Our House

Never one to say no to list writing, I typed up a few items I would like to do/improve on this year. One of them is to slow down a bit as I often feel I spend my days running in circles without stopping to take a breath. I am certain that to some degree this is as it must be as one raises and home educates four little beings. However, I think there is also certainly room for a bit more time with my feet up and knitting in hand. 

My New Year's list also included making more decorations for our home. You see, every time I turn around a boy of mine needs a new article of clothing. I have noticed though, that I rarely make anything "artful." The things that would be pretty to look at around our home always get pushed to the bottom of the list to make room for the more pressing clothing needs that always seem to arise. The result is that I've done little to improve the decorative appearance of our crappity-crap apartment. Long-story short (except that I already made it pretty long), this year I want to thrift more clothes and create more decorations.

I also made another January list...one that my checklist driven self adores: a list of crafts I want to make this year. Sounds sane enough until one considers that I also scheduled myself to make certain projects in certain months. I suppose that doesn't sound too batty, except that I am sitting here relishing in the fact that my January projects are done early and I now have "free time" and can make whatever I want or to work ahead on a February project or even go to bed at 6:30 like I did yesterday. This leaves me feeling just a smidgen silly. But what can I say, I love a good list.

The first project took less than half an hour, but makes me oh so happy to see when I'm in the kitchen. It is done with watercolor and sharpie and sits in a frame given to me by a friend.

Project #2 has been waiting to be completed for two years; I should have put it on a list sooner! I picked up the frame second hand for $1, removed the disney poster and painted it (anxious to complete my project, I also moved it before the paint was dry and some of it came off, oh well). This is Sijmon's birth announcement. I sewed some eyelet lace cut from a table runner around the raw edges and stuck it in. I was afraid the flatness of the frame and the three dimensionality of the wool would smush the little birdies too much, but I believe it looks just fine.

This next one is wildly exciting for me. Too much rambling is happening in this post, so I'll be short and just say that I salvaged an old window 10 years ago for a certain project. I moved said window across country with me and worked on it for many hours before accidentally leaning on it and breaking a pane, ruining the project. Fast forward to September. I picked up a window for $5 and have been busily hatching a plan for it while Chaz has lifted his eyebrows and mentioned broken glass, lead pain and our children more than once. Such pessimism, only motivated me to be sure I actually made something nice with said window before damaging one of our children (bad!) and proving myself wrong (worse?). I paired it with some vintage patchwork that I reinforced with canvas. The silhouettes are made with card stock and I couldn't be happier with how it all came out. Sorry for the glarey photo. I planned to retake it, but my mom said she liked seeing my reflection...and I didn't really want to retake it anyhow. Here's where I got my inspiration.

Oh yes and here's one from last month. I actually cut felt out for it two years ago but December has always been to busy. I decided to make the month less busy this year and now I have lovely little purl bee stars made from recycled sweaters.

Off to add a stitches to my "March" quilt; it's just the thing for our house.