After many years of sun, snow, wind, and rain the vinyl shutters on our
house are faded. Instead of replacing them, I’m going to spiff them up so they
look better than new.
Can you paint vinyl shutters?
Yes you can! Here’s everything you need to know.
I’m still very new to the whole crocheting hobby thing. I’m still fumbling around and losing count of stitches on simple projects which usually means I have to rip out sections and stitch them over (and over and over) again. I can’t tell you how many months it took me to make a simple hat. I had to switch patterns at least three times before I could find one that I could understand how to follow it all the way through.
The key to my success (other than using a top down pattern with 2 stitches) is the instructions used stitch markers at various parts of the process.
Huh.
OK, I guess I could use some stitch markers then!
Naturally all of the stores were closed by this time. I poked around on line and saw that the only stitch markers I could by locally and immediately are really just bulb safety pins, which fortunately, I had leftover from a previous project.
I finished the hat and a few little projects before jumping into crocheting a Faeroe style shawl. After ripping out a section for the sixth time (I lost count) I figured a stitch marker would help me identify where I need to make transition stitches.
So I guess I need to keep removable crochet stitch markers in my little pouch of crochet tools.
I loaded up our folding wagon for its grand debut at an outdoor rehearsal. It immediately paid for itself the second I didn’t have to struggle carrying all of the things I needed that day down the long path from the parking lot to the outdoor rehearsal space. No wonder so many of my fellow cast members had folding wagons! *mind blown*
The only downside of the day was playing Where’s Waldo for my wagon in a sea of folding wagon that look like.
I need a name tag or label or spotter for my folding wagon that lets me identify it quickly and easily. I tried putting the bumper sticker I got at rehearsal on my wagon but it didn’t stick to the nylon fabric. Bummer.
I wanted something a little more fun than using a permanent marker to write our name. I wasn’t feeling machine embroidering our name or monogram on it either. My inspiration came from the small license plate with my name on it I had on my bike as a kid . Hanging one of those off the back rail of the wagon is ideal!
And stupidly difficult to find in a brick and mortar store.
I decided to make a quick and easy wagon ID tag that’s more durable than the cloth and cardboard stroller spotter tags I found on Etsy (not to mention they are all cutesy baby related. Great if you have toddlers. Not so great if you don’t.) You can use this project to make a wagon, stroller, or heck, even a bicycle ID tag if you like. Here’s how.
I was able to salvage the last builder grade vanity from my bathroom renovation for my workshop. I want to make it into the miter saw cabinet I desperately need – on wheels!
I had to make some repairs to the cabinet to fix the damage I made to it when I removed it. I added a few reinforcements to ensure the cabinet will take stand up to a heavy saw and before I added four locking casters just like these to the bottom. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) I chose casters I can lock in place to reduce the chance of the miter saw stand rolling backwards when I use the saw. I don’t think that would be a pleasant experience.
During our bathroom renovations the bed in the guest room/craft room has become a de facto storage area that also holds crafty bits.
Who am I kidding?
The bed is a dumping ground. It is a mess and it is driving me nuts.
Fortunately I have a great spot for a wall shelf to store the crafty bits above the closet door if I use a floating shelf. Let’s do it!
After putting the job off as long as humanly possible, it is time to clean and reorganize my craft room. Every craft supply and tool found an organized storage space with the exception of my embroidery hoops. I kept moving them place to place during the decluttering project. It didn’t help matters that I added several big and hard to store machine embroidery hoops to the mix when I got a sewing and embroidery machine for my birthday.
Her name is Bernadette. She can sew everything from chiffon to leather and has so many settings and features it is like flying a rocket ship. Cool, I always wanted to be an astronaut!
I sat and looked around the room trying to find a place for more storage. After quite a bit of time (I may have also been streaming Netflix) I found it – blank wall space under a shelf. Great!
One of the things I like about cleaning, decluttering, and organizing a creative space is rediscovering supplies (fancy talk for I forgot I had that!) I almost always end up using the found objects to make storage and organizers for the item I uncovered that don’t have a good store bought solution including this one.
Our dog Lacey lives life at 90 miles an hour. She runs. She jumps. She barks. She barks some more.
So. Much. Barking.
When Lacey practically flipped a switch from her normal bouncing off of satellites self to barely and cautiously walking it meant a quick trip to the vet for x rays.
Lacey has two slipped discs in her back which is common for dachshunds. We left the vet with meds for the pain and inflammation, bed rest for two weeks (good luck with that!) and to eliminate jumping situations as much as possible so her back doesn’t get any worse.
I bought these light weight dog stairs with a washable cover for the living room furniture Lacey is allowed to sit on. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) They aren’t the prettiest but they were cheap enough to buy a few more to add to what we have so that every chair/sofa in the living room has stairs leading up to it. We think jumping up on a chair that didn't have dog steps is how she hurt herself.
Sitting next to my people is my favorite place to be!
I also scored this exact folding dog ramp on Marketplace for a song because OMG folding dog ramps for cars are spendy! Hopefully we can get Lacey to use the ramp to get in and out of the car. No matter how many times we tell her to wait until we pick her up Lacey will catapult herself into the back seat of the car because waiting is for sissies – apparently.
Removing and replacing the entire master bathroom subfloor is a job that I haven’t been looking forward to and is the reason why we put the renovation off for so long. Everything hinges on the subflooring is cut perfectly to size and level. Once I removed the old moldy subfloor, I realized that there wasn’t anything to screw the new flooring to around the edges of the room. I can’t leave it this way or the new floor could slope over time and we’d have to start the process all over again. Trust me, once is more than enough!
I nicked a couple of joists when I was cut the floor to remove it with my circular saw by accident. This might create a weak spot where the flooring could squeak, crack, or sag or it might not because the cuts are not too deep.
What a long, strange, trip this year has been. My husband and I kicked off 2020 at a Roaring 20's party and shortly afterwards everything roared to a full stop. While it is all too easy to focus on the boatload of the bad things that happened this year, for my sanity and mental health, I'm trying to focus on the few positives I experienced:
- I did a lot of projects on my Do It Yourself Honey! list. DIY, craft, and otherwise. As a result, I got new and repaired clothes, household items, home improvements, and cleaned out a bunch of my fabric stash and scraps. Yay!
- A Christmas gift from my mother in law inspired me to relearn how to crochet. Something I haven't done since my grandmother taught me as a kid.
- Zooming all over the country to see friends, family, and performances regularly instead of the once or twice a year we normally do in real life.
- Having the free time to shop at farmer's markets and can a boatload of end of season sale tomatoes.
- Lacey is absolutely thriving with both of her people being at home 24/7 (although her people have gone a little stir crazy at times being home 24/7.)
Time to show off your creative recipes, projects, and ideas for the last time this year!
Many folks in the Scandinavian countries like to decorate their homes with gnomes for Christmas. There is a tradition where they enjoy an appetizer of rice porridge for Christmas Eve dinner and put a small bowl of it outside for the gnomes to thank them for protecting the family and helping them prosper during the year.
The gnomes get very upset and will play tricks on you if they are not rewarded with their Christmas porridge!
So personally, I think it is best to decorate with the not so fickle recycled variety and make quick and easy bottle Christmas gnome decorations. Although, just like the Irish leprechaun, gnomes don’t go away after the holiday and you can decorate with gnomes all year round if you like.
This is a very forgiving Christmas craft project because the way you make your gnome is only limited to your imagination and what craft supplies you have on hand or want to use for this project.
While everyone else was baking sourdough bread during quarantine, I was making hot process soap. I took notes on what I did right and wrong and while I can't quite get it as thick as commercial liquid soap like I want, it cleans and lathers beautifully especially when I use a plastic bath puff. While a loofah is zero waste because I can compost it, it doesn't perform as well as a mesh bath poof that has to be tossed after awhile due to bacteria buildup. I tried washing one once and it fell apart.
I hadn't crocheted since I was a kid and recently picked up a hook to make a dishcloth. I looked for more quick beginner crocket projects on Pinterest (follow me @condoblues on Pinterest pretty please?) and found the answer to my zero waste bath puff problem - crochet a bath puff from cotton yarn!
I followed this crochet shower puff pattern from Hooked on Patterns and it was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. My shower puff isn't perfect but still not too shabby for the third thing I crocheted as an adult. Best of all, I can wash it in a mesh lingerie bag in the washing machine when I need to - no more bath puffs in my trash can ever again!
Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!
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For the last couple of Christmases, I’ve struggled to find something to go with two lighted Christmas dachshunds decorations we display outside because an odd number of decorations grouped together is more pleasing to the eye than an even number. Since I bought those dachunds to celebrate of all things Lacey, why not put our fake dogs where our real dog likes to be - snoozing under the Christmas tree. In fact, we usually keep a spot under the tree clear of presents so Lacey can lounge on the fancy blanket surrounding it (although you may call it a Christmas tree skirt.)
I went with a more modern Christmas tree design because I really wanted to show off what makes my DIY tree different – the ornament windows. Also I can’t draw a traditional Christmas tree shape for beans.
Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!
Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:
Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst
If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!
You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!
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I have a love hate relationship with foam crafting pumpkins. I love that they are reusable. I hate that most of them look horrifically fake.
Yes, I know I could use real pumpkins. I do for indoor decorating and puree them later for Thanksgiving desserts.
Outside it’s fake pumpkins all the way where real pumpkins are most likely squirrel food and when performing at Fall festivals where real fruit is likely to get smashed.
This sweet little girl was fascinated by the pumpkin clip I made over. I am forever grateful to the photographer that captured this moment!
I bought a Halloween themed color your own mini tote bag kit (similar to the color your own tote bag kits here) thinking it might be a cute to hold allergy free Teal Pumpkin project treats during Trick or Treat. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for you convenience.)
I wasn’t too jazzed with the colors or quality of the three markers that came in the kit which is what I expected since it came from a dollar store. No big deal. I planned on coloring it with craft paint and adding a few easy embroidered accents and outlines for fun.
I have a love – hate relationship with spray paint. I love that spray paint will cover almost every surface (if you use the right formula) and easily paint hard to paint areas like indentations and intricate moulding. I hate that many of my spray paint projects en up with paint bubbles and drips.
The best way to avoid spray paint bubbles and dripping paint is to hold the can further away from object you are painting and use several light and even coats of spray paint rather than blasting a thick coat of spray paint from close up. Using a spray paint handle (you can find several types of spray paint trigger handles here) will help you paint with even coats of paint and not kill your fingers from pressing the can’s spray nozzle.
Spray paint bubbles are also caused by painting a second coat of paint on an object when the first coat is not completely dry. I know this because 9 times out of 10 I get spray paint bubbles because I thought my last coat of paint was dry after 24 hours and it was not. The joys of living in a humid area!
