Nutsy Coco Creations

White vs. white vs. white

2012-02-06T20:15:00.000-05:00

Ugh, the bathroom reno continues, but we really are closing in on the finish line now. We spent a long weekend (long as in tiring, not as in extra days off work) tiling and grouting. We got the big wall over the tub done on Wed night, the window wall done on Fri night and the other wall done on Sat. Unfortunately, as soon as we got it all done, we realized the white subway tiles weren't quite so...white.

See back there how much of a difference there is between the white wainscoting and the white tiles?

You can't tell very well from the photos, but the floor tiles also look a little whiter than the wall tiles. I compared the wall tiles to the floor tiles before we started putting them up, but I guess when you multiply them across a bigger space, it becomes noticeable. I won't lie that the varying whites are bothering me, but I'm trying to come to terms with things. We do have some options for it less noticeable, but we decided to wait until we're finished to see how it all comes together.

The tub will soon be resurfaced white and I think we'll go with a white that matches the toilet, which is a whiter white. We also have some shower doors to put up which will ultimately hide a lot of the shower tile so maybe it won't be very noticeable in the end. We figure the easiest fix would be to tone down the bright white wainscoting and trim with something a little less blinding.

Despite the color (or lack thereof) inconsistencies, I'm really happy with how the tiling turned out. We decided to add in some black tiles to tie it in with the floor. We did hire someone to do the backer board for us because it would have been a real pain in the butt and he thought our tile design was too modern. We disagree and like it which is what matters to us. The bigger tiles were more of a challenge than the little floor tiles, especially given that the edge of the tub doesn't exactly have an even surface. We spent a lot of time planning the layout and other than a couple of things we would have done differently that would have saved us some cutting, it worked out great.

We grouted it on Sunday which I mistakenly thought would be a quick project. Grouting.is.not.fun. Well, actually grouting isn't that bad, it's the clean up that sucks. It takes FOREVER and is really tiring. It wasn't grouted yet in these photos, but it is a good grouting job if I do say so myself :)

Now we need to get our tub refinishing scheduled and call in a plumber to find out why our sinks won't properly drain...

Curves

2012-02-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm really happy that the bathroom reno is winding down because I have a new project that starts next week! When I saw in December that Stitched in Color was going to offer a class on sewing curves in the new year, I couldn't wait to sign up. I've never sewn curves, her tutorials are great and her projects are always cute so I figured it would be a great class to try out. After a month of almost no sewing, I'm even more excited to get started!

The class is going to run for about a month and each week will have several projects to choose from with varying levels of difficulty.

This project looks like a lot of fun and I've been wanting a runner for my bedroom dresser. I've made two so far but I'm not happy with either one. Maybe this project will finally help me find what I'm looking for! All of the projects I've seen so far look tempting and I know it's going to be hard to decide what to make because there are only so many hours in the week.

I can't believe that it's been almost two years since I took my first quilting class. I haven't made nearly as many quilts as I would have liked, but, again, there are so many hours in the day. I have lots of ideas but not enough time to make them all.

Hopefully sewing curves won't be too difficult. I can't imagine they're easy, but lots of people can do it so why can't I, right? I like to challenge myself to try something new each year and this definitely fits the bill.

I can't wait to show off my projects!

Pretend

2012-01-31T12:40:00.003-05:00

If I stand in one spot, ignore the missing sink, the other sink that doesn't drain properly and the screws that I need to cover on the mirror, I can pretend that our bathroom reno is finished!

Then I turn around and see this...

Ughhhh. The last few projects have been slow-going at best, but progress is being made so I guess I should celebrate that fact.

I hope to have the tub walls tiled by next weekend. Okay, the end of next weekend if I'm being realistic based on how everything else has been going. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised!

Scrappy Fabric Bowl

2012-01-22T18:32:00.000-05:00

In between all the bathroom renovating work, I have managed to fit in a little bit of sewing. I've had grand plans to do more but the bathroom keeps winning out. Now we're in a big push to get as much done as we can before next weekend when we're hosting poker night at our house. I'm not going to jinx us by commenting on how things are going right now.

From a lot of the blogs I read, it seems like the theme of the new year is using up scraps. Amazingly enough, I was ahead of the trend because I had already planned this project before I knew that was the theme.

I've been collecting lots of long strips from projects and decided it was time to make another fabric bowl, this time with scraps. They're really easy to make and it used up a lot of my blue/green scraps but I still have a bag chock full of other colors.

Good thing I have an idea for another project for them! Now, if only I had the time to work on it...

Progress!

2012-01-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

I'm incredibly excited that we've moved into the rebuilding phase of our bathroom reno! It was a long, busy, chockfull of activity weekend, but we have something to show for all of our work.

Our new bathroom floor!

It took 5 trips to 4 different Home Depots over the course of 2 days, but it's finished!Well, almost. These pictures are pre-grouting, which we did tonight, but we still need to give it the final buffing.

Our first trip to the first Home Depot on Saturday left us without enough tiles and we had to drive across town to another store that had enough in stock. The third trip to the third Home Depot on Sunday was to pick up some more supplies that we needed and that was the closest store they were listed as in stock at. Thanks to miscounting on my part, we didn't have enough of said supply and I had to go to the store AGAIN. I gambled and picked the closest one which fortunately had what we needed. The fifth trip to the same closest store came late in the day on Sunday when we ran out of backerboard screws just as Chris was about to finish. Fortunately, Monday didn't require a single trip to the store for more supplies!

Thankfully after all those trips to the store and all the hard work, I LOVE how it turned out! It was the first time tiling for either of us and things went surprisingly smoothly. It's not exactly easy or fun to tile, but I'm really happy with our work. I think the little tiles (which were in 12x12 sheets) were fairly forgiving to work with but it still took some precision to keep them all lined up. I was a little afraid to walk on it today for fear that I did something wrong and I'd hear tiles cracking beneath my feet. I'm happy to say that it was completely sturdy!

Now on to the walls!

Why yes, I DO have an architecture degree!

2012-01-10T20:22:00.002-05:00

Of course, you may not think that's true after this story.

Things are slowly progressing with our bathroom reno. The past few days have been more about planning than actual work.

One of those days, Saturday, included a long trip to Home Depot to look at options for the various things we need to buy, one of them being tile. We walked up and down the aisle trying to decide what we liked best and finally calculated how much it would cost for one of the options. Now, I had already drafted up a general budget so I had an idea in mind. That idea was blown out of the water at the store by over a thousand dollars! Not what I wanted to find out, but we weren't looking at incredibly expensive tile and we didn't see any alternative to bring the price down by much if we want to use tile, which we do.

Fast forward to Monday when Chris came to his mathematical senses and recalculated that our bathroom is SEVENTY square feet, not SEVEN HUNDRED! No, we do not have a bathroom fit for royalty. And yes, as I said, I do have a degree in architecture (achieved with good grades no less), I got A's in calculus and physics, use math frequently at work, yet not only can I not calculate that my bathroom is only 70 SF, I don't realize that it's wrong when I come up with 700 instead! I blame it on the fact that I was converting from inches to feet to pricing all at once and didn't really notice the fact that I came to 700 SF, just the final price. The upside of me being an idiot is that I was able to readjust our tile budget back to a much more reasonable number.

After all that, I guess I should give you a peek at the tile we selected. Going to the store, I never would have thought this is what I would agree to but I'm actually really excited about it.

It's very traditional, which isn't usually my style, and I typically go for earth tones, but I think it will look really nice. The sheet is 12x12 so that gives you an idea of the size of the individual tiles. We're going to use white subway tiles for the walls of the shower and the rest of the walls will have wainscoting halfway up with paint above.

We also decided on this light for the two pendants over the vanity (which has yet to be finalized) and I love them. You can't see the swirls all that well in the picture, but they're kind of modern while still going with the more traditional tile.

I can't wait it all to start coming together! I'm hoping there will be a lot of progress over the weekend!

Well that sucked...

2012-01-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

While the wall tile removal of our bathroom reno went fast, the floor removal took FOR-EV-ER. First of all, we took up two layers of flooring and two layers of sub floor, while still leaving another layer of floor and subfloor. The bottom layers are flush with the hallway so it won't be a huge transition when we add in the new subfloor and flooring.

The second layer of floor looked surprisingly like the first albeit in a slightly more beige tone with gold flecks. I guess someone decided it didn't go well with the silver metallic wallpaper. The first layer of floor and subfloor weren't fun, but didn't take all that long. The next layer of flooring though literally had HUNDREDS of staples, 1.5" staples, that had to be pulled up to get the next layer of subfloor out. And then what did we find as Chris battled that level of subfloor? MORE staples! It was awful. It took hours to get the last level of floor up and remove all the staples. Plus there was an added bonus of nails in one section of the floor because clearly hundreds of staples weren't cutting it.

I think it probably took about 6-8 hours of both of us working, but tonight we finally finished it off and are ready to move to the next phase. I think that will be saying good-bye to the lovely wallpaper. I'm optimistic that it will go pretty fast because there's only one layer of wallpaper. I already have experience with it from our master bath and that bathroom had two layers of wallpaper with paint on top!

One thing that did go quickly was the cabinet removal. While Chris was slaving away at the floor, I'm proud to say I completely removed the vanity cabinets. We originally thought we might have them refaced, but decided they were too old and junky. Thankfully it didn't take long!

I'm ready to be done with all the demo so we can start rebuilding!

Out with the Old

2012-01-01T17:43:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope everyone's year is off to a fabulous start. We're dealing with a sick Guinness (mystery illness but likely some sort of gastrointestinal problem or doggy flu), but he seems to be improving after lots of napping. Other than that, it's been a quiet, productive and fairly relaxing day. Hopefully a sign of how the year will go!

After months of talking about it, it seems only fitting that we finally began our hallway bathroom renovation on Friday as the year was coming to an end. Here's the before in all its pink, metallic glory.

Aside from accessories, we haven't done a thing to it since we moved in. We also thought none of the prevoius owners had done a thing to it (except pull up the carpet that we learned used to be in there from Chris' high school classmate who lived in our house growing up), but learned differently the instant Chris began taking down tile.

Why yes, that IS tile ON TOP of tile.Honestly, I do not know what the hell some people are thinking when they take on a renovation project. The good news is that both layers came down fairly easily and we'll have a very slightly more spacious bathroom ;)

Chris was off on Friday and got a good start on the demo before I came home and joined him.All the tile is now down, the countertop and sink are gone, the toilet is gone and some of the wall surrounding the tub is gone.

We gave ourselves a break over the weekend to enjoy some time off and for festivities with friends and family but I think we'll be back at it tomorrow. Next up is clearing the debris out of the bathtub, trying to remove the soffits (unless they're hiding wiring and plumbing, then I think we'll leave them), removing the wallpaper and the flooring. We're still on the fence about the cabinets and bathtub. We might have the front of the cabinets refaced and the tub resurfaced, but we'll see how they survive the rest of the demo.

Wish us luck!

Gifts Received

2011-12-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

Now that I've shown off the gifts I made, I'll show off the handmade gifts I received! My dear friends Mary and Nakira came through with awesome gifts again.

Mary made me these super cute, embroidered produce bags. I already have one at work holding my potatoes in my pantry because I hate how the potato skin dust always gets the bottom of the drawer dirty.

Nakira made me this awesome iPad case made out of felt and I immediately put it to use because I was getting tired of my old. I was actually thinking of making a new one and now I can skip that project!

Thanks ladies!!

Gifts Given Revealed

2011-12-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I had a wonderful, albeil busy, holiday weekend and am greatly appreciating two days of recovery and relaxation.

Now that all of the gifts have been given, I can reveal what I've been working on for the past few months!

Being a glutton for punishment, I decided about two weeks before Christmas to knit my dad a hat and since I'm a slooow knitter, I was knitting up the night before our Christmas celebration to get it finished. Chris so nicely modeled it for me. Thankfully it was a much appreciated gift!

I made some new jewelry for my mom since I know she's always happy to get that. Red is conveniently her favorite color which works for Christmas, Valentine's Day and anytime of the year!

In addition to the jewelry roll I made for my grandma, I also made her some note cards from photos I took during our trip to Florida last spring. I love how they turned out which made me happy because I wasn't sure if I would. I had a large canvas print made of the peacock photo and I don't really like how that turned out. It's a bit too vibrant or large or something but I love the card.

My dear friends Mary and Nakira each got a pair of potholders and magnetic measuring spoons that I LOVE from Crate & Barrel. My mom got me a set a year or two ago and I highly recommend them!

My step-mom also got a set of potholders and measuring spoons. Can you tell I love the black/white print? I just think it's really cute and versatile because it's neutral.

My sister and her girlfriend got cosmetic bags with a couple of little goodies stuck inside. They got the blue and purple ones. I kept the other one for myself :)

I felt like I didn't make all that many gifts this Christmas, but looking back through the list, I guess I did get a lot done! I was better this year about spreading them out instead of cramming everything in at the last minute (just cramming one in at the last minute!) which made it seem like less.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Fair

2011-12-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Chris and I headed out to a new park, Columbus Commons, for some holiday festivities.

The trees were all lit up,

(I think the blue was my favorite)

there was a petting zoo that was full of activity, despite what this picture of sleeping pigs will lead you to believe,

there was a long line of kids waiting to take a ride down this slide,

hourly showings of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (my fave-o-rite),

and fireworks! It was my first time going to see fireworks in December.

It was a nice, laid back, opportunity to get out and experience some Christmas cheer!

Rolled Up Into One

2011-12-12T19:57:00.000-05:00

Even though we're still a couple of weeks away from Christmas (thank God!), I can show off a few of the gifts I made. They're for my grandma and step-grandma and since my mom provides the internet access, I trust she won't show off these gifts prematurely. At least she better now!

When I made my mom's jewelry roll over the summer, I also made one for my grandma. She travels around to visit family fairly often and I figured she'd get a lot of use out of a jewelry roll. You know, to hold all that jewelry I've made for her over the past several years.

Of course, I also had to make her some jewelry - a necklace and some earrings - to go along with it which I finished up over the weekend. It's all rolled up and ready to make its way down to Florida.

My mom liked hers so much that she commissioned me to make one for my step-grandma.Hers is the one on the right. We picked out the fabric during a shopping trip last month and even though it's not Christmas fabric, I discovered it goes great with some of my actual Christmas fabrics. I can't wait to use the scraps for some Christmas projects. Not that I have any particular projects in mind or time to make them this Christmas season but it'll show up in a project one day!

And, while I was at it, I decided to go ahead and make one for myself since I never have anywhere to keep my jewelry when I travel.

Yay for crossing projects off the list!

Dreamy Apple Pie

2011-12-09T17:30:00.000-05:00

I've been telling Chris for at least a month that I'm going to make him a pie and I finally fulfilled that promise earlier this week.

I decided to try out Pioneer Woman's Dreamy Apple Pieand I have to be completely immodest and say, it was delicious. I'm not even that big a fan of apple pie, but it was really good! It was also the first one of her recipes I've tried out even though I read her blog all the time. I made a big giant mess, but it was well worth it.

It also gave me the opportunity to try out this, my new apple peeler/corer/slicer. Oh.my.God. It is quite possibly the most awesome kitchen gadget I've ever used in my life. Chris was napping while I made the pie and it took a lot of restraint for me not to wake him up and show him this gem in action. I made apple sauce a month or so ago and it took FOR-EVER to peel and slice the apples. It took about 10 seconds per apple with my new wonder device. It was easy to set up, easy to use and didn't require any adjustments to the settings. $20 very well spent.

What's your favorite kitchen device?

Guinness' Book of World Records

2011-12-05T20:19:00.001-05:00

Guinness decided I needed to start a new segment for him on my blog -

Guinness' Book of World Records.

He'd do it himself if only he could use a computer. To kick things off, we have Guinness' Book of World Records for Most Degrading Dog Experience.

The Conehead

Poor little Guinness had a lump removed from his hip - nothing cancerous but it was pushing on muscles and in danger of pushing on nerves - and is now subjected to Conehead for the next ten days. Unrelated, he also has some inflamed discs and is on run, jump and play rest for the next month or as Guinness would call it - the suckiest month ever.

Hopefully he'll make Guinness' Book of World Records for the Fastiest Recovery Ever!

Finnish Stars

2011-11-29T17:15:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the theme of making Christmas items for myself, I tried out this project, one from my Christmas board on pinterest. They're Finnish stars made out of fabric.

I didn't take a photo of the first one I made, but it was the reverse of this blue one. Note to self (and anyone wanting to try them out) - put the fabric that you want to be on the outside face UP when making the stars. Live and learn...

The stars are a quick and fun project, but do require some patience. It helps to let pieces dry for a few minutes before you continue on to the next step or else the pieces pull apart a little. You could also make them out of paper which would be even easier but I'm assuming the fabric ones will be more durable. Mine need to be extra durable because I have a cat who is just waiting for the opportunity to jump up and snatch one. Because I make him catnip mice he thinks anything I make out of fabric that is small enough to carry is meant for him.

I want to make several more so I have a series hanging in my entry area. I was hoping to make them over the long holiday weekend but alas, Sudden Illness (which seemed a LOT like the flu despite the fact that I got a flu shot) struck me down on Saturday and I spent the weekend as a couch potato. By Sunday night, I was truly beginning to feel like I had the personality and pizazz of an uncooked potato. Don't get me wrong, I love potatoes, could probably eat them at every meal, but I've never aspired to be one.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T14:32:00.001-05:00

For everyone celebrating Thanksgiving today, I hope it's a wonderful day filled with family, friends, good food and good times!

Our family will be here later today but we've already had a slew of bird friends visting and feasting on our bird seed.

Yum

2011-11-20T19:39:00.001-05:00

Have I mentioned my love of pinterest? I know I've mentioned some projecs from it, but it's such an awesome website. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's like a virtual pinboard. I love that I can pin all my project ideas and see a picture that goes with the link instead of just a list of names. I don't know why but I can't always remember what project "tote bag" is when I bookmark it.

I also love that I can pin recipes and I decided it was finally time to start making some of those recipes. I actually tried not one but TWO this weekend!

Photo courtesy of Jenny Steffens' blog

Last night I made this tomato basil soup which was awesome. It was super easy and I made it according to the directions except I didn't have fresh basil so I added in a little dried basil. I also blended up the soup because it was a little chunky for my liking. It was a great opportunity to use my immersion blend which hardly ever gets pulled out of the cabinet! You could also use a regular blender if you don't have an immersion blender. I was a little worried I'd end up splattering tomato soup all over my kitchen but there was nary a drop! I'll definitely be making more of this.

Photo from Technicolor Kitchen's blog

Tonight I made this chicken teriyaki which was tasty but not quite what I was expecting. That could very well be due to my execution though because my sauce didn't thicken up like the recipe said it should. It was also super easy and I'll definitely give it another shot since it was definitely yummy.

Next up might have to be one of those delectable looking desserts I keep pinning!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2011-11-13T19:15:00.001-05:00

Christmas! I know it's early for Christmas (well, not for retail establishments) but when it comes to Christmas crafting projects, I've learned it's good to get an early start. One of the projects I really wanted to get done this year was making stockings for Chris and myself, especially after making a couple for Craft Hope in September. I saw this cute stocking pattern a year or two ago and it was finally time to give it a go.

They were easy to make although not super fast because of the quilting, which is one of the reasons I didn't use this pattern for the Craft Hope stockings. I'm happy with how they turned out though and I'm looking forward to hanging them by the chimney with care!

Are you crafting anything for yourself this Christmas? I rarely make any Christmas crafts for myself because I'm too busy making Christmas presents, but I made sure to make time for it this year.

Plodding Along

2011-11-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

Not me

I started this new knitting project a couple of weeks ago and it's sloooooowly coming along. Seriously, am I the world's slowest knitter? I have no clue how anyone can sell handmade knitted goods and make any money at it. If I charged myself a reasonable hourly rate, I think a hat would average about $150. Anyone want to buy one?? :)

At the rate I'm going, I figure I should have this project done by about winter 2013. A shame too, because it looks super warm and cozy and I can't wait to wear it! I don't think the 6" that I've finished so far will keep me very warm though. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace enough to show it off before the end of this winter!

Another Little Update

2011-11-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

After finishing the quick and easy project of updating our cabinet knobs a couple of weekends ago, Chris and I followed it up last weekend with another quick (although not quite as easy) project of updating our light fixtures. And by Chris and I, mean mostly Chris because he handles the electrical projects in our household.

Both of our old fixtures were polished brass, which we all know I don't love, and the chandelier over the table just didn't work for me overall. It used to hang lower but our table is a high one so we raised it up which left it with an annoying excess of chain. It's very bright, but it feels like you have the heat of a 1000 suns glaring down on you (great on a cold winter day, but not so great in the summer (yeah, I could switch to fluorescent bulbs, but I hate to replace bulbs that work so they stay until they die).

The kitchen table is a more informal eating area and I had a hard time finding a light fixture that I liked because I didn't want anything overly fancy or large. We also both wanted a fixture where the bulbs are hidden which is surprisingly hard to find. I finally decided on this simple light that is nice and bright but doesn't feel like it's going to give you a sunburn.

We replaced the old center kitchen light fixture with this one. Sorry for the crappy picture, but it's kind of hard to take pictures of lights. And to give excuses, excuses, I was feeling under the weather last weekend so I didn't feel like spending the time to get the perfect picture.

And on that note, we have no officially banished all the brass from our kitchen!

Tim, the Toolman, Taylor

2011-10-31T18:00:00.000-04:00

I've never really seen similarities between my beloved husband and Tim, the Toolman, Taylor from the old series, Home Improvement, (I'm going to disregard that I just referred to it as "old" because that makes me feel old!) but I couldn't help thinking "More power!" as he was carving our pumpkin last week.

Chris recently read a "tip" online about using a reciprocating saw to make the pumpkin carving experience quicker and easier (seriously, how was this never a Home Improvement Halloween episode??) and decided to give it a try.

It was quick and I guess relatively easy, but definitely messier than an average pumpkin carving because the jigsaw sprayed little bits of pumpkin all over the place. Chris also had to be careful because the saw could very quickly cut beyond what he wanted to cut. I used a regular old knife to clean things up a bit afer he was done with the jigsaw.

Unfortunately, I didn't even get a good after picture because I was going to wait until daylight to take one outside. Chris put the pumpkin outside overnight and it was gnawed on by the next day (and now rotting, but ignore that part). Vile little squirrels...

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Bag

2011-10-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

Today is my dear friend, Nakira's, birthday and she was the recipient of what I was hoping would be a super cool purse. I noticed a purse she posted on pinterest that she wanted to make, but it was a pin to nowhere so I set off to find something similar. I saw this pattern online and thought it would be a suitable alternative. It had a bow like the one she pinned and, after getting the pattern, I discovered the bow could be removed to use as a scarf, which I thought was pretty cool.

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out and I hope Nak likes it, but the project wasn't without it problems.First, the pattern calls for one yard each of two fabrics. When I got ready to cut the first fabric, I realized it was folded in half all wonky and wasn't a true yard. Right after that, I discovered the other fabric wasn't a 44" bolt but 42" instead. That's ok though! I was ready to roll with the punches. I modified the pattern a little and made it slightly smaller so that I would have enough fabric. Things were progressing well, but then I realized, whoopsy, I cut fabric from one of the prints that I shouldn't have. That's ok, still rolling with the punches! The pattern didn't call for the purse to be reversible, but I decided to make it that way wihch meant I'd still have enough fabric. Then, just as I was getting ready to finish it up, I realized I'd miscalculate didn't, in fact, have enough fabric left to finish the bow/scarf. Ok, enough punches for one evening; time to call it a day.

After a nice break from each other, I returned to the purse with a third fabric to use for the scarf/bow and was finished in no time.

I don't know if it's just me, but the sagging bow/scarf was starting to nag at me so I decided to wrap it around twice which gives it more stability and less fabric is hanging. (Sorry for the poor picture quality but it was nighttime and I needed to get the purse wrapped up/packaged)

The scarf isn't very substantial, but it would provide a little warmth on a cool fall or spring day.

Happy Birthday Nak!!!

Bargain Basement

2011-10-23T19:14:00.000-04:00

Things have been relatively quiet on the home improvement front since early summer, but I've been itching to do some things around the house for the past few weeks. This weekend didn't afford much time for projects, but I did manage to cross one small one off my list that I've been wanting to do since we moved in. Replace our kitchen cabinet knobs.

The old ones were white in the center and polished brass on the outside. As I've mentioned, the prior owners of our home decorated with all polished brass finishes and it's not my personal preference. I also didn't like the white on white look because it was too much white for my tastes.

Now we have nice, simple, brushed nickel knobs that I got for a MAJOR bargain. I was expecting to spend at least $2/knob if not $3 and with 42 knobs, that's a good chunk of change. Instead, we found a contractor's bag of 50 knobs that had been $58 and was marked down to $38. That's $.76/knob people! They're hollow unlike the $3/knob ones we were originally looking at, but I can't see that making a big difference in my knob needs. Plus, I now have 8 extras in case there's some horrible knob mishap because, you know, that seems super likely.

Purl Ridge Scarf

2011-10-18T18:00:00.000-04:00

The knitting train continues to chug along and I finished up another project over the weekend. It was another fairly quick project that took me about 2 weeks to finish. I am NOT a fast knitter so I'm pretty happy with a two-week project. I don't feel like I knit slow, but based on the comments I read on Ravelry about how long it takes people to finish something, I'm obviously not the speediest. Oh well, fortunately this a hobby, not a speed contest.

I found this pattern on Ravelry a while back and with the weather turning cool, I bumped it up to the top of my queue. It's a circular scarf and was super easy to make because it was a lot of rows of knitting with a few rows of purls. I can't decide how much I like circular scarves, mainly because I seem to have a hard time getting them to lay right, but I do love that it's warm and cozy. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease which is washable with a little wool to make it warmer, but not enough to make it scratchy. Based on the chilly temperatures in our forecast for this week, I think I'll be using it soon!

Thanks always to my beloved hubby for handling my photo shoots. I really don't like modeling, but he does a great job of keeping me entertained!

O Canada

2011-10-16T18:43:00.001-04:00

Last weekend Chris and I made a quick weekend trip to Niagara Falls and it couldn't have been a better weekend for the trip. The weather was absolutely gorgeous which was incredibly fortunate because it was sandwiched between weekends with some pretty crappy weather. It's about 6 hours from us, but my parents live along the way which helped break up the driving (I'm not a fan of long car rides). We stopped to visit them for an evening and then we all headed up to Canada for a day.

We stayed on the Canadian side of the falls at the Crowne Plaza, which was well maintained and the location was fantastic.

Chris and I spent the afternoon walking around and went on the Maid of the Mist. It's a pretty quick ride, but it was really cool to be down in the river, that close to the incredible power of the falls.

That was also when we understood why the bridge between the U.S. and Canada is called the Rainbow Bridge!

Our hotel was near American Falls so we took a walk down to Horseshoe Falls after our boat ride. The water was beautifully clear and a gorgeous shade of green.

For dinner we all drove up to Niagara on the Lake which is about 20 minutes from Niagara Falls and an insanely quaint little town.

There were numerous horse-drawn carriages, but no, we didn't take a ride on one in case you're wondering.

Everything was beautifully landscaped and we had a delicious dinner on the patio outside of this restaurant.

Of course we had to make another stop at the falls after dinner so we could see them all lit up after dark. The lights gradually change from one color to the next.

Before calling it a day, Chris and I made a trip to the touristy street which reminded me of a combination of Vegas and an amusement park. It was a great little getaway!

Tired

2011-10-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

Some days, don't you just really want to take a nap after a long day at work?

What's for Dinner?

2011-10-03T19:20:00.000-04:00

While Chris and I are currently only a family of two, I've learned that planning our meals for the week is a BIG help when it comes to grocery shopping (which I hate) and cooking dinner throughout the week. I don't hate cooking, but it's not one of my favorite activities and after years of torturing myself by having no plan of what to make, I finally got my act together. For about a year and a half, we (mostly me) have been planning out our meals for the week. At first, I printed out the weekly menu and printed it out to hang on the fridge. I got tired of doing that though and it seemed like a waste of paper so for the past few months I've just been periodically consulting the computer throughout the week. That worked ok, but I got tired of Chris asking me what was for dinner every night. Since he also helps cook dinner, it's extra nice for him to know what's on the menu!

Enter this project that I saw on pinterest last week. A picture frame that you can write on with a dry erase marker! Quick and easy! I printed out this Halloween inspired stationary that I modified to be a menu. It would be nice if someone designed me some seasonal prints for my birthday or Christmas that I could change several times througout the year. If only I knew someone who was awesome at designing paper goods...(ahem, Handmama Mama)

Now this can hang in our kitchen and there are no questions about what's for dinner!

Drop Stitch Scarf

2011-09-27T18:51:00.000-04:00

After I getting my knitting needles back out a few weeks ago to make this headband, I decided to jump right in to another project that had been sitting in my Ravelry queue for months. This scarf knitted up in no time and was really easy to make. The pattern was easy to remember yet still makes for an interesting design. It could probably use some blocking to really make the dropped stitches stand out, but it works the way it is. One skein of the yarn I used made a scarf a little short for my liking so I think I'll donate this one. Hopefully it will brighten someone's dreary winter day!

Now to decide on the next knitted project to keep this ball rolling!

Scottie, the Dog

2011-09-18T15:49:00.001-04:00

I saw a pattern for this Scottie Dog on Denyse Schmidt Quilts awhile ago and thought it would be a fun gift to make for a kid. Enter our niece's 4th birthday! Her favorite color is green so I made sure to include a lot of green in the squares. Fortunately I also love green so it wasn't very difficult to find scraps to use! I finished it off with green button eyes and a dashing green scarf.

It went together pretty quickly. Cutting the squares took a little time and sewing the yellow band around was a little difficult but I actually got through it without having to rip out any seams! I'm very proud of that fact because it was a bit tricky in spots.

I put it on our fireplace mantle when it was finished for safekeeping (never know if a stuffed animal will invite poochie interest but I think it's too big for them) and I have to admit I kinda want one for myself now. I guess if Julia doesn't like it, I'll ask her if I can keep it ;)

Happy Birthday to my favorite 4 year old!

Labeled

2011-09-14T17:30:00.000-04:00

Last night I crossed a project off my to do list that I've been wanting to tackle for several months. I don't know why it took me so long because it was super quick and easy!

I saw this tutorial for personalized fabric labels and wanted to try them out because I don't put any sort of label on my sewing projects. All you need for this project is twill tape and printable t-shirt transfer paper (assuming that anyone doing it already has a computer, printer and iron). I actually had t-shirt transfer paper that I got for some long forgotten project about 5 years ago so all I needed was the twill tape. I quickly made up a Word document to fit the 1/2" twill tape, printed it out, ironed it on and in no time I had a little pile of personalized labels!

I learned that I need to be careful about leaving the iron on long enough for the text to fully transfer, but other than that I didn't run into any problems. Ok, so maybe I had a slight problem with the printing because first I forgot to print a mirror image and then I forgot to line my rows up right, but what would a project be if I didn't screw something up?!

I sewed one in to a little cosmetic bag that I made for myself (sorry, no pic) and it worked great! I don't know how it will hold up over time, but the cosmetic bag should get some wear and tear in my purse so it will be a good test case.

Craft Hope - Christmas in Dixie

2011-09-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know we're still more than 3 months away from Christmas, but I have a very good reason to be posting about it already!

Craft Hope is organizing their 14th project - Christmas in Dixie - to provide Christmas stockings to families who lost everything in tornadoes. After making bracelets for their last project, I couldn't wait to participate again although I wasn't quite as industrious this time around. Stockings take a lot more time and materials than bracelets!

Fortunately I have a decent stash of Christmas fabric and I was happy to put some to use for a good cause. I followed this pattern I found online, but it's pretty easy to wing a stocking if you don't have a pattern. I think picking out the fabric and cutting it took me longer than the sewing!

I hope these help to brighten someone's holiday season. Craft Hope is accepting donations until Sept 23rd so there's still time to help out!

Unofficially Fall

2011-09-06T18:45:00.002-04:00

Here in the U.S., Labor Day signals the unofficial end of summer, and this year it was a resounding signal. From Saturday to Monday we went from a high in the mid 90s to a high in the mid 60s and I for one could not be happier. I know some people relish the hot days of summer but, without a doubt, I am not one of them. I love the cool fall weather, the changing of the leaves, hot apple cider, Halloween, Thanksgiving, the list goes on and on. Oh yeah, not to mention my birthday, my husband's birthday and our wedding anniversary!

It's only fitting that I got the urge a week or so ago (when we were having a pre-90s dip in temps) to pull out my knitting needles and make something new. I saw a tutorial for a headband/neck warmer on pinterest that I thought was really cute and would be a fun, quick project. And it was! It only took a few days and just as we had a dip in the temperature, I wore it out for an impromptu photo shoot with my wonderful husband. It'll be nice to wear when it's cold and breezy becaus I hate having cold ears!

Welcome back Autumn! I missed you!

Blooms & Butterflies

2011-09-01T20:38:00.001-04:00

Last weekend Chris and I fit a quick trip to Franklin Park Conservatory into our busy schedule because I had a Groupon that was about to expire and I really wanted to visit the Blooms and Butterflies exhibit. Even

though we didn't have a lot of time to spend there, it was a great visit and we saw some beautiful butterflies.

I love the blue of this butterfly.

A pretty monarch butterfly.

This butterfly kept playing hard to get. The back of its wings are a beautiful blue but I could never get a shot! There were numerous ones flitting around the room but the only one to stop and rest near me wouldn't open its wings.

I wanted to visit the hot shop that we didn't venture out to on our last visit (a cold and snowy December day!) and saw these awesome glass pieces along the way.

There were pumpkins

and strawberries

and tomatoes

and pears

and peaches which were all so pretty!

We got to the hot shop just in time to see the last demonstration of the day.

Watching people work with glass is amazing and, of course, makes me want to give it a try! They do have classes where you can make an ornament or something small like that and I might have to give one a try. Not that I need another hobby!

Sigh...

2011-08-30T16:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I'm pretty sure my yard conspires against me.

A few weeks ago Chris and I decided to finally tackle this pile of wood that's been sitting in our backyard for months. It's the remnants of a big branch we had cut down in the spring and I was getting REALLY tired of looking at it. Chris borrowed a log splitter from a friend at work and I, oh-so-mistakenly, thought we'd be done with the project in a few hours.

About 5 or 6 hours later the pile had changed to this. I think it actually looks like more, but it's just more spread out. Unfortunately most of the wood sections weren't cut small enough to use on the log splitter (even though we'd asked the tree trimmers to cut them to log splitting size) and our chain saw broke after the first few cuts.

Despite all that wood still sitting there, our log pile went from almost empty (just one or two rows of logs left) to full to the brim.

Take 2 came the next weekend when Chris borrowed a chain saw from a friend but after about an hour of trying, he couldn't get it to work. Take 3 came a few days later when Chris' friend (owner of the chain saw) came over to help out. He got it working for about 2 chunks of wood before it petered out. That's when Chris decided we have enough wood to last us several years and to have the rest of it hauled away.

While we tried to find out someone to haul it away, I decided to tackle this mess on the other side of the yard - leaves, branches and debris we've been accruing for over a year. I got it all cleaned up last week and was very happy to look at a nice, cleaned up area.

I was even happier the next night when I came home from work and Chris told me our neighbor, who does yardwork for a living, would be nice enough haul away our wood. We loaded up his truck and my yard was finally back in order.

Until the next day when I came home from work to this sight...

It wasn't a big surprise because the branch had actually broken off a few weeks before and was stuck in a tree. We were wondering if we were going to have to call a tree service to get it down but it fell on a windy day last week. I'm happy it didn't hurt anyone or break our fence but I could do without another giant branch to clean up!

Quilting Collaborative Project Finished!

2011-08-28T09:32:00.001-04:00

It took longer than I was expecting, but my wonderful collaborative project with my dear friends Mary and Nakira is finished!

I absolutely love how it turned out.My squares are the red ones, Mary's are the green ones and Nakira's are the purple ones. I designed the layout for the quilt and then each of us chose the colors for our squares. We all ended up with yellow which really helped tie things together. I quilted it with diagonal lines and then bound it with green fabric.

There was a little miscommunication about sizing with Nakira's first set of blocks and unfortunately they were half an inch too small. I hated for them to go to waste though so I designed the back around them along with an extra block of red and green in the middle. I figured it was only fitting to make the rest of the backing yellow since that's what tied all of our squares together.

Now it will be donated to charity and I hope it will make someone happy :)

Mary and Nak, it was great working on this project with you even though we're all miles apart!

For Natasha

2011-08-23T19:47:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was a baby shower for my step-cousin and her baby girl Natasha who will soon be joining us. I wasn't able to make it to the shower, but I sent along a gift for my step-mom to deliver which, of course, was handmade.

I decided to try out another baby blanket like the one I made a few years ago for Chris' cousinfrom Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts and it went much more smoothly this time! That one was a nightmare of broken needles but this one was smooth sailing the whole way. I bought this fabric thinking it might work for the quilting collaborative quilt backing, but I must have been smoking something when I had that thought because it really doesn't go at all. Fortunately, I thought it would make a great blanket for Natasha and I got a bright green fabric for the back to coordinate with the green on the front. I thought the green would be a nice balance to all the pink, red and orange on the front.

I think it's a fun blanket for a baby and will give her lots of little objects to identify once she gets a little older. For the "ties" to hold the layers together, I alternated rows of pink and yellow to give a little more color to the back.

Congratulations Ronni and Brian!

Birthday Roll

2011-08-21T20:34:00.000-04:00

Sorry, this post has nothing to do with baking if that's what you were hoping for!

My mom's birthday was yesterday and I made her a jewelry roll that she can use to carry around all that jewelry I've made for her!

I used a pattern from One Yard Wonders and it was surprisingly easy to make. I guess I'm getting more advanced than I realized in my sewing :)It has a couple of pockets and the ribbon can be used for hanging earrings. I love the fabric and I knew it would be perfect for my mom since red is her favorite color. Of course, I also made some new jewelry to go along with it - a couple pairs of earrings and a bracelet.

While I had my jewelry supplies out, I came across some supplies I bought months ago to make myself a necklace and I finally made it just in time to have a little something beachy to finish off the summer.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Quilting Collaborative Project

2011-08-14T19:26:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know I haven't done all that much since I last posted about this project, but I finished the top and it looks so cute that I had to show it off.

See, isn't it cute?

I feel like I can brag about it more since it's not just my work :) I really love how colorful and cheerful it is.

I'm only showing off the front right now, but I've actually finished the back AND my quilt sandwich since I took the photo of the front earlier today! Hopefully that means I'll be ready to show off the finished project soon!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We've had a delightful break in the heat and there's just the tiniest hint of fall in the air. I can't wait for those days to get here!

Bloggy Break

2011-08-09T21:01:00.000-04:00

I wasn't planning to take such a long bloggy break when Chris and I left for our annual lake vacation almost 3 weeks ago, but that's what happened. It was a very relaxing week, the weather was great (HOT but that's allowed during lake week) and we had a lot of fun. It was the same old, same old, but that's what great about lake week.

There was doggy swimming

and doggy relaxing.

Waterskiing

and sunset cruises.

Finding the swans,

countless cranes,

arguing over whether this was an eagle or a hawk
(Chris and I agree that the photographic evidence = hawk but there are eagles in the area),

an unusual number of buzzards,

a giant turtle (NOT a common sight at the lake) that we thought was a couple of beavers until we zoomed in on the pictures,

sitting back and relaxing,

and some more sunsets.

Have you had a vacation this summer?

Quilting Collaborative Project

2011-07-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been longer than I was anticipating due in part to a communication snafu, but I'm happy to report that the Quilting Collaborative Project is back on track.

I now have all the squares from my wonderful friends Mary and Nakira and couldn't wait to start sewing them together. I didn't cut enough sashing pieces to finish all the rows, but in the interest of showing off the combined design, I'm posting anyway. There will also be white sashing between each row and a white border around the whole piece. I love how all of our colors came together and that we all ended up with some yellow in our squares. I think it will be a fun and colorful quilt for a little child.

I have a little surprise planned for the back. Due to that aforementioned communication snafu I have a lot of extra purple squares and I think I've come up with a good use for them. Not mentioning any names (Nak) but know that your work was not done in vain! Mary and Nakira don't know what's in store yet, but I think it will add some pizzazz to the back. I can't wait to show off the finished project!

Colorado

2011-07-22T17:21:00.000-04:00

After visiting the Capitol Building, Chris and I spent most of our time in Colorado taking part in outdoor adventures.

We went white water rafting one day and while I didn't get any pics of us in our awesome wet suits (not) or out on the water, we did come rafting down this section of Clear Creek.

It was a lot of fun but the water was C-O-L-D! We debated doing the beginner or intermediate trip and I'm glad we with went with beginner because of the water temps if for no other reason. The temps on the intermediate trip were upper 30s and ours were in the balmy low 40s. Not to mention the intermediate trip lasted an hour longer. It wasn't bad with wet suits on, but our feet were exposed in sandals and they were SUPER COLD after rafting for an hour and a half. It was a lot of fun though and I'd love to go again. Preferably somewhere with warmer water...

Mt. Evans, home of the highest paved road in North America, was nearby and we visited there after grabbing some buffalo burgers for lunch in Idaho Springs, which, not to confuse anyone, is not in Idaho.

Right before we started the drive ~15 mile drive up the mountain we took a short hike out to this lake (pond?) which was an incredibly scenic spot.

Then it was on to the very beautiful albeit scary drive to the top and a quarter mile hike to the tippy top from the parking lot. Let me tell you, hiking at 14,000+ ft is not an easy task and I would say that Chris and I are both pretty physically fit.

It was worth the effort though because the view was incredible.

We did some more hiking at lower altitudes on our way back down and it was beautiful there too.

We spent part of our last full day hiking at Golden Gate Canyon State Park near Golden which had views of the mountains all around. We didn't have a lot of time so we went on a "moderate" 2.5 mile hike and the Colorado version of moderate is a lot different from the moderate of hikes in the rolling hills of central Ohio! Even Chris had to stop and take a break a couple of times which is not a common occurrence for him. I fully understand why some athletes train at high altitudes!

Of course, I also have to give a shoutout to Teresa and Rick since they were the whole reason we went to Colorado. Congratulations and best wishes!

Meant to Be

2011-07-20T17:10:00.000-04:00

Chris and I spent a few days out in Colorado last week/weekend for a friend's wedding and a mini-vacation. While we were there I wanted to check out downtown Denver and see some of the architecture. One of those stops was the Colorado State Capitol which is modeled after the US Capitol Building.

Guess what was going on there unbeknownst to me?

A quilt display! I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried :)

The building was really beautiful and I loved seeing it filled with all of the colorful quilts. Don't they add so much more color?

The space was filled with quilts and a different quilt is backing each one that you can see in the photos.

I love the rainbow of butterflies on this one.

This one is incredibly vibrant and complex. I'd probably lose my mind trying to make it!

Of course, I was also there to see the architecture (initially the primary reason we were there!) and this rotunda was my favorite part of the building.

I love the colors and the symmetry.

More pictures coming soon from some of our other stops!

Squirreliminator 1000

2011-07-15T12:00:00.004-04:00

Our veggie garden is coming along nicely aside from one not-so-minor problem - the rat bastard squirrels keep eating all the zucchini! We probably would have had at least 5 or 6 zucchinis by now but the squirrels have eaten all of them before they're even close to picking size. Last year they waited until the zucchinis were thisclose to picking time and then would eat chunks out of them.

Enter the Squirreliminator 1000.

It's not much to look at but hopefully it will do its job of protecting my zucchinis, if any more manage to grow. Chris designed and built it and he forgot to take into account the fence post so we had to reorient it. It now covers the zucchini and melons instead of just the zucchini, but as you can probably tell, the zucchini looks a wee bit crowded.

Chris didn't exactly enjoy the making process and wanted me to promise him at least 100 zucchinis to make up for his time and effort. At this point, I'll consider it a success if we get 10. Cross your fingers!

Before & After: Entry / Living Room

2011-07-12T17:30:00.007-04:00

When I revealed our lovely "new" hallway floors, I mentioned a little construction project we had undertaken. Well, here it is!

We built a half wall in our entry area and I'm so proud of ourselves! Back in the day, before we moved in, it looked like this. After various projects, it eventually looked like this but I'm by far the happiest with how it looks now. Chris designed the wall using his engineering software and it was actually a much easier project than I was expecting. The seam where the half wall ties in to the existing short wall by the door isn't as seamless as I'd like, but it's not bad. You can't see it in the picture, but there's a little bit of an uneven bump where it transitions. It doesn't look bad though so I'm happy!

I love that it creates more of a defined entry area without making any space feel closed off. We still need to clean up the slate in the entry area because it has some damage from the carpet padding that was on it for years, but it doesn't look awful. I also need to find some big artwork for our living room walls, but that will come in time.

I'm super happy that I now have several areas that actually feel finished in my house! Next up will probably be tackling one of our two 1950s bathrooms, but I think we'll take some time off from renovation projects to enjoy the rest of the summer.

Groovy Guitars Finished

2011-07-09T15:10:00.002-04:00

It took me a little longer than I was planning, but I finally finished my groovy guitars baby quilt a week or so ago. Life has a tendency to get in the way of crafting at times.

I picked a polka dot print for the back that coordinates with the dots on the front.

For some reason I had an unusually hard time deciding how I would quilt it and I still can't say I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I outlined each square to the inside and outside. I think it's cute, but I feel like it's lacking something. No time to worry about it though because it's time to move on to the next one!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T08:57:00.000-04:00

Stopping to Smell the Roses

2011-06-30T17:00:00.002-04:00

In the midst of the craziness of moving our furniture out of the rooms where the floors were being refinished and moving ourselves and menagerie out of the house for a week, we took a break to make our almost annual trip to the Park of Roses. This year we went the same weekend as the actual Rose Festival, which you would think would be the best weekend to see the roses, but they weren't looking their best. It was a beautiful evening to be outside though (which can't be said for a lot of evenings in central Ohio so far this year) and I always love visiting the park.

There were a few pretty ones like this one, but overall they were either past their prime or kind of withered looking even though they hadn't opened that much. I'm guessing it had something to do with the unusually wet/gray spring and summer we've had.

A number of the roses had buds on them so maybe there was another wave of color a week or two later. I've been there as late as the first week in July and a lot of roses were still in bloom so maybe we just hit a lull in the cycle.

I wish I had been able to get closer to this dragonfly. It was a big one but it was on the other side of the row of bushes and I had to use my zoom lens to get it.

It may be trite, but sometimes you do have to remember to stop and smell the roses!

Before and After: Hallway

2011-06-29T14:13:00.000-04:00

Remember a few months ago and when I posted about the horribly messed up floors we discovered when we pulled up the carpet in our hallway? You know, the ones that were covered with splatters and who-knows-what?

Well, we just had our floors refinished and they look great!

Aren't they fabulous? The guy did a great job and I love how they turned out. We had the living room, office and hallways done which took a week. It was a pain in the butt since we had to move all that furniture out of the way and move out of our house for a week, but it was worth it. We still need to install the shoe molding and touch up some of the baseboard paint but other than that, it's finished!

We're still doing some work to get the office and living room back in order but I'll be showing pictures of those rooms soon and the little construction project we finished right before we had the floors done.

Garden Goings-on

2011-06-24T17:30:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd show off more of my garden because things are looking very pretty and colorful. We've had an abundance of rain the past few months - thankfully not flood level rain but still a LOT of rain - which is keeping everything green and lush.

My purple coneflowers are full of blooms and they make me very happy every time I pull into the driveway. The daylilies that are intermixed with them look like they'll be blooming any day and I can't wait to see even more color in that little flower bed.

My blanket flowers that were near death for some unknown reason are starting to fill in and one of them is finally blooming. They're still small plants but I have hope that they'll both pull through and be bigger next year.

My allium is starting to bloom and it was a surprise to me because the ones that bloomed last year were purple! I'm assuming I must have had a variety of bulbs and that this particular plant didn't bloom last year. Gardens can be full of surprises!

The yarrow that we just planted last month is flourishing and every plant is covered with new blooms.

Well, every plant except this one. There was a bit of a mishap with this particular plant. When we were setting out all of new plants, trying to decide on spacing, Chris was sure we were missing a yarrow plant. I checked the garage but no, there were no missing plants. Fast forward 5 days to when I noticed there was a practically dead plant on the floor of my back seat! Oops! It was brown and crispy but I watered it in the hopes that it would show some sign of life. Lo and behold, the next morning it looked the tiniest bit perky so I watered it again. After a few more hours, I could see that there were little sprigs of green at the base of the plant and I decided to go ahead and plant it. I figured the worst that would happen is that it would die and it already seemed awfully close to doing that. As you can see though it has made a splendid recovery and I have no doubt that it will be blooming soon too!

Shoe Bag

2011-06-22T12:00:00.007-04:00

Last November when Sew Mama Sew was having their annual month of gift ideas, I saw a tutorial for a shoe bag and thought it was a great idea. I'm always carrying shoes to/from work and usually just dump them into my big purse which I don't love doing since, well, since I walk around in them and God only knows what I might have stepped in at some point. I know some women can walk around in heels for hours, but I like having something comfier when I'm making the trek from my office to my car (~1/4 mile). Then there are also those fun, fun winter months when it's cold and snowy and I need to wear boots which aren't exactly work appropriate.

It took a few months, but I finally got around to making one. It was super quick and easy and, while it's bigger than I think it needs to be for dress shoes, I've already gotten a lot of use out of it. It's about 13x18 and I could easily fit two pairs of dress shoes in it, but it would probably be about the right size for a pair of sneakers. I'd recommend making it about 13x14 for dress shoes and might whip another up for myself in that size when I get through a few of the hundred other things I want to make ;)

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

My dad has mentioned several times that he'd like me to sew him something as a gift, but if you do much sewing, you probably know there's not a ton of stuff to make for men. At least most men. I guess if my dad wanted pillows and purses, he'd be set. One thing he mentioned was a Kindle cover, but he already has a Kindle cover so I tried to think of something else.

Enter a small messenger bag (not a purse!) to carry it in! He takes it with him pretty much everywhere he goes and I thought it would be nice to have something to carry it in along with a few other odds and ends if he so desires.

I used a pattern from One Yard Wonders as a guide although I made a few changes like getting rid of the clear front pocket and not making an adjustable strap because I COULD NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIND THE PARTS TO DO IT!!! Not that it annoyed me at all...

He loves photography so I got this awesome Etsuko Furuya camera fabric. It's a heavier weight fabric, not quite the weight of canvas, which is great for making a sturdier bag. I lined it with a linen that matches the color of the lines.

While I was at it I made him a luggage tag like the ones I made for my mom for Christmas.

Happy Father's Day!

For the Bride-to-Be

2011-06-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I went to a shower for our niece/Chris' goddaughter and, of course, it was an occasion that called for a handmade gift! I decided to go with an apron since I was also buying her something for her kitchen and for the simple reason that I think aprons are cute. :)

I decided on a pattern from I Love Patchwork because I've been wanting to try it and I really love how it turned out.

I made the patchwork border and pocket using fabric from my stash (yay for stashbusting!!) and got a washable linen for the body of the apron which I think is a really nice combo. I don't use linen very often, but I like it's earthy tone and how it doesn't take attention away from the patchwork.

I love the cute little pocket and gathered waist and I'm very happy that the bride-to-be liked the apron too!

Garden Goings-on

2011-06-06T17:28:00.000-04:00

Chris and I have been busy working in our yard since central Ohio finally started warming up a month or so ago. Warming up a bit too much for my liking on several recent days, but I guess it's better than cold and rainy. Or at least something different...

Anywho, enough about the weather! I thought I'd show off some of our greenery, flowers and new additions to our yard.

Our veggie garden is planted and has already produced lots of lettuce for us. We just got our post-frost seeds in over Memorial Day weekend, but they've already started popping up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the squirrels won't eat all of our zucchini this year!

Our strawberries are starting to turn red. They're very tiny but tasty!

My knockout roses are blooming up a storm and add lots of color to what as a blank slate until late last summer.

We put in stone edging around the front of our house and planted tickseed and yarrow in the big curve by the corner. This was how it looked last year. We pulled out the ornamental grass between the shrubs and replaced it with smaller/more manageable salvia. We also moved the Japanese maple to the back yard last fall because it was planted way too close to the house. We still need to find the piece de resistance - a bird bath that will go at the corner by the yarrow and tickseed - and then it will be complete!

This little flower is on an ice plant that we planted two years ago and it's the first flower we've seen on it! I was pretty excited when I spotted it over the weekend.

We also planted a lilac and some lupines in our back yard. I can't wait until the lilac gets big and is covered with flowers in the spring!

For some reason my blanket flowers near our front door didn't do well over the winter. One died and two are pretty scraggly-looking. I planted a new one that is full of colorful flowers and am hoping the two scraggly ones will fill back in over time.

What's going on in your garden?

C'est Finis!

2011-06-01T21:26:00.000-04:00

It's finished!!!

This quilt wasn't without its challenges and difficulties, but they were all worth it because I love how it turned out. I don't think I mentioned that the fabric is from a fat quarter I got from Connecting Threads quite awhile ago. I didn't have any specific plans for it when I bought the set but I thought the fabrics were all really cute. I think they were a great choice for this quilt if I do say so myself :) I love the gradation of colors and that it's colorful but without being too over the top. I'm more of a muted color kind of girl so this is fairly bright for me.

For the backing, I picked a soft yellow that I think complements all the colors well and keeps the cheery feel. I quilted a 1/4" to each side of the seam for each wedge and I love how much character it gives to the back.

Definitely my most challenging quilt so far and I'm very happy I successfully tackled it!

Craft Hope - Orphan Outreach

2011-05-30T07:46:00.000-04:00

My bracelet extravaganza has come to an end! I ended up making about 30 bracelets to send to Craft Hope for their Orphan Outreach project. While I used up a lot of beads, I still only put a small dent in my bead stash. Maybe they'll have a necklace project in the future!

If you're interested in making some bracelets to send, there's still a little bit of time until the June 15th deadline.

Happy Weekend!

2011-05-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. The finale of mine is a double rainbow!

Groovy Guitars

2011-05-13T13:26:00.000-04:00

I finished the top for my latest quilt the other day and, like I hoped, it came together in no time! I used some Michael Miller Groovy Guitar and Ta Dot fabric I had left over from this quilt along with some solids from my stash. It's a small quilt (~3' square) which is part of the reason it's going so quickly, not to mention, a simple design. It also really seems to go fast after working on a larger project! I just need to get the backing fabric washed and then I'll be ready to start quilting. I hope to have it finished in the next week or two. Stay tuned!

Two Years

2011-05-11T12:00:00.003-04:00

We just marked our two-year anniversary in our house so I decided it's time to do another recap of what we've accomplished in the past year. It's not quite as extensive as last year, but that's a good thing because it means we weren't quite as busy!

We pulled up a lot of carpet to reveal the hardwood floors - the living rom, hallway, craft room - but the floors still need to be finished. Can't wait to have that done next month!
I painted the hallway and I'm very happy to say there is much less painting on the list than last year!
We replaced the light fixture in our entryway but I'm still really looking forward to banishing more of the brass this coming year.
Chris surprised me by having ceiling fans installed in two rooms while I was at work one day. I LOVE having them!
We spiffed up our front door with a fresh coat of paint and new hardware.
We bought a new couch and rearranged our living room.
I made a desk which we replaced about six months later with a store-bought one that I like much better.
I finally got the ok to recover our dining room chairs!
We did a lot of yard work - trimmed a lot of branches from our trees, pulled out some shrubs that we didn't like, planted blueberries and raspberries, planted rose bushes along with some other assorted flowers.

We've already gotten a start on our projects for the coming year and I can't wait to cross more things off my to do list!

Next in line

2011-05-09T20:13:00.000-04:00

Now that I'm well on my way to finishing my new wave quilt I decided I can go ahead and start on my next project - another quilt! This time I'm going with a quick and easy baby quilt that I designed. Here's a sneak peek of what it looks like.

Aside from the backing, all the fabric comes from my stash which I'm on a mission to start using up. I sorted it recently and I have a lot more than I realized! There's always something new I want to get but I'm trying use up more than I'm buying right now :)

Quiltin' quiltin' quiltin'

2011-05-04T17:39:00.000-04:00

I'm a little afraid of jinxing myself after the struggles I've had with this quilt, but things have been moving along quickly since I rectified my last problem.

I'm on to the quilting stage and I've finished 7 rows with only 37 to go! Ok, 37 is still a lot of rows that will take a while, but I like this stage of quilting. Actually, I like every stage of quilting because I love the progress I can see along the way. Picking out the fabric is always fun and then when I start cutting the pieces, I start to get an idea of what it's going to look like. Then when I start piecing them together, I really get an idea of what it's going to look like. Then when the top is finished, I can't wait to start quilting because then it starts to look like a finished piece. And then it's on to the binding which finishes it off!

2 steps forward, 1 step back

2011-05-01T09:34:00.000-04:00

Notice anything wrong with this picture? Oh how quickly we can move from success to failure... I was so pleased with the progress I had made and the efficient system I used to sew the last two rows. Until I laid those last two rows next to the previous rows.

Yeah, I didn't realize until that moment that the sashing I cut for the last few pieces was the wrong width by about a 1/2". Incredibly frustrating and I really just wanted to wad it all up, put it on a shelf and forget about it. After walking away for a little bit though and showing my latest debacle to Chris (who thought it would be quicker just to start fresh with those 2 rows - silly boy!) I realized I only had to rip out half of the seams (which I've already done) and cut off one side of the sashing to make the pieces narrower.

Part of me wants to say that I officially hate this quilt because it's caused me so many problems, but in all honesty, I still can't wait to finish it.

4 down, 2 to go

2011-04-29T10:54:00.000-04:00

Things are progressing with my new wave quilt and I only have two more rows to go. I've (finally) worked out a decent system for sewing it and the last two rows are coming together really quickly. This is probably the least efficiently constructed quilt I've made, but live and learn. I'm not sure if I'll make another one (at least anytime soon), but if I do, I definitely know how I'll go about doing it. There's a lot of cutting and recutting which makes it kind of tedious. I can't wait to finish it though!

Orphan Outreach

2011-04-26T19:45:00.000-04:00

I recently read about a charity project for Orphan Outreach on JCasa’s blog and decided to join in. It’s a quick and easy project that helps a good cause and can be made primarily with those odd scraps that most of us have in our stashes. Craft Hope has organized the effort to make bracelets for Orphan Outreach to give to orphans in Russia when they visit in August.

I used a tutorial that JCasa shared, but you can make any type of bracelet. The ones I made whipped up in no time at all and I think they’re really cute. I might even make some for myself. They're accepting donations until June 15th so there's still plenty of time to help out!

A Few New Things

2011-04-20T18:42:00.000-04:00

I've been busy in my craft room lately, not that you could tell by the mile long list I have of things I want to make! I'm being strict though and only allowing myself to have 3-4 projects going at once. I keep wanting to start something new but I have to finish another project first! Here are a couple of things that have moved to the done category (and have been on my list for a loooong time).

I made this cute new pincushion that Dusty is bound and determined to turn into a cat toy. If you look closely you can see the teeth marks from the first time he absconded with it. I wish I had stuffed it a little more firmly, but I still like it.

Here's the other.

This tissue box cover took me no time make and I'm happy with how it turned out. The fabric is an old Amy Butler print that goes well with the colors in my bedroom. I used this tutorial from Make It and Love It and plan to make a few more for the other boxes of tissue we keep around the house. So much prettier to look at than a box and a great way to use up some small pieces of fabric.

Now that those are finished, two new projects can move into the rotation!

Evolution of a Cherry Tree

2011-04-14T20:19:00.000-04:00

Spring has most definitely arrived in all of its blossoming splendor. We have a beautiful weeping cherry tree in our yard and in the past week it's quickly gone from bare branches to a sea of tiny little flowers. I wish it stayed in bloom longer but at least I have the photos to enjoy year round.

New Wave Quilt - Part I

2011-04-12T20:16:00.000-04:00

It feels like it's been forever since I've worked on a quilt, but I finally have one well under way. I got a bundle of fat quarters a few months ago and when I came across this tutorial on Oh Fransson!'s blog, I knew they'd be perfect for it.

LOVE it!

The design caused me more than a few problems when I started to sew all the pieces together, but I think I've finally found my groove and the trick to get things to line up properly. As I've mentioned more than a few times, my ability to follow instructions is not one of my shining qualities. Although in my defense, some of the instructions for this project weren't entirely clear.

My first problem was a simple misunderstanding. When I read the instructions, it said to sew a piece of white sashing at the bottom of each piece. What it didn't tell you, was to alternate your pieces before doing that! I had my pieces all lined up in the right order but NOT in the right directions. Oops... Fortunately that wasn't a minor problem that slowed things down but was easy to work around.

My big problems began when I had to sew the wedges together after adding the sashing. The directions didn't tell you to properly line up the pieces (you couldn't just line up the ends because of the angle) and I kept getting it wrong time after time. I ripped one seam out 4 times! (Ok, so four times might have been a little OCD on my part) I should have realized the problem relatively quickly but by that point I was tired, hungry, frustrated and running out of mental capacity so my beloved came to my rescue. He and his engineering brain helped me realize that I could measure in 1/4" from the edge of the sashing and use that to line up the next piece. You'd think my architecture mind could have figured that out, but my brain was useless by that point. Anyway, now that I have that figured out, things have been going MUCH better!

I ran into some minor problems again with the first two rows I sewed together because I didn't get the joints lined up as nicely as I would have liked. Part of me wants to pull them out, but the sane part of me realizes it's not that big of a deal and will probably be even less noticeable when it's all finished and quilted.

I have three more rows to go and then the front will be done. I can't wait to finish it!

Love From Me

2011-04-10T17:47:00.000-04:00

For the past couple of years I've participated in something called Paws for Charity which creates art books with photos and artwork of pets to raise money for cancer charities. I had this photo in the book in 2010 and this photo in the book in 2009.

This year the project has been renamed the Love From Me Project and has expanded beyond the realm of pets into any photos and artwork that are inspirational. Since I'm constantly inspired by nature, that's what I decided to submit this year and this is the photo that will be appearing in the book.

If you're interested in purchasing the book, it's on sale on blurb and all profits will be donated to charity for cancer patients who are facing financial difficulties because of the cost of their treatments.

What lies beneath, part III

2011-04-06T20:17:00.000-04:00

Continuing on with our vanquishing of the carpet in our house, Chris and I spent a weekend pulling it up in our living room and office area.

The living room is in MUCH better shape than the hallway, although I guess it would be difficult for it to be in worse shape! Aside from a few paint splotches and scratches, it looks pretty nice. I can't say that we were as lucky in the office area, but it's not nearly as bad as the hallway. There are a few weird splotches of something and a fine spray of white paint in one area, but overall its in decent shape.

Since we had to move all the furniture out of the way to pull up the carpet, we decided to do a little rearranging, namely moving the couch to the opposite wall. I wasn't sure about the layout at first, but it's growing on me. I also have a new rug on the way and I think that will really "bring it all together and make it pop". Chris looooves it when they say that line on every show on HGTV ;)

We also decided that we'd had enough of my door turned desk and bought a new one. The door desk did it's job, but it was a little wobbly, didn't have any storage and I didn't like that you could see al the cords underneath it. I really like our new one and love how tidy is now. And I love redecorating!

Warm and Sunny

2011-04-04T20:22:00.000-04:00

I'm a little late posting about it, but Chris and I went on vacation in Florida a few weeks ago to visit my parents who are now "snowbirds". It looks like spring is finally on the way here, but at the time it was nice to get away for a few days to somewhere sunny and warm!

My parents live in a high rise building that faces west so I was able to get some pretty shots of the sunset

and the skyline.

We spent a day at the beach

where it was kind of windy and we saw several sailboats.

We also spent a day at a bird/animal sanctuary where we saw lots of peacocks (just walking around)

and flamingos

and ibis

and pelicans

and these crazy-billed birds among many others.

They take in injured birds (and other animals, but primarily birds) like this hawk that lost an eye. It can never go back out into nature because it can't properly hunt for food and stay alert for predators but it has a home there for the rest of its life.

To finish off our trip, we spent some time at the casino/racetrack and took in a thoroughbred race.

Yet another great trip!

Cotton

2011-03-30T18:22:00.001-04:00

I'm about 5 months late, but I finally finished Chris' anniversary gift! We celebrated our 2nd (cotton) anniversary in November and I figured something sewn just for him would be the perfect gift. I initially planned to make him a quilt, but it wasn't turning out the way I hoped and by the time our anniversary rolled around I only had 2 squares finished. I showed him those two squares anyway and we agreed that maybe I could turn them into a smaller project. I finally decided on a pillow, but then the holiday projects hit and then I have no excuse and then a few months later I finally finished it!

One of my goals for 2011 was also to make a pillow so I killed two birds with one stone. The sewing was super easy because I did an envelope enclosure and I now want to recover all of my pillows! The embroidery of our names took a little while and isn't exactly perfect, but it's the thought that counts, right? Hopefully I'll look back it years from now and think, wow, I've come a long way!

The Chairs

2011-03-25T18:15:00.002-04:00

It's been a long and drawn out battle, but victory is mine!

Granted, it was given to me as a birthday gift...

As I mentioned awhile back, Chris and I have been battling over our dining room chairs since we moved in together. Several years later, my dream has finally been realized, but Chris won't say I won the battle because he gave it to me as a gift. A hard to understand gift.

On my birthday Chris told me he got me two things and he had this big object covered in blanket in front of our fireplace. On top of the blanket was a note telling me I could pick out the fireplace screen of my choice. Underneath the blanket was one of our dining room chairs laying on its side. Which didn't make any sense to me. I thought the other gift also had something to do with the fireplace and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the chair was there. Once Chris finally realized that I didn't understand his gift, he told me it was recovering the chairs in the fabric of my choice. Ok now, is it just me or would most people NOT come to that conclusion upon finding a chair laying on it's side under a blanket? Oh well, maybe not the best executed gift, but appreciated nonetheless.

For some reason it took me almost 4 months to finally get around to recovering them, but now they're finished!

I got a pretty light bluish-green chenille-like fabric that's really soft. I like that it has a little bit of a design cut into it, but is still a subtle pattern because I didn't want anything to clash with our rug.

It was a quick project because I left the old fabric on, added a layer of batting (the chairs were pretty hard) and then stapled the new fabric over everything. The first chair was literally a pain and then I made what is possibly the best $20 purchase I've made in my life. This staple gun. Oh my God, I can't even begin to tell you what a difference it made. Why do they even make staple guns where you press on a handle that's at the opposite end of where the staples come out??? It's so much harder to get the staples in! After the first chair my hand was all red and swollen from the pressure of trying to staple, not to mention about 20 staples didn't even go in. The new staple gun worked like a dream and I think I only had 2 or 3 staples that didn't go in out of the remaining FIVE chairs. And no, no one is paying me to talk about this staple gun, it is just awesome and I had to share.

So there you have it, my lovely, newly recovering dining room chairs. If I'm being honest, I still don't love the chairs but I definitely like them a whole lot more than I did before!

I think next up in the dining room will be replacing the curtains. Chris is on board with that one though :)

Spring!

2011-03-20T13:34:00.000-04:00

It's official! Those cold, dark winter months are behind us and sunnier, warmer days are ahead. Today doesn't actually feel overly springy, but more signs are appearing daily ensuring that we're heading in the right direction.

Quickies

2011-03-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

I love quick little projects, especially when they cooperate and don't turn into much bigger projects than they should be. Not that that ever happens...

My mom asked me to make her a little drawstring bag for Rummikub tiles. She could easily make one herself but doesn't have access to a sewing machine right now so I was happy to oblige.

Under an hour and she had a snappy new bag for collecting all those tiles. (Why do I keep trying to type tile, tial?? I don't think I've ever done that before and I've now done it every time I've tried to type it on this post!)

I also made a little project for myself because I wanted a new make-up bag for my purse. I made one last year but it's a little small for all the crap I've taken to throwing into it. This one nicely fits everything while only being about an inch longer.

I used a patchwork of fabric that I had originally intended for a quilting block, but that project didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Fortunately I was able to salvage the fabric for this project because I love all the colors together.

Two new projects and I had everything I needed in my stash. Gotta love that!

Birds of a Feather

2011-03-08T14:00:00.007-05:00

Here is a little project that I started about two years ago and finished last week! That sounds much worse than it actually is :)

The reason I started this project almost two years ago is that I made the birds using a pattern from this book and planned to give them as Christmas gifts. I didn't feel like they were Christmasy enough to put on a tree though and didn't know what someone would do with one little stuffed bird so I put them in a drawer and there they sat for months on end. Then I got this book, came across the pattern for a bird mobile and thought PERFECT! I'll admit that the project still sat around for a few months after that, but I don't have any immediate need for a bird mobile so other projects got bumped to the top of the list. Finally, need or not, I decided to move the project off my list and here it is.

The birds are made with some Amy Butler fabric I had in my stash which coincidentally matches the quilt I recently made. Maybe one day they'll be a matched set for someone.

The bird mobile almost met an early and unfortunate death though! Last night I was sitting on the couch and Chris was nearby working on the computer. All of a sudden he yelled to me to come look at something. Dusty had pulled the bird mobile down from the hook (where it was still hanging because I forgot to take it down after I took my photo) and dragged the whole big mess halfway through the house! He was so proud of himself and his birdie catch. And so disappointed when I took it all away from him! I had to fix the line holding it to the ring at the very top but fortunately that was the only damage. It is now safely hidden in a drawer until it finds a permanent home out of his reach!

What lies beneath, part II

2011-03-06T16:08:00.000-05:00

In our continuing quest to rid our house of its dingy carpet, we spent yesterday pulling up the carpet in our hallway. The outcome wasn't nearly as impressive as my craft room, but not too surprising given what we found in one of the bedrooms.

As you can see, I'm not exaggerating when I say that the floor is a complete mess. Who does this??? You're probably guessing that it's white paint all over the floor but most of it is actually drywall compound. We're not sure what drywall work they did, but they definitely did some because there were also piles of drywall dust and clumps of drywall mud here and there on the floor. In addition to that, there are a number of nails in the floor where someone (maybe even the previous previous owner) fixed squeaks but they used obnoxiously big nails.

The other portion of the hallway wasn't nearly as messy (more in line with what we found in the one bedroom), but still not pretty. Without the mess on the floor, it probably could have used a refinishing, but it wouldn't have been essential.

Still a happy camper despite the mess and all the work

We haven't decided what we want to do yet though because beyond the messiness, we also have some ugly patch jobs and transitions that need to be dealt with like this closet. We don't think this closet is original to the house and it looks like there used to be a wall where you can see the piece of wood that's patched in the door frame. We know there's also a section like that next to our entry area where we're guessing there was probably a half wall. We're also guessing we'll find some other ugly repairs when we pull up the carpet in the living room and office area.

So, all that leaves us uncertain if we want to go through the hassle of refinishing the floors (which will be a major hassle whether or not we do it or hire someone) or if we should put new flooring on top of all the mess. I hate to cover up hardwood floors but the previous owners did a pretty good job of wrecking them for us. The joys of homeownership...

Won't you be my neighbor?

2011-03-03T15:00:00.009-05:00

Remember a week or two ago when I mentioned that the nice people at CSN offered to let me do a product review for them again? Well, the product came last week and it's a new birdhouse!

We were in the market for a new one because a squirrel(s?) - filthy, vile rodents - were trying to eat their way into our old one! Fortunately for them we weren't overly fond of that birdhouse because there was really no salvaging it. CSN had a number of feeders to choose from although not that many that hang from a tree (as opposed to being screwed in like this one). They did have houses made in the USA which made my beloved happy because he likes to buy things that are made here when he can. Which is not an easy task in case you haven't noticed. It was delivered really quickly and we got it hung during our spring-like weather last weekend.

While we were at it, we hung this birdhouse that I got as an anniversary gift at my job. For anniversary milestones you get a catalog of items and can order whichever one you want. It was mostly stuff I didn't want, but I figured we could always use another birdhouse.

We also hung up this birdhouse that's been sitting on the ground since we moved in. Yes, that's almost two years and day after day it just sat there. I knew I didn't want to throw it out because it's still in decent condition, but for some reason we never got around to hanging it up. Now though it's cleaned out and ready for someone to move in!

Hey laaaaadies, wanna come back to my place?

Last but not least we hung up this house that fell down sometime last fall. I can't even remember how it fell down, but it sat next to the fence all winter and I decided to put it where the squirrel massacred house used to be. I cleaned it out and within an hour or two of hanging it up, birds were checking it out.

Well, last last but not least, they all join this house that is still holding strong and is used all year round.

What lies beneath...

2011-03-01T12:00:00.013-05:00

I started a project last month that I've been keeping mum about because I decided I wanted to reveal it all at once.

Here's a picture of what the room looked like before.

Here's a picture of what it looks like now.

Notice anything different?

Yep, I pulled up the carpet!

I don't know why people cover up perfectly nice hardwood floors, but they do. You can't really tell from the before photo, but the carpet was stained in spots and definitely not in the best condition so I decided it was time to say good-bye. We knew there were hardwood floors underneath and fortunately they're in good shape with the exception of a few paint splatters that I'll have to try to get up somehow. We still have to install some quarter round, but I'm very happy with how it looks!

It didn't take very long to pull up the carpet and tack strips, but it did take me a while to find a rug I liked. At first I thought I wanted to go with something colorful but every rug I looked at seemed like too much. Unless it was in the $800+ range which is not an amount I'm willing to spend in my craft room!

I'm still deciding what I want to do with this wall. I didn't need anything for it before because I had bookshelves taking up a lot of the space, but now that we've moved those into another room, it looks pretty bare. I love having an extra table for cutting, but the wall itself needs something on it.

Dusty, of course, was a huge help with the project. Poor little guy was so tuckered out from all the hard work that he had to take a nap right there on the carpet rolls.

A little peek

2011-02-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

After a lot of cold and yucky days we're finally starting to see some signs of spring! Not quite time for flip flops, but I'll take going outside without a heavy coat. The crocuses in our yard started popping up today and it's so nice to see something green and colorful amidst all the brown!

Dusty spent some time hanging out on the windowsill while we did a little bit of yard work - picking up fallen sticks, cleaning up some of the messes that had accumulated over the window. He's a great supervisor.

Of course, we also had to find time for a little outdoors playing after being cooped up inside for so long.

And the birds couldn't wait for us all to leave because they came out in full force within minutes of us going back inside!

Pour Moi

2011-02-23T12:30:00.002-05:00

I love this time of year because I actually have time to make things for myself instead of focusing on gifts, gifts, gifts. Not that I don't like making gifts because I definitely do, but it's also nice to make things for myself and not worry about holiday deadlines. I've been wanting to make new coasters for my living room for a few months, which is a really quick project, and I finally got around to it last week. I don't know why I have such a fondness for paisley prints, but I do and this fabric goes really well with the colors in my living room.

I've been wanting to try out free motion quilting for a while and I decided this would be a great time to try it since the coasters are small and for me (i.e. if I screw them up, no biggie!). I need more practice, but I'm still happy with how they turned out. I'm definitely happy I started with a small project because it's a little tricky and time consuming.

Quilting Collaborative

2011-02-21T12:00:00.002-05:00

I'm very excited to have started a special project with two of my dear friends, Mary and Nakira. We're working together to make a baby quilt to donate to a still to be determined charity. Mary and Nakira have both wanted to try out quilting, but didn't necessarily want to take on a big project. I thought this would be a great way for them to try it out and also for us to do something together even though we live miles apart. We're each making a set of blocks and then I'll sew them all together and quilt the blanket. This is my series and I love how they turned out. I don't typically gravitate to these colors, but I decided to try something a little different. I can't wait to see how it all comes together because I think it's a going to be a very cute and cheerful project.

Happy Hallway

2011-02-19T19:24:00.000-05:00

I spent this morning finishing a project that's been bugging me for months - painting our hallway. I painted our entry area last year when I made this coat rack and never painted the hallway that adjoins it. Last month I painted the first half of the hallway but knew I didn't have enough paint to do this section so it had to wait a while longer. Well, today, I finally crossed it off my to do list and I couldn't be happier. The color really isn't that different from the old color, but the old color was a little pale for my liking. I like this color because it's enough to stand out from the white ceiling and woodwork, but not too dark.

The hallway really isn't a very exciting part of our house, but I like it because all of the artwork means something special to me. The photo at the end of the hallway in the top photo is one of Italy that I bought on Etsy and it was one of my first Etsy purchases. The painting at the end of the hallway in the photo above is one that Chris bought at a charity auction we went to several years ago. You can't see the two smaller photos but one is a photo I took of Fallingwater during our trip last fall and the other is a photo I bought in Breckenridge when we went to Colorado a few years ago. It's a happy memory hallway :)

A Taste of Spring

2011-02-17T19:16:00.000-05:00

If you've been reading my blog for the past few months, you'll know CSN Stores has been kind enough to sponsor several giveaways. Once again they've contacted me and nicely offered the opportunity to review one of their many, many (did I mention many?) products. I had a hard time deciding what to pick - maybe some home office furniture because we're in the market for a little filing cabinet or maybe something for the kitchen - but ultimately I decided to go with something for outside now that we've had a taste of spring here. Check back to see what it is!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this project sometime in the past year or so and was excited about making it for my mom for Valentine's Day. It seemed like it would be a quick and easy project and I even got enough paper to make one for myself but man was it a pain in the ass! I think I spent at least 6 hours cutting out all the sections and probably went through at least 5 xacto blades. I don't know if the paper I got was too thick but I got normal scrapbooking paper from Joann. Maybe the Martha Stewart marketed paper is lighter weight and would have been easier to work with. All I know is that I like how it turned out, but I don't have any burning desire to make another one!

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy Valentine's Day. My beloved is making me a delicious steak dinner!

Mission Accomplished

2011-02-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

After reading Quilting for Peace, I decided one of the things I want to do this year is make, at the very least, one item to donate to charity and I finished up my first item this week! I decided to start small with a project for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). They auction and sell small art quilts (9"x12" max) with the money going to Alzheimer's research. It's great way to use up some scraps and try out some different techniques while also helping a good cause.

I decided I wanted to do something fun and colorful so I went with a rainbow effect. Each strip of color is about 1" wide and then I tried out a wavy stitch on my machine for the quilting. I thought black binding would be a nice way to frame it since the quilt itself is so colorful. Now I just need to send it in and hope it raises some money.

This definitely won't be my only donation of the year because I'm already at work on a collaborative project with a couple of dear friends. I'll be ready to show off the first stages of that project in a few days so stay tuned!

Checking Things Off

2011-02-08T20:13:00.000-05:00

I'm on a mission to finish up some projects that I've had sitting around and these potholders were in that pile. I was originally going to make them for a Christmas gift, but I ran out of time. I got this awesome fabric last year and I think it's great for the kitchen without being too cutesy. I decided to experiment a little with the quilting and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. I kind of eyeballed things and in the future I think I'll be a little more deliberate with my planning if I'm going to do something like this. I machine sewed the binding which was my second time doing it this way and I definitely improved in my execution. I still prefer handsewing, but it's much more time consuming so I'm trying to improve at sewing it on the machine. I also tried a couple different methods for attaching little loops to hang them by and I like that addition.

And I decided that since these were a bit of an experiment, I'm keeping them for myself!

Sunshine!

2011-02-03T18:22:00.000-05:00

I know some of your are fortunate enough to live in places where you see sun and blue sky almost all year round (I used to be one of you!), but here in central Ohio, sunshine and blue skies are a rare occurrence this time of year. Fortunately today was one of those beautifully sunny, albeit cold, days and I had to document it because I never know how long it will last.

Blue skies smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies do I see
~Willie Nelson

My beloved

2011-01-31T17:48:00.000-05:00

My beloved was gone at a conference last week and guess what he brought back for me? An iPad! He won it and being a wonderful husband who isn't overly interested in electronics (weird, I know), he gave it to me! I didn't have any intention of buying an iPad since we're already pretty well set when it comes to computers and gadgets but I do have to admit that it's really cool. It's easy to carry around and I took it into my craft room yesterday to read a tutorial instead of printing out the instructions or periodically running back to the living room to look at the computer.

It does feel rather delicate though (hello, I've seen the pictures of people's shattered screens!) so I made a case. Well, actually, I bought a case first but I thought it was much too unwieldly and I didn't like it at all. I looked at several tutorials online and used them as a basis for what I made. I went with a simple sleeve because it doesn't take up much more space than the ipad by itself.

I used an Amy Butler fabric that I had in my stash for the outside and quilted it with a layer of batting using diagonal lines. Again, I wanted to keep it fairly simple. I used a beige flannel for the inside because I figured it would be nice and soft/scratch resistant. The sleeve is snug so I'm not worried that it will fall out. Actually, it seemed more likely to fall out of the stupid $40 case that I bought! I think it took me under an hour to whip it up and I'm very happy with the outcome. And now I can safely carry it around!

Quilting for Peace

2011-01-29T11:23:00.000-05:00

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was Quilting for Peace by Katherine Bell and it's a great book. It has a number of quilting projects in it which I like, but I really enjoyed reading the essays. The essays are from a number of different quilting charities, tells how they got their start, talks about what motivates them and then for some, it has a project that fits the guidelines of that charity.

It's broken up into four different chapters:

Community Quilting - projects for homeless shelters, hospitals, fire victims, etc
Wartime Quilting - projects for soldiers, families of soldiers, veterans
Quilting for Kids - projects for babies up teenagers
Quilting to Change the World - projects like the AIDS quilt, civilian victims of war, victims of natural disasters

I thought all the stories were interesting and it's amazing and uplifting to know that there are so many people out there who are working to help others, often anonymously.

I'm already working on my first project to donate and I hope I can make a few this year. And of course I'll be sharing my projects!

Another one off the list

2011-01-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

Since I finished my Christmas crafting, I've been on a mission to get some other projects out of my WIP pile. This one was languishing in it for far too long. Honestly, I think I cut the pieces out in August, started sewing it shortly thereafter and then it sat. And sat. And sat a little longer. In case you aren't sure what it is, it's a rocket pillow. Maybe that's clear but the fins kind of remind me of an octopus. Not that an octopus has three legs, but...

I found the pattern in this book and was going to make it for my friend who had a baby and she had an outer space / John Deer theme going on (don't ask, not my kid). But now that friend has kind of fallen off the face of the earth so I have this jazzy rocket pillow with no home. It doesn't really stand up very well on its own but I do think it's fun and vibrant. Most importantly though, it's off my to do list!

Quilt #4

2011-01-23T17:22:00.002-05:00

I finished my 4th quilt a few days ago! I started it a few months ago, but during my Christmas crafting it got moved to the back burner. Once the holidays passed though I couldn't wait to finish it up and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

It's a small, roughly crib-sized quilt and I used a collection of fabric that I already had in my stash - some great Amy Butler and Michael Miller prints interspersed with whatever else I had in the same color family. I decided to go for simple blocks after seeing something similar online at one point in my browsing. I think it's cute and fun!

I used a plain, light teal for the backing which is fine but if I were to do it again, I'd jazz it up with a strip of squares or something to give it a little more detail.

I quilted it with diagonal lines intersecting in the middle of each square and then used a dark teal for the binding.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend and the opportunity to snuggle with someone you love!

Quick and Easy

2011-01-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

The phone jack on this wall has been bugging since we moved into our house. We don't have a landline so it just sits there looking ugly. I had the idea awhile ago to cover it with a small canvas painting and even bought the canvas, but I never got around to painting anything on it.

A couple weeks ago I got an e-mail that Snapfish was having a sale on canvas prints so I decided to try one out. I was actually thinking of using the print in my bathroom, but the oranges were too close to the wall color so I decided to try it in this spot. I had to take the face plate off the phone jack because the frame for the canvas didn't fit over it as well as the one I bought, but now my eye sore is gone!

I took the photo during our vacation to western Pennsylvania and I like the muted colors which I played up in Photoshop. I love how it turned out on the canvas because it really does look almost like a painting. I hope they have another sale soon so I can get a different one for my bathroom!

The birds, they love us

2011-01-11T19:49:00.000-05:00

Per our list, my parents got us a squirrel-proof bird feeder for Christmas. Squirrel-proof was necessary because the squirrels defiled the first bird feeder we got. It's a wooden one and the squirrels gnawed on the feeder itself when they ran out of food! Stupid ass squirrels. You better be thankful my dogs haven't eaten you!

Anywho, we like the birdies and really wanted them to visit our yard without the squirrels defiling their feeder so we asked for a squirrel-proof feeder. And we got one! Chris put it out around Christmas and for a week it sat there unusued. Not a bird in sight and only the occasional squirrel trying (unsuccessfully) to pull off daring acrobatic acts to get to the feeder.

Then we had a warm sunny day on New Year's Eve. And the birds, oh how they came. In less than two weeks, the feeder has gone from the photo above to this and let me tell you, that feeder holds a lot of food!

This is what the feeder looked liked when I got home from work today. I'm pretty sure it will be empty by tomorrow.

There was one day over the weekend when there were at least 12 birds in the feeder, hanging out in the tree and on the ground under the feeder.

We started out with mostly the same type of bird visiting but in the past few days we've had a lot of different types show up.

There have been a couple of different woodpeckers, a cardinal, a blue jay that I didn't catch in time and a number of little birds.

Now I need to start learning what all these different types of birds are!

Where I've Been...

2011-01-09T13:58:00.000-05:00

I've been spending the better part of the last week working on this mess and I'm happy to report that it's looking MUCH better. I can't wait to have it finished because there are a lot of projects I want to get working on!

Fabric Jackpot

2011-01-03T19:05:00.000-05:00

When we went to my mom's house for Christmas, she asked me if I wanted a bin of her old fabric scraps. Umm, yes please. I finally sorted through it tonight and it's quite the collection. Some of her scraps are larger than a lot of the pieces I buy!

I dumped it out to see the big pile of fabric in all it's grandeur.

Dusty decided to help me out, thoughtful kitty that he is.

All sorted into pretty little piles. Now I just need to clean up my craft room (i.e. find my sewing table) so I can start using some of it!

2010 Check-In

2010-12-31T12:00:00.009-05:00

As 2010 draws to a close, I thought I'd take a look back at how I did on my goals (since I find I do better with goals than resolutions) for 2010. I never posted a list, but I did post some updates along the way.

I finally finished my wedding album and it's been fun to show it off this year
I sewed something with a zipper for the first time and now I have no idea why I was intimidated in the first place
I finally finished reading Mary, Queen of Scots by Margaret George which was my resolution in 2008 that obviously didn't end successfully
I made my first quilt - and several others
I made a felted knit item which I still haven't shown off because I was going to gift it but never did
I wrote a sewing tutorial (albeit a very easy one)
I made a good loaf of bread

And then there were a couple of half finishes.

I knitted a sock, but not a pair of socks. Hopefully one day I'll finish the other, but the process taught me that I don't really enjoy knitting socks.
I wanted to make a mosaic table top, which I did, but it still needs some work. We had a round, glass-topped table but the glass broke a few years ago. I decided to make a mosaic top for it, but making a circle out of little square tiles didn't go all that well. It's all jagged and messy around the outer edge so we need to figure out what to do about that.

All in all though, I'd say I did pretty well.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Gifts Revealed - Part 2

2010-12-30T18:00:00.000-05:00

The majority of my handmade Christmas gifts were sewing projects, but I did make a few things of the non-sewing variety.

This is a kumihimo necklace that I started a long time ago but I never got around to finishing off the ends. I decided it was finally time to get it out of my UFO pile and thus it became a Christmas gift for my grandma. I had an epiphany for how to finish the ends of kumihimo necklaces which is much easier than anything I learned in the beading class I took. Now I'm inspired to make some more!

My mom and my grandma both love the earrings I make for them so they both got a new selection to choose from.

For my dear friends Mary and Nakira, I made notecards with pictures from Fallingwater. Since they can both sew, I figured I'd give them a photographic gift.

My one knitted gift of the year was this scarf for my mom. I haven't really be in the mood to knit lately, but chenille (with little strands of thread interwoven) does knit up quickly and makes for a soft, warm scarf.

And last but not least, I made a couple of ornaments like these for co-workers.

There you have it, all the gifts I handmade this year!

I haven't taken pictures, but on the receiving end, I got a cute little craft belt (kind of like a tool bet) from Mary and adorable pj pants from Nakira. Thanks ladies!

Gifts Revealed

2010-12-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

Now that Christmas has come and gone and all the gifts have been given, I can reveal what I've been working on for the past couple of months. I was a busy bee in my craft room and made a lot of gifts although I'll admit that a few were bumped to birthdays and other gift giving occasions because I wanted to enjoy the last week or two before Christmas. Here we go!

Potholders for my mother-in-law

Potholders for my sister's girlfriend

The second set of potholders got a little "cat-earred". Dusty has decided that anything I make out of fabric is a toy for him and batted them around one night. This picture was before the damage, but I managed to cover up the worst of it with a patch of matching fabric over the bite marks. I did say I'd make new ones after the holidays though because I don't know how they'll hold up with the little bite holes!

A flock of mousies for Dusty and our kitty cat friends that had to stay well hidden from Dusty or they all would have become his!

Luggage tags for my mom

I saw a cool tutorial for these in the month or two before Christmas and thought they'd be great for my mom since she now spends part of the year in warm and sunny Florida. You print the fabric (muslin) on an ink jet printer which I was a little scared to do, but it worked out great.

For my step-mom

My step-mom and sister both a got a set of a hot/cold wrap that I made using this tutorial and a lavender scented eye pillow. The hot/cold wrap was super easy and I might have to make one for myself!

Juggling bags for Chris

I thought these little juggling bags would be a cute stocking stuffer for Chris but Dusty really thought they were for him. He pulled them out of the closet, he snatched one away while I was trying to wrap them. I had to chase him through the house to get it back!

Wristlet for my mom

I made this wristlet using this tutorial which was another fairly easy project. I like that it's padded because all of the other zipper pouches I've made haven't been.

I'll stop here for now since that's the extent of my sewing gifts and reveal the others projects on another day. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. I sure did!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

and their reindeer

Why do you do this to me?? I must hide my head in shame.

Hmm, it does make a good blankie to lay on...

Wishing everyone the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years!

Christmas Bokeh

2010-12-24T12:51:00.001-05:00

I've been working on my bokeh skills this week as part of Pioneer Woman's latest photography assignment and I thought I'd share some of the festive pics.

I got this ornament when we visited Fallingwater and I love it!

This is a weird little German gift I got from a weird German girl

My mom's doll horse. Yes, I said my mom's doll horse. She loves dolls!

My new lego Sears Tower

Merry Christmas Eve!

A Fun, Full and Festive Weekend

2010-12-12T20:22:00.001-05:00

It's the holiday season which means there's typically lots to see and do and this weekend definitely fit that bill.

There was a trip to a Christmas tree farm with Chris and my father-in-law to pick out a beautiful Christmas tree.

We got to see some pretty horsies while we were there, but no reindeer which they've apparently had in the past.

There was leaf raking and light putting up and a holiday party.

There was our first substantial snow fall of the season.

And there was a trip to Franklin Park Conservatory with Chris and my mom where we saw pretty flowers,

beautiful glass sculptures,

intricate gingerbread houses,

and the poinsettia tree.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!