Another Project

The floor in my kitchen is linoleum.

 It's old linoleum.

33 year old linoleum.

It's scratched. It's faded in spots. It has small holes in it. It's also 1970's brown. Sam and I already decided that if we were to replace the linoleum we would gut and redo the whole kitchen as well. Since that would probably cost more than what Sam makes in a year, it will wait.

Samantha has been doing a latch hook project in recent weeks. I was helping her with it when I had an idea. I could make a rug for the kitchen for waaayyy less than a kitchen do-over would cost. A quick trip to the craft store and I came home with a 36" by 72" piece of plain rug hooking material. I had some left over fleece from making bathrobes in brown, yellow, and two shades of pink.

I cut the fleece into strips 4" long by 3/4" wide. Using a latch hook, I simply hooked the strips of fleece into the rug material, changing colors frequently, but having no pattern. I quickly learned that 1) 3/4" is too wide and 2) I need to be aware of the stretchy grain in fleece. The stretch needs to be along the short side of the strip not the long side, otherwise the strip pulls too much when you loop it through the rug. The strips need to be 1/2" wide or less and 1/8" is too small. I didn't worry too much about being exact and I think it adds to the "scrappy" look of the rug.

After a few rows, I started to experiment and figured out that I could skip every other square and every other row. This made it easier to loop the fabric through the holes and didn't effect the "fluffiness" of the rug.

Here is a picture of the rug so far. You can see the rug "fabric", the hook, and the strips of fleece. I think this might work with flannel fabric too, but that's another project... I still have a looong way to go, but it makes for a good evening or rainy-day project.

TV Free!

We started a TV Free week on Friday. I picked Friday because Sam would be gone away at work for the first three days of it (Yes, he worked 72 hours straight at the firehouse!). He is a real TV junky and since I didn't consult him on my plan, I figured that when he came home, if he really didn't go for it, at least we would have had three days of no TV. Surprisingly, he came home and agreed to it! So we have been TV free for a whole week!


The first day was a bit rough. By Sunday, all but Samantha had stopped asking to watch TV. Perhaps because every time they asked I said, "No. Go fold some laundry for 15 minutes." Samantha is just stubborn enough that she figured if she asked often enough, I would give in. She forgot that I can out-stubborn anyone.


The girls have pulled out some of the board games and have been engaging each other in Risk marathons as well as Sequence tournaments. Sam played a game or two with them at night when he got home from Tractor Supply. Abby and Nathalie even played a few rounds of Candyland with Samantha!


Without TV, all those half-finished craft projects that I cleaned and organized in my sewing area have started to become complete. They are all working on Christmas gift projects now, too. Abby has leaped ahead in her schoolwork without TV to distract her. Rachel made an airplane out of a cardboard box and construction paper. The only negative, and it really isn't one: I have to go to the library more often as they are reading even more voraciously than before!


I may just extend this no TV thing for as long as I can...