Puppy Love and Basement Updates

The last couple weeks have been rather hectic.  While my parents were out of town we took care of their dog Daisy, and the first couple days of her and Wicket adjusting to one another's company were a bit tense, but they're better friends now.

With the extra puppy around time has been tight, and schedule has been packed, but we've been working on the basement. Richard removed a lot of the tiles from the floor and then removed the glue from that strip so that he and his dad could frame the new wall on Saturday while I was away judging a Forensics tournament.  Photo is pre wall building.

Sometimes it feels a bit congested trying to schedule home improvement projects with the regular every day chores of the household.  But there's always that sense of accomplishment when a big project is finally done, and this basement is one really big project.  Thankfully we've broken it down into four smaller "chunks" so we can finish one before moving onto the next, plus we've had lots of puppy love to see us through.

Sunday, Lazy Sunday

It's been a lazy Sunday in our house, visiting with friends Beth and Ben and making plans for the next week.

Even though the past week was busy I did manage to get to all of this week's projects but one - reading.  But right after I finish writing I plan to go curl up with Wicket and settle into my book.

On Wednesday a strange triangular package arrived at our house and Richard had me open it after I got home from work.  Inside was a "late Christmas present," a large Mucha poster of "Moon" which I cannot wait to build a frame for and put up in the Office.  We've already hung up two new pieces in the living room which is really helping to make the house look more like our own.

Thursday marked our first real snow of 2012, and Wicket enjoyed herself immensely running around the back yard and trying to catch the falling flakes.  Since we were stuck inside all day I busied myself making some olive tapenade and organizing the kitchen, but that evening Richard and I went to my first ever professional basketball game to see the Bucks play Detroit and had a wonderful time.

Tomorrow Richard has a day off of school for MLK day and we don't exactly have plans but I'm sure we'll do plenty of house projects.

And Winter Break Begins!

Today was the last day of school before winter break which means there's one prominent feeling in the air around our house: relief.

Aside from some last minute shopping we plan to get done tomorrow morning we're looking forward to some lovely downtime.  Our breezy tomorrow will also consist of some dog sitting for a friend, and we can't wait for Buddy to come over - he and Wicket always have a grand time playing together.  And when tomorrow is said and done we're just looking forward to spending the holidays with our friends and families and giving numerous house tours to out of town visitors.

There really aren't any photos to share from the past weekend as we spent most of the time doing little projects around the house like hanging shelves and organizing kitchen cabinets.  We did get started on the kitchen pantry, but it still has a few steps before our food can reside there.  All in all this home feels more and more like our home with every passing day.

After some much needed rest today I'm now feeling a bit on the restless side so I'm listening to some holiday music and tackling some paperwork and general tidying up at my desk until its time for bed... which isn't as far off as I think it is.

DIY Spoon Butter

There's a wonderful wooden bowl in our kitchen that we received as a wedding gift from one of my cousins that I absolutely love to pieces.  Usually I care for it by rubbing it down with mineral or olive oil every so often but lately I noticed that my habits weren't really cutting it any more.  Of course I found the answer on Pinterest - Spoon Butter.

I picked up a pound of natural beeswax last week at Michaels Crafts, and picked up a new bottle of mineral oil from the supermarket while grocery shopping the other day, so on Tuesday in between loads of laundry and unpacking I whipped it up in the kitchen.  And then Wicket and I took a walk over to my in-law's to borrow a ring and lid because I still haven't unpacked most of our canning supplies and really I'm not quite sure where they are.

I cut off roughly a quarter of the block of beeswax but used my postal scale to be a tiny bit more accurate in my measuring.  I've already rubbed it onto my prized wooden bowl and I'm trying it on a corner of the kitchen butcher block table before I coat the whole thing.

Cost Breakdown
- One pound natural beeswax (from Michael's Crafts in the candle making section with 40% coupon) - $10
- Mineral oil (Pick N'Save) - $2.50
- Quart canning jar - on hand
Total: $12.50
Per Jar: $5

I only used a quarter pound of beeswax so it even though I spent about $12.50 to make it this first time it really costs just over $5 per jar, and it looks like it should last a while.  I'm contemplating throwing together three more jars from the left over beeswax to give as gifts this Christmas.

Happy, Happy Halloween!

We had our trick-or-treating last night, but I want to wish all the ghouls and goblins venturing out tonight a festive and safe Halloweeen!

I love my old McDonald Halloween buckets, and I'm really hoping to find a few more so I can make a lighted tower display to put out next year.  I made the pumpkin that the skeleton on the door is holding this year with a foam "Funkin" from JoAnn's that I cut in half and decorated using mod podge and some glitter.  

And of course the duckies like to get festive as well!

October and Kitchen Updates

This next month is just packed.

With all luck the kitchen should be in the finishing stages by the end of the day tomorrow.  Here's what the kitchen looks like this evening, just ignore the plywood countertops and small hole in the wall.  The countertops are being installed in the morning, and I'll spend the day working on fixing up the pantry.  I can't wait for the real counter to be in and have the available real estate to unpack the rest of the kitchen boxes, AND have a working kitchen!

We want to have our families over on the weekend of October 8 for a housewarming party, and then a little shindig the next weekend with our friends.  And I'll be hosting the next crafternoon the following Sunday.  Quite a lot of hosting will be going on over here, and I can't wait for some of our friends and family to finally see the house for the first time!

And I certainly can't wait to have more boxes unpacked, and a bit more living and working area, instead of just working our way around the stacks of boxes.  And with October my projects will resume!  How exciting!

speaking of christmas...

It is usually around this time of year when the stores seem to skip right over Halloween and Thanksgiving to put up Christmas trees and stock.  Which is to say that this is when I'm generally rolling my eyes a lot.  But this year?  It's somehow different.  I'm trying to get a head start on Christmas presents this year because I'm afraid with everything else going on this year I won't be able to finish everything otherwise.

The checkout ladies at JoAnn Fabrics look at me like I'm crazy when I hand them a coupon for my single $1 item, but every little bit of savings means I can stretch our Christmas budget even further.  So I'm going to take full advantage of their coupon commotion promotion this week to get the last (hopefully) of the supplies for all our presents this year.

A few weekends ago Beth, Sara and I talked about reinstating Crafternoon where we get together at each other's homes and spend the afternoon making things and chatting.  Beth has already scheduled the first one for next Sunday at her place and I can't wait!  I only hope I have a portable project ready to take with me, and that Richard won't mind me leaving him behind at home.

The R's of our new house

I've noticed that quite a few things going on in our house right now can be summed up nicely by words that begin with the letter R.  Renovate, repair, replace, rescue, reinvent.

We renovated the bathroom, removing all the mauve tile and the moisture damaged walls behind them, as well as the tub, toilet and vanity.  We replaced most of these items.  A new sink and vanity, an upgraded tub.  Help was graciously provided from my father-in-law and brother-in-law in replacing the floor and running new plumbing and electric.  We did manage to rescue a couple of things from the bathroom, both to cut down on costs and to keep some of the charms of this house.

As a cost saving venture we kept the closet the way it was instead of installing a new system.  I stripped the mauve (are we sensing a theme?) wallpaper off the pine board shelves, but while solid they were both a bit smelly and sticky so it took some scrubbing with vinegar and a last ditch rub down with goo-gone that has left them nearly new.

Both Richard and I enjoyed the style of the medicine cabinet that was installed in the wall above the sink, but the orange-ish wood work of the frame was a little too dated for our bathroom reinvention.  It took a couple of well timed hot as blazes afternoons to sand down the wood frame, clean out the inside and the glass shelves and then paint the frame to match the rest of our black and white bathroom.

After sanding off the previous finish so the wood grain would show through the new paint I taped off the inside with blue painter's tape and a thick garbage bag.  Then I used my go-to spray paint of choice Rustoleum in Satin Black.

And here's what the finished product looks like in the only odd angle I was able to take a picture without including the mess that is the bathroom door.  It is most certainly a 50's piece, and I think the black really makes it pop with all sorts of mid-century goodness in our white updated bathroom.

Progress feels good.

Little time, lots of life

Life has been so busy that I've scarcely had time to sit down.

As soon as we had finished moving out of the apartment and into our new house we headed south to visit family.  We spent two weeks visiting and traveling, and headed down to Cape Canaveral to see the very last Shuttle launch.  It was all amazing!

Now we're home, I'm back to work, Richard is back to coaching, and we're both working constantly on making this new house into our home.  We're working constantly because as soon as one project is done the next one is ready to be started.

The new bathroom is almost complete, just a few more touches, and some floor molding and I'll be ready to share some before and after pictures.  And then we'll be ready to tackle the kitchen, which contrary to prior plans is now receiving a complete overhaul.

Spring Break Project: Reading in the Sun

I haven't posted about this next week's project yet, and there's a good reason for it - we're going on vacation!  This week is spring break and Richard's parents are taking us along with Richard's brother Chris and his girlfriend Tia to Florida.

What a wonderful way to spend spring break - where the sun is shining and it's lovely and warm!  We'll be visiting Richard's grandparents and family but we're also going to Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter which I couldn't be more excited about!  I grew up with those books and I have enjoyed them throughly and I think the theme park will be quite fun.

I guess this is a round about way of saying that my only project this week will be reading, and I plan on getting a lot of reading done while we're in transit.  I've already finished two of the five books that Caitlin loaned to me, but I'm going to take a couple of my own books for the trip - I certainly don't want to lose borrowed books while on vacation.

The Office: Lighting Set-Up

Recently I've been working on making our office a better place to work.  The major cleaning and organizing was the first step and the second was to put together a lighting set up so I could do product photos under the window and walk a few feet to the desk and load them onto the computer to work on.  It's not perfect yet, I have another bar to hang up for better light placement, but I've gotten a few photos done and I'm happy I've finally got a permanent set-up and it's out of the way.

The entire set-up wasn't very costly either.  We already had the table, and the floor lamps were once in our living room so I can't really tally those in the cost.

- White sheet - from Ikea $2

- Four clamp lamps - from the hardware store $5 each, but one of my was scavenaged

- Four light bulbs - I use the GE indoor flood natural lights which are $5 each but promise to last a long time, plus you can often find coupons so I only paid $3 each.

Grand Total: $34

But not having to wait until I've got good light coming in the window is priceless, and it means I can get clear and crisp shots any time I need.  Here are some more photos of a Salt Box I picked up while out thrifting recently.

Week 5 Project

I've wanted to redo the throw pillows for our bed for a while now because, well, when I made the original ones I wasn't really sure what I was doing.  I could have chosen better fabric, and made my seems straighter and made cuter pillows.  So, using a video tutorial from The Crafty Gemini I'm going to make three new pillows that will hopefully look something like these...

I want to make monogram designs in buttons on each using the two bigger pillows for letters and the one smaller pillow for an ampersand.  The plan is for blue buttons on brown pillows to coordinate with our bedroom, so now the only decisions left to make are what font to use and whether to use our first initials, R & N, or our last initials, A & W.  I think I'm leaning more towards R & N since we've used the A&W theme before.

Because this project promises to be time consuming I'm taking it in steps and this week I'm tackling the first two steps.  First - pick out fabric and cut all pieces.  Second - sew the button monogram to one of the pillow fronts.

After some further research I found a tutorial for the button monograms at Adventures of one Crazy Lady.  I can't wait to get started!

Project 3 carries into Week 4

A little bit of last week's projects will carry over into next week...

- The Media Purge from last week continues: get rid of 5 things and take the sell box to Half Price Books

- Reading: read one of the books I borrowed from Caitlin - I'm through chapter 8 now, and I'm amending this goal to reading one chapter each night until I'm done.

- Crafty Goal: Add three rows (12 squares) to my blanket to complete the first pattern - see, even I got mixed up on this one because I managed to do 12 squares before I realized that three rows would be 18 squares, so I still have six more squares left to go.  I'm just excited to get this done so I can lay out the rest of the pattern and get cracking! 

This coming week is packed full of things to do, but I probably won't be working much this week as the family I work for have relatives visiting.  This will leave plenty of time for all these things... I hope.

Thursday is Festival of Nations at Richard's school, and we just finished prepping the dough for the spiral cookies we're going to bake.  Saturday is the Midwest Gaming Classic which we're attending with some of Richard's colleagues before we all go to the best Chinese restaurant for lunch and before I head off for a night of work.

One Project a Week: Project 3 comes in 3's

Yes, reading that book fell by the wayside last week, mainly because I was reading so much news.  Wisconsin certainly has plenty of news lately, and quite a bit of it relates directly to us.  Richard is now in his third year teaching and it seems every thing that happens puts that job further and further into jeopardy.

We went to the Capital yesterday to join in the protests, and even ran into Jeff and Jennie, so I'll post photos later.  I'll be honest - I'm having a hard time dealing with a lot of the chaos coming our way, so occasionally these projects may have to be put on the back burner.

- The Media Purge from last week continues: get rid of 5 things and take the sell box to Half Price Books
- Reading: read one of the books I borrowed from Caitlin
- Crafty Goal: Add three rows (12 squares) to my blanket to complete the first pattern

Hopefully I'll get all of these goals done early in the week so I have time to do many, many other things like go to work, scan and edit some photos, and maybe even go thrifting.  But for today?  We're cleaning the house.

One Project a Week - Project 2: De-cluttered Media

Very simply put - we have a media overload in this house.  We are constantly reading books, magazines and newspapers, listening to music, and watching movies.  So this week's project comes in multiple parts but because this is another cleaning/organizing project I have a head start from last week.

1) Cancel daily paper and go back to Sunday only - done today!

2) Clear out 50 old magazines.  Recycle them, rip them apart, or sell them - just get them out of the house.

• Recycled: 11
• Box to sell: 3

3) Finish reading one of my borrowed books from Caitlin.

4) Find five books and/or cds to sell.  My book and music collection is getting ridiculous.

• Box to sell: 1

That's it for this week, and the creative projects start in week 3.

Project 1: Organize Office Complete

I've taken a tip from Theresa on how to keep myself accountable using my blog.  I'll make a post or two every Thursday about what I've completed and what project I plan for the next week.  So here are the pictures of a rather clean and organized office and I will post later tonight on what I have planned for next week's project.

Save for the one broken remnant of the bed that hasn't quite made it to the dumpster yet, and will have to wait until the parking lot is less icy, the office is done!

You can probably tell from the pictures that we're big Apple computer geeks, and have a certain affinity to outdated technology.  For those of you keeping count at home that's six computers and two typewriters in the office, and each one is perfectly functional.

There may be just two people in this house, but there are three desks in our office.  (And yes, that's one of my photo lamps just hanging off the shelf there) The dark wood one is our most recent acquisition and when we move into a house (one day) the secretary's desk will go in the living room and the large corner desk will make its own way to Goodwill, but for now we make good use of every piece of furniture in the room.

The two bookshelves were the first pieces of furniture that my parents owned when they started out together. There is a third shelf that my father recently sanded and stained that now sits in their den.

It may look a little chaotic on the shelves, but things are certainly easier to find than they used to be.  Oh, and that little pink traincase on the bottom shelf is the most recent addition to my suitcase collection, a gift from my dear friend Jennie.

One Project a Week - Project 1: Organized Office

I often pick certain dates to begin changes in my life or my routine.  I say I'll start at the beginning of next month, or the beginning of the year, or even on my birthday, and often these changes sputter to a stop for one reason or another.  This time, it starts today.

I have so many wonderful ideas for making things and so many projects in various states of completion.  So I'm challenging myself to finish one project a week for the rest of 2011.  My idea is to focus on one main project each week while perhaps working some on coming projects.

This week is a house project - the office.  The office has been in a state of upheaval for quite some time now.  We tried having an extra bed for guests to sleep in but it was rather hard to work around such a large piece of furniture that was usually used only two or three times a year.  So we moved the frame to storage and the bed to the dumpster (it's had a good long life) to free up that half of the room.  Even after rearranging and adding a new desk and a second bookshelf from the basement the room the room is much more open, airy and easier to breathe (and work) in.

The office is half way there, all that is left is to organize a few things and clean some more.  Wish me luck!

Creative Endeavors: Spiral Blanket

I must admit, I started this blanket some time ago and now I'm a little stalled.  Since I started the blanket as an experiment I didn't buy all the yarn I would need for a full size afghan, instead, assured by a sales associate that Sugar N' Cream yarn colors are never discontinued, I bought a few skeins of each color and got started.

Lo and behond, when I've finally gotten into the swing of things and perfected the pattern to get exactly what I wanted I go back to buy the rest of the yarn and... there isn't any.  It's gone.  I picked four colors for the spirals - sage, country red, country yellow, and country blue - and there is not a single country color left.  I can still find the sage and the soft ecru I'm using to join the spirals since they are some of the staple colors that are always available.

After some intense searching, and dropping in on every Michaels, JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby we've passed on every road trip, I managed to get enough of the country yellow and country red.  The one color missing from every place we've gone is the country blue and now I'm down to less than half a skein and I'm going to have to resign myself to paying full price ($2/skein) online with $8 for shipping to get the rest of the yarn.  This little fact turns this project from affordable to a bit more expensive than I expected.

You should know that I'm a coupon girl.  I've been known to make Richard come in with me to buy a second skein of yarn in a separate transaction just to use a second 40% off coupon at the craft store.  I rarely pay full price for anything because stretching our dollars has become second nature and every penny puts us just a little bit ahead in our savings.

We're still trying to find a house to buy, which hasn't been the easiest process and has left me a little jaded.  But, as my father said at dinner this past Saturday, we will never find a better market in which to purchase property.  But that is a discussion for another time.

The pattern I'm working from is from the blog quarter of an inch, and although I admit I changed some stitches around I'm not sure I could ever tell you what exactly was changed as the circles have now become so easy and automatic.  My only goal is to finish this blanket by the end of 2010 because I think one big project a year is enough, especially since I've been working hard on more cupcakes and getting started on this year's hat and scarf, and with the cold weather coming fast I'd better get cracking!

New additions to the Photo Arsenal

I've always wanted a little film Pentax to play with. So when we found a Pentax MX at an estate sale for $20 with two lenses and the only problem was the light seals had long ago turned gummy, I felt like I had a gem. So I spent $10 on a pre-cut seal kit from a seller on ebay, and spent an entire morning cleaning up my new baby. Now I have a working Pentax camera and my first experimental shots were on some expired Kodak 200 speed rolls that I picked up at Goodwill.


The photos turned out with a bit of a green cast to them, but I'm still excited to see what will come out of that little lovely from a fresh roll of film.

For my birthday I received a film/slide scanner that has been just wonderful to work with. I scanned not only that picture above but I've been working on scanning my mother and grandmother's old slides so they can be printed as photos and all the siblings can have copies. I can't wait to get it set up again and get cracking on that project.

I love lists.

With all the wedding preparation that has been going on for our wedding it has been difficult to find time for household chores (like laundry and the dishes) let alone all the projects I have going on. But last night after assembling yet more invitations I decided to make time. I managed to clean the basement/studio a bit while doing laundry, oh yes, multi-tasking. And I was even able to finish painting the old bedside table which will become extra tabletop space and storage down in the studio.


Project List
- paint three canister set that is in desperate need of refreshing ($1 from Fox Valley thrift shoppe)
- paint curb shopped floor lamp (and find lampshade)
- paint bedside table
- clean spice jars and print new labels

Home List
- send in final mortgage paperwork (now)
- laundry (always)
- dishes (always)
- clean studio
- clean kitchen/dining room
- clean living room
- rearrange extra bedroom so that people actually want to stay over

Wedding To Do
- finish assembling invitations
- mail invitations (Monday)
- go to Tux to find suits for Richard and the boys (Saturday)
- gather blue ball jars from all over the house