The Handmade Dress

I decided a few weeks ago to turn my china cabinet into a place to store our apothecary things. For years I've had this stuff spread throughout the house and never seemed to be able to find what I needed, and the problem was compounded when I started making my own medicines. Trouble was, my china cabinet had seen better days, so we decided to give the old girl a makeover. At some point it had been in a fire because it has always been smoke stained. I gave her a fresh coat of white paint, sanded and painted the rusty handles turquoise, and Ben steadied her with new braces and nails.  This sorta started a frenzy of projects that everyone got in on. My kids painted my plate holders and Molly put them back up. I got started on some new curtains for the French doors. Tim got out the sander and started distressing my door couch (I painted it but never distressed it). Maddie watched the babies.  Ahh! That felt nice! You see how good she tu...

I can say that I LOVE almost every piece of furniture in my house except for my couches. Ugh. They are a stained, worn out, hand me down mess. Don't get me wrong, they were nice when we got them as hand me downs, but 8-10 years and five kids later, notsomuch. So what do you do when you don't have the fundage to buy the nice leather couches (that won't stain or rip) that you want but can't wait for the fundage? Well we decided to just make our own. We hit the Internet and found a picture, hit the road and found some doors ($25 each!), mama's got the fabric and the cushions from the old couches, daddy's got the tools to make this happen and done! Two new couches for close to $100! I'm inside nursing at the moment and Ben is putting on the finishing touches, so I will have to show the finished product later, but here is some in progress pictures. I can't wait to start planning the fabric for these!!! xo, Sam PS. The photo/project credit for the idea (fir...

It's another gray day so the pictures aren't great, but I wanted to get these posted since I have a few minutes. The family closet has changed my life people!! It has taken my most overwhelming chore from crazy to totally doable. We had to start in the laundry room because that is were most of this process starts. These storage racks went on sale for 69$ right after Christmas and we got 3. We also got several of the $3.50 Steralite clothes baskets because they fit side by side perfectly. In the laundry room I now have baskets labeled (Whites, Towels, Darks, Reds & Purples -we have a lot of those!) to separate clothes into, baskets marked "Clean" for clean clothes, a place for storage (extra dish cloths, table cloths, socks that need a mate). The laundry room is much less intimidating now, I actually like going in there! I also now have room for my drying rack in here! I painted a huge henna design on the wall to pretty it up a bit. :) The Caffee sign ...

We had NO idea when Ben was planning the triple bunk beds for our children that so many others had the same problem! We have had hundreds of emails about those beds. It's so exciting to think that we could help other big families work out these same issues. We have been teasing Ben about being famous for his handy work, but today I think he really made it! His design was featured on Apartment Therapy today! What?! So, I have already shared what awesome forts can be made out of his bed design, and you know how cool they look just as beds, but today I want to show you one more reason I think Ben is a genious.... ...the pack-n-play fits perfectly into the bottom bed space! My little Claire is not quite ready to sleep in a big girl bed, and this one just took up so much floor space in the girl's room, so yesterday Ben just stuck it in there and it fit! Now when she is ready for a big girl bed she will already be used to her little cubby. :) xo, Sam . PS I didn'...

 This is what I found this morning when I went to wake the big kids... they have discovered what cool club houses they can make with their new beds! They look like little meerkats crawling around in there with all the different tunnels and passages. Here is a look inside. :) I wish my camera could do better inside clubhouses. When I was little we used chairs. We would have sacrificed a limb for this set-up! But you know how it was then, walking to school, uphill both ways, and all that... :) Have a great day friends! I will be at the dentist with four kids. All of them have appointments at 10:30. What was I thinking?? xo, Sam

Here's your hook up we promised. :) You can all thank Ben for this! He typed up and illustrated plans for both versions of the triple bunk beds! Writing "patterns" and such isn't really his thing, but he did it for you guys. He's such a good boy. :)  If any of you make beds using these plans could you send us a picture? We would love to see your take on it! xo, Sam Edited to add: With the increased interest in these plans there is no way that I can email them to everyone. I'm sorry! But you are more than welcome to follow the link and download them for free through our shop. When you give your name and email address a download link will automatically be emailed to you. Edited to add:  We now know the meaning of viral! Ha! That's exactly what happened to the triple bunk bed plans. When the idea came to give them away for free our thought was that a few other big families out there may like the idea and we would be able to help them out. O...

 WOW! We have received A LOT of email. :) We hear you. We are working on plans and detailed pictures, and as soon as possible we will have them ready for you guys! We are so flattered that so many of you like the beds! Give us a few days and we will hook you up. :) We finished up the roll guards on the boy beds today and painted all of the wall supports. We are DONE! Woot woot! Plans coming soon friends. :) xo, Sam EDITED TO ADD: Plans are now available for PDF download. You can find the PDF on our "free downloads" page HERE . I will try to email everyone that asked for plans, but could you help us spread the word too? Thanks friends! Oh, and if any of you make beds using these plans could you send us a picture? We would love to see your take on it! xo, Sam Edited to add: With the increased interest in these plans there is no way that I can email them to everyone. I'm sorry! But you are more than welcome to follow the link and download...

Ben designed new bunk beds for the "girl's dorm" and "boy's dorm" in our house. We LOVE them!! We are almost done with all of the work, just a few loose ends left to tie up, but I couldn't wait to show off his handy-work. This is the girl set. We stained them with colored stain and we really like how that turned out. It's almost the color of cranberries. I still need to paint the boards that are attached to the wall. I'm going to paint them the color of the wall so that it looks like the beds are floating. :)  This is the boy set while still under construction. We ordered new bunk mattresses, but they haven't come in yet. I will show you guys pictures when they are completely finished. We stained these green, it looks like the color of bamboo. The kids LOVE these beds! And oh the space we have now! I'll be back soon with finished pictures! xo, Sam If any of you make beds using these plans could you send us a picture? We ...

Spring cleaning kinda got outta control here at my house, so it's upside-down! Last night we got all of the ceilings done. Today we begin painting the walls! YAY! It all started with my bedroom and kinda snow-balled from there. I love it! So when I get overwhelmed by all of the mess and chaos, I just got to my room and enjoy the cleanness of it. :) I'll keep you guys posted on the progress! xo, Sam

Two weeks ago, this place really had me down. Blah. It was so messy, and unorganized, and uninspiring, and in need of a major overhaul. You see for a very long time this was The Handmade Dress office and sewing loft. Then Ben built his office and moved all of the office stuff (printers, paper folder, desks) out and into it's own place. That left me with a lot of holes that just slowly filled with a mish mash of junk that didn't really have a permanent home. UGH. It was so overwhelming after market that I just felt like burning it all! Well, maybe it wasn't that serious, but it felt that serious for a while. :) That's when I made a call to my best girl, Kim. She is the organizing and party planning genius of our group of friends. She rescued me!! She came and got me straight! Ahhhhhh.....so much better. We worked for EIGHT hours in this room. We went through EVERY button jar, project bag, fabric bin, ribbon basket, sketched paper pile.... It was a long day. Now, I am...

I have fabrics draped over everything in the house! I got a couple of drop cloths from Home Depot to make  my couch slipcover with (thanks for the ideas!), and the other fabrics are going to cover the pillows. Come on in and take a look around. :) Sometimes I have to experiment with things around the house before I decide. Do you do that? I'm fearless when it comes to dresses, but my home is so personal that I have to make changes more slowly. I have to love everything in my house, I don't even care if it matches or not (I sorta hate for things to match), I just have to love it or it can't stay. So this is how my house looks right now.... I'm just going to let the fabrics lay there for a few days to see if they want to live here or not, after that if I don't love it, it goes back in the stash for another project. Here is my bedroom. I know that I want a change in here, but I'm still not sure what I want to add or "edit"....  ...