New Iron - Problem Solved! - And Other Stuff =)

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season! We had a lovely Christmas...our families make it a lot of fun! My husband is also super creative, and in honor of the two kittens that I got for my birthday back in August, he wrapped me up a present (it was a new calendar for 2009) from them...here is the wrapping:

Doesn't it look like a cat!? I loved it...it even says from Clover and Metroid, our two cats...strange names, I know! =)

As many of you know, I've been having ironing issues lately, so when my parents asked me what I'd like for Chistmas, I said a new iron...please! They are so sweet to me...they got me a new iron. It's a Rowenta, and I love it! It's a dream to iron with...glides so smooth and it has all these little holes for steam...soooooo much better than my old iron! It makes ironing so much more enjoyable. And...no more marks on my quilt blocks...hooray!

With some of my Christmas money, I visited IKEA and bought this great desk to use as my sewing table (the old one has now taken up residence in the laundry room as a folding station). The top of the desk can raise to different heights and it can tilt, so if I'm tracing a pattern or something it won't be as much of a strain. It also has a glass top, with what I'd describe as an open drawer, so I can store a picture of the pattern I'm working on, or I can put a light underneath and trace...no more taping to the windows or the sliding glass door! I love this desk...it looks very scandinavian to me. (Sorry about the striped paint...I've wanted to repain this room for some time, but haven't done it yet...I think I'm leaning toward a robin's egg blue color...what do you think?) Also, after 10+ years of marriage, our old, cheap mattress that we bought as newleyweds was really needing to be replaced, so we bought a new mattress! It's a ComforPedic and it is so comfortable...no more waking up feeling like my back was broken. Our old bed was a queen size, but they were having such a great sale on this mattress that we bought a king...it was even cheaper than the queen! Of course that means new sheets, blankets, quilts, bed frame...so I've got some more shopping to do, but it will be fun to redo our bedroom. Here is a picture of our old bed, which we moved into one of our extra bedrooms (we took the daybed from this room and put it in my sewing room...I bought a great red and white duvet cover from IKEA for the daybed in the sewing room...to go with the Scandinavian feel of the desk).Years ago, my husband made the nightstand out of old wood he found...it's held up really well, and I like the weathered look. There is a bookshelf and a dresser on the other side of the room. We still need to hang some things on the wall and I need to make some different cushion covers for the rocking chair.

Since I've been making over my sewing room, another thing I bought from IKEA were some baskets to organize my fabric in...8 baskets to be exact. I thought for sure that would hold all my fabric stash...not even close! So, one of my new year resolutions is to use up the fabric in my stash this year...that will make for some fun scrap quilts - my favorite.

Well, I have many other new year resolutions, but that's a post for another day! Hope you have a wonderful day! Sorry for the lengthy 'catch-up' post. Thanks for stopping by! =)