Dyeing White to Ivory

Jan 22, 2012 by Lindsay

In the nursery we have an ivory bedspread that I love. It’s simple and versatile and I bought it because I figured it could adapt to any changes that we would make to the nursery without having to be replaced every time I re-decorated! When we found out that baby #4 was on the way I decided to wait until we knew what we were having before I did any other decorating in the nursery, so it has been lacking a bedskirt for awhile now! I had played with the idea of making a bedskirt but quickly changed my mind when I found THIS bedskirt on target.com for $10! For some reason it was the king size bedskirt that was on sale but it worked out because I had the twin bed and the crib that needed a skirt so I just cut up the king and made two skirts out of one!  The only problem that I was left with was that it was bright white and I needed it to be ivory. Then I remembered that my mom used to dye lace, fabric and our tights using coffee or tea! I wasn’t sure exactly how she did it but after a little online research I found enough information to figure it out.

Here is the bedskirt before. White and wrinkled.

All you need is some cheap tea and hot water.

If I had been dying something smaller I could have just used a pot but obviously a bedskirt is much larger so I used the bathtub. I ran the water to get it as hot as I could but I also boiled two pots of water to make sure it was really hot. Then I added my tea bags until I got a nice dark color. (I had done a sample the night before with some of the extra fabric, that way I knew how dark I needed my “base” color to be.)

Then I added my skirt and worked it with my hands making sure to saturate every bit of fabric and getting an even color.

Once I got it as dark as I wanted I drained the water and immediately rinsed it with cold water until the water ran clear. Then I washed it with cold water and dried it. After a good starching and ironing this is how it turned out.

I am very happy with the way it turned out. It is obviously not an exact match but it is a nice subtle ivory and it’s no longer bright white! I did find that the soft cotton of the bedspread (the part that you don’t see under the mattress) absorbed a lot more color than the actual skirt part did. Using the tea also caused it to take on more of a brown-ivory color as opposed to the yellow-ivory color of the bedspread, but I’m ok with that. One tutorial I read before attempting my project described it as more of an “antique ivory” and I would say that is very accurate. If you decided to try it make sure to do a sample first so you know how your specific fabric will take to the dye!

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Little Miss Bitty – week 24 & 25

Jan 15, 2012 by Lindsay

I took a belly photo for the last two weeks! Which brings my total number of weekly pictures for this pregnancy to a grand total of 4! I realized that I was doing a poor job of providing updates on this growing babe and all the preparations that are taking place for her arrival later this spring. I wanted to wait until I was FINALLY caught up on last years blogging before I charged into all things baby. I may not talk about her much (yet) but just ask my husband, I have been busy sewing and making lists of things that need to be done before she comes….it’s going to be a busy couple of months!

I go to the doctor tomorrow and then have my glucose test done later this week. Thankfully I have had three diabetes-free pregnancies and I am hoping that we can continue with that trend!

I want to remember a couple of funny things that the boys have said lately about the baby. Whenever I ask Joshua who is in my belly he says “baby sistee.” He adds an “e” sound to the end of most words, so this is just another funny way that he says things.

This week I got ambitious and decided to do some exercising (don’t be impressed, I’ve taken about the last 10 weeks off) and I was just doing some arm weights but had a workout video on at the same time just for the music. Andrew asked me why I wasn’t doing it like they were on the tv and I explained that because I have a baby in my belly I have to do things a little different.

He responded with, “Oh, so when you don’t have a baby in your belly you can do it right, but since you do have a baby in your belly you have to do it all wrong?”

Yes son, I suppose that’s about right!

Anyways, here are sister and I at 24 weeks

And at 25 weeks

Hopeful for a healthy report from the doctor tomorrow!

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December blogging – Christmas Day & more

Jan 13, 2012 by Lindsay

We had a very enjoyable, low key Christmas Day. After the kids got up we opened stockings and gifts from us to the kids. Then we had our traditional Christmas day brunch with the family followed by more gift opening! The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys, relaxing and enjoying our family!

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December blogging – Christmas Eve

Jan 9, 2012 by Lindsay

We spent a wonderful Christmas in Ohio with my family! We left on the 23rd and drove all night long and arrived just in time for the Christmas Eve festivities. My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all came over for dinner and then we went to church together. After church we exchanged gifts with the kiddos before they headed to bed. Our kids were so tired from the trip that they could hardly handle themselves but they still managed to enjoy tearing into gifts! There are six small kids (cousins and second cousins) in the family right now, but four of the girls in our family are expecting babies this year, so in one year we will go from six to ten! I don’t imagine that holidays will be settling down anytime soon!

All the expectant momma’s lined up! From left to right, My sis – Em, myself, my cousin – Stephanie, my cousin – Sarah

This is one of the tired little boys I was talking about, he was practically begging to go to bed.

As you can see we have some very loved little boys (and girl!) that were all showered with gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles!

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December blogging – Boys’ Christmas Program

Jan 8, 2012 by Lindsay

On the last day before Christmas break both boys participated in the Christmas program at school. Joshua was too young to participate last year so I was very interested to see how he would do considering he tends to be my little wild man!

I was so proud of my little boys when they paraded out onto the stage with their classes! Joshua sat very still and didn’t do a whole lot of singing, but he didn’t cry and he didn’t run wild, so I was happy about that! Andrew was quite the little singer. He got pretty tickled every time he made eye contact with his Mommy or Daddy and seemed pretty proud of himself!

Both of my dudes before the program

I think that most of the time Joshua just didn’t know what to think! It was his first time in front of a bunch of crazy parents with cameras

Can you find Andrew in the sea of girls??? It seems he has a lot more girls than boys in his class!

Joshua kept himself occupied with a little nose picking….

…..followed by some BIG nose picking!

It is always fun to watch your children accomplish something!

 

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December blogging – Christmas Decorating!

Jan 7, 2012 by Lindsay

Well, unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of us decorating at our house this year, but we did get some of the kids helping at Grandmom’s house! The boys were really into it this year, especially Joshua. Even after all the kids had moved on to another activity Joshua just kept on working until the job was done

I think the boys’ favorite part was climbing the ladder to hang ornaments!

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