Jammy Jars

I love red & white string and

I love the red gingham jar lids of Bonne Maman jam. 

I drilled a hole in the top of the lid and waa-laa I have a string dispenser.

Be careful drilling the hole because the drill can skip over the smooth surface.

I ended up with an off-center hole and had to even it up with tin snips. (not very easy or smooth)

I colored around the hole with a silver marker to cover-up the scratching I ended up with.

I made a second string dispenser for my sister

 which because of my practice with the first one was much easier and not as messy. :-)

Cottage Bed

I wish I could transport this room back home.

This is from our cottage by the lake in Michigan.

The light in the morning is soft like the slight lapping of water on the dock outside 

and in the afternoon the sun slants in to warmly wake you from a nap.

The bedcover is an old pink calico that has a wool blanket in the inner-lining that has been yarn-tied.

Just scrumptious!

Lovely Hutch and Stuff

I finally got my hutch painted and filled with many lovelies.

Dibs and dabs 

It was a lot of fun to get my fabric all out of storage boxes.

It seemed to take me a long time to get this room back together again.

A rainbow of colors.

I Heart My Fence

Ta Da!

My new fence!!!

This is how it began two weeks ago.

Then we progressed to the pickets and the painting of each and every one.

And now, it needs seeds and plants. :-)

The Bleeding Heart plant is a gift from my sister.

She divided hers, so now I'll have one growing here next to the fence in the sun.

Tulips and Painting

I bought these tulips from a garden store when I just couldn't wait for spring, mumbling my mantra about Spring COMING. Well, spring has sprung, we have had a full bloom of crocus, forsythia, daffodils, and now tulips. I have been painting a ton in the last weeks. It started with painting of two big shelf/cupboard combos for my fabric and other stuff--not quite done. Then outside we have painted a few items. One was an old broken down garage shelf thing that was trash=picked. We scraped it down, added an upper shelf, painted it and voila, a garden bench.

Ribbons......

Organizing my ribbons......

I have tried different methods in the past. Most of the time they have been thrown into a clear plastic bin--quite messy and hard to sort through.

Once, I tried to mount the ribbon spools on metal rods attached to the wall. That won't work where I am now because I don't have the wall space.

This time around I am trying plastic bags organized by theme in a plastic bin. I took the time to remove all the cardboard spools and wrapped the ribbon with a clear rubberband or a strip of paper (taped closed).

I was unhappy to find that some ribbon had been slightly damaged by sticky tape holding it to the spool so I'm glad I got rid of the spools.

I thought about splitting the ribbon up in bags by color but I tried to think of how I look for ribbon for a project and decided that I usually look for a specific theme first.

Themes:

Floral,

 Geometric,

 Velvet,

 Lace,

 Grosgrain,

 Satin,

 Gingham,

 Dots,

 Stripes,

 Utility (such as bias tape),

 and Novelty

Ric Rac is in a jar all by itself

What ribbons do you hoard?? :-)

Spring Clean-up

Masses of fabric waiting for a home.

Here is part of cupboard that I'm painting up to keep the fabric in.

Cheery Checks

Slowly making some gingham curtains for the front bedroom. I am stitching on some white cross-stitches in a little pattern near the bottom.  

Fun Yet?

Sorry, I haven't posted much lately. We are busy, busy, busy.
Openings in roofs don't do well in rain storms--duh! Right? Well we had some water come in during the storms that roared through Ohio and on to New York. J was up on the roof pulling on more plastic in the middle of the first storm. No tornados right here though, thankfully. :-)
Tomorrow, I hope to get a photo up of the latest finished knitting.

Coincidence?

We are in the midst of fixing some things on our house this summer. Can you see here in this photo taken of an area where some of the siding was removed. These two painted letters, J & S represent my husband's and my own first initials. Isn't that just too funny! I don't know when these were put there. We just bought the house in January and we have felt so at home, right from the start. So it must be some kind of "fate" or something. :-) I don't know, but it is fun! 

The sun is not shining......

The sun is not shining (but for a moment this morning when I took a picture of my new favorite spot), and the rain will start raining so I think I'll stay inside on this cold, grayish, damp day. Where are Thing One and Thing Two or a Cat in a Hat???

Snowball Fringe

It's a little early for snow :-) but I adore this balled fringe. The yellow polka-dotted fabric is so sunny and cheerful in our bathroom. I have wanted to use this fringe for so long now but the houses we have lived in didn't seem to want this cottage look. Finally, I can indulge.

Tranquility

I am working on tranquility and calm in the midst of all the hospital flurry and tension. Dad having some trouble recovering right now......

Rock Art Heart

This is a heart image that Em spotted on our hike a weekend ago in the Hocking Hills. It is made from natural water and mineral deposits in and on the rock face. Humans have made scratches near it and I turned the photo upside-down.

I wanted to post it today as my thoughts are on my Dad who is having heart surgery today.

Back to the Hills

We made our big move. So much has been going on I haven't a clue how to summarize it. I was last on here moaning about cleaning and arranging the house for placing it up for sale. Well, of all the luck we put it up for sale on a Thursday and Saturday was a first showing. That did it--the first people who saw it fell in love with it and made an offer that we accepted.

So much for my complaining and worrying. But wait, I wasn't done worrying, oh no...that had just begun. I worried the roof would rip off in one of the many storms that seemed unending and I slept very little thinking about what could go wrong before closing. What a mess I was!!!

A few things did manage to go wrong--a roof repair and an icemaker that got all blocked up but in the grand scheme of things I should have slept more. Sheesh!! That is my 8 year old's favorite expression right now--how suitable.

We are now ensconsed in a pretty little ranch--in need of paint and loving care. We have rented for now until we can find a place to buy. The pictures above are a slice of heaven that is within an hours drive. I love the woods and we missed them so.

Now, if we could only have convinced our good neighbors and friends to have moved with us. We miss them.

I don't know how often I will be back on here but I will try to update on how the fixing up goes. Don't you just love the wooden floors.

On the Faux

Painting in the kitchen is done--whoops--except for the kneehole of the desk--dang if we didn't forget that. Meg added our faux cherry blossoms here in the picture--we don't have any spring blossoms for real yet--forsythia is barely beginning to open around here. All these fake flowers have snuck their way into our house it seems--a few here and there and now we have five rooms graced with them. I'm sure I will keep them until they look all tatty and dusty because they sure are pretty.

:-)

Speaking of faux--let's be real here--my kitchen never looks this good--pots always drying on counters, piles of papers, etc.--but right now we are living the faux life. We will be listing our house for sale soon and so we have started to live this crazy life of having everything in its place as if company--like the queen were dropping by any moment. Of course, I still have more personal stuff to pack up--you can see examples in the above picture, like the ceramic plaque in the shape of a bear that Em made in art. I feel so resistive sometimes to putting it all away--makes me sad.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

No time for foolin' around

Just a Pretty Face

As you can see I have gotten a little further on the babushkas. On the first babushka doll back in January, I put round cheeks of pink felt and this time I've opted for a small amount of blush rubbed into the fabric. Does this stay on very long--does anyone know?
We've been busy, busy, busy around here, trying to box some stuff up in preparation for a move we have been planning. I might not be on here to update--not that I am that good at posting regularly anyway, but I will try and keep things going on here.
We have a lovely break from school this coming week. I am trying to come up with small, fun things to do with Em--she is not very excited about packing up boxes--go figure. A while back she asked where we were going for spring break and the light just dimmed in her eyes when she heard we were going to have fun packing up boxes. I don't blame her one iota--doesn't sound all that fun to me either. :-)
Take Care!

Seeing Red.....and Brown

Loving all the red and brown surrounding me. I made some pretzel button cookies on Monday after reviewing all the Crafty Crow posts that I have missed recently and finding lots of valentine projects, including the pretzel buttons. Check out the recipe here.

Following the button theme, I finished the felt heart covered in white pearly buttons (middle row) that I had started last year.

What colors are all around you right now?

Eve

Christmas Eve day--it came so fast. I have been so busy getting presents made for the girls this year that the days just flew by. We decided to try and do handmade presents for each other this year and mostly it has been fun. The only downside is that it took away time actually spent with each other as we bustled to finish up. And, our dog is acting up.....it has been so cold here that he doesn't want to go outside so he ends up being outside to do his business for a few brief seconds and coming back inside only to poop on the carpet. Arrgh! He is usually pretty dependable but he's driving us nuts. Last night it had warmed up enough outside that he took off after a rabbit and we had to go find him in the snow. Goodness gracious!

Do you see the Brownie face resting on our tree? I made him a few years ago out of felt.

I hung crocheted snowflakes under the mantle. The very center one my mom crocheted and the other four a friend made for a gift exchange. The nutcracker at the center bottom of the picture is a thrift shop find--two years ago. You can see on the tree, we like to have the large old-fashioned bulbs, same as last year, same next year. :-)

Now, to tidy up, wrap gifts and enjoy a snuggly evening.

Take care!