Renovation: might as well say it’s finished

Dear everyone, look at this kitchen sink:

Isn’t it a thing of beauty? Not a lip or edge in sight. Wiping this puppy down is going to be so easy, it makes me resent my current kitchen sink. I am stoked.

Here is a bigger view of the kitchen with the countertops installed.

Here is the fireplace nook in the Great Room, with the wood floor in though without trim as of yet.

Here is one of the sauceome light fixtures that grace the hallway and kitchen. I dig it.

Here is my Hollywood mirror cabinet, with doors installed (and open), and shelves in place. My perfume bottles are going to look sooooo pretty in there.

And here is evidence of the major obstacle we’re going to face when we try to put in a garden. Deer. Bold, nearly-tame, entitled deer. And lots of them.

January wrap-up

Oof. I have been a bad blogger. In my defense there have been lots of things going on. Let me show you some old pictures and tell you what’s up in my world.

RENOVATION: is wrapping up, for real. The kitchen counter is going in as I type, which is exciting. The wood floor is also going in as I speak. I went to the house over the weekend to take pictures, but didn’t get any good ones because 1) a lot of the floor has cardboard taped over it to protect it from the remodelers, 2) the finished parts have stuff piled on them so that the unfinished parts are empty, and 3) there wasn’t much else that was new to photograph for you. So for now you just have to trust me that the wood floor is FABULOUS.

THE MOVE: will be scheduled when the wood floor is finished, probably at the end of this week. We figure that at the time of scheduling, we’ll give ourselves a three-week lead time to pack. I began packing this weekend and focused my energies on my craft room. OH ME OH MY what a mess it is in there. I have 3.5 large moving boxes full of just yarn. We all have our besetting sins; mine is obviously greed. I got rid of a lot of stuff, though, and have hope that I’ll be redeemed. Eventually.

CRAFTY BITS: have been centered around making J. Crew knockoffs. I just love their look, but I just can’t abide their prices (unless you’re buying something that’s been decently marked down in the clearance sale… which right now has an extra 30% taken off the top, so go get yourself some of that, if that’s the way you roll). I have been making necklaces, dyeing things into ghostly, glowing hues, and sewing organza ribbons and jersey rosettes to camisoles and tshirts. I have been buying suspiciously similar items from Old Navy. I have been haunting eBay. I think that I am finally over it, though, which is good because I need a breather! Time to pack up all of my sewing and jewelry making things, anyway.

And that’s a wrap, folks. Between the J. Crew thing, the move, and having been sick for over a month… there just isn’t much more of me to go around now. I will take some photographs of the necklaces I’ve made soon… those turned out quite nice.

The end days of the renovation

Howdy, folks. There hasn’t been much activity here for a while… it’s back to work for everyone after the holidays, and I’m fighting round 2 with The Cold That Keeps On Giving, which saps a lot of my energy. Happily, there are renovation pictures to show.

It’s almost over, folks. The floor has been delivered and will be installed this week. After that, there’s just some plumbing hookups, trimwork, and the kitchen counter installation and we’ll be ready to move. It’s so close we can taste it.

Hand-sewn binding

I just cannot get enough of hand-sewn binding!

Probably any other hand-sewing project would be equally satisfactory, but binding is what I’m doing right now. I bought some cream-colored flannel and used a few leftover Fig & Plum fat quarters to turn them into blankets.

And now I’m looking for the next thing to bind. I think I should probably commit to machine-quilting of the many quilt tops I have stored up, then binding the quilt. But oh my, these are so, so pretty. Ever since I saw them in Last-Minute Patchwork Gifts I thought they were simple and clean and lovely and elegant. Yum.

In order to give myself something to sew into, without the stitches showing on the other side (since these blankets are made of a single layer of flannel), I added a “magic strip”. It also makes a lovely look on the finished piece. You just sew a second, 1″ strip of fabric face-down onto the blanket at the same time you’re sewing on the binding, then iron it, and add the next one at the same time you’re turning the binding’s next corner. Simple and very lovely.

Erm… since I don’t have an immediate use for these myself, if you do and you’d like to buy them, feel free to contact me about it. We’re about to move house, and I don’t relish the prospect of packing more stuff than I have to.

Snowflake socks for Sparks

… and, Der Zauberball.

The cold and dark this winter has been getting to me. It has gotten to me every winter since I moved here (and this is my third!), I think because here, we’re on the Eastern edge of a time zone, and I grew up on the Western edge of one. Thus, it gets dark so much earlier here than it ever did there. Sigh.

But, I’ve been dealing with it by doing lots of handwork, and that’s a lovely thing. Above are the socks I knit for Sparks. They are done in the dark gray/black colorway of JaWoll Silk, which was completely lovely to work with–soft and smooth with edible heathered stripes. I highly recommend it, and I’m not that crazy about regular JaWoll. The snowflakes are my own design, knit in Dale Baby Ull.

The second gi-normous man sock felt like a bit of a slog, but my carrot was this:

Schoppel Wolle Zauberball in chocolatey-cream. O. M. G. Best sock yarn ever. And this pair will be mine, all mine.

New year, new renovation pictures