Afternoon Project, in pictures

This is the center piece of our entertainment center, which used to have the television inside but isn't being used for that anymore. (Ignore that little shelf to the left, it hides in the corner and holds yarn.)
The other two pieces of it are being used in other rooms and this one would make a great storage place if not for this giant cutout in the back. It's a heavy piece to move across the floor if you need the game board that has fallen back there, or the ball of yarn.

I measured everything yesterday and went to the store and found stacking closet organizers that would fit, and a big sheet of luan to cut and use to cover the hole. The guy at the store cut it in half for me because it wouldn't fit in the car.
I measured/marked it and used a utility knife to cut it to the size needed - lots of cuts and I am really afraid of razor blades and of cutting any surface in my kitchen, so it took a while!
Once I had the board cut to size I realized how plain it looked, and I remembered a roll of very heavy wrapping paper DD and I found on clearance last year. I thinned some tacky glue with water - WHICH, by the way, had a price sticker from Frank's Crafts which closed years and years ago, making this a very old bottle of glue. It was still fine. What a mess. I used my hands to mix the water and glue and then spread it all over the board. I talked to my Dad on the speakerphone while I did it.
Time to assemble the shelves. Very happy that the drill was charged.
Ta da! The hole is covered with pretty paper and the two shelves stacked together and fit in there nicely!
Sewing baskets, yarn, bills, Alex's school books, my laptop (there's a giant power strip attached so I'm going to keep things - camera, cell phone, ipod - charging on one of the shelves) and a bunch of other stuff, all done!
That was a good project but it took the day, between going out and finding the materials, putting it together, restocking it, and sorting through all the stuff that used to be stuffed in there.

Winter Tree

Here's the kitchen tree that I didn't want to take down, and wanted to decorate it for winter. I ordered some paper cut outs from some crafty person on etsy, and they came today.

Area rug

DH found Flor, a company that makes carpet squares in all kinds of colors, textures, and patterns, which lets you make an area rug - or a wall to wall carpet - however you like. Since the TV room needed an 8 x 9 rug, and we were thinking about just buying a carpet remnant and having it cut and bound, we ordered this stuff instead.

It arrived the other day, and we arranged it into a pattern we like. Nowwe have to use these little sticky circles to hold it all together at the corners. The squares stick to each other, not to the floor. I think this is neat because you can rearrange them if you like, or use them differently in another room, and you can just pick up a square that has a spill and rinse it off and let it dry! We have a few extra squares, too.

So here is a picture as we were putting it together. It was night, so the colors are off...

And here is a picture of it in the daylight. I like how it looks. We are going to put wood blinds on the two side windows and I think I'll make some sort of fabric treatment in one of those spicy red shades.

Rusty wasn't even in that room until I took the camera and stood in the doorway. He walked right around me and sat on the floor. Honest.

Weathermen are clueless

Let me just tell you how happy my son was that DH was hundreds of miles away in Ohio when this unexpected snowfall arrived. Had the ATV all to himself. Did have to wrangle with the plow to get it attached properly. It's good to be strong.

Ciao, Christmas 2008

I hate taking the Christmas decorations down. Not because of the work, but because I like them. It does give the snowman collection the opportunity to move from the family room to the foyer, though. They stay out through the winter because, you know, they are made of snow. They seem to appreciate the opportunity to be front and center.

Here is how they look, all lined up and sprinkled with snow. They are very cute, and I try to pick a new one up each year, but only if I really like him. Or her. But then I was photographing them and taking some close-up pictures, I started to think that they look a little creepy from certain angles. Like a snowman army....



I mean, see the guy on the far left, leaning in, in front of the "S"? Did he move?


On the corner of the table I put these little figurines of children playing in the snow. On the right that little boy is climbing through the snow tunnel while a little girl is standing on top of it. Clearly their parents are negligent; that is unsafe behavior.

And finally, they are watched over by this...elf. Gnome. Wood sprite? I have no idea. I bought him years ago and I like him even though he is a mix of creepy and...creepy.

I can't believe I have to go out

Today is an annual charity event for Relay for Life. It is indoors and it's a lot of fun, a fancy lunch and a day of knitting/classes/fashion show, but is COLD outside and really cold in my bathroom to go up there and get a shower!

Be SURE to click on this!

This is so funny, but youtube won't let me embed it - probably because this particular clip was played on Jay Leno. Click here for this funny phone call to 911, from a 4 year old.

Surprise Mittens

They were a surprise because I forgot I made them last year. While I was looking for some yarn in my "yarn cupboard" last week I found this pair of mittens waiting to be felted. (Felting means to shrink something made of wool on purpose). I felted them to fit me, and here are pictures of how it works:

• Here are the mittens, really big, as you can see.

• You have to wash them in hot and cold water, back and forth, being kind of rough with them.

• At the sink, one hot, one cold. REALLY hot, and REALLY cold.

• Drying on the heater.

• Much smaller now, and a perfect fit for my hand. Sorry it's blurry, it was kind of hard to photograph. Very warm mittens!

What have you been doing while everyone is away?

Everyone is away skiing in Colorado, my FAVORITE place, and I am here with an injured dog. It's a good thing I love him so much.

I have watched a ridiculous amount of this Twin Peaks set, the entire series. It belongs to Jason.


I have worked on DH's sweater. What you see here is the bottom half of the body and one sleeve, from the cuff to nearly the elbow.
I pressed some of my favorite linens with my fancy new press that I got for Christmas.
I made a crazy amount of pizza dough, below, which now needs to be shaped into shells, prebaked, and frozen.
I defrosted the big freezer in the basement! It was a cold, wet job.
I had to buy a new espresso machine because mine died. This is a step up, because the one that just died is probably the 4th one we've been through of the less expensive kind. This is exciting!
I have darned, fixed, and otherwise spruced-up these socks that belong to my children - including the girlfriend's pair!. Except for the one pair on the bottom right corner, I've knitted all of these for them and they love them. They all happened to give them to me at the same time, with holes/snags/whatever.
So I piled up all the socks to put them away and noticed just how lovely they all are. Look at all that color, and pattern, and obvious LOVE to make those damn small stitches in the socks! And there are a lot more handmade socks around here than this!
I made this delicious broth and the next day made a FABULOUS vegetable soup. Delicious. Lots of it.