Wedding gift preview

For my niece's shower:

The napkins are heavy white cotton, thrifted from somewhere a long time ago. I bleached them out, cut apart a doily that had seen better days, and used the bits as embroidery in the corners.

The tablecloth was started by my great grandmother, found in a trunk of her fabric, finished by me, and the crocheted edging was done by my great aunt.

Since I don't have kids, I'm making sure the heirlooms I have get passed on to my nieces and nephews.

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

*facepaw*

Don't you hate it when you're happily working on a pattern (that you've knit before) and somewhere about 1/2 way through you realize, "Hey I forgot an integral step (dropping the stitches) the creates the whole look I'm going for!"

Yeah, me too!

Put a coat on it...

Everything is better with a coat (or two) of paint. The black coasters below were originally pewter, but that's not really where I live so I painted them. I don't have a good spray painting location, so I painted them with some "Black Licorice" craft paint into which I mixed some gold glaze. Once everything was dry, they got a lacquer coat to seal. The mum-shaped coaster was a thrift store find that I painted in my trim color "Popcorn White", then sealed. I plan on using this one as a ring dish. The little footed vase got the black/gold treatment too. 

I stripped this utensil drawer, then painted it same butterscotch yellow as the paper I used to line it, then distressed the edges with a dark green. I screwed in two tiny eye hooks and hung it in my craft room. My collection of small doo-dads is now safely out of the cats' paths of destruction.

Seating area so far

This is where the CatMan and I sit to watch TV. Usually the futon is covered with a dropcloth and there is at least one cat holding court on it. I shooed them away so I could get this picture. If you look in the mirror above the futon, you will see Jack stalking away in disgust. The mirror is actually the white one from my previous post. I slapped a little green craft paint on the frame and then sanded it for an aged finish which I think nicely complements the splotchy glass. The other pic is a watercolor of Hickory Run State Park which is known in PA for its immense boulder field.

The green bench is next up on the refinishing docket.

Little projects

 

 I "Etsied" some knobs for the linen cupboard project. The ones I found were 2 parts: a knob and a back plate. The back plate is too big for the cupboard, but perfect for the white ceramic knobs I have on our closet doors. A quick spray paint session later and I have a finishing touch!

Here are few other items on the project docket. Stay tuned!

I wish I was...

But I'm not...

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.