Repotting Succulents

So I've got this really sad plant in the kitchen.  It's actually the second plant that's been in the pot, but it's just as sad as the first.  I can't seem to keep plants alive.  Except the neglected succulents, ironically, that I haven't touched in months:

And my sad indoor plant:

Please ignore the dirty stove.  I'm a new mom.

Remember when I posted a while back about my love for the colors and fullness of succulents?  Since that post, the aqua container I planted them in has been outside- it was fine during the summer, and now after the rains of the winter have passed, they were getting soggy.  Succulents don't need that much water, and prefer the soil to dry out.

Enter the light bulb!  I could take the sorry looking plant in my current pot, and replace with my beautiful succulents that have multiplied!  Yes!

Here they are outside being re-potted.  I snapped the succulents off the long stems near the flowery ends, and replanted them into my red pot for in the house.  I buried a few of the leaves, as I read online this was how you re-pot them.

 Now, they're inside, and making me so happy!  Just look at those colors and textures.  I sure hope the transplant worked.

I just love the colors, and the small water droplets from the water down are pretty too.

Have you ever re-potted anything successfully?  What about unsuccessfully?!  Any tips to share?

Happy-First-Monday-of-the-new-year!

Oh, and the cost, to add to my new "Decor Cost: 2011" tally?  A big fat $0!  I had the red planter pot, dirt, and the succulents already!  It was all about moving stuff around this time.  Gotta love $0!  :)

Project Tally Cost: 2011

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am hoping to be more fiscally responsible this year since our expenses are growing with a little one.

One thing I've missed out on through 2010 was decorating, because there was just no time.  I want to revamp our home again in 2011, and I thought a neat project would be to tally the amount spent in 2011 on my projects & decor for the house.

So, on the sidebar now, there will be a Decor Cost: 2011 tally section.  (see it over there, on the right side bar?)  I'll update that after my projects or revamps and purchases for the house are made.  I hope to do a lot with a little... what a game to play!

How do you keep tabs (or not!) on your budgets for decorating and making your house a home?  Do you set goals to spend, or do you put money aside?  Let me know your way of keeping your home fresh, but while being fiscally responsible.

Polka Dot Play: Slipcovering Glider Cushions

As you know, if you've checked in at all here at Design-Aholic recently, we've been working on finalizing our baby boy's nursery.  Last weekend, I took an extra day off to make the labor day holiday a 4 day weekend.  I mentioned last week I got a lot done, but unfortunately, lost all my energy during the week and didn't show you anything!  At least now, I can finally unveil the recovered/slip-covered (depending on how you want to view it) glider cushions!

First, since I'm proud of myself, here's the "after":

Do you recall the "before"?  Dirty, plain light blue fabric.  While the slipcovers were constructed well (maybe even better than mine) the ottoman was a joke.  Some things you improve, some things stay status quo.  At least the overall looks MUCH better than it did when I bought it with my friend Annie (check out her blog here, at Confessions of a Navy Wife.)

So, to get started, I cut two squares of fabric from my humongous piece of polka dot fabric that would work for the size I needed.  (seriously, what was I thinking?  I could cover two more full ottoman sets at LEAST with the amount I have left!!! I think I got something like 4 yards of 54" fabric?  Good thing it was a STEAL...)

Then, I removed the blue covers from the cushions (which just sit in the chair form, aren't snapped, banded, or otherwise actually attached to the frame) and laid them out on my wrong side up polka dot fabric.

I laughed a little when I saw the backs and bottoms of the cushions were just hand sewn together...

There were two cushions to slipcover- the back, and the seat cushion.  The back was more or less a square, but had the trickiness of needing the loops to hold the cushion to the frame sewn in.

Let me just pause here a minute.  Did I even mention to you that I haven't pulled my sewing machine out in months, and now I was planning to tackle making my first slipcovers?  No?  Well, yes, I was petrified.  The last thing I made were these straight seam orange curtains, and these envelope fold chevron fabric pillows... For some reason, winding the bobbin, sewing rounded seams instead of straight... all these things gave me the heebie jeebies.  I don't know why I was so scared.  Really.  I think I was most concerned about getting the tread all tangled up in the insides of the machine because I did something small and stupid.  But, alas, reading directions helps!  Even though the poor translation of these Janome instructions made us laugh the first time I used the machine, months back, this time was serious and I had to pay attention to what they said... Outcome?  It worked.  Just fine.  Now I'm not scared.  End the pause.

I attempted the back cushion first, and it went relatively well.  I left the bottom seam open until I tried it on the cushion, and fit it to the chair.  When I realized it worked, and was finished with my happy dance, I sewed the bottom cushion closed.

The rounded edges of the lower cushion posed a slight problem for me, but going slow with the foot pedal, (no, I guess this was not the autobahn) it worked out.  For this cushion, I had actually traced the pattern with a pen as well as pinning it, so that I had a guide to work by.  Since the fabric is so heavy duty, it doesn't show through at all, and me being scrappy, I had just used a ball point pen anyway to do the tracing.  :)

Is it just me, or does this look like a piece of toast?  No?  I'm just pregnant and hungry you say?  ok, fine...

Sewing this cushion together at the back (the last seam) was trickier than the first because I hadn't left much excess fabric to work with.  After some help holding it properly from Z, a broken nail, and some severely sore and tired hands, the cushion was closed (but looked like crap on that back seam) and fitted to the chair.  Shhh, don't tell anyone how bad the back seam was.  :)

Anyway, even though the nursery isn't being re-assembled yet, we're already enjoying the glider.  It's still in the family room, and I just love the polka dot fabric.

And, as a nursery checklist reminder, the following projects still need to be completed:

- Chair rail added above the beadboard (in progress today, weeeeeee!)
- Baseboards added to the floor (in progress today, weeeeeee!)
- Furniture (well, the crib at least!) to be built
- Furniture placed (dresser is in the garage still, and yes I "won" the one I saw on craigslist!)
- Artwork Hung

... The curtains are finished, I'll share those with you soon too... Here's a sneak peak:

Here's the mood board, again, for the eleventy-billionth time:

And, to my (really, my sister's) sewing machine, I'm sorry to have doubted you.

So there's the recent progress... We're getting there, and so is the final baby countdown.  As of today, I'm now 35w1d... time is closing in on us :)

Flooring Project(s) Part 4

The carpet guys came!  (Just try not to scroll down to the sneak peak of the new digs at the bottom!!!)

In anticipation of the few hours they'd be here, I typed up a "Part 4" to the series I've been writing about the flooring projects around here.  (...Part 1 Here...Part 2 Here...Part 3 Here...)

As I mentioned in my last post, we had some work to do in the room that the dogs used to call theirs (now that hardwood is in, they have free reign).  Z pulled up the carpet and found that they had stained (not surprisingly) down to the subfloor, and subsequently needed to bleach it.  That adventure was fun because we used almost a whole bottle, yes a full 2.56 quarts, in one room.  Needless to say, after the first round, we needed to add a fan, open the window, and seal the whole room off!  I wish I had a photo of it- you'd have thought that it was toxic material in there!  A second round, and we were a little smarter, using a little less and sealing the room immediately.  I have to say though that the bleach was a great idea (and recommended by the carpet guys in the first place) as well as better than the previous odor.  Lets just leave it at that.

So, here, I'll share with you some of the "why we needed new carpet" photos, and some bleached wood photos in hopes that it may help you in the future.

Part 1 of bleaching the subfloor.  Awesome, eh?  But hey, did you notice the awesome stripes?  Remember this post when I told you my secret for crisp paint lines?

Subfloor after bleach.

This room actually stayed decent.  It's going to be the nursery, and the dogs didn't go in there much.  But, we replaced all the carpet at the same time for consistency.

You can kind of see where the bed was, before we moved it out.  Yep, that looks like a highway of foot traffic around it!

My black dog sheds EVERYWHERE!  this carpet is supposed to be (or was) tan, but her hairs were even behind the bed!

The last one is just too gross to show you.  :)  One of the dogs threw up the other day, and stained it!  Good thing it was getting replaced just a few days later. 

One thing I certainly know is that when everything gets moved back in, I’m going to be more cautious about the clutter, since it’s been difficult to clean around (ok, to be fair, I haven’t had the energy to clean in months, but now the pregnancy energy is in full force, all I want to do is clean!) 

Here's a sneak peak to wet your appetite for what the carpet looks like now:

And yes, this new carpet has made me want to paint, change decor, and pick new fabric for our nailhead trim headboard in the master...  *evil laugh* but more on that later...

Come back for installment 5 soon!

Flooring Project(s) Part 3

Have you gotten the idea yet that there are a million big things happening in this household at once?

If you haven't, let me fill you in on a little secret:  There are a million big things happening in this household seemingly all at once!  Yes, we're crazy.  Is it fun?!  Sure is!  I haven't had this much energy in months, and am enjoying every last second...

Now, to the purpose of this post.  If you noticed, this is titled Flooring Project(s) Part 3.  Yes 3.  (Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here) On Monday, we get the bedroom carpet replaced, and new stuff installed!  We went with a shade of loop patterned (in a square design) of Stainmaster carpet in a color called "brown sugar."  It really picks up on some of the undertones of the wood floor we just had installed and will be a great dirt hider.  :)  After all, the backyard still is ripped to pieces, and the dogs (ok, and the humans) of the house bring dirt and dust in every time we walk back in.  Plus, with a baby?  Yep.  Time to prepare to hide that dirt!

Here are some sample shots from the Stainmaster website so you can get an idea of what we're working with.   This color is called "chocolate" from their website, but it's nearly the same:

 Bedroom scene, because we're only carpeting the bedrooms + closets.  Oh, and the hall closet.

Better carpet shot though here in a living room- doesn't it look good with the white baseboards?!

Love, love, love it!

Real photos to come later- well, Monday even!

Remember, this was our flooring:

But here are some better pictures with it installed, and the baseboards up... Yes, these are just teasers!  There will undoubtedly be a Flooring Project(s) Part 4 & 5.

Oh, and you'll *love* to hear about the bleach story on the subfloor in the dogs room.  Just awesome I tell you!

Hope you're having a great Saturday... I'm sitting here with my chubbies (my pet name for those super swollen pregnancy ankles I've already acquired) with my Game Ready eatin' some FroYo.

Yum

Flooring Project(s) Part 2

Day one is done!  I showed you earlier the less than stellar flooring we were replacing...

I was told there were about a million staples holding the carpet pad down... and it took 3 hours with 3 guys to remove it!

Here are some brief sneak peak photos of the progress:

The dining room is for tomorrow- you can see the dark flooring from the front, some of the underlayment (green), and the subfloor.

Ah, I can't wait to see the crisp white baseboards against this dark floor!

That's it for now, I'm squealing with delight already, even though it's super dirty and dusty in here.  :)