This last quarter has been healing, however part of healing is recognizing the wound, lancing it, and draining out the…well you get it without me getting too gross here. The wound was recognized and lanced, however that just left the gross parts, taking care of the home that I had neglected in my lethargic/depressive state. This was eye opening, I had not realized my kitchen had gotten that bad. This means that work, financial issues (that should be completely resolved in January 2025), and getting my house back in order have taken all of my time and energy. Crafting has fallen by the wayside while I get myself and my home into a state where crafting is a possibility.
To that end I do not have any fun updates to give you as the year comes to a close. I am very lucky in so many ways that I cannot count them all. Family, Friends, and whatever higher power you believe in have been very kind to me and I hope that I have reciprocated that kindness.
I hope that 2024 comes to a kind close for everyone and that 2025 only brings good things to your lives. Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I was lucky enough this past week to have encountered a rare productivity burst. Throughout this burst I was able to get one of my rooms organized, start several projects, and make progress on other projects.
Not all of my projects turned out great, but most of them did what I wanted. The first paragraph is going to be about outside projects I was able to complete during a warm day, and the rest is going to be about crafts I have started, some are a little more artistic than crafty, but everything I do comes back around to crafts eventually. Even my garden, which is what the next paragraph is going to be about, is going to have plants that are good natural dye producers. Speaking of, onto the outdoor projects.
During a windstorm my downspout decided to blow off of my house. This seemed like a sign to add a rain barrel to my gardening. I bought a rain barrel, and the device to connect it to my downspout. To see if I was able to get away with a cheap solution I purchased a connector that was a little too big, sealant, and some screws intended for a downpipes, under $10, and decided to try to connect it from the ground… It didn’t work, but I really didn’t think it would I was just really hopeful.
This means that I am going to have to wait a little longer since I will need to purchase a 7′ ladder, new downspout, and probably an elbow for the top. I also noticed that there is no downspout on the gutter that surrounds my porch so I’m probably going to add one on just to be sure. The downspout was not my only outside project, I also managed to put up my mini pop-up greenhouse. It is weighed down with some stones from my front yard and it currently houses my mower, clippers, and a few other gardening things. This prompted me to finally put together my two workbench sawhorses, one of which is currently in the greenhouse. I’m hoping to start some plants in March or April. Okay, let’s get into crafts now!
In getting my home back in order I have discovered several projects that I have been meaning to work on for quite some time. One of which is my Unicorn in the Library fiber from Hipstrings. I finally managed to finish spinning it up, I did split the last puff into 4 pieces so that I could spin some other fibers in between that I will use as ply experiments. I also rediscovered my love for spinning silk, this caused me to spin up some lengths that I will allow my library craft patrons to use in their slow stitching project. That reminds me I need to make up a sample for that sometime this week.
I have been exploring some crochet techniques, mosaic crochet was not as much of a success as I would like, I found a Tunisian Crochet pattern video that I am working through and transcribing into a written pattern, and I will be seeking out resources for two sided mosaic crochet to eliminate the weird stair-stepping I am getting on the inside of my mosaic crochet.
Now we are getting to the part where I can never be content, I have to try everything. I don’t know if I mentioned that I bought a Rock Tumbler? If not, well yes, I bought a rock tumbler, some sample rocks, ceramic media, and enough grit to last me a while. I have been watching YouTube Videos by Michigan Rocks for some time, and my Aunt mentioned not getting around to using her rock tumbler, plus a way to force myself to go outside to find rocks all combined to have me starting this new hobby. I have had a ton of fun so far, I have owned it for a month, and I managed to get my ceramic media tumbled through the first 3 stages ( I didn’t bother to polish it), as well as some of the bag of tiny chips that I only half regret purchasing. They aren’t going to turn into anything great, but I’ll run them through the cleaning and two polishing stages to see if I can get them to have a shine. I did put about three pounds of the bigger rocks into each of my two tumblers to get them started on the stage 1, I’ll pull them off on Saturday to see what they look like. I’ll put out a post of how to get started Rock Tumbling, as well as linking to some great resources later.
Of course I cannot start just one hobby at a time, you think I have any self control? I haven’t started this one but it is going to go hand-in-hand with the rock tumbling, I plan on wrapping the rocks in wire when they are tumbled. To be able to sell these for something like a decent price I plan on purchasing some Sterling Silver wire. I’m not selling necklaces, just the wrapped stones for now. This brings me to my last two projects that I’m working on, skipping over the fishing poles I purchased today because I found out that there are ‘no license fishing days’ in New York State. I will need to find pictures of the types of fish it is legal for me to keep, and I have to remember to invite my friend out since I bought her a (cheap like mine) fishing pole.
Okay, so I did manage to have a sale on my Etsy site (thank you to whomever bought the Dino Plushie) and that caused me to realize that I hate having to pay Etsy out of what I had calculated as earnings. I know that people look for inexpensive items, deals, and sales. This means that I’m going to be paying about .20 per item, every quarter (I think that is how often), create listings, and pay for shipping, to make very little if any money. I do plan on creating some spreadsheet and other printable items to put up on Etsy once I have them perfected, to create something like a passive income stream. I have some great ideas I just need to slow down and find enough time to start working on them, I think I might start staying a couple extra hours on the days I’m supposed to leave early, or go to Panera Bread for a couple of hours before I’m supposed to be at work to get these things done.
Due to the slow nature of my Etsy Sales I have decided instead of dripping my products onto Etsy as I get them done, and sort of rushing to get them done, I will take a little more time and sign up for a couple of craft shows this Fall. There is one in September and another in October I would like to sign up for. There are registration fees, I’ll need another table, and I need to take photos of my setup, but all of that should be doable by September. I’m really sort of excited about this, though I am not sure what type of craft I should bring. There is an apple festival that mentions having old-fashioned crafts, so I’m thinking about seeing if spinning and weaving would work for them.
I think that this is long enough of a rambling post to be getting on with for now. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!
Okay, so as a follow up I still haven’t gotten much done over the past two weeks. My stomach flu came back with a vengeance that Tuesday so I had to call off of work Wednesday. Then the following week my allergies stuffed up my head to the point that I was very dizzy. I took the medication, however, when I reclined to take a nap until the effects kicked in, I became nauseous and did when you do when you’re dizzy and nauseous for about 2 hours.
Needless to say I called in sick to work again. Now I have switched my allergy medications, which should last 24 hours, to the night before and I am looking into getting an air purifier to help with these problems.
All of this being said, I have not gotten nearly as much done as I would have liked. Just this morning, the last nice day for quite a while, I managed to get my rain barrel put together and outside, though I am still working on getting my downspout reattached. I have some crafting plans as soon as I get my house in some form of order, so hopefully I can get the organization done this weekend and get started on crafting again!
Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes the ride makes you nauseous, sometimes euphoric, but you have to stay in the cart and keep riding along. Live Life a Little More Abstract!
Okay, so I have not gotten any real crafting done even though it is over half-way through January. I went to visit family, I was supposed to stay for 4-5 days, then they planned a reunion type event so the stay was extended to 10 days…then two flights were cancelled and I wound up staying closer to 13 days. Fortunately with the holiday I wound up missing only a single day of work and I discovered that I can easily make the drive by myself, since I had to rent a car to get back to my car at the airport.
I had a ton of fun visiting with my Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and cousin’s children while I was there. For a long time I was working 3-4 jobs and taking care of mom so I was unable to go to any family events, plus mom didn’t really want to, so I have a huge gap of time where I lost touch. It is great that I am able to get to know my relatives as adults.
All of that being said, I did not get much crafting done. I brought and completed a small portion of my Tula Nova EPP, however I do not have a photo of it. What I did gain however is a better understanding of what kind of organization might work well for me. One of my cousins has 2 very busy children, however they manage to keep their items in, relative, check with the use of storage furniture. Not just bookcases but storage with drawers that can be labelled. I know, this is not revolutionary information, however I’ve been trying to get away with the cheapest form of storage possible and it just isn’t working. The bookcases always look sloppy and the plastic drawers can rarely hold anything well. I tried ordering Ikea furniture however there were some shipping problems so instead I have some dressers arriving from Home Depot.
Hopefully these can help me to get my materials under control and my home looking like a home instead of a wreck….which honestly right now it looks like a wreck.
Since I am going to focus on getting things in check, then using the supplies I own before purchasing more, my shop is going to take a brief hiatus. I am thinking about switching to a quarterly model where I plan on having a new set of items available every 3 months or so.
I think this is probably enough of an update for now. I’ll hopefully have some crafting content next time, however it might also be some organizing content.
Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I know that it has been a while since I have posted. This is mostly because I have not made much significant progress on any of my crafting endeavors for various reasons. If you’re just here for the crafting content, then just skip this post and I’ll try to get back to crafting in the near future.
In October I had the 5 year anniversary of my Mom’s death. I hate that young people, well anyone but the young people get to me the most, smoke. My mom smoked from the time she was about 18 until I went off to college, so over 30 years. She never got lung cancer, instead what she got was COPD. She had to be on oxygen, eventually she caught pneumonia. She had bouts of pneumonia for a year, getting antibiotics and other treatments all the while. In October of 2018 she was, again, hospitalized and they said that she just was not going to get better. They took her off of oxygen and while I was on the phone with the Hospice worker trying to figure out how to transport her home and set up a bed in the living room for her, the nurses came rushing in to get me. I held her hand while mom gasped her last, then I literally howled with grief when I realized she was gone. By nature I am not an introspective person, I try to acknowledge that things have happened and move on, but this hit me a little hard this year, especially since last week would have been Dad’s 75th birthday, this upcoming February it will be 15 years since he passed.
I miss my parents, sometimes I have lucid dreams where I think that they are still alive and we are doing things together. Waking up and realizing that they are gone can make the grief come back just as strong as it was at first. I haven’t had a dream like that in some time, but I have had a couple over the last month. All of this has made it difficult for me to craft and write about new and happy things, but talking with a friend this past weekend made me realize a few things.
I have a coping mechanism for the holidays, it isn’t the healthiest, that works for me. I have a standing invitation to visit my friend and spend the holiday with her family, instead what I’m going to to do is spend the day ‘sulking’ at my house and working on a major cleaning project. I started early by shredding all of the paper’s I’ve had around for 3 years and sorting the bills into a bill box in case I need them in the next five years. I plan on getting the rest of the first floor cleared up so I can work on the second floor and setting up crafting stations that work for me.
I’m not introspective. I don’t like reflecting on things because sometimes I don’t like what is staring back at me, both about myself and my family. I do have to look back sometimes and remind myself, I have a full-time job, my own home, and a reliable car. I have a friend that will be with me through thick and thin, as well as a loving supportive family from dad’s side. I want to spend my holidays alone because I can manipulate my restless energy into getting plenty of work done around the house. I have the opportunity to actually attend the family holiday gathering this year since it will be held in early January, so I am looking forward to that as well as trying to get my crafting mojo going to make some sort of presents for everyone.
I miss my parents. They would have hated the Pandemic. They are looking down and keeping watch over my entire family. I have so many blessings to count. I am far luckier than most.
I’m going to take the next couple of weeks to remind myself I’m lucky and things could be so much worse. I know my reactions and how to keep them from getting too far out of control. I’m thinking seriously about making holiday cookies even though I haven’t since Mom Died. My best friend is getting married in June and I will be standing up with her.
Take care of yourselves throughout this holiday season. I hope to have crafting content for you before the end of the year, if nothing else I’m hoping to have my crafting supplies better organized so I can let you know something about that.
It turns out that stain remover that is intended for oil based paint does not work well on Rustoleum spray paint. I let the first coat sit for 45 minutes + and it moved the tiniest bit. I decided to let the next batch sit for 30 minutes + before rinsing it off. There are some loose pieces of paint hanging off, I did try to use my scraper to try and get more off. I’m planning to sand the rest off tomorrow, the loose paint is sticking to my sandpaper gumming it up fast. I hope it is drier tomorrow and that it sands well.
The front porch is washed with deck wash, the plastic pieces were scrubbed with the Pink Stuff. I’m hoping it’s dry enough for me to stain tomorrow after I pick up my script and bring the stain into the hardware store to get it shaken up since I bought it last year.
Okay, that’s my update for today. I did get to see the lake, spend some wonderful time with family, and picked up shells plus acorns. I’m hoping that the acorns turn into a good dye.
I have made significant progress on several home improvement projects, not only to procrastinate on finishing hiding threads on the quilt…but oh well. The crafting content will be after the ***** if you want to skip to that.
I finished making my lighted walkway look a bit better. In about an hour I used a tined weed remover to loosen the grass and dirt along the path. After that I removed the grass and put it on my compost pile, the dirt went into some flower pots that were lacking in soil, I’ll see if I can plant something there next year. After that I used black weed preventing cloth that I staked down with my lights. After the cloth was laid down I added the rest of the lights and a bag of brown mulch. My grass doesn’t look bad enough for me to worry about mowing so I’m not going to bother just yet.
I am still working on getting rid of the grass between my sidewalk slabs, so please ignore that. I did try to get some of the spaces on my front porch fixed up, I’m going to wait a bit to see if it looks better before I take photos. I did another two hours of sanding on my back porch. I like how the porch is looking so far. I did some filler on the other railing and sanded down the first set of filler.
I know, it doesn’t look like much but this was significant progress for 2 hours work. I’m hoping to finish sanding either this week or during my vacation next week.
*********************************** I did manage to get some crafting accomplished this week. About half of the threads are hidden on my quilt and I figured out how to easily thread the needle to hide the rest. I experimented with some inexpensive templates I purchased from Amazon. I tried to use a pen like knife to cut the card stock, but it didn’t work. Due to that I traced the inside template piece with a yellow marker to maximize the piece of paper, the yellow is very hard to see in a photo.
Once I had the traced them out I used scissors to cut out each shape. Later I am going to have to use the larger outer template to cut the fabric. I will be using a rotary cutter, being very careful to not cut myself.
I have been messing about with a few other things but I’m going to wait a little bit before revealing anything further at this time.
Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract.
Yay! This past week was the last week of our summer reading program. We will be having a finale and prize drawing this upcoming Saturday. I’m teaching a needle tatting class to a guild that day so I will not be available. For the end of our summer reading program I ran my usual classes and two extra events. Due to this I’ve been really busy and not able to get a lot of crafting done.
I have been working on hiding the threads for my big quilt, I’m done tying the top and bottom threads together and just need to thread each one into a needle and slide that needle between the top and bottom quilt pieces and then snip any extra thread off. This will help the threads stay together better and not allow the quilting to unravel. I did wash the quilt and it has amazing crinkle. I’ll post photos next week when I’m ready to put it in my Etsy store.
I haven’t managed to make much progress on my second Tunisian crochet square but I’m having fun with it. I have managed to make progress on a couple of projects. I put some wood filler into the cracks I’ve found on my back porch railing.
I am certainly going to have to do more sanding and possibly more filling. I cannot wait to get this ready for the winter. Speaking of prep for the winter, I’m still working on my garage. I’m going to show you the shame of my garage window and the hole I need to fill in.
As stated in my earlier post about how to repair the window, get the right sized glass. It makes all the difference unless you are good at cutting glass…which I am obviously not good at.
My handyman left a bunch of stuff behind that I need to figure out what to do with. I’m more concerned about getting the hole covered so that I can store my garden stuff in there for the winter. I did spray the place with all natural cat repellent as well as a bug spray to make sure I can get in there without any real problems. I’m on vacation in two weeks so I plan on doing more work at my home then, while wearing some very durable gloves.
I also managed to finish a garment which is one of the few garments where you would ask your significant other ‘Does this make my butt look big enough?’ I am going to be playing the part of a mother from 1880s who is in mourning. I’m trying to put together a costume with minimal purchasing so I used an old pillowcase that I stuffed with fabric scraps and sewed in a semi circle. I then sewed a few lines to roughly keep the stuffing in place before adding in some twill tape to use as ties. This is not how you should make this garment if you want it to last and look really authentic. For a quick job this is an alright result. It will cover my entire backside and give my hips a little more padding. I’m going to try to put together my rough costume this upcoming week to see if it all works.
The final bit of news I have is that my local government is going to release a new grant this week for an opportunity to get home repairs completed. My last application contained a bunch of small things I would like to get done and my application was denied. This time I’m asking them why my last application was denied as well as asking for a list of contractors that will do repairs on my roof. I did see an article released about someone that obtained the initial 10k grant toward a roof replacement and their roof was actually leaking. I’m trying to get this repaired before it leaks, so here’s hoping.
That is it for this week. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract
This post contains some affiliate links. Clicking on the links and making a purchase will not cost you anything extra but I may get a small stipend.
The DIY bug bit me hard this weekend, combined with realizing that the quilt I’m working on has 6 types of blocks not 5, means that there will not be any crafting content this week. I will be writing about home repairs and the products that I used/recommend to accomplish these tasks.
I did not manage to get any more paper made, I did manage to get some home renovations complete, however. When I first purchased this house the garage was a bit of a mess. Since this house was built in the early 1900s the garage was an afterthought. This means that without back-up cameras getting in and out of the garage would be a nightmare, and my old car did not have back up cameras. Even now that I have the cameras I’m still not planning on using the garage for car storage. All of this to tell you that the busted out pane of glass, hole in the back wall, and door that does not sit flush were the least of my concerns 2 years ago when I closed on the house. Now that I have several of the inside projects completed or handled in some way, I can turn to the garage…though I still need to find someone to patch my roof I’m going to hope it holds out for another year.
I managed to ‘fix’ the pane of glass…if you do not have experience cutting glass and have been working with fabric where you need to lean on the ruler to make sure it does not shift…don’t take this task on alone or get the pane professionally cut, or better yet just buy the right size of glass to begin with if you can find it!
To start with I obtained a piece of glass, that turned out too small, so the first step needs to be measure your window pane. If you can find the correct size glass, purchase it. If you cannot find the correct size then you need to either purchase one that is bigger and cut it down to size using a glass cutting set, this is the one I should have purchased
Brush away any extra dust or debris, wipe the frame down if there is no glass in it, or pick out any glass remaining being careful to not get cut. Wearing cut proof gloves,
is probably a good idea for this step and any steps where you are playing with sharp edges.
Push the Glazing points into the window frame flush with the back where the glass pane will sit. The pointy bit goes into the frame and the sticky outy bits needs to be facing you to hold teh .
Next fit the frame of glass into place, making sure that the fit is snug.
Once you have the glass in place use the window glazing compound around the edges to seal the pane in place and prevent water from getting into the wood. I ran a line around then used a putty knife
I prefer a metal edge, to smear the compound toward the outer edges helping it seal better. Within a day or two it should be dry…as long as you don’t do this in the rain…don’t do this in the rain!
My fix will work for a year or two, and then I’ll get a pane of properly sized glass and take out my mess. I might just see if I can install a new window altogether, but that seems a little to ambitious right now. It does not look pretty (at all) but it should keep the wind, and more importantly cats, out.
The link is to some primed shiplap which would have saved me some time since what I purchased needs finished. Once I have the Shiplap cut down to size I will need to seal it
to nail the boards into place covering the hole. I am not sure what I did before I had a nail gun!
Of course in addition to all of this I decided that August is the perfect time to do all of the home improvement projects, so I will also be sanding off the spray paint I used on my steps last year. Well, I say I’m sanding it off but most if it has peeled off already but there is some stubborn spots. After talking with someone that works in a home improvement store I decided against a cordless variety and I purchased
to help me get the back steps as well as my front porch prepped to be finished. I hope to get the back steps done by the end of the week, and work on the front porch while I’m on vacation the first full week of September. That is about it for home improvement projects this past week, though I’ll post progress photos on my back steps if I make any progress, though they are calling for rain most of this week.
Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!
Hello Everyone! The first part is information about my mental health so if you want to skip to the crafting content skip to the ****************.
My site and store have not been updated in a few weeks due to a slight adjustment in my anti-depressants (anti-anxiety for me) and the time at which I was taking them. I was taking them in the morning, this resulted in my consuming more caffeine to keep myself awake and not taking my ADHD medication (which is a stimulant). By changing my anti-depressants to evening I am able to sleep better and not spend my entire day trying to stay awake, I am also taking my ADHD daily to see the difference it makes. After half a week I have more energy and I am able to better focus on accomplishing various tasks.
I also had a friend visit to see my new house for the first time, it was so much fun to catch up with her!
My new desk has re-ignited my desire to ensure that my first floor work area is optimized, or at least I can access everything I need. This of course means that I have to move everything out into the open before I can store it away. I did find my shuttle tatting supplies about 6 weeks before I am set to teach needle tatting to a guild, so that is going to be great to demonstrate the difference between the techniques. Right now the room looks a fright, I did manage to finish weaving off the warp I had set up for coasters that I plan on giving to the guild as prizes for the EGLFC (Eastern Great Lakes Fiber Conference) in October. This allowed me to push that loom to a wall and put items that I use more frequently in front of it.
There is a cubby that I built years ago, not very well admittedly, that had been against a wall but hidden with items in front of it. That is now next to the loom against the wall, mostly accessible. There are 3 cubbies that have longer term storage items that I placed a small end table against. I then pushed my desk up against that end table to create a seamless corner of work space, where I can still access most of the cubbies, that I feel will be very functional.
These moves allowed me to better access my 16 shaft table loom, which brings me to one of the reasons why I started all of these adjustments. Mirrix Looms had a program where they invited everyone to weave every day in April. It was such a success they decided to bring it back in July. This has resulted in my spending the first three days of July finishing off the coasters, so I could put that loom away, and making my 16 shaft loom more accessible. Much earlier this year I put the warp for some towels through my reed, and found out that despite what I thought my warp is wide enough to fill the entire loom…this means that I need to go back and start at the beginning to rethread my entire reed. I thought I could ignore this and just leave the extra threads off of the warp, so I began threading the heddles, however the truth is if I do that I will always hate these towels. I checked with Mirrix and warping up my 16 shaft loom does count as ‘weaving’ toward their goal. I do understand how ridiculous all of this sounds, however I need that external motivation to get myself working on this huge project.
All of this does not mean that this is all that I have been working on! Last Monday I taught a guild how to make scissor fobs, and I will be repeating the lesson with another guild this Saturday and yet again on the 22nd. The first class was such a success I am very excited to see what creations the other guilds come up with given the supplies available! I purchased a lot of supplies for these scissor fobs and I am hopeful that I will get the supplies cost back so I can invest in teaching another class next year, though I am not sure what in yet.
If you have not gotten the gist yet, I never have just one or two projects on the go at a time. I have also been doing some work on my house, my front garden is planted with new blocks for my potted plants, they are a dye garden plus a couple of vegetables, so I look forward to seeing what hues I get out of my garden this year. I’ll try to get a good photo of my straw flowers by next post. I also went a little too far at the 70% off fabric sale at JoAnn Fabrics, though I hope to make a couple of lap quilts in the next week or so, yes I know I’m getting a bit too ambitious again!
I think that is all of the progress I have to report on for now, if I like how the workroom looks by time I’m finished I’ll try to add a photo to this post. I’ll probably have a post about organization products I use in my house in time for the Prime Sale on Amazon with affiliate links by next week. Clicking on the affiliate links will not cost you anything but I might get a small stipend.
Until Next Time Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
A Little More Abstract 