Repurposed Furniture

This bench was made by my good friend, Steve, who built it for our patio out of recycled wood.  As you can see, he used cedar fence boards, posts, and other odds and ends.  I think this is a great example of the success you can have with a little imagination and some old stuff.  Steve builds all kinds of furniture for his wife's shop, Just Looking, in Texas.

Here are some more examples:

Outdoor bench made from recycled cedar fence materials.

Side table made from old sewing machine cabinet.

Standing cabinets made from old kitchen wall cabinets.

Child's bench made from twin bed headboard and footboard.

Hutch cabinet made with old window shutters.

Coffee table made from recycled weathered wood.

Watson: Another Caturday Cat

Our dearly departed big, black cat has been featured as the Caturday cat this week on Wypad's blog, Writing, Yarn, Pucks, & Diapers, here:

http://wypad.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/caturday-september-17/

The picture above features a youngish Watson in my lap with successfully-rocked-to-sleep baby Alix, who was just a few weeks old. Check out my 1980s glasses--gack.

Tuffer Is Famous, Too!

Our Tuffer is today's Caturday Cat, featured on Contessa's blog, Writing, Yarn, Pucks, and Diapers. The post about Tuffer is here:

http://wypad.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/caturday-august-20/

There's a post on my blog about him, here.

Mend-athon: Day 1

My first Mend-athon project was to sew up a little hole in this bedspread (upper right). It took 30 seconds to do the mend and 30 seconds to put away the thread. Wow... not even 5 minutes. You can see Tuffer trying to blend in by assuming the pose of the Celtic dog.

Spazz is Famous!

Our calico kitty has been featured as the Caturday cat this week on Wypad's blog, Writing, Yarn, Pucks, & Diapers.
Check it out:

http://wypad.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/caturday-aug-6/

There's a post about Spazz on my blog here.

Evolution of a Rug

Check out my grandmother's hand-hewn crochet hook, upper left.
It's Work-In-Progress Wednesday, and I'm back! In December, we bought a new house in a new town, and I have been up to my eyeballs in boxes, packing materials, and stuff. For the last few months, my time has been mostly spent unpacking and selling-off zillions of items from three households (mine, my husband's, and a friend who passed away).

We have a very old cat--adopted him from our departed friend. He is becoming incontinent, and he usually makes it to the vicinity of the catbox, but... well... let's just say the floor of the utility room is getting cleaned A LOT. I put my little t-shirt yarn rug there, and it's working well because it's so easy to wash. It grabs and holds the puddles instead of having the grout lines become little yellow rivers. So I desperately need a second tarn (t-shirt yarn) rug, to switch out with during the laundering process.

This one is made of a bunch of old turtlenecks of mine. I had a collection of many colors, all in the same style and fabric. They are out of style now, and I have others that I like way better, so it's time to crochet a rug!

For more WIP Wednesday posts on other blogs, check here.

UPDATE: Since instructions for this rug have been requested, I'm going to try to tell you how I made this... haven't created a pattern yet... maybe a free one someday soon.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The pattern has now been produced and tested, and it's available as a free download. Tarnation Rectangle Rug

Kitty!

We have adopted a sweet, old manx kitty. He loves being outside, having lived indoors for the last 6 years with his previous owner (he is 14 years old). In fact, he refuses to come into the house for more than about a minute, since he has discovered our back yard. He is certainly in his feline element.

UPDATE: At our new house, Tuffer stays indoors most of the time. He makes brief visits to the patio, and occasionally chases a butterfly in the yard. But he spends most of his time sleeping inside, these days.

Find the Kitteh

Spazz is playing big-kitty-in-the-jungle. Can you find her?

(Both of my kids found her, but Michael's nerdy friends couldn't.)

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Tonight's ice cream flavor: banana with nutmeg

Welcome to my Hearth

So pleased to make this first post on my new blog! I'll be sharing patterns for some of my knitting and crochet designs here, as well as musing on various aspects of life.

-amanda,
a.k.a pentalia