House Project #8: Doors! Phase 1

Four rooms off the main area (kitchen/living/dining/reading/mud); four ugly brown hollow core doors.

This, times 4 (or 7, if you count the two pantry doors
and the door through to the back mancave). BLECH.

I'd love to be able to full-on replace these doors, but that's not in the budget. Paint, leftover from other upgrades around the house? Definitely within the budget. I found a few ideas on the interwebs about dressing up flat doors with trim to create faux paneling but went even cheaper and painted "trim" to give the impression of paneled doors.

Step one, prime the heck out of them. Even that was loads better looking!

Christmas Cards, 2015 Edition

Coming soon to a mailbox near you!

Garden rehab & Other outdoor updates

Stick season is well underway here in the valley, and while it's been busy off and on since summer, I've still managed to get a bunch of outdoor projects done over the past five months or so. It's been quiet here on the blog, and I probably could have squeezed in a minute or two here and there to share some updates as things got done, but alas, that didn't happen.

So, please bear with me as I give a somewhat abbreviated house & yard update, in no particular order. . .

Halloween 2015!

Last year, Gwen and I managed a pretty fantastic 90s era costume. If you missed it, check it out here. This year we went more whimsical, honoring some beloved yard art.

Gala Hats, 2015 edition

I've been terrible at finding the time to sit down on a (semi)regular basis to write here, let alone do any regular crafting. Summer felt hurried and full, and the school year, as always, has been in 5th gear since day one. Even when the kids were off on their fall training trips - Alpine in Chile, Nordie's in Italy - I was still occupied with things other than crafting. That being said, I have found some time to do a little knitting, and over a few days in early September, I knit up some hats to donate to the scholarship fundraiser the ski academy holds every fall to provide financial support to some of our families.

a family of hats

Early July Blackberry Pie

I'm ashamed to admit that this blackberry pie is my first pie of the summer, back in early July.

Two-Button Baby Cardi

I've had two skeins of bamboo sock yarn for ages, one white and one light green, and have gone back and forth about what to make with them. I've started a pair of socks for myself, a scarf, and even thought about a lacy tank, but none of the projects were what the yarn wanted to be (you knitters know what I'm talking about). So when a dear friend from my island days told me she was due this spring, I knew the yarn would finally find a home. My hope is that it will fit the little lady just as fall is setting in and the coastal air is beginning to cool.

June Garden Update

Once spring hits full stride and starts the stretch into summer I find it hard to spend too much time inside. And now that school has ended for the year, I've jumped right in to my summer gardening gig, so of course I end up taking care of mine in the evenings and weekends.

I'll have some crafty updates soon, but for now, another tour of the gardens - it's been a busy month for all of the green things. The nice thing about the gardens is that most of the plants have come to me for free. Even today I was planting more hand-me-down's from Mom and moving around some Narcissus bulbs (SO many!).

Spring has Sprung

Winter - Sprinter - Summer - Spring. The last month has brought a variety of weather and it seemed like spring would never come, especially when we went from sprintery weather (when spring and winter can't stop fighting over whose turn it is) into way-too-warm-for-this-time-of-year temps in the 70s and 80s. Then Mother Nature (mostly) righted herself and the weather has been more spring-like - we even had a frost last week. And of course I neglected to cover the veggies that had started to come up. . . though I don't think I lost too many (and that, my friends, is why you always plant more seeds than plants you'll end up keeping!).

Everything needs a good weeding and probably could use some mulching, too. Not to mention the backyard and side yards need a bit of a haircut. And it's only mid-May - things should be filling out nicely over the summer.

Without further ado, a little tour of the grounds here at the Mint Manor at Eastman Terrace . . .

Nate's Retro-inspired Hat

Sometimes you get lucky and get an inspired-one-of-a-kind-only-for-you knit hat from me. . . This winter, that was my friend Nate. While visiting him one night, we discovered that he has a late 80s/early 90s-era Patagonia fleece that has a pretty fantastic pattern in teal, grey, reddish, and black. The minute I saw the fleece I knew he needed a matching hat. It helped that he had seen the hats I had knit for Gala back in the fall (the big scholarship fundraiser at the ski academy where I work) and indicated he'd like one. The time had come to make that wish come true.

The fleece that started it all; it CLEARLY needs a matching hat.
Challenge accepted.
(not the best picture quality, but you get the idea)

Critter Cuteness: Knit Bunny

I saw this cuteness come across my pinterest feed the other day and decided it would make a fun Easter treat for my niece.

Is it break yet?

Winter won't quit. . .

A Home for the Knick-Knacks & Treasures

Remember this sweet little shelf I scored last spring for free?

Short-row Half-circle Hearth Rug

I picked this handspun yarn from the local yarn shop a couple of years ago with the intention of knitting and felting a bag. It sat, and sat, and sat.

Braided Cowl/Infinity scarf

I finally finished the Braided Cowl that I had started back in November. The idea came from a cowl pattern my sister had seen through a friend of hers - the Challah Infinity Scarf. I liked the idea of a braid to add a level of dimension, and I liked the variety of stitches for the different braid strands. My yarn stash contains way too many orphans - among other reasons I have a habit of buying one skein from the sale bin when I happen upon a yarn store while traveling - so I decided this would be a good project to use a few up.

Another busy winter in the works

It's been a quiet month blog & crafting-wise, but definitely busy at school. This time of year we're in the thick of it, with races and camps going non-stop. We have a group in Europe for another few weeks, another was out west for a while just after the Christmas break, and everyone else is traveling weekly around the northeast and Canada, for day trips and longer race series. And, we have races here at school, or rather, over at Mt. Ellen, on the trail where the kids train. I'm on race crew, which means every time the school hosts a race at the mountain, I'm up helping with timing or acting as start or finish ref. We had a big week January 19-23, hosting 4 consecutive days of races (should have been 5, but the Monday races were postponed). It was a long week of long days: I was on the mountain by 7:30am each day (7am on Wednesday!) until 2 or so, then at school until 6pm. Kind of crazy, but I enjoy watching the kids race. And, this is a pretty great view for those mornings my office work requires a pre-opening chairlift ride:

Sunrise from the top timing shack at Inverness