…because of bowls. Mixing bowls, not the smoking kind.

It’s genetic. I blame my mother. She does mixing bowls. Her best friend does chairs.

Both of these things gave me near-death-experiences in goodwill this week. I spotted each one from far away when there was another customer equidistant from and approaching The Bowls in the opposite direction. In both cases the person wasn’t even looking at the same side of the aisle, nonetheless, I freaked out internally and had to make myself walk calmly towards the prize instead of making a mad dive to close the gap. My heart stopped beating for those few moments. I swear. I don’t want to end my lifetime record of No Broken Bones over a mixing bowl, but I might have some heart issues that need addressed.

On the left is a delicious green pyrex for $2.99. I want a set just like my Ma’s (it’ll make my cooking better, right?) and I already don’t have the right colors in the right sizes but that’s okay. The green bowl’s maiden voyage in its new life was whipping up some blueberry muffins and they already tasted better than any blueberry muffins I’ve ever made (i.e. more like Ma’s.)

On the right is a 49-cent stainless steel beauty that is going to be… if you can guess… perfectly in.every.single.way what I’ve been scouring thrift shops for all summer…

…Hazel’s kitchen sink! Yip yip!!

I daresay that, aside from some accessories that I can’t resist, I might actually pull of the entirely-thrifted-destashed-or-handmade-kitchen. So far so good in the construction department. I have thrifted or pilfered every single thing.

Sometime shortly after we moved home last November I started noticing that Hazel played with her toys more if they were organized. I couldn’t just keep everything jumbled in a couple of open bins – she would ignore them unless all the blocks were together, yada yada (surely this is surprising no one – she is my child in SOME ways.) I started scouring goodwill and other places for some low shelves that were deep enough to work well for toys and found nothing. I suppose I could have built something but I would have just gotten very angry in the process, which was not a good thing to do during Shining Time up on this mountain. So after christmas when things were way on sale, I bought a set of these shelves in white and some fabric bins for them on the cheap.

I don’t even know how long I stood in target looking at them and feeling disgusted with what I was about to do, both because I was buying something I knew I could probably EVENTUALLY find used or make with some effort, AND they were boring. But whatever – I bought them.

And then I bought some spraypaint. And scrapbooking paper. And these wee adorable frames from the dollar bins and Michael’s. And ribbon. And I spent way too long obsessing over all of it. And I went home joyful about my big box-store purchases.

A week later we had an astounding thaw, and so one night after dark I put the garage door up, assembled the shelves, and started spraypainting them right at the edge of the rain pouring from the sky. The light was pitiful down there, and I didn’t even think about it, I just went to town with my petrol blue destashed from Erin, and had another new can waiting on deck. After about ten minutes of bliss I realized that some of the paint was beading up. I almost lost my mind. I left the whole thing in the garage and didn’t touch it again until… two days ago.

In the meantime I picked up a can of plastic primer for the cheap plastic-ey veneer – totally ingenious – and sanded off all of the bad paint. (Dear mouse sander, I love you forever.) Second paint attempt went on like a dream, I wrapped some ribbon around the bins, drew some labels and covered them in contact paper, then popped the (painted-to-match) mini frames on top. After the spraypaint was dry I cut the scrapbooking paper to fit the four cube openings that had backs, and after Hazel went to bed… I organized. Organizing might be more fun than spray painting. I just don’t know.

Either way – Hazel’s boring target toy shelves are no longer boring. And I only had one fit of anger.

Hazel pushed aside her “I don’t totally enjoy getting my hands dirty” attitude to make you some art :)

After months of scouring the ReStore, every Goodwill in my path, various other thrift shops, no less than 50 yardsales and innumerable trash drivebys, I finally found the perfect piece of furniture to revamp into a tiny kitchen for Hazel’s second birthday in October. A tiny kitchen that I’m hoping will be almost entirely thrifted/repurposed/handmade, with some ideas stolen from this retro pottery barn kitchen and a few other places (I hate it when a company like pottery barn gets something so damn perfect!) I have been finding little details for months, I have fabrics picked out and felt food planned (and crocheted food hopes using this book from VD), I have a piece of furniture to make into a tiny fridge, but I’ve been missing the main component – the sink and stove. I looked at this piece at least three times before realizing how perfect it actually is. As soon as the lightbulb came on (while standing in line at the post office) I drove back to the ReStore, strapped Hazel onto my back, wrestled this puppy into the front seat of my car and brought it home. And then spread out a few of my favorite little details to photograph and feel like I’m actually accomplishing something other than spending money and shoving things in a box and daydreaming.

nightstand = $15.00 @ the Habitat for Humanity ReStore
faucet = $5.00 @ the ReStore
mixing bowls = $.50 each at Goodwill
tiny bamboo utensils = $.25 each in chinatown
tiny wooden mixing spoon = $.25 in chinatown
egg whisk = $1.00 at a yardsale
most perfect plates = $.99 each at Target (and I kind of want four more, but even though this line of picnicey stuff is still out the tiny polkadotted plates are gone in every store I check – please grab some for me if you see them!)

We are back at the 433, and happy to be “home”. Mikey did well on his exam he thinks, Hazel cut the last of her teeth (until second-year molars, that is), and I was mildly useful for over a week as a single parent. I napped almost every day with Hazel, and I plowed through the last half of The Poisonwood Bible (omg), and did silly things like paint my nails and let them dry all the way and watch bad lifetime movies while my mom bathed my child. I am still trying to get my bearings and try to figure out how to catch up from being away. I keep puttering around, floating from task to task, and not completing any of them.

My friend Jenn got married over the weekend, and asked me sometime last year if I’d create jewelry for she and her girls. I happily obliged, excited to have almost totally free rein. This ended up making it a lot more difficult to decide on a design in the end, and I have spent A LOT of time bead-shopping over the past several months. I’m super happy with the finished products, though:

More importantly, Jenn’s face lit up when I handed them over two weeks ago at Panera – where we met for old time’s sake – and they all looked stunning on the big day. I’m not used to making such fancy things. Her photographer, Amberlee Christey, did a MUCH better job of making the jewels look pretty than I did, so I emailed her to ask if I could use this photo on my blog. She didn’t mind at all, and casually mentioned that I might know her brother and sister-in-law. Of course I do, because I live in the smallest world ever.*

*I am still working on blanket information, but have so far gathered the following tidbit: the priest Mikey thought of when we discovered the woman’s name on the label? The one who I found out is the cousin of the blanket-maker’s husband? Someone very near & dear to me got drunk for the first time at age 15 at that man’s ordination. Am I allowed to say that on the internet?

Listening: Hank Williams
(I am) Reading: Last Child in the Woods
(Hazel is) Reading: Each Peach, Plum, Pear and a bunch more yardsale books
Working on: trying to organize my life

A week of sewing: five pairs of shorts for Hazel, a mei tai for she and Alice, and three toddler art aprons for three kids just entering toddlerdom. Well, almost three. I need about five more inches of brown thread – the third will get finished up after next week, since I’m vacating this house on Friday afternoon so Mikey can write his second comprehensive exam in peace and then take off in our car to a few-day conference.

(New year’s resolution week 20: these are upcycled from goodwill-bound pants of Maggie’s and a shirt of mine.)

I also picked up the first component of Hazel’s kitchen today. By “picked up” I mean it’s in Walt’s van, waiting for Mikey to go get it when Hazel’s carseat has been relocated to my mom’s car and there’s space in the back seat. Excitement: barely contained. Barely.

Listening: The Freight Hoppers
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: Fox in Socks (More like I’m reading it, forty times a day – when the beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles… <— I think I mutter this in my sleep.)
Working on: wedding jewelry; baptism gifts

Her name is Alice. Get it? They’re super cute together. Today they ate a pretend meal for forty minutes.

Alice is very cool. She is cuddly. She is ethically made. I feel like her wardrobe could use a little tweaking… and I want to make a tiny sling or tiny mei tai or both…

I’ve had the shorts that Hazel is wearing in these photos cut out for at least a month. I think more like six weeks. I finally sewed that pair together yesterday, and have four more cut and ready to be assembled before I can start making clothes for a doll.

I feel like I have not had a normal existence since we got back from Toronto – busy busy busy, five million things to do, teething teething teething TEETHING <—although the last two are cutting rightnow, and then we’re home free until the second year molars make their appearance.

Despite that, I have been getting things made here and there, in tiny little chunks of time. I just don’t realize it until I sit down to think about it in blog format. Is that sad?

I’ve been making these little round face scrubbies here and there, mostly in the car, to replace the disposable cotton ones that you buy in a tube. They’re made from the same plain cotton yarn I already had on hand for dishrags, and take less then ten minutes apiece to crochet. They work soooo well, and I just toss the used ones in a lingerie bag to put them through the wash. I don’t wear makeup anymore, but I can only imagine that these would be 500% better than thin cotton rounds for makeup removal, applying toner, etc… they are the perfect amount of soft & nubby.

Laundry soap. Since Mikey and I have freakishly sensitive skin we hate pretty much all laundry soaps. I’ve been meaning to try making my own for awhile, but don’t know anyone who does and didn’t want to pick some random recipe from the internet or a book. Conveniently, Amanda at soulemama.com posted her trusty recipe this week, so I decided to give it a try. For a 10 cup, 80-load batch at 1/8 cup per load, you need three 1/2 oz bars of finely grated castille soap, and one cup each of baking soda (93 cents per batch), borax (67 cents per batch), and washing soda (1.00 per batch). I picked up the couple of things I needed while I was out yesterday and made a batch when I got home. It smells delicious, and I am using it right now. I used Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap, which makes a batch cost about the same as an equally-sized bag of Charlie’s if you can find it on sale for $2.99 per bar like I did. We DO love Charlie’s around here, and will still use it on diapers, but since it’s so hot and muggy and almostsummerey right now, peppermint laundry is just too good to pass up for the convenience of mail-order laundry soap. (And since you asked, Paisley does not have sensitive skin and prefers that her blankets and towels be washed in the cheapest, perfumiest laundry soap I can find.)

To fill the LOST-void and soothe my stressed-mommy-brain, I spent 3.5 hours after Hazel went to bed the other night crocheting the blanket that will never end (the one I ONLY work on when I need to calm down), and watched Dexter. It was magical. I love them both.

Goodies for the little teeny You-Are-Having-a-Baby-Yayyyyyyyyyyy lunch that I gave for Maggie on Saturday. Delicious. Such instant gratification to make AND to eat. (Do you sense the blue & gold theme in my life?)

Listening: The Beatles
(I am) Reading: The Last Child in the Woods
(Hazel is) Reading: When I Was Young in the Mountains, which I had the urge to read with her after kindly booting this guy from our porch the other day (I don’t know why I always assume they are male)

There is a very short list of things that I’m quite certain would make me happy even if everything in my life was falling apart. Among them: if you walk through my door and hold out your hands, offer up some random little piece of debris from your life and say, “can you make something out of this?”… I will always go weak in the knees. Always. Doesn’t matter what it is. Thinking about someone I know standing in their house and looking at something before they throw it away or put it back in a box and wondering what I could do with it means more to me than a billion dollars in profit from selling my stuff. Maggie and I have been doing this to each other practically our whole lives. This is why we are friends. Manda has mailed me packages full of her broken jewelry. This is why we are friends. My father in law destashes his abandoned projects into my life – darkroom supplies, woodcutting tools, stained glass supplies – this is why we are friends. Last Wednesday Walt showed up at hour house with one of these in his pocket:

And the ever-magical, “can you make something out of this? Like… jewelry? Earrings? I have lots more.” Look at those boxes, man!! Drool. Amp tubes. I never would’ve thought.

Since then it has sat on the island in our kitchen, suffering many inspections per day. Fiddling, walking around holding it in my hand, rolling it between my palms, pressing it to my lips (why do I do this? Hazel does this too – is she mimicing me or is there a reason that we do this?) I’ve lost sleep at night trying to figure out how to get it to hang horizontally. Because of course I wanted it to be part of a necklace.

Yesterday immediately after supper I retreated to the garage to give some ideas a try. First idea: solder jump rings to each end – one to the prongs and one to some copper tape wrapped around the glass tip – fail. Some curses. Second idea: wire wrap a band around each end of the main body and attach a jump ring to that – fail. Many curses. Third idea: solder a thin band around each end of the main body and attach a jump ring to that. Call Walt first. How much heat can these things stand? Is it going to blow up in my face if it gets too hot? A lot, he says. They have a heat resistant coating so that’s probably why my soldering ideas are not working – the copper tape won’t stick to it, he says. He reminds me that since it’s a vacuum tube, it would only crack if it got too hot. He’s smart, this guy. It’s not going to blow up in your face. But… you’re wearing glasses, right?

I am.

He says it probably won’t work. Try it anyway. Many more curses. Of course he’s right. Almost crying now – very mad and I’ve burned myself. What time does Lowe’s close? It’s 8:00 p.m. – I wish they made cable ties in metal. That’s exactly what I need – thin metal bands to which I can attach a jump ring. I get in the car, very angry and with the music very loud. Immediately I am not mad anymore because the CD that plays when I start the car is Chris Coole, and he is the opposite of music that could sustain craft-induced fury. I start to calm down. Drive to Lowe’s calmly. Thanks, Chris. Maybe I can find some tiny little hose clamps that will work.

Get to Lowe’s. Am asked many times if I need help. Am the recipient of many confused stares that I’m all too familiar with (I was an art student, after all) when I respond “I don’t really know what I’m looking for….” and I don’t bother to explain what I have in mind. Locate properly-sized hose clamps. They are too bulky, but they are ninety-seven cents for a pair so I dejectedly make my way to the checkout with them anyway, knowing that before I even get there I’ll turn around and put them back because I’m not going to put a ninety-seven cent thing on my debit card. Swerve into the electrical aisle. Glimmer of hope. Spy the boxes of cable ties, and start wondering if I could spray paint plastic ones with metaillic spraypaint. And… what’s that?

Stainless steel cable ties???

Will wonders never cease? I grab a pack of ten. I run back to the plumbing and fling the cute little hose clamps back into their box. I feel elated and speed the whole way home. I put Hazel to bed (she conks out in about four minutes and stays that way for the rest of the evening, the dear child) and go back to the garage. Send Walt a jubilant text message. Fifteen minutes later I have tears in my eyes because it won’t work. I can’t get them pulled tight enough to stay securely on the tube. I have glue all over me. I use bad curse words that are reserved for crafting. Send Walt angry text message – maybe he’ll have suggestions.

Two minutes later – I’ve got it figured out. So easy. Win. No glue needed. Add a couple of jump rings and solder them closed. Burned again. Don’t care now. It’s 11:00. Run upstairs to my beads – surely this kid is going to wake up any time now, because she’s only been sleeping for an hour before waking since we got back from Toronto and when she does wake up she makes me come to bed with her. Miraculously, she sleeps all night. By 12:30 I’ve constructed one necklace and not liked it and taken it apart and made another. I like this one. I’ll keep this one. I’ll make a few more and see if they sell in my Etsy shop to nerdy girls or wives/girlfriends of nerdy guys.

And if they don’t, I really don’t care, because all I really wanted was to beat this thing into submission without it breaking. I win. You’re pretty now, you wily little bastard.

Listening: Rilo Kiley
(I am) Reading: The Last Child in the Woods
(Hazel is) Reading:: 123
Working on: getting back to crafting that I’m actually getting paid to do for the rest of the day

Since Mikey and I still have some time before we have to decide what kind of “precedent” we’ll set in regards to an “Easter basket” for our children, and since Hazel’s first two Easters have come at a time of great discovery in her short little life, we’ve used it as an excuse to buy and make her things both years (i.e., totally spoil her with stuff, which we normally don’t do). Last year she had really just started playing with toys hardcore so she got a basket full of board books and little toys and her beloved silks. This year she is all of a sudden pretending and doing lots of outdoor things, so we filled her spring basket with outdoor toys and books and things for pretend. (Don’t worry, she’s not deprived of candy – she has lots of grandparents.)

I have had my eye on these eggs by Imagination Kids for awhile. I had a feeling she’d really like them. Whoa mama, did she like them. I didn’t think she’d ever get around to looking at the rest of what was in her basket. Can you tell she’s oozing excitement?

I made this little trio of bunnies from this free pattern on wee wonderfuls. They are made from fat quarters I received as part of a fabric exchange with friends, a remnant of fleece, and they are stuffed with bits of chopped up old tshirts (thus making them my new year’s resolution for the week, which I realize I’m WAY behind on). I’ll tell you, using a rotary cutter to, um, savagely destory several old tshirts was a very good release after WVU’s loss to Duke on Saturday night. My hands did not stop shaking the whole game so her bunnies are overall a little lumpy and imperfect, but the tshirt chopping – THAT I did very, very well. I love the weight the filling gives to them, too.

So, since I was getting caught up on resolutions, the other day it occurred to me to photograph this thing we do as I assembled one after putting away dry things from the kitchen drain basket. We got the idea from friends in Canada: we chop the tops off of soymilk / juice cartons as shown, scrub them out really well and then slide two together. They make perfect giant blocks like these, but not pretty. Hazel totally does not care that they aren’t pretty. I suppose someday she’ll make them pretty. You would not believe how sturdy these things are.

I get excited when I have a good repurposing resolution. I need to keep those going. I think that gets me caught up to the week before last. This whole week I’m playing catch-up with all kinds of stuff, so I’ll try to bring myself current. I do have a goodwill bag going but I haven’t dropped it off yet so it doesn’t count.

Listening: dog-scratching; husband-typing; CCR in my head; THUNDER!!! in my sky
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: Pond Circle
(Thinking about) working on: Hazel’s summer clothes – I should do this soon, right? All I’ve made are pajamas. She is living in skirts and capris from last year.