Work it

My last real project of 2007 was the dining room. The previous owner has painted over the wall paper with a ugly ass green color in a flat paint. My plan had always been to strip it and paint it, but with all the other projects I never got around to it. Then the house went on the market and I didn’t want to mess with it. With the holiday slow down it seemed like a good time to do it. I had the paint already and it would probably help the house sell. So I set out to work on it over the weekend. At right – there I am scrapper in hand, I used one of the special effects on that pic when I loaded on to the computer, but I cant’ remember which one.

An old pic of the dining room area

What it looks like now! I couldn’t resist a little color so I painted the trip Paris Blue.

From the other angle. That old phone cuby in the wall seems cool, but it’ really just a pain the ass. You can’t really do anything with it and there is no outlet on that wall.

I also painted some of the kitchen.

So much brighter! I was too lazy to do all the walls and I think I would have run out of paint, but the little bit I did made a big difference.

Ice, Fetching, New Do, Oscar, and more!

Wow I think I’m going to cover more topics in this one post than I normally do in a week!

First up – I am still in the hotel, the electric company told me this morning that it’s not safe for me to be going in and out of the house. I’ll be hitting Target this afternoon for a few necessities. They have no idea when the power will be back on. I haven’t heard from my realtor but I think it’s safe to assume at this point the sale of the house isn’t going to go through. No idea on the damage to my house etc until I can get back inside.

The boys seem to be ok with hotel life. They get to be on the beds and they aren’t allowed to at home. I got them some toys and chewies and rigged a chair so Oscar can look out the window. This his favorite past time at home. He was so happy he let me take this picture. Usually he turns his head when I try to take pictures of him. They aren’t barking and seem to just sleep all day which is what they do at home anyway

I’ve been picking up my mail at the post office everyday and yesterday this came! It’s Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace. As soon as I saw Juno Regina I knew I had to knit it. It seemed like fate since my upstream pal in the latest Secret Pal was Emily (she works at Lorna’s Laces, I’ll give you a moment to be alone with your envy) This is Cranberry and it’s stunning! I can’t wait to have time to knit with it!

In the middle of all of this I had a hair appointment Monday that I kept. It has been rescheduled twice already and given how things were going I figured it might be the only good thing for a while. Unfortunately I’m not happy with the cut. I love the color, she always does a great job. But I’d say almost every other time I don’t like the cut. She always cuts the top layer way to short. The over all length is ok, but the layers in general are way too short. I’ve spent the last two days feeling like I had “mom hair” I think I got it styled ok today, but I’m considering having her take another 1/2 inch off the bottom so I don’t feel like it’s so much longer than the top layers. Then I’m done with her. I’ll be getting my hair done somewhere else from now on.

In knitting news! I finished a pair of Fetching. They’re not Christmas knitting, but when you’re tired and stressed out you want to knit what you want to knit. Tab asked me to make a pair for her and I said I would after Christmas. The yarn came on Saturday and was so scrumptious I started knitting them as soon as it was daylight on Sunday. More details tomorrow since I think today’s post is long enough. Here’s a peek.

Now what?

I finished Harry Potter on Thursday. It was my day off and I put the time to good use. Right now I’m considering audio books the best invention since AC. No spoilers, but I will say I loved the end. Please don’t leave spoilers in the comments either, as someone who was desperately avoiding them I respect anyone who’s still finishing it. But if you wanna email directly we can talk about it. Since I listened to all the books straight through, that’s really all I’ve been doing for the last 6 weeks, so I feel rather bereft, I’m not sure what I should be doing with myself. *sigh*

In the continuing effort to make the house look so fabulous that it will sell tomorrow I’ve been doing some things I’ve planned to work for, oh I don’t know, the last year. I love odds and ends furniture not the matching stuff, so my parents are always picking stuff up for me at swap meets, estate sales etc. Sometimes it doesn’t work out but sometimes it’s love as first sight. The kind of love that needs a little coaching and some patient understanding because after all these are second hand pieces. I give you project one, I’ll call it an end table because that’s what I use it for, but I”m not sure it’s original use. Half of the top opens up and makes a great place to stash yarn. After some sanding, some primer and some paint ta da! It actually needs another coat of paint, but I love that blue color, it’s called Paris Blue.

I also painted this kitchen table, it was in bad shape and it really should have been done long ago. It was much more time consuming. What I love about it is that it has a removable leaf and the leaves on each end that fold down. Perfect for a small kitchen or dining room space, but it can seat 6 or 8 if you want to get really close. I coudlnt’ really decide on a color, I considered just plain white, but I’m really pleased with this yellow (officially Lemon Ice) It will look great with all my red and blue dishes.

After the thrill is gone

Several years ago when I was young and foolish (ok it was a little over two years ago but whatever) I bought a house. Like so many people I thought I wanted a house, I wanted to paint walls and have a yard, not have to listen to my neighbors doing it at 5 am, you know the reasons most people want a house. Well House – the thrill is gone, the love is over and trust me it is you, not me. That’s right I’ve made a decision the house is going on the market. I know the market isn’t that great right now, but I’m hoping I’ll be out of it by the fall, everyone cross fingers and toes. My birthday is at the end of August and what I want for my birthday this year is for the house to sell.

I’ve put a lot of work into this and I’m so glad I took before and after pictures so I could remember how much I’ve really done. I don’t have all the after pictures up but I hope to have them up soon.

PS I spent most of the weekend trying to avoid any Harry Potter spoilers.   I’m afraid to read blogs. 

You can’t call it cheatin’

Remember when I mentioned the changes I’m making and the New and Improved Me? Well apparently mental rearranging requires physical rearranging for me. Two weekends ago I completely rearranged my living room, last week my office and this week the dining room area. Now my house is old and set up kinda of weird. Off what was the original dining room area is a small add-on, I’ve always thought there should be a comfy chair there were I can sit and read and knit, but the layout just made it really hard. Well I think I’ve got it figured out. Part of it is, I just have too much “stuff” and some of my “stuff” is just too big for this area. So I removed quite a bit of “stuff” and viola! Of course all of that “stuff” is now in the basement and waiting to be arranged and put away. Oh well I’ll do that another day.

I’m very happy with the area, it’s well lit, it looks over my back yard and trees, I have no neighbors in back or on the side so I see nothing but yard and trees! Plus getting rid of some of the “stuff” that was just filler made way for some stuff I really like having around. Yarn! My radio is right there so I can listen to music or audio books if I want and I’m surrounded by yarn without cluttering up my living room. I’m quite pleased!

You can’t call it cheatin’… if you’re just swatchin’! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I finally decided on Cotton Fleece as a sub for the Dollar n Half Cardigan. I went to the LYS thinking I’d got with a brown because I really liked the one pictured, but when I saw the Pine Green on sale, I couldn’t pass it up! It’s gorgeous and on sale!

But I have sworn to finish Wicked first and I will. I had to rip back again. I had made a small mistake in the decreases, I thought I wouldn’t notice or care but after reading about a similar experience on another blog and the person said they never wore the sweater I realized I had to rip back. I’m almost back to were I was. If you haven’t been following along this is the 3rd time I’ve been this far on this sweater, the first time I realized it was way too big for me and completely started over. Thank goodness for top down knitting!