high on envelope glue

I started making Christmas cards back in November. I collected last year's cards from several friends, intent on remaking them into new cards. It got a bit tedious, so I finished up the cards for my office with regular old scrapbook supplies and blank white cards.




a somewhat blurry closeup of one of my favorite cards. Most of them use the main image from the card, scrapbook paper, and some silver-inked stamps. I scored the stamps last year at Michael's after Christmas in the 75% off sale. I definitely got my $4 worth this year, as I used them in some form on every card!!

How to refinish a floor, or at least how I blundered through it

Last week I refinished my 80-year old wood floors, and they were worth several days of work, and a week of staying at my parents.

This website was of invaluable help (recommended by my uncle), and I followed pretty much the same steps. It's best to put the varnish on during the day, or at least with plenty of bright light. Putting coats on in the dark is a recipe for disaster. I cannot stress this enough. Invest in a Mouse by Black & Decker hand sander. It's great for getting into all of the low spots and corners. We actually went out and bought a second one to speed things up!

Ingredients:
1. Varathane EZ four-head orbital sander, rented from Lowe's for $35/day (two day rental)
2. Four gallons of Varathane Oil-Based Satin Finish for floors (used liberally, discarded quite a bit at the end, really 3.5 gal)
3. Two palm sanders, two Mouse sanders, plenty of 60 grit sandpaper
4. 12 packs of 36-grit, 6 packs of 50-grit, 2 packs of 80-grit
5. Four lambswool applicators
6. Two dropcloths
7. One pack of 120-grit or 150-grit for scuff coats
8. 12 two-packs of tack cloths from Lowe's
9. Four varnish brushes
10. One large back of chocolate
11. Two parents, one sister, and two friends to help

We sanded for two days, starting with the 36-grit on the floor sander. We probably should have stripped off the old old varnish, but instead spent a day trying to sand it down. That included standing on the orbital sander (not safe!) to really cut into the finish. Once we got the finish off, it was smooth sailing. Again, the Mouse sanders were really the best tool to knock down the high spots and dig into the low spots.

We put on four coats, letting it dry at least 24 hours between coats. This is longer than necessary, but because of my day job, this was our only option. I do recommend giving it ample time to dry to prevent hazing or crackling. I stayed at my parents house while the varnish dried- since it was oil-based, the fumes were extremely strong. My throat tasted like burning for hours after each coat.

All in all, the process took over a week. Two full days of sanding, and then around two hours a day for four days to varnish, then three days to cure.

finally an after

One of my largest projects of the year is coming to a close, and not a day too soon. I have been wanting to put up my Christmas tree for over a week, but was unable to because I was waiting for my floor to dry. That's right, I finally refinished my downstairs floors.

The progression...
Before:


Post-Carpet:


Post two days of sanding:






After the first coat (will dry a satin finish):

before&after

This was before:


And now...finally...the after!

My neighbor gave me a dining room table (free!) and my mom lent me some chairs for the time being. The hardwoods aren't yet refinished, but it finally looks like a home!


Ready for fall too!


On top of the built-in cabinet, my international corner of souvenirs from trips abroad. Okay, two vases are really from Target but they were made in China!

a little goes a long way

Here is what $40 worth of craft supplies looks like:


Craft sticky dots, new ink pad (which I don't like), Martha Stewart flower bits, Martha Stewart stamps, acrylic stamp block, and new cards.



I've been wanting an alphabet stamp set for a long time, and I picked this one up at the new MS section at Michael's, thinking I could use my 40% off coupon. Boo on Michael's for not allowing coupons for MS goodies!!! I would buy so much of it. I considered the purchase for a solid quarter of an hour before deciding that I am worth it, and bought the stamp set and goodies to make cards.



I made four. That is not a very efficient means of making cards, as the average cost is a whopping $10. However, I made said cards while watching Casino Royale, so Daniel Craig made up for it.

way behind

I'm only on project #7 of LJ's 50 projects in 2007 goal. Number seven. Yeeesh! On the upside, I've been starting a lot of projects and working on several intermittently. A scarf for my dad, knit during my one-hour bus commute daily, my living room paint job, my bathroom wallpaper stripping/paint job, and constant organizational projects in my house, just to name a few. And the biggest of all: my garden. This kind of takes over during the summer months and precludes any actual fun crafting projects. Unfortunately, nothing is growing yet. Grr.

So here is lucky number seven, a card for my mom. I used little foam pop-up dots and some random scrap paper. She's going to Peru on vacation for 12 days, so this card is supposed to look like Peru. That's Macchu Picchu in front of the mountains :)

progress!

Finally, some progress! Well, mostly. I got my Knit Picks order last week of yarn for the aforementioned backlog of projects.



1. Scarf for Dad- Campus Scarf from Scarf Style, in one color only. Yarn: KP Essential Tweed Inca Gold. I am double stranding it on 6s or 7s. Probably. It's also more brown than in the catalog, which is good.



2. Shawl for Mom- Guinevere from Wrap Style, in Alpaca Cloud smoke. I have the needles for this- yay! It'll be my first time knitting with a laceweight yarn.



3. Felted stuff- clutch from One Skein, boxes from Mason Dixon Knitting. I am hoping these are quick knits.



I'm also still working on Elbac from knitty, and it is moving along much faster now that I'm marking my rows with paper clips. It was taking so much time trying to remember if I was on row 2 or 3, or worse, 4, of the repeats. I still have 50 some repeats to do, but it's going quickly.

for 50 Projects on LJ

Project #5: washcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting. I didn't knit it as long as recommended, but it is on size 7 with kitchen cotton. White is Sugar and Cream, color is Gumdrop from Peaches and Cream. I love this color. It's like jelly beans or a carnival. With the white, it looks like my old easter basket. I do wish that I could find yarn with longer color repeats so each little block is a different color. I found that the white unraveled quickly, especially when I had to frog rows.

I think this pattern would be great for a kid's hat. Especially in the same candy colored yarn.



Close-up.


Project #6: I cleaned today and organized my bookcase. It's not a craft project per se, but I've been meaning to do it forever. It has an inbox, things to file, and recycle bins. My magazines are along the bottom, though I wish I had more file boxes that matched. I got the tall vase from a thrift store years ago. The mug is from a town named after my family in England, and the little glass vase is new from Target (as are the inboxes- $2.50 dollar spot). That blur is my dog :)



Also cleaned my bathroom and sink, but I will spare you photos!

Longest scarf in the world

It is about time! I started planning this scarf in October, knitting in November, and finished it Sunday. I wanted a reversible pattern, machine washable wool, and an elegant design with pockets. I finally settled on Berroco's Pure Merino in a raspberry colorway, and bought three balls. Over the next two months, I bought three more. The scarf started as the cabled scarf in Scarf style, but found that it didn't fold up well into pockets. Why pockets? My grandmother has arthritis in her hands and is not able to wear gloves. It's pretty cold in Indiana, so I wanted her to be able to stick her hands in the scarf to keep them warm, and still be able to hold onto her walker.

After scouring every knitting book in Borders one night, I settled on a seed stitch pattern from some purse book (I think it called the pattern "blossom."). Halfway through the first ball, I realized I knit the exact same pattern for my mom last year, and that it curled up on itself horribly. I'm an idiot. But, I was too far along and too time crunched to rip it out. Despite knitting feverishly up through Christmas Eve, I still couldn't finish it. The scarf had to be extra long in order to fold up into pockets, and the stitch was taking me forever. My grandma understood, and it is now on its way to her in time for her birthday. The color will hopefully match her new coat. I should have made her a fleecy Colts one, but who had that kind of forethought in December??



The longest scarf, ever:
Cast on 35 (I think) onto size 9 needles. Any odd number will do.
I did two rows of garter stitch after casting on to give it a bit of an edge.
Row 3: *k1, p1*, k1
Row 4: knit all.
Repeat rows 3 and 4 for an eternity, or until the scarf is about 7 feet long. This took me just shy of five balls of approximately 100 yards each, Pure Merino.
For the pockets, I folded each end up the length of my hand, and seamed the edges.

This is also for 50projects, and fits into the theme of finishing unfinished projects. I didn't get the InStitches-a-long finished in time, though. Whoops. Maybe February.

Valentine's Wreath

Project #2 for 50projects: I had some free time last night so I whipped up this little door wreath. It's cardboard (two layers), scrapbook paper, some sticky letters, and those foamy hearts from the Target Dollar Spot. It matches the paper globes I made last week- the same pink polka dot paper from JoAnn's. Unfortunately, that isn't poor lighting in the photo. My kitchen really is that hideous butter color. Ick. On the upside, my hyacinth and kitchen table match the wreath!

(photo updated 2/13/2009 to replace one that had a busted link)

project uno

Project #1 completed: those little ball ornaments from Martha's Holiday Issue. I've been dying to make them for months, and I finally got around to it. In time for Valentine's Day. Sorry for the bad pictures, but it's hard to focus on little bits of paper dangling from a chandelier.

A second view of the largest ball. For this one, I took "i love you" scrapbook paper, cut thin strips, then cut those in half. So each strip is a little under six inches long. I used an 1/8th inch hole punch and craft brads from JoAnn's. I liked using the 12x12 sheets of paper as opposed to a piece from a Mat Stack because you only have to cut the long skinny strips once, then cut them in half.



This is for the 50 Projects LiveJournal group. The goal is to do 50 craft projects in 2007. I'm just joining, so I'm a few weeks behind. January's theme is to finish unfinished projects. I've been searching for the right paper, brads, and hole punch for several weeks on these. My next unfinished project is my Grandmother's scarf, which should have been done 4 weeks ago for Christmas!!!

My other ideas for 50 projects:
-finishing a Christmas stocking.
-recycling yarn from thrifted sweaters
-dying said yarn with Kool-Aid, etc.
-knit socks
-Coin quilt for my bed