My "new" couch

When we bought our leather couch 8 years ago we thought it would be a piece of furniture that would last for years and years. We paid a lot for it. But I guess I didn't read the fine print in regards to caring for leather furniture because the leather did NOT hold up. I have tried (expensive!) leather cleaners and conditioners with no luck in restoring the original look. Then recently while clicking around Pinterest I discovered a possible solution....shoe polish. I figured I couldn't make the couch much worse, so I gave it a try.

This is what my couch looked like a few weeks ago... (I am almost too embarrassed to show you.)

And this is what it looks like today...

So much better!!

I tried to buff it really well to make sure none of the shoe polish comes off on our clothes, but for a $3.24 "new" couch I am willing to take the risk.

MIA

I am not sure how many people read this little blog anymore,  but for those of you who thought I dropped off the face of the earth I guess an explanation may be in order. Mostly I was just overwhelmed and something had to give. Young Women's is proving to be harder than I imagined and I haven't had the energy to focus on more than getting the essentials done. But I hope to keep this blog going if people are still reading. (Of course I am living without a computer at the moment, so any blogging will be done via my phone.)

Holiday Baking

Ready for some holiday baking:  caramel, rocky road, candied candy canes, pretzel turtles, and four kinds of cookies! I am going to be busy for a while.

Cheesy grin

All my kids have give through the awkward smile stage. Chloe is in it now. And as frustrating as it can be to try and take a natural looking picture of her, there is something endearing about the funny forced smile.

Another "stash" dress

I had some yarn left over from my slouchy hat, so I made a quick hat for Chloe. And then I thought that she needed something to wear with it. So I made her a dress (Simplicity 5695 of course). Originally I had planned on doing the sleeves out of the red fabric, but I didn't have enough. So I did a little search in my stash and came up with the polka dot. Sometimes stash sewing forces you to be a little more creative. I need that because even though I like to create things, I'm not naturally "creative."

Red Slouchy Hat

Instead of grocery shopping yesterday morning I made this hat. It was a gray day and snuggling up with a ball of yarn was much more appealing than hauling groceries. I used THIS pattern. I followed the instructions exactly and my hat is a little less "slouchy" than the picture with the pattern, but I'm okay with that. It's slouchy enough.

Baby Dress

I made this dress for a baby shower I went to last night. It's Simplicity 5695 (my go-to pattern for little girl dresses). I didn't have time to go to the fabric store, so I tried to mix and match what I had on hand. The brown is left-over backing from the quilt my sisters and I made for my Mom, the red is from Lydia's star quilt, and I used the print in a few quilts I've made. It's not your traditional sweet pink baby dress, but it was fun to try something different.

New shoes

There is something about new shoes, a new haircut, and bright lipstick that make me feel good. (I think I need new shoes more often.)

McKenna's Birthday Party

I am horrible at birthday parties. For some reason they completely stress me out. So I tried to plan something that would be easy and low-key. It didn't turn out to be easy, but according to McKenna it was the "best birthday party ever." Success!!

I'll let the pictures tell the story...