Hang Up 4 ~

It's all about bedroom curtains today. Truth be told, the curtains were hung back in October when I made a push to finish decorating the bedroom. I never gave you a final tour, and looking at some old posts, I realized that the bedroom has come a long way. Today's shots will give you even more details...

The curtains are the Matilda variety from Ikea. I love them: they let light in and have a subtle bit of texture and pattern going on. BUT our bedroom window is in the middle of a big wall {we don't have any other art on the wall, and we want it that way}, so the white curtains on a creamy, white wall was looking a bit boring.

The fix ~ topping the curtains off with a panel of patterned fabric:: This was so easy, I wish it hadn't taken me 4 months to do it! Since the fabric wasn't as wide as the curtains, the most time consuming step was cutting and lining up the patterned fabric so that I had the length I needed. I also took some time to make sure that when you look at the seam between the curtain and the top panel, the panel's design begins at the same place on both curtains. Small stuff, but I wanted them to look good.

I picked the color to match the knobs that I added to the dressers:: Remember way back in this post when I mentioned that the dresser drawer pulls were broken? I had a hard time finding pulls that were large enough, looked good, and didn't break the bank. When I saw these flower knobs in Anthropologie, I knew I had a winner! We kept the pulls that were broken ~ putting them into the top drawer on each dresser, and then the lower drawers have flower pulls. With that little touch of brass in the flowers, they really look good together!

And the icing on the cake? C and I have a running joke about octopuses. I wanted to get him something with an octopus on it for Christmas {a shirt? pint glasses? artwork?}, but when I saw this pair of octopus pillow cases, I knew I had the perfect gift for him and me {selfish, I know}! I wanted them because they matched the knobs and the panel fabric {that was not yet sewn to the curtains, but I had plans}, and I knew he would get a kick out of them.

And there you have it, throw a plant in the corner, slap a headboard on the wall, and call that bedroom done!::


Now, onto the guest bedroom, this place was looking good, but it also needed some curtains. I hung these in November, but thought I'd give them a shout out. It took me a while to settle on something for this room too. I wanted something with pattern here, but I didn't like the all-over-patterns that I saw. Then one day it hit me, I love our shower curtain! It's a cotton-blend curtain from Ikea with a flower silhouette pattern that goes half-way up the panel. Unfortunately I can't find it on their site and my sub par pictures don't show you their full glory, but I love these curtains. Bonus ~ the curtains were $10 each, so buying a set was much cheaper than most of the window-curtain options out there!

Here's a close-up of the pattern::

And the full she-bang::
I slid the curtain rod through the holes that were already in the curtain, and I love the folds this creates when the curtains are open, but if your curtain rod is really wide, it may be too big for the small button holes in many shower curtains.

Next up, we tackle coats...

A test.

One can never have enough
a. yarn ?
b. books ?
c. cloth napkins !

Being the perpetual savers that we are, I inherited a pile of old, used table-cloths, shower curtains, and other used fabrics from my mom. This pile is a variety of woven cotton patterns. They were stained and/or ripped in places, making them unsuitable for their intended use, but still had enough good space for "something else". I've recognized this as a problem. Something always has another use, and if I don't want to end up on Hoarders, I better have a plan to use up the old goodies at the same rate they're generated! So, I've started to whittle away on this pile, turning the un-stained, un-ripped sections into cloth napkins.
They are perfect in all of the right ways : super absorbent, generously sized, and relocated from the "hmmm" to the "ah-ha!" pile.

Because, like yarn and books, you can never have too many cloth napkins!

spring!

I'm a day late, but Happy Spring! And on that note, it's time for a spring break update. While I didn't visit Brazilians in Minnesota, I did hang out with a monkey and a peacock::

The trip allowed me to deliver some long overdue Christmas gifts, including one of Yarnmonster's "Knitting Sacks"::It was gifted to Nik, and filled with some sock yarn and Addi's to encourage her to take the leap into sock knitting... a week later, and all I have to say is holy socks.

Unfortunately, Schwartz Baby 2 did not arrive while I was there... and there's still no baby {unless something changed in the last 12 hours?}, but there is a baby sweater!::
This is Trellis, but knit on size 5 needles in an attempt to make a baby version. Since this baby's arriving at the beginning of spring, I thought it'd be great to give her a sweater that can be used as a little jacket through her first couple of weeks/months.

My break started with the timely "spring ahead" of the clocks, and I had plenty of time to enjoy the longer days watching the sun set::

And when you turn around, you see the sunset highlighting the topography of the mountains::

Enjoy the first weekend of spring!

*I'm off to buy some buttons for my finished Potato Pancake... details and pictures to follow!

The same, but different

After much playing with connections and such, I'm back, and I've realized that I have a back-log of posts to get out, so here we go~

The details of shot cotton::
Can you see the greens and shades of pink/red frayed ends? When I wear this I love the juxtaposition of the sleek scarf with the messy edges.

And, I had to give you a few more pictures from our time on the lake. The "lake" is really two lakes, connected by a little trough just deep enough and wide enough for us to sail or canoe through. On this weekend, the larger lake was completely ice-free while ice was starting to grow in the shady bits of the smaller lake.



And then, there's a picture from C's office on Berkeley's campus. Berkeley in an evening haze::

Something I completely forgot about is how every coffee shop in the bay area has a big bowl of brown sugar sitting out next to the white sugar and honey. This may be something that's common along the West Coast, but I've only noticed it in Berkeley and San Fran, and I have to say that I love it, and I can't believe that I forgot about it. As soon as I got home, I filled up a glass jar with brown sugar and it's stored right next to my coffee beans. At this time of year, my beans of choice are Trade Joe's Wintry Blend {dark roast beans with some cinnamon and peppercorns ~ easy to blend at home, I'm sure, but I like being restrained to only buying it during the winter months, making it more special}.

Now, finally, on to my 'almost hat trick cowl'.
I wanted to learn continental knitting, and I have to say that a cowl in the round is the perfect way to learn. It doesn't have to be perfect, because you don't really see imperfects in something that just slouches around your neck. There's no increasing, decreasing, or yarn overs, so you can just focus on the knitting.

So, why is this an almost hat trick? Well I knit it on the plane ~ I learned continental knitting, while flying across the continent on Jet Blue. not Continental Airlines. Obviously there was a mistake during booking.

I'm traveling with a new scarf::
This is another scarf from Bolt's line of shot cotton scarfs. So easy to make, so hard to photograph. I'll work on some better pics so that you can see the different colored threads woven together to make the fabric for these scarfs. The tanish fabric in this one unravels into beautiful greens and browns.

It's come in handy on this trip, when all you need is a light scarf to fight off any chills in the bay area... particularly when taking silly tourist pictures::

While in San Francisco, we stopped at the new Museum of Natural History... I love science, and I love natural history, but I don't think that this experience lives up to its pricey entrance fee.

We're now in the Tahoe area, where knitted items are key. I've been working on a 'hat-trick cowl' which I'll share with you in the next post.

In the mean time, we're taking advantage of the mostly ice-free lake to get in a bit of canoeing::
And every good ride in the canoe leads to an adventure::

*a happy thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night

Caution {WEATHER ADVISORY}

Notice: This blog is suffering from a period of uncooperative weather.

It's been downright overcast, foggy, gloomy, misty, rainy; should I go on? It's making all pictures hazy and not blog-worthy. But do not fear, spirits are high ~ the upside of this weather pattern is that it encourages cozy evenings inside crafting, and there's been plenty of that!

Here you have the shot cotton scarf::
The scarf is made from Spool's kit. This is the simplest scarf to make, and I love the rough edges that show off the different colored fibers used to weave the shot cotton.

And I have the inspiration for my next stenciled shirt::
This is a picture I took of an Alexander Calder mobile that was in Philadelphia's Calder Park a few years ago {I think the mobile is gone now, but other Calder's remain}. Once the weather advisory has been lifted, pictures of the shirt will follow... stay tuned.

Enjoy your Sunday*

Racing Stripes

We had one jam-packed weekend. Yesterday was spent wandering {while wondering} around Boston eating, shopping, and enjoying the cool fall weather. The eating included a hearty lunch at Bouchee, a delicious French cafe that we stumbled upon on Newbury St. If you're looking for a recommendation, try the trout*


And I love the city for shots like this ~ an alley of fire escapes and beyond it just a glimpse of a church in the sun.


Today was spent in Portsmouth, NH, where C competed in the Portsmouth Criterium and won first place in his category! I love being a spectator at all of his races, it's fun to see all of the action and spend some time outside wandering {while wondering} around with my camera. Today the weather was beautiful, the races were exciting, and we got to visit a great New England town.

Here's a shot of him crossing the finish line::


The town was full of different shops, art, and cafes.




One of my professors gave a list of restaurants. Unfortunately we didn't hit up any of the recommendations, but we did stop into a cafe called Popovers for an afternoon coffee and - wait for it - popovers. The popovers were fantastic and inspired me to try making some very soon.

As I mentioned, I finished the van curtains. I covered the original curtains with a combination of two different batiked designs. We used the orange fabric for the inside of the van and the purple fabric for the outside.


I was running low on the orange fabric, so we added a racing stripe to the long curtain that covers one side of the van.{the curtains are wrinkled, but the stripe is really nice and straight!}

Between races and other fun, I started a few secret knitting projects ~ glimpses will come this week*

Short and sweet*

Just a quick sneak peak of another sewing project that I've been working on. C's birthday is the last one of the summer, and he's being treated to new curtains in his van. He has a silver/grey VW Eurovan, and when we say silver/grey; those are the ONLY COLORS in the whole van. So we're spicing it up with this birthday project!

We chose two different batiked(sp?) fabrics for the curtains, one print for the inside and another for the outside (I'll show you the outer fabric when the project's complete).

This was a really easy project. I just sewed new fabric to both sides of the old curtains. We decided to do it this way for a couple of reasons::
~the old curtains were made from a nice heavy material that really blocks the sun or light from street lamps (which is great when camping)
~the inner fabric won't fade (although, yes, the outer fabric will fade)
~we didn't have to mess with the little hooks and the MANY snaps that are already attached to the old curtains (the curtains snap to each other when closed and to the inside walls of the van)
~it made the measuring and sewing of straight lines SO EASY!

The one snag in our plan? There wasn't quite enough of the inner fabric for all of the curtains. So with some planning, measuring, and cutting, I should be able to show you our solution soon...

In the meantime ~ my apartment smells like cinnamon! I used the basic bread dough {from the holy grail of bread books}, rolled it out into a rectangle, smeared on a little bit of cinnamon, brown sugar, and butter. Rolled it up & let it rise in a bread pan and then baked it to make a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread. yum!

Sew it's your birthday?

There are a few summer birthdays around here, and it seems that sewing was the craft of the season.

As I showed you earlier, I made Soulemama's Gratitude Wrap for my sister Sarah. {you can find a free pattern for the wrap on the left side bar of Soulemama's blog}.

This was another one of those fun and easy projects that's easily modified. I used a piece of a tapestry {that I bought at urban outfitters} for the outside fabric. You may recognize this as the same fabric I used to make my laptop case not long ago.

My first modification was with the closure. The original pattern calls for ties, but I wasn't a big fan of those because I wanted something sleeker/less bulky. So, I sewed in a little loop of some "piping" {I'm not sure what it's really called!}, and then I sewed a button on the back to wrap the loop around::You'll see in the first picture that I also sewed a button on the front where the loop is attached.

On the inside, I didn't make any major modifications, just added some more details. A metal "S" that I picked up at Black Ink in Cambridge::

And some more buttons::

And then, I was hit with this surprise from supermama Nik::

She knocked my socks off with this great apron and oven mitt to use while baking some fresh bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The apron and mitt are amazing, I love the colors and the fun details {green pompoms!}.

And the bread book? As many people have mentioned, this book is great. We took it on vacation with us and baked bread all week - french bread, pizza dough, sticky buns, yum. The bread baking really is that easy.

And what's that rising in my kitchen right now? BREAD!

And what's growing in my yard? Some "little fingers" eggplant veggies::
I sauted a couple of these with zucchini and they made a great sandwich:-)

Have a great weekend*