More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys (or so you would think)

We have been going non stop this year on our house.  In February we replaced the flooring in the great room, hallway and the two main floor bedrooms.  It's worked out beautifully - easy to clean and maintain.  It's much better for our allergies than the wall to wall carpet that we removed. 

Next Andy enclosed the fence like railing around the stairwell:

Before

After

We began work on the stairs by removing the carpet to see what was under it.  It was a combination of stair treads (good) and plywood (not so good).  Andy replaced the plywood, rebuilt the corner steps, added trim around the edges and wainscoting risers.  I'm the painter in the process.  I come from a family of very talented artists and am glad to be able to use my limited painting skills for some good!

Then we added a shelf under the bar area of the counter that divides the great room from the kitchen.

Most recently we have begun refacing our cabinets.  While it does take a bit of time, refacing isn't really hard to do.  Andy added wainscoting and trim to the existing door fronts.  We updated the knobs and hinges and Ive painted the insides to give everything a clean and uniform look.  Right now all of the lower cabinets are complete.  This weekend we will begin on the upper cabinets.  Here are a few progress pictures.

Sanded, washed and primed

Finished!

 

 We added sliding racks to make access easier.

Before

After

The trim underneath still needs to be painted.  I think I will do that last since I still need to paint the trim in the dining room.

PS  Im up to 148 hexipuffs!!

 













Happy Easter!

Being behind on deadlines and up to my ears in painting the trim and stairs in our house seemed like a logical reason to say the heck with it all this morning and dye some eggs!  I used food coloring, olive oil and sea salt to get these results. 

And now back to work!

Have a Happy Easter/Passover!

A short break

Is it just me, or does it look like this llama is wearing glasses?

We took a break from home improvement hell this past weekend and went to the VA Classic Llama and Alpaca Show.  Our friends the Hall's who own Posy Thisisit Llamas had a booth there.  It was great fun to visit with them and catch up.  We haven't gotten together in more than a year so there was a lot of yakking going on!  We have plans to get together again at Maryland Sheep & Wool so our next visit wont be too far off. 

Jamee' and I had a bit of fun with some roving and designed new Princess Leia costumes:

This is the last room that we layed flooring in.  It's really supposed to be our office, but Ive sort of taken it over.  That's Andy in the closet using the nail gun to put the final touches on the half round molding.

Yesterday I painted all the closets on the main floor.  While this may seem like a waste of time, really who is ever going to notice, apparently the people who lived here before us thought this and only had put primer on the walls in them.  They look much better and have a nice clean and fresh scent.  Tomorrow I'm painting our bedroom.  More on that to come!

In my very limited down time I did manage to finish a pair of socks:

The Weasley Homstead by Erica Lueder.  It's a free pattern on Ravelry and can be found here. BMFA STR in Mossy Manly.  Ive also nearly finished seaming my second Blumchen It should be finished by Thursday just in time for even warmer weather! 

 Speaking of warmer weather, it was a crazy 80 degrees here today.  It's only March and I'm really concerned about what summer is going to have in store for us.  Andy and I worked in the garden for a couple of hours - pruning, thinning, removing some weeds and generally getting the soil ready for planting.  We are tying up loose ends with things around the house before fishing season begins.  Our next project is reconstruction of the stairs leading to our basement.  Someday, someday soon, I will have more knitting time again.  I just know it!

Spinning

My goal this January was to card and spin the Jacob fleece that I purchased two years ago at Maryland Sheep & Wool.  It was a small fleece, just two pounds before scouring.  It was really fine with a short staple of about 1 1/2 - 2" and had little grease/lanolin.  One of the volunteers working the fleece sale helped me and told me that she thought this was most likely a lamb's fleece.  While it's not quite as soft as merino, it's pretty darn close. 

Andy helped me do a bit of the carding when my arm got tired from cranking the drum carder.  It was a fun challenge during January and helped to keep the winter dull drums at bay.  I wound up with a total of 1,005 yards of a nice worsted weight.  Enough I hope for a short sleeved sweater.

In the middle of spinning the Jacob fleece I got a note from my friend Jamee' asking me to do some spinning for her.  She and her mom Joyce have llamas, goats and sheep.  Joyce's farm is Posy Thisisit Llamas.  I always love it when they ask me to spin!  So far Ive spun up a total of 2,204 yards of worsted weight yarn for them.  Just in February!  It's really helping to keep my legs in shape too which is a nice added benefit.

Bobbins of plied yarn waiting to be skeined.  This fiber came from Ivy Lace, Jamee's llama.  It's a beautiful oatmeal color.

Skeins of the same yarn waiting to be washed. 

Im taking this weekend off from work so Andy and I can install a new floor in our great room, hallway and bedrooms.  That doesn't really sound like time off...

Here is a before picture:

The carpet doesn't look bad from a distance.  Up close is another story. 

To be continued.

Snow!

It seemed like winter never really arrived in Virginia this year.  Daffodills had started to bloom and I noticed that a few redbud tree's had started to get little buds on them.  When we heard the forecast for snow yesterday Andy and I chuckled a bit.  Well it turns out the joke was on us.  We had a little over eight inches of snow yesterday.  It's the kind that sparkles like glitter in the sun which is my favorite. 

When I lived in Maine I couldn't wait for winter to be over.  Some winters there is so much snow that it is overwhelming.  We had 99 - ninety nine - inches of snow the last year I lived there.  All the shoveling, plowing, and snow blowing became very tiresome to say the least.  Living in Virginia has been a refreshing experience.  Businesses and schools shut down at the near mention what would be considered flurries in Maine.  Grocery stores get wiped out of bread, milk and eggs before a storm so a little planning is helpful if you know that snow is coming.  A few people who are native to the area have said to me that the snow here is much worse than what comes down in Maine.  They have the impression that snow in Maine is light and fluffy and pretty much what you would see in a holiday movie.  That ice storms just don't happen that far north.  I can tell you from first hand experience that  there are ice storms and the snow in Maine is just as heavy as snow in Virginia.  The snow in Maine doesn't melt in a day or two like it does here though.  The ground there freezes to the density of granite which helps keep the snow around for the entire winter. 

Im going to enjoy the snow here while it lasts and be thankful that it will be gone in a day or two.

Before and After

On our last vacation in Maine Andy and I stopped at a little junk shop in Limerick.  This lamp was there and just had to come home with us.  She survived the trip back in the car and has sat in my craft room.  Perhaps feeling a bit neglected and desiring a little make over. Her faded and dented shade a reminder of style choices that could have been a bit better.   

Here she is newly dressed

What lady doesn't look good in a little black dress? 

What happened to the knitting?  I thought this was a knitting blog!  A little taste of what's been going on and off the needles:

Slöfock Cap in Honey Worsted Black Truffle Pattern by Anne Hanson

Matching mitt's

Capitola Socks in Zoe Sock Mint Latte' 

Pattern by IrishGirlieKnits

Ive also carded an entire fleece since January 1 and hope to have it spun by the last day of January!  Pictures to come on that. 

 

Spinning Stool

Andy and I are very careful about recycling.  We were talking the other day and he pointed out that we actually are doing more than what I thought.  By buying used or re-purposing things that we already have, we are essentially recycling.  A few things in our living room were looking a little dated or worn so Andy has been refinishing them.  We have a whole new look for a small amount of money and very little impact on the environment.

One thing we purchased is this cute spinning stool at a local antique shop for $10.00.  The legs were loose, the finish scratched and the seat fabric a bit dated. 

Andy spent a few hours refurbishing it on Saturday.  First he took it apart and gave it a good sanding.

After removing any dust left from sanding he put several coats of paint on it.

While he was doing all the hard work I was having fun hooking a new seat cover for it. The gray yarn is hand spun jacob, the green/purple is hand spun merino and the pink is

Peace Fleece in Moscow Magic.

 We brought our two projects together yesterday.  Andy did a great job putting it back together too.  It's now sturdy and looks like a brand new stool.

We added a new layer of high density foam under the cover for a bit of extra comfort. 

 Total cost for this project was about $17.00.  $10 for the stool, $3 for paint, and $4 for foam.  The yarn and rug fabric were left over from other projects. 

Next time you are looking for something new to add to your home try picturing what you have with a different finish or fabric.  It's easier than you think to change the color of something.  Not to mention the huge savings.

It is cold here today.

In case it goes back to being completely unreasonably warm for the rest of this winter I am attempting to wear as many hand knit items at one time as possible.  Yes, I am aware none of them match or are even from the same yarn. No, I don't care.  And I went out in public this way.  Muh huh huh!

Christmas

Until this past weekend I really haven't been able to get into the swing of thing for Christmas.  It's been a challenging year with health issues; some serious and some not.  Huge and unexpected repairs to our home; a new heat pump,  having to replace leaking skylights and attack of the ten million ants which lead to having an exterminator. The recent passing of my paternal grandmother which Im still in shock from has just added to the mix of stress. 

Ive been really down in the dumps and as always Andy has done everything humanly possible to distract me and cheer me up.  It's worked.  He started with hanging lights inside and out.  We put up our tree and got almost all new ornaments for it so we could have a fresh look. 

Our tree is small and is on the coffee table in the middle of the living room.  We had to run the power cord  to it off the ground so the bunny won't nibble on it.  It's the second year we have had a smaller tree and it's working well.

Blue lights really do make me smile.  Unless of course they are behind me while Im driving.

This past weekend we drove through Amherst after our trip to the farmers market.  These adorable Nutcrakers were on display in the roundabout.

Andy has sat with me and watched nearly every Christmas movie known to man over the past few weeks (have I mentioned how awesome he is?).  My favorite is the Holiday.  Not only does it make me cry like a baby I am completely in love with the stone cottage house in it.  There are even a few sheep in one scene.

We have decorated and baked cookies.  Two batches of the spritz kind so far.  They are almost all gone.  So we wouldn't be crazy piggish with them, Andy has taken quite a few of them to work to share. 

With Christmas less than two weeks away Ive finally cheered up a bit.  I wrapped and packed all the gifts that needed to be mailed this morning and took them to the post office.  Thought of one more small goodie for Andy and stopped for that on the way home. 

As horrible as this sounds Im not doing any Christmas knitting.  Last year everyone on my list either got something hand knit or sewn.  I made myself  crazy knitting all day and late into the nights leading up to Christmas.  This year has made me think that this is what it must be like for people who don't knit.  Weird!