Decorated Tea Towels

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I needed new tea towels for the kitchen.  Do you realize it is EXTREMELY difficult to find plain old cotton dishtowels nowadays? 

 

Most of the ones I found were thick terrycloth fabric which are absorbent but I find that they leave lots of fuzz on the dishes when I dry them.  Yep, I hand dry dishes ..... no dishwasher here folks.  Had one once, will never have another one.

 

 

 So in my hunt for tea towels that were absorbent, didn't leave a ton of fuzz on the dishes when I dried them and were pretty and old fashioned, I decided to make my own!  Decorate my own that is.

 

 

Hunting in the kitchen section of our only large department store in town ..... I won't name the store ..... many people hate it, I found some plain white flour sacks.  Yippee!  Just what I needed and they were cheap too!  $1.97 for two.

 

 

Having a few ideas in my head, I logged onto Pinterest to look at photos of what I wanted.  Now I would love to have a weeks worth of pretty embroidered tea towels but that just isn't going to happen anytime soon and I needed them NOW.

 

 

So this is what I did.  After giving the tea towels a quick iron ..... no, I normally don't iron my tea towels but I had to this one time so I could continue with the decorating ..... I applied two strips of painting tape.  The space between was approximately one inch.

 

                 

 

 Finding some country red fabric paint in my craft supply stash, I dry brushed the paint in-between the strips of tape.  Now I dry brushed the paint on as I wanted the paint to be uneven....faded in spots....as if they were old tea towels, to give them the grain sack look.

 

           

               

 

After letting the paint dry overnight, I carefully removed the tape and viola!  I have new, "old" grain sack looking tea towels.  Just perfect.  Oh the possibilities of colors I could do and so quickly too!  I now have a weeks worth of decorated tea towels that only took me about an hour!

 

 

 

Have a wonderful day and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

 





The Afghan from Hell

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Yes, you read the title right!  I have always wanted to learn how to crochet a ripple afghan, you know, the ones that EVERYONE has on the back of their sofas?  In the 70's they were orange, brown and yellow, as seen on "The 70's Show" BUT I didn't want mine in those colors!!  I wanted one that would remind me of Spring.  One that would reflect bring colors that we see as the first flowers are making their way through the cold earth ..... daffodils, hyacinths, and primrose.

 

 

I started this afghan exactly on January 27, 2012 ..... yep, I know that was the exact date as I record all my knitting and crochet projects on Ravelry.  If you have never heard of Ravelry check it out!  So many patterns, inspiration and great people.  You can see it here. 

 

Now, the reason why it took so long wasn't because the pattern was difficult.  It was the exact OPPOSITE!  The pattern is so easy to mindlessly work with, that I was bored very quickly.  If I am bored, wellllll then I never feel like picking it up because it's too boring ..... hence the title "Afghan from Hell". 

 

 

 

So I plucked away at it and plucked away at it and come the new year, I was determined to finish it.  You see I have a rule.  I will not allow myself to start another knitting/crochet project until the one I am working on is finished.  I get too easily sidetracked and excited for new projects when browsing websites and patterns.  If I didn't follow this rule, I would have hundreds of unfinished projects floating around all over the house!

 

 

So the morning of January 28, 2013 ..... exactly one year and one day, I sewed in the last of the ends, laid out the afghan and admired the bright colors which do remind me of spring.  I am extremely pleased with it and look forward to cool-ish spring mornings when I can sit on the porch and wrap it around me while sipping my cup of coffee. 

 

 

Now that it's finished ..... I have been drooling over which project to start next.  Would I make this pattern again?  Definitely.  The color possibilities are endless but I would make sure next time that I finished it before a year was up!

 

 

 

Happy knitting/crocheting, have a wonderful day and remember to give your loved ones a hug! 

 

Sweet 'Hearts'

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You know when you take down the Christmas decorations and the house is all cleaned up but it looks so empty?  Well I had to do something to fill up those spaces to make the transition over to 'sparse' less traumatic.  So I headed over to Pinterest to look for quick and easy Valentine decorations.  There are many wonderful ideas and the easiest I found were made with scrapbooking paper.  Well I don't have any scrapbooking paper and that is one craft I am trying to avoid getting sucked into.  I have enough UFO's laying around to last me into the next life so I don't need anymore!

Digging threw my scrap basket, I found little pieces that I thought would be perfect to use up.  Little bits here and little bits there, cuttings from old work shirts, skirts ..... never waste anything!  

                   

Now I could have been more intricate and when I do make more, I will use pieces of ribbon and lace but seeing that time is running short, I just wanted to fill up those sparse areas in the living room quickly.

                   

I didn't want to drag out the sewing machine and make it complicated.  I wanted them simple.  Hand stitched with embroidery thread was a satisfying way of making these little sweet things.   

A couple of hours later, my little hearts were done, ready to be displayed.  But where?

Come back on Friday to see where I will be displaying these little things!  Have a great day and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Homemade Hearty Hamburger Soup

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The other day, I had mentioned making homemade soup on a blustery, snowy day.  Well the soup turned out delicious and I thought you might like the recipe or file it away for a day when soup sounds good.

My recipe is easily adaptable and oh so many ingredients can be added or omitted.  This is one reason why I love homemade soup .... anything goes!  I believe any soup can be good when using good, wholesome ingredients.  Soup is a complete dinner or lunch in a bowl and one of my favorite meals to serve in winter.

Ingredients:

1 pound of hamburger, browned

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil (for browning the onion)

3 celery stalks, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 bay leaf

2 cups of water

3 cups of beef broth, either homemade or from a can

1 can yellow or green beans

1 large can diced tomatoes (28 oz)

2 cans of condensed tomato soup

1/2 cup of Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes

1/2 cup barley

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon fresh or dried parsley

Optional: fresh mushrooms, peppers, pasta, diced cabbage, carrots or any vegetable you might have in your fridge!

Directions:

Saute onions in olive oil.  Add hamburger and brown until crumbled.  Drain well.  

Add all ingredients to a large stock pot and simmer on the stove for approximately two hours or to a large crock-pot.  If using a crock-pot leave on high for two hours then turn to low for approximately six to seven hours.  I use medium barley and the barley seems to take the longest.  If the soup tends to be on the runny side, add a small can of tomato paste.  Mix it in well. 

Serve with homemade bread slathered in homemade butter. (the 'slathered' butter isn't healthy but the soup makes up for it!) Oh so delicious!

This will generously serve 8 people.  

Enjoy and remember to give your loved ones a hug .... along with homemade soup!

Fall Banner

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While perusing Pinterest the other evening ..... which can seriously take up a lot of my time!!!!  .....   I noticed all the lovely fall banners out there.  Well I just had to get in on that project!

There were quite a few that I adored .... so much talent, ideas and inspiration.  I love the look of burlap this year but unfortunately I didn't have any on hand.  I did though, have a couple of little pieces from another project long ago before burlap was popular so I set those aside.

I didn't follow a pattern of any type, I just cut out a template from a piece of cardboard of the approximate size that I thought would work well.

Finding a small amount of 'fall' type fabric in the stash, I used the cardboard template to cut out four triangles.  

Then using stencils, I cut out the letters F, A, and L from the burlap .... but then that started to fray .... what to do?

Taking some similar colored embroidery floss from my supply, I sewed the letters to the fabric triangles.    No more fraying!  

Now to put it all together .... to me the triangles still looked unfinished.  

                          

Back to the craft cupboard.  Bias tape was the key.  Sewing the tape around each triangle and using it as the hanging strip for the whole project, I was done.

Hanging it in the window and adding my pumpkins and new nutcracker,  Halloween kitty my fall decorating was complete.  LOL 

It isn't much but since we never get any trick-or-treaters out here in the country, I don't decorate much for fall or Halloween.

Happy fall and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

                                                       

Scarf Holder

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Shower curtain rings.....I see them all the time at Goodwill new in package for approximately 49 cents.  

Then while reading the Better Homes and Gardens magazine, I saw an alternative use for these rings and I just had to try it to do something with this pile of scarves I have accumulated 

and well the pictures are pretty much self explanatory ......

Everything is now all nice and neat. I love, love, love it!!!  Remember to give your loved ones a hug!