Looking for spring

I had some KYarns gift certificates from Christmas so off to the yarn store I went. Some wool for me, some washcloth cotton (to knit up for my mom), and a pattern for a spring vest.

I immediately had to knit the bright sock yarn (the Regia yarn in the pic above). Here's my start of the Jellybean scarf: I'm using the oblique lace (diagonal lace) pattern. I love it so much, I edited the picture for use as my spring blog header.

I did finish my Serenity socks for my friend Jane. The yarn is Deborah Norville's Serenity sock yarn in a heather blue colorway purchased from Joann's. Two years ago or so, I was all about the sock knitting. Now, not feeling it so much. But I enjoy the process when I finally do get a pair on the needles.

40 days - Week 1

I made some great progress in my Lenten 40-day home purge. My criteria for this purge is to pare down to what I really love/need/gotta clean. Purged items will include those things I thought I had to hold on to...for whatever misguided reason.

My process: Almost every night after dinner this week, I picked an area to purge. Keeping it small - like our nightstand tables - made the process less daunting and kept me from taking on more than I wanted to handle in an hour or so. I just pulled stuff out and moved it to my craft room work table. Yesterday morning, I spent a few hours sorting everything into its appropriate pile, boxing it all up, and taking pictures.

Here's the donate pile: the yarn is going to Hats for Hunger, the books to the Colchester book sale box, and the other stuff to Goodwill (the prescription bottles hold costume jewelry.)

Donate pile #2 to Goodwill.

Garbage (including some expired medicines, toiletries, and hopelessly tangled yarn.)

Recycling (you can't see it in this pic, but the cans are sitting on a big ol' stack of paper.)

Items from the kitchen - most of it going into the yard sale box.

More stuff for the yard sale box.

Totals so far: Some items are grouped as 1 item - for example, the stack of paper for recycling.
Garbage: 22 items
Recycling: 12 items
Donated: 38 items
Yard sale: 75 items
For a current total of 147 items purged out of our home!

Rooms purged:
Living room, bathroom, my desk area, craft room, night stands, clothes closet and bureau, kitchen.
Left to do:
Storage areas (2), off-season clothing.

40 days

I've mentioned before that my denomination does not celebrate Lent, however I personally love the concept; some of my favorite posts are here and here.

This year for Lent I'm going to do a 40-day home purge. My goal is to purge at least 40 items per room/area. I'll be tracking my progress via pictures.

This should prove interesting!

Martha and I

Have been doing a little sewing lately.

Welcome me to the world of cell phones (yeah, I was the last one in my family to have one - and that includes my school age nieces and nephews). I needed a little case, so out came the scrap bag.

The inside lining is from a sweatshirt that was too warm and had a stain. However the phone seems to love it. The lace is a remnant found in some long abandoned corner of a flea market/antique store which I previously used for this project.

Some miscellaneous sewing included finally finishing a set of pillowcases out of  vintage calico (so springy and pretty) and 2 sets of rags torn and hemmed up from Goodwill flannel crib sheets. I also finished a set of pillowcases from a Ralph Lauren twin sheet (also a Goodwill find). I am in love with the colors and will post a pic soon.

Happy weekend - I'm off to Target and the Plattsburgh indoor flea market/antique mall. Who knows what treasures I will come home with...

Rearranging

As I've mentioned before, the CatMan and I rent the 2nd and 3rd floors in an old farmhouse. About 10 years ago, we moved our seating/TV watching area up to the third floor (the same floor that houses our sleeping area, bathroom, and my craft room)and haven't touched it since. Last Sunday right before the Academy Awards, I got the bug to rearrange that space.

After one week, I knew I had to do some serious tweaking to be fully happy with the space. I visited my boyfriends at Lowes to purchase a small, lightweight shelf for our antenna (yep here in VT, there are still areas without cable or high speed innernetz.) My dilemma was how to attach the shelf to the chimney wall. I tried command strips (the grey splotch is where I improperly took off the strip I used to hang a picture there) and then Gorilla Glue. Both epic fails. I finally tried just punching holes in the wall with an awl and using screws/anchor supports. Huh. It worked. I had been under the impression the chimney wall was much more solid than it actually was. Woot!

So here is the cozy space now. After the initial scare, the cats are accustomed to the move and happily lounging in their new location. Oh and the curtain? A lesson learned from my grandmother to keep the heat upstairs and the cold downstairs (or vice versa).

Paint color is Sherwin Williams Hinoki in satin finish.

Snow day

Today was an unexpected snow day. So after a mid-morning nap, I jumped into straightening out the closet cubby. A few years ago, I had sorted through our photographs, but decided today was the day to take it one step further.

I saw this idea a few weeks ago (scroll down 1/2 way through the post) and realized it was just what I needed to finish my job. I didn't get as decorative as she did, but the need was fulfilled. I used .80 cent pencil cases from Big Lots which fit all the prints except the panoramic ones. For less than $5.00, I'm happy.  

And for those of you who are wondering why the CatMan has so many more containers, they consist of his travels, climbs, and hikes. My fun stuff gets posted to the blog.

Look at the kitty [Pretty]

Linked up to join the party!

Here's something for the Pretty category...at least she thinks she is!

And be distracted from the lack of actual blog content. There is some coming, I promise! But until then, here's Izzy.

House to-do list update

Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy via Google Images, saved to my server

So I've taken down the old Gateway computer complete with its monolithic monitor and hard drive: my desk is positively spacious! Now if the weather would just cooperate for me to get it to the car and then to the recycling center.

I have prewashed and dried the denim for the Rotex chair cushions: the material was dropped off at the upholsterer's on Saturday.

Spackling...ah yes, the spackling. I think I have finally solved the issue. I just have to do the painting and that project is done!

I treated myself to a tillandsia yesterday: it's living in a shell in our bathroom. Winter must be getting to me - that little shot of green makes me inordinately happy!

Spring thoughts

Here are my attempts at crocheting little stars. Actually some of them turned out more like flowers. I'll take what I can get. The cool thing is that each one gets better and easier!

I picked up a few vintage embroidery hoops last summer. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but since then I've been inspired to create some cute springy motifs. I covered the buttons with some of my stash and invested in some embroidery floss. I still have 4 hoops left...maybe one for each season?

Sittin' and knittin'

Over the Christmas holidays, I was given a large bag of alpaca yarn. As a thank you for such a generous windfall, I knit this wrap with some of the yarn. The yarn is Classic Elite Inca: I used the blue and multi colorways from the bag. The stitch is a very easy lace pattern: basically Knit 2, [Yarn Over, Knit 2 together] until the last two stitches, then Knit 2. I picked up the stitches and added a ruffle to both ends. This yarn knit up quickly on #10 circs and the resulting fabric is lightweight but very very warm.

This pair of socks uses On Line Supersock Cotton Beach Colors in colorway 947. I'm not fully feeling the beachy vibe just yet (maybe when the thermometer decides to break 0 degrees?), but it's good to have another pair of socks in the drawer.

Once I finished these projects, I tried my hand at a little crochet. But that's a post for another day.

Another find!

This is our new linen storage from Junk and Disorderly in South Hero. She definitely needs to be stripped and repainted. I'm thinking french vanilla outside and orange inside: a Creamsicle! Stay tuned.

If at first

you don't succeed, gouge a big hole in your wall and try again!

Fixing this corner of the drywall in my craft room was making me guano loco. So finally, I took my Exacto knife and cut out as much of the old compound as I could. I guess the angle of the wall  coupled with the new addition settling prohibited a smooth job the first time, so I figured starting over with drywall mesh and compound was the way to go. It's curing right now. My goal is to add the skim coat and repaint the corner by this weekend. It already looks (and feels) much better. 

While I was working painting and staining projects this weekend, I realized I had never shown you a picture of my paint storage. It's a mesh cart I got from Target about a year ago (didn't see it on their website, though). The bottom drawer holds little cans of stain and touch up cans of all our wall colors. The second drawer is primers, spackle compounds, and the trim paints. The top drawer is painting supplies like rollers, steel wool, sponges, trimmers and stirrers. The basket on the top holds spray paints, polyurethane, the paintbrush cleaning jar, metal brush for cleaning bristles, and my much-loved angled paintbrush. The beauty of this cart is that it wheels easily in and out of the kitchen closet which means I don't have to dig for what I want. One of the best $20.00 I've ever spent.

A Cinderfella story

Once upon a time, there was a Viking Artline chair. His green vinyl coat was tattered and someone had splashed his body with flesh-toned paint. He thought his last days were destined to be spent on the porch of a small little junque shop and he shivered at the thought of Vermit winters.

One morning just as he had given up all hope, Queen Dusa spied him on her way into work. She contacted the proprietress of the the junque shop to pay his bail. In short order, the Viking moved to her castle, where he languished for several months in his deplorable state. Finally Queen Dusa lovingly dismantled him, removing his torn vinyl and painted sacrilege. She applied baths of Red Mahogany and Gunstock Miniwax stain to his wood, and gave him new cotton padding and a jacket of grey tweedy suiting fabric.

He has regained his rightful place in the Mid-Century court where he shall live happily ever after!

I gotta get a bigger car!

Because this side-of-the-road foundling didn't fit in the Saturn. Amazingly enough, it was located right next to the apartment of a co-worker. So I tied a note to him and left him on her porch. Another co-worker who lives near me graciously brought Rotex home to the CattyAbode. My plan is to have a local upholsterer make removable denim cushions (just waiting to hear back regarding yardage, etc.)

And the coworker on whose porch I left Rotex? Had scoped out the chair the previous day, but decided she didn't have enough room for him in the apartment. She found it funny, that when she went out the next morning, he had mysteriously made his way to her porch. I'm just amazed nobody adopted him before I did!

Thinking Spring

It's been waaaay below zero here for the past few days. To counteract the chill that seeps into bones (not to be thawed for a few more months), I'm thinking Spring. (all images from Google Images, saved to my server) 

Lilacs (should have been our state flower!)

Lambies!

The Green Mountains

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!