Shoe Bin Redo

Okay, so this isn't as much a craft project as it is simple organization, but I always love seeing a good before-and-after.

I also love finding a good solution that cost absolutely nothing, since I already had the shelves around the house.

This is our "shoe bin." It's an old cat tree that had been largely ignored, especially the lower level, which worked great for our two-year-old to put his shoes, until it got out of hand. Messy!



He's like: whoa, where did it go?



New shelves!



Much better! A place for shoes and jackets. (Also, look at that spiffy haircut!)



The top shelf, I've discovered, is a great place to put a stack of folded toddler clothes, all ready to be put on in the morning. Because I'm that organized now (har har)

Cleaning and Painting

I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but those were a couple of my small projects this weekend.

I have this white square planter that's a couple of years old. The little lemon tree in it had been long dead, munched on by the deer and then sadly neglected. The wood had started to peel and fade, so it was time for a new coat.

It looks much better afterwards; in fact it's almost glowing in the twilight. You can also see one of my two new lavender plants in the foreground (which brings the front yard to 5 total, different varieties) and a newly planted Queen Elizabeth rose in between. I'm hoping the lavender will act as a small barrier to keep the deer away from my rose.

Some friends of ours were celebrating their 10 year anniversary this weekend, and I wanted to get them a little something special. A picture frame came to mind, and I found this wooden black one with carved flowers in the front.

I thought it was missing a little punch, so I masked off the edges and painted the flowers a deep red. Here's a before, and "in progress" with a grey primer:

And the deep red, all finished.

On Sunday I climbed onto the roof to scrub the skylights, which have gotten filthy over the last year or so. Right after I got up there, Casper trotted on over to see what I was up to, and then Mouse joined him in lounging near by. I can definitely understand why they like it up there, it's a fun spot!

And finally, here's a project from last weekend. My husband and I upgraded from an older full/queen size futon mattress and got a custom built California king mattress. What a difference!

So of course we needed a new bed frame. The one I built a long time ago got dismantled, and we found some plans online for a platform bed. With a little tweaking here and there, we now have a beautiful redwood bed frame, with plenty of room for storage underneath!

Marms supervised the whole thing.

The old bed will eventually be turned into a small planter, just like the wood futon frame before it. (The marigolds in the second picture are housed in that planter.)

And there are all our cats except for Spook! She came in last night with a couple small wounds on her neck, which look like a bite or a scratch. She held still long enough for me to put a compress on it and make sure she wasn't in any immediate danger, but we're still going to have to keep an eye on her and hope it heals up well.

Meanwhile we're going to have some stir-crazy kitties while they all stay indoors for a bit.

Welcome Autumn!

Just a day late =)

Paint and more paint

What have I been up to?

Lots! I have about 5 shawls in progress right now. I've also made up a short list of crochet projects I absolutely must finish before I start any new ones, and am slowly getting through them.

I like having several projects going, but sometimes it gets out of hand.

This week I finished some belated birthday gifts from the Creepy Cute book by the talented Christen Haden.

This weekend it's been all about the kitchen. When we first moved in and painted the house, I picked out the wrong color for the kitchen... it was a light grey (barely blue, mostly white) I wanted a good solid blue-grey with white trim.

So Friday I re-painted the walls, and yesterday and today were dedicated to the cabinets, which started out as icky yellowing stained wood with brown accents.

Before:

And almost after.

Cabinet doors with primer, laid out on tuna cans to dry:

Once the kitchen's done (this round) I'll post true "before" and "after" pics. For now, break's over! I'm going back upstairs to put on another coat of paint.

What I Did This Weekend

I feel pretty accomplished right now. I prepared half of the week's meals, and planned out most of the rest. That's two lunches and three dinners, done! I also cleaned most of the kitchen, which I've been procrastinating on. I thought about starting to paint the cabinets this weekend, but the sheer number of in-the-works projects right now made me re-think that.

I finally got my spice rack installed!! And it's completely occupied. One day we'll have a garden window and I can have plants in it too.

Then I installed the wheels on my rose bucket and planted the rose. I figured having it up on the deck might make it a little less tempting to deer. We'll see how that goes. I was hoping to get a Mr. Lincoln rose, as that's what I had once before, but I came across this one, and decided to try it. It's Legends, which is also a deep red and fragrant rose.

Our bathroom window felt a little bit blah, not to mention the fact that it faces the street, though on the second story. The window is in the tub/shower, so we couldn't put a curtain on it. Voila, flowers! I think it'll look really nice once the white ones start draping (I don't remember what they were called.) Plus this is a "before" shot for the outside of the house. We'll be painting it this summer, what my husband calls a "good east-coast blue." I can't wait.

A friend mentioned she might want me to make a shawl for her, so I started experimenting. This is a pattern I made up, loosely based on the shawls I made for my mother and mother-in-law this Christmas. It's heart shaped right now :)

The other day I was at the Capitola Mall right before it started raining, and I snapped this lovely view. Ah, spring rain!

Soon I'll go relax before bed with some crochet, but right now I'm not allowed in the bedroom, as my husband is painting it. I can't wait to see the finished product, as I think it's going to look awesome.

Fingerless Gloves and Weekend List

Weekends always fly by so quickly. I accomplished much this weekend, but it still feels like I didn't get as much done as I wanted. The saying is so true that any given project will take 3 times as long and cost twice as much. Or something like that.

I finished these fingerless gloves for my husband. Lately he's been saying that his office is a little chilly, so he wanted something to keep his hands warm, but still be able to work.

Here's an action shot

They're 100% wool, worsted weight. I made them simultaneously from each end of the skein, so I could design them as I go, without writing anything down. That's how I like doing it. Next I'll be making him a pair for wearing at home, and then maybe some for myself.

I've also made some more kid/teen size mittens in a leaf green, but I didn't make them at the same time, so one is a couple rows longer. My solution, rather than re-working one of them (which I hate doing), is to make two more, one that matches each. Then I'll have two full pairs. I also started some small ones in a color I call Raspberry Parfait, and that's what I'll call them on my shop. The problem with making and selling gloves that are smaller than my hands, is that I need to find someone else to model them for the pictures. Or maybe I should find/make a mannequin hand. Otherwise all these gloves will end up being sized L/XL, and I'd like to have a little more variety.

I've also started a couple more shawls, which are working up pretty quickly. Those are my "non-thinking" projects, because they're in a pattern I can work without looking at or focusing on.

What else did I do this weekend? I organized more of the craft room. I cleared out two large boxes, and three small boxes, which is no small task. I started sorting out my fabric, and realized a trip to Costco was in order for more shelving units.

I finally painted the baseboards. That is 1/2 the reason my arms are sore right now. I got some serious oil-based primer, which only required two coats, and then put the tinted white over that. The white I chose for the craft room is called Moonrise. I laid them all out on the deck and went to it today. Took me about an hour per coat.

The other half of why my arms are so sore is because I painted the bathroom ceiling. I wasn't going to do the whole thing, I just started a tiny corner to make sure I liked the color. Then I decided it was such a big improvement that I kept going. The sink and the re-tiling of the floor and tub were waiting on the ceiling paint, so it's good to have that going.

Then I started out to do my first bit of REAL gardening, and realized that we don't own a shovel. A quick trip to the hardware store fixed that, and now we have a lovely little lilac bush in the backyard. I also picked up a rose, Legends, which will be placed in a wooden box on the deck.

I also finally finished painting the linen closet, which bugged me every time I walked by it. Now, rather than focusing on what I didn't get done this weekend, I'll be satisfied with that list. For now.

I have an overgrown little spearmint plant, so I threw some leaves into chamomile to make some relaxing tea. I think I'll go see how good it is.

Status Update

Ok, I promise this won't become the Apple Channel. But here's a quick update on my little grove :)

Last Thursday ...and today

So far they're pretty low maintenance, and it's fun to see the changes. I know when they get a little bigger I'll have to decide what to do with them. I'll probably take them home and put them in a protected place outside, since soon it'll be too warm for them indoors.

In other news, I had my first sale on Etsy! Very exciting! Now I've got to get some more inventory up there. I came up with a crocheted fingerless mitt this weekend, and I'm in the testing phase. I have a sample pair that is pumpkin orange acrylic, which I wanted to list last night, but my camera had died, and the charger is still packed somewhere... A co-worker of mine really likes them, and she suggested I could have her daughters wear some to school and advertise for me. Not a bad idea! I just have to work several up before the warm weather gets here...

Last weekend was again all about the house. I started organizing and painting the utility room, which is now The Yellow Room :) My husband doesn't like yellow, but he said he can live with this one room. In my opinion it's a huge improvement- went from "dingy" to "cheerful" with a pale creamy yellow. I'm doing a burgundy for the trim and accents.

Once I finally finish painting everything, I can start working on the curtains. That involves a trip to my favorite fabric store! Oh yeah, and I need to have the craft room done so I have space to sew them... It's coming along, but not quite as quickly as I'd like.

Squash and A Chandelier

I finally have my desk set up, although the craft room as a whole is far from functional (or presentable.)

Tonight I felt like cooking autumn-like foods, as it's been raining steadily. I made pork chops with apples and mustard sauce, straight out of the Fannie Farmer cookbook. Then I picked up a half an acorn squash, the $.49 special at the market, which is just enough for the two of us. As I was cleaning it I noticed how many seeds came with it and wondered if you can roast them just like pumpkin seeds.

They're on a salad plate there, and they're smaller than pumpkin seeds. I put them on a cookie sheet in the broiler, with a little pan spray, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt. Chili powder would have been good, but that's probably in a box somewhere :-/ I roasted them for 2 1/2 minutes and they started making popping sounds, so I took them out. I think they could have roasted a little more, but I think they'll still be a good spicy treat. Definitely got my money's worth out of that little squash!

Last weekend my husband and I went shopping for some house accessories. We discovered just how dangerous a trip to Home Depot, Frys, Bed Bath & Beyond, and our local Ace Hardware can be. And we discovered just how small my car is... I had to sit in the back seat, as this thing was in the front seat.

It's a dark picture, but you can see the basic shape and the pretty glass shades. This is hanging above the island in the kitchen (ok it's really a peninsula, but island sounds better.) We decided that a pot rack light would just hang too low. So the pots will hang farther along that beam in the foreground.

The bathroom is the next huge project, and I'll definitely do a "before & after" once it's done, but I couldn't resist this little sneak peek. You can see the color scheme, which I realized after the fact are our wedding colors. Funny that =)

Wistful Spook

Not much house news yet. I'm finally almost done with the white trim in the craft room, and then I can start working on the layout. And then I'll have my desk set up, whoohoo! The trim was a very dark wood stain, and it took 2 coats of primer, and 3-4 coats of white paint to make it look right.

Once the craft room is set up we can clear the gym out and get equipment to make it really a gym.


Spook spends much of her time in this position, unless she's tearing around the house like mad. Marmalade seems content though, and maybe she's wise and realizes it's too cold to go out anyway =)

Pretty Things

Home is officially Home now that we have a net connection. But my desk isn't set up yet, because first I have to paint the ceiling, and then I can unpack the desk and the boxes.

The cats are just starting to explore the spiral staircase. Up until now they'd watch us going down with a look of complete horror, but wouldn't step foot on the stairs themselves.

This weekend I got Spook to step down a couple steps with treats and toys. She'd come down a couple, get the prize and head straight back up. All the while she'd be purring and acting very curious and cute, but it took some coaxing to convince her that the stairs weren't going to fall away under her. However, this morning they were both going all the way down and back up. Marmalade is a little more unsure of the steps, but she is a little older.

Every kitchen needs some daffodils. I can't wait to start a real garden...

My new commute is very lovely. I stopped off at a vista point along the way last week and got this picture. Gorgeous views on one side, and redwoods on the other.

Brrrrr!

I know this isn't craft-related, but it's going to be awhile until I'm back into any kind of routine.

I've been trying out the new commute, which is more of a winding road than I was used to. It's been running around 50 minutes, which is not to bad, being only 20 minutes more. I've taken the car this week, but today I decided it was time Sophia got out.

I've seen ice on her before, but the kind of frosty thin layer that you can brush away. This ice I had to scrape away from the seat and the mirrors. Those grooves on the seat aren't water dripping. The whole thing is frozen solid. You can see the gas line on the tank!

My husband measured 26 degrees at our house this morning, but fortunately most of the ride was in the upper 30s and into 40s. I'm glad our heater's working! Double-paned windows are on the long to-do list.

We stopped by the old house for some more things last nice. A friend of ours gave us this balloon right after we got back from our honeymoon, which was the July 4th weekend. It's a little deflated, but it's still floating! Cool.

And that's our internet connection in the corner, ready to be moved to the new house. After tomorrow we'll be connected again.

The other day I decided that I need a duvet cover for my down comforter. It's a queen size, I think, but I want to put it into a twin size cover, since it's just a little too big. (We solved the blanket-stealing issue by each getting our own.) So there I am at Target, and I find this pretty lilac duvet cover with shams, and I almost put it in my cart without thinking, but then I saw the price: $50! For a simple little thin cover. Wow! So instead I picked up a set of cotton sheets, in a similar lilac color for $10 and I'm going to sew them together. That should do the trick. Really I just want a cotton cover to replace the noisy polyester-ish one that's on it Now all I have to do is unpack my sewing table! =)

What a strange place!

Day 4 of my bizarre captivity. Though I can see the outside, I've discovered there is definitely no easy way out at this time, though Mom and Dad disappear occasionally by way of a hole in the floor. I can't begin to imagine what terrors lurk down there.

Thoughts of the horrible crate ride still haunt me, though I try to block it out by tearing around the place as fast as I can. It really helps. The smells are all wrong here, but I've discovered that I can get lots of pets with loud purring and looking cute. This is New and Exciting.

The good news is that the daily gooshy food still exists here. They're making me use the litterbox again, though. I miss the outside.

Marms is taking this whole ordeal very quietly. She seems content with her gooshy food and napping in her bowl. Not me!! There's some kind of pathway at the very top of the living room, and I've been trying to reach it, but no success yet. The whirly round thing in the middle of the ceiling is weird. So far it hasn't attacked us, but I haven't ruled out that it may try.

There I am next to my bowl, aren't I cute?? Marmalade wouldn't pose with me. She said to stop acting human. Hah.

Later! I'm going to go stare down the dungeon hole some more. I think I saw something moving earlier. Then maybe I'll get a nap so I can stay up all night. What a day!

Btw, Mom doesn't know I can type, so just keep that hush-hush, k?

-Spook

Quick House Update. The painting begins!

Things I learned this weekend:

• Friends that help you move are awesome. We got all the furniture and most of our stuff completely moved over yesterday.


• Friends that help you mask and paint are also awesome, and it's more fun to do with others.


• Masking takes longer than the actual painting does.


• When painting around the top of a small room, go clockwise if you're left handed, and pay attention when you reach the beginning. (I wanted a green right hand anyway) Learned the hard way.
  


• When painting a VERY small room, don't back up. Just don't.
  


• When painting the ceiling with a long rod, to make sure you don't paint right above your eyes, do a back-and-forth dance, but make sure you don't step in your paint. Learned the easy way this time.
  


• Smaller rooms generally require more masking.


• Paint rollers get heavier over time ;)

I don't have pictures yet, because there are still boxes everywhere, and furniture up on end. But we spent our first night in the new place last night. Moving over the cats was interesting. We got the little one in her crate (finally), and I carried Marmalade. She did alright, but she started panting half way there, and acted a bit stressed out (She hasn't been in a car in two years).

Hopefully they're settling in today. My husband stayed home to meet the plumber, who's going to fix the pressure regulator. The city water pressure is extremely high, and it seems to be putting a lot of stress on the pipes. After that, our project list is fairly long, but fortunately nothing as urgent as the plumbing.

A funny thing happened yesterday. We were planning on replacing the bathroom sink at some point because the faucet leaks, and the whole unit is generally pretty icky. We noticed that a house two doors down had a beautiful pedestal sink sitting out front with a "free" sign on it. So my husband walked down and met our new neighbors, and came home with a new sink! We'll have to do some tile and backsplash work, as well as replacing the floor at that point, but I'm looking forward to planning it all out.

The kitchen, living room, hallway, bath, and my craft room all got painted this weekend.

I'm very much excited about the craft room =)

I'll update once I have pictures to show. We'll have the net connection moved over on Friday.

The Work Begins

Last night I went over to the new place, to get it ready to paint this weekend. I started off all optimistic, with a goal of:

- Pulling off the baseboards and trim in the craft room
- Washing the walls
- Laying down plastic and taping off the walls
- Sanding the boards
- Priming the boards

But since I arrived at around 8, and since the baseboards were increasingly Difficult to get off, I trimmed down my expectations one-by-one, and in the end settled for pulling off all the baseboards and trim. My rationalization is that it would have been a bad idea to sand the boards inside anyway, especially when we're painting this weekend, and that the boards can be painted outside and then put back after Sunday, when the big haul is happening.

Here's the craft room "before," as I've taken all but those last two boards off. See the dark wood? Not so exciting. The walls will be a very pretty sage green, with white trim.

I was there by myself until almost 11pm, and even though I was being very careful, locking the doors, etc, it's still a new neighborhood and a big empty house. So I did a double take a couple of times glancing down the hallway. I'm sure I'll get used to the stove though :)

And here's the big pile o' metal that I pulled off the trim.

This reminded me of a habit I'm trying to work on: finishing something completely before I move on to the next thing, or part of thing. Like not leaving any nails in the boards to get out later, since that was the difficult part. Tetanus shots anyone? Or on a more dangerous level, not leaving loose threads to weave in until the end of a yarn project. I always do that.

After the craft room last night I thoroughly cleaned the living room wood paneling and hardwood floor. I love Murphy's Oil Soap, but after 3 buckets full and 45 minutes, I was ready to be out of there.

The only injury sustained so far was when I tried to lift the blinds in the craft room, and the whole unit came crashing down and hit my knuckle. I was going to replace them anyway! (the blinds, not the knuckles)

And my husband's doing his share of the work, also. He stayed with the plumber yesterday so I could go to work (yay for working toilet!) and re-fit one of the doors with our shiny new lockset.

I'll probably be doing pictures from the phone for awhile, since it's faster to upload. I'll save the nice shots for the finished project. Although, really, that's an oxymoron for a house...

House News

Here is the single biggest reason I haven't been posting much lately:

Yesterday, we closed escrow on our first home purchase. We'll be moving in over the next couple of weeks, and painting and decorating.

I have plans, oh yes I have plans =) We have raised beds to build, a vegetable garden to plant, a craft room to plan out, a home gym to set up (yay!), a kitchen to decorate, curtains to sew, and we're painting nearly the whole thing, inside and out. Whew!

SO excited! There will be pictures and updates as we go, but I may be more busy than not for a couple of weeks.