Sport Weight Disciple

I started a new pair of socks yesterday. This time I'm knitting one at a time, from the toe up from this book with this yarn.

I repeat, I started these yesterday. If I could knit every pair of socks in my future on sport weight yarn, I'd do it. This is one evening of work, not two weeks. Wow!

A Not So Crafty Post

A friend sent me a link to this video today. I nearly fell off my chair.

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

I love Pee-wee!!!

Progress Report

It was a great weekend!

I have 3 upper cabinets now, and 5 more on the way.  Hooray for storage and progress!

I've pretty much finished my clown socks, I just need to weave in the ends of the yarn and stitch up the toe on the 2nd sock. What I learned: make 2 socks at once! Cool.

The excitement of finishing the socks made me rush on over to Etsy and pick up some knitting patterns from Danger Crafts. Have you seen that shop? OMG!

I bought a 5-Pack of patterns, here's my first project...

He's called Maddox, and Jody likes him too.

I must say, after knitting socks, it's pretty great to be able to finish something in a few hours instead of a few weeks! I've got loads of yarn left, so I may just move on to one of the other patterns right away. Should I go with this one, or this one? *sigh* I think I may be addicted to yet another craft.

Scrap Heap Challenge

Okay, this isn't really about a challenge...just a personal challenge that I am facing. And before you get all worried for me, I'm talking about fabric here, it's not that serious.

This weekend I decided to go through my scrap fabric to weed out the really small and old stuff that I know I'll never use. I keep my scraps organized in plastic shoe boxes from The Container Store. It works well for me and I've been doing it this way for years. The problem is, after a while, you just get too many of one color to fit in the box. The good part is that every now & then you just have to go through them and get rid of some.

These bits come in every size from a few inches to a yard. Here's the challenge...what do I do with them?? There's a place near me called Creation Station that will take donations, but only the bigger pieces.  I'm considering listing packs of the smaller pieces in my shop for not much more than the cost of shipping. What do you think? I'm open to suggestions. Perhaps a giveaway?

At least my scraps are neat and tidy again, and fitting in their color-coded boxes. It's a lucky thing too, or I couldn't have gotten these...

There's always somewhere to put more fabric.

Wonderful Yarn

You may have noticed that I've become a bit of a knitter lately. Because of this, I will now share with you some delicious treasures I recently acquired from the UK.

I don't know how I found Lilou Colours, but I'm glad I did. She offers several types of hand-dyed yarns.

This was my first purchase, it's called Burst of Sunshine, and it's an "ultimate sock yarn. It's a really soft wool/silk/bamboo combination. I loved it so much  when I got it that I quickly whipped up a little swatch.

Isn't it gorgeous? I might make myself some fingerless gloves, or maybe some socks as a Christmas gift. (I'd rather keep it for myself though, hehe.)

Then I ordered more!

*sigh*

Guimauve, Key Lime Pie and Irish Landscape. (3 points for great names!)

You must check out Lilou Colours, she's new to Etsy and deserves some love.

Since we're on the subject of yarn, here's the update on my crazy clown socks.

I'm so close!!

Dining Room Conundrum

Not too long ago I came across a great display of this collection in a (somewhat) local quilt shop. If I hadn't seen these in person, I may not have taken notice. But I'm telling you, up close, they are divine. I got some bits and brought them home to show Nick. As usual, he was really interested. Ahem, okay, maybe interested isn't the right word, but he did like what I got. haha Anyway, I thought some of these prints would look great as curtains in our dining and living room so I set about acquiring the right amounts.

Here's what the dining room looked like when we bought the house. It's still about the same, minus the weird Japanese sliding doors & window covers and the useless doorway to the kitchen. It's nice and open to the hallway and living room now. I think it's time to decorate!

These are the fabrics I'm using for the curtains. The red will be the majority with the bottom, say 18", in the grey. We currently have an oak dining set (hand me down, but nice enough) with khaki shabby chic seat covers. I figured these two fabrics would blend nicely with what we have and add something to the space

Now for the conundrum...

This is the paint color we chose. It's sort of mushroom and would likely change with the light (or lack of) in the room. It's nice, it's neutral...and now I'm afraid it might be boring too. I don't know why I'm so afraid of color! Actually, I was pretty happy with it until I made this...

Now I want to paint the room aqua. Is that wrong? I think it would be fine with the chair covers and even better with the curtains. Nick and I were just sitting at the dining room table, eating some cake, when I noticed these are the exact colors of my place mats, and what I did for my wedding! (And Nick wasn't sure about aqua, red and brown together!!!! Such a man.)

Anyway, what do you guys think about a watered down version of a shade of aqua for the walls in my dining room? Can you see it?

Insert helpful replies here:

p.s. I mean a very muted, on the grey side, aqua. Not AQUA!!!

After Christmas Post

I just realized I've been neglecting my blog again. Oops, sorry about that. I had hoped to have a nice, easy January and get lots of things done around the house, but so far it's not working out that way. No complaints though.

I just thought I'd share a few really great things that showed up here at Christmas time.

Nick got me these adorable pewter measuring spoons from beehive kitchenware. Let me tell you, these have been in my favorites for-ever! I love them. I hope to hang them above the new cooktop if I ever get the cabinets hung on that wall.

I got myself this cute little snowman pincushion from Pennys by Kristie. I just popped it on the tree when it arrived and that's where it stayed. (I hate to say it, this is the only "decoration" that ever made it on to our tree this year. Like I said, I've been busy.)

I saw this book (it started as a blog) at Borders a while back and I was absolutely rolling on the floor crying it's so funny. Thankfully, Nick remembered it and I found it under the tree. You have to check out this book, seriously, you'll be crying by about page 3.

This lovely cake comes from the "Baby Bottoms Up" chapter. Poor green baby.

I believe this one was made in support of fire fighters during the California wildfires. Nice, yet scary.

Get ready for Valentine's Day! The misspelling in Cake Wrecks is worth the price of admission. 

Anyway, check out the Cake Wrecks blog to see how funny this girl is. The writing is half the fun.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year, I must run upstairs and chain myself to the sewing machine for another day. Cheers!