lookie who is back to blogging? and crafting soon!

I have done it! i have made a new purchase for a new crafting hobby. who knew there is even a new craft left out there besides woodworking, blacksmithing and stained glass stuffs. but i found one.

see 2 weeks ago a got an email from knitting daily put out by interweave press. and while it personally rankles me that they use it so blatantly for advertising to us, i still clicked on one of those advertising emails links to ....

http://www.interweavestore.com/Weaving.html

of course it went to the newer magazine not yet on the stands but their "plug" , which worked as you'll see, was to de stash your yarn stash. haveing just cleaned out the garage due to the woater heater breaking and needing to be replaced i certainly was well aware of the size of my yarn stash.

significantly smaller (by about 40 large large plastic sterlite tubs) but still all the same, larger than i ever intended it to get when i first started knitting again some 5 or 6 years ago.

well the plug was to weave up those odd ball yarns and leftover yarns into scarves and what better way to do that then to subscribe to the handwoven magazine they put out.

so yes, i subscribed to it for a year and got the two free things offered. if it's free its for me as my ex-husband used to say about me. but what to do with a handwoven magazine when i don't even own a loom?

why of course, start researching them! so i did! and i built a spreadsheet like i did for my spinning wheel choices back in 05 too.

and in the end i ordered from Bob at Winderwood Farms in Naples NY who is also who i ordered my gorgeous Kromski Sonata spinning wheel from too.

and now i sit and wait, albeit NOT so patiently for it to arrive. i ordered on friday with him monday was a holiday and the distributor was closed sat, sun and mon. on tuesday i begged him via email apologising for being such a pest "did it ship?"

it has not, but i'm hoping today he sends me the tracking number indicating it did ship :)

in the meantime, more research. i have read so many blogs and visited so many sites and searched for lessons etc that i am going to turn into a loom myself if i'm not careful.

oh and i ordered the Kromski 24" harp!
seen here
http://www.newvoyager.com/rigidheddlelooms.html

i got the 24" as a compromise between the 16' more to the budget constraints/thought process and the 32" wider is BETTER thougth process LOL

i did read in several places that people that got the 32" thought it too large to handle. even Bob said he'd heard it said. so, a 24" it is!

i ordered the extra 10 dent heddle and the extra set of heddle blocks so i can play with different types of weaving and a denser fabric than just 10 epi but can get 20 epi and i think i read somewhere that if i only thread one through ehre and two through there etc i can achieve 15 epi.

and i so sound like i know waht i'm talking about and yet, i surely don't.

so please, watch here for future postings of the actual loom when it arrives and the first weaving to come.

have a grand and glorious day
denise/deBRAT in tampa bay florida

I want to quilt!!!

I want to QUILT!!!

and here is the perfect easy peasy pattern i've drafted in my EQ5 a while ago i just stumbled across again this morning!

a larger quilt with black and white 4 patch blocks in it

Jordan & Nicole's Wedding Weekend Pics

So the wedding day finally arrived and here are a few pics.
Rehersal Dinner Friday night.
Tyring to take a pic of us together on one of our walks on the beach.

Everyone has to take the obilgatory picture of a pile of tiny wet seashells on the sea shore. I decided our feet needed to be in this pic. If we were sending postcards I think this would have been the one to send!

Neal decided we should go on a boat ride some time between the wedding day breakfast and the wedding itself. so the only one about to leave the dock and the time we went looking was the "screamer" it was 20' wide by 60'+ long. we did see some dolphin but i've seen those close up in Panama City Beach with Ed on his boat so there was no need to go climbing all over people to see them. Just sit back and relax!

this is the view from our 7th floor (of 9) window to the left from our balcony of the marina

And this is the view to the right of Pier 60. It is zoomed in at this point to get the "better" picture. I decided not to post the one for the actual distance effect.

And Neal in his spiffy new suit and Denise in her "goddess" dress you have all heard so much about, including seeing pics of it. and yes, it did fit even better because I had lost at least 5 pounds more since we bought it. :)

Nicole being lifted in her chair. i've forgotten the "traditional" name the DJ said when this began. "Just like in the movies" How cool was this to see? VERY!

Jordan being held up in his chair, yes, that is Neal helping out. Why do you think I took the picture? ;)

Okay so these are 4 of our "Table One" companions at the reception. And those of us who were there need not say any more ROFLOL!

From left; Bobby, Karen, Uncle Butch, Dan

A good time was had by all.... all weekend long... and Neal and I are sure glad we took Monday off. We needed it to recoup!

Look what I drove to work today

What I drove to work on Thursday

What I drove home thursday night

And

what I'm driving home

tonight!

Much better, eh Derek?

from Mom's hospital stay

the flowers and her women auxiliary shrug

Flooring all the aftermath?

so i have not really kept up anywhere on the flooring project. wish i had though. anyway a basic time line is

June 2007

dear beloved choco goes to doggie heaven

and the search for flooring begins

fast forward to september 2008

we find a wood i love at floor and decor in brandon but there is nowhere near enough. only 2 cases. they do not know if they have 500 sq ft of it anywhere if we choose to have it rounded up from other stores. back to square one.

October 2008

we go to sam's club and check out our cheaper options there. neal negates some i negate others and we come down to one we 'might" live with but have not seen in person other than one 5x7" sq ina frame. but the price is right $1.59 a sq foot

go to home depot and find their Santos Mahogany engineered hardwood that is click n lock and FLOATS. all hardwod i could find before this had to be glued down. NOT an option for many reasons. buy one case to take home and "look" at in our house.

go to floor and decor and choose a tile we like that goes with the wood at home depot. by 2 sample 6" sq tiles to take home and look at.

decide these are it!!!

it is going to rain so we go and get the cases of tile on friday night

saturday we go to home depot in sun city center and get and pay for 35 cases of this wood.

two trips back to the house and this is what the diningroom looks like.

half of this 20 case pallet was already unloaded by the time i thought to take a picture. truck earned its keep THAT day.

and then we begin the tiling. we did plan for it to take some time as we were doing it ourselves bu never did i think it would take just over 5 months to complete. and in fairness it is not quite done as of this writing but today is the day i decided to get things set up online as a distraction. (mom went in the hospital yesterday, todays before her scheduled gallbladder surgery)

we worked on tiling first and there are a LOT of tips i can give you regarding laying your own tile floors but for this post that is too long.

we had tiled the two bathrooms in May of 2008 when my immediate family all came in for a family reunion and my brother, my eldest son and his wife, and my youngest son all stayed with us.

we tiled, a 48" square area at the front door as an entrance way. this had to be built up in order to be able to put a T molding between the tile and the wood flooring. the heights are different. so i used leftover tile from the master bathroom and built up the floor.

then laid the tile

grouted it

and HATEd the grout color! it was tooo red.

spent some time removing the grout with a screwdriver. btw that screwdriver is not useable for screws anymore.

laid the kitchen flooring including tile kick boards under the cupboards. which Neal had to fix under the kitchen cabinet where the dishwasher had leaked a long time ago.

and where were the appliances while the kitchen was being tiled? in the diningroom of course! that is the table turned on end and the chairs stacked up against the sliding glass doors, then the stove is behind the microwave cart and microwave. and the refridgerator. the stove went away and we have a brand new stove! yea.

laid tile over the existing fireplace and portions of that had to be built up to the same height as the existing tile.

close up to get an idea of what it will look like with the L molding around it :)

made a 36" x 72" bar stool area in the diningroom in hopes of some day having a pool table and using the bar to actually eat at each day.

pulled up LOTS of carpeting!

pulled up LOTS of carpet tack strips and nails and then filled the resultant holes!

painted caelum's old room!

decided to use up some leftover tiles in caelum's old room's closet and laid those down, grouted sealed etc.

laid the floor in caelum's old room

and where does the bed from Caelum's old room go while that floor is being laid? why in the Livingroom of course!

and learned a LOT!

did the livingroom next

moved the wood leftovers to the right side of the diningrom so . did the denise's sewing room next due to all of the stuf that needed to have a "home" while the floor was going down and not wanting to put it anywhere there was already wood flooring. so it did not ruin it.

the other side of the diningroom housing the "stuff" from denise's sewing room in preparation for the new floor in her room.

but WHAT happened to the diningroom table once all of denise's "stuff" went into the diningroom? well here it is in the kitchen!

refilled the sewing room with all of denise's stuff

moved the dome hepot aisle that had been in our dining room into the kitchen so the diningroom would be empty for the flooring.

decided we DID want tiling at the sliding glass doors in the diningroom to the lanai. more "extra" tiles used up.

hemmed and hawed over which direction to lay the wood in the dining room in order to deal with the angled walls at the entrance of the hallway which is also right near the bar stool area and figure a place that makes sense to put a transition.

opt for angled flooring

opt for angled flooring from a different direction and NOW there is NO transition needed once you leave the diningrom and get to the hallway with wood! we angled the hallway too. :) clever girl (one of my fav lines from Jurassic Park)

spend friday night, saturday and sunday laying wood in diningroom and hallway

the following weekend it is the 1/4 round moldings for those two areas

and now all that is left is to put down the L moldings near the tile areas and fill in the 1/4 round molding gaps with white caulk. whew!

and now it is March 17th, 2009 what an adventure.

we will never do this professionally and now that we own a ceramic tile saw (purchased in may 2008) and we own a miter saw and stand and we own a table saw,, denise is contemplating woodworking.

"let me tell you about the bench I want to make for the front door area" says denise :)

stay tuned for the rest of the story