The Dream... is a little more realistic now

Weeks have passed - feels like days. Mike and I have spent the last several weeks working on the upstairs bedroom. We've been working on it over the last few years, but there have always been more pressing matters to attend to. With an impending visit from Sara and Bobby in three weeks, we set a deadline of having 2 bedrooms by the time they arrive. We don't have any illusions that the room will be finished, but "habitable" is our goal (we feel we've reached the point where our guests might be a little sick of sleeping on our couch).

With this goal in mind, Mike finished all the electrical last month, and with the help of our friend Bobby they got all of the eave insulation installed. Next came the plumber to make sure that our plumbing was set up for a sink in the upstairs room. Then Mike and I spent a couple of crazy nights ripping out trim and scraping paint in preparation for the drywallers.

Insulation - the cat kept sneaking up here to sleep in the insulation then would itch like crazy all day.

 

Mike hates small spaces - but he suffered in the little space over the kitchen in order to get the last of the insulation in.

 Pink Panther insulation installed - drywall next!

 The little cubby on the left is a built-in shelf for shoe storage and the door on the right provides access to the eaves, if needed.

Over the fourth of July weekend the drywallers arrived to finish the insulation, install, tape and mud drywall, and finally to put a light orange peel texture on all the walls. They finished on Sunday afternoon, at which point Mike and I, along with sister Susanna who graciously volunteered to come help us paint, jumped right into the project.

 

 Susanna masterfully taped with her trusty "green frog" tape.

A coat of Kilz

We managed to finished priming upstairs on Sunday afternoon.

 Photo from the top of the stairs - closets on the right.

And we got almost two coats on the walls by Monday evening!

 Mike made sure that there were lots of electrical outlets so that we can arrange our furniture in a variety of configurations.

 These closets are 3x the size of my current one downstairs.

 

The large alcove will be where our sink goes and the small alcove to the right will be built-in shelves.

We've got carpet installation scheduled for next week, then we get to work on the baseboards and window trim - the end is in sight! While this work was going on upstairs we also had contractors in to patch all the holes we put in the wall downstairs when we redid the electrical. They patched, then floated and textured the walls to give them a consistent finish. Susanna got primer and one coat of paint on those walls by the end of day Monday, then continued her generosity by extending her train ticket home by one day so that she could put the last coat on the walls on Tuesday while Mike and I were at work.

Thanks Susanna!

Gray Cat, the Amineko

 Gray Cat basks in the sun on his special throne (courtesy of Mom).

 

 Gray Cat sniffs the mint.

 

Gray Cat looks at me with disdain and superiority.

Last month I got Hello My Name is Amineko from the library. This is a fascinating book - not because it's well-written (it's really not) but because it's a craft book full of photos of crocheted cats. There is only one pattern in this craft book. All the other pages of the book are dedicated to photographing crocheted cats sleeping, eating, playing, hiding, relaxing, etc. I admit, the photos are pretty cute. But I was shocked to find that there was only one pattern. However, it's a pretty easy pattern - crocheting in the round - and the color variations could be limitless. The nose was supposed to be stitched felt, but I needled felted it directly to the cotton yarn. This pattern is also available for free on Ravelry.

Everybody's Brewing

Mike and I have been spending a lot of time driving out along the gorge on weekend evenings in search of good views and good beer. We went to our favorite restaurant in Hood River a few weeks ago and the bartender recommended that we check out Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon, WA.

So the next weekend we headed back out along the gorge, crossed over the river at Hood River, drove through Bingen and up the hill to Whilte Salmon.

 

The brewery is in an old brick building with "Goodwill Lodge" on the canopy in low-contrast letters. Needless to say we drove by it the first couple of times. If you look closely, their logo is on the door and an authoritative neon sign in the window tells one to "GET IN HERE".

  

They have about 10 beers on tap, and my favorite was the Daily Bread Common Ale. Mike tried the Goodwill IPA. I was pleased to see that they have 3 IPAs, so there will be plenty more to try on our next visit. While it was a bit chilly, we ventured out to the patio to take in the wonderful views of Mt. Hood and some glorious green hill that reminded me of Heidi.

To keep in the spirit of the Gorge and Beer, this last weekend we headed to Stevenson, WA to check out the Walking Man Brewery. While their beer is good, the overall experience was decidedly less pleasant and no photos were taken. In the future I will enjoy Walking Man beer from the comfort of my favorite restaurants. There was an excellent ice cream joint in Stevenson, however...

Sun: the cherry on top of my day

The first weekend in June turned out to be a beautiful one here in the Pacific Northwest. Mike and I spent it with Papa at his house on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington. Per usual, Mike and I headed up with a couple of projects in tow. Mike brought materials to build carriage doors for our shop (a work in progress, in itself), while I brought my felt and sewing supplies to craft a birthday present for Lilly's upcoming 2nd birthday (more on that later).

 

Mike laying out his design for the carriage doors.

 

The view from Pa's hot tub

 

Homemade pizza! We tried a variation of Alan's Flammkuchen: sour cream, sauerkraut and pears.

I had gone light on the sour cream and kraut thinking it might be too much - Papa piled more on. It was very tasty and I would definitely do this combo again - thanks Alan!

Our dinner table

We took a day trip up to the Skagit Valley to catch Aidan's final game of the season. Our little man hit a home run! He was very cool about it, didn't say much, but I could tell he was really happy to have made such a good play with his family around. 

Aidan had quite a fan club present: 4 grandparents, 2 aunts, an uncle and both his parents (even dad was home from Alaska for a week!).

 Aidan was pretty thrilled to be able to leave the game in Grandma Joyce's mustang. As he climbed in, a teammate shouted, "sweet ride, Aidan!"

 

The shop doors in their unfinished state. Mike managed to get them all built before we headed home, now it's just some finishing work and paint. This was our first door project and we learned a lot; particularly about gluing and clamping. Luckily Pa was around with lots of advice and huge stash of large pipe clamps. 

Work In Progress: A new doll

A new work in progress... This doll is a variation on my previous dolls. I've been playing around with the pattern by adding thumbs and toes (covered by those kicks) and a new method of applying hair. This doll is also smaller than my previous dolls, by virtue of the fact that I used DK weight yarn rather than worsted weight. I found this cotton yarn in the sale bin at the Mill Ends Store and went with it because it was a nice flesh color. I also added  pipe cleaners to her limbs to give her a little more poseability - it also helps her to stand up.

I whipped up the overalls out of flat felt, and added a couple of antique brass buttons. I had made an extra pair of converse for Vanessa's duck that were too small, but amazingly just fit this doll.

The hair is a 100% wool roving yarn by Twilleys of Stamford (Freedom). I was able to needle felt it directly onto the doll's head and I'm really liking the way it turned out. I'm constantly changing my method for applying hair to dolls, but I think I would do this one again.

As you can see, the poor doll is missing a face. I just haven't decided how I want her to look... in the meantime she sits on the shelf with the perfect poker face.

Nothing says "almost summer" like the firing up of the cob oven

 

Our cob oven spent the winter covered in a green tarp, and home to a small green frog. However, as of yesterday it was liberated! 

Our friend Bobby spent the day working with us around the house, and to celebrate a successful work day we fired up the oven for the first "cob pizza" of the year. 

 

Lots of new toppings to choose from this time, including: roasted butternut squash, ricotta cheese, pickled peppadew peppers, apricots and broccoli rabe.

As the sun went down we lit up the "campfire" for part II of s'mores-makin! Bobby admitted that he has a hard time just sitting around a campfire, so he used hot coals/embers to start hollowing out a piece of wood, which he hopes to turn into a pig-shaped bowl for his mother. A very intriguing project, to be sure.

Roasted

After a long weekend of working on the garden and house, Mike and I relaxed around our backyard fire pit last night. It was chilly, but very reminiscent of pacific northwest camping adventures. I dug out the roasting sticks for sausages and marshmallows.

On Saturday I tried my hand at making homemade graham crackers. The dough was horrible to work with (terribly tacky) and I had to add so much graham flour to make it workable that they ended up tasting quite dry. However, add a couple roasted marshmallows and chocolate chips to them, and they become rather tasty.

Look, I made a potholder!

Earlier this month I got an invitation to participate in a crochet-along (CAL) from one of my Ravelry groups, Good Things Together. I've never participated in an "along" before, but I haven't been crocheting as much lately so I figured this would be a good opportunity to make a new project that I didn't have to have a recipient for, or even a reason for. The project was a flower potholder, and as luck would have it, I actually needed a second potholder.

The pattern was designed by Delights-Gem, and you can currently see all of the potholders made during the CAL on her recent blog post. The pattern is posted here.

Happy Birthday, Dear

 

Back in my March my lovely friend Rebecca hit the big 3-0. To mark this momentous occasion, I gave her Bambi. Nothing says welcome to your thirties like a toy.

The pattern for this animal is from here.

Waddle! Waddle! Chucks make ya wanna...

Last weekend Mike and I headed to Bow to finally catch up with my jet-setter mother. We managed to catch her between travels, work and school. We spent a wonderful weekend antiquing in Mount Vernon, Sedro Woolley, Bellingham, Fairhaven and Laconner. I found a fabulous set of white milk-glass cups and Susanna got me a very cool pink lamp for my dollhouse.

We also officially celebrated Mother's Day with a rodent.

Mouse pattern adapted from here.

I made the head a little larger and hand-sewed it from wool felt. The crown is made from wool felt as well, and I added white pom-poms for a little extra bling.

To celebrate spring (which totally isn't here but I thought if we said we were celebrating it then Spring might take the hint) I brought up gifts for Aidan and Vanessa as well.

Back in February when I gave Susanna a Kangaroo with Chucks, Aidan was most impressed and asked if I would make him and his cousin Vanessa animals too.
Aidan chose a Penguin (to go along with the crocheted one I made him earlier) and Vanessa requested a duck (to match the needle-felted one she made last month).






I was happy that they chose animals with only two feet apiece, but these birds were not so easy to make converse for. Achieving balance was no easy feat!

The duck is hand-sewn from wool felt using one of my patterns. The purple converse pattern is the same one that I used for the animals on the Game Time baby mobile.

The penguin is adapted from the book Wild & Wonderful Fleece Animals. I reduced the pattern by 75% and then changed the bottom half to create "legs" and "feet".