What I'm currently working on 6-30

Today I came to work with Jose because he's getting off early and we're going to the lake. It also means I don't get to work on my side table today, or probably the next few days because of Fourth of July and wedding planning activities.

I bought this side table for $10 at Goodwill two summers ago when I was moving in with my roommate at the time. I liked the shape, but it was pretty beat up and not solid wood, but instead laminate. For $10 though, I couldn't pass it up.

It sat in our apartment for a year before I moved into my own apartment, and then it sat there for a while until I decided last week that something had to be done about it. I've never really cared to decorate my current living space, as I don't feel like it's a home, but more just where I'm staying until graduation. Lately though, I've gotten excited about the idea of decorating a home with Jose when we move in together in January.

I painted a piece of furniture once before without any knowledge of how to go about it, and it turned out pretty bad. This time, I read blogs and looked for tutorials, and I was much better prepared. I sanded and sanded to get it as smooth as I could before I primed it (both of which were steps I skipped on my failed painting attempt). After asking for some opinions, I decided I wanted to do a dark purple. Here's the door on one side of the table after I painted it:

I like the color a lot actually, but I'm not sure what I want to do next. I've seen some pieces of furniture on blogs that were made to look distressed or aged with sanding and/or staining, and I think it might be cool to blot on some gel stain unevenly to give it some more texture. I'm still undecided though.

In the knitting world, I'm working on the Make Up Your Mind Tank currently. I'm actually not using recycled yarn this time, but some cotton yarn I got a few years ago at a closing yarn store in Fort Worth. I'll try to take some progress pictures soon to post them.

-- Laura

Introduction.

I love to make things. Whether it's crafting, making art, or cooking a delicious, vegan dinner for me and my fiance, I love it all. The satisfaction of spending hours, days, or even months working on something and having it finished is one that can't be beat easily. Even better when I can use recycled materials, because transforming something old into something new just adds to the fun.

What This Blog Will be About

Yarn Things

If you haven't figured it out already, this blog will mainly be about things I create. My main craft of choice is knitting. I have been knitting since I was 15 (I just turned 21 about a month ago) and am obsessed with it. I also dye yarn, which I sell in my Etsy shop (www.gynxyarns.com) so there will occasionally be updates about that. I can crochet, but I prefer to knit if I can. Most things I knit are from yarn I recycle from thrift store sweaters, both to benefit my wallet and my environment. I also started spinning yarn about a year ago. The only thing I haven't done is sheared a sheep! You can expect pictures of projects, tutorials/patterns as I come up with them, links to patterns I'm working on, and anything else yarn related as it comes up.

This is the first sweater I ever knitted back in 2007. It's an altered version of the Big Sack Sweater from the Stitch n Bitch book.

Other Crafts

I also sew a bit and reconstruct clothing on occasion, but not too terribly often. I have really gotten into the idea of restoring and re-purposing furniture, and am currently working on a table that I will post as soon as it's done. I just got engaged to the future Mr. Gynx (a.k.a. Jose) on June 10th and we are having our wedding in January hopefully, so you can expect some wedding crafts as well in the coming months. Here you can expect more of the same: pictures, tutorials, links, etc.

Food

I love cooking and baking, so there will be some deliciousness from time to time. I'm not too terribly creative in the kitchen and tend to loosely follow recipes instead of try to create my own new recipe, but there will be some original recipes along with links to others that I love. Oh, and everything I eat is vegan. If you're not vegetarian or vegan though, don't let that scare you away from trying things!

Vegan chocolate/raspberry cake from Vegan With A Vengance for my 19th birthday.

Handmade Goodies

I love my own handmade swag, but I also love supporting other artists. I will from time to time feature artists or products as I come across them that I think are worthy of having a shout-out. Anything I post is because I truly do love it, not an endorsement.

Life

I'll keep the personal stuff to a minimum, but there will probably be a fairly regular mention of my two cats, so I should probably introduce them.

This is Othello. Othello is just a bit over a year old and is an orange male tabby. We adopted him from a shelter when he was about 7 weeks old.

This is Augustus. He's just under a year (his birthday is next month!) and is a male tuxedo cat. He was adopted from the same shelter Othello was.

This post has already been quite long, so I will leave it there for now.

-- Laura