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. 

The colors of fall

My latest obsession is knitting this in various incarnations. This one is for me. I've got two more just waiting for buttons and then they are off to the Christmas box.

Project specs: Lion Brand's Amazing, Wildflowers colorway knit on #7 circs. 

During my most recent trip to Target, I picked up 2 packages of silk leaves from Dollar Spot section. A quick trip through Martha (my sewing machine), and I have a fall garland to wrap around my pinecone lights (also from Target, circa 2009). I don't think my hubby is overjoyed that his pull up bar has been relegated to a decorative fixture.

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Making inroads

Edited to link up to -

I made some inroads on the 'space dysfunction' list (with the help of the CatMan!)

First up, the kitchen. I already had my storage containers in these shoe boxes. What I added was the container in the front holding all my to-go containers. These come in handy when I'm taking stuff to a picnic  or if I'm dropping off a meal at someone's house and don't need the container to find its way home.

I added the two taller boxes to the freezer. One holds our meats, the other holds bread products (loaves of bread fit perfectly when placed on their ends). I picked up the boxes at Target in the home organization area (Itso brand). It's so much easier just to pull out a bin than fight my way through the stacks. I got the idea from here.

Here's where the CatMan earned his keep.We had the bathroom door stripped a few years ago, but discovered that - even sealed with polyurethane - it still swelled when humid. Not a great thing for a bathroom door. We borrowed a plane from friends and the CatMan went to town. About 20 minutes later, we had a door that closes smoothly and completely. Much to the cats' chagrin. Oh, the reason we hang the towels on the outside of the door? There was no place to hang them in the bathroom where they would get air and dry completely (since the room is a windowless postage stamp!) I painted the mounts with black, glossy Rustoleum so when the towels are opened up, any hardware that shows blends with the door's original hardware.

And the weekend's last little project was cutting the stool's legs off. Since the stool was a freebie, I didn't worry too much about ruining it. I really like the shorter height - the original length wasn't comfortable when we were using it while sitting on the futon. The Stanley is my new purchase - actually a trade-in for the coping saw that broke! Love that Lowe's guarantee!

Space Dysfunction

Image courtesy of Google images saved to my server

I was blog reading the other day and came across the concept of "identifying your space's dysfunction".* I'm a pretty organized person (those closest to me would probably use the term 'obsessively' organized.) But I realized there are nooks and crannies in my house where I have opted to use the same old work-arounds instead of creating a new and better options. So over on my sidebar, I have listed some of those issues that I'm hoping to rectify over the next few weeks. 

This weekend, I tackled the kitchen. And as soon as the camera makes the trip back from the 'Gunks, I'll show you the goodies. 

*If you can point me in the direction of the blog mistress who coined that phrase, I'll linky it here. Thanks!

Getting creative with paper and primer

Wrapping paper and spray adhesive are my friends. Here I used it to camouflage my bill and office supplies bin. All I did was cut the paper to the dimensions of the hanging folder, then used spray adhesive to adhere it. Total time: 5 minutes. I liked the look so much that I used the paper from the dresser drawers (see below) to cover the other side of the hanging folder so I can get spring/summery when it's time. Total cost: $0.00 (already had the wrapping paper!)

I used this wrapping paper to do our night tables and main dresser drawers as well as my desk drawers. In the past, I have just laid the paper in the drawers, but eventually it slips and slides, wrinkling up in the corners. This time, I used the spray adhesive! (I know, I know - it takes me a while). Now I'm so happy when I catch a glimpse of the bright florals. Total cost: $1.00 for the roll of wrap from Big Lots.

And here is a progress shot of the $6.00 table. I reglued the veneers, sanded all the wood surfaces, and then primed. I'm going to touch up some of the gaps that the primer revealed, then give it a coat of paint. Hopefully, that will be happening this weekend.(And btw, dollar store vinyl picnic table cloths make great drop cloths.)

A knitting FO!

Yes, I still knit! I completed this bulky shrug (scroll down to #286) in just under 1 week using 3 balls of Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed. I liked this pattern because it is knit from the top down, so I could try it on to adjust the length. I definitely am going to use the pattern again and tweak it for different yarn weights, sleeve lengths and body lengths.

Curling up space

Picture courtesy Molly Frey Design

Doesn't this look like a perfect little nook, tucked into a dormer? The only thing I think I would change is to warm up the wall color - maybe a light artichoke green?

Getting crafty - the sewing addition

The bookends on my nightstand are plain black metal - blah! So I sorted through my scraps and made reversible covers. The red side is for fall and winter, the green side is spring and summer. I handstitched the vintage lace around the bottom to finish them off. Total cost for the project: $0.00 - all from the stash.

Here they are in action.

I found this log cabin quilt square in a 'free' box in a dusty corner of an antique shop this summer. Finding the square reminded me I had another one, given to me ages ago by my step-MIL. I hand-stitched each of the squares to some fabric from the stash to make a reversible pillow. Total cost for this project: $1.00 for the ringbearer's pillow form I picked up in Goodwill (The sparkly pillowcase went into the stash for some future project).

The lace edging on this pillow is lace I knitted myself.

New Stuff

Edited to link up to this linky party.

While Plumber Mike was here installing our new toilet, we also got a new kitchen faucet set-up. Yeah, evidently the 70s called and wanted their old one back. For the linky party, let me just add my sink area needs to be pretty utilitarian since the CatMan is the one that does the dishes and  he tends to be a little splashy with the water. One of the things you can not see in this picture is a little vintage towel drying rack that hangs up under the scalloped edging. I use this rack to dry plastic bags for reuse (just like my Mom does and Grammie did). I'm sad we do not have a window over the sink (one of the must-haves for when we own our own home), so that's why the picture hangs there. For more about making my kitchen sink area less scary, you can go to this post. Thanks for dropping by!

May I introduce you to Jac, our new Jacuzzi toilet. The base of this toilet is the most perfect thing I've ever seen. Notice there are no nooks and crannies on the base to clean? That, my friends, trumps white bread any day.

Getting creative with free stuff

This post is all about the free crafty stuff I created this week. The first item was a metal "J" hook I found in a parking lot as I was walking to get coffee. I actually saw the hook on Wednesday, but didn't claim it until Friday, just in case it was inadvertently misplaced by its owner. I toyed with the idea of painting it bright pink, but decided I would use it more if it was a little more neutral (I can always go back and spray paint it later.) A few twists of twine and I have a free, stylin' hook.

One day at work I was surfing some craft blogs and came across this site. Since I live on a lake, my access to driftwood is almost limitless. Our new toilet's tank cover is smaller than the old one which means the tray I had on top of the tank is too large. A coupla minutes and glue sticks later, I had a new rustic tray that blends with my other beachy bath bits.

I'm now inspired to try my hand a few more free craft tricks.

Otters bring the happy

The best-laid plans

I was really looking forward to having a few days off this month to accomplish my big to-do project: wallpapering our hall. I had the supplies and the manpower all lined up, unfortunately my 150 year-old walls had a different idea. *sigh* Not to worry - the walls will be recovered eventually in MDF paneling - I'm just not sure when that is going to happen.

However, I was able to finish another Christmas project: this is for my Bingo-crazy sister. Angela at Junk and Disorderly came through on the vintage Bingo game. I used spray adhesive to attach the cards to a stretched canvas, then used glue dots to attach the wooden game pieces. I painted the edges with a rust-toned red (to match the game pieces) and then Mod-Podged the whole kit and kaboodle. Total cost for the project: $12.00 (the game was $8.00 and I have tons of cards and game pieces left, the canvas was $4.00. Everything else was from my craft stash.)

Also from Junk and Disorderly is this great Viking Artline chair. My plan is to strip the wood and stain it a deep reddish brown, then recover the upholstery in a grey men's suiting fabric. What makes this chair a steal is the $12.00 price tag. Uh huh. Heck, I'll leave it covered in green vinyl for that price!

Decisions, decisions

I'm finally wallpapering my apartment's main hallway this weekend. I'm using the blog sensation - bead board wallpaper - which I am then going to paint. And because I'm crazy, I'm thinking about painting the ceiling a contrasting shade.


Oh it's so easy to plan, so hard to execute!

Getting creative - the 'more than one way to skin a cat' edition

So I haven't been able to post from home - Blogger hasn't been willing to load my photos. I finally had the chance this weekend to finish off a few things, so I sent all my finished object shots to my email and am uploading them here at work. Take that Blogger!

FO (finished object) #1 is a set of homemade Swiffer pads for a friend's birthday this week. I only had 'sticky' Velcro and I'm here to tell you that is NOT something Martha (my sewing machine) liked. At. All. Total cost: $8.00 - $2.00 for the towel upcycled from Goodwill, and $6.00 for the non-sticky Velcro. I only needed the 'non-picky' side of the Velcro, so if you have any projects utilizing the 'picky' side, let me know. I've got lots of it left.

FO #2 are hotpads based on this crazy coaster pattern. I made two sets - one for me and one for friends who just bought a house...a year ago. Yep, I know. I'm right on top of it. Total cost: $14.00 - $2.00 for the jean skirt upcycled from Goodwill, $5.50 for the thread (Coats and Clark Rayon Twist multicolored), $6.50 for the Insulbright lining. The hanging loop ribbons are from my stash.

FO #3: this little bottle has been beckoning me to buy her for several months. So this past weekend, I did. Then I gussied her up with a beaded necklace and a little gold piece from my grandmother's jewelry box. Total cost: $2.40 for the bottle. The cork and beads were from my stash.

FO #4 was a totally free project: the cardboard box was salvaged from work, the paper, ribbon, and upholstery brads are all from my stash. Right now, the box is housing all that &@#* Velcro!

FO #5 is proof that sometimes, upcycling isn't quite as thrifty as I hope. I've loved the "picture frame to tray" transformations I've seen around the innernets and thought it was high time to try it for myself. Total cost:$22.50 - $6.50 for the hardware (the handles and the screws/bracing bars on the back of the tray), $2.00 for the solid wood frame, $14.00 for the acrylic tray top, $0.00 for the Pellegrino foil lids, scrapbook paper, and the plywood for the back of the tray.

Post how you feel.

Image courtesy of Google images, saved to my server.