{More Frogging than Knitting}

I'm not traditionally a frogger.  I loathe the idea of undoing hours of time and work and starting from the beginning, so instead I usually try to make do.  But I tried on my bottom-up sweater only to find that it was about 6" too large in the waist for me, which isn't really fixable, so two skeins of Sundara Silky Merino made their way back in to cakes and I recast on for a much smaller size.  This yarn is just too good to not wear when my V-Neck sweater is complete! The frogging had an added bonus of allowing me a second chance at the cast on since I found it was rolling something terrible.  I restarted with an I-Cord cast on instead of a few rows of garder.  It took two days to do, but I really like the result.  I'll talk more about the project when I'm a little farther along and have something to show you.

I have had significantly more success in doing small projects around the house!  I found the inspiration for this 5 minute project on Design Sponge where they wrapped yarn around balls to create their snowmen, but when I first saw it I just thought it was stacked cakes!  So that's what I did! 

The buttons are just attacked with two stick pins and the arms are tiny twigs.  It was just what I was looking for in my display!  I love the textures beside each other (cotton, wool and linen) plus the slightly different cream colours and fun too.

Mr. Pie and I also made our second annual Gingerbread House!  We had such fun last year that we decided to give it another go. 

We struggled with our dough in the morning and by the afternoon I'd become so frustrated I ditched it for a kit from the grocery store.  I like the simplicity of just putting it together and decorating it, but it lacks personality I think. So next year the secret will be to refrigerate the HECK out of the gingerbread dough so it's not sticky.

 And we got our first snowfall this weekend!  Always an exciting time!  We took the opportunity to do a teensy bit of baking. What you see are some chocolate covered almost and pecans setting in the cold because the cutting board didn't fit in the fridge. hehe 

They were super easy - just melt some chocolate chips in a double boiler (or a metal bowl and a regular soup pot, as it was in our case) and then toss the nuts in the chocolate until you feel like you've got them covered without too much chocolate left over, them spoon them on to some wax paper and allow them to cool. We were a bit impatient. hehe

I hope your December is coming along as nicely as ours is here!  The final projects for the semester have been turned in, but that hardly means I'm done.  I have two big final exams coming up that will be the bain of my existence for about the next week or so.  Wish me luck!

{Finished Curtains}

The inspiration hit last night after dinner.  I had all the necessary materials and when a projects grips me like this it tells I have to do it Right Now!   In this case, it was curtains for the dining room!  I had some extra muslin fabric and some green fabric left over from my quilt, plus some burlap for extra length on the bottoms - all I had to do was sew it together!

Here's a before picture I found from last Christmas (I think).  These were some stock drapes I picked up years ago when I worked at Pier 1 Imports.

 

And now, here's the NEW curtains!  The cost? $4 for two! (the other one is on the light side of the house, so no good picture. hehe)

I think this was the best solution for our old house. Since we're renting we don't want to get too involved with buying brand new curtain rods or custom anything.  These are fun! The burlap adds dimension and weight to the otherwise very thin fabric and the custom height gives the room a bit of a regal feeling without being formal at all.  The white of the muslin is also really clean and fresh in this room.

Using the branch for a curtain rod was an idea I saw on a blog AGES ago and I have no idea where to find it again, but it must have affected me deeply because I've been hanging on to these branches for a long time for this purpose.   For the top of the drapes I used grommets (my only expense) and some twine to tie them up since they won't be functional draperies at all. 

I think my dining room is ready for dinner guests now!  :)

{My Fall "Mantel"}

We don't have a fireplace in this house (something that will definitely be rectified in our next home), so the one flat surface that I get to decorate up all pretty is the credenza in the dining room.

This Monday coming up is Thanksgiving in Canada.  Even though I don't live within the borders of my country anymore, I still like to live in the spirit.  Plus Mr. Pie likes having two Thanksgivings so it's not a hard sell. ;)   We're expecting a house full of people which for us means there will be 6 to dinner, including ourselves.  We really love entertaining on occasion and I'm really looking forward to it!  Doesn't it always make you think about sprucing up the house a little? 

Thus, I bring you my student-budget mantel / credenza decorating.   I wish I had a before but I never remember that part. Just picture clutter. lol

 The empty cake platter will have Pie on it come saturday, and then after that I think I'll put a pumpkin up there! Maybe we'll even carve it, or maybe I'll try one of those cool painting techniques I've been seeing all over the blogosphere! :)  Here's some closeups, of course.

This was an experiment that I'm happy to say went relatively right.  It's first incarnation was of a VERY fake summer wreath from the dollar store.  They must have thought highly of it though because it was marked $8.00.  I found it in the 90% off shelf and paid $0.80. The summer flowers were falling off in the bag on the way home. lol  The other flowers were from the dollar store too and it was only one stem.  I paid $3 for that one and just snipped off the flowers and a couple of leaves and worked them under the wire.  This little wreath might get a few more makeovers in the future, so I didn't use any glue.

A fresh pumpkin and a single $1 stem of fall leaves dressed up some items I already had on hand.  I love using books for decorating, don't you?

The only new thing purchased here are the reeds.  I probably could have done with another bundle, but for $3 I'll stick with the one for now. hehe  The vase I made in January during the snows and I'm so happy I'm finally finding a great place for it! Isn't the texture great?  Check out my Recycled Sweater Vase over Here.

So there ya have it! I think I'm planning one more project for tonight too. Muwahaha. (If I find time at my sewing machine. hehe)

{I did it! I Did It!}

I stenciled cute t-shirts! Both of these were clearance at Walmart for $2 and $3 respectively. Good for practice right? Well it worked! I used the exact same method as the tutorial I posted yesterday, only with my new fabric paint. I had a terrible time finding the NOT puffy paints, or 3D paints, or whatever. I had to go to Michael’s to get the regular looks-like-acrylic-but-doesn’t-wash kind of fabric paint. Takes a ton longer to dry, too!

just after removing the stencil

After 3 hours of drying I tried it on and I love it!

Close Up

Drying with Cardboard

Tried it on!

Close up

These were totally the results I was looking for: cute, cheap, original t-shirts. Which one to wear tomorrow? Hmmmmmmm...

{Another New Craft}

It was by no means my intention to fall in love with yet another craft to suck up all my extra time. but it's happened. I found Stenciling. I didn't mean to, I swear! My knitting projects are going to be so mad! ;)

First I thought of stenciling because I really want cute graphic t-shirts like the ones here or here, but I don't want to pay that much for them. I want them to be like... Walmart cheap. Except cute and original. Which pretty much means I'll be making them myself right?

But first I had to practice. I don't have any fabric paints yet, but I DID have acrylics and I DID have burlap. So of course I dove right in!

First I found a cute graphic and traced it on to this little stencil plastic I bought:

Then, being very careful with a craft knife I slowly (oh so slowly!) cut out the design:

Sprayed the back with spray adhesive (not sure if this'll work for my t-shirt, but it worked fine on the burlap):

Once firmly affixed, I chose my colours, some foam brushes and a plastic lid for paint application. I forgot to put cardboard behind this one! It's not that important since i was on this broken cutting board I use for crafts, but if I had been on my table I would have been mad. lol It bled through like crazy!

I just dabbed dabbed dabbed until when I peeled it off, it looked like this! I layered some colours to get some blending:

I've never been much of a fine artist, but this was so easy! You didn't even have to stay in the lines! To be honest, this particular design required a little bit of touch up with a little brush on the branches, then I put in the little pink centers with another brush. Cute, right??

Then I just swapped them out with the calendar pages that were getting old and tired in my dining room. TA-DA!!

So many possibilities! I'm seeing lamp shades, pillows, backs of bookcases! What do you think??

Entered in:

My Second Spray Paint Project

I'm a pretty lucky girl for many reasons, but the one reason I'm going to focus on for this post is all the beautiful hand-me-down jewelry I've received from my Mom and my Grandma. When Grandma passed there was a ton of jewelry to go around and I got a lot of very beautiful vintagey looking necklaces that I SO did not appreciate that many years ago, and they got put away in little velvety boxes and kept for sentimental reasons.

Well, recently my jewelry situation was driving me nuts because since I've been back in school and not at work at all I wear almost zero jewelry. I started going through all the little boxes to find things to give away and was just drooling over the gorgeousness that I had stashed away!! My new no tangles solution?


Yes, your eyes are certainly not deceiving you: that is a chop stick hung from the back of the closet door by some yarn. Classy right? But it kept them from knotting and it was free.

Well I fell across a beautiful idea on one of the many beautiful blogs I visit daily and decided I was on the hunt for a large old picture frame. Enter this beauty last week as my first Salvation army home decorating find:


It's big alright, about 16"x20" and the price tag said $3.50. We don't have half off days I don't think, or I would have gone in on that day. hehe It was dirty and really not my style, but it wasn't going to stay that way. I spray painted the frame with the same bronze spray paint as my previous lamp project and used spray adhesive I had around the house to adhere some burlap to the back of that cardboard masterpiece. Soon after giving some picture hanging hooks a quick light spray, I had this hanging on my wall!


Awesome, right?? The frame actualy has some cute details at the corners:


I'm seriously proud of this guy and I love how it came out. All for about ohhh... Three and a half bucks. I could really get used to this kind of stylish organization.

Hopefully next time you hear from me it'll be with some knitting updates, but I really don't have much going in that arena at all at the moment. Here's to hopin'!

Oy Yoy Yoy

What a week! I think I've survived the school week from Hell. lol Nothing difficult, just multiple days in a row of more than 14 hours a day at school, plus the one hour commute each way and it pooped me OUT. I got almost zero knitting done, except for a couple of lines on my Modern Log Blanket.

But as of this morning, I have completed a small project. It's especially exciting because it's my first spray painting project combined with my first Craigslist project!!

Here's my before:

A much needed standing lamp, even on a swing arm like I was hoping for, but as you might have guessed the bright brass colour does not work with my decor. Total cost from Craigslist: $20 (plus an hour of driving around after getting lost trying to find dude's house. lol) Totally worth it!

After:

Now it's the perfect lighting for the comfiest chair in the house! I used a Rust-Oleum spray paint in a bronzy colour and spray painted the whole thing. Then, I had every intention of recovering the lamp shade with some muslin overlapped with burlap then some brown ribbon trim but I managed to completely destroy the lamp shade while I was trying to rip off that pleated white fabric. I tore huge holes in that cheap plastic stuff. lol So this is a $15 black shade that I bought new and I love how it looks!

So that means the total cost of this light was $35. Still not too bad. :)

I have another neat crafty project coming up too! I'm excited to show you guys this one: my *second* spray paint project!

{Tons of Updates and FOs}

Hello Folks! I've had a very busy week with it being my first full week of school, yet I've still managed to fit in a bunch of knitting here and there. Small projects only though because they don't require me to think as much. hehe

I started with a few odd skeins in black, white, and two different grays, plus the desire for a new toque. I started with this one here: Really simple stockinette stitch, just with a purl row every time you change colours. It's way fun and I really like it!


Then, knowing I had a ton left over, I went buck wild and did another one:


And the dang skeins from my stash would NOT quit! So I did a head band for ear coverage. This is the first project I've done double thick and it's so warm. I just did the pattern for the head band and then did one purle row, then kept going in the gray you see underneath until I had doubled the width. It turned very easily and I just crocheted with the black to attach the two ends together. Fits great!


I've also had my first foray with Craigslist, and I must say it's only whet my appetite. I bought a standing lamp, which is something I've wanted for a long time for my comfy chair corner. You know the one I just put the stack-o-books- end table with? It's so gotta get a spray paint job, but Mr. Pie says I should wait until it's not 30 degrees F outside anymore, so I'm bummed I'm going to have to live with it being bright brass coloured for a while.


When you guys spray paint lamps, do you also spray the part that the bulb screws in to, or do you leave that bright white? And don't you think it also needs a shade makeover?

Oh, and just so I don't leave you all hanging, I DID find a use for that vase I made last weekend:


It's been nice having a small piece of spring in the house while we're waiting for the next snow storm on Sunday.

{The Rest of The Sweater}

I started out yesterday showing you how I cut off the arm of a Goodwill sweater and covered a glass vase that I wasn't too fond of just by gluing down the edges with my hot glue gun.

The remainder of the sweater went right in to the washing machine and I tried my hand at felting for the first time! When it came out it was a lovely thick fabric, but I hadn't anticipated that it would shrink a lot more length wise than width wise. "No matter," I told myself, and proceeded anyway. I cut from armpit to armpit of the sweater, front and back, only detouring to make the cut outs for the handles. I seamed up the bottom just using a whip stitch, and I had a bag! It was terribly inefficient though because it was so darn wide and not very deep. lol It didn't hold anything, basically! So back to the drawing board. I cut out a piece of burlap for a base for my new bag and Ta-Da!


I added a couple of cute embelishments by crocheting some flowers out of the scrumptious yarn that I won on LizzKnits blog, as well as doing a whip stitch all the way around the cut edges. I am in LOVE with crafting with that yarn!

Isn't the variation in the yarn, beautiful? And I adore how the cool greens and warm greens play off of one another. Paired with the burlap? Too much cute! I don't know if bags like this are super duper my style or anything, but it's super practical - as evidenced by the yarn that now has a home!

I think my dining room drapes might need some burlap added to the bottom of them, but the idea of trying to hem it by hand is kind of intimidating. lol

{Snow, Snow and More Snow}

Edit: On this note, What do you think about my new seasonally-appropriate background? hehe


We had a ton of snow... Again. This time with Mr. Pie not at work until this afternoon, we decided to make a snow man in the front yard! He has button eyes, a carrot nose and is wearing a hat that I knit! hehe Too much fun!

Yesterday I was trapped inside all day too and was feeling remarkably un-knitty. Does that happen to anyone? I just didn't feel like knitting right at the moment. So I went in search of a craft I could do where I had all the materials already (since I couldn't drive anywhere even if I wanted to. lol)

I came up with this: a sweater from my frog pile to cut up, a vase that needed covering, and a glue gun.


and ended up with this:


Without anything to put in it just yet or a place in mind for it, it's hard to know if I like it yet. I do like the vase better than I did, anyway.

Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with the rest of the sweater! Muwahahaha

{Christmas Eve Crafting}

Has anyone else noticed how the whole design blogosphere has gone wild for burlap? It's everywhere! Just this morning I've seen it as pillows, chairs, bags, drapes, and valences to name a few! I'm on the hunt for good ways I can begin to use up the yards and yards of burlap I have left over from the wedding. Here was it's original purpose:


So consequently I have about 8 total yards of natural burlap cut in to 18" wide strips that I had the presence of mind to keep (unlike so many of my other crafting leftovers. GAH!)

I was inspired to make some valences for my front room, but I'll need curtain rods before I can do that. I had the itch this morning and needed to do some crafting that only required materials I had on hand!

Then I came across these simple napkin rings at maya*made and it got me to thinkin'. So I scrounged around to see what I had that could substitute for some of her materials. Here's some shots of my process:

Dang, burlap is really messy!

I'll do a tutorial if anyone is interested, but I think it's a pretty straight forward project.

Tools needed: glue gun, scissors, needle with a large eye
The materials I used: burlap, toilet paper roll, green ribbon, brown ribbon (for covering the seam), a small bead

Here's the finished look:


They add a pretty little detail to the dining room, for sure. It's not my favorite project of all time, but it kept me occupied for an hour or so. hehe :) If anyone has any awesome ideas for using burlap, I'm all ears! :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Eve with their families. I miss my family dearly this year and wish more than anything that Mr. Pie and I could be home this Christmas with them . It'll only be a couple more years until I move back to the west coast where they are, but that doesn't seem fast enough! I think this is my 9th Christmas in a row away from family... sigh... I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams. :)

{My Home}

A ton of people out in the blogosphere have been giving tours of their homes all decorated for the Holidays. I'm particularly pleased with how our little rental looks this year, our 5th Christmas together and in this house.


It really did start out as just a house and I don't think either of us ever thought we'd be seeing our 5th Christmas here. Even though it's a rental, we have really made it our home.

It's not a very large house. In fact, you see straight from the front to the back! In the first photo you see the hallway, the living room and the dining room through the doors! Thank you to everyone else who shared images of their home for the inspiration to share mine! :)

{Coolest. Idea. Ever.}

Christmas Wrapping - Reusable, Affordable and Green! from HowDoesShe.com


I LOVE LOVE this idea and I think I might have to do this next year... maybe I should start shopping for fabrics right away?? I want some sophisticated pretty Christmas ones!

What do you think - could you and your family make the switch?

{ Another Crafty Project }

I'm pretty proud of this quick little task! It's not a Christmasy craft, but that's okay. My inspiration for this project came from A Soft Place To Land (she's got TONS of awesome crafts!).

I have about half a dozen glass vases around my house and they really don't match the rustic/warm theme of my decor. I try to fill them with seeds or stones or something natural so they aren't so harsh, but this works WAY better! Was way easy too!

I bought a hot glue gun! Just start at the bottom, trying to
be sure that you get the base nice and straight.

Keep going around and around until you're at the top!
My twine was really thick; I wish I would have paid
more attention to getting it tight to the row below.

Ta Da! Some branches from outside finish it off, and I'm the happiest
I've ever been with my end table. :)

Oh, and here's a picture of where my Christmas tree landed:

Alright folks! I'm pretty determined to finish off that scarf today, so I better get started. I really want to cast on some mittens soon! I want them to have a nice long wrist part that will tuck under my coat! I'll let you know when I decide on a pattern for that. :)

Only 4 more sleeps until Santa gets here!!!

{ Christmas Tree and Knitting Updates }

I was surfing around different craft blogs this morning and I caught the crafting bug. I know I saw something like this on one of them, but I couldn't find it again! Please, if anyone knows what crafting blog I bumped in to and saw this, please let me know because I feel bad I didn't bookmark it or something!

So here's the materials I used. All stuff that was laying around the house. The frame came free along with a bigger one I bought, burlap is left over wedding decorations, the lace is from a garage sale and I was using it to wrap gifts last year, and the buttons came with a shirt I bought.

Then, on to starting:

1) Cut burlap using the glass as a template.

2) Cut 3 progressively smaller pieces of lace and tack them
to the burlap with a needle and thread.

3) Iron down some unruly Lace
(hopefully without melting it a little. oops!)

4) TA DA! Put it in the frame!

I don't know where I'm going to put it or anything, but I'll find a spot. I'm think I'm pretty fond of it, considering it took me all of 15 minutes. hehe I'm headed to the hardware store here in a few minutes to pick up a glue gun for another project I have in mind! That coming soon!


I wanted to update you on how my knitting projects are coming too. Yesterday I cast on a slip-stitch scarf that uses scrap yarn and so far I have bout an inch and a bit of scarf:

scrappy lengthwise scarf

And I'm one done with one whole repeat of the first chart in the Traveling Woman shawl. It's getting to be pretty tedious work because each row is so so so long now! I guess that makes sense though considering it's final dimensions. hehe I'm happy with how the repeats are going and they're all lined up and stuff. The edges though... lol I think I started with too many stitches and consequently the edge doesn't line up. I'm certainly not taking it all out now. It is my first shawl after all. :)