Ta-da!

Purchased at this year's MS&W, it is now framed and hung up in the craft room. I love it!



"Beside Still Waters" by Conni Togel

Lovely Things Indeed

One of the items I included on my Year of Lovely Things was already a year in the making. I had purchased some beautiful fabric in February of last year with the intention of making curtains for the craft room. I bought it because there was an incredible sale and I so loved the fabric. I just had to get it lest it disappeared. When I brought it home, I thought it would only be a few weeks until I had new curtains for the room...

Flash forward more than a year...

...to Saturday night. I had finished assembling the companion cabinet for the craft room and was reorganizing and moving about the remaining craft items when I looked at the bolt of fabric propped up against the wall. Suddenly I had the urge to sew. With the new cabinets and the new light fixture, the beautiful fabric transformed into curtains would finish the room.

(I should also mention that part of the motivation came from having played our new Wii console for many hours. I think I needed to balance the high tech, virtual activity with some low tech, tangible product activity.)

It was quite an undertaking as I pulled out the six foot folding table, iron, sewing machine, and sewing box and proceeded to take over a large area of the living room. Sean was ever patient with my sudden and random need on a Saturday night to sew curtains from fabric that had sat untouched for a year. :)

(Another item worth mentioning - instead of making a big mess by starting this project on Saturday evening, I should have been cleaning the house in preparation for my sister-in-law's visit on Sunday. There was no guarantee that I would finish in time and while she may miss seeing the curtains completed, she would probably appreciate a clean bathroom to use.)

I unfurled the fabric, measured (sorta) and cut, ironed and pinned, and then sewed. Saturday night, I finished one panel, but was too tired to try the second. I thought it would be much better to get some rest and see if I could finish in the morning.

With determination and a very strong cup of coffee, the second panel was completed Sunday morning. Next I installed the curtain rod (miraculously, it's level!) and then hung the curtains. They are just two simple panels but the curtains add so much to the feel and look of the room.

I cannot tell you how pleased I am with the final look. But before I show you that photo, let's first take a look at what the room looked like when I moved in:



After unpacking these boxes, we first used it as a formal dining room (and when we sell, we'll bill it as such) but it didn't take long for me to move in a cabinet or two and start keeping my yarn there. Here's the room when it officially became my craft room:



You see the old light fixture and cabinet are there. Some small things were moved and changed but not until the purchase of the new cabinet did it start to really take shape.



And now - here is the finished room:



I am in deep smit with my redecorated craft room. In fact, I had a very hard time convincing myself to go to work this morning instead of staying home and sitting in the papazan to knit and crochet all day.

You can see in the photo that I moved my sheep painting entitled "Happiness" to above the papazan - because when I sit there, in this beautiful room, that is exactly what I feel.

Happiness. :)

On the Brighter Side

Marion the Librarian was so kind as to drop by the house a couple weekends ago and install not one, not two but THREE light fixtures for me. And he did all the work in exchange for some homemade butternut bisque. (Yes, my bisque is that good.)

Number one was a bathroom fixture that I picked up from Costco for a steal ($35 minus the $10 instant rebate and it included 3 energy efficient bulbs).



Number two was a pendant lamp from Home Decorators - another steal as I got it from the outlet for just $45. It replaced the ghastly brass chandelier that comes standard in builder homes.



Number three was a flush mount light for the craft room - purchased at the incredible price of $30. It replaced an okay looking light fixture that was hanging on a chain. While the amount of light that the fixture gives off is less than perfect (don't let the wonky photo below fool you), it looks much, much better and I can increase the lighting with a floor lamp.



The craft room is looking good. The old cabinets are gone and I've ordered a companion piece to hold the small bit of craftiness that couldn't be contained in the new big cabinet. I've also got to make the curtains as I am sick of looking at such pretty fabric rolled up in the corner instead of being draped near the windows. And while I have "painting the craft room" on my Year of Lovely Things list, I may not need or want to paint once the curtains are up. The colors of the curtains, light, and furniture may be enough.

Speaking of my Year of Lovely Things list, the bisque I made for the light fixture installation can come off the list. And this past week, I actually did four more things - I planted an herb garden (more on this in a future post), took a mental health day, went to the movies (saw Avatar), and today I'm taking a road trip. The sun is shining and the temperatures will be hovering towards 80 degrees. Can't think of a better way to spend the day than with my husband, my dog, and my knitting bag while visiting my favorite town on the Eastern Shore, St. Michaels. Hope your day is just as delightful.

Always Follow Your Gut

I was soooo close to having the longest weekend ever until the government reopened on Friday. Had it stayed closed, it would have been an 11-day weekend for me - from the Friday prior to this Monday's holiday. But no, OPM decided to do delayed opening/liberal leave for the day and given that I don't have a ton of leave, I made the trek in to the city.

WHAT A MISTAKE!!!

Long story short - the commute was awful both in and out of the city (ice, puddles, train delays and a derailment, and almost missing my train home) and even just 6 hours of work seemed to undo all the relaxation and enjoyment I had gleaned from the snow days.

I should have stayed home like my gut told me to ... but with so little leave, it was a hard decision to make. Next time - leave balance be damned! I'm staying home!

I tried to get back into the relaxation/enjoyment groove yesterday with a trip to Joann's for some new storage containers (40 percent off - yay!) and a new skein of Baby Soft for the third Ocean Waves blanket (yet to be started). I also got my taxes done and was able to ask some questions of my accountant about starting a small business. I've got some more information now about copyrighting and registering a trademark/brand name and also getting a tax number if I need it. My gut is telling me to pursue this crafty entrepreneurship, so I'm listening!

Today will be spent finishing the updates to my stash on Ravelry and organizing the craft cabinet. But this will done after I make my wonderful husband a delicious Valentine's Day breakfast and a batch of oatmeal cookies.

I hope you have something fun planned for your Valentine's Day, too!

A Place for Everything (Almost)

During snowmaggedon, I put down my crochet hook and picked up a screwdriver to put together the new cabinet for the craft room. Here's the old cabinet:



The homespun had no home inside the cabinet and neither did the pile of yarn on the second shelf. I had posted some time ago just how full the inside was - but it had become even worse because a yarn freeze doesn't last very long. I had a goal and a coupon when I searched Home Decorators last month for a new cabinet and I was lucky that it arrived before the blizzard. Here's a photo of the finished assembly:



You'll see in the photo I'm still trying to organize my stash, which also includes double checking my current stash list in Ravelry. I really like the way it looks in the craft room. What I didn't realize until it arrived is that the colors of the cabinet match the fabric I bought to make the craft room curtains. A great surprise!

As large as this new cabinet is... there is not enough room for all my yarn, books and assorted other crafty materials (beading, painting and sewing supplies) in this one cabinet. Once the old cabinet and corner unit are gone, I'll be checking out Home Decorators for another piece to compliment the new cabinet. In the meantime, with another storm on it's way tonight (yes, another 10-20 inches is predicted!), I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to finish my inventory.

Feeling Crafty

I've got the crafty bug gnawing at me. It's like an infestation in my brain - all these projects swirling around, some to be completed, some to be started, and some to be planned out. Not all these projects are crocheting or knitting related either.

On Saturday, I headed over to Joann's to take advantage of their class open house where classes are 50% off if you signed up between 1-3 pm. Mark this one off my crafty resolution list - I signed up to take course 2 of Wilton Cake Decorating. I was going to sign up for 2 courses but I thought that might be a bit much as they would be the same 4 Saturdays - one at 9:30 am and one at 1:00 pm. That's just a bit too much cake and frosting preparation for me.

While I was at Joann's, I finally bought the fabric I've been thinking about for months. I had picked up a swatch of it back in the fall, hoping to use it to make curtains for the craft room. But as I have never made curtains before (besides the fabric I "sewed" together using safety pins to make curtains in college), I needed to figure out how much material I would need and what all would be involved. I did the measuring and understood only most of the terms used in the online instructions/tips. I decided to just wing it and get 6 yards of material. Here's what it looks like...




Can you see why I fell in love with it? I'm a sucker for paisley and with these beautiful shades of green and blue and a hint of silver sparkles, I just had to have it. You can click on it to see a larger version.

One thing that I did not notice in the store was the pattern on the back of the material. It's got these flowers and vines in white and sometimes the flowers show up as ghost images on the paisley side. (Click on photos to enlarge - there are a few to see as I don't know which will show up best on your monitor.)




Here's where you can see the ghost images on the paisley side.


I was hoping to make the curtains this weekend, but here it is, almost noon on Monday, and I haven't started them. I'm actually quite close to finishing the Shades of Irish Green baby blanket and that may be the main project for today.

As you can imagine, even with the great sale on the fabric (50% off) and the class, it was a bit of a spending spree at Joann's. I also had to buy a curtain rod (50% off) and cake decorating materials for class (40% off with coupon). I do try to save money when I can.

Case in point - I needed another chair for the craft room so that Sean could also enjoy the room (he reads while I knit/crochet). We found one we liked at Home Decorators but it was $249. Not really a budget item and we couldn't try it out first in a store. So a couple weekends ago, we decided to check out the furniture liquidators place along Route 1. From the road, it looked like there was potential. When we got there, there was a ton of decent stuff and a ton of crap. They buy out furniture from 4- and 5-star hotels who are renovating. There were chairs and ottomans, desks and office chairs, bureaus and big gold mirrors, and shelves of coffee makers. Like I said, a lot of it was crap. Chipped, falling apart or just plain ugly. But a lot of the chairs had a lot of potential. We found this delightful armchair for the craft room for just $30. Yep - $30.



Another bargain item I bought a couple months ago was this cute little ArtBin. I got it for $7.99 from Joann's. It's the perfect size to store my current project plus it has a needle caddy and zippered pouches.



With the curtains and new chair, the next big items for the craft room will be a new cabinet (in which to store all my craft materials) and perhaps a rug. I also need to paint. But these additions and changes are slated for the late summer, early fall. I've got to start saving money for MS&W which is only 2 1/2 months away!