The Kelly House Project

Jayne is doing a wonderful job renovating her folk victorian home. She's uncovered a little gem. This is her video from youtube. If you'd like to visit her inspiring blog click here.

Lace Fence and Window Progress....

I'm not a big fan of chain link fencing, but the Lace Fence company has done some amazing things with it! Visit the gallery on their site. Some of it is too busy for my taste, but the simpler ones are quite beautiful. Apparently they can do any design you'd like with this technique.


While I've been off working on my car, Joe has been finishing up that window in the guest room. He managed to match the stain very well. I love how it turned out...now I guess I better put the hardware on it, and get back to painting that room!

On Saturday and Sunday, I knitted up this little guy during slow moments at the shop. I think he's downright cute, and I may make a few more and turn them into a mobile. It's the Frida the Fish Pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. Well, it sort of is that pattern....I hate knitting a bunch of little pieces and sewing them together, so I rewrote the pattern to be worked in the round. I think I got it pretty close. I'm making another one by my pattern, and if I have the bugs worked out of it, I'll put the pattern on here for free. Or if you like to do a lot of seaming, the original pattern is also free and can be found here on Lion Brand's website.

The Art of Mimi Kirchner

Mimi Kirchner is a wonderful doll artist. I'm not even into dolls as a rule, but I'm a regular visitor to her blog. Every post is an inspiration. She works with lots of wool (love that!) and salvaged materials (love that too!). If you like her stuff, check out her Etsy shop.
Below is a wonderful little video showing Mimi at work in her studio:

Don't Settle for Less.

Don't settle for less.
Explore. Dream. Discover.

I bought these bracelets when I went to a conference this year. I think they are great, and I'm thinking of carrying them in the shop. Good messages I've been thinking on a lot the last couple of years and am starting to act on more and more.

Check out the Etsy shop of Ted Schrey

The strangest things happen on the world wide web. Many moons ago, in college, I dated a very nice young man. Now we are friends again through the amazing web that is facebook. After many years in the corporate world, Ted is living on the Big Island of Hawaii and is making beautiful stained glass pieces. He has a new Etsy shop that he (unlike me!) is keeping stocked with wonderful artwork.


I love the use of copper in the stands and frames.



I think he has something at every price point too...so you can own a small Ted Schrey piece or very large complex pieces.

Here are a few hanging in a gallery in Hawaii.

I've never seen one of these pieces in person, but Ted is pretty particular, so I'm sure the craftsmanship is beautiful. The coral and watery glass in this one...perfect.

Ted is also a painter, writer, and furniture builder. Hopefully we will see some paintings on his site soon. If we are lucky he might even start a blog one day.

If you need something special, he does custom work as well. Click here to check out his latest work...

...undoubtedly inspired by the beauty he encounters every day.

Handkercheif Curtain and Other Ideas from Mom

We went to my mom and dad's house for Christmas dinner, so I snapped a few photos to share with you. Mom and dad bought an old home that had been converted into apartments...thinking to live in the ground floor and rent the other apartments. Soon enough though, they realized they liked using the whole house. They left the apartments in case they want to rent them in the future...this creates a couple of mini suites in the upstairs of their home. These photos show the bedroom from one of the apartments upstairs. It's fun to go stay there...like staying in an inn!

The color combo you see here came from using the suggested color harmonies from the old Martha Stewart paint line at Kmart. Martha and her people did a great job of showing good color combos. Our Kmart doesn't carry paint any more, but I think Sears does have Martha paint.

Another corner of the room. My mom is the thrifting queen...almost everything in her home is a treasure she found somewhere. And my dad can repair most anything thing...so if she finds it and it needs a little work, between them they are able to fix it up better than new.

As you can see there is some work needed on the old plaster walls. Mom said they will get to it someday, but she went ahead and painted anyway...that way they have pleasant rooms to use in the meantime. I wish I had done that with my old house, because sometimes it takes a lot longer to get to some of those repairs than you would think.

Another part of that room. This house has neat some great features like the lamps on the walls. Some of the original shades had been replaced with cheap dime store shades... they found some more suitable vintage shades at garage sales and antique shops. We've found the antique shops are usually more affordable than some of those restoration places that sell new replacements.



These two photos show the window treatment in the kitchen of that apartment/guest suite. Mom has a huge collection of hankies... she pinned them to the top of a white valance using a straight pin in one corner of each hankie. It looks so cute and it's easy to take the hankies off when they need to be cleaned and ironed. My mom and dad have a ton of great ideas, so you will probably see me posting some more of their house in the future.

Gotta love a day when the mail brings you books!

I've been waiting for Danny Gregory's new book, "An Illustrated Life" to come...I ordered it months ago and it's just now out. I'll be spending the rest of the evening curled up being inspired.


I finished my little sock bag tonight. Well, except the lining....I'll have to search around for a good fabric to line it with. Actually the bottom of the bag is a better match to the knitted part than it looks in the picture...flash photography isn't my forte.

Christmas Cactus

Isn't this lovely? Honestly, all the variety in nature just boggles the mind. Sometimes I feel a little guilty about all the time and energy I spend making things and and just trying to make things pretty. You know, especially when I think of some of my friends who are nursing or teaching school children or practicing environmental law and such (God bless my brainy friends!). Then I think about how God could have had everything the same color, maybe a few designs of flora and fauna, but instead, look what he did.....He gave us so much color and variety. Animals that just make us stop in wonder! Some that are so odd looking that we just have to laugh. And then I realize that He made me the way I am and gave me that desire to create.

On a more practical note, my house plants have to be tough, since I frequently forget to water them. I just brought the last ones off the front porch today and even though we've had a few snow flakes already, they are still alive! I bought this Christmas Cactus last year and it spent the summer on the back porch. It's been inside for a couple of weeks now....I went into the living room today to water it and saw that it was bursting into bloom. Maybe it's a Thanksgiving Cactus!

A little indoor garden junk....I use little chairs as plant stands. This plant is sitting in a little wheelchair that my granddad made for his oldest daughter who had Spina Bifida. He designed a wheelchair that she could use herself, and would be low to the ground so she could play with toys on the floor like other kids. Sadly, back then they did not know how to operate for SB and she died when she was five. Grandaddy and Nana refined the design and added an option for a stroller handle and marketed them to hospitals. There's that creative thing again....but boy, inspired by their daughter, they really did think of something that helped people. Every time I look at that chair I think about how much they loved their kids.

Yes, We Can!

Image from Huffington Post?

Chicago had a beautiful night to welcome a newly elected president...President-elect Barack Obama. He gave a beautiful speech. I thought Senator McCain's speech was very well done too, and just right to start coming back together.

Now the real work begins....and what a huge job lies ahead.

This image from a message board with no credit. If you know where I can give credit please let me know.

I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of puppy these little girls get!

Food Coloring Dyeing and a Creative Farm Sink

Since I started knitting again, I've been hanging out on Ravelry. What a great site....full of fiber goodness. That's where I met Tracy of Stringativity. She and I met Tuesday to so she could teach me to dye with food coloring. I had so much fun. I never thought I'd even want to dye yarn, until I saw the wonderful things people were doing with kool aid and food coloring. It sounded doable and like I would have the things right in the kitchen to get started. Tracy was so nice to invite me over to learn how she does it.

First I have to show you Tracy's great farmhouse style sink. Do you know what it is? It's a mop sink....I love it when people think outside the box! They purchased it new and Tracy says it weighs a ton. So if you think you might like to do something like this, just know moving it is a real experience. Tracy and her husband are renovating an lovely old home and it's full of great, creative ideas. If she ever became a house blogger, we'd all learn a lot. But the woman has a ton of fiber to keep her busy.


She showed me how to soak the yarn, mix up the food coloring dyes and then the fun began.


Apparently the the only limit is your imagination when applying the dye. I mostly spooned or poured it on in sections. I tried to pick colors that would look good if they ran together, and I'm glad I did. It did run together, and I love how it turned out.

We wrapped them up and cooked them in the microwave. It wasn't nearly as messy as I envisioned. I guess all I had to go on was memories of tie-dye t-shirts in grade school!


Here's the pink, yellow and orange. It's an eye popper isn't it?!


Blues...this is an alpaca yarn. Nice and soft.


And here's some sock yarn, because I'm kinda hooked on learning to make socks right now.



Here's Tracy working on putting some black dye over some previously dyed wool. She purchased a ton of wonderful fiber at an estate sale...I've never seen so much wool! Some are colors she doesn't really care for, so she's dyeing to change that.



I can't wait to see how this looks when she spins it up. I'm guessing it will be a beautiful earthy tweed.


And I've finished the first sock in my second pair. I knit one up almost to the toes in a different pattern before I realized I disliked the pattern. Yeah, I know. I'm kind of slow. I couldn't face the idea of knitting a second one like it, so I ripped it out and started over. I like these very much. I think I'm going to have to get over my impatience and start knitting the leg a little longer though.

Thanks so much Tracy for lunch and the lesson and the good time! I'm looking forward to doing this again!

Giveaway Winner and Happy Birthday

The winner of the giveaway is Becky from Twelve Weeks at a Time. Congratulations Becky!

I want to thank you all for all the understanding about my empty nest post. It really does help to know that I'm not the only one who feels all weepy about my kids going off on their own.

Since I hate a post with no pictures (I'm like a little kid, that way!) I thought I'd share with you the day my hubby planned for me for my birthday. We celebrated it in August while we were on vacation. He knows just the kinds of things I like. We spent the day wandering around small Michigan towns looking at artwork.

We visited the small town of Buchanan. This little town has a wonderful art center with one of the best equipped pottery studios I've ever seen. And the volunteers and teachers there are so enthusiastic about their work.

Surrounding the art center are some fabulous life size metal sculptures of wildlife.

Everywhere I go, I'm always looking for great details on houses. You never know when you'll need inspiration for a fabulous railing!

We also went to St. Joe where they had a public art show of different artist decorated boats around town.


At the end of the day we went to see "Shenandoah" at this nice summer stock theater. The Barn Theatre is a wonderful place and you never know who you will see play here....some famous people have been Barnies. I just love the inside of this theatre. Click the link....it's a neat photo and really shows what it's like inside. Joe planned it all....he's very good at planning things like this and we have always liked to travel around and see new places. It's fun sometimes to do that right in your own backyard!

Berrien Springs on Dwellable

Window Peeping

Peeping at the windows not in them...although, I'm not above that when I drive by a beautiful old place. As I drove around town and looking for old porch windows I found that, like at our house, most of them have been removed and replaced with less attractive options. But there are a few old goodies left. I love the home these porch windows are on. Stucco with copper gutters...and look at the leaded glass above the casement windows. A bit too fancy for our house though.
These are more what I had in mind. Simple old fashioned casements. Imagine these with the windows and trim painted white and I think it would look great on our porch.
This little house has had some strange things done to it, but somehow the lovely old porch windows have managed to survive. I like the divided lights on these.

I'm not sure when we will get around to doing something like this. There are several more pressing projects in the works already. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared with ideas.

Thank You.......

Heather Bailey! Aren't these beeeyoutiful fabrics?! I won them over at Heather's site when she posted a contest. She's such a talented lady. I can't wait to make something out of them.....I don't know what yet, but I'll think of something special. I should have posted earlier, but lately I'm so far behind that I think I'm ahead. Thank you Heather.

Morton Arboretum

I want to thank everyone for their emails and thoughts since I posted about Louie. Your kindness means so much. We miss him every day.

Joe and I visited Morton Arboretum on Saturday. It was a lovely day.

The cicadas were everywhere...and the sound they make is straight out of a sci-fi movie.

View as you come out of the arboretum library.

A quiet little reading garden off of the library reading room.And espaliered Ginko in the reading garden. I have never seen this done with a Ginko before. Very beautiful.
Cute little guys and gals everywhere....they have a great children's garden...with lots of water to play in!


Sculpture by Patrick Dougherty entitled Xanadu. Beautiful.

They have an awesome treehouse! Way up in the pines...with swinging bridges...straight out of a story book. I have a fantasy of someday having a wonderful treehouse.

Alton on Dwellable