By Lisa Gutierrez on 05/23/2011 
I put up a curtain rod over one of the windows in my breakfast room, about 9 months ago. It took me that long to make curtains. That’s about how long it takes to make a baby! After putting it up, I had to decide on a fabric. I chose one and then hated it. Fast forward a few months and I win a Waverly Fabric giveaway on sfgirlbybay!
When I received the fabric, I was in awe. My creative mind kind of just froze and the box sat next to my knitting basket since then. I would sneak peeks and wonder if I should make a pillow, an apron, or perhaps some sort of magical quilt. It wasn’t until a few days ago, when I was standing in this room thinking about how I “wished I had made those curtains before the birthday party” (this Saturday), that I realized this fabric would be PERFECT!
View from the kitchen.
I sewed them up, yesterday evening. The boys went to Grandma’s for a day of fun in the sun (and crawfish. ick) and I stayed behind to clean their room (it was HORRIBLE but now is LOVELY). I made 2 simple rectangles out of one yard of this print and hung them up with a rod and clips from Ikea. They came out the perfect cafe-style length.
I think I might pick up some bamboo valances for the top and get rid of the blinds.
Boy, oh, boy. This is some beautiful fabric. I am in love with this room, now. I just need to score the perfect chairs and I’d be all set! Next up in my sewing queue: a valance for my kitchen to replace the ugly dingy one that came with the house. Can you guess what fabric I’ll be using for that??
It starts with a Wave and ends with an -erly. :)
By Lisa Gutierrez on 05/05/2011 
More photos taken in my backyard (technically, these are on the patio)! Aren’t you lucky!
These are my little succulents. The ones that sit on a bench on my patio, which gets sunny in the late afternoon/early evening. It gets sun almost all day at the end of summer and NO sun during the winter. I have liked figuring these little things out about my house. We’re approaching our 1 year anniversary of living here. That’s kind of amazing.
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Excuse my bloggy/Twitter absence…I’m in the midst of planning a party for my boys. I’ve procrastinated for too long and there is less than a month to prepare. Their birthdays are two weeks apart, so as long as they’re littles, they will have a shared birthday party. It would be acceptable to put up a birthday banner/decorations for the first birthday and leave them up those two weeks, right?? I want it to be colorful and super FUN.
By Lisa Gutierrez on 04/28/2011 This will probably not have any useful information. Just proud photos.
I grew edibles! effyeah!
what is that? A CUCUMBER!
I absolutely cannot wait til these are ready for picking. we LOVE cucumbers ’round these parts. my boys would probably eat these right off the plant!
baby bells! Ah! Nathan isn’t too keen on bell peppers, but Andrew like to snag some during dinner prep some nights.
My biggest plants: the jalapenos! I don’t even LIKE jalapenos, but the plants make me so happy! Me thinks there will be jalapeno poppers in our future.
There are also some flower growing about the backyard. Pinks and purples.
the gratuitous flower closeup with textured bokeh background.
Do you have a garden? If so, what are you growing? Fruits, veggies, flowers, succulents, all of the above? I have about 8 tomato plants growing, but only one has some tiny blooms right now. I’m excited to see them grow! Both my boys lovelovelove tomatoes.
By Lisa Gutierrez on 04/06/2011 
I made this enormous bolster pillow and the kids immediately started calling it “the pickle pillow.” It doesn’t really fit on the love seat (I needs a couch, yo), so the boys use it as a head rest when they’re laying in front of the tube watching episodes of Inspector Gadget. It’s their new favorite TV show. It’s 22 minutes, so they get to watch one episode unless they’re sick and quarantined to the living room.
Details:
TWO strands of Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick & Quick in lemongrass (which was ON CLEARANCE at my local Michael’s last week for $3.99/ball)
Size US19 needles.
35 (or 36? something like that) stitches and approximately 22 garter ridges (44 knit rows).
Seam the BO to the CO, then cinch one end shut.
Fold a towel in half (short end to short end), then roll it up and wrap it with a few layers of quilt batting.
I made an inside case with some green fabric so the guts wouldn’t be so obvious through the stretched stitches.
Stuff it! Close the other end.
I LOVE garter stitch. It’s so easy and textural and……yeah! it’s awesome. <3
By Lisa Gutierrez on 03/03/2011 
My mom was going to put this shelf in a garage sale. Not one to pass up anything that can be put on my wall, I traded some old baby clothes for it. It had been in the garage for a while, so it was pretty dusty, but I could see its potential!
After cleaning it up a bit with some TSP substitute, I took the back off and spray painted it a few times to get it this bright white. I had it sitting in the breakfast room for a few days before I finally hung it. It took about 10 minutes and four nail holes to finally get it leveled. HA! Apparently the hardware on the back is eeeever-so-slightly uneven, so it was lop-sided, even though I had used the level to mark where my nails would go on the wall.
That wasn’t the hardest part about this project, though. No, deciding what would go in it was! I’m still not completely thrilled with my choices. Right now, it just doesn’t have a unifying theme.
I think I need to start a collection of small things to put in it. Yeah. I’ll start a new collection. The shelf made me do it.
For some more DIY inspiration, check our Project ReStyle!
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