Fighting through

I have been a DIY blog junkie for a little over a year now, and I find this hobby to be equal parts inspiring and disheartening. The ideas and encouragement I generate from the world wide web are tempered by the comparisons and knowledge that my own art projects and blog just are not at the caliber that I would like them to be.

This video was exactly what I needed to hear today.

Thanks Ira .

The Sarah Adventures

My dear friend  Sarah came to visit a month ago. Right before her visit, we had a text conversation that went something like this:

"Hey, do you know how to crochet?"

"Nope. Why?"

"Oh, I was just going to have you teach me this weekend."

"Well, I've been wanting to learn too, so lets figure it out when you're here."

And figure it out we did. Together, we picked out our yarn colors and watched YouTube videos to figure out the basic crochet stitches. We decided that a scarf was an easy place to start, and Sarah had the genius idea to make an infinity scarf. Since we live in separate states, I hope she doesn't mind that I did the same. Well anyway, after some hemming and hawwing, Sarah got the hang of it and took off. During my flight home for Thanksgiving, my own scarf began to take shape, although I got lazy decided to make scallops by chain stitching out for 10 stitches and then securing the end to the previous row. I am very pleased with how it turned out. It really is more of a scarf necklace, but our office is always frigid, so this is a perfect winter accessory. 

Oh, and for our moms, here is a picture of us at Lake Tahoe

Let the crochet insanity begin!

Friday Night

The 3 C's: couch, crochet, Civilization IV.

Barnyard Bench...in My Kitchen

Every winter, my landlords go on vacation to Costa Rica. In their stead, it is left to me to watch their fish, ducks (Fred and Wilma), Corgi, plants and power tools. So maybe it is not such a sad situation for me after all. Actually, I love it. Many of you may remember this farmhouse table a certain friend and I built a while back, well that was during the last Costa Rica house sitting extravaganza. This time around, we took it upon ourselves to build a barnyard bench to cover up the hideous pile that used to be my recycling corner. In my Black Friday extravaganza, which took place at Good Will, I purchased three milk crates to house our recycling items. The boyfriend was amenable to a construction project,  and I knew it would be a lost cause to hold out for a bench or bookcase to hold the crates, so we jumped right in.

And boom, we were done. Just kidding. This may be a long post, so you are allowed to skim ahead and look at the pictures. 

We designed the table from scratch according to the dimensions of the milk crates, but then had to adapt the plan so that we could use the scrap wood that my landlords left for us. Sorry, I didn't really take many process pictures, but if you want to build a bench, or anything else for that matter, I highly recommend Ana White's website. We used her schematics for the table and loved it.

Originally, I wanted to stain the bench the same shade as the kitchen table. However, we messed up while trying to get the legs balanced, so then we had to use some wood filler to cover up our screw holes. With my a $0 project hopes dashed, we trotted out to pick up some red paint. As is my habit, we checked out the "oops paint" section first, even though that successfully backfired last time. But we found a pint of paint that looked to match a candy apple red that we liked. Bingo bango bongo. I love discounted paint.

After sanding and priming, we were ready for some red glory.

It took three coats of paint for the pink-ish color to go away, but the paint is still pretty streaky and that doesn't look to be corrected by additional coats. Glidden paint fail. Still, you can't beat cheap paint and we think the uneven paint enhances the barn look.

Not too bad, eh?

As you can see, we put her right to work. It is certainly more sightly than Recycle Mountain over in the corner. For $7, it certainly makes my frugal heart happy.

Lessons learned:

1) Sanding forgives a multitude of sins. For instance, if you foolishly decide to plane a few uneven boards. With the aid of a power sander, you can prep your surface in a semi-reasonable amount of time. Even though sanding may take a long time, it will be well worth your effort. It is also worthwhile to do a light sanding with fine grit paper after each coat of paint. Between coat sanding is necessary to correct mistakes and remove stray lint or dog hair. Most people will tell you to sand between coats so that the paint sticks to itself. This is true, it just isn't the primary reason we sanded.

I cannot understate this. Sand your pants off and then sand some more. When I first started reading DIY blogs I did not believe people when they told me to sand projects. From one skeptic to another: sand sand sand!

2) Paint with a sponge brush. This compensates for the time you spent sanding. Not only you do you minimize streaking, but I found that it is much easier to control the amount of paint you apply.

3) Expect the rule of thirds. One third of your time will be spent building, one third will be spent sanding, and one third of the project time will be spent painting.

And that, friends, is the story of the barnyard bench.

Collection

In our jars, we hold a mirror of our hearts. Tidbits of this and that, together a beautiful mosaic of where we have been and what we have done. But let us not forget, the true masterpiece is the dynamic canvas of the soul.

Pizza pizza pizza!

Yes, the pumpkin fest continues over here in Winnemucca. It doesn't look to be letting up anytime soon, so brace yourselves, my friends.

However, there is something beautiful and wonderfully creative in taking the same base (pumpkin) and enhancing it to make completely unique variation on favorite foods. Is that not what true art is? Also, let us embrace the wonder that is cooking with the ingredients you have at hand and fewer trips to the grocery store!

In this case, we mixed pumpkin into our pizza dough (1/2 cup, omit or reduce the water) and crafted this wonderfully delicious pizza. I have an admittedly small sample size, but it thus far bread products made with pumpkin seem to be more moist and have a more pleasant texture than  regular bread. But maybe I am biased (or desperate to use up my pumpkins). Needless to say, this pizza was delicious and fueled us for some wonderful craft projects which I will hopefully share soon.

Also, I am holding my pumpkin explosion at bay. I have made (and not blogged) curried pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin pudding. If you want the recipes, I am happy to share.

Dinner For One

Wine, homemade tomato soup, homemade grilled cheese (except for the cheese), wine, The Hours. Tasty, tasty.