Little projects

So, I have a new baby that I didn't mention before and it's my new Baby Lock sewing machine. Yann got it for me a few months ago for our one year wedding anniversary. We bought it at this really amazing local sewing shop because to buy the same caliber machine in France would have been outrageously expensive. So, I shlepped the new machine back to France with me a few months ago, when I was visiting home. And at every single security check at the airport from here to there, I had to explain what it was and take it fully out of the bag to run it through the x-ray machines. So, let's just say, it was an annoying thing to drag across an ocean. I set it up in our apartment in France, ready to make my first stitches on a little curtain project I was going to do. I plugged it in and was so excited to try it out. I turned it on, the computer on it beeped, made a weird noise, then to my horror, went completely dead. Dead! My new machine, costing a small fortune for us, and never having been used!! Ahhh! I burst into emotional, pregnancy sobs for a half hour on the couch...poor Yann felt so bad for me and was trying to fix the machine. Basically, what happened was my electrical power converter for Europe shorted out and fried the sewing machine. France has different plugs and power currents than us, so we had always used these converters just fine, but the machine was too high a voltage for it to handle.

Long story short, Baby Lock has amazing warranties and fixed it for free. I had to pay 12$ shipping, that's it! So, I just got my Baby back last week and I had about a million projects piled up in line to get sewed. So, below is a little project I just finished. I dug these vintage doll bunk beds out of our attic. They were in my mother's room as a child and they were in mine too, until I decided, as a 5 year old, that I should climb onto the top bunk and snapped the frame. Anyways, they sat broken and unloved in our hot attic, until I got them out and decided to rehab them.

They were an outdated wood color, so my dad and I sanded them and applied some wood accents on the headboards & footboards, and then painted them. I just finished up my first quilting class, so I decided to practice making a particular quilt block, by making two little quilted coverlets for the beds. Oh my; the weird projects I do when I'm not employed! But I think they turned out cute and will be a staple in our little baby girl's room until she outgrows them or breaks them, as I did! The quilt colors kind of match the crib bedding set we got for her. I can just picture her as a toddler, tucking into bed her little dolls and stuffed animals.











So, other than projects, not too much else has been going on. We went out on the boat today, and I almost had a darn heat stroke. People, have you ever experienced the type of humid, hot, brain frying heat that is South Florida in the summer? If not, count yourself very blessed. Basically, living in Florida for a summer is akin to living in Antarctica during the winter. It is just too extremely painful and uncomfortable to go outside. The advantage of a Florida summer, over an arctic winter, is that at least from your air conditioned house you can look out the window and see bright sun, and cheerful green trees. I know, I'm sounding a little over dramatic here, but maybe it's just that I lived in Asheville so long, that I became accustomed to the summers there. In North Carolina, in the summers, if you do become hot, you just head to a cold, refreshing waterfall and dunk yourself. Also, the nights are cool enough to enjoy a stroll around the block or even a campfire. You can have a nice, productive garden too, where as in Florida, your delicate organic herbs and vegetables would all wither and die under the scorching heat. It is intense and I'm just trying to stay inside as much as I can. Although, I love summer and I love to be active and do things outdoors, it just is too much for me right now. So, inside I stay, with many fun sewing projects and books to read. I've got my knitting classes, and my first sweater is coming along pretty good. I've been trying to hit the gym a few times a week too, to get physically ready to have this baby.