Sunday, January 29, 2012

2012 Week Five Goals

Reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. Page 400.

House: Finish organizing the office and designate a space to set up the light box.  

Creative: more stamp projects!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

This week and more...

Well I didn't make it to any more thrift stores this week but for good reason, and after all there's always next week.  Yesterday I dropped by my parents' house before running my errands and ended up taking my Mom with me which made all the errands that much more enjoyable.

When we were done our friend Marilyn swung by since she was in the neighborhood and we had a nice visit before I had to run home to let Wicket out and spend a couple hours with Richard before he headed back to work to chaperone the middle school dance.  When Richard left for work I scooped up Wicket and the two of us spent the evening with my parents and their dog Daisy.  It was a lovely end to a busy week.

I'm only halfway to my page goal in my book this week, but I have to work this evening so I'm hoping to read a bit after I get the girls to bed.  And I certainly made good use of my new stamp pot for my project this week, and I can't wait to do more.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Thrift Shops and Birthdays

It's been a busy week that started with a trip up to Port Washington to visit Beth in her new apartment, explore her new neighborhood, and hit up some thrift shops.  Downtown Port is quite adorable, and I'm sure Beth is going to love how walkable the area is because I know we both miss that aspect of Oshkosh.  We stumbled into a new little vintage shop called Mobocracy which had some great clothes and custom jewelry.

We did make it to the Saint Vinny's thrift store, but I only found one thing I couldn't live with - a floral enamel pot I plan to use for removing used postage stamps from old envelopes.


Then yesterday was H's birthday and we made and decorated some cupcakes.


The inspiration came from these frog cupcakes from a Disney Princess cupcake book and I think the girls made some adorable frogs.


But Miss H had some other ideas.


Today Tia is coming over for lunch and I'm planning a solo jaunt for some errands tomorrow and hopefully I'll have enough time to swing by another thrift store, what can I say - I'm a little predictable. 

Sunday, January 22, 2012

2012 Week Four Goals

Reading: Begin A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. Try for page 200 by weeks' end.

House: Well, it's not technically the house - but clean out the car and give the inside a good vacuum.  

Creative: Stamp project.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Imminent Snow

My plans with Beth for tomorrow have been delayed because of imminent snow.  Isn't that always the case with winter in Wisconsin?  I'm still hoping to get out for a couple hours in the morning to run a couple of quick errands before returning to the fort to bunk down for some projects and house work, and probably end the night with a stay-in movie night with Richard.

I managed to swing by my parents' house after work today to pick up just a few things of mine, including a new-to-me George Forman grill that I'm looking forward to testing out (some new recipes perhaps?), but I decided to forgo picking up the framed artwork because carrying large pieces of glass over icy driveways did not entice me at all.

Truthfully I will not mind the snow all that much this weekend.  I've already rescheduled my day with Beth and we don't have any plans that involve going very far, so it's a good enough time to stay inside and work on projects and the house.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Thrift store hopping and hoping

Well, it's a new year and now that the rush of all the holidays is over I've been settling into our home routine.  But to be honest it feels like it's missing a bit of something.

And I'm fairly certain the missing factor is thrift shopping, estate sale browsing and yard sale hopping.  With all the gearing up for the holiday and gift shopping I had to forgo the occasional thrift store stop, and the thrill of the hunt just wasn't there.  Seeing as it is winter in Wisconsin there certainly won't be yard sales any time soon and while I've already made plans for this year's 100-mile-yard-sale that's still months away.

In the meantime I'll go out this Friday with Beth to some stores a few towns over and hope to have good luck...and a good lunch!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

2012 Week Three Goals

Reading: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. No, really, just finish the book.

House: Pick up the things from my old room at my parents' house.  Hang up my print of Circe Invidiosa by John William Waterhouse.

Creative: It may not seem creative, but I really want to sort through at least one of my small boxes of found odds and ends, perhaps something with inspire me but mostly I'm hoping to rediscover some old treasures and rid myself of some old junk.

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.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

2012 Week Two Goals

Reading: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin.  Currently page 790 and want to finish (page 969).

House: Put together the new printer table for the office.  Build the shoe holder for my closet.

Creative: Frame some art and photos to start really decorating our house.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

DIY candle recycling

I started working on my creative project this week (a new jewelry holder) only to discover that at some point the paint I was planning to use had frozen so it was completely useless and because I didn't have time to get to the hardware store I just decided to do a different project that I had all the materials on hand for - a recycled candle.



In this house we love candles, especially the ones from (of all places) Bath and Body works which burn so cleanly and smell so lovely.  But they are pricey and I do get tired of the quarter to half inch of wax that is inevitablly left in the bottom when the wicks have burned down.


I combined three candle remnants of various apple scents into the smaller holder (I have other plans for the big one) and decided to layer them to see what sort of look I could achieve.  I can honestly say I've learned that I should wait for each layer to fully cool before pouring in the next, but otherwise it's a perfectly nice candle we have burning on the coffee table right now.

Read on for the how to...



Supplies
  • Wicks
  • Wick Clips
  • Candles (on hand)
  • holder (on hand)
  • pot and water on the stove

The steps are easy
1) If the candles are in glass holders (as mine were) place them into a pot with about an inch of water on the stove and slowly turn up the heat to melt the wax.
2) Have an empty candle holder (or pretty vintage tin) to pour into, and after putting a sufficient length of wick through the holder crimp the nub to hold in place and put a small dab of hot wax on the back to "glue" it to the bottom of holder.
3) I jerry-rigged a pencil and rubberband to hold the wick upright while pouring in the wax, although I'm sure there's a more professional method I like mine just fine.
4) Pour in the wax and let cool at least a day before trimming the wick and lighting the candle.
5) That's it.

All in all a rather cheap project which only helps to prolong the use of something we already had.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012 Week One Goals

As outlined in my general new years post I want to make three goals for myself each week (this is something I already do, but want to remember to blog about it this year) in the areas of Reading, household projects and creative projects.  So here we are, week one and technically already late, but my objective is to finish by Saturday and begin week two on Sunday.  So here goes.

Reading: Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin.  Currently on page 604 and want to get to at least page 800.

House: Crate organizers for kitchen cart.

Creative: Paint and assemble new jewelry holder.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy, Happy New Years!

Happy, Happy New Years to you!

I don't often make what I would consider real new year's resolutions.  It's usually more of a list of things I'd like to accomplish and places I'd like to go in the next year.  So in the spirit of looking forward here is a small list of things I want to do and plans to be made.
  • Take Tia to St. Paul to meet Jeff and Jennie (and the little one!) in May and go on our third (and Tia's first) trip through the 100-mile yard sale.  This year - we're so prepared.
  • Complete 25 crafty projects.  Anything and everything counts here but the stipulation is that I remember to take photos and chronicle things right here.
  • Write more letters.  Also, find some pretty, lined stationary so I can stop writing either at a slant or on boring old notebook paper.
  • Blog more often.  I still keep a handwritten journal so sometimes I forget I have things to share rather than keeping them all to myself.
  • Be more timely about my coupon clipping and better organized about keeping track of our coupon savings and making sure it gets into the long-term savings account.
  • Build my basement darkroom and get back to using film more often.
  • Read 20 books.
  • Learn how to better utilize social media.
  • Set three weekly goals (reading, house, and creative) on Sundays and complete by the following Saturday.
Today's only goal?  Enjoy the last of our time off before we both head back to work, maybe tidy up the office and clip some of those coupons and toss all the ones that expired.