Baby Blues

Last month, I started working on a baby blanket for our friends Jordan and Nou who are expecting in December. I told myself I could work on this leisurely since I had a few months until their little bambino was born. Being that they live in Seattle, I was planning on mailing it out in a care package to them in early December.

Imagine my surprise, when the hubby informed me that Jordan had called him and said his family was throwing them a surprise baby shower in a week! What!? Are you serious?!

Well, of course we were going to go! This was their last trip to the Bay Area before the baby was born.

So day and night, I worked like a mouse sewing Cinderella's dress, to get this blanket finished in time!

I felt like I was on Project Runway, crocheting my tail off to "Make it Work!".

In the end I was quite pleased with myself and the outcome of the blanket that I completed in ONE week!

Here is the blanket. I used Attic24's crochet Neat Ripple Pattern. I found her pattern to be the easiest and most consistent out of 3 different patterns I tried.

I wanted to give the blanket a Missoni-esque vibe, so I deviated a bit away from Attic24's pattern. Instead of doing 2 consistent rows of each color, I did the following:

2 rows Soft blue
2 rows Ocean
1 row each of grey heather, white, soft blue, grey heather
2 rows Ocean
2 rows Soft blue
2 rows white
Repeat row 1 grey heather, white, soft blue, grey heather
2 rows white
Repeat from beginning

I used Caron Simply Soft yarn.


I added a gray single crochet around the entire blanket. My edges didn't turn out quite as straight as I hoped!

The single crochet gave me an even surface to add my basic shell edging to the blanket.


And here is the finished blanket!! I hope this baby afghan will bring lots of love and warmth during the cold Seattle winter!

We can't wait to meet your new bambino in December!

XOXO,
The Mariano Project

Winding Down...

Wow, has it really been over 2 weeks since my last post?

Right after I posted the Pillow Talk post, that following morning I came down with a severe case of food poisoning! I woke up around 2am and just started vomiting my brains out! This continued for the next several hours and by 5am, I was so weak, nauseuous, and feverish, that I pleaded my hubby to please go out and buy me some 7up!

Suffice to say, I am still alive and kicking, but that whole ordeal just really put things into perspective to really just take it easy. And that is exactly what I have been doing for the past 2 weeks. Just kickin it! No crocheting, sewing, exercising, or reading. Just enjoying everyday and relaxing.

Things are changing as we speak. Back in July, I found out that my job is being relocated to Anaheim and my final work of week will be at the end of this month. I'm really excited to begin this new journey in my life. For 7 years, I have worked continuously, and now I have been blessed to take a bit of a breather, find a new path, and pursue my passions.

You know how that old saying goes, "When God closes a door, he opens another."

I can't wait to experience all the new and exciting adventures behind my new door...

Pillow Talk...

A few weeks ago I picked up two yards of this Waverly Coral Sun and Shade outdoor fabric in navy at Jo-ann Fabrics. I loved the coral pattern (and the fact that it was 50% off per yard) and can't wait to add it to our living room!

You may be wondering why I chose outdoor fabric. Well, simply because it is fade proof, water proof, and stain resistant. It's not the softest fabric out there, but I figured these pillows could be used either as floor cushions or pillows and should I decide to take a nap, I don't have to worry about my makeup leaving any stains or God forbid any drool marks! Ha!

I already have two existing 18x18 pillows that I am going to use. So, now all I gotta do is find my Sewing for dummies pillow pattern and a little bit of free time.

Stay tuned for the reveal!

Faux Wallpaper Reveal...Finally!

Boy oh boy was this truly a labor of love!!

What I "thought" would be a fun and "quick" Friday night project, lasted over a week!

After a few arguments, shoulder aches and neck kinks, here's how it turned out!

It began with the design that the hubby produced for me using CAD. He printed it out, I cut it out, and made a stencil with a piece of cardboard.

We wanted the outcome to be subtle, so we opted to use the same shade that we had painted the wall but in a high-gloss.

Unfortunately, since we had used Behr's Premium Plus Ultra Paint and Primer in One in Burnished Clay, we were dismayed to find out this line does not carry a high gloss formula. They only go up to a semi-gloss. Boo!

So we scoped out the other brands that did carry high-gloss formulas and we found an almost perfect match in Glidden's Clay Bisque.

With a set of $1.50 artist brushes from Daiso and a plastic cup of paint, we were ready to go.

Jay had us mark the center line of the wall and taped it off as our starting point. Well, this pic was taken after he had stenciled the entire wall and I started painting already, but you get the point.

So, let me digress for a bit. Here's a pic that the hubby took of me starting to stencil the wall, before he took over.

Big mistake! Meaning, me stenciling was a BIG mistake!

Was it the wall or was it me or was it the stencil? I could not get it straight! I used a level and still, my stenciling came out crooked!

You can imagine the hubby's face when he saw my two rows of catastrophic stenciling. He pulled out the big eraser and took over. We put in the taped center line and a few hours later ended up with a perfectly symmetrical stenciled wall!

Then he attempted to paint and that's when I pulled the brushes from him and took over!

I painted for a few hours and then went out with my girls. The next day painted a few hours and then went to the gun range. And then I would paint for 2 hours every night after work...

Jay and I both learned a valuable lesson with this project. He's great at stenciling and I am great at painting! Now we both know our roles and as we work together on another wall, we can avoid those wasted hours of crooked stenciling, erasing, and needless arguing!

Win a Silhouette!

Today, I entered for a chance to win a Silhouette machine on Stephanie Lynn's blog Under the Table and Dreaming. This giveaway is going on thru August 30th, so click on the banner below and enter for your chance to win this AWESOME machine!

Many of you are probably scratching your heads and thinking, "What the heck is Silhouette machine?" Well, it is digital cutting machine that easily hooks up to your own computer. And voila! You can make anything, LITERALLY, from vinyl home decals & glass etching to paper favor boxes, cupcake holders, invitations, custom apparel and even temporary tattoos!

Photo: www.qksilhouette.com

They have thousands of designs you can choose from or you can upload your own designs! The possibilites are endless! For you DIY crafters, this is like HEAVEN!! I know for sure, that should one of these machines end up in my hands, I would pass out from pure BLISS!

Owl update...His new home!

This morning Tara's sister showed me a picture of the the owl in the nursery!! I was so excited! When I was making the owl I had no idea what her nursery colors were or what crib bedding she had chosen! I'm so stoked to see that he fit in so well with her jungle theme!!

Faux Real?

Since we moved in, I have been desperately trying to convince the hubby that we should put some wallpaper in our living room, but he was avidly against it. But, when I showed him this gray "faux wallpaper" he gave me the thumbs up!!

A few months back, I had seen this as a Reader Redesign on YHL, and immediately added k.f.d. designs blog to my favorites!

Photo: www.kfddesigns.blogspot.com

Imagine my surprise and glee when I saw other reader redesigns with their versions of faux wallpaper! I couldn't stop looking at Courtneyoutloud's version. It was to die for!

Photo: www.courtneyoutloud.wordpress.com

But we didn't want to shell out the $44 or wait for the stencil to be shipped, so the hubby and I decided we will go the DIY stencil route a la Centsationalgirl.

Her master bedroom version turned out equally as fabulous! I think I see another project in my near future!

So stayed tuned for our version of "faux wallpaper" in our living room!!

This is gonna be one fun Friday night!