Author Archives: Jennifer Wingard

It’s a snuggly sort of day

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Ever have one of those days where you want to ignore every single person on the planet (including your family), hole up in your favorite lounge pants with a cup of hot chocolate, and do nothing at all other than what makes you happy? I am having one of those days. So far, I’ve gotten the lounge pants bit down. The hot chocolate is going to happen here in a bit. The other stuff? Not likely.

Around here, we’re getting tormented by spring. She’s giving little promises of showing up, and no sooner does she pop her head around the corner than Old Man Winter smacks her upside the head and knocks her back a bit. I have daffodils blooming and it’s cold and wet and all around crummy outside, so I haven’t even been able to get outside to pull the weeds around them.

So, today, if the planets align just right, I might curl up for a while and work on finishing this bit of squishy goodness. Forgive the picture. I was too lazy to get up and take a decent photo. Seriously. I was that damn lazy.

Cowl

Cowl

It’s coming along much better (and I’m happier with it) since I frogged the whole thing again and got rid of the wretched curling edge.

 

Once the kids are in bed for the night, I’m hoping to cut into some of this yummy awesomeness and get a bunch of 2.5 inch squares made for the top of the Granny Squares Quilt ala Blue Elephant Stitches.

California Girl

California Girl by Fig Tree & Co. for Moda

California Girl is, hands-down, my favorite fabric collection ever. So far. When it comes out in yardage, I might just buy it, wrap myself up in it, and stay that way for a month or two. Right now, though, I’m going to find a snuggly blanket to wrap up in while I sip my hot chocolate and knit. (For the record, I’m very glad I’m not in school. My kids are trying to diligently work on their school assignments, but I think they feel like snuggling in for the day every bit as much as I do.)

Ugly Closet turned Cute Sewing Room

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Well…it’s nearly finished. That’s right. I have a sewing room, and, except for minor details and personal touches, it’s finished!! We had a very small walk-in closet. I’m talking small for a walk-in: 45 inches wide by 6 ft. 4 inches deep. It wasn’t large enough to do much with, and it had some wire shelving that had been put up very poorly before we moved in. They hadn’t hooked the shelving into studs, so it wasn’t secure and kept pulling out of the drywall.

Here’s the ugly closet after we removed the shoddy shelving:

Ugly closet

Ugly, empty closet

Charming, huh? Yeah, not so much.

So, we picked out paint, and we were going to do board and batten like we’re planning for the rest of the house (faux, of course, because it just doesn’t pay to sink a buttload of money into the place right now), but we decided against the vertical boards for the small space and went utilitarian with just the one horizontal board to use in the future for hanging tools and such.

Painted closet

Pretty colors, but oh so empty!

 

Then we got BUSY: cutting boards for shelving and making sure those suckers were in the wall really well. Then more painting for the shelves. Then, since the room is teeny tiny, it’s nearly impossible to find a perfect fit for a sewing table, so I had to go to the drawing board and plan one. The room is so narrow that we had to prep the boards outside in the garage and assemble them inside the closet, and, finally, painted it a soft grey. It turned out pretty well.

Sewing room

The pretties with just the overhead light

With just the overhead light, which is quite dim, sewing is going to be an issue. So I installed a plug type slimline fluorescent under the shelf (the cord is an issue for me, so it’s going to be hidden soon) and got that lamp with a daylight bulb. It’s WAY bright when it’s on, therefore, very hard to get a decent picture, but I should have no trouble seeing stitches.

Light to see

Plenty of light

 

Don’t even ask for a picture with both the fluorescent light AND the lamp on. My camera cried when I asked it to take a picture with both lights turned on.

I still need to buy pretty trim to face out the front of the shelves and the table, but it’s definitely a vast improvement from the teeny, ugly closet it was a couple of weeks ago when we started tearing out all the stuff that had accumulated in there since we moved here.

Also, I should mention that comic book boards make the. best. mini bolts EVER.

Mini Bolts

Mini bolts made using comic book boards

Now that you’ve got the scoop on the ugly closet turned sewing room, I’m off to pretty it up, hide cords, and hunt down the owners of a gorgeous wooden swivel desk chair that’s posted on craigslist so I can buy it, sand it, and paint it grey to match my table.

Desk Chair

The chair I am planning to buy

 

 

FNSI…not so much

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Well…the Friday Night Sew-In didn’t really happen here. I got roped into watching about a jillion episodes of Strawberry Shortcake with the Punk.  She was being especially clingy and wouldn’t let me move more than three inches away from her. Sick babies are no fun. I did try to knit a bit, but having a Punk on your lap makes knitting difficult.

In the end, I messed up the cowl I was working on, didn’t find the mistake until six rounds later, so I just frogged the whole damn mess and started over yesterday. My first couple of rows are curling though, so I may end up frogging again.

It has not been a productive week for me here at Chez Crazy. Even the stuff I have worked on has turned out all wrong. I think I’m just going to stop trying, work on cleaning the house, and forget about projects until everyone is totally better and I can work for more than two milliseconds without a project-borking interruption.

Curled Edge

The Cowl from Hell

See the curling? I am throwing a fit because I wasn’t paying close enough attention and did a project-borking stockinette stitch at the edge.  It’s most likely getting frogged. I need to decide soon…before I put any more time into it. If the cowl was for me, I’d probably just leave it as is, but it’s not, so I’m torn.

 

 

Swap box and Friday Night Sew-In

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Well, my partner (and new friend) for the Simply Notable “Make a Crafty New Friend” swap on Ravelry received her package today. I think I was just excited packaging everything up for her as she was to get it.

Swap Package

Lots of Goodies

There were a few skeins of Caron’s Spa yarn, an infinity scarf knit in Caron’s Spa in a taupe color, a set of four coasters made with Liz Scott’s Domestic Bliss for Moda, some crochet stitch markers I made when I couldn’t find any pretty ones to buy for her. She was hoping for bamboo crochet hooks, so I found some of those, a yarn/needle gauge, a few things for embroidery, the Doodle Stitching book (one of our favorites here), some note cards, a bag full of spiced pecans, and a dozen hand rolled truffles that I had a seriously hard time parting with despite being able to make more any time I feel like it.  She loved her package and I can finally stop being a bundle of nerves about it!

Now that that’s all wrapped up, I can start working on a couple other projects…perfect timing really, since tonight is this month’s Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Handmade by Heidi. There’s still time to sign up for tonight’s sew-in if you want to head over to Heidi’s and sign up. It’s fun, and you could win a prize for participating. And the rules…yeah, they’re super easy. Sign up, participate, and blog about it tomorrow. It’s that simple.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to be working on tonight. I want to work on something fun and for me…I had planned to make a blouse for myself tonight, but my material did not arrive in time. :( Sadness. Instead, I’ll either work on knitting one of about four scarves I owe people, a crocheted scarf, my February feathers FMQ challenge for Sew Cal Gal’s Free Motion Quilting Challenge, or maybe work on the blocks for the Craftsy BOM Course. I’m seriously behind on the Craftsy blocks because I’m not entirely certain I want to spend the time learning to make these blocks because I just don’t love them. I am probably going to attempt it anyway, because, as the ladies in my quilting club pointed out, even if they look horrible on their own, they may look really lovely once they’re all pieced together and you see the quilt top as a whole.

Anyway, feel free to pop over and sign up for the Craftsy BOM Course (free) or join in with the Friday Night Sew-In tonight.

I’ll be back tomorrow to update on what (if anything) I managed to accomplish this evening.

Have a fantastic weekend! :)

 

 

So much catching up to do

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I’m up late tonight trying to carve out a little peace for myself. I’ve had a busy day. You’d think cold, winter days would be a little slower than they have been lately. That just doesn’t happen here. Everyone gets sick at once with a flu that has them down with sore throats, runny noses, coughs, terrible headaches, and aches so bad they feel like they got steam rolled. Thankfully, I barely got a touch of whatever it is, but I’m still trying to get all my babies (including the biggest baby of them all–hubby) back to feeling 100%.

One of these days I’ll have a nice, slow, orderly life. And my laundry will be caught up. And pigs will fly.

Until then, I’ll just keep plugging along at the trillion and two projects I’ve got on my plate right now.

I finished up my swap package for the Simply Notable Crafty Friend Swap on Ravelry. It’s been so much fun getting to know my partner during the past month or so. I can’t wait till she receives her package because I’m dreadful at keeping gifts a secret. Once she receives her package, I’ll share pics of some of the goodies. :)

We bought a Kindle Fire this past week. Punky has been doing great (and even saying some new words) thanks to a couple of autism/non-verbal apps that are helping her learn to say new words. I’m thrilled about it. All the kids love  the Fire…and for half the price of the iPad, I can afford to get more than one if I really want.

Since we have this gorgeous new Kindle, of course, it needed a place to live during the few seconds someone isn’t using it.

I used a few squares from Hometown by Sweetwater (from the charm pack I won from Cherise at Sewingly Along), a little bit of Spring Buds in Mustard from the Echo line, and some linen look material from my stash. As a side note, NEVER think that quilting linen look material will turn out well or be an easy task. It won’t. It goes all wonky. Anyway, it turned out pretty well for winging it, plus it’s a cushy home to keep the Kindle from getting all scratched up.

Kindle Sleeve

Quilted Kindle Sleeve

 

Today I played chocolatier. I made some hand-rolled dark chocolate truffles. I coated some with white chocolate and rolled the others in cocoa powder (because that’s MY personal favorite). They were delicious. I had to try one  or two…fine, it was two and a half, but seriously, who is counting? 

Truffles

Dark chocolate truffles in cocoa powder

 

Truffles

Dark chocolate truffles with white chocolate shell

This ganache smells so delicious (especially when it’s warm from stirring in the cream) that I wish I could gulp down the entire bowl. It’s chocolate silk pie on crack.

 

Anyway, I’m about done in for the night. I’ll be back soon with some more fun projects…like the closet which is in the process of being turned into a mini sewing/craft room.  It’ll be a long-ish project that I work on as I feel like it, so don’t expect a totally grand finish until about 2020…or ever.