Long Time No Blog

Boy has it been a while since I have posted anything! Life gets busy, kids grow, and you become involved in so much it seems there us not enough time for everything. With lending a hand in volunteer organizations and schooling the boys, my blog was the first thing to be dropped.

In the mean time I started working on other writing - trying to finish my novel. As usual, though, my fervor for the project lasted through an entire edit of the first 100 pages, writing of two more chapters, and then dissipated.

Now I am back to knitting, working hard on Christmas already, and finishing up baby items for two showers this weekend. Pictured above is one of the baby blankets I completed yesterday.

Stash Project #7: Door Stop

Our front room is the coldest in the house because of the high ceilings, but also because an inordinate amount of cold air flows underneath. My solution this week was to make a door stop so I would not have to resort to a rolled up towel.

This was one of the quickest projects I have done in a while, a mere 30 minutes start to finish. I sewed up scraps of Jean material measuring 6" x 45" into a sleeve, using half-inch seams. You could also use an old pair of jeans, sewing two legs together to make a long enough sleeve.

Now for the tricky part: getting eight pounds of dried beans into the opening at one end. If I had been smart I would have asked someone to help, or used a funnel. Instead I ended up sitting in a pile of beans with several pounds scattered in a five-foot radius. Lesson learned - ask for help, use a funnel. After picking up what doesn't make it in the first time, sew up the end and you are done!

Stash Project #6: Book Cozy

At the beginning of every year I want a fresh beginning, so somehow I end up going through my closets, cleaning things out, and lining up projects. The first project of the year, pictured above, is a book cozy.

With homeschooling, there are always too many books lying around and not enough storage space. The only place left was the wall just above the desk, and I was not about to spend $100 or more on pocket shelving. So I found some canvas that I was going to make a beach bag out of years ago, red denim my mom handed down to me, and set off to sewing. I made two of these four-pocket cozies, hanging one above the other on lightweight garden stakes (only after they were sewn did I find out that dowels were not long enough for the sleeve in the top!).

They are working so well that I am already eyeing other blank spots on walls in the other rooms.