Wool to the Rescue!

Its cold here, very cold. And its only going to get colder. The nasty old weatherman is predicting a HIGH of -10 on Thursday. Now thats cold. So we will be bunkered down at home this week. Today it is a balmy 5 above outside, so I think we may run some errands, rent some new movies and stock up on the neccesities. Which leads me to my point. Carrying around a 24 pound kid all bundled up can get a little tricky. Usually I do okay, but ocassionally I get to my destination and realize the poor kids pants are hiked up funny and her calves have been hanging out in the cold the whole time. BBRRR!! So, to try to get rid of my guilt, I went to my most trusted new friend...the felted sweater, and made these...


What are they, you may ask. They look surprisely similar to the wrist warmers that the fabulous Vallen makes (only not near as cute!). But alas, they are baby leg warmers!


And trust me, they are even funnier in person! The kiddo thinks they are really fun. Her typical pasttime these days has been trying to put her own socks on, which at 18 months is a bit impossible, and it makes her very angry. Wow, does this girl have a temper when she can't get things to go her way! Anyway, she loves these because the opening is wide enough she can put them on herself. Then she struts her stuff, thinking she is pretty darn cute.


So, add it to the list, use No. 146 for a wool sweater from the thrift store! And don't worry, when we actually go out in public, I'll put the leg warmers under her pants...still perfectly functional but a little less 1985.

Mini Wool Tote Bag

Hope you all had a great weekend! Our family survived the home improvement projects, thank goodness. We now have 6 much needed recessed lights in our family room. Unfortunately we have 8 more to go! I am so thankful for my husband, he does a great job with this kind of stuff and only complains a little! He's been trying to work in the family room in the evening, but the lighting was so poor it was almost impossible. So, I didn't have to nag too much to get him to finally do the project. Only bad thing is that we are going to have to paint the ceiling now. I hate painting ceilings!

I had plans to meet up with my very good friend Wendy this weekend, but she had a death in her family and could't make it. I decided I should probably just mail her the Christmas gift I made her, since its almost Valentine's Day! So, I thought I would show it to you first! And, Wendy if you're out there, here is a little sneak peek of your gift.

I made this mini tote bag from the wool scarf you see at the right and a really dark wash denim.

The inside lining is a red paisley cotton.

Hope she likes it!

I've also been working on my brooch for Little Lovelies brooch swap. This is my first ever swap, and I am kind of nervous! I'll have to wait to show you of course so Beth is surprised!

All sorts of stuff

Busy busy busy around here. Last night we hung these up...


(which I think look much better now that they are on the wall.)

And these...



(which match the velvet duvet patchwork my sister made me. I framed leftover fabric. Since we don't currently have a headboard, I think this acts as a decent focal point for the room.)


Then I stayed up late to finish this...

Woohoo, one down, 11 more to go! Go check out the Christmas in Progress page...you can still join us!!


Did I mention I also snuck in a little fabric shopping yesterday?


I got a coupon in the mail from a quilt shop that is literally 2 minutes from my house. Its pretty new and kind of small, but what they did have was very cute! The people were so nice and friendly, and not to nosey..just enough you know? I have issues with fabric store employees that have to know what you are making. Sometimes I want to tell them, but sometimes I am just too ashamed to say that I don't know, that I just like it okay, and no I don't know where I am going to store it in the meantime, just get off my back okay!!! Whew, sorry, they get me a little excited sometimes! Anyway, back to my story, Sydney had a blast walking up and down all the aisles, and only unloaded a couple baskets of fat quarters. She's lucky she's cute!


Hope you all have a great weekend! We have some home improvement projects planned, so cross your fingers I'm still married when I talk with you next :)

WIP?? ... Tree Painting

I have been working on this for a couple days now. Last night when I went to bed I thought it was done. But now that I set it up behind the couch were it will someday live, I'm not so sure! Maybe they just need to actually be put on the wall and they will look right to me. They seemed large when I was painting them, but now they look kind of small and puny on the wall.

I haven't painted in years, but I got a card from my Grandma the other day. She taught me to paint when I was about 10 and has been a major influence in my life. She had some encouraging words about art and said that her and my great aunt Helen had decided to start painting again (I think she must go through phases of creativity too...maybe this is were I get my short creative attention span!) It got me thinking, so should I! I've had these three canvases sitting in a closet for probably a year, meanwhile I had a very empty spot behind my couch. I have just realized after looking at these pictures how boring this wall really looks. Not to worry, if you could turn around in the picture there would be a red wall and two tons of toys!

Acrylic on canvas

So, anyway, here it is...Painting #1 for 2007, hopefully the first of many.

Hey Look!!

I soldered something!! As it turns out, soldering is harder than it looks. This is not good for me (well actually it probably is.) I do not like "practice". I like to have an idea in my head, get the stuff and make it. I don't want to learn how to do something. I just want to do it. This is not the case when it comes to me and soldering. So, here is my first attempt. To get these four washer stuck together took me about 4 nights. And boy is it ugly. After that I had pretty much ruined my first soldering tip and had to start the mad dash all around town to find a store that carried more!

So last night the hubby and I had a date night (my sis watched the kiddo) so we ran to a couple stores to try to find more supplies. We finally found some of the things I had been looking for, namely copper foil tape. So I stayed up way past by bedtime last night and made this!

Extremely hard to see, I know. Basically its a collage of fun stuff put between two pieces of glass which are then soldered together. In a perfect world it would have a jump ring hooked to the top, but that must be part of the soldering 201 class, cause I couldn't get it to stick. Its pretty rough around the edges too, so this may not be jewelry grade work just yet. But hey, its stuck together!!!

Here is the view of the back. Again, horrible picture. Gonna have to work on fixing that.

So, obviously I need more PRACTICE, but its getting there.

I've been tagged!

I got tagged by Becki to tell six weird things about me. By the way, this is me and my little chica.

So, I've been thinking really hard about this...not that I'm not weird, because trust me, my husband would disagree in a heartbeat. Come to think of it, he should do this for me! Anyway, I think I am just kind of a boring weird, but here goes...

1. I am scared to take my car through a carwash. I'm worried that my tires aren't going to get in the right spot or that I will go in too far and wreck my car or that the big blue brush thingys will break through my windshield and attack me. So my car is usually dirty unless someone feels bad for me and does it for me.

2. With the exception of the bathroom, I am very rarely in a room alone with the door closed. For some reason it freaks me out. My husband constantly shuts the door on me when I am in the laundry room and I feel panic immediately...I have no idea why. There must be some scary repressed memory in there somewhere!

3. My middle name is Dee after my Grandma Virginia (Dee). And as an additional weird name thing, my last name has more vowels than consonants (5 to 3 ratio).

4. One of my favorite snacks is pickles dipped in ranch dressing.

5. When I was little I wanted to own a Pizza Hut when I grew up. Still get a lot of crap for this one.

6. This isn't so much about me but, I taught my Mother in law to knit last weekend. It seemed kind of weird at the time, like some sort of strange role reversal, but it was fun.

Well, thats all I got. I would love to tag some other people, but honestly everyone I know out here has done this already or been tagged to do it....so, how about all of you nonbloggers that are just out here looking around leave me a comment with one weird thing about yourselves! We'll call it a delurking/weird thing tag combo!

Knittin' Up a Storm

Had a pretty relaxing weekend with lots of eating, shopping and knitting! I have been working like crazy on a sweater for my January Christmas in Progress project. You can still join us in getting organized for Christmas 2007, just let Teresa know you want to play too! I also knit up a couple flowers. I haven't figured out crochet yet, but I found this pattern in the book Handknit Holiday and thought I would try it out. (In reality, it was the only pattern in the whole book I had a clue how to do!) They came together pretty quick. I think next time I will use finer yarn and smaller needles. I originally made the green one to go on my daughter's hat, but the thing is as big as her head! She loves them though, she carried them around all day sniffing them like they were real flowers! Too cute :)

Got to do some thrifting on Saturday too. If you click on the photo you can see my labels for each item. I am really anxious to come up with a project for the tablecloth, I love those colors! And the citrus fabric is just screaming to become an apron. Hopefully a big week of projects around here. I think I better make a list!