My Sister's Next Job

Doesn't it look likes she should be in an ad for American Eagle OR Abercrombie (did I even spell that right) OR something else casually sporty?

It reminds me of the goofy pictures we took at my older sister's wedding. Nice one Mel.

Last Day to Be Surrounded by All This

Tomorrow we leave for Rapid City, SD. This is my last day to be near this type of cute. I'm going to try and take her with me (shhhhh).

What I've been up to today

We went to Mountain Colors in Corvalis, MT today. A request I made for myself. I was hoping to score big on mill ends but was told they are hard to keep in stock. Sad for me. I asked if they had roving and was told they don't sell it there. Double darn! When I inquired on the closest shop that does carry it the employee said that she had some in stock for a shop close by but it wasn't open until tomorrow (another situation that wouldn't work for me). She went in 'the back room' and returned with happy news. I could purchase roving from them & pay her whereupon she would forward it to the proper person. Happy day! Below are the pictures of my score (special thanks to mom for purchasing one for me).

Tea for Two

Arrived in Missoula Sunday evening and presented my cute niece with a little teaset and cherries.

The tea set is from Amigurumi Two! and I did not make the sugar bowl due to yarn shortage. More info on my ravelry page. For now, just some cute pictures.

A guest blogging I will go (with my finished chair project)

I have a friend who is a BIG TIME crafter.  A while ago she put out a request for guest bloggers and I was selected as one of the bloggers.  Check out her website christynelson.net , she's awesome!

A month or so ago I found a chair for sale.  It was a beautiful wooden number with a rattan seat.  The seat needed reworking (which I had never done) but the chair itself was sturdy and had such beautiful lines, I couldn’t pass it up.

I knew I had to repair the seat, but wasn’t sure how.  After walking through my favorite fabric store ever, The Cosmic Cow, and drooling on a new fabric I was considering eloping with, the idea came to me.  I’d incorporate the print into the seat.

Here’s what you need:

• 100 feet cotton clothesline cording (must be cotton)
• 2 yards of fabric (pre-cut jelly rolls purchased from quilting stores will work if you’re not interested in taking the time to cut the strips)
• matching cotton thread
• sewing maching
• ironing board & iron
• chair

After cutting the fabric into 2 ½ inch strips, iron them as if they were bias tape.  Folding the cut strip in half the long way and ironing.  Open the strip, fold each half in half again and iron. (you will have four equal sections after final ironing) This will hide the long side raw edges.

Next, you will wrap each ironed strip around the clothesline cord like a burrito.  I found it easiest to position the cording in the center of the strip, folding the right half over first, followed by the left.  Make sure to fold the beginning of each strip over to hide the short side raw edges and sew down the center of the wrapped cording using a straight stitch.  

For my chair, I used the entire 100 foot strand of cording.

Below are pictures of the ‘naked’ chair and the different stages of weaving. 

Here is the chair sans webbing.  It received a good scrubbing then I stained the dowels in case any of them showed through after installing the new seat.

Prior to securing cording to the chair, I found the half-way point on the cording and marked it.  I wanted to make sure I had enough for both sides of the chair.

I stapled the cording to the bottom of the dowel using a staple gun.  

 
I wrapped the cording around the chair tightly.  You can see the rope I used to mark the ½ way point.  I decided that if I ran out of cording before finishing wrapping in one direction, I would space it out evenly.  Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

I stapled the cording to the chair and cut.  Using the same wrapping method, wrap the chair in the opposite direction but weave as you go.  I made sure to weave the upper and lower part of the seat.  Pull tightly as you go.  I figured the fibers would loosen the more the chair was used.

This part is not for weak fingers.  My fingers began to get sore trying to squeeze as many weaves as I could into the seat.  I would up getting a knitting needle and using it to help me pull the cording.  The end of the needle (not the point) was great for hooking the cord when the space got too small for my fingers.

When I couldn’t weave another row, I spaced the cording out evenly in both directions.

This is my favorite craft project of the summer.  It was lots of fun to do.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my blog and I’ll do my best to answer them.  Have fun!

Curse you confidence!!!

Why I Love Living in Town

Reason #86:

Bathroom Renovation

We've begun renovating our bathroom. Today is the day we say goodbye to our vanity, toilet, and floor. Here is what we've done so far...

Here is the barfy bathroom before beginning.
(I already removed the baseboards.)

new medicine cabinet is 2x the size of our old

The vanity used to be there.
You can see the vinyl we lived with and
what was there originally.

Dad getting a glass of water.
Kidding, he's removing the water so
we can remove the toilet.

Spinning News...Part Deux

I finished plying my first round of yarn for a friend's project. I'm prepping to set the twist as I type. I just wanted to get pictures up so everyone could see the color. I won't feel bad if she doesn't like it as I LOVE how it turned out (would that mean I get to keep it then?). 243 yards of smooshy goodness!

There is more left to do. I'd say I'm at the 40-45% mark in terms of finished product.

Spinning News

I started spinning some roving for a friend. She wants to knit something out of handspun so she found roving that she liked, ordered it, & gave it to me. I found time to start on it yesterday. It's my largest project to date. Typically I spin up 4 oz batches. This will be an 8 oz project. I am 1/4 of the way through the first braid.

This is what I have so far. I apologize about the poor lighting on the last two, I'll get better pictures in a couple of days, PROMISE!

This Kind of Stuff Cracks Me Up!

I was looking at our vacation photos and ran across this series of photos. It just cracks me up! We were in the underground cave (not my comfort zone) and I was trying to get a picture of the little guy and hubz. Needless to say, I settled....

It all started innocently.
I said, "Whoops, I cut part of you off..."

Then, "Awh man, I can't see his face..."

To, "Will you stop talking already so we can get the picture.
You know I think you're too close to the railing!?"

Finishing with, "I know you look like a floating head, I'm done." (Note: At this point, my psyche was convinced one wrong step and I would tumble down the cliff. We were told 3 inflated airborne hot air balloons fit into this particular cavern. We were at the top.)

Out With the Old, In With the New

We noticed the little guy was looking like a circus clown on his bike and decided it was time to usher in a newer, bigger bike.

He decided to get enough money for a bike that he wanted, we could sell his power wheels and get rid of his smaller bicycle.

Yesterday, we sold both items to a very excited pair of 3 year olds. Today, we went shopping for a new bike and helmet. NOTE: It was brought to my attention that the foam in bicycle helmets degrades over time (approx. at the 3 yr mark) and it was time for our little guy to get a new helmet. That and there was a puncture hole in the top of his old one...

I present to you his new 20" Trek & matching Giro helmet. Be safe little guy.