Dashes Embroidery Work in Progress

I started a new embroidery project and here is my progress:

I drew a bunch of lines on the back and I will be randomly stitching colors along these lines. Here is a photo of the back while the lines were being drawn:

I am excited to finish the embroidery and sew it into something fun!

Here are some semi-recent Hipstamatic photos I have taken:

guacamole dog. mongolian bbq. praying mantis attack. pressing a sunflower. pigeon. butterfly.

Terrycloth Swiffer Cloths

Here are my other reusable Swiffer cloths! These ones were sewn from a pack of washcloths!

These reuseable Swiffer cloths were made following Berlin's Whimsy's Swiffer Cover Sewing Pattern I found via Pinterest. (I am slowly doing projects from my making ideas board, but I am quickly adding more and will never be able to complete them all.)

This one makes me think of the TARDIS for some reason. The dark blue and Velcro 'windows' maybe? I don't know, I may need to watch some Doctor Who.

These Swiffer cloths were pieced together from washcloths; I had an unused pack of washcloths and didn't want to have to buy any terrycloth. I think cloths are a little more heavy duty than the knit ones I shared on Tuesday and will probably be better at mopping.

Knit Swiffer Cloths

I knit up two of these Swiffer Re-Useable Cloths from Birdy's Knits!

The main cleaning part of the cloth is knit in seed/moss stitch which I became quite fond of while knitting my regenbogen turban.

They have these little bobbles that secure the cleaning cloths to the Swiffer. This pattern was really easy and the cloths knit up fairly quickly.

Thursday I will show some reusable Swiffer cloths that I sewed.

Orange and Carrot Popsicles

I have been making different sorts of popsicles lately. Over the weekend I made some with orange juice and carrot shreds!

The idea was based off my favorite gelatin dessert; orange Jello with carrot shreds! I am still surprised so many of my coworkers have never had orange Jello with carrots.

Wine Bottle Gift Bag Winner

Kim is the winner of the Wine Lover's Special.

Thank you all for the nice comments.

More Water!

After my last garden update I started watering my pepper plant more and it seemed to grow inches taller overnight! This summer heat is making it hard on the plants; the pepper leaves droopy in the evening and there have been lots of dried up blossoms. I need to give them lots more water!

my front yard container garden (tomato right, pepper left) | pepper blossom | ladybug | giant tomato plant | tomato blossoms | green tomato | flowers I wish I knew the name of so I would know if they are perennials or not


During the last garden update I briefly mentioned buying herb lavender. They were part of a mini garden makeover and have finally been planted! The mailbox area used to have rocks; they looked fine, but were sort of plain.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here is what I did: took out all the rocks and quite a bit of dirt, washed and painted the mailbox post, laid cement brick pavers to separate the garden from the grass, added back some better soil for the plants, planted herb lavender, put down cocoa shell mulch.

My favorite part is either the cocoa shell mulch that smells like chocolate (you have to get pretty close to smell it though) or my friend noticing that we had a mailbox now (his wife pointed out that there was always a mailbox there). I am also very much looking forward to making lavender syrup!

P.S. Sign up to win the wine bottle gift bag sometime before Sunday!

Outdoor Grill Makover

I have an old gas grill that works perfectly well, but looked awful. The weather-worn wood slats and handle were either missing or damaged (possibly chewed on by a dog or two). Instead of replacing the grill, I decided to fix it up! This is what it looks like now; I wish I would have taken "before" pictures, but I didn't so you will have to trust me when I say it looked bad!

I began by disassembling the grill (I had a terrible time figuring out how to get the burners out) and cleaning it with degreaser (on the inside) and a power washer (both inside and outside). After the grill dried I spray painted the base with primer then with bright green! The actual grill part was spray painted with a specialty heat resistant paint made specifically for grills.

The handle to open the grill is made from a large dowel. To attach it, I ended up using plumbing nipples as spacers (who came up with that name?) after searching the entire hardware store for tiny pipes.

The side table slats were cut to size and attached to the base with screws and plastic anchors. I am really happy about how it turned out except for this one thing that just happened:

Last week, I bought a grill cover too keep it looking nice. When I took it off to take pictures over the weekend it was sort of stuck to the grill. The cover left its waffle print on the grill wherever they were touching (it is a bit sticky in those areas too). I am not sure why it happened, the grill was painted weeks before I bought the cover so it should have had plenty of time to dry. Oh well.

Googly Eyed Creature

In April I started knitting this creature and I have finally finished it by attaching googly eyes. I am a little bit crazy for googly eyes.

This fellow was knit in the round in a single piece. Its insides consist of a weighted bean bag and pieces of batting. It has made its home on a shelf in my craft room and keeps its eyes on me while I am in there.