Bookcases Made For Our Grandsons
Our son asked if Papa would make each of the boys a bookcase to hang on their wall. Jimmy gave us some pictures of what he wanted and Papa went to work laying out the project and this is how it started on paper. Papa did most of the work and Vovo did the painting.
Here’s the finished product!
The boys loved them and so did the parents.
Sewing Fun
A Tote Bag for the Gym
I wanted a tote bag with pockets inside and out to put all my “stuff” in. After searching local stores and the internet, I couldn’t find what I was looking for at a reasonable price. So I searched on Pintrest for a pattern and I found one. The only bummer is it really wasn’t a pattern, rather it just had instructions, but I decided to go for it. I went to the fabric store with my 50% off coupon and hit the clearance bin. The project only cost $17 and it was fun to make. The original design had a total of 6 pockets on the outside. But I wanted an additional 4 inside so I figured out how to add them.
Wine Bottle Vest & Fur Wrap
Customized Wine Bottle Label
I wanted to have a little fun with wine bottles so I made 2 patterns; 1 for a vest and 1 for a fur wrap. A cute idea to dress up a bottle of wine and bring it to someone’s house.
I made this one for a white elephant gift exchange for Valentine’s Day, sharing it with the local Kaia girls.
I designed and customized the label to represent Kaia F.I.T. Roseville. To stay with the Valentine’s theme, the wine was chocolate wine… so yummy! Be sure to click (to enlarge) on both the front & back labels so you can appreciate the verbiage!
I put the bottle in a red container with hearts on it, added a few chocolate kissies in a silky bag, and wrapped it up with a ribbon. It turned out super cute and was a hit at the party. Yes, it got stolen and the person who ended up with it really liked it. The owner of Kaia liked it so much she asked if I would make one for her.
I saw this “fur” idea in a liquor store and they wanted about $15 for it. Of course I said I can make that for almost nothing, so I did! I found the fur for $1.00 and it’s enough to make about 8 of these. I lined the fur with silk material that I already had and embellished the fur wrap with some old jewelry. Total cost… pennies, but a great way to dress up a bottle of wine whether you’re entertaining at your own home or bring a bottle to someones house! 
Painting a Bathroom - December
The bathroom in my craft room does not have a window, it is very dark and I hated it. The previous owners painted it a medium mossy green color. Although when we bought the house we had the whole inside painted, but did not do the craft room because it was in good shape. We had a lot of bathroom paint left over from when we had the house painted so we used that.
BEFORE
AFTER
It really brightened up the bathroom and it turned out great. BUT, I don’t ever want to paint another bathroom!! It was such a pain to do all the taping off, that took so much time.
Planting Fruit Trees on the Side Yard
February
We were so sick of seeing those damn rocks on the side of our yard, but not sure how to get rid of them. Se we decided to put them on Craig’s List for really super cheap at $2.00 per wheel barrow. Some guy called immediately and said he was very interested in them. He came over and took 10 loads the first day and 16 loads the second day. He asked us if we would consider taking the ad off Craig’s List because he wants them all. WTF??? We want them out of our yard and he wants to fill his yard with rocks. Anyway… that’s the plan and the rocks are slowly disappearing. He’s getting expensive river rocks for cheap and we’re making enough money to pay for a few of the trees… all is good!!
BEFORE
AFTER
It’s hard to see the trees because they are just bare root trees and sticks at this point, with the exception of the mandarine orange in the foreground. 
We started by clearing out the rocks in the areas where the trees would be planted.
We then dug 4 holes
Since the area from the fence to the sidewalk is slanted, we had to build small retaining walls for each tree.
We’re trying to get rid of these damn rocks and the more we dig the more rocks we dig up… it’s never ending!!
With this project complete and looking so good, it motivated us to do more. So we decided to plant some plants on the other side. Of course that meant a lot more digging for 5 big holes and moving all the existing rocks to the other side. The more we dug, the more rocks came up so the other side now has a ton of rocks again… it’s never ending with those damn rocks!!
BEFORE - Two rocks sections (with the air conditioner in the middle) on the right of the sidewalk. Literally 60 yards and thousands of pounds of rocks all along the side of the house. Since we put the rocks up for sale, we’re slowly getting rid of some of them, which is helping us to clear the areas.
AFTER – No rocks, just plants… YIPPEE!!
The next step is to put down weed barrier and fill it in with bark from another area in the back yard. We don’t want the bark where it’s at, so instead of buying more bark, we’ll just move it. That will happen after all these storms pass through and it dries out a little… more pictures on my next BLOG update. 
