The cure to what ails me

When I'm not feeling motivated or crossing items off my list, a quick organizational project makes me feel better. Here's the top drawer of my tool chest. I just sifted through some of the stuff that had accumulated there and put it all in the proper containers. *sigh* I'm happy for a little while.

And hopefully the touch up spackling and painting project will be finished this weekend. I sanded down the craft room area and found it needed one more coat before I painted.

Another one off the list

Here's the upstairs cat tree torn down and ready to fix. The wall has its final skim coat and is curing before painting. Let me go on record saying the CatMan rocks my world: he was all over the this project!

Here's the cat tree after stabilizing. The CatMan attached L-shape brackets to the underside of the shelves and main pole. I rewrapped the torn areas of the main pole with rope and we reassembled it.

The cats are still a bit tentative - I haven't witnessed any 'flying squirrel' leaps which is their normal late night behavior. After one occurs, we'll deem the project a success.

Oh, the indignity!

Of a cat hat. A co-worker saw this pattern and thought it looked like fun. I knitted one up, but it was too small for all the cats except Isabelle. I modified the pattern a tad, and the other two were fine! No, Izzy isn't mad - she's 'just drawn that way'. And yes that's a yellow, treble crochet mohawk.

All the seasonal decorations have been purged down and organized into 3 boxes. I'm looking forward to  going to just one place to find what I need.  

Good Intentions

Ah, the fresh beginning of the new year.

Ah, the reality of the weekend after as witnessed below - 

One project on my to-do list is to organize all my seasonal decorations in one place. Well I got them all in one place, but this is neither the organization or the place where they will eventually reside. 

(See that white strip behind the chair? That's one of the spots I need to finish spackling/touching up.)

There's more on top of the pie safe. 

However the interior of the pie safe was purged and organized this week.

With all this organizing and purging, the knitting WIPS are languishing in the project box. :- (

 Here's hoping 2011 week 2 will see some items crossed of the list!

Hello 2011

image courtesy of Google Images, saved to my server

We're back from our Tour. Much fun was had by all, gifts were given and received (and appreciated on both sides), and I even got in a little junqing in Lewisburg and State College. I'll post some pics once I finish digging out of our dirty laundry!

Can't Hit a Moving Target Tour - Christmas 2010

 First, we are here...

Then we are here...

And we bring in the New Year here...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

At the last minute

I needed to come up with a quick gift, so I raided the stash and found this Knit Picks "Get Away" yarn (picked up for 1.00/skein at the local Goodwill). 3 skeins later, the simple YO lace scarf is done, wrapped, and gone.

We received this paper cutting as a Christmas card in 1991 (it's signed and dated - which is the only reason I know when we received it!) I've had it stashed away since then and last week, decided to actually do something with it. I found a dollar store frame, some dark blue fabric (with light blue stars) and a little spray adhesive later, I have a print I can keep over my kitchen sink until February - or when I can't stand looking at snow anymore!)

Advent Week #4

Star Queen Galaxy photo courtesy of Google Images, saved to my server.

This week, amid all the to-do lists and work to be accomplished before we travel, I am planning to look at some stars and think about the first Christmas Eve and Star.

Remind me not to do THAT again!

A pompom garland for a niece's Christmas present. Things were going swimmingly until I set it down for a second and Izzy tried to make it her bed. Cue immense tangling and frustration. But now it's wrapped up and safely tucked away from heat-seeking feline missiles.

These projects went a whole lot quicker. A baby hat for a co-worker's great nephew and a tiny sock that I have since added to a key ring and gifted to another co-worker who just bought a new car. The yarn was leftover from this project.

Yeah, I think I'll stick to using my yarn for knitting.

Advent Week #3

My mother was very wise - as we were growing up, she bought her Christmas ornaments and decorations in groups of 4 so each of us kids would have a 'starter kit' when we moved out onto our own. Right now, the CatMan and I don't have a tree since we both work long hours and then are gone the week between Christmas and New Years (and then I jump right into inventory-chaos time when we get back).

But that doesn't mean that I don't set out some decorations for the holiday. Little strings of light here and there, a switching-out of the china hutch in the kitchen, and this little space next to where I sit when I knit and/or watch TV. The little red reindeer is not my original one - I found it in a thrift store somewhere - but it looks just like the ones we had growing up. I think mine might have been white...or green...or maybe it was red after all. The green metal bucket holds our Christmas cards, and the small black frame holds a piece of sparkly green scrapbook paper with a Christmas tree sticker. 

Meepus appears to be the only thing in this picture not decorated for the holiday.

And I wonder why I can't get out the door on time?

Seems Pip loves my sweater as much as I do.

Chair, deconstructed

So this is what the Viking chair has looked like for the past 1 1/2 weeks. I've ripped off the vinyl (which I saved as a pattern for the new material), thrown away the old batting, and stripped the exposed wood of the nasty nude/pink flat paint. I don't even want to know what was going through the mind of the person who painted that color onto a chair covered with green vinyl. Preppy is was not.

I found some interesting things when I deconstructed the chair. The frame that is covered by upholstery is actually thick plywood and the chair back? Is...wait for it...heavy pre-formed non-corrugated cardboard. With the right tools, this chair would be a cinch to DIY.

Izzy was truly fascinated too, but I don't think it was for the same reasons!

Advent Week #2

This weekend, I had a full page of to-dos and have accomplished most of them. I didn't get the Viking chair stained (more on this in an upcoming post), but I did get all the Christmas gifts wrapped and the Christmas cards addressed. At the risk of sounding like a Scrooge, I do not enjoy wrapping presents -  at least not in the quantity this holiday normally entails. About halfway through, I lose steam and a small headache starts right behind my eyeballs and then my lower back begins to ache. Thankfully this year, the actual number of wrapped gifts is low, so my dread lasted longer than the actual wrapping session.

This little angel band was tucked in a corner at the Apple Hill Antique Mall in State College last Christmas. I'm pretty sure the white angel is new to the band - the original percussionist must have dropped out to join Mannheim Steamroller. The little glittered cottage was another antique store find in PA.

I've perched them on the upper frame of this picture next to my side of bed. So far they haven't attracted the attention of any of the cats and I enjoy waking up to them each morning. Now if they could only wrap presents...

Instant gratification

I've got a co-worker who loves to preface his ramblings with "Quick and dirty..." I'm altering that slightly to say "Quick and crafty". And I mean it!

I'm including a few of these little minifolios in the Christmas cards to my girl friends. I found the idea here. The cost was $0.00: everything was in my stash.Time: about 1 hour from pulling out the supplies to putting it all away.

On my most recent trip to Junk and Disorderly, I found a straight-sided glass jam jar (I love the straight-sided ones and can never seem to find them!) I brought it home, pulled another one from my recycling bin and used this concept to make them cute! They really are 'gleeful'. Total cost: 0.00 (again, scraps from my stash), total time: about 1/2 hour each (I'm not a crocheter so it was a little futzy, but nothing too distracting).

 

The Mary Engelbreit Christmas card was from forever ago. I love the colors and the quote, "We shall find peace, we shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds." (Anton Chekhov: Uncle Vanya)

Happy Advent!

Take time to light a candle and sit in the quiet.

Image courtesy of Google images, saved to my server.

Santa's crafty list

This year the Cattyfamily has decided to exchange names instead of a gift free for all. That's okeyfine by me, but I still want to do a little something for my parents. My mother's gift request is always "More dishcloths". So I broke out the cotton stash and whipped up a few of the Kitchen Cotton Dishcloths. The green and yellow cloths are Reynolds Saucy mercerized cotton and the tan cloth is Rowan's Purelife.

Here's the start of a Christmas giftie: my niece is redoing her room in the very grown-up color scheme of white, grey, and yellow. Before she gets too mature, I want her to have a  fun pompom wreath. Since this photo was taken, all the yarn has been converted to pompoms and I have the blister to show for it!

This isn't a Christmas gift, it's just a set of pulse warmers I crocheted up from some leftover stash yarn. Very quick, very cozy, and as some people tend to think, very pointless. But I think we all need a little pointless pretty in our lives.

Happy little Etsy finds

Here are some blasts from my past via Etsy. The Spaghetti String glass roly polys are the cousins to the tumblers my mom had when we were growing up. I'm going to use them as LED votive holders. And the Betty Crocker Cooky Book is just as entertaining now as it was when my mom made her world-renown Candy Cane Cookies (minus the peppermint candy). I heart Etsy!

November Projects

I said there were some more of these headbands comin' round the mountain and here they are, all ready for Christmas gifting. The darker one on the left is made from Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in Woodlands, the lighter band is Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed leftover from this project. The buttons are from my stash.

I've been intrigued by  garlands lately, so it was only a matter of time until I whipped up one of these. This is the doorway from our bedroom to my craft room. I purposedly hung the garland a bit lower than I normally would, if only to dissuade the CatMan from entering my inner sanctum.

And remember this? The $6.00 table from the Plattsburgh flea market?

Here it is all repaired, primed, and painted. You really can't tell in this pic, but the color is a pale green created when I mixed Sherwin Williams' Open Air (high gloss) with Ben Moore's Urban Nature (from a paint sample jar.) I'll see if I can get a pic of it in its new home, but I have to wait until the weekend and daylight. I left the leather top intact: just cleaned it and then used neutral shoe polish to buff it up and restore the shine.

Other craft projects waiting for their closeups - 2 button monogram pictures (Christmas gifts), a crocheted jar sleeve, crocheted pulse warmers, and a knitted scarf.

Little things that mean a lot

It's amazing how a few small items can change my home's space dysfunction into happiness.

First up is a small basket (from my favorite local store Junk and Disorderly). I'm using it to corral some of the stuff that has been showing up around my stove area. The basket resembles woven pine needles and reminds me of the basket my mom used to gather our Christmas cards each year.

Here's another basket project that makes me happy each time I use it. We kept all our tea boxes on the top shelf of our spice cupboard. Unfortunately, it was a pain to move boxes to get to the one we wanted. So the bags went into Ziplocs, the Ziplocs went into a small basket, the basket went back in the cupboard, and the boxes went to the recycling bin. It's so much easier to pull the basket out (not to mention the added safety feature of not getting bonked on the head by a dislodged box.)

And yes, that is Pippi Longstocking baking with her monkey.

The CatMan and I share a closet, so space can get pretty tight. One of my pet peeves has been the jumble of hangers that accumulate on the clothes rod between laundry days. Enter this small wastebasket (which needed a new home when it turned out to be too wide next to our new toilet). I put it in the corner of the closet and all the empty hangers are tucked in here until the clean clothes are ready to be hung up again. No more searching through the clothes trying to find an empty hanger. *happy little contented sigh*

Pay no attention

Thomas Cole, Hudson River School

Schroon Mountain

Image courtesy of Google Images, saved to my server.

To the non-posting happening here at Gathering Wool. I had oral surgery about 12 days ago and am just now digging out of the woozy/antibiotic/facial swelling thing. Project pics and updates will come soon, I promise. 

But until then, enjoy the pretty picture.