Still Unpacking . . .

If you've ever moved, then you can empathize with my pain . . . all the boxes!!  The never-ending boxes . . . 

Before

After

At least I found a place for most of my yarn (although there are yarn baskets in my closet and a couple in the basement.  I'm not sure where they will end up but hopefully everything will eventually fit in the closet). 

New yarn closet

Not sure how to re-organize for optimal storage . . . Somewhere on the interwebs, there is a solution.  Needless to say I miss my lovely craft closet in the farmhouse (but I miss neither the farmhouse nor the nasty winter drive to and from the farmhouse).

As for my scrapbook supplies, I wasn't sure what to do with them (they too were stored in the craft closet at the farmhouse).  My papers and books found a place on a new bookshelf.  As for my other supplies, I purchased a rolling cart.  Of course, some assembly was required.  It took some time to connect the pieces, but the final product looks pretty (even if it is smaller than I had hoped).

Assembled rolling cart with rainbow shelves

With yarn and books finally accessible, I can think about crafting . . . but not until I finish the last two projects due in my course--two weeks left before classes end for the holidays--although this is not to say that there has been no crafting.  Some grannies were made and some were attached . . . it's all good!   ;)  

Boxes

Lots and lots of boxes!

The hallway outside my old room . . . 

That has been my life for quite some time now, as we tried to  pack up all our things into boxes. And then the time came to pack the truck with all those boxes . . .

Our life in a truck . . . 

Meanwhile our internet service ended and we weren't re-connected at our new place until later in the week.  

Living-Dining Room BEFORE

Living-Dining Room AFTER

So far we've made good progress unpacking, but there are still boxes to unpack.  And I have to figure out where I'm gonna store my yarn . . . all in good time I suppose.

Living Room area

For now, I wish you well and I'll keep you posted.  

Later,

Happy Post-Halloween

How was your Halloween night?  Did you get many tricker-treaters?  We get no visitors that night--too far out in the country, I guess (That will, no doubt, change next year when we are living in town again).

courtesy of photo site

I failed to get a photo of my boys dressed up.  We dropped them off at a friend's house and they got dressed there, so photo opportunity missed (I'll get them dressed up once we're moved into our new place).

Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in boxes, boxes and more boxes.  So please forgive this short post and the lack of crafty content.  Next weekend is our final one in the farmhouse and then we're back in town in our own place . . . .

Meet Gimli

Pleased with the helmet.  In hind-sight, I would have made the helmet in the darker grey and then used the lighter grey for the details . . . but I already had the light grey in my stash.  I had planned to use a similar coloured grey felt, but none was to be found.

Finished Gimli helmet

And I'm especially pleased with the beard 'cuz that makes the whole costume work--if I do say so myself.

Finished dwarf beard

The beard wasn't hard, but it was a little tedious cutting all those strands and then attaching them.  Still, the effort was well worth it!  The grey bands around the braids really finish off the beard nicely too.  

Helmet and beard worn together

Meet the little dwarf--even without his axe and tunic, he's one happy dude.  He'll be in full battle garb come Halloween night.  I'll have to remember to post some photos.

I must confess it was a nice change to leave the bedspread and work on some "quick" projects.  I needed the change of pace.

A Little Something . . .

So my kids were thinking about Halloween costumes.  One of the boys decided he wanted to be Gimli from Lord of the Rings--a noble character.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Gimli

One thing led to another . . .  so now I'm making a helmet and beard for someone's costume.  To be fair, I made the offer 'cuz I know crocheters and knitters are resourceful people.  If they can't find something, they make it.  Simple as that!  We couldn't find fake beards or even helmets, so we decided to make our own.

Gimli's helmet in progress--almost done too!

This is the helmet--almost done.  There's no detail as of yet.  We plan to add it later and embellish with golden thread.  I'm using a pattern I found on Ravelry: Viking Hat has horns and some knobby bits 'round the brim.  I've eliminated both.  My hope is to add a darker grey for the details and roughly embroider it in gold thread.

Yarn for the beard and helmet detail

The beard will be an interesting challenge, but I found lots of orange yarn and two great patterns to try.  I'm sure one of them will prove satisfactory.  If nothing else, it will be a fun experiment.

Both patterns came from Ravelry: Epic Viking Beard is pictured on the left and Viking or Dwarven Beard is on the right.  I'm leaning towards the latter.  The base is already complete and enough lengths of orange yarn have been cut to start threading the beard.

I'll keep you posted.
Later,

Thanksgiving

So here's a little something to celebrate the day and the weekend.  Here's hoping you will spend it with friends and family.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo credit: Martin Cathrae / Foter / CC BY-SA

I am especially thankful for supportive and loving people in my life: my dear hubby and my children.  At the same time I am saddened by the loss of someone whom I had believed to be a friend.  Nothing like stressful times to reveal the true nature of some individuals.  At least I can see clearly now . . . 

Ups and Downs

UP: Yay for me!  I  got to do some crafting this week after all.  It's not a lot, but it's something.  I'll get whatever I can get. :)

White centres for the grannies

I finished and submitted a major project this week--that was stressful 'cuz I was trying to keep up with my coursework while still going to work and caring for my family.  Most days I felt like a chicken with her head cut off! :S

A different perspective of grannies

DOWN: To make matters worse, there is stress everywhere I go.  I don't want to get into too much detail here, but suffice to say that it is hard work getting along with other people whether it be family members, co-workers or complete strangers (especially when there are conflicting values and philosophies).  And I've lost some supportive people due to relocation to other cities.  Perhaps all the stress is affecting my perception, too?  And its not just me either.  I think my family is affected by all the stress.

In any case, we're hangin' in there as best we can.  We hope our big move to our own place will help towards alleviating some of those stresses.  Maybe with this big project out of the way, I can muster some crafting time too.  I need it!   Everything I read points to the healing properties of crafting (be it knitting or crochet).  I think I'll sneak in some crochet time as soon as I log off here.

Have a good week and send me some good karma . . . 
Later,