Snow Makes Me Want to Crochet

Over the last 4 days the PNW got about 6-9 inches of snow and  1-3 inches of ice, all depending on where you live, of course. I love the snow, however, I HATE ice. I have been seriously injured in the ice. Therefore, I choose not to leave the house when there is even a threat of ice. For two days I didn't leave the house and instead choose to be crafty.

Kuma, my precious one, loves the snow. She, like her non-furry mom, also hates ice. This is her on the second day of beautiful fluffiness. All she wants to do is play. She did not understand the picture taking. She just wanted me to find her bone for her that was buried in the snow and play with her. 

Snow doesn't really make me want to play anymore, maybe I am too old or jaded, instead it makes me want to pull out beautiful bright colors and be super crafty.

When the freezing rain started, I settled on the couch to make something pretty. Kuma followed suit, napping under my feet.

 I ve got a large bag of clothing donations next to the door and tub of yarn next to the couch, so the rug seemed natural. I have recently drooled over handmade t-shirt crochet rugs I have seen on Pintrest. I cut up a few t-shirts from the donations bag into long strips. Then started sorting through the HUGE stash of bamboo yarn I have hoarded for years. Most had been used for an awesome crochet granny square blanket. I have long since decided I don't want to make another crochet blanket and need to use up the left over yarn somehow.  So the crocheting began. I love the mindlessness of crocheting, especially the single stitch. I watched a movie and a few hours of Olympics and determined that the scrappy looking rug is exactly what my colorless dining room needed.

Obviously, Kuma thought otherwise.

I worked on this rug all morning and left it on the floor while I made lunch. I came back and Queen Kuma had claimed it as hers. Out of all the space in my huge house to lay on, she picked this rug, seemed very very intentional. I might have to give into that sweet face. The rug still has a long long way to go, but I love love it!

Peace Crochet Wreath

I made this quick wreath from a wire coat hanger, floral wire and left over yarn.

I currently live in a home with huge front bay window. The door is on the side of the house so I wanted a re-useable wreath I could hang in the front window. This is what created. I think the peace part is a bit thin. I intend on adding another color of green, but this is all I got done to it for this holiday season.

Wrapping up All the Elf Duties

I made these hearts from a T-Shirt of my husband's grandfather. He passed over a year ago, and I felt like I could finally bring myself to cut it up and it would be appreciated.

Here are the super cute snowmen  I made. I love the faces, I am so glad I found the carrot noses.

Everyone on my gift list will be getting some form of these super cute fabric baskets. I am not entirely sure what folks will use them for, I guess I envision bread or crackers or wrapped candy.

Here are my awesome cards, I love how they turned out. I enjoy writing cards, especially to the family I don't talk to normally. I also take so much pride in the process of coming up with an idea and then the creativity that comes after that. In this case I was able to carve stamps and get my hands dirty mixing inks which is always a blast for me!

I also whipped up a few more of these super duper cute and re-usable gift bags. I know you can re-use the paper ones but, I intend on using these for many years!

So for this year my elf duties are all wrapped up. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Prep Work Makes All the Difference

These are the two chairs we picked up on our recycling adventure at bring the other day. I chose the red color because it was what was in the garage from when the house and deck (pictured) we painted back in September. The rusty red is a super thick tough paint that will work well in my living room. I already have some rusty red upholstered club chairs, I think these will coordinate well once finished. I chose this color over the two carolina blue's and I am very pleased with my choice.

I started prepping these chairs yesterday with a really good sanding. I used three grades of grit. I highly recommend this especially if you are painting over old paint or stain. I have no idea what lied beneath the poorly painted tan. I quickly discovered it was only one layer of paint on top of bare wood. The tan paint came off really well in some areas and in others it was more stubborn. I wasn't really trying to strip or totally remove the paint but, I wanted to start with at smooth surface. One coat of red paint clearly wasn't going to cut it. I was hoping to get away with two coats.

I am not terribly satisfied with the coverage of two coats. I have decided to do a third coat tomorrow baring any crazy weather. It is very nice to have a covered deck area to paint on. Even though it gets wet when it rains. I do feel they are protected from the elements in order to dry. 

I have thought of adding some gold embellishments like gold stripes or gold tipped legs.

Today, I also finished up this little guy. I started them awhile back and debated over the type of nose and hat to use to make the snowman look finished. I determined buttons down the body as well for eyes would be lovely. I couldn't see a embroidered nose or mouth on these guys. I flipped out in the button isle in Jo-Ann's when I found the carrot buttons, clearly these are made for projects just like these. I have decided to make four of these guys and give them to my family for gifts.  I adore these cuties.

Recycling Awesomeness

Part of my job at the bakery is donating bread to those in need on a regular basis. One of our recipients is this awesome recycling center called Bring. They employ very few and use volunteers and court appointed work release to get it all done.  A few weeks ago they sent a stack of coupons to our staff, which is was a great reason to come out and check see what they offer.

I was so in awe of how it is all set up, and very well organized. There are a few very large metal roofed areas to protect items from the rain, but majority of the space is open to the elements. They used some great times to keep it all sorted, like this train car. The majority of what they offer is home building materials, tools, large cabinets, metal, tiles.  The fans along the roof line collect rain water.

This is a fabulous place for artist too. There are so many materials I can see to use when creating an artful garden, unique home spaces, a lot of decorative items as well. I really appreciate the creative  use of recycled materials in the yards I see in Eugene and around Cascadia.   You will see metal pipes for planting. Many raised gardens are made from scrap wood and mini greenhouses are made from used windows. Often you will find metal piping rain collection and irrigation. Yard art is abound here, most are created using recycled materials. These yards are so different from what I saw in the manicured lawns of the Raleigh and around the South.

Along the garden side there was this awesome structure that was created by an Architecture class from U of O using only materials from Bring. The back wall was a beautiful welded fence and masonry. I love the lines in the concrete pad. They were giving a tour when I was there, and it seems that in the summer months they host a few events in this space.

Part of this chain link fence was filled in with PVC plumbing and bike spokes. They also carry new rain barrels, natural paints, and some plants in the summer. We bought some awesome oak chairs that had been poorly painted.
Most of the items for sale were donated. I wish I had discovered this spot sooner. I will be back. Trash is beautiful to me!

Map Art

I love maps and photos. I wanted to make something to remember our epic road trip we took this summer. I had this huge frame from my Dad's that I carted all the way across the country. Why? because I hate to give usable stuff away and I wanted to junk up my house in OR real good. I still get mad about stuff I left behind or sold.
  I am an AAA member and before our cross country trip I went to their travel store and requested maps. I got 8 (for free) basically what my year's membership cost, valued in maps.
Once we got here from NC, the maps and frame sat in the same corner. I had seen some awesome map crafts on Pintrest. I decided to go for it. I cut them up. I felt slightly bad, because I love to look at maps so much. I figured a) we wont be driving through Tennessee and Texas again in the near future and b) I will be a life long AAA member and can acquire more maps if needed and finally c) map technology exist that surpasses paper :(
For the quick prep work: I used a heart template I made out of an index card. I laid it down between the existing blue mat from the original frame and then on some photos to be sure of the size that I desired. Finally, I determined how many photos I could fit.
Now the fun starts: I went hunting for my favorite photos from our cross country trip. This was the hardest part because I took sooo many amazing shots like this one:

UTAH

or these:

IDAHO                       OREGON

I had a very hard time choosing when it is scenery like this.

 I pulled some of my favorite images off the computer that had been taken by iphone and SLR to be printed. I took my thumb drive down to walmart and had them printed cheaply. The quality if the prints certainly had a lot to with which camera I had used.
I spread the photos out on the table and started hunting for those locations on the maps and when found I centered them in the heart and traced them and cut them out.
We found an awesome quote online, " Distance is a Test to see how Far Love can Travel" by simply doing a Google search for: "Travel Love Quotes" It was hard to pick there were so many. One gripe is that, I don't know who to site.
I set my hearts on the craft/brown paper and decided on a layout, then used double sided tape to stick them to the craft paper. I traced the quote in pencil and checked it from a distance and finally went over in sharpie marker. The blue mat was already in the frame. So, for the cost of $2.00 to print the images, I got a huge piece of personal art, that reminds us daily of this amazing country and the freedoms we are blessed with, to travel as we wish.

 I know this is a bad image, I did take it.  It is hard to take pictures of glass. I didn't think of taking a picture until after I had already closed it all up.

Chairs

The in-laws are coming from Texas to Oregon to our tiny apartment for Thanksgiving. We had two kitchen table chairs, with dirty white seat covers. There will be 7 of us for dinner. See the problem.

We went hunting and found these cheap folding chairs at vintage/ second hand store in Springfield. We have found a few other goodies there that we love as well. These were rather hideous, but at $5 a piece I couldn't say no.

After three trips to the hardware store,cussing and whining; due to a broken staple gun, the task was completed. We recovered 5 chairs for Thanksgiving.

Our guest should be proud our work, especially Hubby's handy work. These tasks are usually my domain. He wanted to help. :-) He is a great cleaner and helps in the kitchen. I never imagined he would like this task. After completing "his" chair, he asked what else he could reupholster.

Too cute, he and the awesome new chairs.
The folding chairs were rather ugly all baby blue. I think it makes them look modern and cohesive by having them all covered in the same fabric. The fabric is a Jo-ann's flannel that I got 75% price at a store closure, that I hoarded. Iam so proud, so is he, and now everyone can sit and eat, which is important.