Labor Day Staycation

Image courtesy of Erica Marshall/Flickr, saved to my server. 

This year's staycation is from August 31 - September 5 and here's what's on the docket:
In the kitchen

• Clean refrigerator/freezer
• Clean oven/stovetop/exhaust fan and hood
• Paint touch up
• Rehang floral trays
• TSP and reoil kitchen cabinets
• Straighten pantry
• Rip up contact paper and use peel n' stick tiles in kitchen cabinets
• Reseason cast iron pans 

Elsewhere

• Use my new detail sander to sand down kitchen chairs, thrifted bookcase, and stool
• Hang new curtains in craft room
• Catch up on email
• Birthday cards for my September friends
• Blog
• Manicure

4th of July long weekend

(I'm sorry I don't remember where this picture is from - but I love the cabin-y feel!)

House:

• Clean!
• Strip bench
• Wood putty and prime bench
• Put together ad for yard sale
• Finish 'dressing table' shelf

Craft:

• Work on Berry Clapotis
• Finish typing in recipes for H's wedding gift
• Finish embroidering napkins for H's wedding gift
• Finish pinning out stars for garland

Blog:

• Pictures of linen cupboard
• Wedding gifts teaser photos

Fun stuff:

• Get together with friend from Pennsylvania
• Read!
• Season 6 of 'The Closer' on Instant Netflix

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!

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!

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?

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

A whirlwind in a snowstorm

Today kicks off the frenzy of preparations for our annual "can't hit a moving target" tour of PA. We leave Wednesday (though I hear rumors of a nor'easter). The gifts are bought and wrapped, the checklist is made, cat care arranged, and reservations confirmed. Today is cleaning and laundry, tomorrow is 'find home for refrigerator perishables', and Monday and Tuesday are 'pack clothes and stuff and figure out how to fit it all in the rental car'. All of this around our regular work schedules (in which I'm training two people to cover my workload).

We had a beautiful snowfall last night and the CatMan is taking advantage of it by hiking/climbing at Smuggs. I've been finishing off projects left and right to empty the bag for the travel knitting.

First off is a felted CD basket made from scraps. I used the Cocktail Monkey purse pattern from Knitty as a template.

Then a Bubby to go with R's Helena - Project specs: The Bubby pattern uses about 1/2 skein of Wildflower DK on #3 DPNs.

And then I finished off a Christmas collar out of Tilli Tomas' Peonies. The pattern is a simple lace rib. It's light and warm and will be great for travel.