J's First Sweater

This is J's very first sweater, hand crocheted by his Yia Yia.
(Yia Yia Greek for grandmother, no we're not Greek, I'll share the story another time).

Isn't he cute as a bug? I never get tired of taking photos of this baby.
His face is so expressive.

It's an easy pattern with post stitches to add texture.
All it needs now are a few buttons.

Sorry I've lost the link to the pattern but when I find it I'll share.

Shelf Edgings

I finally got around to putting up some of the edgings I crocheted months ago. I bought the little cloisonné' cricket at Pottery Barn for .99 cents. He was being sold as a Christmas tree ornament and was originally $10. I wanted him very badly but couldn't bring myself to pay that price. So I left the store and forgot all about him. Then one Sunday in Feb. G and I were in the mall and I wanted to look around in Pottery. There was my little cricket for 90% off. I bought 5. In the language of totems crickets represent travel.














The edgings are in my office. This is what my office looks like most of the time because I always have more than one project going; that's why it takes me so long to complete one.















I put the edgings up with light duty staple gun similar to this one. I was careful not to damage the crochet work and the nice thing is you can't even see the staples. I still have one more piece to crochet and then I'll be through with these two shelves. I have two more edgings in cream that I crocheted for the Welsh Dresser in the dining room but I'm not putting them up with staples because it's an antique and I don't want to damage it. So I've decided to buy a nice piece of linen to line the shelves and sew the edgings on to it the old fashion way. The linen will brighten up the shelves and I can display my edgings without damaging the shelves.














The tea cups in the photo above are some I bought to make into pincushions or candles to sell at the farmers market during the Christmas season. The jars in this photo are some of my collection. I like old jars for storing/displaying the bits and pieces I use to sew or craft with. They all come from thrift stores and it's my personal rule to never pay more than $2 for one. At first I bought any glass jar with a lid I could find but then I realized they were very plentiful so I started buying only those that have patterns in the glass like the one on the right.


I tried really hard to format this better but blogger would not cooperate.

Sorry I forgot to add this earlier; You can visit kootoyoo to find other creative spaces. Looks as though Kristy is about to get an awesome "Creative Space" all her own.

My Creative Space

So I shared the redo of my creative space so I thought I would share some of the things that have been going on in my space. Actually they've been going on in the livingroom and out on the deck but you get the idea.

These are some crochet projects I've been working on.

This is a tablecloth I've been working on for over 3 years now. It's made of motifs about 4 inches wide. I have about a third finished, I would have been completely finished byt I get distracted by other projects.

This is one of the projects that distracted me. This afghan is a Christmas present for a relative, not saying who but if you're kin to me and you already have one of my afghans then it's not for you ;o) It’s done in worsted weight yarn.

This is a piece of lace pillowcase edging I've been working on, I plan to use it along the edge of one of the shelves in my sewing room. As you can see I haven't worked in the tails yet. The shelf is long enough that I will actually need two to go all the way across. I started to do one long piece but changed my mind, I figure if I do it in two pieces I can always use it on pillowcases if I get tired of it as shelf edging. The edging is made of #10 cotton thread.

This is a piece I did awhile back. I really like the way it turned out. It’s crocheted of DMC embroidery thread because that’s the only way I could find all the colors I was looking for. I’m thinking of doing another in #30 (much finer than #10) all white or white accented with a second color and then frame it.

And this is a highchair I picked up at Salvation Army for $15. Jenny Lind was very fashionable when my kids were babies and I wanted one so bad but they didn't come cheap. But now I have one for the grandkids :o) As you can see it was in bad shape. It had to be taken apart and completely re-glued. I sanded it down and put one coat of primer on it. It needs another sanding and another coat of primer, then I'm going to put two coats of a creamy white oil based gloss on it. I think I'm going to accent the spindles with red or possibly a combo of red, baby blue and yellow.

To see what's happening in other creative spaces go visit kootoyoo.

My Creative Space Thus Far

These are some before and after pictures. I really like the way it's turning out. I have to confess that this is a cleaned up version and there is lots more stuff that needs to be brought in here but I'm doing it slowly and getting rid of loads.

I feel so much more inspired by this space now.

My desk before

A closer view

After. I'm going to need to add back some shelving for stuff but I am so glad to be rid of the hutch, it created more storage problems than it solved. And most of the stuff on it is going away.... far, far away.

Sewing and scrapbook area before.

This is oppisite corner from my desk, this is where I plan to my sewing and paper crafts such as scrapbooking. It's so nice to have counter tops at waist level to work on, this way I can stand if I need to. Those lovely white cabinets are wonderful storage and hide a multitude of ugly. To the far right is my sewing machine.

I also have some ideas for window treatments and I plan to frame some of my photos for the walls.

Now I'm off to work on some crochet trim for the shelves in the photo above.

Check out more creative spaces here.

Sewing Room Mess cont.

The redecorating drags on. It’s my fault. I have the hardest time picking paint colors. Based on the counter top I chose I decided to paint the room beige, but once G got a coat of it on the wall I started to second guess myself. It looked so flesh like and I just couldn’t imagine working daily inside a second skin. So I decided to go blue, off I went back to the home improvement store and picked up some more paint chips but nothing I brought home worked. So another trip to the home improvement store, this time I picked up a chip matching the counter tops and went through all the paint samples available. I found out that although the counter top looks baby blue it is in fact a very peculiar shade of teal. I finally found two paint colors that would blend. I bought a quart of each and came home with the intention of putting a big swatch of both on the walls to see which I like best. I figured most likely I would use the darker of the two as an accent wall and then paint the other three walls the lighter blue (this is becoming my signature painting style) But then when I got a second look at the beige paint I realized it had begun to cure into a very nice color after all.

Then I scored this Johnson Brothers Old Mill Pitcher at the thrift store for $3 (they’re no longer in production and currently go for about $10+ on ebay) it has the faintest hint of blue in it.



And then I saw the cover photo of current issue of Creative Home (sorry I can’t find a link but it’s on the news stand) as well as some pictures on this blog (isn't her home lovely). I began to realize that I might be able to work with this beige room after all. By using light blue as an accent color I think it’ll turn out better than I imagined. I also have some other brown transfer ware that I think will work well in here.

I apologize that I don’t have more pictures to share with you, everything is still spewed around the house and my camera isn’t hooked up for down loading just now but I am taking photos and I will share them soon as I can.

My Creative Space

Remember this? Well that and much, much more is currently spewed all over my house. Why? Because G and I paid off a bunch of debt and decided to treat ourselves to something we've been wanting. G bought himself one of these, I don't have a clue which one, they all look the same to me. But I do like going to the pistol range with him and helping him shoot up the bullets he reloads with it :o)


I decided I wanted 3 of these (in couple different styles),


some of this (the color is called Imperial Sand, I call it warm beige) and about 20 feet of this for counter tops. If I had seen this 5 years ago when we reworked the kitchen I would have used it in there but I love the way the kitchen turned out so no regrets. By the way the color of the counter tops is a bit richer than this chip looks.

The counter tops were special order and they are currently waiting to be picked up. I'm trying to get the room painted but thanks to a flare of arthritis it's a slow go. But I'm getting there. I would share the pictures with you but my camera's being tempormental just now. But I will be back later to share the end result.

The hope is the once I get this all put back together I'll actually be able to produce some sewing, scrapbooking and maybe even some orginal art. That's the plan, we shall see.

You can look at other creative spaces over on this blog. And for your veiwing enjoyment here is one of the most beautiful creative spaces I've seen. I love the color pallete.