365 Days of Olivia: February 2011

A poncho to love.

This weekend, I finally semi-finished Olivia’s poncho that I have been working on since the middle of January. I found the pattern on Prudent Baby last month and have been practicing my granny squares ever since. Here is the tute: Granny Square Poncho from Two Girls Being Crafty. Notice my poncho does not look ANYTHING like this. That is because I am a novice. No, I am the novice’s assistant!

The best granny square tute that I have found has been on Purl Bee, and I have been in granny square mode ever since! They just aren’t for your granny any more. Here are some things I have learned while making this poncho (which is falling apart):

1.) Make sure you block your granny squares before attempting to put your squares together! (ha ha) I had no idea just how important that was until I tried to put the squares together, and as you can tell from the poncho, the squares pucker and bubble up. This wouldn’t have happened.

2.) Either crochet your ends in as you go or weave them in to secure them, but either way, make sure they are very secure in your stitching. I am finding the squares kind of falling apart because she was pulling on it.

And 3.) Practice makes perfect. So I will try again. This time maybe with some fun organic cotton. She does look kinda cute, no?

A place just for her...

So the original princess of the family has found her new perch... she is quite comfortable. What do you think?

These are the new window seats that MRB and I built last weekend. They were so easy to do. If anyone requests it, I will post a tutorial. They have storage inside also, so I can store... oh who knows what!

Also, I currently have a granny square fascination, as you can see from the window valance.

Happy Thursday!

Pottery Barn Inspired Wall

This weekend we finished up some work on the kitchen... it is so close to being done! But I am really reluctant to show you pictures until I am completely happy with the finished project. And I am not quite there yet.... stay tuned for more.

So until then, I will show you pictures from our Pottery Barn Inspired Wall. Here is the inspiration:

And here is our wall, finished:

Those are my great-grandmother's antique rolling pins and lefse turning sticks, along with my french rolling pin I received for Christmas this year. We had everything else, and Mike and I found the calendar wipe board and bulletin board at Michael's. Most of the cost was in the hardware to hang my rolling pins since they are so deep and actually needed to be hung with very different hardware. The only addition we plan on making is adding some hooks along the chair rail for my bag and Olivia's bag/lunch bag to hang.