Slowly But Surely

Trying to make an apartment a home is a long process. One of the first things I did was paint our bedroom, there were nicks in the walls and it really just needed a facelift.  We went with two different colours (3 walls light and 1 wall darker brown).

This wall needs something else, shelving or some sort of storage unit. But that's in the future, for now it's just a laundry basked and a shoe rack:

After discovering a lack of storage space for all of my crafting supplies I felt shelves were in order in the spare bedroom. Most of the space on this bookshelf is taken up with books and teaching resources. My sewing machine and wool supply are also in the mix.

As much as I would like the shelves to fit directly over the desk the fuse box was in the way. So finding the next available wall studs up it went.

This room is also the home of Greg's bikes. The best thing about this bike rack is that it doesn't require any screws or nails. It just leans up against the wall and the weight of the bikes keeps everything balanced. Unfortunately if you sleep in this room your dreams might be filled with flying bikes:

Futon a la couch and a bucket of fermenting beer. If you look closely you'll see the bucket is wrapped in a fleece NHL sheet (courtesy of Greg's folks, thanks!)

We painted the spare room the same lighter brown (more nicks in the wall) before putting the shelves up but other this room I think we're done painting...for now!

Gift Giving

I had intended on getting these pictures up earlier than now, but for the past few weeks I've been sick and spending most of my time sleeping and being a wimp. It looks like I'm finally on the mend and can get back to blogging about incredibly important things - success!

Greg and I decided this year to make as many Christmas presents for our family members as we could.  We of course had to buy the things to make the presents, but to keep costs down and thoughtfulness up it was a DIY year.

I couldn't post these pictures as I was making them since it would give away what people were getting so here they are now:

Laying the giant pieces of fabric on the floor for quilt #1

Ironing the GIANT sheets!

Laying out the squares after quite a long while of cutting

Terry in his quilt!

Quilt #2 - this one was much smaller (baby sized!)

Handwarmers, with ceramic pie weights to keep the heat

Snowman pin

Sewing kit in a jar

Omnomnom, homemade granola

Homemade salsa

These are just a few things we made, hopefully Greg and I can keep the creativity going for next Christmas, but I guess we have just under a year to prepare!

Good Reading

I have been reading Bill Bryson's At Home for the past few weeks (I've renewed it from the library at least once!) and it's a wonderful blend of history and random facts you would never thought of seeking.

Source

You can check out the first few pages of the book here in a preview through Random House.

Greg made the observation that this is the first non-fiction book that I've read so diligently, this might be true. I certainly haven't flown through any text books in the past.

Bryson has a number of other books that explore many day-to-day things that I have never paused to think about. We own A Short History of Nearly Everything (which is a great source of science breakthroughs and theories) that I started reading but got swept up with teaching and never finished. I'll get back to it soon!

Homemade Socks

I finally did it! I made a sock!

It doesn't seem like a big accomplishment but I've been at it for a long time, starting in the fall and not finishing it up until last week. I took a break from knitting my own socks to make a slew of Christmas presents, so now I'm back on the socks.

I followed the pattern on Silver's Sock Class website and it was pretty straightforward and I only got frustrated with the whole heel turning business. I had a hard time visualizing just how it was all going to come together, but it worked out in the end.

Almost there!

I was worried that it was going to be too big around the ankle as it looked that way as I knit along. But I should not have questioned the pattern as it fits perfectly!

Hopefully it doesn't take me as long to knit the second sock.

Merry Merry Christmas Day!

Our tree!

My family might disown me for this one, but my brother got our dad this bottle drying rack for his wine bottles (he makes his own wine) and in the spirit of Christmas I thought the pieces of the rack look more like antlers than anything else. Thankfully my family obliged to my silly request and TA DA! A silly 3/4 family photo:

I made a pie for dinner, the things on top could be mittens or bells, or acorns - whatever Christmasy thing you'd like it to be.