Running With Scissors

To Pin or Not To Pin

I'm a big, huge, ginormous fan of Pinterest, the online bulletin board site. It's a great way to keep all the cool stuff you find on the internet organized and easily accessible -- as opposed to the giant tangle that is my "bookmarks" or the linear frustration of Tumblr.

I have found a lot of interesting things on Pinterest itself, by following other people and/or browsing their boards -- so many that I started a "Done" board so I could keep track of the recipes I've tried (and whether they were delicious or not) and projects I've attempted.

Here's a recent one, a needle book that has a nice tutorial, but I didn't feel like cutting all those little squares. Then I saw this one on Pinterest using the same tutorial and blatantly copied it.

I put one of my quilt labels on the back because it's so darn valuable someone might steal it.

 

So Far 2012 Is Not My Favorite Year

I have spent the last 11 days with the most obnoxious cold of my life. Not the way I wanted to start the year, but now that I'm feeling a lot better I thought I should tackle the mile-long to-do list that I created while recuperating and puppy watching. A new wreath for the front door looked like more fun than cleaning the oven, so I thought I'd start with that.

I covered a straw wreath with strips of burlap and hot glued on an assortment of shells.  Tied on a ribbon and hung it up. Check that off the list.

Patch Adams, The True Story

Don't you love my ironing board cover? Excellent use of leopard print in my opinion. These are my favorite jeans.  They're holey. My husband hates them. Well, not the jeans so much as the holes.  I'm kind of neutral on the holes. I would prefer not to have them, but I love my jeans and that means accepting their flaws, right?

But in the interest of marital harmony I thought I would give patching my jeans a shot.

I think I like my patch job. Actually, I do like the patch, I'm just not sure I like it on my pants. I have to live with them awhile.

If you want to patch your jeans (or your 4-year old's) here's how I did it:

1. Open up the side seam of the jeans. If your sewing machine is newer than my 50+ year old Singer, it may have a free arm that will let you slip the jeans leg over intact. Lucky you.

2. Cut a piece of fabric for the patch. I used gingham. I have no idea why. Denim would be good if you wanted your patch to blend in. I kinda wish I'd thought of that before.

3. Pin the fabric to the inside (wrong side) of your jeans.

4. Turn your jeans to the right side and sew lines (forward and reverse) up and down and then turn the pants a quarter turn and sew up and down again.

5. Again, denim thread would have made for a less visible patch (duh, Colleen).

6. Voila, un-ventilated jeans.

Procrasti-crochet

 

Here I am, posting again. It is an excellent form of procrastination. I'm avoiding doing something I don't want to do (reading the lectures for an online class and/or pruning my roses) yet still producing something. Genius.

My aunt Susan is a world-class junker. She gets the best stuff at auctions and garage sales. Luckily she has passed some of it on to me.  All the treasure, none of the work. Last year she brought a big bag of these crocheted hexagon thingy's. At first I thought they were supposed to be for a table cloth, but those bobbles would be kind of hard to put a wine glass on. So I'm guessing they were meant for a bedspread. 

I thought I would just sew them together and see what happened. After soaking them in Biz, I bought some crochet thread (string?) and just hand stitched them together and wound up with a  . . . big, bobbled blob.  But not big enough for a bedspread. Not even close.

It looked kind of cool, but I had no idea what to do with it, short of learning how to crochet and making more little hexagons. Like I need another hobby. Then I thought I could make a bunch of pillows. Or better yet, one big pillow!

I had the bolster pillow already. I made a pillow case out of muslin, then tacked the crocheted piece to that.

I really like it and I think it adds a nice bit of texture to my bed.

Thanks Susan!

 

On a Less Snarky Note . . .

Don't worry, I'm not going to rant about Christmas again. Not today anyway.

I thought I would share a cute (in my humble opinion) idea for a little gift.  These little cup cozies are seriously easy would make a nice present for a teacher or co-worker.

They're even better with a little something tucked inside the cup.

There are lots of patterns out there (even knitted ones), but here's the tutorial I used:

House on Hill Road Cup Cozy