I'm still alive

It's been awhile, gentle readers. But, I have an excellent excuse: my fella and I are moving back to our hometown in a little over 2 weeks. Our new place is way cheaper, closer to my work, and closer to most of our family and friends. It's also about half the rent of our current home in Toronto. 

We've been pretty lucky with our beloved Toronto apartment -- it's amazingly clean, well-cared for, and functional. However, our new place is...well, let's just say it's going to need a bit of spit and polish before we move in. My brain has been swirling with plans with how to make it a home.

My first idea: mismatched dining room chairs. I plan to replace my current matching set with a bunch of charmingly different chairs, all painted in neutral white. Something like this:

Second, I've been obsessed with this simple balsa wood sculpture thingy since I saw it on Design Sponge last week.

I'd like to use the same materials to make a big Finnish star that we can hang in our new bedroom. They look very complicated but are actually very easy to make.

I'm also working on knitting a pouf for our new living room. (I wrote about my obsession with these way back in September). I'm probably about halfway finished the knitting, then I have to assemble and stuff it. When it's finished, I hope to have something like this:

So, as you can see, even though I haven't been blogging up a storm, my creative juices are stewing. Stay tuned for the finished products!

Urge for orange

I'm going for it, readers. Instead of my usual standby for painting furniture -- beautiful, classic, neutral white -- I'm opting for bright, in-yo-face, saturated orange.

First coat!

This chair was a curbside find with great lines but battered legs and upholstery. The colour is called "Chinatown Orange," which (vaguely racist connotations aside) is a really lovely colour with just a hint of red. I took off the back rest for painting, but since the screws to remove the seat weren't accessible and it will be re-covered it in new fabric, I just left the seat on during painting.

Glossy!

Why orange, you ask? Truthfully, I have no idea. Maybe the bleak winter weather is making me desperate  for warmth and colour. Maybe it's just my evolving taste. But, honestly, for whatever reason, I just had this sudden desire for ORANGE. And I decided to go with it.

Me, shot by my fella, in my sexy paint-splattered hoodie

Since the chair itself is going to be super bright, I'm thinking something in greys and whites for the upholstery. Something like this, but perhaps a little more subtle. (Sidenote: This fabric is designed by Ty Pennington, formerly of Trading Spaces fame. Who knew?)

So there you go. Orange you glad you read this post?? (Sorry. Couldn't resist).



The honeymoon sweater

After we got married in August 2009, my fella and I went on our honeymoon in Nova Scotia. It was a perfect place to relax after the wedding -- charming, interesting, and full of stunning views like this:

One of the most awesomely surprising things about our trip was when we stumbled across an amazing yarn store smack dab in the middle of rural Nova Scotia -- the Lismore Sheep Farm. It's actually a working farm where they take the wool from these guys:

An actual Lismore Sheep Farm sheep

And turn it into this:

My personal knitting nirvana

And, as if finding this treasure trove of yarn wasn't enough, each skein only cost $4.75. Yes, $4.75 for 100 per cent wool from sheep grazing about 100 feet away. Needless to say, I went a bit nuts. I got enough yarn to make a sweater for me, a sweater for my fella, and a couple skeins to bring home for my Mom and sister. Plus, we went back the next day to buy at 100% wool blanket. I broke the zipper of my suitcase trying to stuff in all the woolly goodness.

So, fast forward a year and a half to the present day. You would think that would have been ample time to finish at least one of the sweaters I intended to make with all of that honeymoon yarn. Well, my friends, I'm sorry to report that this is as far as I've got:

Kind of pathetic, no? I'm about three inches into making the Cobblestone Pullover for my fella. With any luck, it will eventually look like this:

Did I mention my husband is 6'6"? That's a LOT of torso to cover. Maybe that's why this is the first sweater I've ever knit for him. But I've decided to pick this up again and devote some serious time to this honeymoon sweater over the holidays. Who knows? With any luck, I'll have it finished by our second anniversary!

Kitty helpers

Remember when my cat Bruno was "helping" me with my sewing? For those of you who don't, here's a quick recap:

Well, now my other kitty, Milo, has decided to join in on the fun. He was ever-so-graciously assisting me with the same skirt this weekend.

Luckily, even with all of the "help," this skirt is done and is just waiting to be photographed. If only one of them knew how to work my camera.

Friday off

I worked about a bajillion hours this week, so in return, I've been granted a glorious long weekend. I've been enjoying my day off today by trying to get some work done on a basic black full skirt -- but this little guy keeps getting in the way:

My cat Bruno always decides he MUST be petted whenever I'm in the middle of a project. I would get mad at him, but how can you be angry at this face? Seriously.