Where some projects leave me feeling better than others on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello all -- another week...another DST, I'm all off kilter, why do we do this twice a year week... I'm still not shifted to where I was before ... maybe by the end of next week. Anyway it was a semi-productive week, but not in the ways I had assumed. But I'll take finished or partially finished projects whenever I can find them.

First off on Tuesday I decided I should paint and dye some linen... all 32 ct... I cut several pieces for specific projects and some randomly sized pieces. I always start out painting the linen and then if I don't like how it looks I stick it in the mason jar with whatever leftover dye I have... sometimes the results of the smushed in the jar are waaay better than what I started with...sometimes not. Here is the pile of what I did...

As I've said before the colors are better in real life... that green at the 12 o'clock position and the turquoise at the 5 o'clock spot are kinda pretty... intense with some nice mottling... the lighter stuff is mostly pale yellow and light green and the piece at 10 o'clock is a opalescent dyed a pale tangerine. I did 2 long cuts for the LHN Spring ABCs... the dark one at 6 o'clock got overdyed apple green as I didn't like the bright orange swatch I had painted... the lighter piece at 3 o'clock isn't making me happy either. Instead of trying to include 3 colors I should have stuck with one or two... overall I'm feeling kinda meh about this bit of productivity ... perhaps I'll be happier when I find the right charts to go with them. 

Wednesday came and I was still in a painting mood...and Mother Nature was cooperating as it was sunny and not too breezy. Remember last week when I said I may paint the shelf unit on the porch... well I did!!! Now normally it would take me a minimum of 3 months to get around to a project like this but I found a chalk paint (that said I wouldn't have to sand) and they had the paint at Home Depot... the Behr Chalk paint in Granny Smith Apple (which looks NOTHING like the sample on line)... it was one of their standard colors but the lady at the paint counter said they could mix any color I wanted. Anyway armed with a new paint brush and foam rollers and a snazzy drop cloth I jumped in... I ended up painting both the shelf unit and the bench I have in that room.

Shelf unit...

Bench...

Not sure you can see it but there is a bit of this spring-y lime-y green in the carpet tiles which is almost a spot on match. I've never used chalk paint before but since both of these pieces were inexpensive wood that had a shiny finish on them I hoped the paint would adhere better without having to sand. I did end up putting a spray on Zinsser primer on the shelf unit. I thought the white color of the primer would also help cover the dark color of the wood. I didn't use any primer on the bench. Now after watching about 100 videos I decided not to wax either piece. If you wax them and you end up changing your mind you have to remove all the wax... and I may change my mind with these. Instead I'm going to use a spray polyurethane coating on them... but Mother Nature hasn't cooperated since I got the paint on ... so I'm waiting for another nice day with temps in the 60's and little wind to complete this project. I did find that the paint on the un-primed bench was east to scratch...had to do some touch up... so I'm sure a coating of some kind is necessary. I do like the matte finish of the chalk paint. so that is a plus.  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color!!! This project has made me happy so far...

As for stitching I have  a finish... just put the last stitches in this one Saturday night... Good Deeds by With Thy Needle & Thread...

It finished about 7" tall x 11" wide... not sure how I'll FFO it... maybe see what I've got in the basement before I think about professional framing.  This project makes me happy!!

And with this one complete I picked up the April installment of Hands on Designs Year of Celebrations...

I changed the flosses to DMC... 2 greens 2 oranges 1 turquoise 1 yellow and 1 white... it does have a BIG cloud in the upper left hand corner, which will take a while... but once I get the outline done in turquoise it will be mindless. I want this done before April rolls around and it should be doable before the week is over... I like the linen I painted but have no clue why I cut such a small piece.  It is a good thing I'll FFO this myself because there isn't much extra fabric to work with.  I think this project will make me happy when it is done...

And I do want to finish April pronto so I can move on to something new... several of the new charts I purchased last week are calling my name. I told myself to work on small stuff but one of the bigger charts I bought is really yelling in my ear...will have to see how this works out. 

The nicer weather this week (excluding Thursday evening where we had a tornado warning) has got me itching to work in the yard. I got my yard guy to pull out two barberry bushes in my yard... gonna get some hydrangeas to replace them ... and I pulled some of the winter stuff out of my window boxes ...and that is when I saw this...

these are solid resin HEAVY window boxes... they are very well made and not cheap... and warrantied against cracking and breaking... but this isn't a situation where the corner cracked off... no... the DAMN squirrels are sharpening their teeth on the corners of several of my window boxes!!! I am so ticked off... I'm usually very tolerant of the rats in the nice fur coats ... I don't chase them from my bird feeders...live and let live... till now... this is WAR!!!  I'll repaint the boxes and the damage won't show much when I plant but this has got to stop. Not only have they gnawed on the window boxes I found a spot on the gutter flashing where the paint is gone and they've gnawed on my house... is it made of gingerbread???  A year or so ago I put cayenne pepper in some planters to keep the squirrels from digging in them. I'm going to get a mega sized bottle of cayenne pepper and spread it in all the window boxes ... hopefully that will deter them. I also read where you can mix it in with the bird seed and it has no effect on the birds but the squirrels don't like it... they'll have to find a free meal elsewhere. Obviously this project has made me mad... 

However the yard is showing signs of Spring... I have one daffodil in bloom...

and lots more have buds ready to open... and I have one little bitty iris...

The hyacinths are also popping up and I had the lawn reseeded and some weed preventer put down... can't wait till I can buy annuals!!  I've been watching gardening videos and seeing so many pretty petunias and other plants. Not sure exactly what  color combo  I'll put in the window boxes ... I looked at some pictures from last year and while I love the yellow petunias they get overtaken by the pink ones... maybe I'll just do one color this year...but what color???  I saw some tangerine petunias but they are pricey and I need a ton to do all five window boxes.  Well I have plenty of time to think about it... I probably won't get to plant till the beginning of May and should wait till after the last chance for a frost which is around Mother's day here. I also need to stay out of Costco...another bag of dahlia tubers came home with me... I'm up to over 60 tubers to plant...need to order more stakes too!!  LOL

Well lots is going on this week... eye exam for my son, dinner out with my other son and daughter-in-law, monthly get together of my quilty lady friends and we are celebrating a birthday, lunch with a cross stitch friend and taking my son and his buddy to an anime show...I think the only crafty things I'll get done will happen when sitting and waiting ... oh well, there are always socks I want to knit.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today ... hope you have a great week ahead!

happy stitching- 

carol fun