I was so involved with my injury and my mushrooms yesterday that I only gave you one crappy picture of the finished terrarium. I thought you might like to see a little more. Or maybe you're over the whole terrarium thing already, and wish I would move on to something else. If that's the case, then come back next time and I promise I won't even say 'terrarium' once.

Looking down from the top, and here's a more clear side view:

I don't have any helpful hints for you, really. I got that jar at Ikea for $5, and bought a bag of pebbles at Michael's for $2.29. I used about a third of the pebbles in the bottom, then threw a handful of potting soil on top of that and just piled the moss in there. It broke apart a little as I handled it, it's fragile stuff, but I think it still looks okay, and maybe it will grow and cover any bare spots. As for finding moss, I'm also not sure what to tell you. I've always liked moss, so I tend to notice it when I go on walks. This was growing in the shade, mostly near rocks, and I just picked it right up. I had enough of everything left that I made myself another one, which I think I will take to work and keep on my desk.

This one is in a Weck canning jar that I found at a thrift store. I found two, actually. The other one has some of my favorite buttons and buckles in it, but this one was just waiting for a special use. Don't their jars make you want to can everything? I would love to get some and just can all Summer long. I have plenty of mason jars, though, so I'll just have to be happy with those for now.

I also did more than make terrariums this weekend, I also started a skirt for myself. I really hope it comes out as I envisioned. I think it just might. Here's a little sneak peak:

Oh it’s so nice to spend my weekends in my little house studio. I set my iPod on shuffle, or turn on the portable DVD player, and just get to work. The quilt wall will be getting a lot of use, I hope. I sketched out an idea the week before last, and started playing around with it the last couple days.

It’s lap or baby-sized, and I’m thinking there will be three or four more flowers. I wanted to use shot cotton, and originally thought I’d do the whole thing with all solid shot cotton colors, but the quilt shop didn’t have any good, saturated pinks and greens like I wanted. I was so disappointed, until I wandered over to the batiks. I don’t think of myself as a batik sort of person, but the colors just got me, so I’m giving it a try. I’ll just be satisfied that only the background is shot cotton.

I also blocked my scarf, and am having a little fun playing with some Anthropologie-like embellishments from my vintage lace stash.

Since I wasn’t feeling too great last week, about the only thing I did was knit. I stuck mostly to my orange sweater, but I thought I’d start a couple other, small-ish projects just to mix it up a little. When I cleaned out my yarn stash I decided I needed to find specific projects for the yarn I have, so now I have a half a dozen things to chose from. I started on a shrug, because I just happen to have the exact number of skeins of Homespun in a lovely, deep purple. I needed a size 10 cable needle, so I was searching through all my circular needles and it turns out I have four size 9 needles and not a one in size 10. I’m not sure how that happened. Anyone need a size 9 needle?

I also managed to finish up the needle books and pincushions for the shop. They were a lot of fun to make, so I hope they all find good homes.

It might be time for a numbered list, as I have several unrelated items to post.

1. I'm still slowly going through my fabric. Here is some helpful information if you need to de-clutter your fabric stash (I imagine it would work well for yarn or other craft supplies, too). The only thing I don't agree with totally is the part about doing it all at once. It can be an overwhelming task, and I tend to subscribe to the FlyLady philosophy-you can do anything for 15 minutes at a time.
2. Miep Gies turned 100 this month. I love her story, and all those stories of people like her who helped so many people during World War II. Also, Miep is the cutest name ever.
   This is a good opportunity to once again recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's not a true story, but still, it's so good, and just joyful, and it has to do with World War II. I think it's my favorite read of the past year.
3. I've been sick all week, so the only studio project I've managed to complete is the hanging of this sweet little clock from Decoylab.
4. I completely forgot to mention that the U.S. version of Softies is out (it was originally published in Australia). The new version is called Softies Only a Mother Could Love: Lovable Friends for You to Sew, Knit, or Crochet.
   It's such a great little book, I'm so glad even more people will get a chance to buy it.
   
   
   To see more of what's inside visit the Penguin Australia site, you can visit the sites of all the contributors and even upload your own creations to a gallery. I've also amended the Flickr group to include both versions of the book, so please join and show off your softies!
5. Sally came for a visit today while I was puttering in the little house. Please do not notice the dirty floor and scratched up door (you probably wouldn't have if I hadn't pointed those things out). I can't be bothered to vacuum or paint at the moment (see #3, above, for my excuse).
   
   

Saturday I devoted my whole day to thrift shopping/antique mall-ing in search of a dresser for the studio. Mission accomplished!

If you'll recall, it was on my Complete the Studio to-do list. Also on the list is Paint the dresser. I'm tired of painting at the moment, and it's been raining for four days, so painting is not going to be a high priority for awhile. I can live with it like this for a good, long while, actually. It would be better if it was a brighter white, to match the walls, but I can deal for now. The shape is just what I wanted, and the size is perfect. I love the handles, and, while I didn't really want anything too shabby chic or distressed, the little painted swags on the drawers are kind of sweet.I also didn't think I needed a side table, but when I saw that little white one for $45 I kind of had to get it, and it turns out that it's really coming in handy.

I managed to thin out my yarn stash, and fit nearly everything in the bottom drawer. There are a few balls of sock yarn in one of the top drawers, and it's so nice that it's all safe from those pesky cats. I decided to display part of my creamer collection on a tray on top.

I need to find some small projects for the odd balls of yarn. What do you do when you have leftover yarn or orphan skeins?

Once the dresser was organized I was so inspired by my pretty new space, I worked on some treats for the shop. There's a couple peepers in there right now, and I hope to have some pincushion/needlebook sets by the end of the week. It's so nice to work out there now. It's a small room (barely 10'x14'), but I've got so much of my junk organized and cleaned out that it's just so easy to work. 

And, since you haven't seen this fuzzy face for awhile, I leave you with the one and only Winston:

I can't take it when he looks at me like that. I had the day off today, and spent it in the studio with the rain and then snow blowing and blustering outside, and I had to let this muddy thing in because I felt sorry for him. I hope my carpet will come clean.

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.

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.