summer of spraypaint -- project dos

Okay, so I have been dying to try this new spraypaint since I read about in my magazines. Sea glass?!?! Yes please! When we finished a Pace salsa, I thought "hmmm ... that's not a bad vase shape." Perfect for my first trial!

And the verdict? LOVE! It really is the perfect amount of translucence. I will for sure be using this spraypaint again!

summer of spraypaint--project uno

 

Long time readers may vaguely recall this dresser ... we spray painted it "ballet pink" and attached cute wood animals on the drawers for one little girl's baby nursery a long time ago ... and after more than five years, it was looking shabby. Note the crayon, and missing felt from some of the poor animals' features ...

It was high time for a "big girl" makeover for this dresser. We wanted to keep the pink top and sides (and only paint the drawers), so I picked colors that coordinated. I found a very similar pink (ballet pink was no longer in stock at my local sources), a nice purple and pulled my old can of turquoise spraypaint leftover from this project out of storage.

This was a multiple day process, with nine drawers to update. I used a flat head screwdriver to loosen and "pop" the animals off each drawer, and then an exacto knife to remove glue and the bar code sticker I failed to remove prior to attaching each animal (lesson learned--the sticker stuck the most to the drawer!). Did half one day, then finished the rest on another. I tried using wood putty and sanding to even out the "holes" from the removed paint, but that was only moderately successful. The surfaces were still pretty bumpy if you looked close after painting.

 

What to do? Vinyl removable wall stickers from Walmart to the rescue! These are strategically placed to hide my flaws. Love, love, love how this turned out--and so does my big girl! This is the first of many spraypaint projects I've been working on this summer, so be prepared for more to come ...

knit your library, vol. 18 (roly poly edition)

Wait ... what is that thing ... it can't be .... it's a roly poly! A humongous, bigger than your head, pillow-sized roly poly! LOL. This is hands down the wackiest thing I have ever knitted. My daughter loves roly polies--and when we spotted the pattern for one in Huge and Huggable Mochimochi, it had  to be knit!

Pattern: Roland by Anna Hrachovec (link to my Ravelry project page)
Needles: size 8s
Yarn: "shell" is Queensland Collection Whitsunday held triple stranded, and the pink is Cascade 220 held doubled
Mods: My gauge for the shell and the stomach was not the same, so I did have to unravel and fudge it to make it work. I basically added more garter stitch rows in between yarn over rows. And using yarn doubled and tripled meant that this project ate up 822 yards from my stash (yes!).

first floral arrangement

I've had this book since May, and have been dying to try a "recipe" from it! I would describe The Flower Chef as a "modern beginner floral design book." It breaks down bouquets into easy instructions and teaches you the basic underpinnings that floral designers use. Having never taken any floral arranging classes before, this book was eye-opening. Now I understand why my basic "grab a bunch of flowers and shove them in a glass" never really quite looked ... right.

Materials: 2-3 hydrangea blooms, and two bunches of other flowers. Grand total? $20! (these are from my grocery store) Also opaque container and wet floral foam.

My pre-soaked foam, trimmed to fit my container.

You start with the hydrangeas. ... then weave your other flowers through the hydrangea blooms.

Ta da! Needs something taller to add more vertical interest, but I'm in love! My first real floral arrangement!

knit your library, vol. 17

Recognize this hat? Oh, it's only the seventh time I've knit a lowbrow hat. I can't help it--fast and fun to knit, fits perfect, and looks cute. This time I'm making an MSU Bulldawg appropriate version, which I'm honestly shocked that it's taken me this long to do! The yarn is Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran weight in the garnet colorway (shhh! it's close enough to maroon!).

And to go with it, a maroon lacy cowl (this is pictured doubled up and drapes to my belly button when it's a single loop). The pattern, Palessie, was gifted to me for my birthday in 2014. Sad but true. Only two years to get to this one! It's the perfect pattern for one skein of sock yarn though, so I see a lot of these in my future! It's simple, brainless knitting too. And the lace when doubled will be plenty of warmth for our mild Mississippi winters. Win, win, and win.

Pattern: Palessie cowl
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Sock (unknown colorway), used one skein.
Needles: size 5
Mods: Only used K2tog throughout, instead of alternating with SSK sections. Just to make it even more of a brainless knit! 

sewing up a monster laundry hamper

  

I have to admit, after seeing this project on the Martha Stewart website I really wanted to make one ASAP.  But I did do some internet searches for "cute hampers" before giving myself permission to place my order for this kit at Spoonflower. You'll get one piece of fabric with all the components printed on it (see below). It's hard to see in this picture, but there's even lines to guide you when cutting each piece out with your seam allowance already built in. The directions are even printed on the fabric! Super easy and fast--it took me all of two hours to make this, even including the time to cut out each piece.

 

Ta da! Monster ready to eat some delicious dirty laundry (the opening is the mouth)!

 

The kit even includes a smaller screenprint of the monster, suitable for sewing up a "baby monster" stuffy. Now to see if it motivates my kids to pick up their dirty laundry ...

knit your library, vol. 16

I always seem to feel like I'm floundering after finishing something so big as the big 'ol girly blanket I finished last week ... so bear with my knitting ADD as I recover! I made a tape measure cover using 14 yards of a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock mini skein one of my swapping friends sent me ... 

 Burned through two more skeins of baby yarn I dislike for 8 more newborn caps that will be donated to my local hospital ...

 Started a roly poly for my daughter out of this book ...

Oh yeah, and finished one sock and started the second!

knit your library, vol. 15

Another big 'ol blanket is DONE! For this one, the grand total was 3,758 yards out of stash. I'm counting this one as a bigger success than the first, since it allowed me to move some really old boucle and eyelash yarns out of my stash! Wooohoooooo! And as you can see, it is plenty big for a twin sized bed.

And in other "knit my library" project news, I have made my first-ever toe-up heel flap!?!?! I did not even know it was possible to knit socks this way. I may never knit top-down socks ever again ...

knit your library, vol. 14

My second granny square blanket is groooooowing! It's so close to being done--by the end of the month for sure! I estimate this one will use about 3,800 yards. I'm even more excited about it, since it's eating up some boucle' and eyelash yarn that I have had sitting around for years.

 

And in between crocheting, another pair of socks got started. I'm excited to try a toe-up version of the heel flap (instead of the short row heel most toe-up socks use) from my Wendy Johnson box of patterns I got last summer. There's a TON of patterns in this box I'd like to try, honestly!

knit your library, vol. 13

It's done! It's done! The big 'ol bulldawg blanket I made my husband for our anniversary is done! It went really fast once I concentrated on it. I'm super happy since that's 4,000 yards out of my stash and he loves it!

The "marled" section is one strand of maroon and one strand of cream held together. I actually already had the yarn balled up that way from ripping apart this flop of a project and realized that it would be a major tangly mess to separate the two strands back apart. I'm glad I added the marled section now--it breaks it up and makes things more interesting.

And like every successful blanket project I've done before, I got super excited and immediately pulled out yarn to make another one. This one will be super girly and for my daughter. It's already doubled in size since I took this picture--that's how fast these go!

curtain crazy, part 2

So, my kitchen windows have remained "undressed" for years ... I never wanted to block the view of my backyard or any light! But since I caught a curtain sewing fever, it made me reconsider the idea of adding a little pop of color in the kitchen.  So this is my second curtain project using printed cotton duck. These curtains are kind of like valences, I guess--they sit on a tension rod inside the top of each window. I only had one yard of the print that best matched my kitchen, so I cut it in half and found a print to use for the back side that I would enjoy when I'm on my patio looking toward the house. I wanted a curved edge to make it a little interesting, so I carefully made myself a pattern. Then I hemmed the bottom curved edge including pom pom trim along the way (my favorite part!), and then sewed the top seam. Pressed the bottom seam, and done! So these used up two yards of fabric total.

view from outside

pom poms!

And in my last fit of curtain making, I tried something different for the window in our big family room. I wanted something even shorter to better be able to see the backyard. And this print had a fun design to it, so I thought I'd let the design dictate the shape. I'm not 100% convinced on this one. Sometimes I adore it, and other times I think it looks comically too tiny. But for now it stays! Another yard out of the stash.