Ripping and Tearing up the Nasty!!!

Hi Everyone
It has been another crazy busy weekend in my house. It seems like there is not enough hours in the weekend to complete that dreaded to do list. Our to do list has grown from your casual chores to getting this house looking a little more modern.
Friday was spent finishing the hallway floors and planning for our projects. 
Saturday was spent shopping ALL day for what we had planned. We spent all of Saturday night painting doors and door casings in the hallway and kitchen. They were all a ugly ugly retro brown.... they are not white! They are still in progress but they are white, and OMG what a difference it made. The hallway looks brighter and so much cleaner if that makes sense. 
Sunday was the big day we woke up fairly early and started taking down the ugly wall paper boarder in our spare room. I think the guy that owned the house before was a bit scared of color because every bedroom  has white glossy walls with boarder around the top of the wall! Then it was off to do the thing that disgusted me the most.... Rip up olllllllddddd ugly DIRTY carpet! If you seen the color of this stuff underneath I think it would make anyone feel sick about having it in your house. To top it off I'm sure it was not laid new, I'm thinking someone ripped it out of there house ( With good reason ) and buddy took it and put it down in here. My neighbour seen us coming out the door with it and all she could say was Oh my god! hahaha. 
After getting that down we preped the walls for some paint. The paint color took us about 3 days to decide on but we found one. It is called Jasperware. After getting a couple coats on the wall it felt great to see some color hahaha. It is not exactly what I imagined for color but I think I like it.... I will know for sure if I like it once we get the trim up and the room complete. 
We then took the flooring that we just ripped up from the dining room and laid it in the spare room! Amazing! No more stinky carpet :) It also either got easier to snap in place or we are getting to be pros at flooring because it went together alot easier the second time around let me tell ya. 
We bought a bed frame from Jysk on Saturday because all we ever had was the matress and well that would look pretty bad on the floor, so we picked up the frame for $120.00 which isn't a bad price at all seeming I couldn't find one on kijiji for anywheres close to that. 
I took a old end table and spray painted it to match the finish on the bed. Another thing I am not sure if I like yet but we will see. I may make something to drape over the top anyways. 
Well I am going to post some pics below of before, and during the transformation... I will be posting the afters when I get everything I need to complete it. 
Let me know what you think of it so far. Good and bad comments are welcome. This was my first time going with such....color hahaha

 Mmmmm yuckieness!!!

 

This is the flooring that was underneath the carpet! It is literally EVERYWHERE!!!

 This picture was also in progress but you can see the wall color.


Keep an eye out for my update when it is all done. 


I will have some craft blogs soon, I just have to get my house in order first hahaha. 


Have a great day!

Awareness Ribbon Soap Sac

This is a pattern for a awareness ribbon soap sac. At first I thought it was kind of silly but when I left a bar of soap in my shower without it covering it I had a gross mess of soap stuck to the shelf.
This is a knitted pattern and would be great for fund raisers or just to keep in your bathroom. 

Cast on 62 sts.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: K2tog across row ( 31 sts now on needle)
Row 6: Purl
Row 7: K1, *yo, K2tog* (repeat between stars to end of row)
Row 8: Purl
Row 9: Knit
Row 10: Knit
Row 11: Knit
Row 12: K8, P15, K8
Row 13: Knit
Row 14: K8, P7, K1, P7, K8
Row 15: Knit
Row 16: K8, P6, K3, P6, K8
Row 17: Knit
Row 18: P5, K2, P1, K2, P5, K8
Row 19: Knit
Row 20: P5, K2, P1, K2, P5, K8
Row 21: Knit
Row 22: P5, K2, P1, K2, P5, K8
Row 23: Knit
Row 24: K8, P6, K3, P6, K8
Row 25: Knit
Row 26: K8, P6, K3, P6, K8
Row 27: Knit
Row 28: K8, P5, K2, P1, K2, P5, K8
Row 29: Knit
Row 30: K8, P4, K2, P3, K2, P4, K8
Row 31: Knit
Row 32: K8, P3, K2, P5, K2, P3, K8
Row 33: Knit
Row 34: K8, P2, K2, P7, K2, P2, K8
Row 35: Knit
Row 36: K8, P15, K8
Row 37: Knit
Row 38: Knit
Row 39: Knit
BIND OFF

Finishing Touches
Weave yard in and out on the bottom, then draw up tightly for a gathered bottom. Sew up back seam. Either crochet a chain or use ribbon to weave in and out of the eyelets at the top.

Insert a bar of soap, and tie the ribbon in a bow!

There ya have it! :)

5 months

When I woke up today and looked at the calender I couldn't believe it.

5 months ago today was my first day smoke free in quite a few years.

This is one thing I can honestly say I am very proud of myself for :) If you asked me a year ago if I thought I would be smoke free today I would have told you no way.
Smoking was such a huge part of my life.

At the first of April I decided I had enough of smoking running my life and the things that I did in it. I was tired of waking up in the morning feeling like I was going to cough up a lung.

My mom and dad had quit smoking a year and a half before me and they of course were on me big time about it. When I finally decided to quit I thought the best day would be on my father's birthday. It really helped me to pick that day because I knew it would make him happy and if anyone I thought would never be able to quit it was him. It was also the day before my birthday so I was able to celebrate my 23rd birthday smoke free.

Since mom and dad had harped on me so much to quit once I said I would I knew there was no going back because I would never hear the end of it hahaha.

If you were like me and think its near impossible your wrong. I learned you just have to be stronger then the cigarette. There are still times that I think about it and think about how great it would be but I just think back to the feeling of coughing up flem, and the smell of someone who smokes. I never use to notice it but OMG is it ever bad!

I sure will be celebrating next month when I can say it's been a half a year! Yayy

Easy to install flooring

So the flooring that we got for $10.00 a box for the entry way was supppppper easy to put down! I will definatly be laying more of it thorough out the house.
Our side entry is not big at all, and I only used 1 box of the 3 I bought! SCORE!!
Here are some pics from putting it down.

This is what it looked like when I started. Did I mention the carpet on the bottom of the stairs is suppose to be white....

This is what the entry looked like after I ripped up the carpet.....yukkkkkk

some of the floor down

This is what the pieces of flooring look like

 

The stairs in progress

All done except for the caps

same..

Looks so much cleaner and will be so much easier to clean now!

I will post a updates pic once I get the trim all put back and get some of the trim at the top of the stairs painted white.... I have the paint and decided today was a perfect day. It didn't happen. I started putting it on and it is going on milky.. I am going to Home Depot tomorrow to have that fixed. I hate when I'm trying to do something and nothing seems to go right.

Keep an eye out for updates.

I also hope to get some crafty things posted once I manage to put my house back together hahaha

have a great day!

Flooring renos

I am currently sitting here writing this and my hands are covvvered in construction adhesive hahaha. Does anyone know how freaking hard this stuff is to get off? Let me tell ya, I've washed my hands 6 times and it's still not off. 

I just took a break from doing flooring to give everyone a update because it has been a couple days since my last post. 

I do plan to get some knitting how to videos uploaded but it may not be until the end of the week now. 

On Friday I was talking with my friend Heather over at Traveling Thrifter and she was telling me about this store here in Edmonton called the Restore which all the proceeds go to the habitat for humanity which is great. Sean and I decided to check it out on Saturday (which just happened to also be 30% off that day)

You would not believe this place. It is like heaven for every do it yourselfer on a tight budget! There was so much to look at I circled the store 3 times going up and down every isle. 

We came across where they keep the laminate flooring. We found 10 boxes of 12mm beautiful laminate that looks like hard wood. We knew we wanted it but we  had no idea where we were going to put it. Sean (my fiance) came up with this crazy idea that maybe we should rip up the laminate in the dining room and hallway to put this stuff down. I looked at him in discust because we JUST got that flooring all finished with trim and all the goodies. I had to circle the store once more to think about if I was actually going to even consider this crazy idea... As we stood there looking at this amazing flooring which btw is only available through pre order (I`ll tell you how I know this in a min) I thought well it is beautiful and not to mention on $10.50 a pkg! We bought 10 boxes of it. 

We made the trip back home and unloaded the car. I decided before we get started I was just going to do a quick measurement... Only to find out that we are 18 ft short. Not square feet, just 18 feet. Agghhhh we didn`t know what we were going to do now. We jumped back in the car with a piece of the floor in hand and were going to see if maybe we missed a box. Guess what... Nope, we had bought all they had. So there we stood wondering now what do we do. We called around to 6 different places only to find out that this flooring can only be ordered in and is not carried...Great! Now what?!?! 

We managed to find a box of flooring that wasn't the same color but had all the same dimensions so we grabbed it and hoped for the best. 

I'm just going to mention that to get to this place is 45min one way... hahaha

We get home and start ripping down the waincotting and chair rail we just finished and taking down the trim that was just put up and pulling up our floor that is only 3 months old.

This is what the dining room looked like when we bought the house

This is what it looked like when it was in progress (the 1st time) 

And now.... this is the newest floor we have put down.

It is still in progress because while I was taking down the wainscoating a few pieces broke...... so now I have to replace that. 

Since we were a bit short and picked up that other box of flooring we used it in the hallway to create a bit of a design. 

I will post a picture of this once it is all done. As you can see they do look alot better but Ohhh what a way to spend a Saturday. By last night both Sean and I hit the bed at midnight and were out like lights. 

Sean left for a work trip today leaving me home and bored... So what did I do?

The second he walked out the door I decided I hated that our side entrance had carpet and a few weeks ago I had covered the old 70's flooring (see pic 1) with peel and stick tile. It didn't look bad but it didn't look good so I started ripping stuff up. I'm sure my neighbour thinks that I am a mad woman because I just opened the door and started biffing out pieces of flooring, and old dirty stinky carpet. 

Yesterday while we were buying the laminate I came across 3 boxes of Traffic Master resilient plank flooring. I recognized it from my fiances parent's house. They had nothing but praise for this stuff and I wanted it so bad. It looks better then laminate and is water proof.... We had checked it out once at Home Depot (They are the only ones carrying it right now) but they wanted $45.00 a box for it and I just couldn't spend that kind of money.... Luckily for me I got it for $10.50! Whooop whooooo. Since I have never worked with this before I thought some construction adhesive couldn't hurt to have on the bottom of the pieces because it is a heavy traffic area ( hence me being covered in it ) and come to find out this crap is sticky to begin with the construction adhesive is only going to cement it in place hahaha I pitty the next guy after me.... I just hope that dosen't back fire on me... Ohhh I'll be angry hahaha

This is now also another work in progress and the pictures will be posted as soon as its done.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Oh and before I forget to mention that flooring that is like 3 months old that we tore up is going to be used in another room in the house that we desperately need to get the carpet out of.

Star Dish Cloth

It might be a bit early and some might think I'm crazy but I am wayyy to excited for Halloween and Christmas this year. 

I have started knitting up my Christmas dish cloths and towels and when I made the start dish cloth I thought it was more Christmasy. (I know its not a word but I'm going to use it because that's how I roll)

I wanted to share the pattern with everyone so you can give it a try. 

I am going to also attach some video's for those who may not know what the stitch is they are calling for. They did not turn out great but you will get the point. (I had my camera tied around my neck, not ideal but it worked hahaha)

This video above shows you how to complete rows 1-5. Hope it helps. 

Star Dish Cloth

Cast on 16 stitches

Row 1: SL1, K3, yo, K10, turn, knit back

Row 2: SL1, K3, yo, K9, turn, knit back

Row 3: SL1, K3, yo, K8, turn, knit back

Row 4: SL1, K3, yo, K7, turn, knit back

Row 5: SL1, K3, yo, K6, turn, knit back

Row 6: Cast Off 5 stitches, knit

Row 7: Knit (you will not be back up at the top. 

Repeat the above 7 rows until you have 12 points. 

Cast off

Then sew it together. 

It should look something like this

Picture quality is not that good because it was taken with my phone... remember my camera is gummed up with electrical tape. Errr

Dryer Duct Pumpkin

When I first seen this I had to do a double take because it was the most unique thing I had seen in a long time! 

I just had to have one and ran out that night to buy the supplies to make them. 

To start you need this

Just plain old dryer duct!!

Stretch it out and glue it like this

Then take it outside and put a few coats of spray paint on it. I didn't prime mine and I thought it turned out pretty cool. 


I used 3-4 cinnamon sticks glued together for the stem and to decorate the top I used left over leaves and raffia from my Wreath project.


They were super easy to make and look so unique. 
I bought my dryer duct from WalMart for about $13.00 and it made 3. 


Give it a try!

Fall Wreath

I've been wanting to do a fall wreath forever but I guess I had just never got around to it. 
Now that we finally have a place were proud to call home I've decided it was the perfect time to give it a try. 

I got the twig wreath from a craft store for $3.00 which I thought was a great buy. I also bought some of the leaves for it there. I bought them on the long garland because I got more for less. I also bought the letter M there. It was just plain wood.
I decided that maybe I need some different colors of leaves and hit up the dollar store because that's how I roll. I wish I went there first because they had a much better (well cheaper) selection of leaves and I found that the colors were much nicer. 

I started by taking some left over fabric from the Rag Quilt I made and used it to cover the letter M. 

It took a little longer to do then I thought but I think it turned out pretty good. It probably would have been easier to paint it but oh well. 

For the rest of it I just cut the leaves of the branch and stuck them in throughout the wreath and then glued them in place. 

I tried to make a pumpkin for the bottom of the wreath out of raffia which I used the same deign that I did for the Wire Pumpkin. You can't notice it much in the picture but when you are up close you can see it. 

This was very simple to make and the cost was about $15.00

Here's a look at the finished product. 

 

Wire Pumpkin

Since my evening did not get off to a good start I did not get done what I had planned. Sew what? That's how I roll...

I started the afternoon off with my camera not working right... which I need to post pics on my blog so I couldn't go any further until I fixed it. I fixed it all right. I decided to take tape (I only had electrical nearby) and cover the lock button on my memory chip because some how it went missing. I popped the chip in and great it takes pictures. 
I then remove it from the camera and the tape is not attached to it, aghhhhhh. I knew electrical tape was sticky but not that sticky. I spent about an hour and a half after that trying to get the tape out and tweezers were just to big to fit in. I got some chunks out and had to give up. 

We made the BIG trip to the city (us country folk have to plan these kind of trips hahaha) 
I found some great things at Michael's, WalMart and GoodWill. I was so excited to get home and get something made so my one follower could wake up to a post :) 

We made it through the door at 9:30 and still hadn't eaten supper my little projects were going to have to wait. I finally had to choose.... which one I was going to do first. 

I decided to make a pumpkin. I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it and it may end up torn apart by tomorrow but for now I am going to post a picture of it. 

\

 

Little Girls Easy Poncho

When I first began knitting I wanted to make my friends little girl a poncho. It is so easy and seems to go pretty fast, not to mention how adorable they look! 

 As you can see I have to use my lamp as a model haha. 

Here is the pattern if you would like to make one yourself!

Sizes

To fit chest measurement

12 months     18"

18 months     19"

2-4 years      23"

6-8 years      26.5"

Materials - 113g/4 oz ball of yarn

Sizes    12         18         2-4       6-8  

           mos       mos       yrs         yrs

             1            1           2           2    ball(s)

Size 5mm knitting needles.

I always use circular needles because I find they are easier to sit on the couch and do a project. That's how I roll.

The instructions are written for smallest size. If changes are necessary for larger sizes the instructions will be written in this ( )

K = Knit

P = Purl

tog = together

sts = stitches

WS = wrong side

RS = right side

Sl1 = slip one

psso = pass over

MAKE 2 PIECES ALIKE

Cast on 65 (73-85-97) sts

1st Row: (WS) K1 *P1, K1 Repeat from * to end of row. Rep this row of seed stitch twice more.

4th Row: (RS) K2, K2 tog, Knit to last 4 sts, Sl1, K1, psso, K2 

5th Row: Purl

6th Row: Knit

7th Row: Purl

Next Row: Repeat last 4 rows 10 more times

48th Row:(RS) K2, K2tog, K to last 4 sts, Sl1, K1, psso, K2

49th Row: Purl

Next Row: Repeat last 3 rows 5(9-14-19) times more. 

Cast off knitwise.

Finishing

Sew center front and center back seams.

There you have it a little girls poncho.

On another note. If your hands bother you from the movement of knitting, quilting, etc Try out some crafter's comfort gloves. I managed to score mine at a yard sale brand new for $10.00 they retail for about $30-$33

I was skeptical about them when I bought them but thought they were worth a try. Believe it or not they do help. I don't find when I am knitting for a long period of time that my thumbs get cramped up anymore. 

I now wear them while I do everything. Plus they keep my hands warm and not so dry from touching all the fabric.

Rag Quilt

Rag quilts are the latest trend in quilting. The are quick, easy and fun to make! They are a great project for any quilter weather you are a beginner or have been doing quilts for years! If you can sew a straight line you can take this on! This quilt was my stepping stone into quilting and I love it! There is so much you can do to customize this for any room in your house.

These quilts are great for snuggling up in front of the tv, or over the bottom of your bed. My fiance and I both have one that we curl up in every night. 

The rag quilt can be made of denim, flannel, or polar fleece. It has to be a fabric that will fray and unravel when washed. Anything with a loose weave is good, flannel is a very popular choice. 

Once you have your fabric picked out you can make this quilt in as little as a weekend. 




If you happen to buy to much fabric don't worry, use it to make a matching throw pillow or to do some applique on your quilt.







Your quilt does not have to have batting, if you are using denim for example you may decide not to use any at all because it will be warm enough without it. If you are making it out of denim and choose to use batting make sure it is lightweight as it will be difficult to sew through 2 layers of denim and your batting which may also be very hard on your machine. Another option instead of using the tradional batting is to use flannel. I find this is really nice when you are making the quilt out of flannel.




Cutting the pieces for your rag quilt
Choose a minimum of 3 colors for this quilt. The more color the better! 
 
Decide on the size of squares you want to use. For your fabric which I am going to refer to as flannel because that is what I enjoy using you want your squares to be between 7"-12" in size. You will be using a 1/2" - 1" seam allowence so for each block so please keep that in mind while deciding on the size of the quilt you want. You will also want your batting (if you choose to use it) to be 2" smaller than your flannel square. 


My personal choice of size is 8" for the front and back squares with a 6" batting, because that's how I roll.


Okay so you have cut your top, bottom, and batting squares. Take your bottom square and put it right side down, then take your batting and place it centered in your 8" square. You will then take the piece you want to use for your top square right side up and line them all up together as square as possible. You will then sew a line from one corner to the other and again making a X on your fabric.

You will do this for all of your squares.

Hint: Using a walking foot on your machine will help the fabric be more stable so that tucks and puckers don't occur. 

Below I have done a pattern diagram of a quilt that I have made. I will use this to explain how to now piece it together. I find drawing how I want the blocks placed to be the easiest way to follow it. 

 Start by sewing all of your first row together. If you use the same color for the front and back of your squares this will be easier. That 1/2" to 1" seam you left you will be cut later so make sure the raw edges are all facing the same way. 

You will then attach row 1 to row 2 and etc. again make sure your raw edge is still pointing all in the same direction.  


After you have attached all the rows together sew 1/2" - 1" inside the outer border all around the quilt.  



Using heavy-duty or spring loaded scissors, cut lines in the seam allowances about 1/4" apart. Try to cut as close to the seam as possible without cutting it. (If you cut the seam it will fall apart in that spot when you wash it)

 The scissors above are what I bought for doing rag quilts. I got them at fabric land for about $12-$15. They are great! You need ones that will cut 2-3 layers of fabric with the last 1/2"-1". 

Once you have cut all the seams then throw the quilt in the washer and run it through on a normal cycle. I use cold water becasue sometimes the colors will run so this will reduce that from happening.  I do not wash these in my own washer because of the amount of lint that comes off them is rediculous! It could clog up your drain in no time and that is cause for a HUGE mess. Spend the $4 and take it to the laundrymat!  




Once the cycle is finished give the quilt a good shake out and pop it in the dryer. Use pretty high heat because it will help the seams fray more and become soft and fluffy. Once again I would do this at the laundrymat. 

Once the quilt is dry shake it out. Lots of lint and fluff will come off. Use a lint brush to remove any excess lint and loose threads. You may also want to trim up some of the frayed edges. 
If you have some stubborn threads that you just can't get off try using the vaccum cleaner to suck it off.  


The more this quilt is washed and dried the fluffier and more frayed the seams become. 

If you have any questions that I may answer please let me know.  

Here is a look at the finished product

Working Hole

This here is my little working hole. As you can see it is also our laundry room but I find it is the perfect place for me. Since I didn't have a ton of space to work with I couldn't buy a table to do my cutting on. Instead I used the top of my washer and dryer and put a piece of plywood over them. It works great! I am not cutting to high or low so if I have a lot to do I am not hurting myself. 

You can also notice my little helper in the picture. He is always there to see what new is being made.

I plan to recover that chair someday very soon and get the floor painted. That will all come in time. 

Since I didn't want to be on the concrete floor for sometimes hours  doing my cutting I went to walmart and bought a package of those foam blocks to put down. They work great and also where it is a laundry room and things do tend to get wet from time to time I am not wasting time drying out a rug. Wipe these babies down and keep going. 

I have found that a good sewing table is a must!!! It makes things so much easier and also keeps all your important tools such as scissors, bobbins, pins etc right at your finger tips. I found this little beauty at a thrift store for $9.99! 

As you can see it is nothing fancy, but that's how I roll! :)

I hope to publish a blog after I finish any quilts, sewing, knitting, crafts etc. Hope you all enjoy! 

P.S. A big thank you to my friend Heather  aka. Traveling Thrifter for all of her help keeping me motivated. 

Also if you are looking for some great christmas gifts join ETCH designs to find something for everyone on your list. Another plus is you don't even have to leave your home! They are great prices and custom so no matter who it is your buying for they will think you've put a lot of thought into it (Ahhh hemmm GUYS) She will also ship anywhere! Check ETCH designs out on facebook!

That's all for now!