I Must Confess, I Am Obsessed with Needlepoint!

Yesterday, I received my first needlepoint kit in the mail from Amazon.

After taking some time to wrap my head around the “continental stitch”, I spent the next few hours working on my practice kit and becoming more and more obsessed!

This morning I woke up jonesing to continue, but had to wait until lunchtime to satisfy the itch. And while I’m not at all ashamed of my newest obsession, I did decide to work on my kit outside in my car…you know, for the fresh air, ha!

And I got right back to it as soon as I got home tonight, though I did force myself to stop long enough to write this post…but my fingers are already itching to get back to work!

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE working with my hands…I find it so peaceful and satisfying. And I’m looking forward to incorporating my new skill into future products for my soon-to-be-open Etsy store. But you’ll have to wait to see how I do it!

Have you ever tried your hand at needlepoint?

My first needlepoint kit!

Almost done!

Petition for Cats in the Workplace

So my plea must have worked because after a chilly weekend, Monday dawned beautiful and warm. It actually hit 80 degrees today - it was glorious!

With the weather warming up, it’s truly starting to feel like spring and soon my balcony garden will be planted and Wylie and Sami will get to lay amongst the flowers and soak up the sun.

Until then, they remain inside with me …always ready to lend a hand when I work on a project.

Here they show their support when I began the assembly of Rhino Robbie. They are such good helpers!

Wylie helps hold down the pieces

Sami supervises to make sure nothing goes wrong

No Rhinos Were Harmed During the Making of this Art Project

Has anyone else noticed the growing design trend of cardboard animal trophies?

Well I have and I think they are awesome! They’re animal friendly, earth friendly, beautiful, unique...and I just had to have one!

And thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, I got my very own from Cardboard Safari over the holidays!

Not only do they create amazing products out of recycled cardboard, but Cardboard Safari is also located in my childhood hometown of Charlottesville, VA so I was happy that we could support a local business.

Until a few days ago, poor “Micro Robbie” had been sitting unassembled in his packaging for the past few months. But then my recent bout of redecorating had me looking for that one standout piece to hang on my gallery wall and out he came!

The laser cut pieces looked intimidating at first but in no time “Robbie” was put together and up on the wall…the perfect finishing touch!

I can’t wait to get started!

By the way, I love their logo

Those are a lot of little pieces!

The back of the plaque

Close-up detail of the laser cuts

Fifteen minutes later and he was ready to hang!

Perfection

eBay is Addictive…In Case You Didn’t Know

eBay is like crack for crafters and collectors alike – because once you start sourcing, it’s really, really, really hard to stop.

Case in point, I have spent a few hours so far on the hunt for the perfect vintage bottles. You see, I’ve had a project in mind to refinish bottles but I only want to use vintage ones because a) they are cheaper and b) they are super cool looking! And since I don’t have a lot of vintage stores close by, I’ve returned to eBay to help me find exactly what I’m looking for.

And so my wish list keeps growing as I track various ‘lots’ of bottles to see who has the best deal. But it’s hard to know when to stop, especially when your searches return close to 25,000 items!

But since these will be used for testing purposes, I’m going to (try to) limit my time to looking through only the first ten pages or so.

I can’t wait to get started though! I haven’t worked on a project in some time and it’s one of my favorite things to do so I’m already excited to see how it turns out.

But don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know the outcome…good or bad!

Can a Bookcase Be Inspired?

I love books but have never liked the way bookcases looked…especially the one that lives next to the TV in my living room. The easiest solution would have been to get rid of it all together but I love my books too much not to display them.

So instead, inspired by color organized bookshelves that I was seeing everywhere and an amazing DIY project by Danny Seo, I set out earlier this year to transform the piece into something I could be proud of.

I love the end result and send many thanks to Linda over at Heartfire at Home for giving me the opportunity to finally post about the makeover!

A punch of color in my new favorite corner of the living room!

Rainbow effect detail

Close up shot of the red-to-yellow shelf

The top of the bookcase displays one of my favorite DIY projects!

Off to a Gold Medal Start!

I know the end of a race determines who receives the gold medal, but for me the beginning is always the hardest. Once I get the ball rolling, my excitement and motivation start to snowball and I pick up speed.

But procrastination is all about putting off the beginning, so I always feel a small victory at the start of a project because it means I’ve gotten over the biggest obstacle…myself.

So as I mentioned over the weekend, I finally started my first project and tonight I finished it! By doing a little bit each day, I was able to accomplish something I’d had on my list for months.

I know it’s kind of hard to believe – I’m actually a little surprised myself – but sit tight because the proof is forthcoming!