Repurposing...reinventing!

For awhile I've been looking for a way to display my Grandma Luckey's china. I feel very special that she choose me to give it to, but my transient lifestyle in small apartments has meant that it has spent far too much time in storage! I knew I didn't want a traditional china cabinet...too big, too stuffy! As an avid garage sale enthusiast I'd been keeping my eyes peeled, but for what? I didn't exactly know.

Several weeks ago my partner in sale-ing and I stopped by a friend's sale. I definitely wasn't expecting to find the perfect thing there, but find it I did! Well...almost perfect:

What it was was an entertainment shelf. The kind of thing with the false cardboard back that you can punch the holes out of to run your cords through. But I saw its potential! At $8 even if I failed I wasn't out much! We loaded it up and carried on!

I was toying with the idea of losing the glass doors. I wasn't sure they would fit with my vision. As we unloaded it from the car one of the doors came off, no big deal, I carried up to the porch for safe keeping. Somehow the minute I got on the porch it shattered into a million pieces! I'm not sure how it happened but it made my decision for me! And thank goodness for safety glass!

After a couple more weeks of lolly gagging and picking out paint colors I finally got to work! I researched the heck out of how to paint that crappy fiberboard manufactured furniture and actually make the paint stick! Seems the secret is lots of sanding and lots of primer!

Here it is all sanded:

In hindsight I really should have sanded it more but I have the upper body strength of a T-rex and I was wishing for a belt sander! In addition to the painting I was planning to do I also wanted to make sure that the shelves had some kind of rim on them to keep my special dishes from sliding off. I purchased a very very long piece of what I suppose is some sort of wood trim and nailed strips onto the edge of each shelf. Not only does it keep things on the shelf, it looks pretty sharp too!

I was also delighted to find that the front of the drawer came right off, that made painting a lot easier as I didn't need to paint the whole drawer and I didn't want to ruin the hardware.

Here are the colors I went with!

I did hit a few snags. After painting the green portions I took off the tape that I had used to protect the areas that would be pale yellow...and it took of some of the green paint too! It doesn't take much to make the paint want to abandon this material so you really have to treat it gingerly. As such my corners and edges aren't as sharp as I might like. Also in putting the shelves back in I scraped off some paint on the inside and had to touch that up. I expect that next time we move I'll have issues with it again, but I have plenty of paint left...and Lowes stored my colors!

Here it is all finished and empty:

I also wanted to get new knobs for the drawer but that hasn't happened yet as I want to find just the perfect ones! I put the old ones back on for now. And now, the most important part...how good it looks with my Grandma's china!!

I'm not totally sure how to properly display china, I may get a plate stand or two, maybe something to lift up that back row of tea cups and saucers, but overall I think it looks fantastic!

Now my most special things will be with me everyday! And that makes me super duper happy!

I would also like to point out the fantastic skull and bones platter. This was a delightful wedding gift from my friend over at Folded Pigs! I don't suppose it would be my Grandma's taste, but a little old a little new right?

Materials:

-1 Thrifted entertainment shelf
-1 gal Valspar-Jalepeno Jelly
-1 qt Olympia-Silk Sails
-Various painting and sanding who's its and what's its
-Long strip of molding cut down for the shelf edges


Finally I'm going to try to start up a regular blogging schedule. Its mostly for me I suppose, just as an exercise and to keep me in mind of what I'm working on, but perhaps you will find some interest in it as well!

Fall Wreath

Hi All!

I recently finished this crafty fall wreath I've been working on for awhile:

I was inspired by this post and my love of yarn pom poms! They are so fun and easy to make!

I used this set of Clover Pom Pom makers (size Large) which make it really easy to crank out pom poms pretty quickly! I had a floral foam wreath lying around so I covered it with felt just to keep the yarn from sticking to it in a weird way. Once I hung it on the door I felt that it didn't hang quite where I'd like it to so I put a brown ribbon on it which I think kind of ties it all together. As Halloween approaches I think I will stick some paper bats on there too!

As far as materials used here I just pulled all the fall colors out of my yarn stash. I think there is only Red Heart Super Saver and I Love This Yarn in there. You'd want to keep the yarn weights and types similar just so the balls hold together right. I backed off on the number of balls a bit so I may put more in at some point to fill out some spots around the edges. It doesn't look too off in the photos, but in real life its a little unbalanced.

Warm calves are a fall necessity

I finished another project! ...sadly it was not a long outstanding project but one that was newly begun. Behold...legwarmers!

To make these I glanced at this pattern but I really kind of winged it from there. I kept them the same length as suggested in the pattern and thought they were pretty much the right length...but I'm 5'11" so if you're making them you may watch the length. I also did not count my rows, instead I kept going until they looked wide enough to go around, which turned out to be 12" wide in the middle

In the end, because of the yarn I used, I think 12" may have been too wide. They don't want to stay up very well. I used Caron Simply Soft, it has a lot of give. I should have taken that into account. These work well with boots (that's my dog, Kipper, he's a helpful helper and a delightful model) and would probably work well over leggings or skinny jeans too.

The give in them is nice in that it allows them to be worn as thigh highs or folded over.

They look pretty cute with shoes too!

Here are some detail shot...minus my bad modeling!

I used:

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Grey Heather; 2 skeins (really 1 and a half)

Hook: size H/ 5.00MM. In hindsight I should have used size G, but what's done is done!

Sock yarn to table runner!

I wish I could say I was trucking along on all of my unfinished projects, but as usual I got sidetracked and haven't made all that much progress. Here's one that I've been working on for awhile that I did finally finish though!

I used this pattern, which is technically for coasters but I just hooked them all together and made it into a runner instead! (if you would like more instruction on how to hook them all together as you work I can tell you, I just didn't want to bog down the post if no one needed to know!)

I had become obsessed with this Red Heart sock yarn, and I HAD to have it. Socks don't work very well in crochet and I don't know how to knit really so I had to come up with another use for it. I think it turned out rather well. I still have quite a bit of the yarn left so I may also do some doily shapes that I can frame and hang around the breakfast nook...if I get it done while we still have a breakfast nook!

The green is a pretty good match (as you can kind of see) to the seat cushions that I also made for the nook.

I apologize for the semi-crappy pictures in this post, next time I'll get out the real camera rather than just my phone me=lazy, but you should have seen that coming by now!

Here's what I used:

Crochet Hook: Size E (3.50MM)

Yarn: Red Heart Heart & Sole in Green Envy. I've been working on this project so long I'm not sure how many balls I used but I'm thinking 3 or 4.

I (heart) Fall afghan

Full steam ahead on finishing up those lingering incomplete crochet projects! First up (and not surprisingly, the most recently started) scraps afghan:

I made this blanket using this pattern, and I think it turned out really well! I skipped the step of putting the fringe on the ends. This was partly out of laziness, partly out of the fact that I have a cat, and if you have cats you know fringe doesn't last long!

I started this blanket after making this basket for my mother's day. Of course I forgot to take any photos of the basket! Anywho, I wanted to use up the left over yarn...honestly I could probably get another one of these out of the yarn I still have left in the colors in the hearts!

Here's what I used:

Hook: Size G

Main Color: Red Heart Super Saver in Aran, roughly 4 and half skeins
Other colors, didn't use probably even half a skein of any of them:
I Love This Yarn in Cream
I Love This Yarn in Yellow
I Love This Yarn in Sungold
Red Heart Super Saver in Pumpkin
I Love This Yarn in Orange
Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Red
Red Heart Super Saver in Burgandy

As I still have so much yarn left I may make some fall heart scarves. The pattern works up really quickly and each row is different so you don't get bored, which is nice!

C'mon baby finish what you started

During this period of unemployment I've gotten a bit of a jump on getting my craft room all clean and organized....I found at least 10 unfinished crochet projects, and at least that many unfinished sewing projects! As such I have put a hold on ALL new projects until I get some of these finished up...I mean for god sake I have 3 afghans currently in progress! Anyway I'll post them up as I complete them and they'll be like new to you because you don't live here and trip over them everyday!

I'm pretty excited today, typically when I make something as a gift I wrap it all up nice and pretty...then remember that I wanted to take photos of it! Not today my friends, not today! Now my photo skills aren't where I want them to be...frankly I'm pretty terrible with an entirely too user friendly camera but bear with me, hopefully as my projects get better so will my photography skills!

My friend Rodney is getting married this weekend and let me tell you, never text a dude and ask what color their kitchen is! The response I got was "we're going to paint but the wood is light and the appliances are black." Ugh, thanks for nothing bro! haha! I told him to ask his fiance and get back to me. Thankfully she sent me a pinterest link filled with delightfully 50s style kitchen inspiration! I ran with it!

The pot holders are made using this pattern. Its super easy and works up quick, just how I like them! I'm addicted to making these!

The dish cloths are just made using a seed stitch, in order to get that kind of waffle-y looking pattern. Then I just threw a single crochet edge around them to draw the look together (plus I had extra yarn so why not!)

Materials used:
-Hook size G

-2 2.5oz balls Lily Sugar and Cream Cotton in Robin's Egg (don't let the name and photo fool you, this is kind of a minty blue color)

-3 2oz balls Lily Sugar and Cream Scented Cotton in Camomile...I ordinarily wouldn't choose a scented yard, but this was the color I had to have, a light peach pink. I'm pretty smell sensitive and at times while working with it it bordered on being too strong for me, but the finished project is not as smelly! I don't really see the point of scented yarn, but to each their own and I would use it again for the right colors!

Let me know what you think! And I'll keep you posted on whether or not they like them!