Panic and Gratuitous Puppy Photos

So today I'm starting to panic. I've got several loose ends for my gifts and I haven't made a blessed thing to take up to the parents' house. Eek. I usually make cinnamon rolls for Christmas Day, but we're probably going up tomorrow, so I can't very well do that before. I guess I will have to make them up there. Tomorrow is the family get-together at Grandma's and I don't have anything to take to that.

Today, The Man got up and went straight to work and he'll be there until 11:30 or so tonight. So, I thought I'd be all productive today and get all this stuff done. Right. I've done loads of laundry, washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen and wrapping presents. That's all the further I got. Now I've got wrapping paper and ribbons strewn around and no, I'm not finished.

I need to get my act together and get packed as well, but first, I really need to sit down and do some of my work, since I probably won't getting much done now till Wednesday or Thursday.

In the midst of my wrapping and panic, there is this. My little man who really needs a bath before we head to Grammie's house, staring out the window because I'm ignoring him and he's bored out of his mind. I'd love nothing better than to curl up with him and take a nap. Perhaps tomorrow, little guy.

Paper ornaments

I like playing with paper and making snowflakes and stars and the like. I haven't done much this year because it seems like there has been no time, but this post over at HowaboutOrange had lots worth exploring, I think.

Kitchen Problem

I found a solution to one of the problems in the kitchen. Sort of, anyway. I found this scroll thing at Penneys and hung it up the other day. It fits on that hole nicely. Now, if I could just figure out what to do for the gap between the stove and the wall . . .

Darn. I thought I got it cheap. Its even cheaper now!

Painting on Panelling

So we decided, or rather, I decided the other day that I was going to paint the panelled wall in the living room. I'm thinking about painting all the basement panelling, but that would require that I get my butt in gear and get working on organizing all of the rest of the junk that was deposited in the basement when we moved in. To be fair, I've done a lot, but I've hit that point where I've just plain old lost interest. I'm hoping to regain it in January.


ANYWAY.


I figured what the heck, lets experiment with the wall in the living room. So I put up tape and put down some blankets and primed it. Okay. Not bad, but you can totally still tell there's panelling under there. I thought the lines might be interesting, but no. Just looked like painted panelling. I even used a tiny artist's paintbrush to put primer in all the cracks and lines. It took me 3 hours! For a teeny, tiny wall.



So then we decided. Why not use spackling and fill in the lines? So why did I paint the lines again? I don't know. Because I was bored, I guess. I convinced the man to go find me some spackling and put it on. He was thrilled. He did, however, comply and started putting up the spackling. After I criticized his job and messed up one part he was working on (it was a really wonky gap between sheets of panelling), I decided to butt out and leave him alone. Except he had to go to work. And I can't handle looking at the mess and not doing anything about it. So I finished it. I know. He was torn up about missing out.



Oh, and I should add that putting on the spackling makes a bit of a mess. Bits and pieces seem to fall on the floor a lot and then, if you have a little tiny dog running around who thinks he's a vacuum cleaner, you'll probably spend a lot of time, saying No! Don't eat that! and picking it up off the floor and prying open his little jaws to take it from him. That just adds to the fun. Put said dog elsewhere if you have brains. I don't.


Then I sanded down the whole wall with a sanding sponge - not as much as it sounds - just rough spots really. Then he filled in any low spots with another layer of spackling. Okay, so that worked alright. But the paint? Ugh. I put 4 coats of primer and 3 1/2 coats of paint on this darn wall. I'd say it turned out alright. Except that now there's a really obvious gap in the corner where the panelling ends and the plaster begins. I'm not sure what to do with that. Put trim in one corner of the room? I do like it better, though. I think it lightens up the room. Not that my all-white room needed too much more lightening, but you know.


Before picture here. After picture here. I know. Its hard to tell how well it worked, but it worked well enough.

And they're off . . .

I finally got the company's customer Christmas gifts on their way. Remember the candy packaging? This is the rest of the box.


We got some ridiculously wonderful-smelling coffee from Prestogeorge, our favorite coffee, and packaged it up with some tea, biscotti, jelly beans, chocolate-covered pretzels and Ghirardelli chocolates. Yummy. I hope they like them!

I'm so glad to have them done and on their way. We carried 18 of the boxes into the post office last night at 6:30 and it was freeeeeezing out. Two went to the UPS Store to head to Canada and I'm not sure about those ones arriving. The guy behind the counter was no genius. But I'm done. Now, if only I could finish my gift buying.

Fluffy girly ruffly apron

Okay, so I decided the other day to use some of my "scrap" pile from the yo yo quilt to make myself a ruffled apron, a la Morgan Moore at One More Moore. Sorta. I didn't make all the ruffles the same size, because my fabric strips were not the same size. So they are graduated with the largest on the bottom.

I think it turned out cute. Its rather girly for me. I like it though. I'm thinking about posting this one up on Etsy and see if anyone bites. I bought more black and white fabric to feed my ongoing black and white obsession and I may tweak it a bit to make more. I don't know why. Because I can.

In keeping with the black and white theme of the post, here's some more. This is my baby. Ain't he growin up too fast?! He's a whopping 3.7 pounds now! In this first one, he was 1.7 pounds.

Hand Towels

I love monogrammed towels. What is it about them?

Today, I monogrammed a set of 4. On the second one, the needle fell out and screwed up the towel. That really pisses me off. I can't seem to figure out why the needle comes out. Darn darn darn. Now I have to go back again and get towels. I'm so wishing I could avoid all stores at this time of year. Or any time of year, for that matter.

But the other 3 look great!

Christmas Decorating

We finally went and got our Christmas tree this week. Well, it was Monday, so I'm a bit slow in posting. We went to Nutbrown's Christmas Tree Farm. It was nice to find a local place and cut our own for a change. The past couple years, we just didn't know where to look and hadn't spent much time looking either. I think we got a Concolor fir. Its different. The needles are long and soft. I hung up some little wreaths in our front windows and a few on the kitchen cabinets and decorated the mantel. Its looking a little more like Christmas here!

Doggie Vest

I made my little man a vest the other day. I think its cute, but I don't think he likes it. When he is forced to put it on to go outside, he comes back in the house and rubs his shoulders on the ground, trying to bite the collar. When I take it off for him, he shakes it and chews on it a bit. "Take that, you stupid vest!"

I sent the picture to my parents and the next morning, Dad called me and wanted to know why I was dressing up his dog in girly clothes. Poor Dutch. I guess he has a mean Mom [snicker]. Maybe I should make my parents dog one so he can feel stupid too!

The pattern is here. I love that little red plaid vest on the little guy there. I'd have used something like that if I had seen it. I made mine with prequilted fabric and finished the edges with purchased binding and added a collar.

Pillows again

I finally made another set of pillows for the couch. These I like, even if they are a bit boring.

I got the fabric here. Shipping is a bit slow, but not any slower than they said it would be.

I wanted to get some white faux fur for pillows too, but I haven't found any yet. I did buy a nice green velvet as well, but I'm holding on to it, not wanting to cut it up. Its so soft and shimmery. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Candy, candy, candy!

This weekend, I started to put together some customer Christmas gifts. We're going to get some Prestogeorge coffee to put in them, along with biscotti, Ghirardelli chocolates, jelly beans and chocolate-covered pretzels. The jelly beans and pretzels were loose and needed to be repackaged, so we picked up some bags at Michaels and I made some striped paper to print for tags. I cut the paper into 3" x 4" rectangles and folded them and used double-sided tape to attach them to the top. Aren't they cute?

More dinner napkins

Since its been awhile since I've made anything, I'll share this as well. Just purchased this font recently and this was the first thing I used it on. Its a set of dinner napkins that I sold on Etsy.

Little Things That Make Me Happy

This is apparently Post # 200!

Puppy Parka

Look what we found at Pet Smart last night. The Man had to have it for our little baby. Ain't he cute? Surely I could make something like it. I may have to try!

Etsy Finds

(Didn't come in this box - the box is mine!)

I've bought another ring on Etsy! I just love finding interesting things there and I'm going to try to find my Christmas presents there this year. We'll see how I do.

Anyway, this ring is from Lucie39. Its her Snow Princess Freshwater Pearl and Wire Ring. She has one listed here if you want one and I'd happily recommend it. Its very cute! These are cute too!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

This was Thanksgiving at my house. This was the first year that we've not been at my parents' house for Thanksgiving - they were visiting one of my brothers - so The Man and I made our first attempt at the Thanksgiving meal. We did a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, baked corn, cranberries, pumpkin pie and orange pineapple slush. I also made wacky cake cupcakes and pumpkin spice cake for The Man to take to work. Goodness! It was a ridiculous amount of cooking for two people, but it was good and of course, we're still eating it!

Hope you all had a lovely day!

2007 IQF Photos

Once again, Mellicious has posted a bunch of IQF photos. There are 302 in there! Enjoy the inspiration!

Long Time, No Quilt

I haven't had much time for quilting lately with the painting and organizing and miscellaneous junk that comes with a new house and the puppy who thinks he must constantly be played with, and oh, of course, regular every day work! But when I do have a chance to sit down with a quilt, this is what I've been working on.



I'm about "yo yo"ed out. Ack. There are 900 for this quilt and I have nearly 400 on and I'm so tired of them. I like hand sewing, but wow. There's a limit for my attention span. I knew this would take forever, but I still think I underestimated it. I like it, but I just want it to be finished so I can throw it in the wash and soften it up and cuddle under it instead.

Just thought you'd like to see that I am, in fact, still doing something creative. Just nothing exciting to show.

Simple Sewing

Finally! I haven't touched my sewing machine in at least a month or so and this evening, I made a pillow. I know, a very complicated and exciting project. But whatever.

Its a linen zebra print that I made a small pillow cover out of. I'm not a big animal print person, so I'm not sure where this is coming from, but I thought a small pillow to kinda tie in with the rug would be good. Small progress on the pillow front.

P.S. Check this out!

I saw someone else link to this, so I'll pass it on here as well. Sew Mama Sew blog is posting Handmade Holidays: 30 Gifts to Sew with links to tutorials from all around to inspire you. Should be interesting. Today's post was on aprons. I am feeling like making aprons!

A Work In Progress

My living room, as well as the rest of my house, is a work in progress. Last week, we bought a rug and picked up a coffee table and side tables. Today, I got The Man to hang up some pictures. We're making progress! Now I think that I need to get home hurricane lamps for the coffee table to put some pillar candles in. The table lamps are obviously too small for the tables. I have some picked out that I like, but they're a bit much for me, so I'm putting that off. One thing just leads to another, doesn't it? Oh well. I'm also trying to figure out what kind of fabrics to get for pillows. Any suggestions? I'm thinking fall right now.

We had to have our electric service upgraded this week and they put in a new panel and a deperately needed ground. That cost a small fortune, but he did finally hook up my dryer and hung my chandelier since he was here. Yay! I have a crystal chandelier! The picture doesn't nearly do it justice, but this is it.

This is the picture from LampsPlus.com, where I bought it. Much better!

Can't resist adding - I didn't pay anywhere near as much as its listed now. They have some good sales if you watch!

When the electrician was here, they removed a clamp on our water main and it was corroded underneath, so we had a nice leak that would make its way into our basement, so we had to have that fixed right away. Today, the plumber came and spent a couple hours just sitting here because he couldn't find the valve to shut off our water at the curb. The Man called Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority without thinking. Contrary to what the name suggests, they don't supply our water. Only the sewer service. PA American Water does the water. Oops. So after discovering that, he called them and they came within the hour to shut off the water. Sucks to pay someone to sit around. Oh well. What can you do?

So we focus on the good things, right? My living room is coming together. I have a lovely crystal chandelier. My dryer now works (yay - no more lint!). Shouldn't be anymore risk of our house burning to the ground because of a stupid electrical system. Wahoo!

Sweet Surprise

Guess what I found in my yard yesterday! I took Dutch out for a quick potty break and he was taking his sweet time while I was freezing, so I walked around the yard (its tiny - the walk was short) and inspected all the different plants that we planted. Some have tiny sprouts on them, which, I guess is good, because at least they are alive. Some of the plants were just nothing to look at when we put them in the ground. ANYWAY. I happened upon this:

How sweet is that? It was nothing but a twig sticking up out of the weeds until a few weeks ago when we started tilling up the ground and mixing in some new soil. I discovered that the one rose still has some pathetic tiny leaves on it, so I weeded all around it just in case. There's another pathetic stick near it and I'm hoping come spring something good will sprout from it as well. Don't you just love plants and flowers? The littlest things are so pleasing.

Gratuitious Puppy Photos

Dutch and my sister's chihuahua, Evie

This is how well they played together. Looks fierce, huh?

Dutch's favorite spot - in the sun coming in the front window.

Sometimes he watches the birdies at the feeder.

He's stolen a feather from my wreath. I love how his shadow looks like a cartoon chi.

Of course, he's not allowed to chew on my slippers, but he cracks me up when he does.