Jiggywinks!

I am our Family Court Commissioner's secretary's Secret Santa. What a title! I think I've done a decent job so far. My proudest achievement was today's gift: I had a skein of chunky 100% merino wool, hand-dyed a nice green (her favorite color). I made her an infinity scarf! 1 skein extra-chunky wool Size 17 straight needles Cast on 13 stitches Row 1: *Purl 2 together, yarn over. Repeat from * until last stitch; purl 1. Repeat Row 1 until you have reached the end of your yarn, bind off loosely. Stitch ends together flat! My skein was perfect to make a two-loop infinity scarf, without being too tight or too loose. It took me about 3-4 episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation from start to finish. I didn't take a picture last night (I was so tired and I just wanted to package it up) but I have two more skeins of the same yarn...I bet I know what a couple of my co-workers are getting for their birthdays! Pictures will be posted at that time. Cost: free! Ya...

And it's my own silly fault. Time is money, and I need to stop giving mine away. That said, White Christmas sold out! I have ONE picture of my work, since we were so busy, I kept forgetting to ask people to pose.  The acetate dress I was working on basically fulfilled my doubts and started shredding. If I hadn't put those patches in the back the whole back waist would have been in tatters. The black and white one looked cute on Mary, here: I had three-inch heel dancing shoes, so I left the hem on my red dress be. For my nightclub dress, I just put in safety pins. Hey, if it works....This is hardly quality apparel here. So long as it looks good from the audience, we're good :) Aaaand we're done with the production! It was fun while it lasted, but I definitely think I won't be doing another musical so close to the holidays again. Not when I have my own projects to take care of! I foolishly agreed to replace a zipper on a hunting suit. That's going a...

Note to self: Never sign up for another musical during the Holiday Season! Musicals are a huge amount of work. Not only that, but it's unfulfilling. Yeah, it's fun, but honestly. I ended up forgoing a paying gig to be there. I paid someone else to cover another gig for me (that I wasn't getting paid for to begin with, so nobody else would have volunteered). I had to buy a pair of character shoes last minute because our choreographer (who is a GREAT choreographer by the way) was going to order us some at cost. But then she didn't when she couldn't find any to loan to us? I ended up paying three times the cost of the shoes to have them shipped to my house in time for what I thought was a dress rehearsal (per what the director told me) but what actually wasn't. Not even a run through. Also, I'm super tired of constantly being out of the loop. I miss two days when I'm sick, and that means I not only miss both dress rehearsals, but headshot day (which n...

So I committed the most mortal sin a project blogger can. I finished a project and gave it away without photographic evidence. Suffice it to say I made a nice-size baby blanket using this pattern . I expanded the width a bit because I believe in making blankets that toddlers can snuggle in. It was out of acrylic Red Heart "Made With Love" in Cornflower, left over from another project. I'm pretty happy I got those extra skeins out of my stash :)

Busy, busy busy! I haven't done housework in two weeks but you can't really tell...I'm never there to make a mess! The last few nights I've been staying up later to knit, but my main projects are costumes for "White Christmas". So far I took out hems in a sports jacket and a pair of fatigue pants (Phil has long arms and legs) and I've three more dresses at home that need various little things done. On one black and white dress (it's reallll vintage, and I'm pretty sure it's homemade) I had to rehem it, and fix a sleeve that was basically hanging off, and a rip in the front. The problem is the fabric has basically disintegrated at the rip and the sleeve. The rip isn't very neatly darned, because if I tried to close the stitches it puckered. :( Fortunately it's just a stage costume. I don't think anyone could have seen the rip to begin with and I just wanted to stop it from spreading. I'm still working on the sleeve...I ...

I'll be taking a little break from home projects for the next few weeks. I'm in show business, baby! Last week I was browsing the Monroe Theatre Guild webpage when I saw a bit for their new show "White Christmas" and a notice saying they needed female ensemble members. Sign me up! I ended up rehearsing with the cast for three hours that night. This is the 2004 Broadway musical we're doing, that is BASED on the 1954 movie.                     I grew up watching the movie, and I LOVE it. Just watching the Vista-Vision credit on the screen as it opens makes me get all nostalgic and happy and AAAAAAAA. The 2004 musical has more crude humor, which is disappointing, and I don't think it's necessary, but I'm not really surprised. There are a few other major changes: They added in more Irving Berlin numbers (I Love A Piano, I'm Happy, How Deep Is the Ocean, Happy Holidays, Let Yourself Go, etc) and cut some others (Choreography, Abraham). ...

This is a picture of my cousin Emily with her husband Ben ("Bemily").                                     This is a picture of my sister, Jocelyn. This is a picture of Prince Harry with a beard. Look up. Then look down. Then look up again.  Emily is my mother's sister's child. Apparently, Emily and Jocie have a ton of similar mannerisms and hit the the same milestones at the same time. They both have beautiful soprano/mezzo soprano voices and sing all the time.  I don't know Ben well enough to say, but I'm pretty sure the similarities between him and Prince Harry are purely superficial ;)

My bedroom has no light fixtures, depending solely on plugged-in lamps. Fortunately, I was given three when I moved in: a floor reading lamp, and two table-tops. Both of them were ugly as heck. One of them had brass-colored metal and was filled with fake flowers. Yuck! I disassembled it and spray-painted the metal bronze. I suck at spray-painting but I hope the mistakes aren't too obvious. I then let it sit for a couple weeks while I ordered origami paper and waited for it to arrive. I was pretty happy with the paper I ordered from Michaels. It is printed with Japanese on the packet! I then spent Saturday evening and a little time on Sunday afternoon folding origami cranes to stuff the lamp with. The hard part was getting them in upside down and filling the lamp full enough. I used about a third of the packet of paper, folded up.              Before I screwed everything back together, I put a bulb in and tested, to make sure I had rewired it...

A friend of my mother gave me this dresser. She picked up at a garage sale, and had refinished it, so that was really lovely. The mirror isn't perfect, but I actually like it that way. If I want sparkling definition I'll use the magnifying mirror in the bathroom. (For the record, I don't. It's like weighing yourself).  I lined the drawers with the same paper I used in my desk, which was actually necessary because the drawers would have snagged my delicates. I also rubbed soap over the contact points, which made it immeasurably easier to open and close the drawers. If I get a little bit of a sticking point, I just rub a bar of soap there. I have one of those little souvenir bars that I keep just for that purpose. Haven't had a problem since. :) I didn't really like the handles. While perfectly functional, they didn't match the style at all. Also, I wanted a little more cohesive look in my bedroom. My nightstand has porcelain knobs, so I looked for...

Last summer I was still living at home, and my parents have an apple orchard. I made a hammock out of canvas, put grommets in it, rope through the grommets, voila! Unfortunately the canvas wasn't quite as sturdy as I thought it was and the fabric itself ripped right along the top, along the seam. Well that shot it as a hammock, but I had only used it a few times. That was a lot of good fabric! So I cannibalized it and packed up the components for my move in October. I knew I'd find a use for it. I move into my brother's house, and I found my use in the laundry room. It had one window, and my brother had been using a bath towel binder-clipped to the curtain rod for a curtain. Cute. So I spent two hours making curtains. I trimmed the ends, cut it down the middle into two panels, hemmed it and made a rod pocket on each. The hardest part honestly was getting the rod back up on the wall. Because I'm short. :) Total Cost: Two yards of 45" wide Waverly  canv...

Hallo! Unfortunately, I don't have any "before" pictures of this desk. It was originally stained brown, very dinged up. It's still dinged up, but now it's yellow!  I got the cheap paint from Walmart, and I regret it a little, because it has never gotten a hard finish. Everything still sticks to it (after weeks in a dry climate). It doesn't come off on anything, but the pencil cup, for example, sticks to the surface. I don't close the drawers exactly flush, because then they'll stick when I try to open them. I'll remember the paint department at Walmart fondly however--the saleslady called it "Chick Yellow". It was "Chic Yellow" but that also works. Chicks are this shade of yellow too. ;) The desk originally had a sheet of glass on top. I kept it off after the repaint job, because it gave a bluish tinge to the paint underneath, and it sort of spoiled the new look the desk had going for it now. New hardware, from Hickory Hardw...

I am so vain. Look at me, getting a blog so I can show off my projects to anyone unfortunate enough to fall into my trap. Mwa-haha. :D Part of the reason I'm doing so many projects is because I think the aura of my sister-in-law remains in her old house. Lemme 'splain: My brother and sister-in-law owned this house in our hometown. They moved, my other older brother bought it, and I rent from him. And my room is Ruthanne's old sewing room . She wasn't just crafty. She was crafty and gooooood at it. Making-oven-mitts-that-look-like-rabbits-and-double-as-hand-puppets good. I've been there a month and already I've done three projects, and gotten like twenty more started. Hey, everyone knows how much fun it is to start projects and spend money! It helps that I have a whole bedroom to myself for the first time in my life. I can decorate it any way I want! (well, within reason, but I'm a very reasonable tenant). So be ready for updates my nonexistent internet a...