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. 

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.

.

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!