Spring Break Projects

Since Baby Sam has come along progress has stalled on the Butler's Pantry craft room. We finished the desk and it looks good but I need to get a protective piece of glass/plexi cut for the top and also need to work out some kind of bookshelf/storage options for all my supplies and fabric.

We have two built in cabinets in there but they are very deep and the shelves are not very tall so it will be a bit of a task to get those into usable condition. Right now they store all my canning jars, batteries, lightbulbs, and excess food items from Costco that don't fit in the kitchen cabinets.

So in the meantime I'm moving on to the dining room. I'm hoping to get it painted over the break and am searching desperately for a new dining table. Our current table came with me from my apartment in NJ and with the leaf in it will seat 4. Not exactly functional with our expanding circle of friends and their expanding families.

Our current table looks like this one but with a wood colored top. I got it from Target some time in 2006.

Our dining room is large and full of windows so I'm looking for something that seats at least 8. We're planning to have LOTS of babies so I didn't want to spend too much money or buy anything too precious that I wouldn't mind getting scratched or damaged over the years. 

We talked about the Norden from Ikea but thought we would continue to look around and see if we found anything else in the meantime. Only problem with the Norden was that the large size only comes in white or birch and we preferred the darker beech or antique color.

I just found a antique white farmhouse style table on craiglist that has a stained wood top and 6 matching chairs for $425. I'm going to go look at it today and see if it will work.

UPDATE: The table and chairs were awesome in every way and we picked it up the next day. I also painted the dining room a rich navy blue called Starless Night by Behr. We picked up a remnant rug from Home Depot for $88 and some drop cloth curtains. There are a few more details to work out but pics will be posted soon. And by soon I mean a long time from now.

What I Made: Samuel Mason Blossom

Meet Sam.

Born 12/9/10 at 12:43 p.m., 7 lbs. 11 oz., 20 inches long.

Baby Steps

We got a lot done on the desk for the butler's pantry/craft room the weekend after Thanksgiving.

This is by no means the only way to make a desk from a hollow core door but it did the trick for us. The idea for using the door came from the lovely John and Sherry at younghouselove. Only problem for us was our house was built in 1931 so we don't have a stash of hollow core doors laying around anywhere. We thought about making the top out of wood but when the door only costs $20 I said why bother? It's flat, square, has smooth edges already and you can even splurge and get a door with a hole in it for $10 more and use that as a place to drop all your electrical cords. So that's what we did.

We also veered a little bit on the table leg thing since I was going for something that looked a little less modern and a little more like this.

Here is our illustrated step-by-step, excluding any pictures of attaching the top to the base or painting. What can I say? I got lazy with the picture taking.

Here is the door laying next to the frame we built out of 2x4 studs. They were cheap and going to be painted black so there didn't seem to be much sense in buying any fancy wood.

 Studs. You know what they look like.

Table legs. These had screws already installed in the top that we removed. We basically screwed through the frame and into the legs and prayed that once the door was screwed securely to the frame it would help stabilize them. It worked pretty well.

This is the frame sitting on top of the door. We used a chalk line to mark a 1" border all the way around the door so we could do our best to keep the frame square. The door is a 24"x80" hollow core door from Lowes. 

Mr. Blossom attaching the support for the middle of the frame. I don't know if the door really needed the additional support but we had the wood and figured it can't hurt. Ignore the camouflage beanie. I don't know where he got that. Actually, I do and I was with him when he paid good money for it. I couldn't stop him.

Here are the legs and frame painted black. I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Pure Black High Gloss. We had some already on hand from painting our exterior doors so we just used that. We did have to purchase a quart of the same paint in the off the shelf white semi-gloss for the top.

More pics of the finished product once the room comes together a little more.

What I Made: Mobius Cowl Scarf

I've been itching for a knitting project lately. Just something to keep my hands occupied since I'm spending a good bit of time sitting still these days.

I have always been a half-hearted knitter, not really interested in learning proper technique or following a pattern. I still knit using the same method I was taught in Girl Scouts many a year ago and I've been told by a professional that it's a sort of backwards-style that I use. I've managed to make quite a few scarves as gifts over the years and even tried my hand at the stockinette and rib stitches but knitting in the round was something I'd never attempted. Until now...

Enter the Mobius Cowl Scarf. I found it on purl bee which is an excellent resource for all things fiber-related. Mine is obviously a little bigger (I cast on 130 stitches instead of the 80 instructed based on some instructions I read elsewhere) than the one shown and I didn't use a contrasting yarn to show the "twist" in it but I like how it turned out just the same.

I used almost one full skein of Lion Brand Homespun Yarn (I feel like it hides my mistakes better than a regular yarn) in Apple Green. I also purchased my first set of circular knitting needles for this project, Takumi Bamboo needles (36", no. 13) which was probably bigger than I needed but I was hoping for something a little chunkier. It just doesn't get cold enough here in the South to warrant an actual scarf so if it allowed for a little breathing room that was alright with me.

I still need to weave in the ends but I'm calling it finished. The picture above shows it wrapped around twice which is really the only way I could possibly get away with wearing it. I could see adding a large wooden button or a felt flower pin as a way to dress it up or make it more versatile.

I'll have to get better at taking pictures of projects as I go. Oh and taking pictures in daylight, when it's not super dark and raining outside. Silly amateur blogger.

Thanksgiving Break

Today is the first day of Thanksgiving Break if you work for the public school system here in town. I have big plans to do a quick makeover on the butler's pantry. The intention is to turn it into a crafting/sewing/pantry type room but right now it's just a bunch of piles of boxes of books and all my crafty goods.

At 38 weeks pregnant, I'm pretty sure my back will give out before I get very far but I'm willing to at least try!

For the sake of keeping it real, here are some before pictures.

Tonight's Dinner

In short, it was delicious!

Let's open the pots

braised beef with onions+carrots+mushrooms

mashed potatoes with butter and heavy cream

seared brussel sprouts with pancetta

sweet potato casserole