Cool Beans

These are the Yin Yang beans that I grew in my garden last year. The bean beetles were fierce, but I got just enough from my 4 x 4 foot patch for a pot of soup. Aside from being pretty, they were also very tasty!

Too Many Cats

Since December I've been returning to my fiber roots with a new project.

One of the very first  yarn crafts I learned as a child was crochet. I taught myself from one of those little green "Learn How" pamphlets you could buy in the crafts section at Woolworths. Among my early projects was a round coin purse shaped like a cat's head.

Crochet was followed by embroidery, needlepoint, counted cross stitch, spinning, weaving, and finally, knitting. Looks like I've come full circle now.

How appropriate that my return to crochet is with a scarf pattern called "Too Many Cats." I snatched it up at the gift exchange that my spinning group has every year. This package was contributed by my friend Lynn, who raises beautiful Merino sheep. It's a brilliant pattern, easy to do, and it's so satisfying to complete each little row of cats in a new color.

Can you see the cats? They're standing on top of each others shoulders, with their little kitty legs framing the head of the cat below.

Like I said, brilliant.

Lynn picked out as many cat colors of this yarn as she could. I've got about two dozen colors to work with, and since it only takes three rows of crochet to finish a row of cats I can't get bored.

So far I'm up to 120 kitties. That's a lot of cats!

New Stuff: Pinterest

Not so new in the big scheme of things, but new to me. Pinterest is an online service that allows you to collect images that you find anywhere on the web into virtual pinboards. This is great if you're looking for ideas for a diy project, inspiration for your art or your home, or just a place to gather pretty pictures that you can enjoy again and again. You can read more about it on the Pinterest web site.

By using a "Pin It" button that you put in your bookmarks toolbar, you can pin any image you come across. (They always link back to the original image, to give credit where credit is due.) You can also look at other people's boards and follow their pins if you share similar tastes or interests. This is a great way to find things that you might never have happened upon yourself. Then you can either "like" their images or repin them to your own pinboards.

Here are a few random things that I found and pinned:

Source: flickr.com via Liz on Pinterest

Source: abandon-paradise.tumblr.com via jessica on Pinterest

Source: crownhotelbassett.co.uk via charles on Pinterest

You have to ask for an invitation to join Pinterest. It's easy really, you just have to ask them or someone you know who's already using the site. If you're as addicted to the world wide web o' images like I am, it might be worth your while. I know I'm having fun with it!

What new WWWeb wonders have you discovered lately?

Dining Room? Done!

Checking things of the ever-growing To Do List is always so satisfying. Last fall I got to cross "Dining Room" off the list.

It took a bit of planning, effort, and a very good and talented friend with a Sawzall and a nail gun, but we got it done.

First I wanted to rearrange the traffic flow. Instead of coming in the front door and meandering through the living room into the kitchen and then into the dead-end dining room, I wanted a straight line of sight from the front door, through the dining room into the backyard. So, we moved the doorway.

Hole in the wall for the new doorway to the dining room on the left.
Old doorway into kitchen on the right.

New doorway all framed in, old doorway covered with drywall and goop.

This change did a couple of things for us. It turned the living room from a traffic zone into an actual room where we could put furniture. It gave us space in the kitchen for a new refrigerator and a work table. The view through the dining room to the backyard made the house feel a little less small. And most importantly, it gave me an excuse to paint walls! Squeeeeeee!

And the results... drumroll please....

Freya, running.
She's not always this muddy.

This is the view from the kitchen, the living room is to the left, and the large window is on the right. We can sit at the table and watch the birds at the feeder and the Buhund running in circles in the yard.

The light fixture, table, white chairs, colorful cushions on the bench, and shelves are from Ikea. The computer desk is an old oak desk I found in a dumpster on the local college campus. I added the pull-out keyboard shelf.  The artwork I've collected over many decades. The wall paint color is "Popcorn" from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. It was a nice quality paint, a pleasure to work with.

So, dining room done! Next up - the living room, or maybe the bedroom, or possibly the basement.....and then there's the new plan for the garden, and the front porch, and....

Useful in High Winds

Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Photo by me, Liz Ackermann 2008

 We could have used something like this in yesterday's winds. It really sounded like the roof was going to blow off last night.