So Much to Do....

What Kind of projects have I been working on?

* Currently I’m crocheting an afghan for John’s sister who is having a baby in July. I was given a lot of yarn that once belonged to Grandma Evans and when I first looked at the pile of green, brown, off white and variegated I wasn’t sure what I’d do with them, or how well they’d turn out together. But I found a pattern that I liked and got started. I did have to buy a skein of orange yarn because I needed an extra color, but the pattern has turned out pretty cute. I call it “retro blanket” and can’t wait to see how it looks when I’m done. There are a few issues that I just can’t seem to rectify, like the seam where I trade yarn is a bit zigzag, but whatever. I can deal with that. And I’ve missed a stitch or used the wrong stitch here and there, but I don’t think Rachel will care… if she does then she is just ungrateful and I’ll take the blanket back. I was almost done with it about a week ago, but I accidentally cut a string while weaving in some ends and ended up having to unravel 15 rows of stitching (!!!) since the blanket is just two patterns of 24 rows each 15 is a lot, and I almost cried. But I didn’t.

* Also, my Halloween quilt has been calling me from the cupboard where it went to die. I really would like to work on it and get it done, but it just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen for a while. Good thing I have my entire life to get it done.

* Next: I saw on-line some totally cute felt alphabet letters and I thought to myself “I can make that.” So I went out and bought some felt and found a pattern for the letters. And that is as far as I have gotten. I thought they would be fun for my littles but Auntie Liz isn’t as organized as she should be.

Speaking of being organized...

* Then there is the mess that I call the “other room” I have been working on this little bit by little bit. The giant DI purge from a few weeks ago got some of the stuff out, but there is still a long way to go. -- Right now I’m working on organizing the desk. Now, this desk seems to collect all the small items that go into this room, as well as being my vanity for my hair dryer and other sundries hair items. I’m going to clean and organize all the drawers and get my hair stuff gathered together.

This is the BEFORE picture of the desk:

I did a little dent into the desk the other day by organizing the random “junk drawer” Tupperware’s that have been hauled from place to place as we’ve moved over the years. You can see them there on the right side of the desk.

Here is the AFTER picture of the bin purge:

It takes up a little more room on the desk, but it also holds more items that were making messes elsewhere in the house. Now I have two empty containers that can be repurposed for something else, as you can see I now have some items organized. Ribbon, Sticky Things (tape, glue, stickers, labels), Writing Utensils (pens, pencils, sharpies), Crayons & Markers,  Paper (Crafting, Printing, Note) … So far so good.

Now I just need to go buy a few more plastic drawers for things such as Party Supplies, Coloring Books, Sewing Stuff, and Batteries. (That's the list so far, but I know I'll come up with more.)

* After organizing a little in the other room I started pulling out drawers in the kitchen, to see what could be sorted out into the new drawers in the other room, and managed to get the computer desk drawer cleaned out and sorted. It looks very nice, but I don't have a picture of it.

Then I moved to what has become the dumping drawer for random tools and instruction manuals in the kitchen. I sorted through it all and threw some stuff in a new DI box and put all the instruction manuals by the filing cabinet to be put away properly. I put all the random screws and nails from build it yourself furniture and put them all in their own bags. I threw out some stuff that no one knew what it went to, and made everything look nice.

Here is the BEFORE and AFTER pictures:

 

 

* Recently I got really annoyed with the pants I had been wearing to work. They were all black and just a little to short. I know, funny that I'd have a pair of pants that were too short... I think they shrunk over the years. Anyway, I bought this really nice pair of pants from Wal-Mart.com but they only come in one length... super long. They were about 6 inches too long. I thought I'd get someone else to hem them for me,but after wearing them a couple of times with the cuffs pinned up I decided that I just needed to do it myself. I searched the internet on some "How To Hem Pants" and came up with a pretty good idea of what needed to be done. I think it helped that I have a little sewing background. One night I pulled out my pins, my scissors, a needle and thread, and my iron and got to work. I think I did a pretty good job. I don't think anyone can tell that I did it myself. I did decide that next time I will pull out my sewing machine instead of doing all the stitching by hand. That just took too long. But I got it done and I'm very impressed with myself. I learned a new skill, I think that's worth a <level up>.

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER pictures even though they're not the best:

 

* I'm still working on the Big Bad Jesus Book for my niece Mikayla. It's still just a scattered mess of pictures and words right now, but I'm getting ready to get back to work on it. I was recently given a bag full of Ensigns to cut up. I hope they're different from the ones that I already had. The bag did include some Children's Friends though so that should be a helpful change. Again I send out the call that if you have any old Ensigns that you want to get rid of you can pass them my way. I need more. I think I'll go through the old Gospel Principles lesson manual and see what I can find in there.

* The Bathroom. That covers a lot of projects right now. The walls, the plumbing... it could also use some organizing and purging. There are some holes that need to be plastered and I think I could probably replace the calking around the tub. I think I am going to go with the "Canary Song" paint color.

 

* The Kitchen. If you have seen the ceiling in the kitchen you know what I'm talking about. But I decided that if I'm painting the ceiling I may as well do the walls too. I decided that the walls should be "Robins Egg" and for the ceiling "Popcorn" it's much more white than the picture would have you believe. Now if only we could do something with the cupboards and counter tops... but I guess I'll just improve where I can and let it be at that.

* And then after all that I decided I wanted my own herb garden... It sits on the kitchen table in the sunshine (when there is some. I'm a little surprised that the cats haven't knocked it off yet. Here is a picture of it after one week: