Noooo!

<whine alert>I just ripped the chair rail tape down…it didn’t do a very good job. Not at all. There was dark color underneath the tape where the light color is supposed to be. The tape pulled away some of the dark paint on the chair rail, despite my careful scoring along the tape line. I spent half my lunch hour with a tiny little art brush, a three-inch putty knife as a straight edge, and a bucket of paint…and only got one wall done – which needs a second coat, since the light color doesn’t cover up the dark color so well. Why does this always seem to work perfectly on Trading Spaces? They can manage to get razor sharp edges between different color areas, why can’t I? </whine alert>

<Groan>

Who needs the gym? Just climb up and down a step ladder 50 times, and every time you get to the top, hold both arms straight up wielding a paintbrush in one hand and a paint shield in the other. You will never have to worry about lifting your arms again, because they will have fallen off by the end of the routine. :)

No “after” pictures yet – I’m not done with the trim, and the blue tape on the walls right now really doesn’t fit in with the color scheme!

Before…

My dining room before today:

(Yeah, I know, I got impatient and started ripping the wallpaper down before I took the picture.) Now, it’s not that the wallpaper was all that bad. Really. OK, yes it was. I’ve disliked it since the day we moved in, but it had been recently done, and was in too good condition to change when there were so many other rooms that needed a change first.

A while back, I’d posted my plans for this room. Let’s just say, they changed. A lot. Thank goodness I didn’t do that, because what I’m doing is so much better, and more my style!

I felt a little like I was in an episode of trading spaces, opening up the first can of paint. Hopefully I’ll have some “after” pictures to post soon!

Lovely, Lovely Spring

It’s such a beautiful day. Warm, sunny, a mild breeze – well, ok, more like a “mild” gusting wind… I went out to lunch with some friends and decided to stop to buy dinner things on my way home. I have salmon marinating in the fridge right now, just waiting to be grilled. :)

I’m sure I got more than a few odd looks – in honor of spring, and of going out to lunch, I wore short sleeves, sandals, and my new blue crocheted hat. I couldn’t believe the number of people wearing coats – it’s 70° out!

(I’m ignoring the fact that they’re forecasting snow for Sunday.)

Getting Stuff Done

This morning, I skipped out on the gym (bad, bad, Sarah) in favor of getting a couple of things done that I’ve been procrastinating over…including, finally, getting the pictures from the St. Patty’s Day party I had a couple of weeks ago up on Ofoto and out to everybody.

Why am I posting them here? Well, there are an awful lot of very cute puppy pictures – of my two, and of Jenny’s pup. And no, before anyone calls animal control, none of the puppies actually drank any beer. :)

New Project Alert!

OK, so I have, um, several unfinished projects that I really should be working on…

But I needed to do something with lots of texture. Look what I came home with:

What will this become? I don’t really know yet – I’m only loosely following a pattern. Mostly because the pattern called for yarns that my LYS hadn’t even heard of, let alone stuff they carried, so I substituted all of them.

Knitting Goodness…

My name is Sarah, and I am a book-aholic. There, I said it. See, I just can’t resist buying interesting looking books – especially when they’re about crafty things, like knitting. The other night I found a book called “The Knitting Goddess”. I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before – it’s been out for three years, and I’m someone who generally pores through the entire craft section of Borders and Barnes and Noble on a regular basis.

There are stories about knitting, as well as some interesting-looking patterns. There’s also a website for the book, although it doesn’t appear to have been updated anytime recently. So far, I’ve only read the first two chapters; however, if the book continues the way it started, I would recommend it. It appears to be fairly beginner-knitter-friendly, too.

Optimism

Yes, I know, I live in Rochester. So…the fact that the calendar says it’s going to be spring on Friday shouldn’t mean a thing. Let’s face it, spring here usually comes at least a month late.

But for the past several days, we’ve had sunshine, and above-freezing temperatures often straying into the 50’s. I just can’t help but think that we really might end up with spring happening right on time.

I’m itching to go out and garden – at least long enough to get rid of the dead leaves we never managed to rake last fall. We tried to take the doggies for a walk in the lovely warm sunshine, but Murphy obviously has no clue how to walk on a leash and tried very hard to choke himself – we ended up turning back. Ah, well. Obedience classes start in two weeks – thank goodness!