dontcallmebecky

it's not Christmas unless there's a home improvement project in the works

I've got two weeks off of work for Christmas and New Year's. It's the perfect time to relax, watch Christmas movies, catch up on my reading list and enjoy time with family, right?

True to form, Jon and I got it in our heads that these two weeks would be the perfect time to work on a little home improvement project. We're tackling our basement and sprucing the place up and cleaning it out. Things are moving along and we should have everything finished by the end of next week. I'll have lots of before and after pictures to share then.

In the mean time, I have been working on this Simple Yet Effective Shawl by Cosmicpluto knits at night. I purchased this fingering weight yarn from Oiyi's new etsy shop, ATD Crafts, and it is so lovely to work with. I am trying very hard to resist the urge to invest in a spinning wheel and start a new hobby. I have a feeling that 2010 will be turning into the "use what I have year."

I also received a lovely package from my Holiday Traditions Exchange partner, Carrie. She made these cute little twig star ornaments and pine scented bags for me. I used them to decorate the little Christmas tree in my office. Now everything smells pine scented and Christmasy.

End of May Hat & Handspun Scarf

I finished up the End of May hat on Monday night. This project was so much fun and I'm officially addicted to stranded knitting. I've got lots of yarn left over, so I will be making the matching mittens to go along with the hat.

Here's the details:

Pattern: End of May Hat by Zig Zag Stitch

Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca

Needles: US4

Size: Large (next time I will do the smaller size and use size 3 needles)

Notes: I guess I had some gauge issues with this hat, because it turned out a tad too big for my head (width and lengthwise). I remedied the situation by tossing it in the dryer for 10 minutes. The hat fits much better now and doesn't cover my eyes when I pull it down all the way.

Rav link: craftr's End of May

I've been trolling Ravelry for fun colorwork patterns now that I can officially add colorwork as one of my knitting skills. I discovered SpillyJane Knits through a Ravelry ad last year and now I'm ready to take the plunge to make up some of her cute mitten patterns. My favorites are the Swedish Fish Mittens and the Carrots and Beets Mittens.

Before I stock up on fingering weight yarn and tiny needles, I plan to make the Chevron Love Mittens with this Farmer's Market Kit that I bought last winter. It hurts me a little to wind up these cute little hanks of yarn into balls, but I've got to bite the bullet, right?

I also finished this scarf made out of the handspun that I bought last Saturday. I based it loosely on the Noro Striped Scarf pattern.

Here's the Details:

Yarn: Handspun by hands + notions (130 yards of wool locks, silk and alpaca)

 Takhi Sedona in off white (2 skeins held doubled)

Needles: Size 10.5

Pattern: Cast on 17 stitches. K1p1 alternating between 2 rows of natural yarn and 2 rows of handspun yarn, slipping the first stitch of each row.

Size: 5 inches by 84 inches

Notes: The Sedona yarn was really great to work with. It's a nubby thick worsted and really soft. I'd definitely use it again. Now, I think I'm a little hooked on handspun yarn. I will be desperately trying to keep myself from picking up another hobby. Wish me luck!

Rav link: craftr's Handspun Scarf

• • •

We had a very productive day at our house! We cleaned it from top to bottom (including the fridge!) and we put up all of our Christmas decorations.

Bring on the hot chocolate and Christmas tunes on repeat for the next month!

Weekend Project: New floor

After living with a carpeted office for two years, Jon finally ripped it out and we converted it to IKEA laminate flooring. This new floor is much better suited to life with two kitties with minds of their own!

The whole process was fairly painless. We managed to get the floor all laid out within two hours.

Then we had to make an emergency trip to Lowe's for some new quarter round molding because of gaps next to the wall.

Jon finished up the project yesterday afternoon and now we're waiting for the custom door to be built before we can call this room finished!

while I was away

in no particular order...

• I watched Jon learn lots of new knitting skills. So far he's finished his first scarf and is working on a set of handwarmers, Dashing.

• I worked on my NaKniSweMo.

Here's the progress on November 30,

and here's the progress today. I'm hoping to finish the sweater up by Saturday.

• I successfully cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jon's family (turkey and all) and sewed these napkins for the table.

• I found the perfect stuffing recipe for said Thanksgiving dinner: Sourdough stuffing

• I finished up the semester (well, about 98% finished)

• I watched and was inspired by Craft in America

• I saw an incredibly inspiring, deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, perform with the DSO.

Now, I've got a month of free time and a long list of projects to do and books to read. Hopefully I won't be taking long breaks again any time soon!

painting: before & after

I spent the past two evenings painting and fixing up our guest bedroom. I'm getting the room ready for the new quilt that I'll be making from the blocks from the virtual quilting bee, Common Threads, that I'm participating in.

Ever since we first painted this room, I've never really been happy with the color. I've been plotting a color change for quite a while and finally painted the room last night. The old color was Buxton Blue and the new is Sierra Hills (both from Benjamin Moore).

Here's the after picture with our temporary duvet. We normally use this in our bedroom for the winter, so this will work in the guest room for now.

I pulled together a few of our favorite photos from our Japan trip and made a photo collage above the bed. I'm glad to have some pictures hanging up in our house that remind us of our trip!

Next up, I've got to make curtains for the window, a runner for the dresser, and, of course, the new quilt for the bed.

Merry Christmas!

It wouldn't be Christmas around here without Peanut Butter Bon Bons.

Here's the recipe for this festive little treat we make every year:

1 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Butter
2 cups Confectioner's Sugar
4 cups Rice Krispies
12oz package of Chocolate chips or bits

Melt butter and add peanut butter. Stir until melted on low heat. In a large bowl mix Rice Krispies and confectioner's sugar. Pour in peanut butter mixture and mix with hands. Form into 1 inch balls and place on waxed paper. Refrigerate until firm. Melt chocolate bits in double boiler or microwave. Dip half the cookie in melted chocolate. Place back on waxed paper and refrigerate until chocolate hardens. After dipping in chocolate, they can be dipped into colorful sprinkles, chopped nuts, etc.

first big snow

Other than shoveling our driveway and sidewalks, we enjoyed our first big winter storm inside today. Catching up on some Battlestar Galactica episodes (Jon is very proud of getting me hooked on a sci fi show), making Thai Chicken Pizza, knitting and embroidering. A wonderfully lazy Sunday!

our wood pile for next summer's bonfires

back to reality...

Jon and I have been mia lately, partly because of our mission to re-read the first six Harry Potter books before the final book comes out on July 21, and partly due to this lovely little kitty. Thanks to the wonder-drug/cat pheromone, Feliway, and lots of cleaning, we now have a calm cat and our sanity back. Thank goodness for science!

Because we were so obsessed with taking care of the cat and cleaning our house, we both kind of neglected our garden. I went outside to look at it this afternoon and was amazed at how big everything (both plants and weeds) had grown. We really are going to be able to eat lots of veggies later this summer...I can't wait!

And, our flowers are filling in nicely this summer. Some coleus (my favorite):

and big, beautiful hydrangea blooms:

And finally, this afternoon we got our first Thursday edition of the Oakland Press. A few weeks ago I was coerced into buying a 15-week subscription from an amazing adolescent salesman who only needed TWO MORE subscriptions before he won some fabulous prize. I caved under his amazing sales capabilities. He is going to make one excellent car salesmen in the future. This comes as a big disappointment to me because my Persuasion and Propaganda class in college was one of my favorites. I guess I need a refresher course!

Jon, on the other hand, has this amazing ability to avoid any and all forms of door to door salespeople. In less than five seconds, he is able to turn off lights, close blinds and yell our our secret “child-salesperson approaching” codeword to warn me of the impending guilt. Next time I think I'll follow his lead and run and hide when I hear the doorbell ring!

it's a pic-a-nic table!

My dad helped Jon build our picnic table over Memorial Day weekend. He's built our family a couple of picnic tables over the years...so he's quite the pro when he's armed with a protractor! The picnic table is pretty big...eight feet long and seats 10 people comfortably - 12 squished.

We tested the table out with a Memorial Day picnic and then retired it to the garage for a stain/waterproof treatment. We finally pulled it out this afternoon after it had safely dried and avoided the rain of this past week.

I purchased oilcloth by the yard for the table cloth...a trick I learned from my mom, as 9 ft table cloths are not the norm at most home stores these days.

We powerwashed the large bricks on our patio a few weeks ago and discovered that they weren't a simple white brick, but instead were pastel blue, yellow and pink...lovely!

Now our patio is complete with a new table, two IKEA folding benches and a copper fire pit. Now we're ready for lots of summer barbeques!

the big transplant!

Well, we finished up replanting our front yard this afternoon...digging up sod, digging out ugly plants and chopping down overgrown plants. After quite a few hours of digging yesterday and a long haul from my parents' house to ours, we got ourselves a really big japanese maple tree for free! Jon has been dying for one of these trees ever since our trip to Japan and we were so lucky that this tree outgrew my parents' yard and had to be moved to ours.

the old resting place

loading the truck

wrapping the tree for transport. Unfortunately, most of this fell off during our one hour ride. Luckily the tree still looks in good shape today!

the new resting spot (with the soon to be removed yew)

And remember the before (with morning sun)?

Here's the after (with afternoon sun)...

It should be bright and colorful once everything blooms and fills in!

It feels great to cross some more tasks off our list...we're almost done with our May push.