Little Mr – Page 2

It’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

December 17, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Hi friends. How are you? Things around here are slowly but surely getting into a rhythm and new routines. I switched jobs last month, which has been very much helpful overall to my mental health and sanity. Slowly I am starting to feel more like myself, which has meant more baking and crafting and, overall, the things I used to do and love.

With the holidays coming up, I’ve thrown myself into my holiday treat making. This week we made candied orange peels, while the Little Mr chowed down on the oranges when he was supposed to be juicing them for our breakfast orange juice. I can’t complain, really, because it kept him occupied. We played Christmas music and danced and laughed and, overall, had a lovely time together in the kitchen. Today I’m baking molasses cookies, and I’m supposed to be baking chocolate mint cookies, too, but at the rate I’m going I might just do those later this week. Now that I’m not stressed so much I’m finding that I actually have energy to come home and bake and cook again, so it’s easier to plan on that.

I think I’ve also decided to go full ahead with the garden again, this year. Can you believe that? Who knew a bad job could suck so much life out of you?! I’ve even begun thinking of 2018 and how I want to do things differently, now that I have some room to breathe again. Be more centered, I guess, and conscious of the ways I’m spending my time. I’ve started journaling (in a real, paper journal) because some things just aren’t really meant for the public to read and I think that’s helped a lot with some things. I want to start reading again, too. Right now I’m kind of cheating the system and borrowing ebooks from the library to read on my kindle and then turning off network so I still have the book long after my loan expires…. It’s taking me far too long to read a book these days and that’s a shame, really. So if you’ve got any book recommendations, please pass them my way!

I’m trying to think of something to do with the Little Mr for Solstice. It’s something I always want to do and then we never do. Maybe some bird seed ornaments for the tree outside? A craft of some sort? I haven’t decided what, exactly, I want to teach him about the solstice. Part of me loves the folklore/pagan roots of it all, so maybe we’ll explore that.

Nothing new to really report, craft-wise. I have more projects on the needles than I really need and I’ve had a commission or two come up from totally knit-worthy people, so I need to get a move on with those. I’ve always said I wouldn’t take on omissions for my work, but I’ve started making the exception for people I know will truly appreciate the items and so far it’s been a really enjoyable experience. I have been spinning, slowly, too – working on a bit of pretty fiber that I might use to make a pair of mittens out of. I think that’s going to be part of my 2018 goals, too – to spin more, and then actually use my yarn.

Spinner in training

August 13, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Whatever I do, he wants to do. I had been pressing some water out of a handspun yarn so it could dry before I knit it up, and he asked to spin some of his own yarn. I don’t want him messing with my wheel (too many moving parts for him to get hurt on right now), so I dug out my 3D printed spindle from TurtleMade and let him play. For the record, it took him all of about 2 seconds to figure out how to flick it and put twist into the fiber. Proud mama, right here. I can only hope he continues to love to make and do things with his hands.

Slowly coming together

August 12, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Finally, after 2 weeks, we have a somewhat finished bathroom. There’s lots to finish still, of course, but we’ve moved past just a shower to a working sink and toilet. The walls still need finished painted, the mirror and sconces hung, the trim finished, etc etc etc. But I feel like we finally have some major progress. I’m so in love with how bright this room is, now. When it’s all done I’ll show you a before and after – the bathroom was seriously awful. Just awful. And we lived with it for so long, so it’s nice to have something lovely now.

Today I DIY’d some mercury glass dishes for the bathroom. Since everything is so…. new, I wanted old-looking touches without it looking too farmhouse. (I really don’t like the farmhouse trend, and it’s hard to get away from it because everyone and everything you find at the stores is farmhouse now.) I picked up some candy dishes at the local thrift store – two, just in case I screwed one up. Have to say… I’m pretty much in love with them. SO PRETTY! And so easy, too. A can of “Mirror Effect” paint, a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of water and white vinegar in a spray bottle, and some paper towels. Spray a coat of the mirror paint on, let it sit for about a minute, spritz a light amount of water on it and dab gently with the paper towel. Repeat until you get the look you want. I coated the inside of them after they dried with a crystal clear spray to seal it up.

The dishes will most likely go onto a shelf – either a floating shelf above the toilet, or I’m hoping to pick up a white cabinet to go in a corner to store our towels now that we’ve lost our linen closet to make room for the 2nd floor laundry. I’ll probably use them to store my makeup remover pads, so they’re functional, too. I have another one drying right now that is a round vase – I saw this gorgeous mercury glass vase with white faux flowers in it that I loved, but the $100+ price tag was a big fat no. So I’m hoping to recreate it, too. I paid about $9 for the mirror spray at Lowes, and the jars were $3 each. The round vase maybe $2. So less than $20 and I’ve got my own DIY’d version :)

Tour de Fleece and such

July 4, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Sunday, we spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house. Literally. When I put my new furniture out I realized how awful and dirty the siding and trim was, so I grabbed a bucket and some soap and scrubbed the whole thing down.

A smarter person would have just rented a power washer… I am not smart, sometimes.

But the porch looks a thousand times better and cleaner. I bought some lanterns at Joanns that were 70% off, and I think I’m going to hang them above the table to give some nice lighting once it starts getting darker earlier.

Tour de Fleece began on the 1st, and while I missed out on spinning on Saturday I’ve been making up for it the rest of the weekend. I finished a bobbin of some teal that was in progress on Sunday, and then Monday I spent part of my morning spinning the other half on the porch. I’m working on my long draw method to get faster singles. Normally I’ve been an inchworm, pulling small amounts of fiber out of the fluff inch by inch to keep my yarn somewhat consistent. But this puts a strain on my wrists and takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The long draw thing lets me just kind of pull my whole arm backward and let the twisting single do a lot of the work. Much faster.

I probably won’t spin every single day of the tour, but I like that it gives me a push to use my wheel more. I’ve actually considered getting rid of my wheel – I messaged the girls in my knit group to see if anyone wanted to somewhat semi-permanently borrow it. The thing had sat for almost a year without being used and I saw no end to the perpetual fight with the kid over getting time to myself to use it. Thankfully, my lovely friends talked me out of it, and (also thankfully) I’ve tried to start forcing “me” time to spin. Now if I can just get someone to force me to knit the yarn I spin up… it’s all so pretty in the skein and no pattern ever seems worthy of it. Which is silly, of course, because #1, I can always make more yarn and #2, there will always be a better pattern to come along that I’ll later wish I had made and #3, life is too short to make things and then not enjoy them. So that’s the next thing I need to start working on.

A little garden after all

May 29, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

So we put a garden out after all. I told myself multiple times that I wasn’t doing it this year. It’s too much to manage with the kid and work and everything else. And then, when it came down to it, Mother’s Day – our usual planting weekend – came and went and things felt off. It didn’t feel right not having a garden. I mentioned as much to the Mr, and with a knowing sigh he just kind of looked at me and said “I’ll get the boxes out of the garage.”

We broke up the dirt in the old spots where the boxes used to be, and then stacked the extras on top to make them deeper this year. Well, the guys did – I sat on the porch drinking a beer :) Today we visited Lowes to buy plenty of potting soil to replenish the nutrients in the soil that we’ve neglected the last two years, along with plants since we didn’t plan on a garden to get seeds started. 3 tomatoes, 2 peppers, an eggplant, kale, and zucchini. I bought some herbs from one of the local school fundraisers, which were half dead by the time I planted them, but I’m hoping they come back now that they’ve got some proper soil to grow in. We planted carrots and radishes, too, just so Declan can watch something grow from seed out there. We potted some Strawberries on Sunday, too – I don’t generally have much luck with them, but Declan LOVES to eat berries so we’re trying them yet again. Raspberries are growing, too, and I’m determined this year to actually use my HopTop for at least one small batch of something boozy.

We bought a new grill this weekend, invited the stepson and his family up (that’s the grandbaby with the big pretty eyes – still weird that I’m 32 and a grandma), and made some damn delicious chicken thighs on it. I tried to gussy up the patio a bit to make it cozy, though the birds just poop everywhere so most of the pretty things are temporary items. Tablecloth that can be washed, items that get brought inside after we’re done, etc. How on earth do people keep outdoor furniture clean?! I feel like every time I want to use the table I have to wash the whole thing down – there’s no popping outside and just hanging out back there. Maybe because our patio is covered so the dust just collects without any rain to wash it off? I don’t even know. I’m working on finding some cute things to hang up on the side of the house to decorate a bit more. Maybe a cute wood wall hanging/sign painted to look like a barn quilt square? Hmmmm…