It's Not All Sawdust And Power Tools

I know I've been full of talk about my building and home fix up projects, but that isn't all I have been doing with my time. I have also been crocheting up a storm! Crocheting is my favorite activity while I'm at work. I can have the radio on or TV going, and still have my hands busy. It's also something I can put away quickly if my clients wake up and need something.

I recently finished this one for Big Sprout. She is all about the blues, purples and greens in the world. This is actually big enough to go on her twin size bed.

And then I made this one for Little Sprout. I let her pick the colors, can you tell? She is very happy with it. I'm not really a fan of the colors, but I figure it will "go" with any color scheme she wants in her room.

I've been using these afghan projects as stash-busters. I have SO MUCH YARN!! I can't seem to stop myself from picking up a skein here and a skein there. Even after giving away a big portion of my yarn stash, I still had 2 1/2 large bins full of yarn. It was taking up a huge amount of space in my craft room. I never seem to have enough of one color/type of yarn to finish a project, so I decided that I would use it all up with projects like these, and then start all over. 

Only, when I start over, I will buy only yarn for specific projects, and then FINISH those projects. Yeah. I can do that. Un-huh. 

Crafting Insanity

I have been crocheting steadily ever since finishing my last cross-stitch pattern, Woodland Enchantress. I have done baby blankets and snowflakes, and basically just putzed around with my hooks and the vast yarn stash I have in the back room.



Now, I am feeling the need to go back to my cross stitch. Silly, when I think about it. I should crochet in the winter months, when my work in progress can sit across my lap and keep me warm, and do needlepoint in the summer, when I don't want anything touching me.



Oh, well.



Anyway. I am having a problem. A big problem.



Anyone who knows me IRL can tell you that, when I get it into my head to do something I am a machine. Nothing stops me, and I have been known to run right over everyone and everything in my way.



But something is in my way that I just can't seem to get around.



I can't find a pattern that fits all my criteria. I am getting frantic. I want something that is more art-y than cartoon-y. I want something that will suit the pieces I have already done. I want something perfect. And nothing is making me happy. I have found some wonderful patterns online, but I don't know that I want to wait for them to be delivered, then for me to be able to go to the store and get the fabric and thread....

*sigh*

I am so hard to please! ;)

Lost and Broken-Hearted

Remember when I made myself a crochet hook case? I was so proud of it! I loved everything about it, and used it all the time.












I am so depressed. My beloved crochet hook case has gone missing. I had it one day at work, I remember that. I remember putting it in the tote I use to haul my various projects around. I had a few days off, and when I looked for my case about 5 days later, it was gone. Just gone. I have looked everywhere.

I tore apart the house.

I tore apart my car.

I tore apart both my places of work.

It's gone.

I am not so much upset about the case. It was cool, and I was proud that I made it all by my lonesome, but the case was really nothing more than a bit of yarn, elastic, and plastic canvas. Nothing special.

Replacing the hooks isn't a problem. Crochet hooks aren't really all that expensive, and I can just pick up the various sizes as I need them.

What breaks my heart is that these were my Grandmothers' crochet hooks. No, that is not a grammatical error (though I make plenty of those). I got some of the crochet hooks from my mother's mother, and others from my father's mother. So losing these hooks is, in a way, losing my inheritance.

I am so bummed. There aren't even words for how crappy I feel about this.

The Most Wonderful Day

I spent today Scrapbooking with my good friend Sunny. Oh, what joy!

I have been making all sorts of resolutions to myself just lately.

I plan to take better care of myself by eating better, exercising more, and taking time to do things I really enjoy.

I am also planning to get back on track with the household chores. I am sick of living in a pig sty. (oh, gosh, I sound just like my folks!)

So today was a great start to that. I spent a day doing something I like, with someone I enjoy spending time with, and I feel wonderful.

That's all.

The Pic Heavy Holiday Decorating Post

First off..... Yes, Deb, I take this very seriously. And here is my proof. This tree is in our main floor bathroom. I had originally intended to put it in Little Sprout's room as a tribute to her love of Duckies, but she really wouldn't enjoy it the way it deserves, so the bathroom was the next best place.And then you have our living room tree. Very traditional in the red, green and gold theme.

I think this is the best tree I have ever put together! I love the red, it isn't too bright or gaudy, and the golds are really colorful. I am a big fan of sticking fake poinsettias on my tree. They fill in any bare spots, and just really look special. This pic is too dark to tell, but the colors are so vibrant! It suits the house perfectly! I really think that this is the tree I have wanted to have all my life.

Here I covered one of the pictures that was hanging in the living room with wrapping paper, and used the decorative shelf to show off my Santa collection. This isn't the whole collection, just a few of my favorites.




I built shelves to go up the side of the stairs so I would have somewhere to put our Holiday Village. I love these little villages so much, but I can never bring myself to pay full price for the houses. I haunt thrift stores during the holiday season, and don't think I have paid more than $8 for any of my houses or accessories. They look soooooo awesome at night when they are all lit up!

See how pretty they are? I still don't have them lit up here, but I just love miniatures of any kind.

Maybe it's because I never had a dollhouse as a kid, but there is just something about tiny little houses, villages and furniture that makes me want to stop and play. Someday, I hope to have a large enough setup (and the room for it) so that I can put out an entire little village with a toy train set. That would be so cool!

Continuing the tour, we have this off center photo of what I did to the dining room wall. Yes, that is another tree, and it hangs on the wall. On either side I hung candle rings with a poinsettia in the center, and long lengths of ribbon covered with Holiday cards. I haven't received any cards in the mail yet, these are ones that I have had in my craft box forever. They look cute, though, and I don't think anyone will notice that they aren't signed or anything.

This is a little alcove outside the bathroom. We put a dresser here to hold towels and other goodies since there is literally NO storage in the bathroom itself. I covered the top with snow drape, trees, and the rest of my Santa collection as well as some angels and snowmen. It looks a little busy, but I don't care. It looks fun and happy.

This is the tree that I let the kids decorate. Mr. Barefoot calls it "festive". I call it "crazy". Purple, green, red, pink, yellow, silver, gold, turquise....all on the same tree. All sorts of crazy shapes, all sorts of crazy colors. I threw on the bows in an attempt to keep my eyes from bleeding every time I caught a glimpse of the clashing colors. ;)

As you head down the stairs into the basement where the family room is, I decorated the ledge with our stockings, stocking holders, some garland, and my signature lights. The stocking holder spells out SANTA, and I added just a few of my "marshmallow" snowmen. It looks a lot cooler than the picture shows.

At the bottom of the stairs, you are greeted by my "blue in white" tree. It is all irridescent

snowflakes and icicles, and my crocheted

ornaments. Please don't notice how crooked the snowflakes are.... I didn't notice how badly I did at pinning them originally. I will do better next time.

So there you are, folks. This is what I have been doing for the last couple of days, I hope you enjoyed your tour!

Disappointed

I have been crocheting snowflakes like a madwoman the last few weeks. I thought that, with the new house, it would be really pretty to do one tree all in a snowflake theme with white and iridescent ornaments.

Last night I finally sat down and started stiffening and blocking the two dozen plus snowflakes I had made. I spent HOURS hunched over the blocking boards with a pile of brand new stick pins, gunking up my hands with the stiffener and working my little butt off to get them all even and pretty.

The first thing I noticed is that working with thread and then blocking your projects really makes you notice if your tension isn't even. Then I noticed that on a few flakes I had made mistakes (forgetting stitches or adding them) that were VERY OBVIOUS once you started stretching those suckers out.

I faithfully sprinkled each and every flake with a fine dusting of super fine glitter (the expensive kind) to give them that extra "bling" factor in the tree lights and set the boards aside to dry overnight.

This morning, I was very eager to take my snowflakes off the boards and see how things turned out. It was my first time blocking a project, much less stiffening it, and I couldn't wait to see how they would look.

As I started pulling pins out, I noticed that ALMOST EVERY SINGLE ONE had rusted, leaving yellow and orange markings on my snowflakes. I am so bummed! I even bought brand new pins for this project to avoid any discoloration issues. I couldn't find stainless steel pins, but I figured that one or two uses on brand new pins would be okay.

Evidently I was wrong.

So, does anyone know where I could get stainless steel T-pins? I am still gonna use the stained ones this year (maybe I will cover up the worst of the stains with a little white fabric paint mixed with glitter or something), but I would like to avoid this mess in the future.

Bummer.

What I Made

I know, all of you are looking at that and saying to yourselves: "What in the world is that goofy looking thing? She is all proud because she made a rectangle with multi-colored yarn and some plastic canvas? Yeah, she is definitely losing it."



But wait! You don't even know the cool part about it.



See, I had made a crochet hook case a few months ago that I really didn't like. I had crocheted it, and didn't think through the process and what I needed very well before hand. First off, the smallest hooks kept slipping through the holes in the fabric. I don't care how tight you crochet, hooks intended for thread crochet will slip right through fabric crocheted with yarn and yarn hooks. It is just a fact of life. Second, it was designed with just two pouches on the inside to hold the hooks and various items I use for my projects. It quickly got really frustrating to have to shift through ALL of my hooks to find the right size. Thirdly, it quickly lost shape, and the stuff kept sliding out the sides where the flap didn't hold very well.



So I made a different one, this time addressing all the above issues. See?

There is a handy~dandy little spot for my tiny little scissors, and I crocheted a "swatch" to keep my needles for weaving in ends. I have a few different sizes for the different types of projects I do. And you will notice that all my hooks are lined up all pretty. This portion is for my steel hooks that my Grandma gave me. The pic is a little blurry. Sorry about that, but I am a shaky kind of gal.


When you open it up all the way, there is room for all my aluminum hooks (most of which were given to me by my other Grandma), and when I lift the "swatch", you can see the pocket I have for a little ruler and combination gauge checker/ hook sizer.


I absolutely love it. It opens and closes like a book, and all the hooks are secured with elastic. I figure that if my hook collection grows (I still don't have the super huge or super small hooks, just every size between 10 and N), I can just cut the stitches holding the "hinges" of my book and add another leaf in there. You can't really tell, but I made flaps on the sides of the top so that when it closes it looks just like a little box about the size of a check box.

OK, now that you know that I haven't lost my mind you may all proceed with the congratulations on my super cool little crafty~thingy. ;)

Next!

Do y'all remember when I did this cross stitch project? She is called "Innocent Guardian". If I remember right, she took me around 6 months to finish....but man, was she worth it!

Mine, of course, is still unframed, so I stole this pic from the company website. You can see mine here.

I have picked up my next cross stitch project, and just began it yesterday. This one is called "Woodland Enchantress". If possible, I think she is even more lovely than "Guardian"! I think this one is going to take me longer, though, because of all the background stitching that needs to be done.

I can't wait to make some progress so that I have something to show you all!

BEWARE

I feel a crafting blitz coming on.....I keep looking at that wonderful Work Room and thinking about all the wonderful crafty plans I have in my head.

So.

If I disappear for a few days, don't worry. I will be up to my ears in craft supplies.

Of course, all that hinges on being able to contain Little Sprout for a little while.....

Heating up

I am still hung up on this heating thing that Mr. Barefoot and I are agreeing to disagree on.

I keep thinking about how every house I have ever lived in has been cooler than our apt was. I think that it has something to do with all the insulating properties of the other apts around you, all being heated to varying degrees.

So anyway, I figure that even if Mr. Barefoot gets sneaky and turns the thermostat up, the house is going to be drafty~er and feel colder than our apt did at the same temp. Luckily Mr. Barefoot is...ummmm, we'll say frugal (like me).....and my hope is that his frugality will outweigh his desire for a tropical paradise this winter.

This means warm booties, funky and fashionable hats that can be worn inside, lots of blankets and lap~rugs for sitting in front of the TV, and layering of clothing.

Hmmmm....I had better get my crochet hooks out and get going on learning to knit, huh?

I think we are doing just fine in the blanket dept, since somehow we managed to end up with about 7 million. They are not necessarily all pretty, but they will keep us warm no matter what they look like.

My main concern is Little Sprout at this point. The little pain in the backside is just like her Mommy. She loves to be barefoot. I can't keep socks or anything on her little tootsies no matter how hard I try. The last few nights around here have been downright nippy, and our house seems to be holding on to the cold air during the day. Little Sprout's little toesies are frozen, but she keeps taking her socks off!

Anyone have any ideas for socks with attached suspenders or something? I am thinking a garter belt type deal with attached socks. Or maybe I could find some kind of footie long johns. Kind of like footie jammies, but not. Ya know?

Actually, the more I think about it, the better that idea becomes. I have a sewing machine, and can use it without sewing my fingers to my project. I should look for a pattern for footie jammies, and then just use material that I would use for an outfit instead.....any thoughts? I could use tougher type material for the bottoms of the feet, so that she didn't wreck them right away......Hmmmm.....

Why Barefoot Should Not Be Allowed To Do Home Improvement Projects

Oh, I did okay at first. Our back porch has been kind of left "undone" since we moved in. We knew we wanted to make it a work area for Mr. Barefoot and a craft room for myself (it is a rather large 4 season porch), but with trying to get the rest of the house set up, that one was left for last.

Yesterday, I got a bug up my butt to get it done. I unscrewed the 8 foot long shelves that were in there already from their brackets, and then got stuck for a while. I thought that the screws holding the brackets to the wall were stripped philips head screws. I sat there and scratched my head for the longest time trying to figure out how to get the dang things out. I tried just about every bit that was in Mr. Barefoot's drill case trying to find something that would work, but had no luck.

Finally, I got the Bright Idea to actually turn on the light so I could see what was going on with these screws. Turns out they weren't stripped at all! They were Square Drive Screws.

Umm, yeah. Never heard of 'em before. Not knowing they existed wasn't even the issue. The issue was that I didn't know how to take them out. So I called Mr. Barefoot at work, who also had never heard of them. Can you tell that we are real construction buffs?

Anyway, I started pawing through everything in Mr. Barefoot's tool kits and eventually found bits for his drill that had the magic square head. I was amazed at how well they worked!

Feeling quite proud of myself, I took one of the 8 foot boards out to the garage to cut it to size. Heh, this is where I get to use the skill saw. Heh, heh. So the saw was not in the best of shape. Not surprising, considering that Mr. Barefoot bought it at a garage sale at about the time I was in 3rd grade. I think the blade was about that old, too.

Still, being full of myself and determined to get the job done I carefully measured, marked my line, and prepared to start cutting. Everything went quite well until I got about 5 inches from the far side of the board. The saw just jammed up! I knew that it wasn't pressure from the board bending doing it, cuz I had been smart enough to support it on both ends. I wasn't about to stick my face down by the running saw blade to get a good look at what was going on (I do have some smarts), so I figured that the best way to deal with the problem was to flip the board over and go at it from the other side.

Yeah, Barefoot the Builder I am not.

Anyway, in the process of turning over this (hugely heavy, by the way) board I lost my grip and the stupid thing broke.

Cussing a little, I cleaned up the edges and hauled the pieces back inside to be re~installed as shorter shelves. I used some of the brackets in their original position to make things easier. This all went fabulously, and once again all was right with my world. I was doing home improvement stuff on my home, and nothing could be better. Then I put another row of brackets at table height and put the bottom shelf (still 8 ft long) along those to be my work station counter. I gotta say, the whole thing looked beautiful and I really enjoyed spending the rest of my day unpacking my craft supplies and getting them set up.

Fast forward to today (like anything in this story is going fast). Between Little Sprout's attempts to kill either herself or That Damn Cat and my Dad needing me to run him around while his truck was getting worked on, I didn't get even half of the things I wanted done. Obviously I was not in the best of moods, and I was a bit flustered.

As I was feeding the Sprout's, I started looking at the shelf and brackets that we had decided to use to hang our coats in the back porch. A couple minutes with the tape measure assured me that they would fit (though it would be tight), and I decided to go for it. I just couldn't stand the idea that Mr. Barefoot would come home and see that I had not accomplished a single thing after a day of such industrious activity the day before.

I grabbed the drill, some screws, and the cool shelf brackets that have the rod hooks right on them and headed back to the back porch. Excuse me....ahem....the Work Room.

Anyway, I got out the level and made sure that I had everything measured out to look symmetrical as well as level. I was so proud of myself for thinking ahead.

Up went the brackets....easy.

Up went the shelf....simple.

Up went the clothes rod....a cinch.

Then came the fun of finally, FINALLY hanging our coats up. Oh, they looked so good hanging up there! And there was that sweet shelf above them, just begging for the bins full of winter hats and scarves and things.

Guess what happened next?

No, really....guess.

Unh~huh. There I was, placing the last bin up on that beautiful shelf, when it all came crashing down on top of me. What did Barefoot forget to do? Can you guess?

I forgot to screw the brackets into STUDS. Ummm, yeah. Once the whole thing was laying across my aching feet I remembered that the lack of a stud finder in Mr. Barefoot's tool collection was the reason that I had been putting off that particular project.

So. Yeah.

Needless to say, I am off to buy myself a stinking stud finder tomorrow. If possible, I am gonna get a pink one. Not because I like pink, but because it will burn Mr. Barefoot's butt if I have pink tools.

A girl's gotta lift her spirits somehow, doesn't she?

As Promised.

You see this? This, my friends, is the very first serious cross-stitch project I have ever finished. I plan to have it framed and hung somewhere in whatever home I end up living in. Since Big Sprout wants a "purple room", I am guessing that it will end up in there.

Just in case you missed it, here is another shot. Oh, and the pics are clickable, so you can see in detail how wonderfully crafty and patient I am.

It's Finished!

Remember that cross stitch project I was working on? the huge angel with the baby animals?

I finished it.

Really, I did.

I don't even know what to do with myself. I put the last stitch in and just sat and stared at it for the longest time. I can't believe it is done.

I would post a picture, but Mr. Barefoot took my good camera to CA with him and I can't find the cord for the old camera I have here. So...you will have to wait for the pictures.

More Finished Projects

I gotta say I am pretty proud of myself.

This is an empty picture frame that I strung ribbon across the back of. I hang my dangly earrings on it. Hmmmm, looks like I need more dangly earrings!




And this is a hook case for my crochet hooks. I don't like it as much as I thought I would, and so may be revamping the design....
Closed:



and open:


Just call me a Crafting Queen :)

Finished Projects?

I am not so good at finishing projects, as I think I have mentioned. That makes these that much more special, because they are DONE.


This is a "Charlie Brown" inspired outfit I made for my "grandson". Mr. Barefoot is always calling him Charlie Brown, in spite of my step-daughter's resistance, and all Mr. Barefoot wanted to get for him was an outfit like this. However, they just don't sell such things. So, cheap outfit from Target + fabric paint and voila! Masterpiece.




These next three are snoods I crocheted just lately. Yes, they look like hair nets, but they are way cooler. Because I said so. No, I am not a geek.

Anyway, I really like them. They keep my hair protected and out of the way without having to put in binders or pins, both of which can damage hair.

The Whole Chain Maille Clan

Here we all are....

Belts for the girls are in the making, but if you think I am going to post of something pretty stretched across my ample belly, you're nuts.

More Chain-maille

This is another head-dress done for Big Sprout. She got to wear it to Ren Fest this year, and EVERYONE commented on how great she looked. She even had one of the young lords flirting with her!

Another Early Gift

Big Sprout's Honorary Uncle made me a head-dress for when we go to the Renaissance Festival next year. His hobby is making chain maille. He has made shirts, skirts, halter tops, and various headwear.

Pretty cool, huh?

Just to Prove I am Not Slacking....

9/30/07



10/02/07


11/17/07




12/05/07