Jan 21/19

Wax warmed and buffed and the bench has been put back in its place:

While looking at the two pieces that are painted, I spotted a fourth piece under the dogs' couch (aka as a garden bench) that is natural pine. My to do list includes the table under the television, the storage chest behind the couch, the storage chest under the dogs' couch and the coffee table that is in need of a refreshing paint job. Those are projects for another day!

Jan 20/19

The dish cloth adventure continues on my knitting needles. The fella' just shakes his head as the pile grows beside me in the livingroom. I do not really have a selling strategy just yet although one of my girlfriends saw me knitting them at book group and she is going to buy some because she loves homemade dish cloths. I have been monitoring online sales groups to see what other people are using for pricing and I have a pricing strategy in my head. The patterns are made up by me so that is one angle that I hope to promote because my cloths are not like everyone's cloths. Also, I am making them a little bit bigger than the current popular patterns because the fella' wanted a slightly larger cloth. My camera settings need some tweaking to better photograph the twists of colour in the yarn that I am using because it is hard to tell that the top two cloths are red, green and white and the bottom one is red, navy and white. 

A messy weather system of snow and heavy rain has churned up the Eastern Seaboard and we have been getting heavy precipitation for over 12 hours now. We have had 15cm of snow followed by ice pellets, freezing rain and now rain. The lawn is bare again and houses are started to flood because the ground is frozen. Since I was housebound today, I figured it was a good day to paint this cute little bench that my mother gave to me a few years ago. This piece is the first of 3 pine pieces that I want to paint. Another one is peeking in the left corner of this photo. Chalk paint goes on so easily with good coverage and the slathering of wax gives it a rustic finish. I used Folk Art chalk paint that I bought with the gift card for Michaels that my brother gave me for Christmas and Annie Sloan wax leftover from another piece of furniture that I painted three years ago.

As you can see, I had an inspector. The cat loves to help by getting in the way as much as possible. Our Lab kept her shepherded out of the way most of the afternoon. The fella' kept me going with questions and food all afternoon. He is not much into crafting, but he did take the hard drives out of the two non-functional lap tops that we had had stashed on the bottom of this bench. The lap tops will go to the recycling depot and the drives will go to the destruction box where he works.

The bench has been painted, touched up and waxed so now it is curing over night before I take a hairdryer to it to even out the wax coat before I put it back in its place in the living room. The lighting is so poor in our living room that I am waiting until tomorrow to take the final photo. All in all, a day well spent doing things I love to do while casting an eye out the window at the ever changing weather system. I hope that all of you were having as much fun during your Sunday afternoon!

Jan 5/18

The other night when I crawled into bed, I pulled the blankets up and heard a ripping sound. The fabric of the top sheet gave way and created a fair sized hole in the sheet. In the spirit of not garbaging things that can be repaired and getting creative, I may have gone overboard in using the boro technique to repair an inexpensive top sheet that could have just as well been re-purposed as a drop sheet. I dug out some scrap fabric and my embroidery threads that I save from all of the kits that I have done before sitting down and watching a couple of episodes of my current favourite show while playing around with colour and pattern. My photography skills are kind of crap, but you get the idea from this photo. The fella' is out at a camp with the boys tonight otherwise he would be sitting beside me and shaking his head at my efforts to save this bedsheet. I think that it was a wonderful way to spend this rainy Saturday night!

Happy stitching!

Jan 1/19

Happy New Year! Where, oh where did the Christmas holiday season go? I begin 2019 with lots of ideas, plans and peace. There may also be some exhaustion after a busy month at work and lots of fun with family and friends. Migraines are ever present because of the constantly fluctuating weather here, thanks to the Gulf Stream, so we missed a few parties and I struggled to get things done in time (2 Christmas parcels have yet to make it to the post office!). I am not a Christmas perfectionist and my mantra is "the 25th will come whether I am ready or not". I had time with family and friends and that is all that matters to me.

On the crafting side, my mother asked me on Christmas morning if I wanted to make a blanket. I said no. I am not convinced that her hearing aids are working well because she immediately went downstairs and dug out two pieces of fleece. Arguing was not going to get me anywhere so I sighed and went to help her because it was do it then or that evening after the family dinner. She then announced that she was going to take a shower after she handed me the tools. While she showered, I measured, calculated and trimmed the fleece to size and started to cut the edges so that they could be tied together. Mom returned in time to help tie the blanket together. My brother had better love this blanket when he gets it for his birthday in a few weeks!

Recent road trips have allowed me to knit up several dish cloths. I have spent about 15 hours as a passenger in the car in the past week so I took advantage of that time to knit away. Ron thinks that I am nuts, but I think that I have a chance at selling these as I have been looking online at local markets to see what other people are selling and at what price. My colours and pattern are different so I think that there is some appeal in that. Perhaps I should do a little testing with trying to sell them online myself before signing up for any craft sales this year. I would love feedback from my readers about selling handmade items, if you sell your items.

I have decided to do a rotation of crafts. Last week was knitting week, this week is cross stitch week and next week will be pattern development for another idea that I have as well as selling some more of my patterns. By focusing on one thing at a time, I feel less scattered or frantic because that is how my brain works when I make of list of things to be done. Giving each thing a time of its own is making it easier for me so far.

Happy stitching!