Bob the Builder (aka Danny the Builder)

I have a pretty awesome hubby. He has all sorts of tools and saws in our garage and actually knows how to use them to build stuff and tackle home improvement projects.

He redid our entire kitchen when we moved in turning it from shab to fab!

In a few weeks, he will be ripping out our master bathroom to give it a major overhaul. I didn’t want his building skills to get rusty so about a month ago I asked him to build me one of these.

I thought it would be the perfect addition to my craft room but I was not about to pay $300 for it and Danny and I think we can DIY anything. So, Danny got to work and built me one for $30 instead.

The benefit of having him make it for me, besides the money saving, is that he customized it for what I needed! The one from PB was only wide enough to fit the small wrapping paper rolls. That was not gonna cut it for this girl so he made mine extra wide so I could put my extra long rolls up there. Also, mine doesn’t have drawers on it like the PB version does. That is actually because he ran out of wood and I was impatient and told him I didn’t care about them so I could get that baby up on my wall but it worked out nicely because the spaces that would have been drawers are the perfect size to hold my glitter and craft paints.

So, with $30 and an awesome husband I have a new wrapping/craft station just in time to wrap all those holiday gifts!

He also built me this fabric shelf a while back that I love!

Crocheting It Up

So, I picked up a new hobby. Anyone surprised? I have decided that I will learn to crochet.

I was totally inspired by the Lullaby Lubbock circle scarves. They are beautiful and I have even put one on my Christmas list (crossing my fingers Santa comes through).

Anyway, last Thursday night I forced Danny to come with me to JoAnns so I could get the supplies to start my new hobby. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that starting a crocheting hobby requires minimal start up costs (unlike candle making which I seriously considered a couple of months ago, I know I am totally bizarre). We skipped out of JoAnns $12.32 later with two things of fluffy yarn and a snazzy teal crocheting needle!

I got home that night and got straight to work by watching a few you tube videos. I decided that my first project would be to make Danny a gray scarf with some maroon in it for the Aggies. After unraveling my project a few times I finally got a pretty decent looking few rows of stitches but my fingers got tired so I stopped.

Then, one night this weekend, I made a rookie mistake and left the dogs inside the house while we went to hang out with some friends and we came home to find this:

The number one suspect is this guy:

According to Danny, he was very intrigued with my yarn earlier in the day and Danny had to tell him to leave it alone. I am not sure why at that point Danny didn’t move my yarn and project to a higher place where the dog couldn’t get it but whatever.

So I started over on the scarf and as of today I have this nine inch masterpiece!

I think I am going to need a lot more yarn and a few months before this thing gets finished.

Danny suggested I turn it into a sweater for Oliver since he likes yarn so much but I feel the same way about crocheting as I do about sewing so I only do things that require straight lines. Basically, the only thing I can crochet is scarves and the only things I sew are curtains and pillow covers.

Once I am a little more confident in my crocheting skills I will try make myself a circle scarf or I will decide I am over crocheting and find a new hobby.

Weekend Recap (a little late)

This weekend we had our sights set on making major progress in the kitchen renovation. Priority number one for me was to get the new faucet running so we could reconnect the water in the kitchen and do dishes and run the dishwasher. It turns out that while Danny is great at most home improvement related projects, he is no master plumber.

We went to Home Depot 7 times this weekend to get stuff to get the faucet working! 7 times!!!

At the end of Danny's hours of work we ended up with a drip free sink, a new garbage disposal, all new pipes underneath the sink and running water!

Due to our plumbing issues, we weren't able to start on getting the back splash up, but I was able to get all the bottom cabinets painted and the doors hung! Hopefully we can get the rest of the cabinets done during the week after work and next weekend we can focus on the back splash!

Sunday the girls and I went to The Grape for a Birthday brunch for Katie! The food was AMAZING! Kiki and I had the Belgian waffle topped with strawberries , pecans and the most delicious whipped cream I have ever tasted. Neither of us left any food on our plates! I will for sure be going back here again.

Anyway, Katie loves to cook so the birthday gift I got her was cooking themed. I got her a cute little robin's egg blue ruffled baking dish and I made her a coordinating dish towel with a K on it.

Here are the goods.

I have been wanting to start making cute dish towels for a while now so Katie's bday was the perfect excuse to get my craft on. I think my first project came out pretty well! I mean she can never wash it or it will probably fall apart but it is cute to look at!

All of my friends will probably be getting some of these very soon as I work on perfecting my skills!