The Handy Homeowner Girl

And, since I missed a post on Tuesday, thanks to my migraines, I thought I’d give you a little bonus post tonight.  I wanted to share some of the crafts I was working on during December, which I couldn’t post about then, since they were all gifts!

A crocheted bracelet

This bracelet is identical to one I made for a friend, but this is the one I made for myself – I never realized I could crochet with wire until recently, and I LOVE the results.  I need to get working on some more of these, so that I can put them in my Etsy shop!

Okay, so you know I’m obsessed with Pinterest, but I don’t spend all my time just pinning potential projects – sometimes, I actually do them! I found this cowl pattern on Pinterest, and since I get a bit bored with my typical crocheting, I decided to give it a try, and love the results.  The pattern itself is a bit of a pain, but it looks so beautiful when it’s done that I made one as a gift for my sister, another as a gift for a friend, and this one for myself! This one was crocheted with my left index finger stuck in the air, because it was just after I’d injured it!

A portrait necklace

Very carefully, I used the exacto knife to create this necklace for my mom – it’s silhouettes of my sisters and I, along with her two granddaughters. It took a few tries to get the sizing right, but I was happy with the way it came out in the end, and so was my mom!

Display basset

I’ve always wanted to get my sister a British flag knit hat, and when I found a pattern to crochet one, I knew I needed to make it for her.  So I did, and used Ollie to model it!

That’s some of my recent crafting, though I’m wishing I took far more photos of the things I made this Christmas! Lately, I’m working on some more crocheted cowls for Etsy and I promise to photograph some things this weekend so that I can get them up there!

I have mentioned before that I’m a big believer in fixing what bugs you about your house.  Sometimes, it’s easy to get used to just dealing with those little annoying things, but after a while, those annoying things can all bond together and create a general unease that you can’t identify.

So I try to fix the things that bug me when I realize it.

Today, I fixed two of those things.

Yesterday, I was tired (big surprise, I wake up every day feeling like I’ve pulled an all-nighter) and I lazed around a bit, until I got sick of myself and decided to really clean the first floor of the house. I was a bit stressed out about something, so this was a really good remedy for that too. I moved furniture, vacuumed baseboards, and steam cleaned the floor. And that’s when it hit me…

It drives me CRAZY that the dogs leave dirty footprints on the floor that build up until I want to tear my hair out. No matter what mat I keep by the back door, no matter how many times I wipe their feet with a towel, it inevitably happens – there’s a lot of dirt in the yard, and the little guy loves to find it. Plus, it rains a lot here.

People always suggest that taking off your shoes when you come into a house is a good way to keep the dirt outside.  Yes, that’s true.

Unless you have dogs. In particular, basset hounds with huge feet.

So it occurred to me…I could put a rug down in the kitchen!

It would warm up the space (I have old insulation under the house, so the floors are cold – I know, I know, it’s something I need to fix from underneath, but I’m just not there yet) and it would show dirt less than the floor do.

Originally, my plan was to take the rug from my office to use in the kitchen. That was yet another thing bugging me that I dealt with last week – the rug in there constantly shifts and moves because it’s on top of carpet, and my desk chair always pushes it around.  It drives me NUTS to be constantly fixing it, so I finally took it up.

My secondary plan for that rug is to stick it on the deck – it’s an indoor/outdoor rug.  I thought I might put it in the kitchen, but I wasn’t thrilled about it not being softer. But then I was in Walmart earlier (they really do have some good things, but I was actually there to pick up dog food, since they’re the only ones that carry huge bags of Nutrish) and saw a deep red shag-type rug. I thought it would go perfectly in the black and white (and soon to be grey-walled) kitchen, so I got that along with my rubber matting and I was set.

So tonight, when my pups came in from the rainy outside, they left one paw print on the floor which I wiped up with the feet towel, and then, nothing! Problem solved.

The other issue I’ve been having is with one of my vacuums. I know, it’s ridiculous that I have more than one.  I actually have four.  One is a heavy duty carpet vacuum that my sister gave me when she moved into a house with a central vac – that stays upstairs because it’s too heavy to truck up and down the stairs.  I also have a pet spot steam cleaner vacuum that I got after the puppy arrived, for the obvious reasons.

Downstairs, I have my steam cleaner for the floor – it was originally supposed to be the sole first floor vacuum, but the vacuum part actually doesn’t work that well, so I end up vacuuming first, then using the steam cleaner – but it’s worth it, because it also has a function to suck up the water. I love it.

And finally, the floor vacuum.  This was the one bugging me – I got it three years ago when I moved in, so I guess it’s done it’s job (it was only $50 after all), and while it still does a decent job, I can’t turn it off.

No, seriously.

Unless I unplug it, it’s just on.  That gets kind of annoying.

Now, these are clearly first world problems. They’re not keeping me up at night.  However, they are problems I can control, and as I said, I believe in fixing what bugs me – then I have the energy to deal with everything else. So I picked up a new vacuum today too – it’s got a lovely little carpet attachment, among others (which means I can properly clean the downstairs rugs, instead of running the floor steam vac over them), and it’s also got a smaller floor attachment that allows me to get under things like chairs and sideboards.  I used to it vacuum the new rug tonight, which was shedding everywhere, and I was in love.

Now I’ve got to get motivated to clean upstairs as thoroughly as downstairs.  Because the piles of things I’m stashing everywhere are really starting to bug me!

What are some of your pet peeves?

Well, I’m back.

And the good news is that it looks like the sponsors of SOPA and PIPA are backing down from their bill.  We’ll see what happens in the vote on the 24th. Keep signing those petitions!

The other GREAT news is that today, my heat is back on!

I was really hoping that the furnace guy would come yesterday, particularly since I wasn’t feeling well, but that was a no go. So the boys and I snuggled in my bed and watched tv while trying to stay warm.

When I got up this morning, it was 46 degrees on the first floor. Brr!

It warmed up to 50 by midday, and finally, just before three, the furnace guy called. It only took him a half hour to put the new part in and get the furnace up and working – it’s so quiet, I can’t even really hear it.

BIG difference from the rattling it was making before – so that’s another tip for you; if your heater is so loud that you have to turn the tv up to hear over it, there’s something wrong with the fan. Get it checked out!

Anyway, it took a couple of hours for the temperature to come back up to 70, and I’ve spent three days being cold, so 70 felt like the tropics!

A working furnace meant I could cook tonight instead of having to order pizza – it’s not that my oven wasn’t working, it’s just that it was too cold to be downstairs for more than a few minutes! So tonight, I made my first whole chicken (I feel like a cheated a little, because I got one of those Purdue roaster bags), stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.

It all tasted delicious, but when I cook a big meal like that, I find that by the time I get to eating it, I don’t feel like eating! But leftovers will be had (and maybe turned into other things as well)!

The pups were very excited about the chicken. I didn’t share, but my little guy did try to figure out how to counter surf so he could snag the chicken. Good thing I was paying attention and put a quick stop to that.

Once dinner was done, I was VERY excited to finish the hutch – the extra piece came yesterday…or so I thought.

An extra piece did come yesterday, yes.

It was even labeled part B.

But it certainly wasn’t the piece I need. In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, I think it’s a piece to the buffet part of the hutch. And of course, I have to wait until tomorrow to call them and complain. I should have known better, because a lot of the reviews on Target said that other people were having this problem, but I was hoping for the best. Ugh. So more waiting, when here I was, excited for the hutch to be done!

At any rate, I’ve got some home projects brewing in my mind, which hopefully I’ll get started on soon – this is the best time of year for them because the days are cold and there isn’t much to do, so it’s nice to putter around.  But that being said, I have a girls’ day planned on Saturday for lunch and the movies, so any home projects will have to wait!