thimbly things

The weekend makes me tired.  I think for most people, the weekend is a time to recharge.  For me, it’s my chance to get out and get things done.  So sometimes I overdo it.  And then I crash.  I napped on Saturday and on Sunday, just as I did last weekend, and then I suffered from slight insomnia last night.  Just couldn’t get it quite right.

It was a lovely weekend though.  I went to the tried and true Quality Thrift Store a quarter-mile away and picked up some neat finds.  Instead of crocheting my own, I found a random-stripe ripple afghan for $5.  And it’s already broken in.

I also found this tediously embroidered tree.  No lie–about 7 people stopped me at the thrift store to comment on it.   Lots of Oh, that’s interesting!s.  I agree.  Though it is also a bit strange.  I’m thinking of embellishing it somehow.  Perhaps with birds or flowers.  Any ideas?

And here is my Mystery WIP.  I began it while watching Barton Fink with Evan, and it evolved into I don’t know what.  A scarf?  A purse?  A pillow?  I really don’t know.  At first, I was working from a pattern in Pretty Knits.  I knew my gauge was off, but I didn’t realize how off.  I decided to make a ruffle to slim things down, and now I don’t know what this is anymore.  But it started as a bag.  Hmmm…

Speaking of Barton Fink, Evan is doing a Coen Brothers Month over at Movie Zeal.  He talked me into watching all 12 of their films sequentially with him.  I’ve never studied a director (or two) in this way before, and it’s very interesting to see their work evolve.  I find that I feel strongly about every film–I either love it or hate it.  But then I also think Perhaps this will be better upon a second viewing…  I don’t know.  I’ve always loved Raising Arizona.  Since I was about 8 years old.  Knowing the quirkiness of this film helped me appreciate Blood Simple.  I couldn’t help but notice similar themes, camera angles, and even a splash of their Coen humor.  But when we got to Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink, I was pretty disappointed.  But like I said, maybe if I watch them again?

Last night was The Hudsucker Proxy night.

And The Brothers redeemed themselves.  At least, for now.

Yesterday, I sat down to blog and looked down at my hand only to find a tiny diamond missing from my wedding band.  What an awesome April Fool’s Day joke that would have been–were it a joke.  But it was not, and I just couldn’t muster the joy I needed to do anything but complain (and decided to spare you).  I have since decided that it isn’t a big deal.  It won’t be much to replace, and it forces me to think about getting real insurance for my ring.  The rest of the day was lovely.  I just never made it back to the computer.

The skies were clear in Tulsa on the first day of April, and I snapped a few random pictures of our home and did a photo shoot with Emily on the front lawn.

Here are some baby clothes that are destined to be repurposed.  I really love that linen floral on top.  Too bad the original dress is heavily stained.  And that purple knit cardigan would make such a pretty sachet… and maybe mittens too.  As it now exists, it has a funny, purple faux-fur collar on it.  Yikes!

I finally washed all of our neutral baby clothes (We didn’t know if Emily was a boy or a girl), and I was surprised by just how much we have.  It’s so sad and sweet remembering Emily in each piece.  And it’s a little funny since the clothes really do look like they’re for a boy and not so much “gender neutral!”

I crocheted a bag from The Happy Hooker, probably because of this little bit of inspiration.

I bought handles for the purse today at Joann Fabrics (with my 40% off coupon, of course!  Never buy anything there without a coupon unless it’s on sale!).  When the lighting permits, I’ll snap a picture of the finished project to share.

During March, I challenged myself to make a little something every day (with the exception of Sundays).  I sort of succeeded although I sometimes counted cooking as making.  Like on Easter.  Julia and I cooked a lot, and it seemed very much like a full day of crafting.

So what of April?  April is Baby Brother’s expected birth month, so I’m dedicating my days to preparing for and, ultimately, caring for him (and Emily too!!!).   There is much that I haven’t done, so every day I hope to knock out some task that’s burdening me, no matter how small.  Yesterday I got his clothes ready.  Today I bought flannel for him and plan to call the hospital to set up a registration appointment.

There’s so much to do, but it’s a good kind of busy.  And I haven’t forgotten the point of it all. :)

The latest addition to the yarn basket:

Rag Balls.  These are scraps of old clothes that have seen better days.  I was up until 1 am making these.  And there are many more to come.

I hope to make a rug out of these, but I’m sure I’ll need to shred many more old T-shirts and such before I have enough for anything substantial.  I checked Mason-Dixon Knitting out of the library, and there’s a neat pattern for a log cabin-style rug.  It actually calls for yarn and scraps of woven material, but it’s one of those patterns where it doesn’t really matter.  The ultimate goal is a rectangle big enough to stand on.  (Note: I just did a quick search on mason-dixon knitting, and I quickly came across the authors’ blog.  The latest entry talks about making rag balls and, a few entries later, the log cabin rug (which is actually called “The Tailgate Rag Rug”)!  Pretty neat.  Guess I can return that library book without making photocopies first…)

This Friday’s WIP: Cleaning the house for tomorrow.  And that’s a major WIP.  And I need to write an article for the church’s women’s newsletter.  Yet here I am telling you about fabric balls that have nothing to do with anything I should be doing.

Must step away from the Mac… unless I’m writing that article…

Lately that’s what I’ve been doing: making piles of stuff.  Piles of laundry, piles of hand-me-downs, piles for Goodwill, piles of toys to clean, piles of baby supplies, and piles of these:

And more of these:

Of course, the cookies and brooches are for Saturday, but I’ve also spent time making stuff for No Particular Reason.  Thus this:

And this:

Honestly.  How kitsch is that?  And not even in a truly hip way.  It’s kitsch in a late-1980s-blue-and-mauve-country way.  But I still might hang it in the kitchen window.  At least for a spell.

Really though, what’s the harm?  I found this little guy in my $4 Quality Thrift goody bag.  The paint was nearly dried up (one color was), and the plastic paint wells were so brittle that–you might notice–the latches on most of them broke when I tried to open them.

This is such a funny “hobby” to me.  There’s not much to it.  It’s easier than paint-by-number since you can’t accidentally bleed into the wrong area with the paint.  There are walls separating each section, and the “paint” is really supposed to be a thin stain that more or less spreads itself out.  And then, when you’re all done, that satisfied feeling of accomplishment is rather diminished by the pitiful look of the project.  No matter how hard you try, it will never look like real stained glass.

I say all this, and yet I spent at least an hour filling in those little spaces with the cruddy old paint and cheap, limp paintbrush.  It’s a compulsion, I tell ya.

Yesterday was an unexpected holiday for us, as Evan had Good Friday off for the first time ever.  It was also the second day of Spring, and it felt like it.  So my nesting instinct was compounded by my spring-cleaning instinct.  I switched out my winter wardrobe for my spring (and realized that most of my clothes are 4-5 years old and meant for a body that has not been through 2 pregnancies.  But here’s hoping!).  I cleaned the bathroom floor–the part we’ve been ignoring for months now.  I moved furniture.  Or directed furniture movement.  And I reorganized closets.  I may have made the coffee a little strong yesterday… (I couldn’t even sit still long enough to check my email, much less blog.)

Let’s talk about hanging stuff on the walls.  Why is it so stinkin’ hard to do?  We’ve been in our house for a year, and stacks of pictures gathering dust bunnies around them have been the norm for us.

So once I determined an arrangement that might work… and was in major project-mode, I begged Evan to carry out my vision.

Not too exciting, I realize.  But I can’t recount to you just how much this stressed me out.  Something about putting holes in freshly painted walls.  Before I snapped pictures, I adorned our new hooks with my favorite winter gear.  One last time before the pretty hats are stashed away for fresh, warm-weather accessories.

In the midst of all my doings yesterday, Evan took Emily to the park.  But not before he pointed out a yard sale happening just down the street.  Two houses away, I found these goodies for $1.  Four quarters, to be exact.

That’s 2 twin-sized fitted sheets in matching vintage floral, 3 planters, 2 pretty white vases, and an old cheese grater (it was free, and ours started rusting the day we brought it home–I figured it was worth a try).  Actually, the planters and vases were free too.  I just paid .50 for each sheet.  Good deal.

There’s much to do today, what with Easter dinner planning and tying up a few Easter projects.  I hope the nesting mode kicks in again.  Yesterday was just so productive that my hips ached around midnight.  Not that I want to ache, but you understand.

We’re having quite the overcast (and now rainy) St. Paddy’s Day here in Tulsa, and I’m hard-pressed to find any green worth photographing. Except the neighbor’s yard. Just across the street, our very nice neighbor has a green lawn while everyone else’s is still blah blah brown. There is a flowering tree across the street as well, and I keep wondering if the neighbors (who all appear to be home for Spring Break) will think me insane if I hobble over there with my camera and toddler.

Yellow has been more of an inspiration as of late. I realized this when I read SouleMama’s post on bringing the sun into her house (via painting a room yellow). This may be surprising to friends who know that when we moved into our house, I painted over our yellow walls immediately. Green, in fact. Our living room was the color of a Granny Smith apple for almost a year. Until I convinced Evan that I would indeed lose my mind if I didn’t repaint it. He said, “Fine. But it’s your project.” He was gone for 2 weeks in January and came home to an almost-half-painted-living-room. Thankfully, he helped me finish. Thankfully.

Here’s a picture that shows just how vivid and overwhelming the walls could be (in certain light):

Insanely bright. Neon. And very little looked good on the walls. So there’s some green for the holiday!

I tried to do a round-up of green craftiness to share, but it was quickly disassembled by Em.

Thank you Brobee for being the awesome Little Green One today. As for my hang-up on yellow, it’s mostly centered around this hand-me-down dress someone gave us:

It’s very pretty–on a hanger. But the collar is too much pretty, I think. Too much frill. I cut it off this weekend and sewed on some fresh binding. What to do next? Hmm…

This past weekend, I opened my JoAnn circular to realize that I had several coupons that were on the brink of expiration. I thought quick. What do I need? What do I really need? With a tiny allowance (and not wanting to spend it all) I headed over and purchased only needles and thread. That was it. No fabric. No yarn. No buttons. Just the basics, which made coming home and emptying my bag of goodies a rather dull experience. But! But then came the inspiration for the evening.

Pincushions=gratification. They’re quick, easy, require very little material, very few tools, and are so small and pretty. And my new sewing instruments became beautiful to me. Shiny, sharp, glistening pins. Ready to take on all manner of crafting.

This little pincushion is based on the pattern in Sew Pretty Homestyle (Thanks, Mom D, for the Christmas present!). This is the first thing I’ve made from it, but believe me, there is more to come. I love how the cushion came out looking very much akin to a mushroom.

(Oh, and remember my thrifting trip from a couple weekends ago? In my grab-bag, I found a little wooden ring which is now the base for this pincushion. How I do love thee, Quality Thrift Store? Let me count the ways…)

I was also inspired by the needlebook pattern in Sew Pretty, but I modified the design and materials and ended up with my own pattern. The one in the book doesn’t use felt or buttons, and it seems larger. I was determined to use my scraps of fabric because I have quite a pile-up in my craft room. So now my pincushion has a matching friend to organize all my fresh, new, beloved needles.

I thought about sharing one of these each day of the week, but it’s so nice to see them all side-by-side. I came across the set on Saturday at an antique store here in Tulsa. The colors and designs are wonderful, but I could not imagine paying the $36 asking price. They do provide some great inspiration though, don’t you think?

Alicia Paulson at Posie Gets Cozy recently made some lovely designs inspired by her favorite kitchen items, and I’d rather embroider her patterns than fork over the money for these.  But still, they are nice.

It stormed yesterday. Then it snowed. Then it stopped. Then it snowed more last night. Now the sun is out and the temperature’s mild. Since I never got around to cutting out snowflakes this year, I decided to try out this pattern from Martha. Mind you, my snowflake hasn’t been meticulously starched, so it looks a little more like a shabby doily right now. By the time I finished it yesterday, the snow was all gone.

But it was still quite cold. To ward off the draft from our windows, I warmed myself up with this bowl (one of my recent thrifting finds!) of baby lima beans drizzled with hot sauce and cheese.
The cheese is what really made it extra yummy. We get it from the Swan Bros. Dairy. It’s the only place in Oklahoma that can legally sell raw milk for human consumption. (Technically, other dairies can sell a limited amount of raw milk each month, but I don’t know how regulated it is.) They also sell several different cheeses, both raw and natural. Evan has more or less organized a co-op with some of our friends, and now we have fresh, raw milk all the time. And it is good.

By the way, this is really inspiring me right now.  See the little crocheted cape & hood?  Oh my word.

My Joann circular informs me that March is National Craft Month.  Every month is craft month for me, but having an excuse to craft more is fine fine fine.  In honor of this month of awesome, I will try to make a little something every day.   Perhaps with the exception of Sundays.  On Sundays, I craft little dreams during my afternoon nap time.

A bit of crochet that may turn into something bigger:

And another bit of crochet:

What is it about crochet that makes one compulsively crochet things that aren’t quite useful?  I have no idea what to do with this pretty little square.  But I had to make it.  It’s about the size of a coaster but clearly cannot function as such.  I’ll work it into some project.  (Both of these designs are from 200 Crochet Blocks).

Saturday was another beautiful day.  A day when a mama can not only venture out… but venture out alone.  And I found that I don’t have to venture far to be satisfied.  Across the street, to be exact.  Across from our neighborhood is a kinda gross strip-mall.  Strip-malls are the bane of Tulsa life, but I digress.  I think I’ve been to this particular strip-mall 3 times now because it simply isn’t much of a destination point.  However, I was determined to do a bit of thrifting this weekend…

What better place to start than a shop calling itself Quality Thrift Store?  Though overpriced on the most arbitrary of items (ex: used pillowcase (just 1!) for $4), I made $16 go farther than I think I ever have before.   We’re talking .48 teacups and a grab-bag of crafting goodies for $4.  I was giddy for the rest of the day, perhaps from my great finds.  Or perhaps because I found treasure just across the street.

Thanks, Myrtle.  Wherever you are, you’re awesome.  And thanks lovely, though smelly, Quality Thrift Store.