Extending a Quilt: Twin-to-Full Size

 Reversible quilt with new borders to make it big enough for a BIG GIRL bed!

A client bought a reversible comforter set, CIRCO brand, twin size, along with matching lamp, sheets, pillows...the whole investment package.  Then she found out her granddaughter was getting a big girl FULL size bed, and the twin was just too small. 

I auditioned many possibilities, adding borders, cutting off edge of quilt and inserting extension, ruffles, but finally settled for dissecting a thrifted scalloped-edge quilt, adding pom-pom yarn fringe on lighter side, and serious, but soft, velvet ribbon to hide join seam.

Cheating?  No, up-cycling!  I can't take credit for the great quilting, just the mash up!

Money Weakness Problem:  I hate/dis-like horribly/dread/ figuring out how much to charge a client.  Always.  When it is paint or fabric, it goes something like this:

New soft green full-size sheets @ Ollie's $19.99
Pom-pom yarn:  $3.99
velvet ribbon 10 yds @ Ollie's $2.99
thrifted king size scallop quilt:  $14.99
purple king-size suede-like bed ruffle as part of audition:  $6.99
24 inches of bias tape
thread to match

$48.95= close to cost of original quilt in bag from Target investment.  (It would have been CHEAPER TO JUST BUY A NEW, BIGGER SIZE QUILT instead of hiring me to sew...)

Not counting time/sewing labor.  Three-ish hours.  More like six hours.  Not counting the time I was thinking about it.

Here is my dilemma:  how do you charge fairly for sewing?  We work for pennies an hour, when you take out materials.  I learned years ago it was cheaper to thrift shop than sew clothing when you factor in pattern, fabric, additional specialty supplies.

If I deduct off for unused materials:  I can use center of quilt (the borderless one, now) as an art quilt and possibly sell or do a commission piece.  The purple suede bed ruffle is still awesome fabric for another project.  So subtract half of big scallop quilt and bed ruffle only takes away $14.

$ 35.00 for materials
$15.00 labor at $2.50/hour (cough, less, cough)

Charge $50.00????

I know what John would say.  This is why I never give a first impression paint quote.  I force myself to tell them I will get back with them after I talk to my financial manager (John).  Because I always low-ball it, out of some skewed pride.  I want people to like me, be pleased.  John reminds me how horrible they would feel if they found out I undercharged and cheated myself and family finances.  He always tells me to at lease double it, whatever figure I come up with on my own.

$150.00  (And she will never ask me to sew for her again!   

But $75.00, I could ask for that with a straight face, feel dignified, and worth it.  This is a stinking cute quilt!  Made by an artist.  An original.  So I should talk myself up to $90.00 which is close enough to $100.00

Maybe it is just a pride thing:  I want clients to automatically value my work and out of their own heart tip me above what I charge....?  And again, I can hear John rolling his eyes but diplomatically saying "They can't read your mind."

A couple of months ago a financial adviser's wife had a baby while I worked for him.  I made them dinner one night and gave them a library film ("Saving Mr. Banks") to watch, mini-date at home.  He neglected to turn in the DVD on time when he said he would (and I say they were sort of busy), and the overdue fine racked up to $12.00.  Which John thinks the financial adviser should pay him.  And I can see the reasoning, but I still feel bad asking for $.  Again, John reminds me of how badly the guy would feel if he found out.  John says it is a way to keep people honest.

Have I gone on long enough about this weakness of mine?

Take home message:  tip generously.  Pay your obligations.  And don't work for free, like I tend to.  Be rightfully proud of your good work, and honestly charge what it is worth.

Anniversary Wishes

 (photo credit:  Sam Landbeck 15 years old)

To celebrate 25 years we are not going on a cruise (someday we will, not this year), not even going away for the weekend (I miss the work conferences John used to have).  Not buying a rug at IKEA I have been drooling over (that would pinpoint a color palette in LR!).  Not going to Hawaii (sister envy).  Not going to Cheesecake Factory (no sugar diet still in place).  Not going to a local spa, not going camping (wouldn't recommend that for a honeymoon like we did).....

We are going to the DC temple together.  Maybe getting crab cakes at our favorite Riverside Pizzaria place on the way home.  Take a hundred couple photos and try and get our eyes both open.

We are saving up towards a trip west at the end of June for the 50th wedding anniversary of my parents and my family reunion at Bear Lake, Idaho!  Which will be great fun and worth the sacrifices to make it happen.  Thinking of a caravan out with siblings and families.  Making memories.  Laughing at our human foibles.

Handmade & Changes (with Soundtrack)

I trimmed the rosemary bush back so it wasn't hanging over the walkway (it's an evergreen!) and tucked the trimmings into a wreath to hang on back porch.

John welded a metal valentine for me 20 years ago.  I love the rusted patina.  (I want to paint this back porch light black when spring +50' weather returns).

Early this morning I told husband-love-of-my-life that when I am trying to relax & go to sleep I go through the rooms in our home and think of what I want to change...He doesn't think that sounds very relaxing.  To him that is terrifying--this from my super supportive of my-arts & crafting explosions husband.  Not that I am making more things for him to do, but the CHANGE doesn't sound like fun to him. "Things are fine how they are now!"

He voiced the legitimate concern of stumbling around banging into things even with the lights on.  He likes things the way they are--and I am constantly wondering how they would look with changes.  I said I would love to live in a different house each week.  It would kill him.  We are opposite on the spectrum of decorating-change-environment.  It would kill me to decorate things once and live with them unchanged for 20+ years.  I like the way homes can evolve, change, variety and interest keeping pace with the events in our lives.

When I look through our home interior/exterior environment there are some keepers, things I absolutely love and wouldn't want to ever change.  Only a very few.  But there are more experiments, projects I have learned skills by making decorating mistakes, experimented, left undone or changed almost too soon for any witnesses to get used to it and I would eagerly change given the right resource, discovery at a thrift store, gifting from rich uncle, career change, or honestly a move.

I told him I was ready to re-paint the living room ceiling (a constellation/nebula/cosmos thing) and he said it had only been since the summer since I made a big X and shaded it to look like a peaked ceiling.  But I've been adding violets and orchid colors to the  living room (to try out color of the year Radiant Orchid) and want to include the ceiling...Yea, I know.  I accept that I can't afford to buy new rug/accent chairs/couch, but I can change the paint with paint I already have!

He wonders why I make more work for myself.  Why, out of my 8 siblings, I seem to do it more than any of them (any challengers on that?  Ha!)  Not a race/contest, but it was a funny thought.   Then we talked about the opposites-attract break-down of how different my parents are from each other, how in-laws change siblings.

Is it a budgeting/money issue?  If I had all the funds available to make a room "perfect" would I do it and leave it as it was???

My "Fiddler On the Roof" if I were a rich woman song goes like this:

If I were a rich woman,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd paint and decorate....

I'd build an open-concept great room with windows
Kitchen island-plenty seating
A new gabled roof with stained black floors below
There would be accent chairs, conversation pits
Sofas and a separate music room
Entry way and mudroom (not for show)

I'd fill my yard with landscaped concrete creations
Peonies, hydrangeas real
Walkways, benches, redbuds, more ivy green
Party patio hammock and fire pit
Entertaining would be relaxing here!

If I were a rich woman, (we would pay off the house, pay off all student loans, water-proof basement, get a new mattress, make sure the kids had everything they needed, new water heater/furnace, roof, new energy efficient windows, then and only then fun things...like skylights, moving the floor-pipe-water-heater units, build columns between kitchen/living room to support load bearing wall, open-up staircase, add 2 sets French doors, new kitchen counter tops, new washer & dryer, upstairs pantry, punch through door from garage to kitchen with connecting mudroom, wallpaper (drool), and BUY A NEW COUCH, not at the thrift store!)

Fun game to play, but now it is time to count my blessings.  I know everyone has lists like this.  We don't gamble, so we don't play the "When I win the lottery..." game.

But the "How would I spend disposable funds on decorating game" entertains me.  And doesn't really put me to sleep!  I want to get up and make something beautiful!  Or change things to see what it would look like.  Not to make stumbling blocks for my family.  Just to see the possibilities.  And maybe then, I will move it back for fun to the old way.

Work makes us strong!

Not much creative blogging lately...busy working in the office, with numbers and cost basis...

(photo credit:  Sister-by-marriage Jen)
I think we may need to start being more consistently photographed together, on purpose!  She caught us smiling and legs entwined!  Look how skinny-good Johnny looks!    We are trying to be healthier (this time changing what we are eating, not just walking together), working now so we can be in shape for a mission in...20 years!  It will be that long before we can retire. 

I've been working 40 hour weeks for the past few months as an on-call fill-in, but turned down two of the full-time offers after praying hard about it.  I feel I need to stay flexible to be able to help my children, be here after school when they come home, concentrate on making our home a house of order, and living within our means and being thrifty.  The answer to my prayers was pretty specific, how I need to be satisfied with what we have, not over-extend my dreams and wishful-remodeling hopes, but make the best of what we have been blessed with NOW and trust that things will work out. 

In 5 years when Roxie graduates from high school, things may change again, and given the same offer in the future I may take it eagerly.  But not yet.  I will trust that timing matters.  Plus, a huge part of working full-time would leave me zero time to paint for clients, or be creative at home.  It has been hard, really hard, and my heart reaches out to moms who already really have to work all day/night outside the home.

My boss says if you want to be rich do 5 things: 
1.  buy a home you can afford and pay it off and live there
2.  get married and stay married 
3.  find a job with upward mobility and keep working 
4. clean living (healthier, less dr bills plus not paying for vices $$$)
5.  invest and spend less than you make. 

Easy, right?

I finally opened an account, a ROTH IRA and bought my first stock.  Just one share.  Our income is pretty tied up in bills and children and student loans...not much wiggle room to invest.  Very exciting to be on the client side.  I should have done it a long time ago to see what it is like and to be able to explain things better to clients.

Work to stay married, work to be healthy, work to pay bills, work to support families, work to create art---still something I feel I need to do.  I could see it clearly:  if at the end of my life I had made lots of $ and we had gotten out of debt faster & fixed the house up sooner & travelled OR if at the end of my life I knew my children, had been available time-wise/face-time and had painted what I still need to paint and had the time for service and making a home---easy choice.

So my re-commitment is to be a homemaker, stay-at-home mom/wife/friend in 2014.  I still have a few commitments for work on the calendar through December, but tapering off.  Keeping my on-call status in good standing with 100 hours a year, but only every-other-week 6 hours during school time.