized that we needed to get that room done by Thanksgiving so we could have the extra room for guests. Nothing like deadline to get you motivated.
So Rob finished the ceiling after getting advice on an easier way to remove the stucco rather than sanding it. Wet the ceiling down and then just scrap off the stucco. It worked really well. We bought a lawn fertilizer sprayer and filled it with water and sprayed on the ceiling and then used a plastic scrapper and scraped it off into a bucket. It came off pretty smooth, you can kinda see the drywall tape lines but after a few coats of paint it’s not noticeable. Oh and here I’m using the royal “we” – it was Rob who did the whole ceiling. He painted and I cut in and do trim.
So right now the room is just white since we don’t know what we want to do with it but thought white would be a good base.
Also we fixed the tiles in our kitchen. Since we didn’t like the layout of our kitchen and don’t have the money to totally re-do it we did some alterations to it to make it work for us now.
First we our counter top jutted out to form a U shape counter with the stove on one side, the dishwasher across from it and the sink at the bottom of the U. Since this cut the kitchen in half and made for a small prep area and a small sitting area we decided to cut off part of the counter top and move the dishwasher back so it’s beside the sink. It sounds like it would look like crap – which I will admit I was worried about but Rob and my dad made it look pretty good.
Also we moved the location of the fridge. Our fridge is a lot larger than the one that was here before so it didn’t fit where it was suppose to go. So it got moved to beside the dishwasher and the cupboards beside – upper and lower got moved to the other side of the fridge. So our kitchen is now a long L shape. We put our baker’s rack where the old cupboards and fridge went and it opens up the kitchen so much.
So this we did almost right away after we moved in but after moving the cupboards around we were left with places with no tiles. After a long search for matching tiles – not easy when they are original to the house – we thought we found ones that would work. The colour is very close but figured out that they are ¼” smaller, which doesn’t seem like much but over 3 tiles it adds up. Anyways we tried to find other tiles but it seems like this size isn’t standard so we came up empty.
We finally decided to use the tiles we had and well I think they look pretty good, so the grout is a little bigger but it’s not that noticeable.
Now the kitchen is done – for now.

So after this week of Halloween sewing is done – then I will start of Lilo’s room, or at least my studio space.