Whitniffic Whatnots

I'd been kind of avoiding working on this giraffe quilt because I wasn't quite sure what to do with it to finish it off. Then I realized that sometimes enough is enough! Why couldn't it be done? And so it was... Originally, I had wanted to free-motion quilt the spots onto the giraffe, but my machine doesn't work very good for free-motion quilting so I left it as a big ol' applique. I also played with the idea of adding a button for his eyeball, but it just looked weird.  Declaring the quilt officially complete, I squared up the edges and sewed the binding on. I screwed it up with too big of a seam allowance (been a while?)... but it actually worked out pretty well as an "invisible" binding. The quilt front itself just kind of ends, and the cute detail of the binding around the back adds a little something to the simplicity of the pattern.  I took a few pictures of the quilt (in the usual places) before washing it, but it seemed so stiff a...

My husband's favorite cousin got married last weekend, and we wanted to give them something really unique because they're such a cool couple. When we visited their new old house, which is decorated in a beautiful, funky way, we had lots of fun leaving little messages on their vintage typewriter in the foyer. I liked the idea of keeping in the vintage style and typewriter font... so I decided to make them a weathered-looking old sign. I grabbed a couple old chunks of wood out of the scrap pile at work that had all sorts of screw holes and hammer marks in them... perfect! And free! I arranged them horizontally, then glued and screwed them together with small blocks on the back. No need to be perfect! It's supposed to look old and weathered and hand-made. The only thing I needed to buy for this project was a little can of stain; I decided to do grey, since I thought it would go well with the decor of their home. I had originally wanted to try one of the white base sta...

Oh my goodness... I stumbled upon this amazing blog while searching for methods of making new wood look old:  Young House Love . I wish to live vicariously through them... ha ha. If only. Nah, if anything, their impeccable taste and incredible use of thrifty finds to furnish their beautiful home(s) is so inspiring! It got me thinking about all the stuff I wanted to do to our house when we bought it three years ago that we never got around to. One of those things is our closet. It's a decent size- big enough to walk into, but there is literally no storage space. There's one lame shelf in the back (where the ceiling slopes down to about four and a half feet high) that's covered in nasty peeling sticky paper, and a dozen random hooks around the walls. Not the most useful... since we moved in, we've been living out of flip-top plastic boxes. We did finally get a decent dresser from Ikea a while back, and that holds all the little stuff like socks and undies, but it's ...

I've been seeing a trend on Pinterest lately of crocheted rocks. I think it's kind of funny, but I do like it! It also reminds me of my knitted rock sock that I made and photographed in 2012... :). I like the idea of imitating nature in crocheted patterns, and that's what I attempted to to this past weekend. My husband and I took a trip up to his family cabin in Wisconsin's north woods, and I was inspired by the many colors and textures in the surrounding forest, specifically little things like mossy green lichens, purple wildflowers (weeds?) and the papery-textured, whitish-grey bark of the birch trees. Somehow, I had managed to bring along crochet thread in the exact colors of these things... it must have been fate! I really just picked them out at the store because they looked pretty together; nature must think so too. Here is me crocheting the "lichen rock" in front of the campfire. So relaxing! And here are my final products... I love...

When I grow up, I want to be an artist. At least I'm 98% sure I do... sometimes it's so hard for me to even imagine owning a studio and selling work for a living. I have a full-time job, and by the time I get home, get my run in and eat dinner, I don't feel like doing anything other than sitting on my butt and watching TV. And then I read the blog of photographer Kirsty Mitchell . How incredibly inspiring! She and I are alike in many ways, and reading about her transition from full-time fashion designer working the grind in the city to full-time artist working her own crazy hours and building her dreams really inspired me to get working on my own portfolio. Maybe some day I'll be able to grow some guts and venture out into the art world too. Kirsty's elaborate costumes, incredible props and meticulous installations are so detailed, I get sucked into each and every photo as my eyes try to take in every last bit of hand-crafted beauty. See what I mean? Wow... not...

When I get into something... I tend to go all out. Anything worth doing at all is worth doing 100%, right? Recently, I've applied this philosophy to my newest hobby of running. I never, ever, EVER thought I'd consider myself a runner. I always hated running, and usually lived by the "If I'm running, you'd better run too because something is chasing me" rule. I remember in middle school when they made us run the mile in gym class... pretty sure I cheated and only did 3 laps instead of 4. And that's probably what saved me from the embarrassment of puking my guts out afterwards. But I've really impressed myself lately! The other night I ran a little over 7 miles, which is my longest run to date. I'm actually training for a half marathon in September (what's WRONG with me?!?!). I don't really run fast- my PR for a 5K is 29:56, and 1:07:06 for a 10K, but I like to think that's amazing progress since I started running in April! I keep a...