Thrifty Thursday #2: Ultimate Score

Ok... So today isn't Thursday, but I couldn't not show this!

Found by the dumpster...

The most awesome thrifty score!!!

We put it in Roommate's room. Still playing with the idea of putting our big wall mirror on top of it so she can have a vanity.

But really... who just throws away pieces of furniture like this??
          Not that I'm complainin... ^.^

Not So Blue Monday #3

This Monday was the beginning of the SACS Reaffirmation Visits for the University where I work. That means a great deal of stress... some necessary... some not.  So taking a "Not So Blue Monday" moment was completely needed.

Things that made me smile today:

1. filling in my Project 52
2. awesomely high contrast blue skies
3. quiet time in the office
4. taking a 2:00 tea break (tension tamer & lemon mint)
5. fabric buttons
6. wearing my hair out (despite snarky remarks of the conservative/permed peanut gallery)
7. the feeling of completion after a project is done

#1

#2

#3 & #4

#5

#6

Crafternoon 3

I finished the quilt! =)

Full photo

Instead of running the whole thing through my sewing machine, I decided to tie each block corner with yarn. It's really cute :)

The back of the quilt is the cute floral pattern.

Close up of a corner.

I used a decorative stitch for the binding around the edges. I'm really proud of it. The last thing I want to do is stitch the date into a corner. Maybe it'll be a blanket for my future children.  Who knows.

Sabbath Crafting

This Sabbath afternoon/evening developed into a nice, peaceful, & relaxed time of sewing.  I pieced together the whole top of my quilt & finished a new circle skirt.

Here are some progress pics of the quilt. It needs batting & a back to be done. So I'm going to save it for crafternoon tomorrow.

Initial layout- pre-pinning

Close up of the pattern drawing & pinned pieces

Blocks sewn together

The finished top :)

I had a lot of fun putting together the quilt. I consider it a "proper" quilt because I actually cut out shapes & made a design... That being compared to the last quilt I made which has like... 15 squares that are about 1 foot by 1.5 foot each. I'm really excited with the idea of expanding my craft skill to include quilt making.

Anywho, next is my newest circle skirt. I found this sheet set at the thrift store for a couple dollars & decided that I HAD to make something out of it. The pattern & color pallet are so retro.

Thrifted sheet & pillow case

I found a video on youtube that explained the math of a circle skirt really well & now that I have my measurements down, I can make these whenever I want! Yay, get ready summer! Circle Skirts ALL DAY!  [You can find the video --> here.]

Skirt pieces

The finished skirt (minus the hem)

 Here's the pretty much finished skirt. (I just need to hem the bottom.) The waistband was super easy because I just used the top folded edge of the sheet. Great idea, huh :D  I used the whole edge so that it has extra length to tie into a little bow in the back. I really want to wear this skirt to work.

I have been seeing old sheets with the cutest patterns in the thrift store & since beginning the work on this skirt a few days ago, I've been wanting to snatch them up. They're often priced lower than fabric & it's a perfect way to recycle or up-cycle.

Pins&Needles News

Cherie & I are in the building/development stages of our etsy shop, Pins&Needles. We are constantly brainstorming product ideas, writing/working patterns, making stock, working on the site, etc.  In the spirit of fledgeling crafty business, I finally found a thank you stamp for us to use on our shipments. I also got colorful tissue paper to package the pieces in during mailing. I figure we'll use the thank you stamp on brightly colored card-stock squares as an insert with our info on the back... Well... the idea needs more fleshing out, but it has good bones. :)

Ready to go out with new orders!

I'm excited about stocking the shop & growing our customer base. Wish us luck!

What's on My Hook #3

This Wednesday we have What's on My Hook Needles ;-)

I decided to take a break from crochet for a little bit and do some sewing (the blanket is getting a smidgen overwhelming).  I'm working on finishing my gingham circle skirt. All that's left is the hem.

Skirt without hem.

 I clearly underestimated the distance around the hem of that skirt!  I was pressing & pinning straight through 2 episodes of Bones... minus the tiny dinner break. But since it's so late now, I'm going to save the machine sewing to tomorrow. I'm too sleepy now.

Pressing... pressing... pressing

Pinning all completed. Sewing to be done tomorrow.

The rest of the week is going to be dedicated to finishing up the many projects I have in the "working" stages... Hopefully by Crafternoon this Sunday, I'll have a bunch of finished photos. Hopefully.

North Alabama Craft Show

Sunday, Cherie & I went to the Spring NEACA Craft Show.  We went intending to only spend an hour there, but ended up staying 2 and a half... I have NO idea why we thought we were going to be able to breeze through a craft show.  Anywho, there were so many nice booths set up. I didn't take any pictures, but Cherie did. Maybe I can get her to post them.

Let's see... there were basket weavers, quilters, potters, fudge makers, candle makers, photographers, paper cutters/sculptors, on & on & on...

I think it would be an awesome experience to do a craft show like that. The only fault to it is for the NEACA show you have to be open everyday of the exhibit... and that includes the Sabbath... maybe they'll make a religious accommodation. -shrug- We do live in the Bible belt...

The biggest thing I took away from the show was an inspiration to create more.  Sometimes I get tired of crochet or yarn craft, it's those times that I should challenge myself to learn a new thing. Like how I want to make a quilt... a proper quilt. I should always be in the mind and at the hand of creation. That way I'll lessen the time I spend dreaming of what I could be doing and lengthen the time I spend actually creating.

Not so Blue Monday #2

Today was a beautiful day. It was actually really easy to compile my Not So Blue Monday list. I don't know if that's cheating... Oh well, here it is :)

In other news, I have decided that I am going to make another quilt! And this time, I won't be using 2'x1' blocks of fabric, lol.

Blanket Progress Photo

As promised... here is the blanket with Row5 attached. The next row is the longest (11 blocks), but after that the decreasing starts. (Hallelujah!)

I'm really proud of the way it's coming together :) Yay me!

Evening Crocheting

So... I've been crocheting for about 3 hours straight. Just sitting here with my hook, yarns, & youtube. Makin' granny squares for my blanket... My fingers feel... prickly... I should probably take a break.  All I have left is to piece them together & Row5 will be done. I'm almost half way through this blanket and it's turning out to be quite pretty if I do say so myself.

This is Row5. Nine 7-round grannies!

That's a lot of stitching! My poor fingers... Well, after I take a break, I'll get back to joining them & then connect Row5 to the rest of the blanket. After that, there will be a photo update.  I think this blanket needs a name... what should I call it?

What's on My Hook #2

What's on my hook...

...still granny-ing

I'm on to row 5 of the blanket. 18 of 72 granny squares finished.

Tuesday Favorites #1

I want to write so much about this day. It was very nice. So instead of paragraphs of text, I'll just show you a few things that made me smile. :)

Yummy sushi for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants ^.^

The sushi leftovers... I was hungry & forgot to take a picture of the pretty plating...

Sitting out in the sun after work with Lamar after work.

Walking barefoot in the grass

Spring is sneaking in...

And last, but not least...

Crocheting the night away with another row added to the granny square blanket.

I hope you have had a pleasant day as well :)

Little Crafternoon 2

Hi there :)

Sundays are for crafting here at Apt 203. Today we helped one of our friends fix the zipper in her handmade banquet dress. It's very cute, by the way. I forgot to take a picture of the dress, but it has a bit more work to be done on it. You know, a nip here, a tuck there. Anywho, I'll have a pic of it when it's done.

Other than that, these are the projects that were finished/worked during this week's Crafternoon:

Cherie made a bow-tie brooch. Definitely shop worthy.

Block making for my blanket continues...

I also have a new favorite product to crochet... It's a chrysanthemum! I'm still tweeking the pattern so that it's easy to follow & works perfectly.  I made a red/purple one for Cherie's Pins&Needles shipment & a yellow/white one for me. It has a clip on the back that can attach to hair or clothing.

The chrysanthemum. (ignore the hanging ends)

Cherie also did a shop update. We are building up our stock & seriously working on making our shop a success. Check us out at PNHandmades!

Yarn Heaven

I stumbled into yarn heaven yesterday also known as Yarn Expressions.  I was so overwhelmed by the colors & textures of yarn everywhere... The shop assistant told me to just pick a corner and work my way out. lol.

Sock yarn

Bulky yarn

I want to go back & buy everything... If only I could justify spending $13 (at the least) on one ball of yarn...

These are the things that make me happy :)

...trying to contain my glee...

Lunchtime Crafting

I decided to start a new craft during my lunch today. I found these really nice twigs or baby branches outside my job a few days ago & figured they'd look really cute wrapped in yarn with little crochet leaves attached. ^.^ This is how much I finished so far:

I'm using Baby Bernat yarn. It's a lighter weight than anything I normally use...

After all the branches are covered, I'm going to make colorful leaves & attach them like this:

I'm not sure if I want to make the leaves multicolored or fall colored... hmm...

What's on My Hook #1

Granny Gif ;)

I've been diligently working on my newest project. :) I've decided to make a granny square blanket for my bed. The estimated size is 7 feet long by 6 feet wide. I drew out my placement plan last night & have been crocheting/ joining blocks all evening. Here is how it looks so far:

Each block is about 1 foot across diagonally.

I am joining them so that each row is corner to corner... I dunno if that makes any sense. My head is a bit foggy from working all day & crocheting all night... sigh.

Anywho, here is my layout. A blocks are the striped blocks & B blocks are the solids.

Blanket design in my handy dandy moleskine :)

So according to my layout. I have a total of 72 blocks to crochet for this project... so far 10 are done... *shrug* I'm also playing around with the idea of making granny triangles to attach to the sides of the blanket to make them straight instead of the zigzag of the current design... The only thing is I haven't done any of those yet... Maybe I should do it just to learn something new...

Well, that's it. I'm super tired right now & have to be at work at 8am... So goodnight blogosphere.

Leave me a comment, ask me a question.

The face of Happiness :)

My two favorite girls, Kiva & Toot (in the background).

Not so Blue Monday #1

Mondays are normally that dreaded first drop into the work week.... or that sad farewell to the weekend.  Since I don't want to fall victim to all the negativity that Blue Monday is capable of, I've decided that these are going to be "Not so Blue Mondays."

That means, each Monday will be a day to focus on the positive things that happen. So here it is!

Not So Blue Monday #1

• My comfy corduroy skirt
• Grill cheese a'Lamar for lunch
• Being productive & organized at work
• Cirque du Soleil: Alegria soundtrack at work
• Roommate's awesome blue pants (she DIYed some thrifted high-waisted too-wide slacks into lovely cerulean cigarette pants... if Audrey Hepburn wore blue pants, they would've been these)
• Watching terrible movies with Lamar
• Clean puppies
• Granny squares 

 That's a lot to smile about. :)

Crafternoon 1

Here are the products of today's crafternoon :)

Smeek made 3 beaded bracelets.

Cherie started a slouchy beanie. To be finished soon.

Finished hat. It's super warm ^.^

My hollow book. To be finished soon.

Gotta love calm crafternoons are the best. Lots of crafting was done & the conversations were great.

Beauty after Destruction

It seems that the best & most beautiful sunsets come in the days following tornadoes... beauty after destruction.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee,

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not,

As Thou has been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Friday Finds Me...

If you were to walk into #203 this evening, you'd see two ole ladies crocheting to obscure bands.  One curled up on the sofa amid crochet blankets & handmade quilts... the other in a rocking chair. 

Seriously.

I love spending quiet crafting time with my roommate. She's a great person to discuss my many many ideas with & she's good at pointing out what will work & what won't.

Anywho, our Friday evenings are often filled with netflix or music and crafts of some kind.  Often times, the craft is something that we swear we're going to wear to church in the morning or something that we have to do now. lol.

This is the beginning of my work in progress (WIP). It's a crochet version of these toe/heel-less yoga socks. I saw a picture in the craft store.  So far I'm almost done with one. We'll see how this works out.

Yoga sock pieces... they don't look like much now, but just wait :)

Roommate is working on a Pins&Needles (our ETSY shop) order. She's making a set of magenta earmuffs. The yarn is soo pretty & soooffffttttt! The original pattern she was following was an older vintage one, but she's altering it as she goes along.

This is the muff's outside part. I love the ruffles ^.^

Well, that's all for tonight. Sunday is Crafternoon, so there will be lots of photos of our friends crafting!

Thrifty Thursday #1

I must say that thrifting is one of my ultimate favorite things to do... ever... and not in that trendy kind of way either ;-]  I have even converted Lamar to the way of the thrift...

Anywho, yesterday Lamar & I went to Value Village for the first time. It was pretty cool & we dubbed it his store because he found all kinds of awesome things.



He picked up this crochet blanket for $5 & was all excited because now he has his own blanket. I love finding huge crochet blankets in good condition. They are so cozy... maybe one day I'll actually finish mine. Maybe...


Lamar also picked up these 4 games.  
 [Trivial Pursuit DVD Pop Culture 1 & 2; Win, Lose, or Draw; Buzzword.  We also found a Harry Potter Trivia game for my roommate. She spazzed ALL the way out when we gave it to her!]


Yet another thing that Lamar found at Value Village. I've been looking for a new work bag & this one is perfect. It's so cute & quite functional. I wore it to work today & I think I'm going to make a pocket for the outside of it. That's the only thing it's missing... an outside pocket... There's a quick refashion idea.

So that's it for my first Thrifty Thursday post. I hope you enjoyed.

What are your favorite thrift stores? What was your best thrifted find? Let me know in a comment.