So it is my son’s book fair week- which means I took a week of vacation and will work the book fair to help out his school.

This means my posts will suffer a little.

I have added a new knitting pattern… the seahorse.

Seahorse

Making a terrarium is easy and cheaper than you think.  Each plant 2.95 at a home improvement store, rocks 1.00 at a dollar store and glass easy to find at a thrift store.

Plant your plants

Online instructions say you need cactus soil, but cactus soil is just like potting soil with extra sand.  I had potting soil, and play sand, so I mixed to too to get a good consistency.  Succulents need lots of drainage so add rocks to the bottom of your glass.  I found pebbles at a dollar store for a dollar a bag and I used 1.5 bags.    One bag for the bottom, and less than that for the top to give it a finished look.

Add Gravel

I ended up making two.  The second one cost me a grand total of $13.  $2.00 for the rectangular vase from a thrift store, $9.00 worth of plants, and $2.00 of rocks.  I had the sand and potting soil already.

Side View

Looking from above

So I have always loved glass doors in vanities an cabinets.  But they show the mess!  So I decided to put paper in the doors to hide the clutter.

This is the before picture.

Before

I tried out various colored paper before I settled.  These are scrap book papers.  The one below almost matches the color of the walls until it is behind the glass.  And then it is way too pale.

Matching Blue

Once you settle on a paper, trim to size and tape into place with scotch tape.

Tape in the Paper

Then admire the view!  It took only 30 minutes to do, the hardest part was selecting the paper, and .20 worth of materials.

Finished

One of my work friends is having a baby so I have been knitting for her.

I made a monster hat and booties from Rebbecca Danger’s knit a monster nursery.  So cute!

Monster Hat

Monster booties

I also create a pattern for an elephant lovie.  I made two so she would have a spare.

Elephant lovie

I do a lot of thrift store shopping.  I dislike shopping in general, but the thrill of the hunt, and the bargain make me love thrift store shopping.

Find the sales: Stop by every day of the week or ask the clerks what the sales are.  Different days might have different items on sale.  The one near my house has Sundays’ as 3 for a dollar.  It took me forever to figure that out.  Another has Saturday .69 sales.

Do they have shipment days?  If they have shipment days show up on that day or the next to find the best stuff that hasn’t been picked through yet.

Be picky- but flexible.  Don’t buy something just because it is there.  If it is worn, has rips and holes, or stains, then pass it up.  There will be something else, if it is cheap junk, it is still junk.  But be flexible- look at the potential of everything.  Sheets, towels, blankets and other household linens make great yardage.  It might not be what you were expecting, but it can still be great.

Know what you have.  I keep a list of the clothes I have bought for my son in a certain size in my purse.  That way I know if I have enough long sleeved shirts or if I should pick up a few more.

Keep a list of what  you are looking for in your purse.  You never know when you might stop at a thrift store.  Know what you are looking for to be sure to check out those areas.

Thinking of furniture?  Keep a list of measurements AND measuring tape in your purse.  If you find that perfect item you want to make sure it is really perfect and it fits the space.  In the same token you don’t want to have to pass up a great find just because you don’t know if it will fit.

Shop frequently.  You never know what the store will have, and what great item will come up.  I shop at thrift stores twice a week, but I am just as likely to walk out with nothing as to come home with a couple of treasures.

Once you have your stash and are attempting to organize it you then need containers to hold your items in the categories you devised. 

You can spend a lot of money on these containers, but I would rather spend my money on my stash and not the containers.  You will have to make some large purchases, but hopefully these will be used for years to come and you get something versatile enough to evolve as your stash and space does.

Small container storage for beads, buttons, and notions: clear is the best type of storage, that way you don’t have to open up the package to see what you have.  Free containers can be assembled from reused food storage you have in your home.  These days baby food is sold in small see through tubs with a snap on lid.  Save all of these, or hit up your friends and children with little ones to save them for  you.  Peanut butter jars are plastic and a nice option.  I have my button collection in different sizes of glass jars such as pasta sauce, pickles, and a vintage Skippy jar. 

Think outside the craft store- there are nice storage options in the craft store, but they are expensive.  Tackle, tool, and fastener storage from the sporting goods store or the home improvement store make great drawers or bead trays.

Plastic bins: You want them in a variety of sizes, shoe box sized and larger for your various stash.  Instead of writing on the bin use a note card and place it in the front of the bin with the contents.  As your stash evolves you can switch out the label without pealing off tape or covering over writing.  These can get pricey so you want to get the most of your money.

Shop your house: What do you have around the house that you can use?  An old dresser, book shelf, or containers?  These can be re-purposed as is or you can do a little repair and sprucing up (a great project opportunity!) to fit your craft space.  Our first apartment table is small but has been reinvented many times as desk, computer table, extra seating for large family gatherings, and craft table.  I probably won’t ever let that go.

In a previous yarn university post I discussed the different types of yarn fibers and described their drape.  I think it is important to talk about the difference between drape and droop.

Drape takes advantage of natural fiber and fabric properties to make something look good.  Droop is when the fibers do something undesired and make it look like crap.

Wedding dresses drape, flour sacks droop.

Quality cotton and wool yarns will drape and retain their shape.   Cheap yarns and unfortunately acrylics have the tendency to droop.  If you are going to spend hours and hours on a project do what you can to make a quality finished project.  Pick the correct yarns for the situation and avoid a droop disaster.

Once you start growing your stash you are going to need to organize it too.  This will make it more pleasant to look at, but will also increase the odds of you using something.

You are going to have to group your stash by like items such as beads, tools, paper, and yarn.  However, at some point you are going to have more than just a few items and sub category organization will be necessary.  In some cases you will be able to apply all the types of organization to your stash, the more categorization the easier it will be to find that perfect something.

By color-If you have a lot of an item organizing by color makes it easier to find like items, say a bunch of buttons or beads, as well as making it more attractive to look at and allow you to be picky when selecting different shades.  If it is attractive you are more likely to use it.  I dropped an organized box of beads once, I found I didn’t want to use them digging through to find each bead that matched.  I ended up spending a week sorting them back out, now I use them again.  My step-mom gave me a bag of dyed wool roving she got for free at a garage sale (great find!).  I didn’t use any of it until I sorted it by color.

By type- Sort things by type as well.  What kind of bead is it?  A seed bead, large glass beads, etc?  Sort things like yarn by weight and fiber content so you can reduce your choices by those variables for a particular pattern.  Same goes for fabric, I generally have my fabric sorted into 108″ wide fabrics, decorator fabrics, specialty fabrics and cottons.  Then they are then sorted by color as well.

By use- I have an entire box for kid crafts and one for adhesives.  If I am looking for glue, I go to the adhesives box to look through my different kinds of glue.  The kids crafts have things like sequins, pipe cleaners, pom-pom etc. that my son enjoys while doing crafts.  That way I can put the whole bin on the kitchen table for him without having to go back and forth and clean up is a breeze.

I felt a lot of thrift store sweaters, so I often have a little from this sweater, a little from that sweater.  I have found that creams are one of the hardest to coordinate.  You have to be real careful which creams you use together.  They can look dirty, yellowed, or pale by turns.  When I start a project where I need a lot of cream felt I make piles of all the creams that look good together before I get started.  Grey felt doesn’t have this problem at all.  Most grey felts can mix without a problem.