BED BUGS

Yes, I have bed bugs. And it is one of the top ten most annoying, non-harmful things a person could experience.

I first noticed a couple of bites on my side about a week and a half ago, but didn't think anything of it as my skin is really sensitive and prone to odd blemishes every now and then. But then about four days ago I noticed some more of the same type of marks on my side and a light went off in my head, "bed bugs!!". I showed my mom and she didn't think it was a bed bug bite, but nonetheless, I started cleaning all my clothes, bedding and any other fabric or linen in my room. I used bleach and water to wipe down all my furniture and did search of my bed and inside drawers to see if I could find any physical signs of bed bugs. I wasn't able to see any bugs or any of the other signs (poop stains, blood stains or shed shells), so I eased up a bit on the cleaning and worrying. But then I woke up the next morning with more bites, and the next morning there were more still, and the next...

My parents thought it was all in my head since we were never able to see any bed bugs ourselves despite waking up at 3am and 4am on several mornings to try to catch them in the act. But last night I finally told my mom she had to call an exterminator because I was just getting tired of finding new bites and, in case it was bed bugs, I didn't want them to multiply and spread more than they may already have.

This morning the bug guy came and was able to find a male bed bug in my bed frame, in the notch where the side beam support attaches to the headboard. "I TOLD YOU," were the first words out of my mouth when I saw the ugly thing.

Anyway, they are coming back tomorrow morning to treat my room, so I spent all of today taking out what was left in my room. I had already removed and washed most of my clothing (and will probably wash them again for good measure). Except for my bed which still have sheets on them, and the bags of the things I still need to wash, it looks like no one ever lived in this room.

So, tomorrow I am bringing everything else that has been in my room that can be put in a dryer and drying it all on high heat at the laundromat. Quite a few things have found their way to the trash, including fabric scraps, certain pieces of fabric and my homemade body mold , which Tim helped me make with paper tape. I didn't want to get rid of that but there's really no way of cleaning it so... :(

I was about to throw away all my yarn - oh put a knife in my heart! - but my mom suggested I try washing them in lingerie wash bags. I figure if I shove enough of the rolls of yarn in them, there won't be enough room for it all to get untangled and then tangled up in each other. We'll see.

Shoes will go through the dryer, bags, stuffed animals, pillows, crocheted creatures, I'll probably wash the jacket that I've been wearing all winter... basically, EVERYTHING.

And then what makes things even MORE annoying is that everything that has already been washed needs to stay in plastic bags in another room for TWO WEEKS until the exterminators come back for another treatment. So basically I'm going to be displaced for two weeks. I'll be able to sleep in my room, but it's recommended that I keep all washed clothing, shoes etc in a separate room.

Anyway, the point of aaallll of this is to say that I doubt I'll be making much over the next two weeks, which kind of sucks, but I'd rather take a two week break from crafting than risk re-exposing all my materials to bed bugs.

That's all for a now. Happy new year!

-Dani

Christmas is over.

Now that Christmas is drawing to a close, I can finally post pictures of the animal baby rattles that I crocheted. I was avoiding putting them on the internuts so they would be a surprise for both my nephew and my sister... mostly my sister though since my neph. is only 7 months old and doesn't know what a rattle is or that I put in a few hours effort and many trips to various stores to find an adequate object to put beans inside of. Anyway, here they are.

I ended up using ping pong balls and beans for the rattle. It was pretty easy to do once I finally settled on ping pong balls. At first I tried a stocking with rice in it for a softer rattle but it ended up being a completely mute rattle once the stuffing was around it. Then I thought about trying miniature ornaments only to realize that they are made of glass and break quite easily (there's one crocheted octopus that never saw the joy of a baby's smile but instead saw the inside of the trash can...). My mom finally suggested ping pong balls and they worked perfectly. They fit nicely inside of the creatures which are relatively small (fit in the palm of your hand) and make a nice rattling noise that isn't too abrasive nor too quiet. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome.

I think the idea of the frog is really adorable, but it came out a little sloppier than I would have liked. I ended up giving it to my cousin's baby for Christmas... it doesn't make me a bad person, giving a semi-sloppy gift to a baby! It's mostly the eyes, which you can't really notice in the picture, which came out messy.

The owl is my favorite. The design, color and craft of it is definitely better than the other two, but there is also something about it which made me kind of want to keep it for myself. I would never, however, deny my darling nephew the joy of the owl rattle regardless of the fact that he is not aware of how awesome it is and thinks of it as another chew toy.

I don't have much to say about the penguin except that it's pretty cute and has a speck of unintentional sadness in his eyes. I hope the nephy-poop grows up to name his rattles and tell awesome stories about them surfing on lava from an exploded volcano... or something.

I mentioned last post that I received some Christmas coasters from white elephant and that I wanted to turn them into something. Well this morning before breakfast I did just that:

A perfect sized Christmas place setting!

I spent some time deciding what the pattern/shape would be and finally settled on this. There weren't enough to make a doormat out of nor were there enough to make a large enough square place setting. This seemed most logical. I actually really like this idea and might go out and find more fabric coasters to stitch together into new place settings and floor mats (I'm thinking bathroom...).

-Dani

Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Christmas eve has come to a conclusion for me. My whole family got together at my parent's house for a buffet style dinner, yankee swap and white elephant. My white elephant gifts were pretty decent - some candles and candle holders and Christmas coasters that I am going to turn into a really small door mat or a place setting. Other than that, my Aunt surprised me with something that I have been looking for for about a week now - beer bottle caps! I have been wanting to make some magnets out of them but I don't drink a lot of beer at home, nor do my parents. Anyway, once everyone left I commenced magnet making.

Pretty basic and simple but still interesting, I think. I LOVE magnets and collect them, sort of. I'm not really a collector, but I do like picking up some different/cute/funny/cheesy gas station magnets when I come across them.

Earlier this afternoon, while I was taking pictures of the quilt I made:

I realized that I don't have any throw pillows or anything. So in an attempt to hide my Tempur-Pedic pillow, I quickly stitched together that deep pink patterned pillow case.

It seriously took about seven minutes to make and it adds a nice difference to my small bed, I think. At some point I'll be making more pillows with a little more detail and thought behind them, but for a last minute project, I think this is pretty okay! Except that I didn't iron or wash the fabric... oops.

Yesterday, while rewatching 30 Rock because I love it, I made this simple jar cozy:

and these jar photo frames:

I forgot where I saw these, I'll search for the link later and edit this post when I find it. Nevertheless, I'm all for simple projects that add a little spunk to my room. I stuck a picture of the garden in front of the Eiffel Tower and London at night in the jars. I'm so bad at hanging things on the wall so these jars are a great way of displaying some of my favorite photos without having to try to fit them all on my one magnetic dry erase board.

I'm actually starting to get pretty tired. Christmas day we have a family brunch and then open gifts. You can tell that there is a baby in the family again because there are a LOT of gifts under the tree this year. Before my nephew was born, there were maybe a dozen gifts for the five of us. Now there are at least twenty five, most likely more... But now it's time to get into bed with some yarn until I fall asleep. Happy holidays my one reader friend. ;)

-Dani

Wreath fever

My sister recently e-mailed me about some party planning and decorating for my nephew's upcoming first birthday and I was happy when she mentioned she wanted a wreath for the door, as I've got wreath fever. Yes, wreath fever.

It all started with this simple wreath from A Beautiful Mess:

So simple, so pretty! Naturally I decided to try and make it and naturally I changed it up a bit. Instead of just circles, I made flowers!

I do like the way the simple circles look and will probably try that with some different colors, but I like the way the flowers turned out. I used some thick wire to mold it into a circle shape since I couldn't find my pipe cleaners, but I definitely recommend using pipe cleaners (plus anything extra for support) as it looks much better.

I'm going to make some more wreaths, I'm just not sure what type of wreath yet. Maybe a fabric or paper wreath, we'll see what I have laying around my room. I'm also going to be making a bunch of barrettes. I've already made a couple that came out pretty cute but none of them really match any of the clothes I have so...

My next bigish project is going to be to try to perfect the DIY snowglobes from Well Worn. I've tried it twice so far and have not been pleased either time. I'm still on the search for falling snow - I don't like the way glitter looks (too plain) and styrofoam doesn't work (no sinkies) and no one seems to know where I can find "the snow in snow globes". I'm not sure what my next move will be but I'll figure it out!

-Dani

Flowers and South Park

I love flowers and floral patterns. I went through a phase for a few years where all I wore pretty much every day was some sort of floral patterned dress. Exhibit A:

That's me in one of my favorite dresses, perfect for hanging out in corn fields in Holland. I've since gotten over the need to wear a floral print dress every day, however, passing up pretty, cheap floral printed fabric at the fabric store is another matter. Thanks to my lovely friend Tim, I received a gift certificate to the largest fabric store in Rhode Island, Lorraine's, where I purchased 14 feet of - you guessed it - floral fabric. The great thing about Lorraine's is that they have a bargain floor where the fabric is only $1.99 a yard!!

Well, after making a quilt (photos later), I had a bunch of left over fabric and was kind of stumped with what I wanted to do with it. Then I came across this idea for a flower garland from Creature Comforts. It looked absolutely precious and didn't seem like it would be too hard.

Here's my version:

It's not like it took me forever to cut out these flowers (there are more than what's on the garlands, by the way, many more). I was only able to watch nearly an entire season of South Park as I worked on this (thank goodness for Netflix Instant watch). I'm mostly pleased with the outcome, except -

I don't like the way mine is hanging. I just wanted to get it up and hanging so I could get a picture of it, but I think I'm going to hang it in the corner, straight down. Once I find a place that makes me sufficiently happy, I'll take another picture.

For now, my baked potato is ready.

-Dani

What I'm doing over my winter break.

As the fall semester was coming to a close, I pondered what I was going to do with my semi-free time off before the Spring semester kicked in. I do have several jobs, but as they are all extremely flexible and for the most part "as needed", I knew that I'd be spending a lot of time browsing Netflix Instant Watch, wishing that I was back in school so I wouldn't be so bored. My initial plan was to read Anna Karenina in it's entirety, as I have a terrible habit of starting to read that book and then putting it away half way through, despite the fact that I love it as I'm reading. It's just one of those books you can't put down for fear of never picking it up again, you know?

Anyway, I started making a bunch of cowls for Christmas gifts since, despite my several sources of monetary income, I'm almost nearly totally broke all the time. Crocheting is an extremely fast, easy and natural hobby of mine, so crocheting practical gifts this holiday season made the most sense. I was searching the internuts for some new patterns to use for a scarf I want to make for myself, when I came across Design*Sponge.

Well oh ho ho! if I didn't spend the next several hours scouring their website and various other DIY blogs, bookmarking all my favorite DIY projects with the intention of attempting at least a few of them. Well, that was yesterday and I'm already on my fourth project (this cute yarn wreath from A Beautiful Mess).

It only seemed natural that I would decide to start documenting everything that I'm making. At first it was just going to be a Facebook photo album "What I did over Winter break" but I decided instead to blog about it, knowing full well that the only people that would ever read this blog would be myself and the few other people I might decide to show it to. Regardless of who does or does not read my adventures in DIY project making and crafts, I'm still happy to have a medium in which to keep track of all the creative-ish stuff that I do over my break.

Now all I need is a functioning camera to actually take pictures of the things that I'm making and then I'll really be ready to get this blog started.

-Dani