The Summer Retreat

Oh finishing is so close.  I got so much done on the basement this week end, including finishing the summer retreat for my granddaughter.  I am thrilled with the results. 

First we put down the largest of my area rugs and got it all cleaned up.  Then we put up my queen bed frame and hung my white curtains from three of the canopy rails.  Inside I have a roll away bed, smothered in pillows in pansy and night sky prints.  Next to the bed is the nightstand that I restored, painted and applied this great sticky - back fabric to the sides and drawers.  I even had enough to do some on the inside of the drawers. So fun.  The last rail is my hand dyed silk scarf curtains.  It turned out so nice,  think she is going to be very comfortable there!

CREATIVITY REQUIRES THE COURAGE TO LET GO OF CERTAINTIES.
ERICH FROMM

Craft a Thon

Sunday was the day for our facebook Craft a Thon.  Everybody posted pictures and descriptions of the projects they had picked for the day, and updated during the day.  I wasn't able to take part in the computer part of it, but the craft part I have down!

First I finished the night stand for my granddaughter's room.  It turned out this very fun shabby chic style that I think we both can live with. 
Then I finished the decorating in the "retreat" room.... hanging curtains and plugging in lights and clock, adding a journal and some fun pens to her drawer...

Next I headed outside to bleach out a black tank.  I want to learn the dye technique, so I took some purple and black fabric as well.  I even took out one of my black masks that I had bought to paint this summer.  The tank did just what I wanted it to, but the fabric didn't at all work the same way, and the mask didn't bleach out at all.  You couldn't even tell that I had sprayed it.  Now to add to my research...

The end of the day was spent working on an afghan that I am anxious to get finished and put away for Christmas.  No pictures of it yet, because I want it to be a surprise.  Just in case you know.

Great crafting day and I am looking forward to the rest of the summer being just like that.



Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.
Ray Bradbury

Craft table 101

With all of the heavy lifting projects I have still to do in the basement before Monday, I can't imagine why I thought putting together my craft table was going to be a good idea, but I thought an hour here and there today and I would be fine.  I have a Craft A Thon coming up on Sunday and I really want my table to work at.  It will be so much fun, and how hard can this truly be?
You do know that is really funny.  It was amazing at how tiring it was for me to even begin, but once I had the parts out of the box, I knew it was something I was going to have to finish or risk losing pieces. 
The instruction sheet said the average time was 50 minutes, so I knew I had to at least double that.  Well, lets go with four times that average and it's not quite done yet.  Of course part of the problem right now is that it is too heavy for me to lift by itself and the crap workmanship on the parts means that not everything fits as it should. 
So I have an upside down craft table waiting for a bit of help from my lawn guy tomorrow, and it will be done and something else marked off the list.  I am sure he will have no problem getting the last two bolts in and righting the table so that I can figure out how to make it tilt, or not. 
My achy muscles and I are going to pour a nice glass of wine before dinner and enjoy a bit of the sun tonight.  It feels really good outside.

Are they serious?

I get to update this post, it is so exciting to have something else finished.  My sister had some free time today so she can over and together we figured out the table.  She had the last two bolts in place rather quickly, and then as we were figuring out how to turn the table right side up, we found I had made a mistake in one of the parts.  After we fixed that, everything was much more stable and we were able to turn the table up right.  It is going to be so nice to work at, and it tilts so that I can use it as a drawing table if I want to.  Now how fun is that?

 I guess they were!  Isn't it pretty?

At Least the Flowers Like the Rain

It had been raining so much that I had not had the chance to plant the few plants that I bought at the nursery during the last trip and so I took a sunshine day to plant my hanging baskets and planter boxes.  With all the rain, they are doing very well.  I think a little sunshine would be nice now, but I have to be thankful for the rain, because I never seem to remember to water outside plants. 

The weeds, of course, are stronger than ever.  I'm getting some of the beds weeded out nicely, but I'm not familiar with the plants that are in the beds so it is hard to know what to pull and what to leave.  The beds are terribly over grown and I think I'd like to take the beds totally out and start over, but it isn't really my yard and so I am just doing my best.

I found my old garden journal, from my house in Madison.  It was pretty bittersweet, I was glad to find the plans for the Monet gardens that I wanted to start, but losing that house was very hard. 

Anyway, I have planted Verbena, Impatiens, Petunia, Ivy; as well as basil, thyme, and oregano from plantings, and Forget Me Nots, Alyssum, two types of Morning Glories and Moonflowers from seed.  I still have a wild flower mix and Cosmos to go.  I can't wait to see how summer colors progress.

Enjoy the pictures!

And we start another month

Before I moved, I sorted my many projects and dreams of projects into bins, each bin holding just one month worth of work, from quilting idea to hand work to Christmas gift projects.  This has been the best idea I ever had, and with just a couple more bins, I'll have a full year of pretty red bins with projects all kitted and ready to be worked on. 
The finished items go to their homes and the bin gets filled with fabric that would be good to make up next year for items to sell and gift ideas.  Anything not finished from the May bin will get moved forward to the June bin and soon I'll actually have empty bins for other storage and no more cardboard boxes any where.
It's exciting to open the new bin, I just brought the June bin up from the basement.  In it I find the table runner and wall quilt for fall that I didn't finish last year, ideas for dying silk for butterfly wings, the fabric for the skirts that I want to make myself and the patterns to make choices from, and a wonderful bright yellow yarn with a gold thread running through it, to be made into a shawl for myself.  I have some patterns set aside for Christmas sewing and some bag patterns as well, that I can make to sell or give away for birthdays and Christmas.
This focus on just one month at a time has really helped.  The projects in the works are still out, but I'm not allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the number of UFO's that I have, and I'm picking projects for future use on Etsy and in craft fairs, leaving myself plenty of time to get them done and start back to work on customer items.
My sister had a garage sale over the week end and in helping her and talking to people I was able to hand out about 20 business cards and pick up two possible orders and a possible student.  I'm really excited, the added income will make my money last longer and put off that feeling of panic when I realize that I have to have this business totally running and making money that will support me fully inside 18 months.  I think that is a good time frame.  I just need to work the plan now and get some advertising out to push this along.
An exciting future for me.  Now, back to rearranging the basement so that I really can finally put the art room together.  One step at a time, make all those steps in the right direction.  I can't wait to see what the future has in store for me next.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
Sylvia Plath