Trials in product photography and new listing in the shop!

Right off the bat, I am not a good photographer. In fact, I'd just go ahead and say I'm a downright BAD photographer. It's just one of those things that I can't get to click (oh lord, no pun intended) for me. For years I decided it was just my point and shoot, as everything I took came out blurry and dark, and my solution was just to not take pictures. Win! However, on the rare occasion when I could get over my awkwardness about even taking out the camera to begin with, I'd go to download them to the computer, and realize that the Christmas pictures I was saving were the first pictures there since the Christmas before. Now I'm not saying I want to photograph every waking moment of my life, but I'd like to be able to look back on more than one day a year!

So 2 years ago, I decided, well maybe it's not all me! Maybe it's the camera! I mean, what problem can't you improve by throwing money at it?! However my thrifty side said that there was no way I was dropping $4 or 500 at a DSLR for something that realistically probably wasn't going to improve my pictures, so I went to Craigslist. I managed to find a 10 year old Canon Rebel XT. Definitely not a top of the line model, but I figured it was something that I could try to learn on. So I got my camera for about $200 I think, and I proceeded to put it in auto and use it just like my point and shoot! Yeah...that didn't help a ton! I mean, things got less blurry, and I had the courage to actually use it more, but still, there are so many buttons and modes that I just didn't know anything about.

For my birthday last year, I decided to go ahead and learn this darn thing. I tried looking at a lot of tutorials online, and actually reading my manual, but it still just felt like Greek to me. I decided that the best thing would be to take a class, so that's what I asked for as my present - one of those extended learning seminars for beginners through my alma mater. This...kind of worked. I mean, at least I now kind of know what a lot of the modes do, and in certain circumstances I feel ok putting it into manual for low light situations, which seem to be all of my situations inside my house. But I'm still bad. I can't seem to get a grip on white balancing, and I end up doing a lot of adjusting after the fact in Photoshop. I think what I probably need to do, apart from practice, is sign up for an intermediate class. Maybe I'll ask for that for my birthday this year!

In the meantime, I want to try to make sure my Etsy listings don't look like total garbage. #1, I want people to look at them. But #2, I can't say in the description, "hey, this totally looks better in person! Trust me! Just buy it, then you'll see!" So I need to try to make my items look realistic and try to convey the cuteness through the screen on a plain, non-distracting background. I was reading a book that talked about a super simple construction of a light box. Just clip smooth white paper onto cardboard and set it up like a box with 3 sides, aim a lamp into it, and shoot away!

Fail.

I mean, I guess it's a little better than just putting my little hats on my white desk and shooting from above. But not much. I think maybe my biggest problem was scale. Even for the baby hats I'm mainly working on, an 11x17 sheet of paper wasn't big enough so that I wasn't catching the edges of the cardboard in the shot, which just seemed to throw off the colors even with my feeble attempts at editing the photos after the fact. Also, I even went ahead and started writing up a listing for this cute little pumpkin head hat, and that little leaf just seemed so feeble! It was late, and I decided that it really needed more work before it was ready for sale, so I knew I'd have to retake the pictures anyway, so I might as well try to make them better.

I poked around a bit on Etsy to see what other people were doing. Of course the cutest and most common photo set up was the hat on an adorable baby's head. Duh! And I even have one of those lying around. However, I've taken a stance of not wanting to splash my baby all over the internet. We've not posted a single picture of her on line, even on Facebook. (We do all our family photo sharing via emails and texts.) So....it really didn't seem like a good idea to bend my rules to sell something! Then I saw some pretty attractive shots set up either outside, or in a little vignette somewhere in the house. I opted against an outdoor option because I work for a living and most of my spare time - when I do this stuff - is in the dark. So somewhere in the house it is!

We have espresso colored dining chairs and off-white curtains, so I thought that might be a nice and somewhat consistent background I could use for most of my items.

Except, well, reflection. No matter where I aimed my lamp I just got this hot spot on the not-leather leather-ish fabric of the chair. And then I thought....wait....couldn't I just take that curtain and use it like a photo backdrop?

I think....win?!

Yeah, it's still way less good than a professional would do. I think ultimately if I keep this up with any level of success, my best bet would be to swap props for photos and have a pro shoot my knits. But this is not that time, and if we're going to go, we're going to go grass roots.

Does anyone have any other tips for product photography that a total photography neophyte like me could try to pick up?

And also, what do you think of the new hat? I added a second, larger leaf that I think balances it out a little. I can't wait to see my little one sporting it all next month!!

Well that's embarrassing

Classic Halloween

It is my personal opinion that the most classic first Halloween costume is....the pumpkin head! So maybe it's not technically the first around here, but last year some of us were too tiny and too sleepy to even bother with an actual costume. So now that we have a little walker (!!!) on our hands, it's officially time for the first real costume!

I have great memories of my mom making the most unique and special Halloween costumes for us when we were growing up. I mean, I think I was the only kid in town with a pink and purple unicorn costume. Yeah, she let us pick out our own costumes, lol. So of course I'm pretty pumped to carry on the tradition!

I'm thinking I'm going to get this pattern and make this sweet little hat instead of the beanie that comes in the pattern. Then she can wear it all month long! (and plus how cute would a little duck or ladybug be next year?!)

And of course, I was so darn impatient that I couldn't help but cast on for the hat already! Which is pretty silly because there is no way I'm going to have enough yarn to finish. We'll see how this goes...

 

(seriously...if anyone knows how to rotate these phone photos....)

Well that escalated quickly

So I'm walking down the street to the chiropractor last night to see if he can fix whatever is wrong with my neck. I'm telling you, it's hell getting old. I've never had any neck problems before, but I turned 30 in December. Since then I've had 4 of these "flare-ups" wherein I wake up in intense pain and cannot move my head or lift my arms without literally crying out in pain. So, fun.

Anyway, I'm going in to get adjusted and this white van, you know, the abductor murdering kind, does a little honk and a wave at me. At first I thought maybe it was my neighbor because he's a contractor, not a murderer, and drives a white van to jobs. But no, not him. So I'm thinking to myself, well you crippled old gal, you've still got it.

Uh, but then I hear the same little honk, and I turn (my whole body slightly because of aforementioned stupid neck) and it's the SAME WHITE VAN. So it has now gone from slightly flattering to slightly wtf are you doing.

And then as I'm watching the now terrifying white van driving slowly down the street and praying I can walk a little faster and just be inside the closed doors of the office, the van pulls into the gas station. I'm thinking to myself, don't turn around, don't turn around, don't turn around....and he TURNS AROUND. Oh good lord, I'm going to get murdered right now. He drives by sooooo slowly and luckily after he passes me for now the third time, I arrived at the chiropractor and did not get murdered.

I told my husband about it this morning and he said I should have called the cops. He's actually probably right because it was extremely creepy, but I was too busy hoping to stay alive than to pay attention to the guy's plates. And in hindsight I sort of wonder if he would have done something if I'd pulled out my phone to snap a picture.

It's also possible he just needed directions.

Back in business!

Ok, well I did it. I reopened my Etsy shop! I'd been on the edge about it, which basically means I'd already decided to do it because if I've started talking about it out loud it won't take much to push me to just go ahead with it. So when my good friend Courtney told me that yep, she still wanted a couple of my baby elf hats, I felt like the time was right. If you're going to reopen, what better push than a sale? Those funny little hats are fun and quick to make, and they were one of my best sellers. True story, I thought they were a little weird at first, but everyone else seemed to like them so I went with it. I made a rookie mistake in making one in hot pink and white for a woman who DEFINITELY wanted one, and totally never paid for it. Derp. I mean, it's a cottage industry (ba dum cha) and it's just me, so it's not like I'm going to have stock sitting around. I mean yeah, I knit for fun, but not so I can have piles of unused baby hats, right? So I got sick of looking at this sad hot pink reminder of my lack of business knowledge, and my baby needed a hat, so I put it on her last year and we ran some errands. And wouldn't you know, we were stopped by just about every 3rd person to gush over how adorable her hat was? So now those little striped hats hold a special place in my heart. :)

Anyway, if you're out there, I'd love for you to stop by the shop, or let me know in the comments if there's anything you think would be a good addition! I'm on a bit of a roll, and I need projects to keep my hands busy!

(and oh my lord, what is it about iphone photos that simply will not rotate properly when I bring them into blogger! How annoying! Almost as annoying as the ridiculously low quality of my photo work lol, but I basically took this just to let Courtney know they were ready.)

Owl hat

 

I finished my little owl hat! And I can't figure out how to rotate my lovely iphone photograph! Oh well. My dad thinks it's ridiculous, but I had it on the baby for a little while yesterday morning, because it was actually cool enough that I thought her little bald head would be cold, and the very first person we saw totally gushed over how cute it was. Now to just get her to keep it on her head!

Urban farming

I volunteered this weekend at a farm that helps feed the homeless. I don't even really know why. The receptionist at work sent around an email about it and I thought self, you've done very little do-gooding lately so why not. Sadly I was the only one who thought this, as only she and one other guy from work who I now suspect she is dating showed up. I'd have asked, but in over 2 years now I haven't really managed to make a whole lot of friends there. Must be my sparkling personality! Well and actually deciding to take part and be involved might help me there so onward!

I was sitting on the lawn waiting for the others, and this guy was like, oh, the guys will be right back, they just went to get some inmates to help us out. Um, what now? I looked across the street. Curse my unobservedness and sure enough, there's a prison over there. Huh. 

So, ok! Prisoners and coworkers I barely know and why did I sign up for this? Anyway, we picked jalapeño peppers for 4 hrs. It was hot. Note to self don't do afternoon farming on Labor Day weekend! Good thing I already don't like peppers because I'd sure be sick of them!

Anyway, it was so strange overhearing the prisoners talking. I didn't really talk to any of them because 1 I'm a little afraid though they must not have been violent offenders as there weren't any guards along and 2 because I couldn't stop myself from wanting to ask, so, what are you in for? But this one guy, apparently had a rod in his leg, and the guy I met when I arrived asked him how he got it. Normal expected replies, car crash, skiing accident, the like. Nope. He got shot. Oooo-Kay. Not in Kansas anymore. And the other funny thing was this other guy was apparently really into gardening, and talked a lot about it from his life before. Talked about what he had planted this spring and how he didn't want to do too much because his wife would have to take care of it because apparently doing time was not unexpected. Just. Weird. To think of them having lives outside and wives and kids. Sad. Strange. How did you get here? Apparently the guys get a day taken off their sentence for every day they volunteer for the farm. I suppose that's good. Help for the needy, honest days work, reward for good behavior. What a sheltered life I lead though. I never gave it a moment's thought before. 

Getting back in the swing

I'm feeling better than I have in awhile, and with feeling better apparently comes the desire to create again. It's been 6 months since I really made much of consequence, and it feels good to stretch those muscles again. I should also stretch my sore neck, but hopefully that will be remedied by apparently long overdue pillow shopping this weekend. I made, and didn't mess up too horribly from the vision in my mind, a playhouse tent canopy deal that I think is pretty cool. And now I'm working on a winter hat for the wee one for this winter. I think it will be an owl, and it will be gray because I like gray and I had some on hand. And when I get the itch to start something I have to start it rightthissecond. Which is why it's crocheted and not knitted like I intended because I didn't have any correctly sized circular needles. So. 

It's nearly September which means its nearly fall which is my favorite. I have grand plans of making a pumpkin head Halloween costume, wee mittens with a mitten string (do you remember those?!), and many quilts. Can I quilt? Well not really though I did make a king sized one a few years back for our bed which I don't hate and hasn't fallen apart.We'll see I suppose. 

I'm undecided if I'll reopen the etsy shop. It boggles my mind that people actually want to pay for stuff that I've made, but a few people did last year so maybe I will. It's flattering for sure but crazy as I'm certainly no expert at anything and what do I know anyway. In any case it was quite lovely to take my little project over to the park during lunch to get some fresh air and listen to the rumble of bikes - darn Harley fest. Glad I brought my headphones!

Where is this all going?

Some days I ask myself, why am I blogging? Most of the time, I find myself stumped for something to say. You see, I'm an incredibly private person, so I feel like I've boxed myself in with personal restrictions on what I will and will not put out there on the interwebz. I like sharing projects, or things I've created...but often I will write a post and decide against publishing it because it's too personal. Ironically I LOVE reading personal blogs, but I just don't want to put too much of myself out there where any old person can see it. So, when I don't have a finished project to show off, or a plan for what I'm going to do next, I wonder what's the point of even having this blog? I toy with just taking the whole thing down, or making it private so I decide who can see it. ...The thing that stops me from taking it down altogether is that I do like having a little log of what I've been doing. I have a crap memory for my own life - I can remember lyrics and movie lines like no one's business, but what I did last week? Yeah, that's gone. I've also gotten to know some really awesome people, like the very fun and cool Sara (who I need to meet up with again and visit her mansion!), and I've liked trading comments with Kim, Delaney, and Kasey, and I'd be a little sad to not connect with them anymore.  Well, at least not a two way connection - I'm not giving up reading and commenting on these and my other favorite blogs!

So, currently I'm thinking I'll go private. Leave me a comment or send me an email if you'd like to keep up with my blog. I can't say for sure, but I think that an added privacy barrier might actually make me a better blogger. If I know who's reading, I think I'll feel more comfortable writing more about my life. Tentatively I'll be making the change early next week - so let me know before then and I'll add you to my reader invite list!

Wingback Chair Reupholstery - Reveal!

For a little refresher on how far this has come, click here.

In August, the chair looked like this:

I had a notion of recovering it in this fabric, so I did some pretty laughable photoshop renderings of my vision for the corner.

However, after the acquisition of that shag rug, and 30 days (I kid you not, I started ripping into this on New Year's day and finished in the nick of time on January 30, mere days prior to my February 8 book club hosting duties) of backbreaking labor later, and the relocation of a table I already had that was somewhat homeless.....I had this:

 

Hooray! I'm so happy with how it turned out! It SURE isn't perfect, many mistakes were made, but I think it's a heck of a result for my very first time upholstering anything more complex than a simple seat that you staple over some batting.

Now for more pictures!

 

 

So there you have it - my baby! If there's any interest/I make an effort, I may eventually post a tutorial.

Because Perfect is the enemy of Good

I have had a finished project sitting in my living room for over a month now. I kept putting off photographing it because it was too dark or the room wasn't clean enough or I'm not a good photographer and today I thought ENOUGH!

Reveal coming Monday. :)

Craiglist, we can be friends again

Finally! I managed to hook up with a seller who was 1) not 100 miles away, 2) willing to negotiate on price, and 3) honored my position in line despite receiving a subsequent HIGHER offer! Hooray!!

So I suppose it's only fitting that I showed up and......it wouldn't fit in my car. Blast! But thanks to my seller being 1) not 100 miles away, we were able to call some nearby friends with a van to come and rescue us. The too-oversized-for-a-Corolla-purchase?

It's ~36" tall x 40" wide x 20" deep, and will make a perfect bedside table on the husband's side - our bed is off center due to a wonkily placed floor register, and I've been SCOURING the world for a non-expensive, tallish item that will fill the space and make the bed placement look a bit more intentional.

See? More space on the right, and actually there's even more space to the right that you can't see because I am a crappy photographer and I don't have a wide angle lens.

I haven't totally investigated the condition of the wood yet, but I'm enamored with the idea of painting it a smokey gray color - we have all white painted built-ins on the opposite side of the room, and our bed is a deep cherry color. I put together this little before and after to get the husband on board with my purchase via Anthropologie's website. New hardware is a definite....and I'll apparently be removing the wheels. I was on the fence....and then we lost one in transit. Dilemma solved!

 

Maybe someday if I do something with it, I'll show you the results. Or maybe not. Since I've had another h-u-g-e project (two actually!) completed for almost a month now that I haven't shown you yet. Trust me, it's awesome. And apparently secret due to my paralyzing laziness in taking "after" photos.  :)

February 1 - Anyone remember those resolutions?

Don't give up now! It's no longer January, so for most people, I imagine those hopeful resolutions made last month are sooooo last month. But not here! Oh no, I'm living in the past. Actually, I sort of credit my blog with keeping me relatively on track thus far! I read The Happiness Project last month by Gretchen Rubin where she basically made resolutions monthly rather than yearly. One of her biggest tips was pretty much to write the darn things down! If you keep them in front of you, surprise! You pay attention to them!

Here's a look back at mine:

2011 Resolutions

• daily gratitude/happiness journal
• exercise - 2 weekdays and 1 weekend workout
• do the dishes EVERY night
• floss EVERY night
• go to bed earlier - 10 pm weeknights!
• get up when the alarm goes off.  the first time.
• limit drinking mainly to social events

Some, I am a rockstar.....some, well, I have 11 more months to get it right!

• daily gratitude/happiness journal

I have 31 (actually a little more, as my calendar started in December) nice little entries in a calendar next to my bed. It's just a sentence or two about something that I did that day, something that made me happy, something I'm grateful for. NO negativity allowed. Sometimes I even write little inspirational notes to myself if I'm having a bad day. It's pretty cheesy, but you know what? I think it's helping me focus on the great things in my life. Plus it's helping me remember, oh, Thursday. Because my memory is seriously crap these days.

• exercise - 2 weekdays and 1 weekend workout

I'm not 100% on the exercise yet, as you'll notice from my Friday check-in's. Because my baseline is complete sloth, I personally count one or two instances of purposefully getting off my couch as a WIN. And I'll work up to a regular routine.

• do the dishes EVERY night

We (husband makes 1/2 the dishes, so I've enlisted his help with this one) have been doing AWESOME at the dishes resolution! I think there's been one or two nights when it didn't happen, and it seriously bothered me. Added bonus - we have some of our best talks as one washes and one dries. I don't know what it is - some people talk in the car (we're pretty much mute. It's weird), some talk over cooking (I'm usually distracted by trying not to burn things or remove appendages), but for us, dishes is where it's at. Oh, and to help avoid getting absorbed in a movie or something and being too tired lately? I set an alarm in my phone to go off each night at 9. It tells me "Dishes, Brush teeth, Floss!" Even if I don't do it immediately, it's been brought to my attention.

• floss EVERY night

Flossing is going mush like dishes. Yes, it's sad to make a resolution to perform a basic human function, but it's WORKING! I also enlisted/ guilted the husband into joining me here, and our efforts were rewarded at the dentist. I was complimented on my excellent home care, and husband was told that his gums bled a lot less this time!

• go to bed earlier - 10 pm weeknights!

Um, yeah. I LooooooooooVE sleeping, so convincing myself to tuck in early is e-a-s-y. Basically the phone alarm goes off at 9, we clean up, get ready for bed, and I have about 30 minutes to read and I am truly in bed by 10. LOVE it. Yes, I AM turning 87 this year! Ha.

• get up when the alarm goes off.  the first time.

Waking up however.....different story. Hate it. I have the alarm on my phone that goes off twice to ease me into the idea, and the horrible buzzer on the other side of the room.  If I'm working out, I can get up after two horrible buzzes and be on time. Other mornings....I turn off the buzzer and get back in bed and keep resetting my phone alarm. Ugh. My problem may lie in that I don't always have to get up at "workout" time, so I push it later and later on those non-workout days. I realize I SHOULD just get up early....but I still hate it.

• limit drinking mainly to social events

The key to not drinking on weeknights? Water. It's so funny - I'll crave a glass of wine or something if I have nothing to drink already, but if I have a glass of water? I don't really care so much. It's made slightly harder when the people on TV are drinking - the power of suggestion or something! But it's really as simple as giving myself an alternative. Plus it makes me really enjoy that glass of wine on the weekend or out with friends. (Yes, I amended my resolution to basically don't drink alone or during the week. Dinner on Wednesday with a friend - go for it.)

So there's my resolution stick-to-it-ness update. Anyone else sticking to theirs? Or were they just a fun little diversion for a week or two?

Craig? I have some peeves.

Ok, so, Craigslist. What's that song, when you're good you're good, but when you're bad, you're oh so bad? That's how I feel about Craigslist. I've had some successes - I got my awesome desk chair from Craig.

photo credit to the awesome Sara

I've gotten rid of some stuff that way too, like various tv's and our old desk. But it's never without a little....weirdness.

Like the desk. Well priced, tons of inquiries. Tons of arrangements made for people to come get it. And I got stood up no less than FOUR times! People - how hard is it to just SAY you aren't coming? As a corollary - you should probably try to BE there when you've arranged for someone to come get something, and not make them sit on a farm in the middle of nowhere with your dad who doesn't know exactly what you're there for while you just don't answer your phone.

I have approximately a zillion issues with how people word their sale postings, the pictures they provide - I don't even LOOK at ads without pictures, so those people are a whole other story - and some of the insane price points people think they can get. Oh, and posting every single day for three weeks about your "majestic" table and chairs that SO aren't without a single drop in price? And not at least deleting your other 21 previous posts so that I can SEE you haven't lowered the price? Lame.

Also lame? Why do people not post dimensions? I have to ask for dimensions for virtually every. single. item I try to buy. Putting your dog in the picture for scale doesn't really help - I don't know how big your dog is. Please don't tell me something is 2 and a half feet high, and get all offended when I arrive and it's 18" tall at best and I don't want to purchase it. Or the most awesomely terrible response I got to my inquiry?

I don't have anything to measure to dimensions right now. But I did quick step measure, it is 3.5 steps to 2 steps and my foot size is 9.5.

What the heck? I mean, I do not wear a 9.5, I don't know if you are a man or a woman, I have no i-d-e-a how big that is!!

And while I'm all about contacting people if I can't make it to a pick up, or I'm running late, I do NOT consider a sale in the bag until someone has given out their address or a meeting is arranged. Just because I emailed to see if something was available? Yep, doesn't mean I'm married to it. My understanding of the unwritten Craigslist rules is that I'm under no obligation to reply to you in this instance. Sometimes I will with a, "thanks, it's not right for me." But I don't always have time, and don't feel it's necessary.  Apparently the guy who followed up several weeks later to tell me his item was stiiiiill available did not feel the same way. And he REALLY didn't feel the same way when he further emailed to yell at me for wasting his time, and that I must get off on inquiring if items are still around. I'm sorry dude, YOU are the one wasting your own time following up on casual inquiries from a month ago. But since you likely have no friends, I guess it's your time to waste.

I'm also fairly confused by what seems to be a new trend - selling already refinished furniture, or handmade crafts....on Craigslist. In my opinion, Craigslist is where you BUY the items that you subsequently refinish. I mean, if you want to sell them for a profit, maybe there should be a special section for that. Or a boutique or something. Because I can put Anthropologie knobs on something just like you did and not pay your markup. I'm on Craigslist to find a deal. Paying your markup? No longer a deal. And the crafts? Try Etsy. How many people in your local area even want knitted baby hats modeled on a scary baby doll head?

Sigh. Come on Craig. I'm having a baaaad run of luck here. Just give me one good deal and a smooth transaction on an item I can actually afford and that I know fits in my space ahead of time, and we can be friends again. Until then? Well, I'm keeping my someday-to-be-posted unused drafting table, ceiling fan, and brass light fixture for MYSELF!

Note to self

No more side jobs. I get to a certain point every time I take one on where I just really don't want to do it anymore. There are definitely things I enjoy about it - the money for sure, working on something different than I do on a daily basis (we don't do home design at my firm, which is also why moonlighting is allowed!), working out problems, getting into a groove.....but it doesn't last. I really dislike the demands on my free time. I don't like the guilt I feel when I should be working on an all too brief weeknight when all I want to do is relax. I don't like having to turn things down on the weekends because that's my only free block of time to really get into that groove. I'm learning that I don't really like dealing with clients - it's not that I've actually had any bad experiences...it's just that it's really not part of my personality. I'm fine working by myself or as part of a team, but I just don't like being the point person. I sometimes wonder if this is a skill I'll develop and learn not to dislike as I advance in my career, but at this point...I just don't.

I need to remember this feeling of having to drag myself to work on this the next time I am tempted to take something on. Or to at least pass it off to my husband, who seems to enjoy side jobs as a form of recreation. Me, well, I'd choose just about anything else.

Possibly overdoing it....

Each day has it's own little rhythm, but they're basically five workdays book ended by two lovely slices of weekend days. The weeks go by one pretty much just like the last, and that's cool, but then I got a little itch. I thought, I have to DO something. I need a task, something to keep my hands busy. So I decided, hey, I'll upholster a chair. I gathered up some research materials, but I didn't really do much. Even though I wanted to do something, inertia is a beast. So then I was approached about drawing up a house for someone, and I thought, Ok, I'm not really doing anything anyway. So I worked on that a little here and there when I had a free weekend day, and then I got cold and thought I need to knit stuff so I got a whole truck load of yarn that I needed to wind into balls pretty much immediately. In the meantime, I've still got that house project going on and the chair is LOOKING at me and the husband is using the computer anyway so YES grab some tools and start deconstructing the chair! I worked on that for a few days non-stop, and then I had to do serious work on the house project, and then I was tired so I started knitting one night and HEY I got a mixer for Christmas and yay fresh bread! But then my living room looked like crap so I thought I should cut everything out for the new pieces for the chair so that's all in carefully disarrayed piles because whoops! Project deadline! Commence three straight 12 hour days of ridiculous focus and intensity in drawing. I sent it off to the client today and I really hope they don't have many changes because I don't think I can look at it right now, especially not with the mess in my living room that has grown past the point of "I'm in the middle of this and don't want to lose my place" and now is in danger of permanently looking that way and hey wouldn't it be fun to build some furniture from knock off wood.....Um, did I mention that I work full time?

So.

I may have a little problem, wherein I like to do things all or nothing, and all at the same time, and if it ain't the deep end then I don't want anything to do with it.  However, running at this speed for the past two months has worn me down a little bit.  So new rule? Finish chair. THEN knit the pouf. THEN take a nap for crying out loud.

Yarn?

I haz some.

Hopefully, one day, it will look like this.  You know, right after about 14 other projects.  Or concurrently, because I seem to like to spread myself thin.

It has begun...

I decided to face this new year head on and dive right into a project that is way above my head. It looks pretty bad.....but hey, surgery would look a lot like murder if you stopped halfway through, right?

I'm about 85% of the way through the dis-assembly stage.  I still need to take apart the pieces on the foot of the recliner, and then I need to rip the seams out of all the skirt pieces and the seat cushion.  Most of the tutorials and books I've been referring to are for standard wingback chairs....that don't recline.  And therefore don't really come apart.  At the beginning, I did not realize how much the moving parts were going to impact my method.  I had to completely remove both the foot (as I'm calling it, no idea what it is actually called!) AND the chair back itself.  I started out trying to keep it intact, but I got far fewer owies on my hands when I took parts off rather than wedging my hands in with all the metal and raw wood edges.  I've taken roughly one zillion (actual count is more like 200, but still) photos of my progress, along with copious notes about the order in which pieces were removed, and numbered and up-arrow labeled all pieces.

Next task after dis-assembly is complete - cutting the new pieces.  That should be done in, oh, a year.

Resolve

I don't usually go in for New Year's resolutions.  I mean, no one ever keeps them, so what's the point, right?  But for whatever reason, I'm considering making some this year.  I haven't finalized my list...but here are some things I'm considering:

• daily gratitude journal - I'm not a good journaler, but I'm so forgetful!  I think if I can just jot a line or two, I'm more likely to DO it, and it would be nice to look back at and remember how blessed I really am.
• exercise.  Blech.  You can see if you look at my fitness attempt page (but you probably shouldn't because it's PATHETIC!) that I am not so good at this.  Part of my problem is that I don't actually have weight to lose (I know, I know, woe is me) so it's hard for me to actually see results.  I DO want to tone up though....I have virtually no muscle definition.  I'm basically skinny-fat which isn't really that healthy.  I wonder if there is some sort of fine or punishment I can impose on myself, or a way I can motivate myself to actually do the work??
• dishes.  NO MORE GOING TO BED WITH DIRTY DISHES IN THE SINK!!  This is a huge pet peeve of mine...and I do it to myself!  We don't have a dishwasher, so it's a bit of an additional challenge for me than for most people, but it's a really bad habit.  Must.  Change.
• drinking.  Now before you get the wrong idea, I don't have a drinking problem.  Sure, I may overindulge when faced with an open bar....but I digress.  I'm talking about the nightly glass of wine, and it's half money related.  A bottle or two a week isn't much, but it adds up!  Do I NEED that glass every night?  Do I need it without dinner?  Do I need it when no one else is around?  Nope.  I'm going to try to go for a glass of water instead, and limit my imbibing for social events, or a purposeful drink at the dinner table with my husband.

I may edit or add to this list...I may or may not track them publicly...I may throw in the towel by mid-January.  :)

cute or weird?

Maybe it's because I'm freakin freezing all the time lately, but I have knitting and warm and soft textures on the brain.  I posed this question to my husband the other day - would one of these be cute or weird?

And just so we're all on the same page people - I'm talking about the pouf, not the kid!

He responded that he thought it was kind of weird.  To this, I sent about 4,000 images showing him why he is wrong.

I took a leap and found a great deal (well, hopefully great - I'll let you know my source once I get my order to ensure that it's good quality) on yarn....so I ordered it.  Yep, I'm going to attempt to DIY.  Because it's not like I don't already have eleventy-five other projects going on at the moment.  Oh wait, yes I do.  Well, maybe I'll make a pouf.  Maybe I'll make a mess.  And yes, I'm a little afraid I'll end up like this:

So, what's your vote?  Cute, or weird?

(I did my best to link to all my photo sources, but because I collected most of them all at once to photobomb my husband, I didn't do a great job with that.  If you find a source that I didn't link to, let me know and I'll be happy to add it!)

Desk Chair Restored

Several weeks ago, I got this great vintage banker's chair off Craigslist.  I was pretty excited since versions of the same chair go for about $400 at Pottery Barn.

 

Yeah, NOT in my price range!   We're pretty lucky in the midwest if you're in the market for this sort of thing, because there used to be a pretty large chair manufacturer in Wisconsin, so there really are a lot of this style chair for resale.

 

 I posed the question of whether I should stain it dark or paint it white, as the finish was leaving a little to be desired.  Then the very awesome Sara of the fun blog Russet Street Reno suggested trying out some Howard's Restor-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax and seeing if it would bring back enough of the original luster to keep the chair au naturale.  Since this sounded muuuuuch easier than my other options AND gave me the opportunity to meet a blog friend in real life, I was in!  

 

I'm so glad I did!  This system was SO. EASY!  I was concerned that it was going to be a messy application like traditional wood stain, forcing us to hang out in my sort of gross and disorganized basement.  Much to my surprise and relief, while it goes on the cloth looking like it's going to be messy like stain, once you rub it on the wood, almost nothing comes off again.  Since we were both working on different parts of the chair, I would find myself putting my hand on an area that was wet....but nothing came off on my skin or clothing.  Huge bonus if your materials tend to get more on your clothes than on your project like mine do. 

We rubbed on one coat of the Restor-A-Finish, then hung out and drank some....ok FINE, a bottle of wine and chatted about tons of stuff and our mutual love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which basically makes Sara my new best friend.  Then we put on a second coat, and wiped off the excess.  I did a terrible job documenting the process since it went so fast, but I did get one shot of the back of the chair in progress.

The slats on the right are untouched, while the slats on the left have just one coat of Restore-A-Finish.  I thought the difference was pretty incredible!  I didn't have quite as amazing results on some of the areas where more of the original finish was rubbed off, like the arms.  However, since I was looking at this more like a unique antique rather than a pristine recreation, I'm fine with character giving imperfections.

After the application of the finish, we rubbed on some of the delicious smelling Feed-N-Wax.  The chair really started to shine at this point.  Sara was sweet enough to leave some of this with me so I can apply a refresher if the wood ever starts to look dull.  

 

Differences in lighting aside, I think the finish looks 1,000x better than it did before.  Like I said, it's not perfect...but that wasn't the look I was going for.  I just need to get my hands on a chair pad, and this project is done!  Thanks again to Sara for helping me out!

LED Christmas lights

A few weeks ago I posted about getting some new Christmas lights for my tree.  I decided to go LED since I was excited that they had come out with better shapes and warm light.

 

They had the display set up at Target so that you could compare the lights to one another, and my new warm white light color looked just like traditional white lights....when next to cool white lights.  When I got them lit up on my tree, they were very WHITE.  I have some old traditional white lights hung on the other side of the room, not pictured, and the light is muuuuch more yellow.  Not to say that the warm WHITE lights are bad....just not quite what I expected.

Plus they are really bright.  It's taken some getting used to actually.  Now that we've had them up for a few weeks, they've grown on me.  Unless you are looking at them and move quickly - it sort of makes you a bit dizzy.  (these aren't the world's best photos....but then I'm not the world's best photographer, so that makes sense.)

So there you have it - my foray into energy efficient holiday lighting.  Oh, and if you're wondering, this is 2 strands of 200 bulb strings on about a 7' tall tree.  Making all the reviews I read about needing 1,000 lights for a tree that size absolutely ludicrous.  You'd be able to see it from the moon with that many lights.

Snow. You are on my list.

Saturday I made the 100 mile trek to the baby shower of a dear friend.  A blizzard was forecast for that day.  Originally it was to hit in the morning, so I had this theory that as I was driving toward the bad part of the storm, I would just turn around if it got too treacherous.  Well.  The storm pushed off to later in the day, and driving conditions were perfect.  On the way there.  When I left, it had begun to snow, and there was about an inch, maybe two on the ground.  Ok, I thought.  I hate this, but I'm from the midwest.  I should be able to take my time and get home no problem.

Wrong.

As I drove, the weather got more and more ridiculous.  I braked with more than enough distance in my totally not hardcore Toyota Corolla to make a turn on a (blessedly) deserted (by other cars and anything resembling a snow plow) country road, and completely spun out.  A little shaken, I turned s-l-o-w-l-y around, and inched my way white-knuckled another bunch of miles of country road thinking, well they'll certainly have plowed the interstate.  Salted even?  Sand?  Addressed it in any way, shape or form?

Wrong.  Seriously, middle of the state.  The weather guys were predicting this for, oh, a week?  I saw not a SINGLE truck paying any attention to the slice of hell that was the freeway.  Many people were taking it at a reasonable (snail's) pace, but other cars.....and semis.....were pretending it was some sort of drag race.  Everyone was far too close to me, lanes did not actually exist.  There were 1.5 sets of tire tracks, which I was dutifully following, but every time someone tried to pass the long line of cars in front of me, that meant we were sharing a tire track, resulting in me crying and holding my breath and fighting to keep my car on the road until the threat passed.  Amazingly I approached the one person going even slower than me about half a mile ahead, so I eased ever so slightly on my brakes to let the guy who was much too close to my already smashed rear bumper (thank you lady for hitting me a week ago while I was completely stopped on a perfectly dry freeway) know that we would be slowing down.  I watched in my rear view mirror as he took this to mean we're stopping NOW and he slammed on his brakes, veered left, veered right, and disappeared into a very steep ditch.

At this point, I'm in full on panic attack.  I've never actually had one, but I couldn't breathe, I was shaking, had tightness in my chest, sweaty palms, doing the ugly cry, and having visions of myself joining that guy in a ditch and dying there with visions of my home that I would never again reach in my head as I lay there getting buried in a never-ending snow.  Um, I decided that at the next sign of life, I was pulling off that godforsaken highway and getting a hotel.  I managed to get into a gas station with tears streaming down my face and called my husband with the probably not overreaction of my plan to get the hell off the road.  Blessedly, the only hotel for many miles was just on the other side of the freeway.  I got somewhat stuck but managed to get up the hill and out of the gas station, nearly got hit twice while driving 3 blocks, and checked into the crappiest hotel I've stayed at in many years.

Where I stayed for two nights.  The blizzard conditions stuck around for another full day, so my options were to stay Sunday, or get on the road right when it got dark.  I stayed.  Ate really bad food and watched a lot of Teen Mom and Holmes on Homes, and both Father of the Bride movies.

Monday morning I chipped my car out of a block of solid ice and snow, where I was permanently stuck.  Luckily, there was a police car at the gas station next door, so I walked over and asked for a push.  Seriously hotel, maybe some salt or something for your patrons?  Anyway, the nice officer pushed for a few minutes while I drove in reverse, and I finally got on the road.  The solid sheet of ice covering the road anyway.....yep, still not clear.  Ugh.  As I got farther south at speeds nowhere near approaching the speed limit (luckily by this point everyone else was going just as slowly) the ice did finally give way to pavement in one lane, and another 20 miles or so south, both lanes.  I was still having mini-panic attacks and got off the highway as soon as I could, to take my car into the shop to get that first incident taken care of.

When I finally made it home....I completely collapsed and vowed to never leave again.  Except I DO still have a job, so I did go in today....but I stayed off the highway.