What a difference a week makes

Tomorrow I go back to work. I had a whole week off!!! Gotta love that. I actually feel refreshed and ready to go back to the whirlwind of "Ms. Shannon look at me!!", that is my job.

What I did this week while enjoying the sunshine...

• Got my hair done
• Went out with my mom 2 days in a row - once to a movie and once shopping downtown. So fun!!
• Started and stopped a few sewing projects
• Finished another two songs (just recorded the music so far)
• Went on a fabulous day get-away with Rod to North Whidbey Island/Deception Pass
• Got some cash-saving curtains

Here are some pictures from Friday's get-away...

Deception Pass - North Whidbey Island

Known for this expansive bridge and swirling waters below

My family used to take our boat through there and you could feel the water pull you in all directions.

Beautiful views of the San Juan Islands and the Pacific Ocean

We also stopped by Deception Pass Park

It was so peaceful and beautiful. We could have stayed for hours just listening to the water lap up against the shore and seagulls fly above us in the bright blue sky...but there was still more to see.

Last stop on Whidbey Island - Fort Casey

Rod knows I love lighthouses, so he found one we could visit that wasn't too far away.

And the day ended with a beautiful sunset

On to current Sewing Projects:

I've been working on a couple things for my sis-in-law Emily and her new baby girl Pearce arriving next month but shhhh - can't give anything away... :) You'll see soon enough Emily! And a few things for a lady at church who just had a baby.

Also, transforming this unflattering v-neck sweater into something a bit more feminine and stylish.

From this:

to this:

Don't let the pretty little ruffly pink sweater fool you. This project was/still is very frustrating. The satin ribbon puckered when I sewed it and once I actually put the sweater on, it didn't lay right. So welcome to unpicking stitching on ribbon. I should have stopped with the new neckline. If only I hadn't been so eager to cut it in half and put ribbon on it! Aaahhk! For now it's in a pile on the sewing room floor. :|

Next on the over-eager-frustrating-sewing-project list is transforming one of these ruffled necked tanks from the Old Navy clearance rack...

into something more like this, this or this:...while trying to add sleeves...like I said, a bit over-eager. For now, it too has found a place on the sewing room floor....

And back to my first success...

I'm making 2 more pillows like this one to put on our new chairs...because evidently, I just can't get enough of this ruffled pillow.

These are the two chairs

Last item - cash-saving curtains

We've been looking for curtains for the bedroom for a while and found that first of all, I haven't found any I like, and second of all, they're expensive.

Yesterday I ran across a post on The Lettered Cottage about using a painting drop cloth from Home Depot and transforming them into curtains, for only $10.00. The sandy color matched our bedroom colors and I wanted some sort of texture on the fabric. Voila!

I'm trying to decide whether to sew a few ruffles on the bottom half of the curtains (surprise) to give them a little something. We're also going to re-paint the dressers next month so ignore the dark green knobs. :)

BTW - you can find curtain accessories at Ross for really good prices. The curtain Rod was $4.99 and the rings were $1.99 for a pack of 7 (although we ended up needing 14...so we got two packages). Not too shabby!