What Day is It?! lol

[Not So Blue Monday #14]
[Tuesday Favorites #8] 
Good evening.

Let me take a moment to explain this post. I started writing this yesterday morning at work, but stopped because Photobucket was having issues and whatnot.  I mean it was down for the entire day and I didn't want to do the post without the pictures.  So here it is, my Tuesday Favorites of my Not So Blue Monday on a Wednesday... (phew...) Let's get on into it, shall we?

Monday was a wonderful extra day off and I was so so so grateful for it.  I didn't do as much crafting as I planned to, but I was productive in other ways.

Let's see... I did a good bit of cleaning and rearranging in my bedroom. It's still "under construction" because I have a bookcase to move and lots of laundry to put away and clothes to sort out for thrift donation and carpets to vaccuum... etc.  This list makes me feel like I should be home instead of in this office.

In the midst of moving... I basically flip-flopped my bed and dresser.

Wow... looking at this picture I must say there is a lot of stuff in my room... I have a lot of stuff... It really is time to fill bags for donation.

Anyway, I made my bed with a new sheet set and the pillow cases I snagged from my mom the last time I went home. It's all flowery and makes me smile.

Love the floral motifs and the colors are great ^.^

I straightened up my dresser top and framed more pictures. I love having framed photos around. I want to have a photo wall one day. You know, the ones with shots of family vacations and milestones framed in the staircase or something like that :)  I'd like that...

I just realized how blurry this picture is... sorry.

I'm thinking about doing a photo shoot of just my dresser top... once it's all finished. That would be fun and a challenge to photograph my photographs in interesting ways.  Woot! Future project!

Kisses!

These two pictures are from when Lamar and I went to Delaware for my bestsisterfriend's wedding. The day before we left we went down to Rehoboth beach. It was a really fun trip within a trip. We took lots of jumping pictures in the waves... trying to get a perfect one. Of course I got soaked up to my waist by a huge wave that I wasn't prepared for, lol. I'll have to find those pictures and post a few.

Lastly, I went thrifting on Monday. Thrift Mart had a 50% off everything sale for Labor Day. My roommate & her friend went early-ish in the day and ended up standing in the line for like an hour... When I went in the evening, it was like a regular Monday night at the thrift store. That was nice.

I found a few really good pieces & now cannot wait for fall to get its butt here so I can wear them! Check it out.

Thrift Mart Haul-age! I only spent $20 and change. Yay me!

Ok. I picked up some frames, because most of the empty frames i already had were 5x7 instead of 4x6 standard size.  The two slacks are UH-MAZE-ING!  The picture doesn't do them justice.  The grey pair is wool and the brown one has a thin orange/tan window pane pattern on them. They both fit wonderfully and scream "wear me on a fall day drinking chai tea outside at 5 Point Books!!!" lol. I can't wait until it's cool enough to wear them ^.^

The tops are also cool. Top row: green cotton button down, pink & teal scoopneck tee shirts, batik/ethnic print collar shirt.  Bottom row: navy blue silk button down, textured silk sleeveless, cream silk/viscose cardigan.  I am such a fan of silk shirts.  I started wearing them this summer and I'm always on the lookout for them in thrift stores.  I like that they're so light on my skin and stay cool when it's hot out.  Although I'm not sure how that's going to translate in the fall and winter.

Alright, this has gotten long enough! I hope you all have enjoyed your weeks thus far, and I'm excited to be coming down to another weekend.

Goodnight!

So I Went Thrifting... [belated Thrifty Thursday post]

Hey, good morning :)

On one of my thrift store visits, I decided to browse the aisles and take pictures of the things that made me smile. Often times, when I'm stressed or worried, visiting a thrift store is the best remedy.  I don't know what it is about second-hand shops or little hole-in-the-wall charity stores, but moving through the rows of donated things searching for treasures just makes me feel better.  Sometimes I can actually feel my muscles relaxing... I know- weird... But hey, whatever works, right?

So here is a little photo dump of thrifty things that made me smile.

I recently saw an awesome letter wall... maybe I'll do one...

View Master! Oh childhood... ^.^

Hanging owl lantern

Some sort of cat-like head statue... It remids me of MirroMask.

I really wanted to buy this set of glasses. But we have no space :(

Vintage Merry Mushroom Tea Kettle

Carved sewing supply box. Sooo pretty!

So yeah... my favorite thrift store was pretty much teeming with awesome little treasures... I'm considering going back and getting the tea kettle... but I'm going to ponder it a while more. If it's still there on Monday, I think I'll get it.

Tuesday Favorites #4... on Wednesday...

Good morning!
So I'm a total bum because I thought & thought about this post yesterday while compiling a really cute collection of free printable craft posters, but I never sat down to write it. ::rolls eyes::

I decided to look for printable artwork for the walls of the Apt-203 crafting workspace since I went total overhaul cleaning it last week.  I will do a little walk-thru on it later when it’s more complete.

Anywho, this all began Monday after I finished the bulk of my office tasks.  I was doing my daily blog reading & spent some time going back thru Curbly.com.  There, I found a post featuring lots of free printable artwork.  Naturally, I browsed the options (you can take a look at that post here).   There were a bunch of really cute posters, but the one that caught my eye and wouldn’t give it back was this one:



From: compulsivecraftiness.com



And! Not only is the poster awesome, the blog is really interesting too. I was probably reading through her posts for another half hour or so J… It is now hanging above our inspiration board & project organizer.  Let me tell you, it’s perfect for us!  So, of course when I got back to work on Tuesday, I had to find more of these adorable printables to create a photo/poster collage.  This leads me to the Tuesday Favorites list!  ::happy dance::

(Click poster to be linked to original post on the artist's blog.)

1.       May Your Bobbin Always Be Full

From: mypoppet.blogspot.com

2.       Tim Gunn Make it Work

From: amymorby.com

3.       Keep Calm & Get Your Craft On

From: funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com

4.       Hello Lover: Sewing Machine

From: missiekrissie.blogspot.com/

5.       Hello Lover: Camera

From: missiekrissie.blogspot.com/

6.       Happiness is a Warm Glue Gun

From: manmadediy.com/

Searching for these was a much needed creative break from office monotony.  Currently, #1 and #3 are framed and hanging on the wall, while #4 is framed on our craft book shelf.

The only thumbs down I had with this whole search was that there were virtually NO knitting or crochet themed posters available.  But hey, that just means I need to pull out my computer & design a few of my own :D

That’s it for my Tuesday Favorites on a Wednesday J. I hope you enjoyed & are having a pleasant day!

Little Big Crochet Update ;)

Hello there!

I've been away from writing for longer than anticipated, partly because of procrastination or something.  I have been working on numerous projects though.

• Picked up pins & batting for the quilt (haven't decided on the back fabric yet tho)
• cleaned up the craft area (it looks very nice now- I'm very proud)
• began & finished an afghan
• began work on a granny triangle afghan, but they look more like granny wedges. This could be a fail... oh well...

OK, those are the only things that spring to mind project-wise. 

I'm most excited about the afghan that I finished. I started it on the flight back from Amber's wedding & finished it today. ^.^  The adventure of this piece was the yarn... you see I have this habit of picking up yarn on my various thrifting trips.  The only problem with thrifted yarn is that it is SUPER HARD to match...

So happy little Caleisha decides to start making granny squares with this really pretty yellow & really soft white yarn from a thrift haul. 

Blurry pic of the first square on the airplane.

Airplane crocheting

Of course I run out of the yellow yarn on the last square, so I just grabbed another bright yellow from my stash... which didn't match exactly, but you cant tell since I was only short a few clusters.  OK... I then decided to make the whole afghan from a gradient of yellow tones (bright yellow, pastel yellow, & cream- all thrifted).  It turned out pretty nice- I think.  I did two squares. One with a white stripe & the other without.

You can only really see the white stripe against the bright yellow.

I'm crocheting away... watching Bones & making quick progress using the join-as-you-go method to attach the squares.  It was really good to be able to see the blanket growing instead of having a stack of squares looming & waiting to be stitched together.

Crochet & Bones... My tradition.

I moved on through the pastel blocks with no problem.  I figured I had enough of the cream as well, but no... I didn't have enough cream and the only other yarn I found in my stash that color was 100% wool... UGH... talk about problem solving. Off to the craft store I went to find a comparable yarn. Go figure the cream was a 3-ply.

WHAT THE CRAP! 3-ply... seriously?!

So I'm looking all through the yarns for something 3-ply, but soon gave up on that and picked up a ball of vanna white baby yarn that matched the color. Crisis averted on that front & the cream blocks were finished.  Now, the original plan was to make the blanket 3x6, but once it was finished... it looked weird... too skinny.  Solution- add another row & make it 4x6.  Now if you remember, I ran out of the thrifted bright yarn and by this time, I am also running dangerously low on the cream yarn I bought... So, again, off to the craft store. I went to Michaels & Joanns before I found a color that matched the bright yellow at Hobby Lobby.  I also didn't want to buy another ball of the cream because they were like $4 each for a little ball... lucky me, I found another yarn in the back of my stash & was able to pretty much match the baby yarn by using two strands together... *wipes forehead from sheer yarn-matching frustration*

Sheesh, this is getting long... sorry...

I successfully added my 4th row to the afghan & did a granny stripe of white around the edge.  All my ends are woven in & I ran it through the wash/dryer to soften up all the yarns.

After all the running around & matching attempts, I'm very happy with the finished afghan. :)

Pre-wash afghan.  The squares are about 9"x9".

Post-wash. It's very soft! Yay for finished pieces!

 It's just too bad that it's really hot now so covering up with it is totally out of the question. But it's so pretty & it will be gracing the back of my sofa until a chilly future evening. :)

Lesson learned: thrift store yarns are best for small projects... if you want to do something large, go match the yarn first. lol.

Sabbath Crafternoon 6

I have completely been on a crafting kick this weekend! This is a refashion project.  I thrifted a few baskets & locker shelves to hold produce in the kitchen since we don't have a pantry or much other storage for that matter.  

Progress shots

The baskets are lined inside with a couple layers of cling wrap & covered outside with a neat red/white stripe fabric.  Originally I was going to make 3 baskets, but 2 works better.

I didn't photograph the locker shelves because I haven't painted them white yet.  Now we have a nice place to keep our veggies and fruit that don't need refrigeration :)

I love thrifting & finding pieces that can be refashioned for use around the house.  Yay for making Apt 203 better! ^.^

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... ^.^