Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Crafty Update

I've been busy lately with the move, etc, and am falling behind on my blogging. Here's a quick summary of the crafty things I've been up to:

I made noticeable changes to my painting last night (after virtually unnoticeable changes last week):
Painting WIP
Since it's been a while since I've showed you this, I'll forgive you if you can't figure out what the noticeable changes are. ;)

I have two oven mitts ready for fulling/felting:
Oven Mitts, Pre-Felting
I haven't felted them yet in the hopes I'll actually work on the purse pattern for Deneen. ;)

I did, however, crochet, full/felt, and decorate a pair of slippers for H:
Crochet Boot Slippers Crochet Boot Slippers
I like the beads I sewed in the flower centers. :)

My blanket has a few more squares... I need to take another photo of that one of these days.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Found on Flickr


baby's first dna model

I love this. I wonder how crazy my friends would think me if I made this for their kids?

Update: pattern here!

Found on Flickr


Tortoise with Leaf

Adorable!

Found on Flickr


nestingdolls8

Adorable! Cute little nesting Matroyshka finger puppets. :) I should send the link to my aunt.

Found on Flickr


California snowman

Hee hee hee hee hee!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Meeting my Neighbours

I just met the lady across the hall from me. She warned me that the lady one floor down is an alcoholic, asks for money, and doesn't pay it back. Whee. The lady across the hall has a one bedroom apartment and two kids (ages two and four). I have a two bedroom apartment for just me. (My landlord asked her if she wanted to move, but she didn't.)

I'll have mine without, please

Ugh! I just discovered bugs in the box of chocolate my dad gave me. :( One squished bug (away from the actual chocolate), two pupae (one empty, the other I don't know), and some webbing on two of the chocolates. *shudder* I've already eaten some!!!

I prefer my chocolate without the obvious extra protein, please.

(It was really nice of him to give them to me... it was definitely the store or manufacturer's fault, since he had brought them directly from there to here.)

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Stuff

The heat is on... the furnace at my mom's was fixed early this afternoon. Finally! (I'm not fully moved out yet... I'm still eating and sleeping at home.)

Swatchy helped me line a kitchen drawer. (Click for photos of my kitchen.)

I was told that setting out jars of vinegar will dispel paint fumes, so I have three shallow dishes with vinegar in them now.

The new apartment got phone and internet service yesterday. I took over my answering machine, but I didn't bring a power bar. There's only one outlet near the cable box that provides phone service, so that limits me to to items: the cable box itself, and the phone. The way the living room is set up, I'll be wanting to plug in:
• phone cable box
• phone
• answering machine
• TV
• VCR/DVD player
• shelf stereo system
... I count six items. (So far.) Yes, there are other outlets in the living room, but only one other one has something plugged into it: the lamp is plugged into the only outlet controlled by the light switch. (That outlet and light switch happen to be located one above the other, making the switch somewhat redundant. I moved the lamp as far as I could given the length of the cord, though. Of the other two outlets, one is where I don't want to plug anything in, and the other is right by the lamp which needs the switch-controlled outlet. Silly. Oh well, they're all on the same fuse anyway, so I guess it doesn't really make any difference where things are plugged in.

I rearranged more stuff in the living room, so it's starting to look pretty good. I still need to wipe down two sections of the wall unit, put the drawers and shelves back in, and set up the VCR/DVD player. Plus I need to replace the "phone box" with one of my nesting tables. ;)

Speaking of phone tables, that reminds me of the nook in my foyer. It's a phone nook, but it really looks like a Jesus nook. In fact, both I and my brother took it for one. Mom realized that it was a phone nook because that's where the original phone jack is located. It probably helps that she was around for the period of time where the only phone in a house was located in the main hallway. ;) I had quite an entertaining conversation with my phone/internet serviceman due to the "Jesus nook". ;) (His parents were also Catholic, and wanted him to go to midnight mass at Christmas now that he's back in the city.)

You can see the Jesus nook and accompanying phone jack in this photo:
Apartment Hallway
(Note that there's no electrical outlet there... so you can't use a cordless phone there. Note also the wire running down from the jack... that wire goes around baseboards and doors to the only other jack in the apartment, located in the living room... right by the outlet controlled by the light switch. Doh! If they were going to add a second phone jack, they could at least put it by a power outlet that wouldn't be off most of the time!)

I have a story to tell about one of my windows, but that will have to wait for another time. It's late, and I want to get to bed earlier tonight! (I've been having trouble staying awake the past two mornings.)

Winter Wonderland

The trees were all frosty and beautiful again this morning. :)
Frosty Trees Frosty Trees

Oven Mitts

I decided to use up a bunch of my scrap Patons Classic Merino to make new oven mitts for my new apartment. (I can't remember if my oven mitts came back with me... but if they did, they weren't very thick, so felted ones will be much nicer.)

Here's the start of the first one, with a pile of my scraps:
Oven Mitts WIP
I've almost finished the first one:
Oven Mitts WIP
It looks like I should have plenty of wool to make a pair... a very unmached pair, though. ;)

They should be nice and thick after they're felted. I'm using measurements from a potholder I felted previously, so hopefully I'll get the dimensions right. (Hmmm... do I wait to make the second until after I felted the first, just in case? Probably not.)