Monday, April 30, 2012

Crochet a Rug out of Old Sheets

 I saw this on Pinterest. How to crochet a rug out of old sheets. There are several different tutorials and they are all very vague about the crocheting. Luckily, I have made a circular blanket so I just used that pattern.













The white looked kind of dirty so I dyed my rug blue.

This rug is about 45 inches in diameter and it took two sets of sheets - two flat and two fitted.

The crochet pattern:
Use a stitch marker b/c it is worked in a continuous round.
Magic circle (you can youtube how to do this).

Row 1: 6 HDC, join to make a circle. 
Row 2: HDC twice in each st. (12 HDC)
Row 3: *HDC once in 1 st, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (18 HDC)
Row 4: *HDC once in each of 2 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (24 HDC)
Row 5: *HDC once in each of 3 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (30 HDC)
Row 6: *HDC once in each of 4 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (36 HDC)
Row 7: *HDC once in each of 5 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (42 HDC)
Row 8: *HDC once in each of 6 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (48 HDC)
Row 9: *HDC once in each of 7 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (54 HDC)
Row 10: *HDC once in each of 8 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (60 HDC)
Row 11: *HDC once in each of 9 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (66 HDC)
Row 12: *HDC once in each of 10 sts, HDC twice in next st* repeat. (72 HDC)
  *etc.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

HP's Baby Gift

One of my favorite people is my friend and coworker Hilary (or, as I call her, HP). Her hubby is a pilot, and flying kind of "runs in the family," so the theme for the nursery is vintage airplanes; just perfect for  a little boy.

I decided to make her a customized gift. I had to call in the professional help for this one, my Mom.



There's no way I could have done a good job sewing around that. But luckily I knew someone who could.



I give credit where credit is due. I realize this photo is upside down but I am feeling too lazy to do anything about it.

This is the castle that was at the baby shower. It was kind of amazing.


Deni, HP and me. I did not get the memo about wearing a cute dress.


HP texted me this picture and told me that it matches and she loves it. :)

Robert's Wedding

Joseph's older brother Robert got married on Friday.



















Sunday, April 15, 2012

Why I Don't Watch TV

Friends at work are always talking about some new TV show or movie. Something that requires time and commitment, to sit down and watch.

I don't know how people have time for that.

My Dad wanted to go to Habitat for Humanity again this weekend. He had to work. So Joseph was kind enough to go with me so I wasn't alone.

We had to get up pretty early on Saturday. I was braiding my hair so it would stay out of my way, and Joseph told me I was too pretty to go do construction. He is such a smooth talker. That's how he gets himself out of trouble. Forgot to do the dishes after I reminded him twice? He offers to buy me something.

Here he is measuring a piece of drywall with our team mate, Arnoldo.

This is me, cutting the drywall down to size. My Dad got me my own hardhat, and it made life so much easier. It fit so much better and wasn't squishing my brains. See the holes in the wall behind me? I roto-zipped those suckers. Oh yeah. I'll probably go blind from the drywall dust, but it is totally worth it. I loved seeing the house transform. You could actually see the floor plan, and see the bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets.

The house took the majority of our day, and we were dang tired. We weren't done for the day though. J has a goal he's working on (something to do with webpages - he's building a thesis skin framework. If that means anything to you, because it doesn't to me and he even explained it. My smart nerd boy) so he's been busy on his computer, and I have a CPCU test coming up. Which I am a little freaked out about. I'm usually pretty good with tests, but I took some of the practice tests online, and these people are trying to make you fail. If you have to take the test again, you have to pay them again, so it makes sense to me. It's scheduled for Friday, and J's birthday is Saturday, so here's to hoping I don't fail and we can celebrate on Saturday.

Even with the Habitat for Humanity house and our other projects, we still found time to install a ceiling fan in the office:

We had to pay an electrician to wire our two small bedrooms (one is a guest bedroom and the other is our office). Luckily our master bedroom was wired for a fan, but these two small rooms just have a switch that controls an outlet, which you can plug a lamp into. When we painted the office, we decided it was too dark with just a floor lamp, and it's always hot in the summer anyway. I wasn't going to wire one room and not the other...So last weekend the electrician came out and put some holes in the ceiling.

He seemed like a nice guy. His cell phone started ringing and it was the Mario Brothers song from the Nintendo game. My opinion of him went up a few points when I heard that.

Let there be light! Now J just needs his new computer. Which Apple hasn't announced yet. He has been grumbling about that a bit. And I am in love with this desk. Did you read the blog post where we pulled it through the window (found here)? Which reminds me, here is a tour of the office.

That's my craft stuff and the shelf for the router and whatnot.

That cork board holds all my coupons. I was having a problem with out of sight, out of mind, so this is working brilliantly. The wood organizer (I don't know what else to call it, J and I made that when we were first married) has the printer and my silhouette machine on top. You can see how my ribbon is organized. I had to tape everything because Lilly was destroying it.

J is a piler. Do you see that pile on top of his little cabinet? I can only nag him so much. You should have seen the piles on the desk before I asked him to clean it off. He has drawers on his side too. They were missing handles, but I found them online, and apparently they are antique. I had to pay a total of $30. Which I was not happy about, but J told me to. Where else could I find matching hardware? I tried, and couldn't.

$30 for two handles.

$30 for TWO handles.

$30 FOR TWO HANDLES.

Ridiculous. But my desk looks good.

Here is my little Lilly, staying close. She is a social, needy cat. She also doesn't like to hang out on the floor. She has to be either in the bookshelf, or tucked into the wood organizer that we have (she likes to be near the ribbon).

Is the theme song to the Mario Brothers game stuck in your head yet? Do, do do, do-do-do-do....

Today was more studying for me and project time for J, but we had time to install the last fan in the guest bedroom. It went up pretty quick.

Those rooms are so much brighter now. This photo was taken at night. You can actually see.

We went over to my parent's house for Sunday night dinner, like usual. My Mom helped me with my baby gift for my good friend Hilary (or, as I like to call her, HP). I was nervous about it because it turned out to be harder than I thought. I really appreciate my Mom's help. I'm so glad I have parents who are handy and willing to help.