Memorial Day - On top of Ol' Whiteface

...covered in black flies. (Sung to the tune "On top of spaghetti")

But at least the views were spectacular.
Here's the view from the top, looking at Lake Placid

And here's the westerly view.

Visibility was the best it had been in weeks - 40 miles. 

The weather was a breezy 59 degrees. Now for those black flies...

Memorial Weekend

 Sewing:

• Make summer pillow shams - scrapped this idea for now
• Add-on curtain hem
• Measure black sweater vest for replication

Painting:

• Finish painting linen cupboard - inside done, external trim done.
• Spray paint knobs and misc. items
• Touch-ups upstairs
• Strip vintage utensil tray
• Strip bench in front of futon

Household stuff:

• Books to book sale
• Wash shower curtain and liner
• Heavy-duty scrubbing of tub
• Dust and vacuum upstairs
• Make shelf for over desk
• Grocery shopping
• Make chili
• Bill drawer/pay bills

Fun stuff:

• Blog - well I was hoping for more than this list...
• Drive over to Whiteface Mountain with the CatMan (remember the camera!)
• Call Mom and Daddy
• Starbucks!

My new addiction

Moving along

The new linen hutch is stripped, primed, and (after this picture was taken), the first coat of the interior paint has been applied.

This weekend, my plan is to second coat the interior, 2 coats on the exterior, spray paint the vintage knobs I found, and maybe actually get stuff on the shelves. Stay tuned.

Needling

Work continues on the crocheted stars (using this tutorial) -

I'm thinking of felting them and stringing a garland.

And I finished the Jelly bean scarf.

Hangin' around

It's raining (still) and a bunch of projects are mid-point.

But there's always some kitteh (in)action happening.

Stealth [Funny]

Linked up to today's

I felt something brush my foot as I was about to get into bed. I looked down and saw nothing. Tried again. Same thing. Interesting. I'm pretty sure it's not a mouse.

Gifts

Here are a few gifts I've been working on the past few weeks.

This is for my friend L. who is battling cancer. It is a vintage embroidery hoop, topped with natural muslin and embroidered with floss, felt, and vintage buttons. I wanted the effect of a garden rendered in a primitive style, similar to the rugs found here. 

My niece,H. graduated from college this past weekend. She is the first in my immediate family to have finished a four year school and I'm so proud of her. She's also getting married at the end of this year, but I didn't want this moment to pass by unacknowledged. I found the leather journal and pen online, and had some fabric in my stash that united the 2 greens perfectly. So I whipped up a little book bungee/pen holder based in part on this tutorial and this bookmark. (Unfortunately, the weather and the lighting were not cooperating in time for me to get a good picture AND get the presents off in the mail!)

In my craft room [Happy]

Linked up to this little party -
Here's a follow up to this post.

My crafting chair: a recycled flannel pillow case, shortened and slightly tailored to fit over the back of the chair. The doily was Plattsburgh thrift mall find: isn't the donkey cute?

Here is the Ovenex cookie sheet done over as the bulletin board.

The bumper sticker says, "What happens here, stays here. But nothing ever really happens." The genie card is a birthday card from the CatMan. On the front, the genie is saying, "You have one more wish", and the dog is saying, "You may want to give this some thought" with two shiny balls of yarn in front of the cat. The inside of the card shows the cat ecstatic over the third ball of yarn. The fortune cookie fortunes say "Generosity and perfection are your everlasting goals." (yikes, they nailed that one!) and "You have a house with beautiful gardens in your future." (I believe it's an eternal one.)

On top, the photo in the black frame is a teenage CatMan, complete with um...crazy hair. The little turtle pin is the first piece of jewelry I remember getting: my grandmother gave it to me when I was 6 years old. There's also an vintage, 3-sided wooden ruler (my parents still have one in their junk drawer at home), and a little orange ninja (orange is my favorite color, and I tease the CatMan all the time about 'being a ninja').

The other items just make me smile: a little forest-y Christmas ornament, Adirondack chairs that look similar to the one in an old photo of my grandfather, a friend's herd of llamas, and a happy little boy with the caption "Jump In."

Summer love

Meet my new summer boyfriend, Del. I'm looking forward to cuddling up to His Coolness in a few short weeks. Evidently, so is Meepus; she doesn't even care if he's out of his box yet.

Long weekend

And the "new" linen cabinet is stripped. The wood isn't nearly as nice as it looks in this picture, so I'm sticking with my original plan of painting it. Next up is the priming!

Happy Easter

My sweet friend/landlady believes in the Easter Bunny. So much so, she helps him along in his travels. This was waiting outside our door this morning: Peeps and Hello Kitty for me, Temptations kitty snacks for the horde, and Nut Crack (aka Costco's Cashew Nut Clusters) for the CatMan. If there is a Costco near you, hie thee away and snag some bags of this stuff. Nut Crack! The CatMan's trick for the dregs at the bottom? Mix it with Nutella. Everything's better with Nutella!

In all seriousness, have a blessed Easter and spend some time today rejoicing and praising God for what He has done!

Sprucing up the craft room

After a thrifting/junqing trip this weekend with my friend Barbara, I had some changing up to do in the craft room.

A pretty crocheted cotton runner now serves as a curtain (with this as a tie back). The green chair was starting to get a bit faded, so I took an old flannel pillow case and made a cover for the chair back. I also draped an embroidered doily over the finished cover: it's a sweet little donkey with a mouthful of flowers. I'm a bit obsessed with vintage linens - you know, like some people are about ceramic animals.

I also found this over the weekend, lurking behind a piece of furniture, filled with trash. 'Tis mine now. I'm pretty sure the CatMan is trying to ignore the tole painted items that are encroaching on the CattyAbode.

I bagged the idea of recovering my current bulletin board and instead went with converting an Ovenex cookie sheet to a magnetic board similar to this:

image courtesy of susantiques on etsy.

I used Rustoleum black glossy paint to give a nice even background and then glued little magnets to some vintage buttons (also found this weekend).

My craft room is my girly space and one where I indulge in fluff and frou-frou (well as much as I can being a neat freak/stuff purger). I like dressing her up a little.

A spring wreath.

This is my front door's new spring wreath. I used the tutorial found here. And the flowers are from here. The wreath's colors are much springier in person - it's just our hallway has crappy lighting. I'm thinking of painting the door at some point this year...citrus? chartreuse? robin's egg?

Another foundling rescued.

First he looked like this, found on the side of the road.

Now he looks like this.

The denim cushions were done by Cindy Spence (Robinson) Upholstery in South Hero, Vermont.

The dark spot behind the chair is Izzie biding her time until I'm done taking pictures so she can get back up on it.

40 days - the Goodwill trip

A total of 100 items donated! The CatMan dropped it off the other day, and as far as I know, none of it made it's way back into the house. Not even that Braveheart video...

40 days - Misguided reasons

The eggs are appropos of nothing - image courtesy of Google images, saved to my server.

During this "Lenten" 40 days of purging, I've been thinking about why I keep stuff (and why I shouldn't!)
"Someone gave it to me" - doesn't mean I need to keep it.
"I paid a lot of money for that" - doesn't mean it was a smart choice then or it fits my life now.
"I really really wanted it" - ditto
"I love it, but..." - why do I love it? Can I make it work in my home now?

Thrifting

I realized I hadn't posted some pictures from my thrifting trip to Plattsburgh.
So here we go!

I actually bought this purse during my thrifting trip there in February. $20.00 for a leather Coach bag? Yes please! After a little cleaning and oiling, it looks great!

This time through, I bought 2 milk glass custard cups ($3.00/2), a set of doilies ($1.00), and a great needlecraft book circa 1935 ($8.00). And don't forget, the table these items are resting on was a steal at $6.00 from the same place last year. I love a productive thrifting trip!

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.