2nd Round of Projects

I finally finished up some projects that I've been working on for a while. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but only to be replaced by more weight of other projects I would like to get done.

First up on the list is a dress form I found at TJ Maxx/HomeGoods. I've wanted a dress form for a long time and have had regrets of coming across ones that I've liked and never bought. Now, I can actually say that I'm glad that I never purchased past ones I've seen because this one is my favorite. And the best part, of course, it was only $17! The other ones that I liked were upwards of $50. This one though came without a base so I was a little worried that I might not find something that would work.

Before

After

Next, is an afghan that I crocheted. My mom is a crocheting/knitting queen and has offered to teach me multiple times. I just was never that interested when it was easier to just have her make something for me. While we were at my parents house for Christmas, my mom was going through some old craft magazines in hopes of throwing them away. Unfortunately, I would go through those headed for the trash and find something I liked and pulled it back out. In one, I found directions to an afghan that I really liked. My mom thought it was simple enough for me to try and convinced me to learn how to crochet. I loved it and was very addicted to working on it throughout the Christmas break. I worked really fast at the beginning when you can see your progress and how far you've gone. Once I got halfway through, I couldn't tell how much I'd done because it didn't look that much longer, and I started to lose steam. I also had a hard time understanding the directions so I would have to wait until I could see my mom do it.

Also, these are tails that you have to weave in and that is so tedious.

I like to say this is my first and last afghan, but my mom gets mad when she hears me say that. So, this is my only afghan for the foreseeable future!

And last, but certainly not least, is my railroad shelf. My friend, Ang, has a railroad shelf, which used to be her mantle until she moved to Virginia, and I thought it was such a cool idea. Her dad made it for her so I took pictures of it and showed it to my dad hoping we could make one just like it. The first railroad tie that we got was really hard to work with. It had creosote (coal tar) all over it. They are soaked in creosote to protect it from the weather and apparently all the tools we tried to use on it to smooth it down. To make a long story short, it ended up with too many imperfections, which my dad likes to call character, so I wanted to start over. We had actually found a railroad tie in our own yard that was much older and dried out. It was a lot easier to work with and since we made our mistakes on the first one, this one went a lot easier. It still has character, but I'm learning to live with it. I really love it and I'm happy with how it turned out. The first one with all the character is not being wasted. My dad hung that one up in his wood working shop and it really adds to the space.

My dad had the idea of adding the tops of real railroad spikes to make it look like they are holding it in the wall. Those are the spikes we found behind our house.