Now the progress on the studio is slower as I do little things here and there. I feel like I worked so hard this weekend, and there's not a lot to show for it. I still have a lot more fabric to sort through and fold to go in the left bookcase. The baskets up top need some tidying up as well, but it's looking much nicer than it did before.

I solved my light switch problem, although I didn't, perhaps, choose the easiest solution. I changed out the switches altogether for new, white paddle switches, and found this sweet little switch plate at my favorite Ace Hardware for only $4.49. It had an antique finish, so I painted it white.

Changing out the switches isn't too hard. Each one had two wires, so I took the top wire out of the old switch, and put it in the top hole of the new switch, then did the bottom wire so there was no chance of messing it up. The main thing to remember is to shut off the power!

I also installed the hooks, which were on sale at Anthropologie. They didn't come with any visible way to hang them, so I improvised by nailing picture hangers on the backs and hanging them from sturdy nails. They're mostly for holding my knitting project bags, so they didn't have to be super sturdy, although they are quite solidly in place, I must say.

I picked out a doorknob while I was there as well. The deciding factor was the fact that this one was on sale for $14.95. It helps that I do love milk glass.

It, too, was a little tricky to install, but that's the great thing about Ace, you go in with your problem, and they walk you right through the solution. I had to get screws to mount it, and there was a little grumbling and growling as I tried to fit everything together. A third hand would have been helpful, but I'm now quite confident in my doorknob installation abilities.

One last project was to place grommets in this quilt design wall I have (it's really just a piece of thick flannel or felt, my husband bought it for me from Keepsake Quilting, I believe) and then put cup hooks along one wall so I can easily hang it up and take it down. This was one of those projects that was a tiny bit harder than I expected, but came out exactly as I envisioned, so the frustration was worth it. Cup hooks are not easy to screw into wood.

The grommets are actually plastic, and I found them at Joann. You just cut a circle out of the fabric and snap the two halves of the grommets together, no special tools needed! They were a little pricey ($10 for eight), but I had my 40% off coupon, so it wasn't bad.

So here's another cheap decorating tip: sales and coupons are your friends! This takes patience, and it's also good to have a plan. I tend to think very carefully about how I want a room to look, and realize that I can't rush it. Once you've figured that out, you can accumulate the things you want over time rather than going on a crazy, expensive shopping spree. When I try to get too much at once I tend to make costly mistakes. So bit-by-bit, and watch for sales and coupons. If you're in the U.S. and not on the Joann mailing list, get on it! They send coupons regularly. For California residents with a Beverly's fabrics nearby, ditto that. They do theirs via e-mail, and it's not as frequent, but still worth getting.

I have lots more fun projects coming up, and I'm going to need some opinions, so I hope you won't mind if I ask what you think over the next couple weeks. I actually made myself a to-do list for this year in lieu of any formal resolutions, and the majority have to do with this studio project. I'm posting it here for reference:

To-do list for 2009

Grow mushrooms
Make Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding)
Clean the microwave
Get some new chicks (2 Araucanas, 2 Cuckoo Marans, 2 Rhode Island Reds or 2 Barred Rocks)
Make myself a sweater
Finish my studio:

•   Slipcover chair
•   Make window coverings
•   Find a dresser
•   Paint the dresser pink
•   Collect and frame art to display
•   Install shelf above work table
•   Find vintage metal stool   
•   Hang plate collection in an artful display
•   Paint ornate picture frame and turn it into an inspiration board (turquoise?)
•   Make drapes to cover shelves-possibly patchwork?
•   Come up with a clever name
•   Put up quilt design wall
•   Find a rug (possibly this striped rug from Ikea?)
•   Make fabric cover for my sewing machine

Train Winston to do tricks or herd sheep
Vacuum every week
Lose 30 more pounds
Learn to make creme brulee
    (not sure how the previous two items will work together)
Take more pictures
Make a quilt
Design a pair of socks (knee socks! with Scandanavian-style colorwork! I can picture them in my head)
Clean out and paint laundry room
Make more things for my Etsy shop
Make French Macarons

And one last thing, completely unrelated to all this, I wanted to share a music video. This is my brother, and the song is from his new CD, which you can pre-order at www.caryjudd.com. I've been lucky enough to hear the songs as he's recorded them, and this is, by far, his best music ever. I'm pretty sure it's going to be my favorite album of 2009, so you really should think about getting it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

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I have lots to blog about, but no time to do so. Painting is mostly finished, except for the ceiling, but I can do that any time. I'll just throw some drop cloths over stuff and paint away. I actually ran out of paint, so I'll pick up another can later this week. The painting was the hard part, now I get to do a lot of fun little things, but it will be some time before I'm done. Right now I'm busy moving stuff back in my OCD fashion, and thinning out and organizing.

One bookshelf is full of books and things, and the other is filling up with fabric. Eventually I will have curtains covering this end of the room to tidy things up and add lots of color. In the meantime, I'm trying to arrange everything neatly. I also need to find a triple switch switchplate. The old one was cracked and disgusting. I'm leaving it off until I find a new one.

I mentioned in a reply to Sara's comment that I am all about decorating on the cheap, and she requested some tips, so here's tip number one: Paint! Not only is paint fairly inexpensive (except when you need three cans of primer before you can even get to the paint), and obviously a new color on the walls transforms a space, I find that when I have to clean out to paint I see all the Stuff in the room in a new way, and I tend to edit and move things around. Et voila! A whole new look, just because you changed up the color.

And, for some other nice things (hence the post title), I'm currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I am loving it so much! I haven't even finished it and I have to recommend that you get yourself a copy and read it right now. I also went and saw Gran Torino last week with a friend. It wasn't my first choice of movies to see, but the show time worked out the best for us, and I was so pleasantly surprised. I really loved it. It's a drama, but I laughed so hard through most of it and then I bawled like a baby.

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My brother was telling me about a book he read about da Vinci and creativity (I think it was this one: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day
) and how he cultivated his creativity with curiosity. I had never made that connection before, and it made so much sense to me. I love to know how things work and learning how to do new things, and when I am really engaged with learning something new I am usually also at my most creative. When I decide I want to learn how to do something, I tend to immerse myself completely in that subject.

When I wanted to learn to be a better cook I read cookbooks and made new and different recipes every week. Eventually I saw how ingredients went together, what seasonings worked well together and what techniques would result in what outcomes. Once I had experience with a lot of different recipes I felt confident enough to try my own combination of ingredients and created my own dishes.

I wanted to be able to work on my computer, rather than paying some Geek Squad member $60 an hour to replace a video card or add memory. So I talked to some experts I knew (like my brother and the support guys at work) and learned how to open up a computer case and change out the components myself. A couple years ago, with the help of my brother, I felt confident enough to build a computer from different components. It's still going strong today, and cost about half as much as one with the same specs was going for at the time. I'm still quite proud of that accomplishment.

Knitting has taken me a little longer to master. Almost everything I've knit has come from strictly following an existing pattern. But then I got some Noro Kureyon sock yarn, and I knew I wanted to make some simple socks to show off the yarn, but not so boring as just plain stockinette. I also have the big feet issue, which you know far more about than you probably want to if you've been reading my blog for the past year, so I decided to just have a go at creating my own pattern. They aren't anything revolutionary, and I really just included ribbing and heel and toe styles that I've done before and like, but I'm really liking how they came out. I'm feeling just that much more confident in my knitting abilities now, and really want to come up with some original patterns.

A few words about Noro yarn: I always think that I don't like variegated yarns, but Noro is something different. It's a yarn that lends itself to the process of knitting as much as the final product. It's not dyed in all those beautiful colors, but rather the yarn is spun from different fleece colors blended together. My first sock practically flew off the needles, because I just couldn't wait to see what the next color was going to be. Unfortunately, the second sock wasn't as quick because a cat found my skein unattended for mere moments. He didn't do too much damage, but I did have to re-roll the yarn, so I got a preview of the color transitions, and the suspense just wasn't there, driving me on.

As I was knitting I wasn't too sure I would really like actually wearing these socks because the yarn seemed a little scratchy, but they feel just fine, not scratchy at all when on my feet. I also decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to try and make them match, and I think they're quite fun in their dissonance. I also realized as I was taking the above picture that I could probably win the award for most feet self-portraits on a blog if such an award existed. I just got some new boots, so there will probably be even more feet pictures in the near future. Just letting you know.

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I didn't quite mean to disappear for ten days, but I've been busy. I finally started painting my little studio. And I painted some more and then I painted even more, and I'm still not done. I've gone through two cans of primer so far, and I started on a third can tonight. I knew this was going to be a big job, but I didn't know it would be quite this big. My studio is actually an old tack shed that a previous owner finished off inside using whatever leftovers they found laying around, so it's sort of a quirky little space. Sometimes we call it a guesthouse, which sounds much more glamorous than it could ever be. A previous owner (I'm not sure if these are the same owners that initially gussied it up) walled up one end to make a very narrow space in which they built a workbench. Based on some remnants of foil stapled to the walls and ceilings, and some chains which looked like they were for some hanging fluorescent lights, I'd guess they used the space to grow some plants. I'm not saying what kind of plants, I'll leave that to your imagination.

Anyway, the point is that for six years I've wanted to paint it, and I finally got started. There are lots of odd little bits of wood, so I decided to paint everything white so make it look fresh and bright and clean. It is also painted in patches of five different colors, so some of the darker colors require a little more priming than the lighter colors. I can't bring myself to post a before picture here, because it was just so ugly, but if you must know what it looked like, go here. And now, after two cans of primer, it looks like this:

 

I still have more priming to do on the other side of the room, I think if I work on it for the next two nights after work I'll be able to actually paint on Saturday. I decided to treat myself to a new doorknob from Anthropologie for that door when I'm done painting. I'm thinking something like this one, or maybe this one. And how much do you love that lamp? I think it's going to be adorable in here. It's from Target, of course. Last Fall I even made up a style tray of inspirational ideas for the space. In case you missed it:

 

The Vika Artur trestle legs and table top were on sale at Ikea this past month, $10 for each set of legs, and $30 for the table top, so I've got them all ready and waiting to be assembled. I'm not having much luck finding an inexpensive vintage metal stool, but I can be patient. I also hope to find some green fabric similar to what's on the chairs in the top right photo to re-cover a wing chair. There will be a lot of little projects to do in the room before it's complete, but it's going to be lots of fun, if I ever finish painting.

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I have been a tiny bit obsessed with scarves lately, so this will be the first in a series of posts about the scarves I’ve been making. I finished a knitted one, experimented with a wrap and some elastic for another, and am raiding my vintage lace and eyelet for yet another. I have some more ideas I want to try out soon, too. I’m going to start with the easiest one of all, however. If you’re in need of a really, really quick project with maximum satisfaction, this is a scarf you have to make. I take no credit for this idea, I saw it here, where you can even order a kit, although for about the same price you can buy your own fabric and have enough for two scarves. The key is to use Kaffe Fassatt’s shot cotton. That link has really good photos, and you can see the two colors blended in each swatch.

They’re just really lovely, the depth of color makes the fabric look almost like silk. I chose two blues, as you can see. All you have to do is get a yard of each of two colors (you could even use one of the stripes or plaids if you want to go a little more crazy), cut them in half lengthwise and sew one half of each together along a short end. I pressed the seam open and stitched again to hold the seam allowance in place. Then toss it in the washer, dry it, give it a light pressing and trim off the long, ravely bits and throw it around your neck!

Winston came by to participate in my photo shoot. He was asked to leave when he started trying to lick the subject’s face.

Another shot of the fabric because I just love it. I will probably keep pulling out threads along the edges as I wear it to get more of a fringe-y effect.

And now, to change the subject completely, a friend gave me these beautiful red and white egg cups and ceramic egg tray for Christmas, and I was playing around with them yesterday.

My sister-in-law gave me the red chicken egg cup a while ago, and they are all so happy together! They’re all from Anthropologie. When my friend handed me the bag I didn’t even have to open it, I just told her I loved it right away. We went to Anthropologie while I was in Boise, and that store is just like the mothership to me. I may have splurged on a new bag, which, coincidentally, goes nicely with my new scarf!

Today I decided that my New Year’s Resolution is to clean the microwave and the cubbyhole where it resides. I hope I can get it done by December. It’s a somewhat frightening task in its enormity.

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I meant to mention this in my post last night, but I cannot always remember important things at 10:30 p.m. I don't know why. My friend Kim has a design up for voting in this weeks Spoonflower contest. It's the second one from the left, so if you have a second, and you feel so inclined, go vote for her!

If you don't know about Spoonflower, you should also head over there and check it out. It's such a great site. You can design your own fabrics and they will print them for you. Along with about 50 other things, designing my own fabric is on my must-do list this year.

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I've been in making mode for the last couple weeks. I suppose it was the fact that I was on vacation for a nice little while that got me jump-started, but I'm back at work now, and I just can't stop. I've made scarves and socks and done some quilting. I even made a dinosaur out of some weird gooey stuff. I have been wanting to make the doll from the cover of Stitched in Time ever since I first saw one on Alicia's blog. I finally got to get started on Sunday. She's still in progress, I just have to finish up her hair and add a couple little embellishments, and she'll be done.

I really need to get a speed light for my camera, so I can take pictures at night. I got to play around with my sister's last week, and it was a lot of fun.

Back to the doll. I made her legs out of a red and white striped fabric. I love them. Her face and hands are linen.

I was a bit nervous about doing her hair, and it has a couple problems, but overall it's a pretty easy and fast little project. If you're one of the few who hasn't bought Stitched in Time yet, I highly recommend you get your bum in gear and pick up a copy!
Stitched in Time: Memory-Keeping Projects to Sew and Share from the Creator of Posie Gets Cozy

I started writing the story of my Christmas Day saga, but it will take a little more time to really do justice to the nearly tragic tale. Here are a few of the things that happened: an emotional breakdown in front of an entire airplane full of people, a brush with fame, a first class lounge, a bus ride around LAX, and maybe even a real-life guardian angel. You don't want to miss it!

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