Just Add Water ... A Reveal!

With a lot of effort and time, my husband and I were finally able to get the niche at the top of our stairs ready for the fishtank.  I got the railings painted at the top of the stairs (railings going down the stairs will wait until next week!).  So now a few reveal photos!  This is the "before" photo ... I had just finished the sanding here:

 

And this is the railing all painted up!

 

 

My husband made a very nice cherry cabinet for the fish tank to sit on, and I love how he made a matching detail on the side of the fish cabinet with what he did on the bookshelf he made some years ago (which is right beside it):

 

 

The cabinet & tank were brought up from the basement last night, and the tank is now full of water and will run for the next couple of days before we can put the fish in.

 

 

The whole assembly is quite tall ... and hides my lovely painted railings :[  I put the black basket on the shelf for those ugly fishy necessities (fish food, net, etc), but think I'll get a couple of  wicker baskets instead (Ikea has a nice selection).

 

 

A nice comparison of what the railings used to look like & their improvement!

This is the view as you come in the front door.  I don't particularly like that black filter hanging off the back like that, but nothing can be done there.  I've always wanted to make a small wall hanging to hang off this banister so that it blocked the view straight into my kitchen.  The fish tank blocks the view very well now.  Still, it hasn't made me change my mind about the wall hanging ... maybe this winter I can work on that.  Can you see that tiny glimpse of yellow through that doorway on the kitchen walls?  Next project :\

 

 

 

And just because I'd like to brag about my husband's craftsmanship a bit more, here is the beautiful low bookshelf he made several years ago:

 

 

All cherry.  The best thing about cherry is that it darkens with age.  Our grandfather clock is also cherry so these three pieces will all darken away as the years roll by.  This is a good example of the furniture clutter in my house ... tucked wherever we find room for it! 

 

 

 I couldn't give up the green brocade chair from my mom's house.  As kids we used to call it the "Queen's Chair".  I have this photo of my grandmother sitting in it too.  The fabric was different then ... a beige brocade, but you can't really see that from this old scanned slide.

 

 

Anyway ... back to the present ... we just need to add the fish to the tank, and it's getting cold again out there and was even snowing a bit this morning!  The fish are waiting patiently out there under the leaves & debris falling all over their pond.

 

 

One more day little guys ... hang in there!

 

 Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a great weekend.  My daughter is coming home and we're going on our annual mother-daughter trip to the Royal Winter Fair Horse Show tomorrow!!  Ball gowns are optional :)  seriously.

 

Wendy

November Nitting

On the weekend my sister Helen & I went to a quilt show put on by the Durham Trillium Quilters' Guild.  It was pretty good with lots & lots of quilts to admire.  I didn't take any photos as I didn't want to carry my camera around with me (apologies!).  The bonus of these quilt shows is the vendor booths full of designer fabrics & hand-dyed yarn ... yes!!  Nothing like a bit of inspiration (the quilts) paired with the products to make it yourself!

 

One booth was from a new quilting store in the city beside mine.  After talking with the owner, I am "this" close to heading over to their new store and sign up for a quilting class.  I know how to quilt, and I've been sewing for many years, but I just want to hang out with some like-minded ladies ... my life is getting far too quiet.  She made the classes sound like so much fun that I really can't wait to find the time to get over there (I just hope they're open in the evening so I can get over after work!).

Another vendor I have met at a Mississauga quilt show a few years ago.  I bought some beautiful hand-dyed yarn from her shop, Dye-Version and knit my green seed stitch scarf.  This is the lady that I received the pattern for the Chevron Lace Scarf too!  I was so happy to see her again.  She has such beautiful yarns!  I couldn't resist.  I bought a skein of sock yarn ("Moody Blue") to knit a scarf for my daughter ... it will match her pretty blue eyes :) 

 

 

My sister was drooling a bit over the yarns too, and since her knitting skills are quite basic, I told her I would knit her a lace scarf if she wanted to pick out the yarn for it.  I know she was surprised (we're not the "sharing" type of sisters, if you know what I mean).  But I do love her, and I was happy to make this offer as I'm trying hard to patch things up between us. 

 

(Just a quick aside ... our family has and is going through huge turmoil for the past few years, and it's really put a strain on my once solid relationships with my siblings.  I never thought we'd ever be in this position, but life is challenging and I think Helen and I are the two that want our family to come back to that happy place again.)  So.  Knowing I can knit this scarf successfully made it easy for me to offer to make it. 

 

Helen chose a gorgeous bamboo fingering yarn ("Galapagos").  And here is the yarn in all its glory:

 

 

Bamboo yarn has a really nice shimmer to it, and it feels "weighty" despite the thinness.  I just love the feel of my bamboo scarf, and I know Helen will love this too.  Free patterns were once again included with the yarns, so I'm all set.  I cast on Helen's scarf as soon as I got home.  Its slow going, but I've got this much done:

 

 

I want to get it done before Christmas so that it doesn't become a Christmas gift (we don't exchange gifts anymore in my family).  And I have to get this finished so I can start the scarf for my daughter which will be a Christmas gift.

 

So while I'm waiting for paint to dry on railings, fish tanks to fill, fish to acclimatize and general ho hum household stuff, I can knit these two projects in my spare time :D

 

I hope you're all having an enjoyable day ... ours is quite grey & damp, but doesn't that make you want to curl your feet under you on the couch and knit? 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

 

Joining in with the Yarn Along

 

 

 

 

Railings & Rainbows

Last week I witnessed this beautiful double rainbow outside my house ... a complete rainbow!  I quickly grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots to stitch together ...

 

It was  a lot more vibrant in real life, but still a pretty sight (hideous hydro wires run down our street).

 

We've been so busy here in our house for the last couple of weeks, and it's all because of fish.  The fish in my son's pond to be exact.  They need to come inside for the winter, and they should have already been brought inside in September!  But it got a little complicated when a guy down the street got talking to my son in the summer about fish & ponds (they both have ponds), and this guy offered my son some of his goldfish.  My son brought home four new goldfish and added them to his two pretty shebunkins which have been with us for a few years. 

 

Now that there are six fish, we were informed at the fish store that our 20 gallon tank would not be sufficient as this many fish require more air surface to collect more oxygen in the tank.  Really?!  So a new, much larger tank was purchased.  I think I may have mentioned at some point that we live in a rather small, cramped house.  Not really a lot of wiggle room for large tanks.  So with some shuffling of furniture on my own (and can I just add here that if you ever need to move furniture on your own, a good quality skateboard comes in handy ... just prop one end of the furniture on the skateboard, and you can lift the other end and carefully ease it across the room without too much difficulty.  I had to move a full-to-bursting cedar chest, and came up with this strategic idea).  I rearranged our living room a bit and made room for the fish tank here at the top of our stairs.  There's this handy little niche that was perfect for my cedar chest, but alas, it will now be home to an enormous fish tank. 

 

 

But wait ... there's more!  I've wanted for a looooOOooooong time to paint the railings in our front entranceway.  These are oak railings and they've been looking a little outdated, worn and tired for quite a few years.  We painted our living room/hallways/front entrance this time last year, and I thought I'd get to the railings then.  But no.  Now with the fish tank being set here in front of the railings, I figured this is the last chance I'll ever have to paint the railings, because there's no way the fish tank will move once it's in place (such a pain).  So last week, I put aside all the things I really wanted to do and got to work on the railings.  I sanded them down to take off the shiny varnish.  I painted everything with primer, and now the spindles have two coats of white, and the hand rail has two coats of dark brown.  I'm such a hurry to get this done so the fish can come inside that I decided to work on only the top railings where the fish tank will go, and then I'll do the railings going down the stairs afterwards. 

 

 

But wait, there's more ... sigh.  The fish tank cannot just sit on the floor.  It needs a cabinet to sit on.  My husband enjoys woodworking, so my son pressed him into action to design and build a nice cabinet.  My husband is really, really good at woodworking, and he likes to take his time and do it up right.  He's now put together a beautiful cherry cabinet, and it will be a lovely addition at the top of the stairs (even though it's going to sit partway into the living room too ... that's the living room where the green brocade chair back can be seen).  So I'm gauging the work I have to do on the railings by the amount of time my husband needs to work on the cabinet.  I think we've got it down to tomorrow when everything will be ready. 

 

My son is getting more and more anxious that we're both taking too long, and that his fish aren't going to survive.  Two days ago I went out to feed the fish and couldn't see any of them.  It had been really cold (-7C or so) in the night, and I feared they had all died.  Thankfully, when the sun hit the pond, they all came back to life and I could see them slowly swimming around.  They are going into hibernation, however, from the cold weather, and are going down in the deep part of the pond.  So we really have to get them out this week at the latest.  At least they'll be easy to catch!

 

I'll show the entire ensemble when we get it all together.  I can't wait!  I haven't taken any photos yet of the work so far on the railings, but believe me, it's looking so good!  I also have to get the curtains back up in my daughter's room to show that.  She's back home on the weekend, so I need to get her room back in place for her before then.  Feeling just a bit under pressure here. 

 

I've also started knitting a new lace scarf which I want to share ... but have to take photos of that too.  So much to do, and so little time!  It's fun working hard at these projects and seeing good results at the end. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy