Progress Report

Cleaning and Organizing: All of the knitting machine pattern books I won't be using have been listed for sale on eBay, a few of them have already sold.

Recycling: picked up some used siding to get it out of their way and make some repairs on some of our out buildings.

Knitting & Crochet: I'm using up odd bits of yarn to make slippers and hats. Smaller pieces of yarn are being used to make pom poms and crochet flowers.

Painting: Still working on the pointillism experiment in acrylics and 3 of the watercolors that I started on Tuesday.

Design work: Still putting my artwork on stamps, cards, neckties, electronics covers(iPod, iPhone, ipad, Samsung galaxy, blackberry), coffee mugs and lots of other things on Zazzle.

There are lots of other things going on as well but I'm not quite sure where or how to list them. I should have photos and completed projects to show you soon.

Nothing to show for it

It's been a busy couple of days but I haven't any pictures or scans to show you. All the artwork was on out going mail and all the yarn projects (pom poms and hat) have been given away.
I went back to painting the doors and trim in the house and spent time outdoors helping my husband repair one of the out buildings.
Time's gone by fast but there's not much to show for it. I'm also doing a lot of cleaning and sorting as we endeavor to make some more space around here before we're cooped up for the winter.
Life's like that sometimes but I can't wait to get back to my paints so keep checking in, things should get interesting soon!

Our latest Recycle: Out of the dump and into the yard

Most people discard any unused pieces of vinyl siding but we've managed to use some up in this project. Not all of the trim bits were the same color but we're pleased with the results and the knowledge that we managed to keep a few things out of the dump and put them to good use.
We filled the bottom of the planter with weeds and the sod that we cleared from the area we put the gravel in. We filled the top with good soil and this hosta thinned from another area of the yard.
Inexpensive and good looking, there's a lot to love about this project.

Before and After with Scrap Lumber, Problem Solved

As you can see the foundation of our house had been repaired on and off for years but was pretty ugly. My solution was to design this planter box that Doug and I built out of various scrap building supplies we had around the place. The only new materials used were 2 cedar 1x12's and 2, 1x4's.
You can see complete project photos and read more about it at http://canyoudougit.blogspot.com
The thing that really excites me about this project is that I can put all of the plant debris in the bottom of it as I clean up the yard for the season and then top it with soil and plant it full of hosta which needed to be transplanted and thinned anyway. It will take less soil to fill it this year and I can always add more soil in years ahead as the plant matter breaks down. It seems to be a winning situation on many levels and the fact that our total cost was under $39.00 really made us smile.