The SUDs team get busy in the suds-room!

 

Someone recently asked me why I called my husband, Mr SUDs… and I explained that a few years ago in the blogosphere it was customary to call your family by the name of your blog, and for me of course it’s easier to abbreviate to SUDs! So it is very fitting that my hubby and I worked together as a team to re-decorate our laundry… the suds room!

So why am I showing you a picture of a mirror situated on a table in our garden?!  It is the mirror that hangs in our downstairs toilet before I did a lime-wash on it…

Here are the before and after shots…  the very ‘yellow’ laundry and toilet are now a refreshing blue… what I would call a duck-egg blue, although the paint colour is named Turquoise Mist, manufactured by Taubmans.

We now have artwork on the toilet wall courtesy of IKEA!  It really makes the room more homely… a strange choice of words to describe a dunny?!

The window has a new treatment also, the pot plant, candle and bird ornament tie in really well with the images of cherry blossoms in the wall art.  Can you tell I’m excited about this room?!  Is there a word for this, like, um… sad?!

Yes, it’s me – the saddo!  I took a photo to say Hi!  I love how the flash of the camera looks like a visual ‘beep’ to tune out expletives!  Do you know what I mean?!  Either that or my smile is much more dazzling than I realise!  Ha ha!  I wish!

This next photo was taken during re-painting the laundry…

Now I get to show you some before shots of the room… and it is Messy with a Capital M.  The laundry has been a dumping ground for tubs of fabrics, craft supplies, piles of ironing, and anything else we found during decorating the rest of the house that didn’t fit back in to its old surroundings.  Plus, there was no bench space and the top of my washing machine wasn’t a good choice as whatever was  upon it would vibrate off to the floor when the machine was on fast-spin.  So we got in lots of storage and just one small shelf was enough to keep my washing powder handy.  It’s so much more functional now.

Okay, the photo was taken during the ‘clean out’… the mounds of ironing have been removed by this point and the floor wasn’t quite as messy.

I love this storage unit from… guess?  Yes, IKEA!  My spare clothes hangers have somewhere to live, and it’s great for hanging up wet shirts, as they were usually dried over the back of my dining room chairs.  Also – this is the one much-sought-after shelf… next to the washing machine.  Beneath are three wire pull-out baskets that I’ve labelled.

The main storage is this all-so-familiar, Expedit, from IKEA.  I’ve got craft stuff, sewing stuff, my overlocker, tools and cleaning supplies stored with still some space for other ‘stuff’.

Mr SUDs and I have been busy in the garden too… it has been all systems go.  Sadly, my sewing machine has felt lonely, as has my needle and thread.  But some old furniture is really loving a new lease on life, as I’ve been revamping a few things too – I’ll be sure to show you when I get some good pics.

Not sure when I’ll find time to do the ironing – the pile isn’t any smaller – it’s just compressed!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour?  Thanks for visiting, and if you’ve got some washing to do… feel free!  (smile)

Warm wishes!

Vikki xoxo

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Renovations complete, welcome in!

Mr SUDs went back to work today after our ten days of decorating together.  We prepped and painted our stairwell, landing, and glossed ten internal doors a lovely neutral white – which is so refreshing from the yellow they once were.  We did this all in time to have new stone-coloured carpet laid just three days ago.  The old green carpet had had a good innings, but it was sad and tired and needed to retire.

We painted the walls the same colour as our lounge/kitchen/family room, and study.  The colour is called Ivory Stone and is manufactured by Taubmans. 

This is the view up to the landing.  We painted the toilet as well, with the bright yellow walls it stuck out like a sore thumb!

I’m planning on making a photo gallery above that dado rail on the stairwell… I think I’ll paint all of my frames white as well to keep it looking neutral.  What do you think?  What would you do with that big blank canvas?

Those balustrades seemed to take forever to paint, but being a details girl I was up for the challenge.  Hubby and I are chalk and cheese when it comes to decorating.  He got two coats of wall-paint on in just a couple of hours… right up to the ceiling above the stairwell!  But he doesn’t do details… we are like the tortoise and the hare.  If it was just left to me nothing would get started before I’d iron out every little bug… whereas hubby is straight in there like a bull in a china shop… and I’m like a mini cyclone around him wiping up paint and picking up the pieces!  We make a good team.  It was fun listening to the radio as we chatted and laughed and put the world to rights!

Our completed lounge room.  We painted in there a couple of years ago and updated our furniture, you can read about it here. 

The carpet really does finish it off.

This is my favourite nook in the house…

Of course… behind my sewing machine is my most favourite nook!  Let’s head inside the study/studio…

You can see some pics of my studio space before we decorated here, and here and here

 

It won’t stay looking this tidy for very long I can assure you!  Although my desk seems to look messy even when I think it’s tidy!

The next rooms to be done are our Master SUDs bedroom, the master bedroom and the laundry… I’m thinking duck-egg blue for the laundry… and it will happen sometime soon.  But I’m hoping to get plenty of sewing in first!  Can you believe how quickly this year is going?  Not long now until we’ll be putting up the Christmas decs!

I hope you enjoyed your visit and look forward to seeing you again real soon!  But just so as you know, although my house is looking great in these photos… there are a heaps of toys and paperwork and just general ‘stuff’ in the family room that is, funnily enough, not pictured!  I seemed to have more stuff to go back in to the studio than I did coming out of it… and I have no idea where to put it!  Where is Doctor Who?  There must be a tardis in here somewhere…

Till next time! 

Hugs! Vikki xoxo

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Christmas Fun quilt is finished!

I found some little flower-shaped shell buttons to use for the angels faces (above, bottom right) to complete this project!  I quilted straight lines on the outside pieced border, some in-the-ditch quilting around the blocks and then some stars and hearts in some of the plainer spaces on the larger blocks.  I’m so excited about hanging this up in my house in just a few short weeks’ time.  Have you got any Christmas finishes to share?  It took me a year to complete this one… picking it up in-between magazine commissions.  Now I want to start another intricate quilt as I absolutely adore the detail.  Are you a details kinda girl too?

I’ve got some home improvements to share with you soon.  Mr SUDs has taken some time off work so we could decorate together.  So far we have painted up the stairs and landing, and glossed nine internal doors… three coats on each!  Tomorrow will be spent moving furniture around as we are having carpet laid in the lounge, stairs, landing and study this coming Friday.  We’ve gone for a neutral beige carpet… are we crazy?  A friend said to me, “You like to live life dangerously!”

I will be without my computer for a few days as we get organised and plug everything back in again.  I am itching to sew again… just too much else to do at the moment and a very untidy house to do it in!

See you on the flip side dear friends!

Hugs (oops, sorry did I get paint on you???)

Vikki xo

(The quilt pattern is called Christmas Fun, by Lynette Anderson Designs)

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Quilting stars…

I spent all of Saturday afternoon quilting and binding… it was an afternoon of luxury and although I felt somewhat guilty that the dishes got left in the sink and my young one had to fend more for herself, the resulting sense of achievement gave me great satisfaction!

I decided to practice my FMQ more on a practice piece of fabric before continuing on with the swirls on my Ohio blocks.  The embroidery foot on my sewing machine was replaced with the trusty old walking foot… and in echoing the primitive shaped stars in one of the background fabrics, I set about quilting some stars in the some of the plainer blocks. 

I used an erasable fabric marker called Duo, manufactured by Sewline, and a little ruler, to draw the stars, then sewed over the top.  The fabric marker is part of a set, and its twin is an eraser – a separate pen that you can then run over the top of the brown ink lines, and they magically disappear (more details here).

This is the background fabric, cuddling the gorgeous snowman button that came as part of the ‘button of the month’ club I joined over a year ago. 

The pattern is called Christmas Fun and was designed (along with the cute buttons) by Lynette Anderson Designs.  You fan find details about it here.

I have completed the quilting, the binding and have even sewn the hanging pocket on the back!  Just one more thing to do and that is to find some cute buttons to replace the suffolk puffs that should be the angels faces in one of the feature blocks.  I just can not get to grips with suffolk puffs!  Teeny tiny fiddly little things, it’s like my fingers are playing Twister and seriously not winning!

What are you up to today?  Did you know there’s only 79 sleeps till Christmas?!! (I have the countdown app on my phone!)

Till next time – have fun!

Vikki xo 

 

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Christmas magazines, projects, and profiles!

The month of October has started out as a very exciting one for me!  Christmas has come two months early in the SUDs household… how about yours?  Are Santa’s sleigh bells beginning to jingle in your heart?  Mine is playing a merry tune!

As many of you already know – Christmas is my favourite theme to design and create for.  So I was over the moon when Jenny of Elefantz invited me over to play in the Elefantz Home bumper Christmas issue!  We chatted about past, present and future, dreams, goals and inspiration… and maybe a virtual cup of eggnog was enjoyed in the process!

You can find my ‘Snow Cottage’ stitchery pattern in Jenny’s magazine this month together with so many wonderful projects for Christmas and gift-giving.  Pop on over here to see exactly what’s inside and to either subscribe or purchase an individual issue.

Ever wondered what a Christmas profile looks like?

He he… I couldn’t resist!  (I know, I’m a dag!)  But I have been profiled in this month’s Christmas issue of Inspiring Country Threads, as well.  (Vol 14 No 7)

So you will find me chatting within these pages too – what a natter box!

But I have been sewing as well as chatting, and contributed this ‘Party in a Pear’ Christmas ornament to the issue, it was such fun to make and only takes a few hours!

FREE PATTERN WITH A PURCHASE

As October is my bumper Christmas month, I thought I’d offer my ‘Red Robin Kisses’ pattern as a free gift with any purchase from my Craftsy store. 

Just drop me an email when you have made a purchase and I’ll send you your pattern!

What kind of crafts do you most enjoy making for Christmas?  Ornaments, quilts, gifts, soft furnishings?  I’d love to know!

Till next time!

Vikki xoxo

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